i found the link for dave chapelles black white supremicist, but i didn't know how to leave it on the blog, enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6BSX18TDf0
marta
Sunday, November 25, 2007
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
visual journal assignments
SOSC 200
Visual Journal Assignments - Visual Journal due Dec. 3/07
Assignment 1: Showing Seeing
In his essay “Showing Seeing: A critique of visual culture,” (in the Visual Culture Reader), WJT Mitchell describes an experiment he calls ‘showing seeing.” The problem is this: you are an ethnographer from a culture that has no concept of the visual field, or of visual culture (no familiarity with color, line, eye contact, cosmetics, fashion, facial expressions, mirrors, glasses, voyeurism, pornography, television, photography, painting, film, and other ‘visual media,’ etc…). Having spent a number of years in our culture, you are now returning to your own culture and are faced with the task of presenting the idea of ‘seeing’ to your fellow citizens.
In approximately 1 typed page, describe how you would ‘show seeing’ – how would you describe the visual field and its importance in our culture, to someone who had no concept of a ‘visual culture’? For the purposes of the assignment, you can assume your audience has been fitted with prosthetic optical devices that allow them to see you. What object, artifact, work of visual culture would you choose to support your argument? Why? Include any relevant images in your report.
Assignment 2: Exercise in Voyeurism
Conduct an experiment in voyeurism by going to a public space (the bar, the cinema, the mall, etc.), and exercise your own voyeuristic tendencies by actively looking at the public, noticing how they may or may not return your gaze. Or, conduct some observation of the nature of the gaze in any other way of your choosing; how do looking and the gaze operate in public space? Are some spaces more or less conducive to the gaze than others?
Reflect on your experiment and conclusions in approximately 1 page.
Assignment 3: Of Other Spaces
In “Of Other Spaces,” Michel Foucault describes what he terms “heterotopias”: real spaces where the typical hierarchical classifications of space – family, social, commercial, leisure, public, private – begin to break down. Such spaces, which include the prison, the hospital, the brothel, the cemetery, colonies, hotels, ships, trains, sacred spaces, and so on, are “in relation with all other sites,” but are also ‘different’ or ‘other’ sites, both within and outside of the social and spatial contexts in which they are found.
The BDGBLG interview with Michael Cook, “Drains of Canada,” describes a practice of urban archaeology, ‘draining.’ That is, explorations of the subterranean infrastructure of drainage systems, waterways, sewers and utility tunnels – “spaces that exist at the boundaries of modern control…debris left by economic transition, evidence of the transient nature of our place upon this earth.”
For your visual journal, complete one of the following assignments:
1. In approximately 1-2 pages, describe a space personally known to you. Using Foucault’s five principles of heterotopia, explain how this site is heterotopic: to what extent and in what ways does it conform to or deviate from his notions of heterotopia?
2. Undertake an urban exploration of your own. This can take any form (i.e., not necessarily draining). Attempt to find an ‘other’ space within (below, behind) the spatial fabric of the city. Discuss your experience/findings/conclusions in 1-2 pages.
Assignment 4: (Un)Natural Bodies
In our discussions of cosmetic (or ‘fashion’) surgery, body modification, and the body in general as a site of visual presentation and identity, we continue to come up against the idea of the ‘natural’ (or ‘normal’) body, its parameters and practices. Drawing on any combination of course readings and films, class discussion, popular visual culture, or personal experience, consider the value, or danger, in maintaining a concept of the ‘natural’ body against which other bodies might be measured. Is there such a thing as the natural body? What would this be? What might be gained (or lost) by abandoning this concept? Your reflection should be roughly 1 page, apart from any images you might include.
Assignment 5: Cultures on Display
Our readings on race and globalization brought up questions concerning the nature of displaying or exhibiting culture: from the use of specific cultural imagery in advertising, movies, and so on., to artists appropriating imagery or styles from specific cultures in their work (your own work?), to aspects of fashion and bodily ornament (tattoos taken from other cultures, haute couture borrowings from non-western fashion.), to the body and its markers (skin pigmentation, ‘racial’ or ‘ethnic’ bodily features) as a site of cultural display, to practices of collecting and display in museums, to the movement of cultural trends from one site to another (hip-hop moving from black urban culture to white suburban culture, etc.).
