Bodies as a Site of Production and Commodification - Essay Example

?Anthropology Module Module ID: Bodies as a Site of Production and Commodification Human body is undeniably regarded as a distinctive and wonderful creation of Nature, which distinguishes the human beings from the rest of the creatures at large. The alluring beauty, enthralling attractiveness, superb magnetism and irresistible charms of the body as one single entity are equally captivating for the fellow-beings belonging to both the same and opposite genders; and its various parts and organs are really amazing and astounding ones in many respects including natural affection for the children, physical attraction and sexual inclinations for satisfying the carnal desires, study and research purposes, and financial profits and commercial gains as well. The loveliness and magnificence of different organs of a body capture the eyes and hearts of the viewers, and they find marvelous physical appeal in the same to love and adore the person(s) carrying these charms, in accordance with their choices, tastes and standards of beauty. Therefore, Baudrillard (1998) has declared human body as the finest commodity available in the market, which outshines all other products and merchandise existing in the corporate environment in general because of its dazzling stand out, unique characteristics and natural ecstasy. In addition, various parts of human body are also used and employed for medical and research purposes, which turn out to be highly beneficial for discovering new realities about human body and its attributes and characteristics, paving the way towards discovering new formulae, techniques and devices for the complete convalescence of the people suffering from various ailments and diseases. The people also allow granting various parts of their bodies including eyes, kidney, liver, blood and semen for commercial benefits on the one hand, and as donation to the blind, ill and issueless individuals on the other. The credit goes to technological advancements, which have wide opened the new avenues of transplanting various body organs from one person to the other in a successful and skilled manner. However, contemporary biotechnological developments are accompanied by the fear that commodification of human tissue and DNA will lead to exploitation of dignity and integrity of innocent individuals. Ethical principles and historical traditions can constitute powerful arguments against direct commodification of the human body (Rendtorff, 2000: 57-58). Thus, human body and its different organs can be utilized during man’s life-time as well as after his departure from the world. The significance of human body can be explored in several different viewpoints. On the one hand, the people also develop love and affection for the innocent countenances the little children carry, and compare them to the angels in respect of simplicity, innocence and tenderness; and on the other hand, the changing physical appearances of the teenagers and adults is taken as a gorgeous source of obtaining sexual gratification and satisfying their carnal desires as well. Langlois et al. (2000) are of the opinion that it is the male for whom attractiveness and showiness is more important in comparison with female. It is partly due to the very fact that female body looks far more alluring because of its flexibility, bewitching organs and softness that tempts the male to conquer the same either permanently or for the time being. In humans, because attractiveness is especially important as an indicator of reproductive fitness in women, the reliability of attractiveness ratings should be higher when judging females than when judging males, especially as evaluated by male perceivers (Jackson, 1992). However, the stoutness and hairiness of male body fascinates the females as well as effeminate males, which long for their company and romance or sexual union with them. Consequently, the naked bodies of both men and women have been being carved, painted, drawn out and engraved for centuries since the ancient times in various parts of the globe for the sexual gratification of the members of both the genders at large. The relics of ancient civilizations endorse the very reality that the constructing of nude sculptures of the gods, goddesses, emperors, princes and warriors belonging to the ancient Greece, Rome, Egypt, Babylonia, India and China had been one of the most popular activities and occupations of primeval times. These sculptures, paintings and pictures, sketched in different styles, positions, arrangements and poses capture the attraction of the viewers, who could not refrain from preserving these images in their eyes and minds through memory, cameras and other devices to fantasize these antique pieces of art after leaving the museums, art galleries and other places carrying these fabulous and alluring pictures and images. The Greek paid special heed to the promotion of art and literature, due to the very reality that they regarded aesthetics was the study of perception via the senses. Discussions of beauty have always been present in the history of philosophy, and these discussions were, until the modern period, linked to ethics, logic, or epistemology and ontology (Flew, 1979). They made particular concentration