The Battles over the Body

In the last twenty years, we have seen the emergence of an immense interest, from various perspectives, in the human body. We have been made aware that the body is no longer a mere physio-biological structure, but something that can be manipulated, beautified, distorted, and refashioned. Indeed, the body has become a sort of an elusive entity so much so that the question, ‘What is the body?’, no more admits of any simple answers. At the same time, the human body has also become the locus of some of our most intense political, ethical and sociological dilemmas like abortion, euthanasia and the like.

One of the many reasons for this heightened awareness of the body is the influence of various patterns of feminist thought. Feminists have pointed us towards a wider critique of how the feminine body has been controlled, objectified, dominated and oppressed. Gender-issues have become situated within wider concerns of how systems of 'power and knowledge' are operated under masculine control. In turn, masculinity itself has become a topic of debate and there has been much discussion about alternative masculinities/homosexualities, and about heterosexuality as a hegemonic discourse and its connection with homophobia.

The spread of what is called the consumerist culture has influenced our concerns about our bodies. The body is the site for pleasure, desire and near-infinite capacities and potentialities. Early retirement and the rise of leisure have meant that the body can be used as a consumer package to be displayed and packaged. The body is groomed, manicured, tatooed, pierced, tanned, massaged and exercised. Dieting becomes, for many young women, an issue of paramount importance. The emphasis on maintaining a slim body over long stretches of time has led to a greater investment of time in workouts, and in some cases also to the rise of anorexia and bulimia. The body has to be kept as youthful as possible, and to beat the clock one turns to facial surgeries, implants and transplants, hair dying and cellulite removals. Another aspect of the objectification of the body is the rise of the market of body parts : the body is something that can be cut up, transformed and sold.

Along with all of this there has been a transformation of sexual relationships. The wide availability of contraceptives and divorce has radically changed the understanding of our physical embodiment. Simple oppositional sexual codes of an earlier generation are now being broken down in favour of a more 'elastic' sexuality in which the new relationships are more contingent (instead of ‘till death do us apart’) and modelled to different lifestyles. These new patterns of sexual relationships come with their own tensions, anxieties and insecurities connected with the redrawing of lines around people's sexual identities/preferences/orientations/compatibilities. They often lead partners to various forms of therapies centred around self-realisation and personal fulfillment. A wide range of ‘mystical’ and alternative medicines associated with ‘Zen’, ‘Transcendental Meditation’, ‘Yoga’ and the like have sprouted overnight and these now provide new perspectives on the body.

Photography too has exerted a great influence on the way we today look at our bodies. The dispersal of bodies which can be manipulated and made to look different in TV advertisements, film magazines and on the Internet has led to the emergence of virtual bodies. Medical students can have bodies dissected for them on Internet websites and can thus learn about the body without the dirty business of touching blood and bones. Moreover, the photographs of soldiers dying in First World War trenches, of innocents burning in Vietnam and of corpses in the Nazi concentration camps have become vividly impressed onto the popular psyche. They are an essential part of our horror of violated, emaciated, and broken bodies, and these bodies have become symbols of naked frailty standing against brutal power seeking to overwhelm them.

Contemporary biological research too raises a host of questions related to the human body. The search for genes for determining sexual orientation, the study of the interactions between genes and culture, the attempt to enhance the quality of life by eliminating heredity diseases through pre-implantation screening of embryos --- these are matters of furious debate among scientists, ethicists and politicians. With the development of micro-surgery trans-sexualism is an option. Moreover, in vitro fertilisation (IVF), organ transplants, new reproductive techniques, cloning ---- all these raise questions about how to define the body or to demarcate its limits, who owns the body, when life starts and when it ends. Earlier distinctions between male and female bodies, between human bodies and machines, between real and virtual bodies, between whole and dispersed bodies are now being gradually broken down.

In other words, there is a lot of fascinating material for those interested in how the human body is seen in our times. There is an intimate connection between ‘body and society’ because societal rules and codes are often inscribed onto the body, the text of the former. Moreover, what is meant by the ‘body’ is itself historical and changes across times and cultures. For example, hangings and tortures which were once public spectacles are now carefully hidden from the public gaze. In other words, it is through the ways in which the body is displayed, covered, and modified that socially-allowed modes of self-understanding are formed, reproduced and propagated.