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THE CUSTOMIZED BODY |
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BODY SCULPTING Up to this point we have considered various means of customising the surface of the human body. There are so many of these techniques (painting, scarification, tattooing, piercing, covering) that one would have thought human beings would be satisfied with the seemingly endless possibilities of such superficial alteration. Not so. Human history has seen an extraordinary -- truly mind-boggling -- range of techniques for altering the body's shape as well as its surface. Perhaps most famously, women of the Padaung tribe of Burma (until quite recent times) had their necks stretched by means of the gradual addition of brass rings, one on top of the other. The process was begun in childhood and once the neck was fully stretched, it is said that the rings could never be removed as, unaided, the neck wouldn't be capable of supporting the head. (According to some sources -- perhaps this is myth, perhaps not -- a Padaung woman caught in an act of adultery would have her neck rings removed and be obliged by the frailty of her neck to spend the rest of her life in a horizontal position.) Although generally less well known, a more widespread -- and equally amazing -- technique of modifying the body is cranial shapiong. Practised by a wide range of peoples including the Mangbetu tribes of Central Africa, the Chinook peoples of the northwest coast of North America and the ancient Egyptians, this can only be done to newborn infants (whose skull is still comparatively elastic). Cranial shaping is accomplished either by wrapping the skull tightly with fabric to force it to grow in a more conical shape or by means of securing cradle boards to the baby's head front or back to produce a flattening effect. A less extreme form of cranial shaping (partial wrapping with a linen 'bandeau') was practised in rural France until the 18th century. Although today's 'Modern Primitives' seem determined to revive and develop most traditional methods of customizing the body, 'cranial deformation' (as it used to be termed in the West) is surely one technique which will resist re-discovery. The reason, of course, being that such parental control of appearance runs precisely counter to our contemporary inclination to view customizing the body as an expression of individuality and non-conformity. The traditional peoples who practised cranial shaping saw things very differently, however. Often permitted only for those born of the upper strata of society, such flattened or pointed heads were the mark of high status and privilege. ("The Chinook, for example, had slaves who were immediately identifiable by their naturally rounded -- 'ugly' -- heads.) Because pointed or flattened heads were seen as both aesthetically and socially desirable cranial shaping was viewed as a parental responsibility rather than an imposition. Other techniques of body shaping practised in non-Western societies include the use of tight bands to restrict either the biceps or the calf muscles in order to produce a pronounced bulge above and below the constriction, the stretching of the penis with weights (until it becomes dysfunctional) among certain Saddhu religious sects in India and, of course, the well-known foot-binding of the ancient Chinese (discussed at length in chapter 5). While, to my knowledge, foot-binding, cranial alteration, neck-stretching, etc. have not been practised in our own society (but see Modern Primitives for descriptions of Fakir Musafar's experiments in California with muscle restriction and penis stretching) this is not to say that we reject all methods of customizing the shape of our bodies. Far from it. In particular, 'foundation garments' -- corsets, bustles and, more recently, girdles and bras -- have served to transform women's bodies into a closer approximation of fashionable ideals throughout much of Western history. Currently enjoying something of a revival, the corset in other centuries (in particular, the 17th, 18th and 19th) was seen as a necessary part of a respectable woman's attire. (The phrase 'a loose woman' originally referred to an uncorseted woman. Conversely, a 'staid woman' -- meaning steadfast and proper -- derives from an earlier word for corset, stays.) Corseting garments have had a fascinating history: swinging back and forth between accepted fashion and, conversely, fetishistic innuendo. In Britain during much of the Victorian era it managed to be both -- 'strait-laced' on the one hand but when carried to extremes of tight-lacing tipping over into provocative and controversial eroticism. Nevertheless (or perhaps because of these associations) the corset remained very popular even de rigeur in certain circles -- becoming much longer in the 1890s when it served to thrust the chest forward and the rear backward to produce a distinctive 'S' shape when viewed from the side. By the 1920's, however, when the ideal woman's body was suddenly boyish, the corset gave way to elasticized girdles and breast 'flatteners' designed to minimize feminine curves. Then, immediately after the 2nd World War, a yearning for a return to a more traditional definition of femininity brought Dior's popular 'New Look' with its pinched-in waist and voluptuous curvaceousness. To achieve this a form of small corset known as a 'waspie' was often necessary. Yet by the 1960s things changed yet again -- in part