Tuesday, April 23, 2013

Body (modifications, self-perception, expectations and limits)


Body Modifications around the world and throughout history.

Natural face and head modifications

 hairstyles, facial hair



fun with facial hair
Eye Brow Shaping
braided hair

Facial hair design


locked hair
designed "pigtails"


"mohawk"

extreme mullet
traditional Chinese queue


Child with shaved head





Cosmetics, wigs and Tattoos

Ancient Egyptian statue shows wigs were worn

hair dye


facial tattoo
hair dye
weave or wig?



Surgeries and modification

Teeth: shaping, coloring, decorating and reconstructing.



Ancient Mayan Teeth
Modern Mayan Teeth

Teeth Filing
Braces




Whitening



Lips: stretching, piercing, enlarging, coloring
Lip Plate



Cosmetic Lip Coloring
Lip Piercing



Lip Tattoo
Lip Enlargement











Nose: rhinoplasty, piercing, stretching

Nose Plugs (and tattooing)
Rhinoplasty

Nose piercings


Other face and head modifications
piercings, implants, cranial shaping, neck stretching, tongue modifications, scarification etc
facial piercings


facial scarification
Neck Rings/stretching

3d implants


Tongue Split, facial tattoos and 3d implants
 


Cranial Binding/Shaping



Other Body Modifications
tattoos, piercings, scarification, surgeries


navel piercing
tattoos




scarification art
Plastic Surgery 
in 2012 there were a total of 14,629,276 cosmetic procedures performed in the US. This is an increase of 98% since 2000.  Most procedures were considered "non-invasive"  (laser hair removal, botox etc).  About 1.5 million surgical procedures were performed (implants, liposuction etc).

Self Perception and Body

2011 study shows women perform worse when focusing on their looks.

Body language shaping personality


Body Image Test

Body Integrity Identity Disorder

Eating Disorders



Expectations of Body

Google Female Silhouette

Google Male Silhouette


What do we expect from our body to be like (size, shape, look)?

What do we expect our body to be able to do?

Fitness?
Are Sumo Wrestlers Fit? Intense training and physical demand prove sumo wrestling is more than fat guys in diapers

all of these people are Olympians



Beauty and Attraction?
What is the difference? What aspects of people are beautiful? What aspects of people are attractive?  
Why do standards of beauty vary so much from group to group?
Why do standards of attractiveness seem so individual? 

Some beauty ideals around the world

Functional Ability?
What types of functions do we look to the body to fulfill? Does it differ from culture to culture? Context to context?  What functions do you value about your own body? What functions do you take for granted? What happens when are bodies suddenly don't perform the way we expect them to? How well do you cope with being sick/healing? How do we talk about bodies when they don't meet our expectations?Are there times when we as a society value bodies, specifically because they are bodies and not because they are people?

Eve Ensler's Suddenly, My Body

Value of the body? 
Do we value our bodies based entirely on their function,  are there inherent qualities that we can respect?  Are there qualities that are not based on physical performance or look? Why do you think we put so much emphasis on personality, emotions, ideas (brain things) when often our brains are influenced by how our bodies are doing? 

Religious use of the body? 
 self-flagellation, Prayer, Ecstatic Dancing, Yoga, Kama Sutra, fasting/asceticism,
 

Limits of the body?


Guinness Book of World Records








Enhancement, hindrance and diminution

In what ways do humans choose to enhance their bodies natural abilities?
In what ways do we hinder our bodies abilities?
In what ways do we diminish them?

How closely related are these three things? In many examples we find that the three can be combined, for instance the use of anabolic steroids can cause muscles to grow on the outside - but cause liver damage on the inside. In men, they may create an outside appearance of being "more masculine"  however the effect on the brain and body causes male hormones to shut down and can cause shrinkage of the testes. 



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