In What Ways Do Men and Women Modify Their Bodies - Essay Example

Body modification Introduction Apparently, in today’s world, not so many people are very happy with their bodies. There is too much pressure based on looks and it all comes in a certain manner and from many directions. In UK, people are accusing fashion and fitness industries, advertisers, gossip magazines, and celebrities of over relying and promoting particular body ideals that are either unattainable or unrealistic for over 97 per cent of the population (Harreaves and Tiggemann, 2004:351). Such adulations that are promoting particular body types of body images can lead many to experience insecurity, which in turn can have damaging consequences. For instance, they can undermine people’s confidence and self-esteem, the influenced can develop eating disorders, and cases of bullying and social exclusion are rampant (Braun, 2000:64). With reference to a research conducted by the University of the West of England, 38 percent of men would do anything including sacrificing a whole year of their life in order to achieve a perfect body (Ricciardelli, 2011:949). This shows that physical appearance concerns men more than women. With that respect, this paper will seek to identify and evaluate ways in which men and women try to modify their bodies. In what ways do men and women modify their bodies? Towards the end of the twentieth century most people’s bodies became a key site to cultural, social, economic, and political intervention in regard to, for instance, work, disability, old age, consumption, ethics, and medicine (Ricciardelli, 2009:106). To be precise, of late, people started recognizing body as a contested terrain whereby struggles over resistance and control battle it out in these contemporary societies. In the recent years, the body has emerged as a key problematic issue in the social sciences (Swami, 2009:7). The indicators of this issue comprise of the proliferation of journals and books, conferences as well as other media that express total dedication towards a sociological analysis of the body. People are into surgical operations, diet, exercising, and piercing among many forms of transforming bodies in order to achieve self-confidence, attractiveness, and competence (Ricciardelli, 2011:953). Fact-findings reveal that, in the UK, there are large numbers of men and women who undertake diet practices every year with the view of shading weight in order to attain an attractive or a competitive body shape (Howson, 2005:54). In this vein, a large number of men see taking steroids in view of making their bodies masculine considerable. Whilst others take steroids and undertake diet, the most shocking news is that, the largest number of both men and women have gone to an extent of undertaking cosmetic surgery with the aim of changing their body shape (Braun, 2000:66). The United States tops with the largest number of celebrities and clinically insane politicians who have had their body shapes modified exclaiming to suit their line of duty. Surprisingly, recent studies show that if financial was not an issue many men and women would take cosmetic surgery to modify their shape of bodies (Swami, 2009:9). In most parts of the world, a large proportion of adolescent boys take protein supplements in order to modify their bodies and make them masculine. On the other end, undocumented number of girls is currently on a diet and their aim is to either change the way they look or lose weight (Ricciardelli, 2009:111). Following what actors, singers, and models are doing, many men are emulating practices that they see these famous yet reach men do on television. As a result, young boys are injecting or taking different types of steroids such as corticosteroids, androgenic, and anabolic just to attain a masculine body shape. This news is shocking as side effects of these products are devastating (Harreaves and Tiggemann, 2004:352). Now that most people’s bodies appear mobilized in the given name of a host of projects and practices aimed at self-transformation, there is a simultaneous proliferation based on sociological bodies. Practically, young girls and boys are modifying their body shapes by taking laxatives aimed at shading off some weight (Sharon, 2008:55). They are claiming to be unhappy due to the way they look. As such, they try to justify the situation in the name of searching happiness (Braun, 2000:69). Diet pills are rampant with girls all over the world in which they point at losing weight, which in turn will change their bodies, make them look more beautiful, and increase their competence as well as boost their self confidence (Howson, 2004:30). According to research results brought forward by the University of Nairobi adolescents of UK, US, and Chinese decency desire different cosmetic procedures in their lives (Ricciardelli, 2011:956). For example, the researchers established that 14.7 percent of US girls have undergone a cosmetic surgery of breast implants. In china, 11.5 percent and 7.7 percent of girls and boys respectively have been through rhinoplasty cosmetic surgery while the US recorded a 9.8 percent of girls undertaking Botox cosmetic surgery (Swami, 2009:11). Just as Professor Alan White of men’s health at the Metropolitan University