propelled on by the 'Youth Revolution' -- and a straight up and down girlish figure undermined the desirability of any curve-accentuating garments. Throwing off their foundation garments (the burning of bras, even if mythical, perfectly capturing the spirit of the times), the search for girlish, natural slimness focused interest on an entirely different method of altering body shape: dieting. While dieting has also been practised in non-Western, traditional societies, the desired result was typically the precise opposite of ours. For example, in parts of West Africa girls whose families could afford it were sent to a 'fattening house' where, after months of eating weight-inducing foods and taking as little exercise as possible, they emerged to face inspection by potential husbands. Strange to our eyes, the equation of plumpness and beauty is perfectly logical in societies where food is scarce and fat is, therefore, a status symbol. Judging from the extremely rotund 'Venus' figurines which have survived from the Upper Palaeolithic period (some of the oldest examples of sculptural art) it is clear that the notion that 'Big is Beautiful' represents the original human beauty ideal. (While our current 'Less is More' ideal may prove to be simply a short-lived, curious historical blip.) At the same time, however, it would be a mistake to assume that plumpness is seen as desirable everywhere outside the West. To achieve a trim, slender waist corsets have long been used by some tribal peoples from as far afield as New Guinea and Africa. Interestingly, in all the cases of which I am aware it is men rather than women who wear such constricting garments. For example, amongst the Dinka peoples of Sudan the men day in and day out wear beautiful, long corsets which are made of thousands of colourful beads, which flare up dramatically in the back to a point above the shoulders and are actually sewn onto the men's bodies -- to be removed only when replaced by one of a different colour to indicate a change of age status. Are there techniques of body-shaping found only in the West? Perhaps body building and plastic surgery can qualify in this regard. Deprived of exercise -- obviously a necessity in traditional societies -- many Westerners are drawn to a physical ideal which harks back to earlier, more physical ways of life and, to compensate, have developed extraordinary technology and exercise/dieting regimes specifically designed to 'pump up' muscle tissue. In the process, champion body builders (now female as well as male) have created forms of physical development which have never actually existed previously. In the area of plastic surgery, while our technical accomplishments are without equal, our motivation falls outside the usual sphere of customizing the body in one important regard. As with most of our mainstream make-up, the objective of the plastic surgeon is always to remain invisible -- to artificially enhance the 'natural body' without being seen to do so. This is very different from all those traditional body arts which proudly proclaim their artifice and which, amongst other things, serve to set human beings apart from 'nature.' Of course, in the process we delude ourselves. The ideals of 'natural beauty' which the surgeon so skilfully seeks to create are actually only our own inventions -- a product of culture rather than biology -- and, as such, they are subject to the caprices of fashion. This is not to argue one way or the other on the desirability of plastic surgery, only to question if it deserves to be classified as a 'body art' in the same sense as tattooing, scarification, piercing, cranial shaping, neck-stretching. In my view, an art must proclaim itself as such rather than hide behind a facade of 'natural beauty.' There is one fascinating exception. The French artist Orlan has, for several years now, undergone a series of plastic surgery operations which explicitly defy the normal expectations and motivations of such procedures. Orlan's objective isn't to make herself more beautiful -- indeed, her latest operations shift her appearance precisely in the opposite direction. 'An art form for the 21st century,' The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan project began when Orlan combined elements from great female icons (Mona Lisa's forehead, the chin from Botticelli's Venus and eyes from Gerome's Psyche, etc.) into a computer generated self-portrait. Then, in a series of cosmetic surgery operations which were videoed and beamed by satellite to art galleries around the world, Orlan's face was actually altered to fit this digital image. The next stages of the project depended on Orlan finding plastic surgeons (in New York and Japan) prepared to work towards a result which would be deliberately in contradiction to our accepted definition of beauty. In 1993, in New York, she had a series of implants normally used for accentuating the cheek bone, inserted above her eyebrows to create 'horns.' The next stage, in Japan, will involve the conversion of her small, pert 'attractive' nose into an enormous, bulbous one. What she really wants is a nose 'like a rhinoceros' but surgeons tell her that this may 'only be possible in 50 years' time.' A true 'Modern Primitive' Orlan is blending Western science and ancient body art objectives -- freeing the body from its biological inheritance and making it an expression of the human imagination.
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