document updated 13 years ago, on Jan 23, 2011
I had thought the conception of the "pretty boy" was one I could easily avoid, but it looks like maybe I won't be able to.
Narcissism
- Narcissus was male, not female. Which is odd, because women clearly spend more time on their looks than men do. Thus, the tale is just a proscription against men caring about their looks.
- Narcissism as addressed by modern psychology is interesting:
- On one hand, psychologists have ostensibly objective measures that should be balanced across gender.
- On the other hand, larger studies have shown that men get diagnosed with it far more often than women. So value-judgements by practitioners matter quite a bit.