Body Theories, Practices and Culture - Essay Example

? BODY THEORIES, PRACTICES, AND CULTURE by 01 November Body Theories, Practices, and Culture Introduction Humans possess an inherent capacity for self-improvement. Humans wanted to look and feel better at all times. With this in mind, by the end of the 20th century, self-improvement has grown into a huge, multinational commercial industry. If humans want to look and feel better, they need to pay for their desires. Technologies exemplify an integral ingredient of body enhancement practices. The latter are also an important part of consumer culture. The Western world treats body enhancement as the sign of wellness and wellbeing. These enhancements have little to do with individual health. In Western cultures, body enhancement is used to strengthen individual image and personal marketability and celebrate the ability to achieve a better position in the consumer society. Enhancing yourself Humans are social beings, and society causes profound effects on the individual perceptions of self. The mass culture of consumerism, mass media and changing social norms impose new requirements on society members. Different cultures foster different norms of self-enhancement and wellbeing. In the Western society, slender tanned bodies operate as vehicles of marketable self, the drivers of seduction, and the instruments of achieving a strong competitive advantage (Featherstone 1991). When I decided that I wanted to get rid of a few kilos, I did not realize the underlying meaning of self-enhancement practices. One day, I looked into the mirror and felt that the picture in the mirror differed greatly from what I wanted to see. I thought that getting rid of a few kilograms and making my body tanned would give me a sense of huge personal satisfaction. I was never afraid of challenges; moreover, I always sought to accomplish challenging missions. I thought that body enhancement through exercise and tanning would improve my physical appearance. I also felt that self-enhancement would strengthen my confidence that I was able to achieve a better result, keep myself fit, and control my appetite. This being said, I went to a fitness club and, three months later, I could not recognize myself. Tanned, slim, and fit, I looked several years younger. Friends and relatives would look surprised and envious at how I looked. Undoubtedly, the strategy I used to enhance my body was more than an instrument of physical improvement. It was just a tiny element of the broader cultural movement, where individuals use their physical attributes to market themselves and acquire a better social position/ status. Understanding self-enhancement For the purpose of this analysis, the concept of self-enhancement should be defined and analyzed. Since the concept of enhancement is difficult to define, it is easier to see what enhancement is not. Enhancement is not used to treat physical illnesses (DeGrazia 2005). It would be fair to assume that enhancement is a kind of intervention used “to improve human form or functioning beyond what is necessary to sustain and restore good health” (DeGrazia 2005, p.263). Simply stated, enhancement is never a response to medical needs; it is an instrument of enhancing individual abilities and physical form in the absence of clear medical needs (DeGrazia 2005). My decision to enhance the body had nothing to do with my physiological health. I felt perfect; what I needed was to fit in society’s body expectations. I wanted to exceed those expectations. I wanted to celebrate the cult of the human body. I wanted to make a positive difference and look better than the majority of my friends and peers. I know that body enhancement strategies like training and fitness are considered natural, positive, and virtuous (DeGrazia 2005). Fitness is the model of self-enhancement which, in most cases, lacks artificiality and is rarely condemned by society (DeGrazia 2005). Thus, self-enhancement lacks medical focus, provides a sense of self-satisfaction, and creates a positive image and public perception of wellness. It adds to respect toward those who apply to training and fitness to enhance their bodies. Body enhancement: seeking improvement and celebration The decision to enhance my body through fitness and tanning had two main goals: (a) to enhance my physical capacity and improve appearance and looks; and (b) to celebrate the culture of the perfect body and individual ability to achieve a better physiological form. The consumer society spreads the message of idealized bodies and the importance of body maintenance through cosmetic procedures, including fitness (Featherstone 1991). The benefits of having a perfect body are not limited to spiritual self-satisfaction but create a better self-marketing capacity (Featherstone 1991). Fitness does not simply give moral satisfaction but makes individuals more marketable (Featherstone 1991). Fitness and tanning lead to personal improvement but, beyond that, celebrate the cult of the ideal body. Improved marketability shows in a number of ways: better popularity among friends and colleagues; improved personal and business communication; greater number of curious looks a person receives while walking down the street; and others. While working in the gym, I was thinking about the nature of fitness in the consumer society and the reasons why individuals spent huge sums of money to improve themselves. The concept of pleasure is critical for understanding body enhancement practices. Consumer culture treats human bodies as vehicles of pleasure (Featherstone 1991). Human body must be desirable and desired; otherwise, members of the consumer culture will experience little pleasure and satisfaction from life (Featherstone 1991). For centuries, clothing served the main instrument of self-enhancement and a matter of celebrating the best human forms (Featherstone 1991). Clothes did not lose their significance, but the consumer society demands more than that. Nowadays, “the tendency within consumer culture is for ascribed bodily qualities to become regarded as plastic – with effort and ‘body work’ individuals are persuaded that they can achieve a certain desired appearance” (Featherstone 1991, p.178). Consequentially, fitness and tanning celebrate individuals’ ability to assume responsibility for the way they look. Pleasure from fitness is integrally linked to the sense of seduction with tanning. Bronze bodies operate within the so-called seduction frame, which is so popular in the consumer culture. Only those who can seduce have a chance to win. Seduction encompasses the most desired characteristics of the postmodern society, namely, expressive personal appearance and seductive image (Vannini & McCright 2004). Together with fitness, tanning creates a unique semiotic combination of cultural