Altering Ourselves

http://vimeo.com/37716468

Last Thursday we discussed the idea of altering one's body and if all forms of body alteration were the same. Beauty contests have paradigms for what sort of alteration is acceptable: makeup (in a particular way), hair alteration, particular outfits, diets, cosmetic surgery, etc. Dr. J brought up the idea of bodybuilding and working out and whether these are exponentially different from the alterations of beauty queens. The gut reaction seemed to be that no, working out was different than cosmetic surgery. But when looking at it for what it does simply in that people's bodies change, how different is it?

This video clip demonstrates how two artists have used their bodies as a material to sculpt and manipulate. They are not only trying to highlight the normative views of gender, but also just showing the capabilities of our bodies. This is a very interesting look at typical views of what men and women are. After watching today's video (with the typical answer being 'well... women have a vagina and men have a penis'), we can see in this video the different ideals held in society.

So, are all body alterations really just the same?