To read carefully and thoroughly
To skim or glance over casually
A favorite tool of academic and professional gaslighting. “Have you perused the report?” can mean either Did you do the serious intellectual labor I expect? or Did you give it a quick once-over so I can pretend we discussed it?
The ambiguity is the point. Whoever asks can retroactively decide which reading applied, depending on whether they want to praise your diligence or dismiss your objections.
Women are often expected to peruse — deeply, attentively, without being asked — the emotional labor of everyone around them. The unspoken needs. The moods that require management. The subtext under every conversation. This constitutes a full-time reading practice for which no one is ever given credit.
Meanwhile, women who ask for the same attention in return are told their concerns were only glanced at. “I perused it,” someone says. Meaning: I saw it, I chose not to read it, and now we will pretend I did both.
The word performs the exact imbalance it describes.
“The word that performs the imbalance it describes.”