Status cues can blind a mother to her own son in uniform

Evidence

A cat may not everywhere look at a king, nor does a person of position always look at a person of none. I was once a party to a practical joke, the point of which was to see whether a certain lady would recognize her own son were he to attend us, her guests, as a valet. She did not, as she never looked at his face. — Lyn H. Lofland, World of Strangers_ Order and Action in…, 486

Categorization

• BMF: The valet son rendered invisible by his livery evokes Changez’s waiter episode in The Reluctant Fundamentalist, where service role collapses the observing self’s recognition.