of Leeds asserts, it is agreeable to put across that these findings and studies are not surprising but they are indeed worrying. Currently, Britain men who have cosmetic procedures that compose removal of breast tissue or nose job are on the rise (Ricciardelli, 2009:115). The last decade witnessed encouragement of body beauty through quick fixes as opposed to appropriate physical fitness levels and cognitive diet (Gagne and McGaughey, 2002:5). Due to this alarming agony, many of the respondents to the issue blame the media and celebrities for its unhelpful reinforcement or unrealistic physical perfection ideals. Given the fact that there is no harm in looking good, personal perfection is becoming more of a competition thing, which in turn has long-term bad effects on almost every victim’s mental health (Harreaves and Tiggemann, 2004:353-55). In this world of body proliferation and self-identity projects that are incorporating different methods of being in the body as well as portraying its sexuality, people are no longer embedding their gender identity in a fixed foundation of biology. This is due to the emergency of plastic sexuality age where anything is a reflexive project base on sex. Reasons as to why men and women seek to modify their body image in these ways As illustrated, most men and women are not happy with the way they look. Their largest composition claims that their physical appearance does not conform to what they ought to want their bodies to look (Swami, 2009:13). As a result, they resolve to carry out body modification exercises such as cosmetic surgeries, plastic surgeries, and exercise among many other modes of changing an individual’s body shape (Meredith, 2008:50). Of course, as I stated before, today’s Britain men have more concerns about their body shape as opposed to women (Hayes and Jones, 2004:6). More men are getting devastated psychologically due to their body appearance and shape (Howson, 2005:71). The aspects going of bald, developed beer bellies, and growing man boobs are a matter of concern to most men. According to Succeed Foundation, a research commissioned by Central YMCA shows that, British men talk in a manner that promotes anxiety about their body image (Gagne and McGaughey, 2002:8). They do so by referring to the perceived imperfections and flaws of women. Additionally, in this country, men are able to sacrifice a long time of their lives in exchange for a masculine or preferable perfect body shape (Ricciardelli, 2009:120). These findings depict that, one of the most impeding factor behind body modification in men is the conquest for a perfect body. In this manner, it may take the shape of a masculine body with bold arms or a chest that in their notions and connotations appears beautifully molded (Howson, 2004:59). Men and women’s obsession with change or modification of body does not end with the need to have a perfect body (Hancock, 2003:4). In fact, documented evidence point out that, most men and women around the world whereby the US and the UK records the highest number, fake sickness, undertake severe exercise, and take laxatives with the aim of losing body weight. Men and women are making themselves sick in order to control and regulate their body weight (Ricciardelli, 2011:958). Reports from different researchers indicate that a large number of both men and women are also on laxatives with the goal being the same. Undeniably, we are hearing and seeing many men and women exercise in a compulsive or driven manner and are all in pursuit of the similar purpose (Hayes, 2007:17). The overall reason for fighting with nature by modifying their body shape is an unrealistic but according to them; it is an aspect of paramount importance. Therefore, we can document that men and women are modifying their bodies in order to lose weight (Hancock, 2003:7). Apart from the loss of weight, another reason as to why men and women modify their bodies is the rise to culture of modern body. If you look around in any western urban environment, you will find tattooed, pierced, muscled, dyed, and scarred bodies (Gagne and McGaughey, 2002:12). This is a clear confirmation that the central identity of the body is increasingly becoming its looks. Increasingly, surveys are revealing that most ordinary men wonder whether their bodies could look like those perfected male bodies presented in underwear and aftershave advertisements (Harreaves and Tiggemann, 2004:358). With response to most men and women, changing one’s appearance offers an opportunity for constructing a sense of positive identity and belonging in this contemporary society. As a matter of course, the rise in body culture is yet another reason as to why men and women modify their bodies (Hayes, 2007:20). The ongoing trends aimed at grounding an identity to our bodies is no doubt another reason as to why men and women are carrying out body modification (Alex, 2006:70). Particularly, times when people used to identify themselves with positions and social structures are long gone (Ricciardelli, 2009:132). In fact, certain sociologists argued that the economic and social transformations that came along due to shift to post modernity or late modernity implied that stable and secure self identity had no automatic derivate from social