In approximately one page, examine one such case – be specific – and reflect on the ways in which it puts culture ‘on display,’ and how the context changes, or produces, meaning.
Visual Journal Assignments - Visual Journal due Dec. 3/07
Assignment 1: Showing Seeing
In his essay “Showing Seeing: A critique of visual culture,” (in the Visual Culture Reader), WJT Mitchell describes an experiment he calls ‘showing seeing.” The problem is this: you are an ethnographer from a culture that has no concept of the visual field, or of visual culture (no familiarity with color, line, eye contact, cosmetics, fashion, facial expressions, mirrors, glasses, voyeurism, pornography, television, photography, painting, film, and other ‘visual media,’ etc…). Having spent a number of years in our culture, you are now returning to your own culture and are faced with the task of presenting the idea of ‘seeing’ to your fellow citizens.
In approximately 1 typed page, describe how you would ‘show seeing’ – how would you describe the visual field and its importance in our culture, to someone who had no concept of a ‘visual culture’? For the purposes of the assignment, you can assume your audience has been fitted with prosthetic optical devices that allow them to see you. What object, artifact, work of visual culture would you choose to support your argument? Why? Include any relevant images in your report.
Assignment 2: Exercise in Voyeurism
Conduct an experiment in voyeurism by going to a public space (the bar, the cinema, the mall, etc.), and exercise your own voyeuristic tendencies by actively looking at the public, noticing how they may or may not return your gaze. Or, conduct some observation of the nature of the gaze in any other way of your choosing; how do looking and the gaze operate in public space? Are some spaces more or less conducive to the gaze than others?
Reflect on your experiment and conclusions in approximately 1 page.
Assignment 3: Of Other Spaces
In “Of Other Spaces,” Michel Foucault describes what he terms “heterotopias”: real spaces where the typical hierarchical classifications of space – family, social, commercial, leisure, public, private – begin to break down. Such spaces, which include the prison, the hospital, the brothel, the cemetery, colonies, hotels, ships, trains, sacred spaces, and so on, are “in relation with all other sites,” but are also ‘different’ or ‘other’ sites, both within and outside of the social and spatial contexts in which they are found.
The BDGBLG interview with Michael Cook, “Drains of Canada,” describes a practice of urban archaeology, ‘draining.’ That is, explorations of the subterranean infrastructure of drainage systems, waterways, sewers and utility tunnels – “spaces that exist at the boundaries of modern control…debris left by economic transition, evidence of the transient nature of our place upon this earth.”
For your visual journal, complete one of the following assignments:
1. In approximately 1-2 pages, describe a space personally known to you. Using Foucault’s five principles of heterotopia, explain how this site is heterotopic: to what extent and in what ways does it conform to or deviate from his notions of heterotopia?
2. Undertake an urban exploration of your own. This can take any form (i.e., not necessarily draining). Attempt to find an ‘other’ space within (below, behind) the spatial fabric of the city. Discuss your experience/findings/conclusions in 1-2 pages.
Assignment 4: (Un)Natural Bodies
In our discussions of cosmetic (or ‘fashion’) surgery, body modification, and the body in general as a site of visual presentation and identity, we continue to come up against the idea of the ‘natural’ (or ‘normal’) body, its parameters and practices. Drawing on any combination of course readings and films, class discussion, popular visual culture, or personal experience, consider the value, or danger, in maintaining a concept of the ‘natural’ body against which other bodies might be measured. Is there such a thing as the natural body? What would this be? What might be gained (or lost) by abandoning this concept? Your reflection should be roughly 1 page, apart from any images you might include.
Assignment 5: Cultures on Display
Our readings on race and globalization brought up questions concerning the nature of displaying or exhibiting culture: from the use of specific cultural imagery in advertising, movies, and so on., to artists appropriating imagery or styles from specific cultures in their work (your own work?), to aspects of fashion and bodily ornament (tattoos taken from other cultures, haute couture borrowings from non-western fashion.), to the body and its markers (skin pigmentation, ‘racial’ or ‘ethnic’ bodily features) as a site of cultural display, to practices of collecting and display in museums, to the movement of cultural trends from one site to another (hip-hop moving from black urban culture to white suburban culture, etc.).
