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Abstract

Our eyes may or may not be ‘the windows to the soul’, but they are certainly the semiotics of our intentions. The work of Simmel and Goffman puts the eyes at the center of everyday interaction, affording civil inattention or its opposite, uncivil attention. As one foundation of everyday social order, sometimes accompanied by gestures and sighs, the eyes function as a first stage of social control – a protective layering against verbal and physical escalations. Video cameras and other technologies have enhanced the presence of the eyes in social control – the Foucauldian gaze – but our own eyes are still at the center of social control in everyday life.

Keywords

everyday life eyes gender seeing sexuality social control social order stigma

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The eyes have it

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