Examining the Human Body and Culture - Essay Example

?Examining the Human Body and Culture: Applying Benson and Balsamo Introduction The body has been one of the most common s of dis and research in almost all the aspects of human existence: philosophy, biology and health, sociology, and even in economics (Lewis, 2002). It is viewed as a vehicle to many human functions, needs, and activities of daily living. Many have also utilized the body as a means for acquiring the desired and to achieve pleasure (e.g., sexuality and gender evolution). It is inarguable that the body has helped shape human identity (Benson, 2002, p. 123); at the same time, it served as an instrument to the expression of one’s culture, beliefs and practices (e.g., tattoos, body piercings, etc.) (Shilling, 2002, p. 68). Nevertheless, cultural influences on the beliefs of the society pose questions about the abilities of the body to satisfy human craving for perfection. The physical limitations of the body, especially in the context of gender, are causes of these commotions. At the spring of technology, the frustrations that bred from these limitations made humans create cybernetic organisms or the cyborgs, concede to cosmetic surgeries, and use equipments that could help correct the issues “concerning health, beauty and ageing” (Lewis, 2002, p. 294). Because of the increasing attention gained by the human body, several individuals and groups have formulated theories on the bases of these shifts. Theories on Human Body and the Culture As culture affect people’s beliefs and practices in almost all aspects of living, its influence on human perception about their body has also been inevitable. This is plainly evident particularly in the Western civilizations. Consequently, the collection of research studies and related literature on the account of identity and differences as determined by the body itself, and how humans have proceeded to initiate changes and created new ways to modify the limitations of the natural body which promote control especially in the aspects of health, beauty and aging, have accumulated to unexpected degrees. Subsequently, theories by Foucault, and others, attempt to explain the relationships between the society’s views of the human body, its causes and effects, and the internal and external factors that play a role in the circumstances involved (e.g., human emotions and drives, language, among others) and the current trend of human ascendancy over it (Lewis, 2002, p. 295; Shilling, 2002, p. 65; Balsamo, 1999, p. 20). The presence of social standards and the pressure that it puts on the populace, as well as the submission of the society to these norms, propose that despite the intrinsic diversities that result from “the modernist ideology of individualism” (Lewis, 2002, p. 295), culture remains to be a crucial and major determinant of how the people view the body and its value. With this, and with the assistance of technology, the human race try to develop the body into the image which suits the idealists view of how the body should be by maintaining health (e.g., exercise and proper diet) and even undergoing cosmetic surgeries; existing in the absence of or surpassing “bodily flaws, disease, obesity, ageing and (even) death” (Lewis, 2002, p. 295). This is also why bodybuilders, cyborgs and robots, and even those who have anorexia and bulimia exist -- ways in which humans try to demonstrate control over their bodies to achieve what is considered by the society as ideal or within the bounds of social standards. As a result, experts suggest that what human body is now -- how it is treated, looked at and valued -- is a product of cultures that desire for standardized perfection. Still, the presence of the aforementioned advances towards the “improvement” of the human body does not mean the complete absence of what is unwanted. Mary Douglas even stated that “that which is negated is not thereby removed” (as cited in Benson, 2002, p. 124). Hence, people continue to struggle between the threats of the internal and external factors and the demands of the society to maintain what is considered as beautiful, flawless, and healthy body. Here enters the issue of “body politics.” Many theorists believe that human body perception is affected with class, race, and sexuality. To them, these factors assume key roles to the existing beliefs of what and how human body should be. As Foucault put it: “The body is directly involved in a political field; power relations have an immediate hold upon it; they invest it, mark it, train it, torture it, force it to carry out tasks, to perform ceremonies, to emit signs.” (Foucault, 2006, p. 353) Susan Benson (2002) emphasized these points as she considered the body, health, and the existence of eating disorders and other diseases -- aspects that affect each other in relation to cultural context. She suggested that the human body which is constantly subjected to the ideals of the society, in one way or another, will reflect humans’ cultural preoccupations through the image of health and the deviations from it. In an article, Benson considered the people’s want to maintain an image of health fitness as manifested by government policies and even in commercials (Benson, 2002, p. 123). She stressed that in the belief that only in healthy living shall the people have a good, satisfying, and longer life, the society has always been akin to the thought that this will be attained only through asserting a healthy lifestyle by practicing proper exercise and diet in virtue of “discipline and control of our impulses”; people tend to want mastery over ‘nature’ and mastery over ‘self’ (Benson, 2002, p. 123). As a consequence, problems surface as the people’s ideas of the body become threatened with eating disorders and other diseases (e.g., HIV/AIDS), the obsession to fitness that even end up to efforts of body building (Benson, 2002). In the same way, the efforts to aesthetically manipulate the body through cosmetic surgeries as well as to create human hybrids (e.g., cyborgs, etc.), and the identity that has associated gender or age to specific characterizations have also been identified by Anne Balsamo (1999) as patterns that have resulted from the cultural meanings the society has imposed upon the human body which feed the human hunger for control over it; such is more evident especially in the cultural constructs of viewing the female gender and her body. Balsamo (1999) pointed out the tendency of the humans to put meaning on the features distinguished of and with the body. For example, past (and even present) cultures believe that the biological traits of a woman make her