Washing one’s hands in front of a mirror enables a woman to view (and analyze) her image without seeming to care, and it allows her to remain standing still in order to primp without seeming deliberate, because of course current middle-class culture values less emphasis on appearances and more on self-confidence. In moving the mirrors, a woman would have to be deliberate and she would feel the pressure that others might think she is being conceited, narcissistic, or insecurely obsessive.

Of course in moving the mirrors, the habit of obsessing over one’s appearance (and making insignificant primps) is largely reduced (in public spaces anyway), which perhaps in the long run could be seen as a social benefit (but not without a social control dictating that benefit).