Body modification

Categories: Body modification

Body modification (or body alteration) is the permanent or semi-permanent deliberate altering of the human body for non-medical reasons, such as spiritual, various social (markings) or aesthetic. It can range from the socially acceptable decoration (e.g., pierced ears in many societies), over religiously mandated (e.g., circumcision in a number of cultures) to corporal punishment and provocative statement by the rebellious (e.g., nostril piercings in punk subculture), some even get physically addicted to the kick of a painful procedure.

Nearly every human society practices or has practiced some type of body modification in its broadest definition, from Maori tattoos to Victorian corsets to modern breast implants.

Some futurists believe that eventually humans will pursue body modification for technological reasons, with permanently implanted devices to enhance mental and physical capabilities, thereby becoming cyborgs. For the substantial number of people with heart pacemakers and brain implants such as cochlear implants and electrical brain stimulators for Parkinson's disease, this is already a reality.

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Controversy

One controversial objective of body modification is the attempt to resemble another race, such as Asians having their epicanthal folds modified to resemble non-Asian eyes or skin lightened with dyes (or even surgically), suntanning, increase in lips, or buttocks size by Caucasians, or African-Americans straightening their hair or getting a nose job.

"Disfigurement" (a subjective term) and "mutilation" (regardless of any appreciation this always applies objectively whenever a bodily function is gravely diminished or lost, as with castration) are terms used by opponents of body modification to describe certain types of modifications, especially non-consensual ones. Those terms are used fairly uncontroversially to describe the victims of torture, who have endured damage to ears, eyes, feet, genitalia, hands, noses, teeth, and/or tongues, including amputation, burning, flagellation, piercing, skinning, and wheeling. "Genital mutilation" is also used somewhat more controversially to describe certain kinds of socially prescribed modifications to the genitals, such as circumcision, female circumcision, castration, and surgeries performed to conform the genitals of individuals with intersex conditions to those of typical males or females. Those opposed to the practice of sexual reassignment surgery may consider it genital mutilation, done for psychological reasons; this is universally rejected by those in favor of it, who more often consider the reasons medical.

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Typology of body modification

Body art is every body modification for artistic or aesthetic reasons. However the term is often extended to all socialy significative markings, often displaying the bearer belongs to some hereditary (e.g. tribal), age, religious or other group, and therefore on bodyparts that remain or can be 'decently' exposed in public, except if the group is private or even secret.

"Mainstream" body modification

"Extreme" body modification

Genital body modification

Other surgical body modification

Body modifications occurring as the end result of long term activities or practices

  • dieting - drastic alterations in eating habits can deliberately result in severe weight loss (as in anorexia nearing intentional starvation) or gain (via force feeding)
  • bodybuilding - resistance training to increase muscle mass
  • corsetry - or tightlacing binding of the waist and shape the torso.
  • cranial binding - modification of the shape of infants heads, now extremely rare
  • foot binding compression - of the feet to modify them for aestetic reasons
  • non-surgical elongation of organs by prolonged stretching using weights or spacing devices- Some cultural traditions prescribe for or encourage members of one sex (or both) to have one organ stretched till permanent re-dimensioning has occurred, an unnatural 'beauty ideal' which looks like disfigurement to non-adepts, such as
    • the 'giraffe-like' stretched necks of women (sometimes also other organs ) among the Burmese Padaung tribe - see that article), the result of wearing ever more heavy metal rings around them is medically dangerous: removing the rings causes discomfort, the neck may even snap
    • a lip - inserting ever larger plates, as clay with some Amazonian tribes.
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Individuals known for extensive body modification

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See also

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Sources and References

ja:身体改造 de:Body Modification fr:Modification corporelle ru:Модификации тела