as an essentially weaker entity than the man. Respectively, current trends of technology use propose that humans have started to utilize science and technology to alter or develop identified human limitations or weaknesses and mortality to attain what is culturally ideal. The concepts of bodybuilding and exercise, cosmetic surgery, despite the inevitability of opposing results, have been utilized by many in the present times to achieve the “new sex appeal” (Balsamo, 1999, pp. 12-13). The Link Between Body and Identity: Explaining Benson and Balsamo’s Theories Benson and Balsamo both theorized that one’s culture affects his or her perception of the body; however, they applied this assumption into somewhat different situations. The first, in the presence of eating disorders and diseases, and the urge to maintain a “slim” or fit body; while the second pertains to the application of technology (e.g., exercise or surgery) in attaining the culturally-dictated body image. The people’s choice of conceding to cosmetic surgery and the demanding routines of exercise to keep fit will be considered in this part of the paper. Cosmetic Surgery. Residing to cosmetic surgery is not an easy decision to make. Probable adverse effects have to be thought of. However, many still endure the cuts, injections, and medications all for maintaining an image of health and agelessness. This has been a common trend in Hollywood, among members of the higher social status, and even among common people. Michael Douglas and wife Catherine Zeta Jones, known Hollywood celebrity couple, are among those who have gone under the knife to maintain beauty and “defy” age. Douglas’ face lift and Zeta-Jones’ eye surgery were reported in several newspapers over the years (Newton, 2005; “Zeta Jones Plastic,” 2001). According to an article, face and body enhancement through surgery has become one of the most common approaches for celebrities and alike as they feel “the need to look beautiful” (“Celebrities and Cosmetics,” n.d.). Just as it has been emphasized, this perceived need is a consequence of the idealist view of the culture -- more common in Western civilizations -- which has standards for what’s attractive and what is not (Richins, 1991). Being subjected to consumerism themselves, celebrities like Douglas and Zeta Jones need to “preserve” their beauty and body to have an “enhanced appearance and more marketable self” as age or health decline (Featherstone, 1982). To Benson (2002), cosmetic surgery is one of the ways that the people have chosen to deal with the “faulty” body; which, in this case, the body is subject to industrial capitalism (p. 123). This manipulation, as tackled earlier, portrays not only how easily people concede to social standards but especially mastery over nature and self. The pressures presented by the cultural view of the human body and the social standards that result from these push people to portray control over it. As the body needs to be “recrafted,” on the other hand, people make use of technology to achieve the “ideals of beauty” (Balsamo, 1999, pp. 12-13). Cosmetic surgery is heralded as not only “a discursive site for the “construction of images of women” (and men) but is actually a material site at which the physical body is surgically dissected, stretched, carved, and reconstructed according to cultural and eminently ideological standards of physical appearance” (Balsamo, 1999, p. 13). Fitness. The issues surrounding maintaining fitness and the existence of fitness experts are as visible as the situations affecting beauty and cosmetic surgery. Just as people become pressured of the ideal image of beauty, they, too, are becoming concerned of maintaining a body to compliment social standards of a health which is being slim and fit. As body is culturally linked with identity, the society has the tendency to assume that people who are unable to maintain a lean body are people who do not have the ability to become master of their selves and control their impulses for consumption of food. Due to these societal pressures, some tend to overdo it; while others are diagnosed of eating disorders, some get on with routine exercise to the extent that they structurally overdevelop the human body (e.g., bodybuilders) (Benson, 2002). With the aid of technology, Balsamo, considering the female gender, noted that the current bred of female -- even with the opposing idea it poses towards their gender -- develop sporty images to promote fitness and embody the beliefs of “contemporary culture... of cyborg identity... using the science of weights, resistance, and kinesthetic labor” (Balsamo, 1999, p.12). Conclusion With the theories presented by Benson and Balsamo, it is undoubtedly assumable that culture has a great impact on how the human body is dealt with in the contemporary times that cosmetic surgeries and efforts to keep the body fit (e.g., exercise and bodybuilding) are becoming fairly common not only in the industries where beauty and fitness are considered as an investment but also in the community of masses. The impact of cultural influence into how the body is viewed and valued these days is great that many attempt to literally shape the human body into the idealized image of the society. References Balsamo, Anne (1999) Technologies of the gendered body: reading cyborg women. USA: Duke University Press. Benson, Susan (2002) The body, health and eating disorders. In: K. Woodward, ed. Identity and difference. London: SAGE. Celebrities and cosmetic surgery: who’s had it? Plastic surgery at the front line of glamour, n.d. [Online] Available at: http://abcnews.go.com/Health/Cosmetic/story?id=132633&page=1 [Accessed 10 January 2011]. Featherstone, Mike (1982) The body in consumer culture. Theory, Culture & Society, 1 (2), pp. 18-33. Foucault, Michael (2006) The body of the condemned. In: H. L. Moore & T. Sander, eds. Anthropology in theory issues in epistemology. Maldern, MA: Blackwell Publishing. Lewis, Jeff (2002) Cultural studies: the basics. London: SAGE Publications. Newton, Victoria (2005) Michael’s a movie scar. The Sun, [internet] 2 April. Available at: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/105355/ Michaels-a-movie-scar.html [Accessed 10 January 2011]. Richins, Marsha L. (1991) Social comparison and the idealized images of advertising. The Journal of Consumer Research, June, 18 (1), pp. 71-83. Shillling, Chris (2002) The body and difference. In K. Woodward, ed. Identity and difference. London: SAGE. Zeta Jones plastic surgery denied, 2001. BBC News, [internet] 3 May 3. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/1310371.stm [Accessed 10 January 2011]. Read More