She’ll Make You Hard
Quirkiness and boredom have led me to do some research. I woke up this morning randomly thinking about the Greek mythological legend: Medusa. For some reason, I think the thought of her dating crossed my mind. Considering the fact that everything that looks into her eyes would turn to stone, it may be near impossible to hold a candlelight conversation about Greek politics or the slaying of many a hero.
Medusa was a gorgon. Said to have derived from the Greek, gorgós, meaning “dreadful”, a gorgon was a symbol of protection to the Greeks. It wasn’t uncommon to see statues or images of a gorgon such as Medusa placed onto buildings.
So why wouldn’t you want to date one of these protective guardians? Well… narrow minds would lead people to believe that this:
is ugly. Now sure, Medusa doesn’t have the most attractive stature, and her ability to turn you into stone by making eye contact is kind of a turn off… but cut the girl some slack! Or just cut her head off and use it as a tool. Not that kind of tool… Sickos.
The real reason I bring this mythological creature into the perspective of modern society is because to me, there seems to be a correlation between her ability to turn others to stone, and our interactions with other people. In other words, eye contact.
Eye contact is said to show confidence, respect, and even attraction. On the other hand, it can be disrespectful, hostile, or even of disgust. It all depends on the facial expressions that go along with the contact, and how your culture responds to it. In the case of Medusa, eye contact was hostile, meaning that you weren’t supposed to make it. There are still stares that occur in the modern day that cause people’s hearts to sink. When you look into someone’s eyes, and they give you a stare that you find hostile, it may cause you to physically feel chilled or dead inside.
I’m sure if you saw a tiger in the wild staring right at you, you might have a feeling of dread come at you. Perhaps you’re staring at a killer who wields a bloodied knife, or a gun. You feel danger, thus your body reacts to it.
In more common interactions, there is a tendency for people to respond with less eye contact. Instead, many tend to just look into each others faces. To me, this spawns from the way society has changed its social interactions. We’re more commonly talking online, or blogging, or using webcams to chat. This doesn’t require direct eye contact to communicate. Thus, when we speak in person, we have a different level of confidence within us. Sure, we may be more confident in speaking with more people, but the manner in which we speak to them may not be entirely confident. We may still stumble, or shy away at the little things in a conversation to preserve our “bubble”.
Others may not want to make eye contact to avoid what they may feel to be awkward encounters. The death chill gaze, a conversation they don’t want to have happen, or the feeling of being better than another may all be reasons eye contact has not been made. Take this into consideration when you go about in your day. Just have a look at the interactions of those familiar with each other. Then, go buy some fast food or something and consider the interactions made in just your order. Every action, eye contact or not, will make a difference.
Another quick, unorganized, and pointless blog complete.