In approximately one page, examine one such case – be specific – and reflect on the ways in which it puts culture ‘on display,’ and how the context changes, or produces, meaning.
Bored on the bus? Nixon says Pong is the answer!
Keeping in theme with the website Marc posted, here are another two websites with some neat stuff. From designs and advertisements to just some cool and pretty innovative products, such as the Tetris and Pong Forever watch from Nixon. Got a nerdy brother asking for a Photonic Disruptor for Christmas? now you can get it for him... who knew?
Walk on the Moon
I came across a great little website showcasing some super creative products with countless witty references to popular culture (phrases, places, etc).
Usually obsure and never cheap -- Check it out: ATYPYK
Make sure you read the captions to the products.
-Marc R.
Usually obsure and never cheap -- Check it out: ATYPYK
Make sure you read the captions to the products.
-Marc R.
Monday, November 19, 2007
Yet another post by Jeremy Jeresky
Tonights lecture Monday 19th was interesting in that the article we discussed talked about Fanon's relationship to a visible majority ( in this case a colonial superstructure ) and his relationship to himself. The gaze of the other subsequently caused him to look at himself as an object. This objectification shaped his identiy, which is something I have never had to deal with, but thnks to this reading, has given me a personal insight into a double or even triple reading of ones identity that many people in this world must cope with. I thought it was interesting how Fanon described the black mans identity and his experience as a construct within a oppositional binary to the white man. It is in this way that he will be percieved and perceive himself. One can only hope that humanity can get past this dicotomy regarding any race. But as this cultural opposition is situated primarilay on a basis of power, it remains a question of how long this dicotomy will remain with us, absolute power corrupts.
I was a little concerned with the nature of the images that we looked at tonight. It was interesting to see the origin of the visual discourse regarding how the west views other cultures. We looked at a lot of images from the 19th century, Delacroix, images of stereo scopes, Inges, advetisments from Pears (white mans burden), and others such as a 19th century print of the Columbus discovery. And while we looked at Star Trek and Alien queen imagery, we really only saw one example of artists who examine this discourse like Fred wilson. So while we examined the backwardness of 19th century imagery, I think we lingered on it for too long and it became more of a lighthearted survey. Its pretty easy to look at these images, given our place in time and judge them as ignorant, which they are. But it would have been interesting to examine statagies which contemporary artists use to add to this discourse. Yinka Shonibare is a prime example in that he even uses 19th century conventions pertaining to western art. In his Mr. and Mrs. Andrews Without Their Heads, the artist has restaged Gainsborough's famous painted portrait as a sculpture, but has decapitated the sitters, removed the landscape, and dressed the subjects in colorful "African" fabrics that themselves have complex colonial histories. The strategy implicit in this piece is one in which the symbolic order of the original painting is inverted. "This symbolic inversion illuminates and challenges the visual conventions that police social hierarchies". ( Curator, Richard Hill ) In other words, when power relations are flipped, we can gain insights into behaviors and stereo types that we may take to be natural are merely conventional.
Sunday, November 18, 2007
3 min survey about fine art & graphic design
Stumbled across this while on Youtube, some interesting thoughts...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_DizMytyt8
Alex N
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8_DizMytyt8
Alex N
Friday, November 16, 2007
Gender, Sexuality and Embodiment
Posted by:
Brittany Lockie
Kara Marciniak
Marnie Leah
Michelle Langfeldt
THE BIOTECHNOLOGICAL REPRODUCTION OF GENDER
Laparoscopy:
Laparoscopy is defined as a surgery in which a fine, lighted tube is inserted
through an incision in the stomach to view the interior of the abdominal organs
or the female pelvic organs. The reason for laparoscopy is to detect health
problems such as cysts, adhesions, fibroids, and infection.
