Body Modification and Popular Culture

Abstract

Contemporary North America is obsessed with the body. Popular culture abounds with references to the body: from products for the body (hair care, teeth whitening products, clothing, etc.), to representations of the body (the black body, the gay body, the thin body). All of these things combine to create discourses surrounding the body, which are appropriated and then commodified in Western culture (a process known as hegemony). This is hugely significant to the formation of identity because the body underscores identity, and to modify the body is to negotiate in some way with identity. Plastic surgery, piercing, and tattooing are all practices of body modification that have been appropriated hegemonically by popular culture. The film Western Eyes explores the practice of plastic surgery within popular culture, and deals with the ways in which two women negotiate the discourses surrounding the practice. Tattooing and piercing are practices that mark the body in a different way than plastic surgery, and although they have been appropriated by popular culture, can still be discussed as important signifiers of identity and the body. Other more extreme practices, such as suspension, may completely resist the narratives of popular culturethat surround the body. In any case, it is clear that body modification is a complex issue that entwinesdiscourses of identity, the body, and popular culture. Although body modification is largely wrapped up in the production of ideal norms, there are ways to disrupt these narratives, which are important places of resistance of popular culture.