structures (Howson, 2005:92). Cognitively, men and women of all kinds began to ground means or ways of identity that established and maintained values that guide their way of living and self-identity. Given this perspective, it is understandable that most men and women are modifying their bodies simply because of setting up a means or way of self-identification that does not regard position or social structures (Braun, 2000:71). Theorists of contemporary body such as Chris Shilling argue that the world is currently witnessing a situation encountered by an unprecedented individualization of people’s body whereby, the body has become the bearer of significant value. Evaluation of the sociological debates on the use of cosmetic surgery As illustrated in this paper, men and women are taking responsibility based on modifying their bodies. These modifications and developments spell out, in simple words, the presence, and existence of body in political, moral, and social life (Howson, 2004:77). Given these aspects of life that it touches, the body has profound effects on social theory and sociology and for this rationale sets the basic motives, themes, and facts of the many debates (Wacquant, 2004:47). Based on the assumptions of the classical positivist sociology which sets forth that bodies belong primarily to subjects of biology have no meaning any more and as such, they are collapsing indicating that the body is toady a problem for cultural, social, and linguistic analysis (Hancock, 2003:9). Facts derived from this inclusion of the body into sociological inquiry show that it is understandable to regard this issue as a reflective and critical response to the social transformations that are bringing the body to the upfront of contemporary debate and struggle. According to sociologists like Cartesian and Nietzsche, the intellectual roots of body modification and sociological debates regarding the matter are diverse despite the fact that feminism and poststructuralist can claim to be at the center stage of the debates (Gagne and McGaughey, 2002:16). The criticism based on Cartesian dualism set out that the debate on the use and practices of cosmetic surgery and exercise among males and females are important phenomenological acts of thinking that represent the most notable theoretical ancestors of body modifications (Hayes and Jones, 2004:11). Nietzsche argues that the world is seeking to possibly explain and describe that the sociology of the body is an entity of its turns and twists (Hayes, 2007:25). As he continues with his argument he points out that the body is also a place where ambiguities, uncertainties, unchallenged, long, and unprecedented reign of disputes reason. With that notion, an epistemological study regarding sociological inquiry on body modification and all issues related to body shape tends to settle for pragmatism. Methodological wise, the body embraces foundanationalism while in ontology the body tries to escape the confinements of pluralism and essentialism. A number of sociologists’ debates regarding males and females’ body modification cases set forth that appearance, philosophy of difference, and feminism are key players in shaping the intellectual color or hue of body sociology (Harreaves and Tiggemann, 2004:360-61). Yet the introduction of this new and unfamiliar sub discipline in sociology does not appear to be a simple or mere response to the theoretical cross-fertilization and pluralism of disciplines that led to the collapse of borders between human sciences within this contemporary society (Williams and Bandello, 1998:74). Given these debates, there has been an eruption of cultural and social events that are provoking a claim that the world is living in a somatic society. In summing up one of the hottest debates regarding modification of the body in the UK Adorn who is a writer and a sociologist put down into writing that the only aim of a man is to learn how to dominate nature and manipulate the other men (Davis and Cowels, 1991:33-6). While exposing the main key to modernity, these sociologists stated that, in spite of the fact that men and women might contest the singular and absolute ramification of these modern times, to some extent, this does suggest a re ordering of the relationship shared by culture and nature. However, between the two, culture acquires decisive but privileged status (Hayes, 2007:28). This shows that nature and body are things that people can command and discipline in this modern world. With reference to Elizabeth Jagger who is a sociology lecturer at the University of Glasgow Caledonian as well as the Chair of the Body of Social Theory Research Group, the proliferation of formal codes of conduct among people citing in different parts of the world has subjected the human body to massive exploitation (Ricciardelli, 2011:961). The past 300 years witnessed males and females subject their planetary bodies to embodiment, massive exploitation, large scale desires and emotions all aimed at modifying bodies due to the civilized status of coincidental rise in the modern state. Foucault who is also sociology lecturer and a researcher as well asserts that many and great regimes that are distinct mould the human body. Responses derived from his argument depict that