on the beauties of bodies, which served as the more demanding process of criticizing the art object on the basis of its aesthetic merits. Aphrodite The images of Aphrodite, Adonis, Cupid, Thea, Dionysus and several other gods and goddesses look highly enticing and seducing ones for the spectators. The viewers appear to be impressed by the grandeur and physical strengths Pan, Zeus and Mars contained on the one hand, and the fascinated by the smoothness and pliability depicted in the bodies of Athena, Demeter and Phoebe on the other. Similarly, the sight of Zeus’ muscularity, Apollo’s robustness and the malleability attributed to Ganymede are particularly inducing for the individuals maintaining the same sex inclinations and gay eroticism. Scott (2004) observes that the potters and painters in the ancient Athens churned out clay vessels of different shapes and sizes all with specific uses carrying water, wine, drinking, cooling etc. and on which they painted scenes. Most of these scenes depicted sexual appetite, preferences and positions of males and females. These pieces of earthenware used to portray men, women, boys, slaves and foreigners completely nude and engaged into sexual activities in different places and positions. The ceramics particularly highlight female breasts, buttocks and thighs, and male chests and penises in a seductive and enticing manner (Scott, 20). Zeus and Ganymede Furthermore, the nude and semi-nude pictures of the Roman and Indian kings and queens including Helen of Troy, Queen Cleopatra and others have also been the source of sexual gratification for the viewers, which mesmerize their feelings, and tempt them to purchase the copies of these images against high prices as antique pieces of art and ancient culture and civilization. Tanner (2011) witnesses that the goddesses represented on the relief-frieze of the Siphnian treasury (c. 525 Be), seated or combatant versions of the contemporary free-standing female statue or kore, can be distinguished only by attributes or painted inscriptions (cf. Lullies and Hirmer 1957: pls 44-51). It is actually the ancient era sculptors and painters, which have given birth to the idea of projecting and promoting voyeurism, exhibitionism, masochism, sadism and other modes and techniques of sexual delights. Eberstadt & Layden observe the very fact that the history of pornography extends as far back in time as human civilization itself. Vase imagery from ancient Greece and the painted pornographic scenes at the ancient resort Pompeii are two frequently cited examples. The very concepts of “obscenity” and “pornography” have ancient Latin and Greek etymological roots (2010: 3). These paintings and sculptures have also turned out to be supportive in respect of projecting present day pornography industry, where hundreds of thousands of companies and industries appear to be busy in drawing out and preserving the nude pictures of men and women just for commercial purposes and pecuniary gains. Hence, the pornography industry accelerated and promoted the concept of sex for sale at a massive scale, where one can hire the services of male, female, child or she-male prostitute or sex worker against money or privileges or both. The pornography industry has not let the prostitution confined to one specific area or zone of the world. On the contrary, one can hire the prostitutes and whore from any corner of the globe according to their choice and aptitude. For instance, a significant majority of the Asian and African males prefers white-skinned boys and girls as their sex objects, while a large number of the girls containing fair complexion and golden hair look for the black and brown males as their sex partners. Somehow, it is not the rule actually, and may vary from person to person, as well as from one region to the other. In addition, the sex and pornography industries demonstrate male penises and female breasts in such a boastful manner that people pay handsome amount of money in order to have access to the persons carrying such astounding physical organs. These nude pictures are published in various journals, periodicals, magazines, films and several other sources of advertising and entertainments at large. It is by dint of the popularity of seeing the nude bodies of others on the one hand, and demonstrating one’s own on the other that the industries related to nudity and pornography have witnessed tremendous boost during the last two centuries. Nevertheless, the advent of technological advancements in the contemporary era has multiplied the scope of pornography, where the people watch and preserve the nude pictures, images and photographs of the demonstrators living in the pole-apart regions of the globe through nude pictures, movies and pornographic websites. The entire developments being made in this direction are actually the product of the beauties the bodies of male and female humans contain. Although the US Supreme Court and the UK authorities declare nude material detrimental to society during 1960s and early years of 1970s, yet the policies experienced significant alterations with the course of time. Presently in Japan, sexually explicit materials which cater to all sorts of erotic interests and fetishes are readily available. These include video tapes, books, and