Dual Consciousness

DuBois on the Double Consciousness . . . ."a world which yields him no true self-consciousness, but only lets him see himself through the revelation of the other world. It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one's self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity. One ever feels his two-ness,--an American, a Negro; two warring souls, two thoughts, two unreconciled strivings; two warring ideals in one dark body, whose dogged strength alone keeps it from being torn asunder" "It is a peculiar sensation, this double-consciousness, this sense of always looking at one-self through the eyes of others, of measuring one's soul by the tape of a world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." Ernest Allen Jr.'s On the Reading of Riddles: Rethinking DuBoisian Double Consciousness from Existence in Black

I would argue that women struggle with this to an extreme degree.
You look at yourself through the eyes of the looker - the patriarchy that you attempt to be acceptable to.
You behave like the object that you think and know they believe you to be so that you are acceptable and desirable to them.
Yet, somewhere deep inside who you really are, your humanity struggles with resistance to this performance and an inner strife like no other ensues.
Since for women, this occurs in the outside world, but also in the confines of her home; among those who openly hate her and also along side her in her own bed beside those who are her intimate partners; she has no shelter anywhere.
And for women of color who are marginalized outside of the home due to their race and gender, to have to come inside of her home and experience the same dehumanization due to her gender by those closest to her - her intimate partner and the children she bore - it is unthinkable that she has a moment uninterrupted by torment.