Mainly, Laparoscopy is a technique used on women's bodies. This is because it
to check for and treat female conditions such as endometriosis, ectopic
pregnancy, or pelvic inflammatory disease. Lapraroscopy can also be used to
repair hiatal and inguinal hernia, see whether cancer has spread, and remove
organs such as the gallblader, appendix, or uterus.
Laproscopy is done by a surgeon or a gynocologist. General Anesthesia is
commonly used
http://www.bchealthguide.org/kbase/topic/medtest/hw231905/descrip.htm
last updated September 26, 2006
Author: Carrie Henley, Jan Nissi, RN, BS
HealthWise
list on blog: http://www.laparoscopy.com/
Computer Tomography:
Computed tomography is an x-ray which takes cross-sectional pictures of interior
areas of the body. The computer can then organize these images into more
detailed pictures of organs, bones, and other tissues
Computed Tomography is a scan which passes over a person who is lying very still
on a table. Sometimes the patient is given a "dye" though the mouth, injected
into a vein, or enema before the x-ray is taken. This can highlight specific
areas to create a clearer picture. The procedure is not painful for the
patient other than the uncomfort from lying still in one position from fifteen
minutes to one hour. Computed tomography takes place in a hospital and does
not require an overnight stay. There are no complications beyond that of a
regular x-ray, and allergic reactions to the contrast dyes.
http://www.cancercare.org.cy/EN/public_information/early_detection/computed_tomology.html
2003, the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends
CT SCAN down a human spine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7HrhBMnQw8
___
When a person undergoes a sex change, how does this challenge the notion of ones true gender?
If medical technology can 'turn back the clock', how does this change ones real birth age (ie date of birth)? Will we eventually see a persons date of birth change if, medically, a doctor can turn back the clock?
___
Cosmetic surgery and its effects it has on people.
More and more of the youth are getting plastic surgery in hopes to look like
there favorite stars. The numbers rise every year, instead of spending the
money on school, a car, a home, we constantly see teens use there money towards
looking a little more like “Brad Pit”. As this article shows us 335 000 teens
under the age of 18 in the US have gotten cosmetic surgery in 2003 compared to
its 306 000 in 2000.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_18_104/ai_n9532759
___
How do concepts, preconceived notions of gender and ideas of gender relate to todays culture and how does this effect out visual culture?
-In the reading the ideas of gender and its modification is comparable to that of cosmetic surgery. In today`s world you can change your eyes, nose, cheeks ect, but is the idea and possibility of gender modification just as easy???
-In the culture we live in, we seem so consumed with the idea of control. We like to think of ourselves as in complete control. Plastic surgery seems to be just another example of this.
-In the reading its brought up that in the world of plastic surgery, differences are becoming alike in sameness. Why is this considered to be a good thing? Why is this so popular??
COSMETIC SURGERY AND THE INSCRIPTION OF CULTURAL STANDARDS OF BEAUTY
Human beings are instictually fearful of change. The role of art, like a sense
of humor, is to transition people to adapt to change.
Craftmanship of art is a signifier of quality. Quality, in turn directs the
viewer to value. Human's have always valued good craftmanship, and depend on
decoration which is skin deep to universally understand beauty. This is
because the image or first impression of an object is a language which almost
all of us can in some way understand or form an opinion on.
Art creates models for us to copy appearances. Is it possible that art creates
the ideal? Art displays the ways in which we judge ourselves. Art also
creates things before they even exist.
Art is something that lives beyond our own lives. Could we perhaps be so
attracted to art because it symbolizes an infinite life, and is full of youth
(because it is often changing, and never receding). Art is something that can
also freeze a moment in time that can be an exact representation of the artist
as they want to be remembered. Could art be considered a fountain of youth?
http://www.goines.net/Writing/art_&_beauty.html
1999 David Lance Goines. Last updated November 23, 2003
Women in Art History Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs
Women in Film Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEc4YWICeXk&feature=related
___
How are plastic surgeons today affecting our preception of true beauty? Are they responsible for the individuals who are 'addicted' to plastic surgery? In what ways do they set these trends in what is considered 'fashionably beautiful'?