magazines as well as sexually obvious comic books (manga) without age restrictions as to availability. Public phone booths in commercial areas and city newspapers contain advertisements for sexual liaisons of every sort (Diamond, 1998). It is, therefore, the lust and nudity are not only the source of reproduction and multiplication of humans, but also the same turn out to be productive in corporate and business sectors, where they earn huge money and profits through the occupations including male and female prostitution, organ trade, sperm donation and child trafficking etc. The commodified sexual body is a particularly interesting site for the examination of changes associated with post-socialist transition. Moreover, its significance can also be estimated with reference to commercial point of view. There exists a significant proportion of population that is interested in hiring the children just for the sexual purposes. It is particularly the case with the male homosexuals, which look for having access to the young boys in their teen age. The conventional use of the term boy, according to Gentry (2009), to designate a male in his capacity as an object of male desire is somewhat misleading, because males were customarily supposed to be sexually desirable to other males mostly in the period of life that extended from around the time of puberty (which probably began quite late in the ancient Mediterranean) to the arrival of the full beard. The homosexuals got involved into sexual relationships with boys and slaves because of their love and attraction for the rear part of the body. Since the shape and texture of buttocks appear to be more attractive to some males than vagina, they preferred to obtain the services of boys and slaves in order to quench the thirst of their lust. However, the exploitations of the boys at the hands of the homosexual adults used to be looked at with great abhorrence in Russia, Germany and other traditional societies, where the persons practicing the same were regarded as the queers and traitors of society and nation. Mosse demonstrates that the effeminacy of the homosexual was seen as contrasting with a nationalist ideology of manliness and thereby posed a threat to that manliness and its role in the nationalizing project (1985: 11). The statistics reveal that millions of men, women and children are victims of human trafficking for sexual, forced labor and other forms of exploitation worldwide. Anderson & Andrijasevic (2007) seek close association between trafficking and sexual slavery, which is actually the outcome of organized crime against society. They are of the view that journalists, politicians and scholars are quick to depict migrant women in the sex industry as victims of abuse and violence, and traffickers as Mafia-like individuals and/or organizations that enslave women in prostitution (137). Somehow, it is not confined to one region of the world only; rather, the same crime has been being committed for the last many centuries in the purported advanced nations of the world including the USA, Europe, the Middle East, Asian and Africa. There was a time when the Europeans used to bring the poor and helpless African men, women and children in order to sell them in America and Europe as slaves. These slaves were deployed for forced labor and sexual gratification, and there was no law to condemn such a condemnable activity altogether. The same practice had also been in vogue in the Central Asia and the Middle East, where the licentious and wicked people purchased the kidnapped children and adults, and used to inflict every type of cruelty upon them including their forceful sexual exploitation as well. The individuals get involved in the obnoxious crime of child trafficking and human smuggling by kidnapping the boys and girls in order to sell them outside their regions and countries for sexual purposes. Since the humans in adolescence and youth time, their faces and bodies also look alluring and charming at the peak of youth. It is, therefore, commitments, engagements, sexual relationships and marriages between the individuals generally take place at this age. The girls enter the profession of prostitution and sexual services from teen age, which mostly lasts till they reach their middle age. The human trafficking mafia also kidnaps, smuggles and sells the boys and girls at young age, because the adolescents are weak, both physically and mentally, at that time, and are not in a position to comprehend with the nefarious designs of the nasty kidnappers. As a result, they are pushed into the inferno of prostitution and sexual abuse in such a way that they remain slave to the desires and lusts of others for the future years to come. Thus, the beautiful faces and attractive physical organs have to pay ransom amount of the qualities they posses in the form of kidnapping, prostitution and trafficking. Bibliography Anderson, B. & Andrijasevic, R. (2007). Sex, Slaves and Citizens: the Politics of anti-trafficking. [Online] Available at http://www.statewatch.org/news/2009/feb/soundings.pdf [Accessed 11-06-2012] Baudrillard, J. (1998). The Finest Consumer Object: the Body. In the Consumer Society: Myth and Structures. London, Sage. Diamond, M. (1998). 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