meanings, through which individuals challenge their selves. Once I develop the desired physical form, I no longer look ‘natural’. I lose authenticity with its small but unique flaws. I challenge my identity and appearance. I no longer look myself. My new identity is mythical and much more seductive than the one I naturally possess (Vannini & McCright 2004). Tanning and fitness reformulate individual sense of self-esteem and allow for the narcissistic realization of individual power (Vannini & McCright 2004). Fitness and tanning exemplify the celebration of values inherent in the consumer culture. It is the celebration of individual marketability and personal capacity for self-improvement. Beyond that, it is also the celebration of discipline and the ability to control personal desires and moves. It is no secret that postmodern consumer culture builds on the concepts of hedonism and freedom of desire (Featherstone 1991). Hedonism, or satisfying personal pleasures by all means, makes individuals strive for more. Mass consumption and mass production create a new, hedonistic discourse (Featherstone 1991). Those who can achieve better control of their desires will also have better chances to meet their material and spiritual goals. This is what I meant when I felt that fitness and tanning were a challenge I wanted to face: I would have to lose my ‘natural’ appearance for the sake of better marketability and popularity of my body image. Members of the consumer culture generally believe that those who have excess weight or other unwanted body features are unable to contain their desires to eat more, be lazy, or lead sedentary lifestyles (Bordo 1993). Excess weight reflects the general metaphor for anxiety about being unable to function properly and meet society’s norms and expectations (Bordo 1993). I had an internal fear of not looking as good as I wanted to. I also realized that the impulse for physiological change was a compound product of the multiple forces affecting my beliefs about perfection. In the postmodern society, excess weight and failure to control impulses and desires can become objects of discrimination (Bordo 1993). Fitness, tanning, diet, and other instruments of self-enhancement signify personal ability to achieve an appropriate balance of temptations and overindulgence (Bordo 1993). Not fitness and tanning but their results (body enhancement) give individuals a serious social advantage. Whatever individuals do to enhance their bodies, they always pursue one and the same goal – appreciation and public approval, followed by a higher social position. The consumer society treats excess weight and other body imperfections as serious enemies. Aggressiveness in fighting against these enemies is encouraged and praised. Society is the medium of interaction and the environment in which humans live and evolve; society also fosters the importance of fighting with body imperfections through fitness, tanning, cosmetic surgeries, and other means. Those who embrace these values and accept the need for personal enhancement will have better chances to establish themselves as members of the desired social group. Fit and tanned, I also look disciplined: as a result, physical attractiveness increases my chances to promote myself personally and professionally. These self-enhancing ideals are so strong, that we have little doubts as to whether or not to pursue culturally mandated physiological perfection (Heine & Lehman 1997). Here, fitness, tanning, and their results also suggest that any other member of the group can achieve and share these traits. The most surprising thing is that, in most cases, we realize that all these body images and norms are socially constructed. Moreover, we all recognize the danger of uncontrolled pursuit of perfection. Like appetite and excess weight, excess tanning and fitness can imply that certain individuals have lost the physical perfection game. This is one of the reasons why the western society is torn between the epidemic of overweight and the epidemic of anorexia nervosa (Bordo 1993). This is not a paradox but a reflection of the cultural instability, failure to establish a reasonable balance of the consumer society values and the most important sides of the self (Bordo 1993). Even despite these contradictions, I do not regret engaging in fitness and tanning – these body enhancement techniques require persistence and commitment; at the end, they bring an unbelievable feeling of personal satisfaction and strengthen my positive image in the eyes of the social majority. Conclusion In the consumer society fitness and tanning are the common forms of body enhancement. Apart from physical improvement, fitness and tanning have far-reaching cultural implications. In Western cultures, body enhancement is used to strengthen individual image and personal marketability and celebrate the ability to achieve a better position in the consumer society. The consumer society spreads the message of idealized bodies and the importance of body maintenance through cosmetic procedures, including fitness. Fitness and tanning exemplify the celebration of values inherent in the consumer culture. It is the celebration of individual marketability and personal capacity for self-improvement. Fitness and tanning are the two aggressive tools of fighting against body enemies, including excess weight and other body imperfections. Those who enhance their bodies have better chances to establish themselves in the consumer society. They can seduce. They can manipulate others. They look disciplined. They send the message of being able to control their desires. Certainly, the boundary between attractiveness and disease is extremely blurred: like excess weight, excess and tanning can threaten physical age and personal image. Even despite these contradictions, body enhancement remains a popular instrument of socialization and professional growth: at the end of the day, body enhancement brings an unbelievable feeling of personal satisfaction and strengthens individuals’ image in the eyes of the social majority. References Bordo, S 1993, Unbearable weight: Feminism, western culture, and the body, Los Angeles: University of California Press. Featherstone, M 1991, ‘The body in consumer culture’, in M Featherstone, The body: Social process and cultural theory, London: Sage, pp.170-196. DeGrazia, D 2005, ‘Enhancement technologies and human identity’, Journal of Medicine and Philosophy, vol.30, pp.261-283. Heine, SJ & Lehman, DR 1997, ‘The cultural construction of self-enhancement: An examination of group-serving biases’, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, vol.72, no.6, pp.1268-1283. Vannini, P & McCright, AM 2004, ‘To die for: The semiotic seductive power of the tanned body’, Symbolic Interaction, vol.27, no.3, pp.309-332. Read More