___
To see more stars and the results of their surgeries visit
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/gallery/0,23668,5024972-5007151-20,00.html
For celebrities responses on cosmetic surgery visit
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/newspol/celeb/cfeat/articles/0,,528719_711295,00.html
Find out exactly what they have to say some examples include
Halle Berry, 40
'I do think we've become obsessed with beauty and the fountain of youth and,
personally, I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in
search of that. I see women in their thirties getting plastic surgery, pulling
this up, tucking that back. It's a slippery slope - once you start to pull one
thing one way, then you think, "Oh my God, I've got to do the other side." It's
really insane, and I feel sad about what society is doing to women.'
Joan Rivers, 74
'You paint the house and maintain the car, right? Well, I go to my surgeon every
six months and ask for touch-ups.'
Scarlett Johansson, 22
'I definitely believe in plastic surgery. I don't want to be an old hag. There's
no fun in that.'
___
-Why is the westernized idea of beauty what it is today? Can we blame our own visual culture? What does this say about us as a society and culture?
-How does our culture accept and deal with the idea of fragmentation, ie; you are your arm, leg, nose. How does this affect us as individuals??
___
COSMETIC SURGERY AS TECHNOLOGY OF THE GENDERED BODY
Balsamo suggests in her essay that perhaps the boundary between genders is
eroding. Cross-dressers are persons who take on the characteristics of the
other gender which is not their own. Between the ninteenth and twentieth
centuries cross-dressers would seek help from medical professionals, who
considered it a mental illness. It was not until the 1960's that
cross-dressers began to form support groups, and it became more accepted in
society. Though, to this day, cross-dressers are still considered by many,
including psychiatrists a perverse fetish.
Many believed that cross-dressing was an act to cover up homosexuality.
German physisist, Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term "transvestism" (latin for
cross-dressing) in 1910
Many men say that they cross dress to become more in touch with their feminine
self and to temporarily escape the expected masculine norms. It also brings
erotic pleasure to some men for doing so. Many women say that they cross dress
because they felt a sense of freedom or power, and felt it fit with their way of
life.
Since female cross-dressing is more accepted, not as much research has been done
on this group. Transvestism is becoming more accepted because of the ways in which it is
displayed in popular culture. Films such as "Some Like it Hot", "Tootsie", and
"Mrs. Doubtfire" are examples of this. Yet it is represented in a more comedic
language. On the other hand, films such as "Psycho", and "Silence of the Lambs"
represent cross-dressers as sychopathic serial killers. These interpretations
result in either laughter or fear. The comedic being an "unreal"
representation of transvestism, and horror representing the "real"
transvestism. Unfortunately, neither is a positive symbol.
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/cross_dressing_ssh,2.html
___
For what main reasons are men electing to have cosmetic surgery, and why are these reasons kept secret?
There seems to be a trend with men engaging in female body activities. Will this trend only gain momentum, or will we see the opposite take place? Will women engage in male-body activities?
___
Brittany Lockie
Kara Marciniak
Marnie Leah
Michelle Langfeldt
THE BIOTECHNOLOGICAL REPRODUCTION OF GENDER
Laparoscopy:
Laparoscopy is defined as a surgery in which a fine, lighted tube is inserted
through an incision in the stomach to view the interior of the abdominal organs
or the female pelvic organs. The reason for laparoscopy is to detect health
problems such as cysts, adhesions, fibroids, and infection.
Mainly, Laparoscopy is a technique used on women's bodies. This is because it
to check for and treat female conditions such as endometriosis, ectopic
pregnancy, or pelvic inflammatory disease. Lapraroscopy can also be used to
repair hiatal and inguinal hernia, see whether cancer has spread, and remove
organs such as the gallblader, appendix, or uterus.
