Alice without a looking glass: Blind people and body image

Abstract

This paper is a study of blind people's 'body image'. Starting with the hypothesis that-without mirrors for visual surveillance-blind people's sense of their bodies and selves are 'embodied' (focused on corporeal experience rather than on appearance), this article examines what blind people know about their bodies, how they imagine their bodies, how their identities relate to their blindness, and how they experience their bodies. From interviews with 13 blind people in England (one adult woman, nine female adolescents, and three male adolescents), several conclusions are drawn about each of the above areas of enquiry (knowledge, self-image, identity, and experience). The most significant result to emerge is a refutation of the initial hypothesis: blind people are by and large quite concerned with their appearance (they are extremely self-conscious) and place very little emphasis on their corporeal experiences.