the debates of body modification by both men and women are an outcome of the play of power and regime (Braun, 2000:75). Just as argued upon by sociologists Haraway and Butler the effects of body modification are variable and result to different discourses (Falk, 1994:44). Opponents of body modification can count, as many hazardous effects of body modification as there are (Davis and Cowels, 1991:39). However, if that were the case other body modifications such as male circumcision regarded as beneficial and mandatory in some parts around the globe would not be socially prescriptive (Wacquant, 2004:66). Regardless of any appreciation that may apply objectively to anytime that a bodily function diminishes or gets lost, mutilation and disfigurement are some of the terms used by body modification opponents while describing incidents or victims of torture and who endure damages to eyes or ears (Hayes, 2007:32). At time when feminists began writing and thinking about cosmetic surgery about twenty years ago, the state of affairs that they confronted was dramatically different to most described (Howson, 2005:101). Landscapes regarding cosmetic surgeries are experiencing vast changes. For each single and newly created or touted technique ranging from combo implants of Botox to silicon buttock implants there could be presence of a corresponding new feminist approach and examination (Sheila, 2005:65). Rosemary Ricciardelli who is a lecturer at York University points out that, today, self-identity is at risk due to large dissolution of conventional values, traditions, and norms (Ricciardelli, 2009:136). As a result, people must make choices regarding their self-identity, which bases on insecurities, anxieties, perceived risks, and uncertainties that associate with avoiding or taking risks (Ricciardelli, 2011:969). This risk society conceptualized by consumer capitalism apprehended by image and self-obsession of pleasure pursuit and control in personal sphere indicated by life through material goods is generating insecurities and anxieties that people have to cope with by highly focusing on their bodies. Via the market, that is offering a range of personal needs and wants not forgetting perfect body image are fundamental processes to identity construction (Howson, 2004:85). Specifically, as doing looks and appearance are becoming fundamental processes towards construction, personal identity and entwined in bodily appearance. As many researchers continue to argue, identity is today a process of reflexive self-creation in which the resulting objective is perfection (Hancock, 2003:12). Simultaneously, self-criticism and insecurities are becoming a rampant by products of body perfection pursuit. Most sociologists argue that most people associate life in late modernity with lack of control and increased need for body perfection, which in turn results to body modification among men and women (Davis and Cowels, 1991:44). These risks associated with modernity are due to developments and advancements in technology and scientific research of which cosmetic surgery and compulsive exercise or sporting is a part (Sheila, 2005:79). Based on sociological literature of masculinity and feminism appearance is devoid of things like research (Falk, 1994:63). With this objective, Rosemary argues that specific investigation regarding physical appearance of Canadian in any society is aspects shaped by risk. Conclusion In conclusion, throughout the history of Western countries, reconstructive surgery and specifically surgeries undertaken with the view of correcting physical deformities on the human body are on the use to camouflage scars, correct birth defects like cleft palates (Gagne and McGaughey, 2002:19). In addition, men and women are also making use of reconstructive surgeries to hide physical deteriorations that come along with diseases like HIV/AIDS or severe syphilis (Wacquant, 2004:84). One practice that is becoming a problem to most scholars is elective cosmetic surgery designed to assist women in attaining feminine beauty through hegemonic standards as it involves subordination as well as agency. It is worth noting that some of the body modifications that men and women are undergoing are extremely dangerous. For example, it is extremely inexplicable to find that some men and women are opting for body changes such as compulsive diet whose side effects include bulimia and anorexia (Falk, 1994:99). It is such a shame to notice that most of these people regard their body shapes as unattractive and unappealing. Nonetheless, I would like to caution against body modification and all its related practices. This is because; attempting such body changes may result to adverse health effects and loss of body parts (Howson, 2004:122). Therefore, there should laws regulating the application and use of body modification products and strict rules restricting some extensive cosmetic surgeries. Moreover, it is advisable to have massive campaigns to create awareness regarding body changes in men and women (Gagne and McGaughey, 2002:22). Bibliography Alex, K. 2006. Beauty junkies: Inside our $15 billion obsession with cosmetic surgery. New Yrok: Doubleday. Braun, V. 2000. Conceptualizing the body. 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