Laproscopy is done by a surgeon or a gynocologist. General Anesthesia is
commonly used
http://www.bchealthguide.org/kbase/topic/medtest/hw231905/descrip.htm
last updated September 26, 2006
Author: Carrie Henley, Jan Nissi, RN, BS
HealthWise
list on blog: http://www.laparoscopy.com/
Computer Tomography:
Computed tomography is an x-ray which takes cross-sectional pictures of interior
areas of the body. The computer can then organize these images into more
detailed pictures of organs, bones, and other tissues
Computed Tomography is a scan which passes over a person who is lying very still
on a table. Sometimes the patient is given a "dye" though the mouth, injected
into a vein, or enema before the x-ray is taken. This can highlight specific
areas to create a clearer picture. The procedure is not painful for the
patient other than the uncomfort from lying still in one position from fifteen
minutes to one hour. Computed tomography takes place in a hospital and does
not require an overnight stay. There are no complications beyond that of a
regular x-ray, and allergic reactions to the contrast dyes.
http://www.cancercare.org.cy/EN/public_information/early_detection/computed_tomology.html
2003, the Cyprus Association of Cancer Patients and Friends
CT SCAN down a human spine: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7HrhBMnQw8
___
When a person undergoes a sex change, how does this challenge the notion of ones true gender?
If medical technology can 'turn back the clock', how does this change ones real birth age (ie date of birth)? Will we eventually see a persons date of birth change if, medically, a doctor can turn back the clock?
___
Cosmetic surgery and its effects it has on people.
More and more of the youth are getting plastic surgery in hopes to look like
there favorite stars. The numbers rise every year, instead of spending the
money on school, a car, a home, we constantly see teens use there money towards
looking a little more like “Brad Pit”. As this article shows us 335 000 teens
under the age of 18 in the US have gotten cosmetic surgery in 2003 compared to
its 306 000 in 2000.
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0EPF/is_18_104/ai_n9532759
___
How do concepts, preconceived notions of gender and ideas of gender relate to todays culture and how does this effect out visual culture?
-In the reading the ideas of gender and its modification is comparable to that of cosmetic surgery. In today`s world you can change your eyes, nose, cheeks ect, but is the idea and possibility of gender modification just as easy???
-In the culture we live in, we seem so consumed with the idea of control. We like to think of ourselves as in complete control. Plastic surgery seems to be just another example of this.
-In the reading its brought up that in the world of plastic surgery, differences are becoming alike in sameness. Why is this considered to be a good thing? Why is this so popular??
COSMETIC SURGERY AND THE INSCRIPTION OF CULTURAL STANDARDS OF BEAUTY
Human beings are instictually fearful of change. The role of art, like a sense
of humor, is to transition people to adapt to change.
Craftmanship of art is a signifier of quality. Quality, in turn directs the
viewer to value. Human's have always valued good craftmanship, and depend on
decoration which is skin deep to universally understand beauty. This is
because the image or first impression of an object is a language which almost
all of us can in some way understand or form an opinion on.
Art creates models for us to copy appearances. Is it possible that art creates
the ideal? Art displays the ways in which we judge ourselves. Art also
creates things before they even exist.
Art is something that lives beyond our own lives. Could we perhaps be so
attracted to art because it symbolizes an infinite life, and is full of youth
(because it is often changing, and never receding). Art is something that can
also freeze a moment in time that can be an exact representation of the artist
as they want to be remembered. Could art be considered a fountain of youth?
http://www.goines.net/Writing/art_&_beauty.html
1999 David Lance Goines. Last updated November 23, 2003
Women in Art History Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nUDIoN-_Hxs
Women in Film Video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vEc4YWICeXk&feature=related
___
How are plastic surgeons today affecting our preception of true beauty? Are they responsible for the individuals who are 'addicted' to plastic surgery? In what ways do they set these trends in what is considered 'fashionably beautiful'?
___
To see more stars and the results of their surgeries visit
http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/gallery/0,23668,5024972-5007151-20,00.html
For celebrities responses on cosmetic surgery visit
http://www.ivillage.co.uk/newspol/celeb/cfeat/articles/0,,528719_711295,00.html
Find out exactly what they have to say some examples include
Halle Berry, 40
'I do think we've become obsessed with beauty and the fountain of youth and,
personally, I'm really saddened by the way women mutilate their faces today in
search of that. I see women in their thirties getting plastic surgery, pulling
this up, tucking that back. It's a slippery slope - once you start to pull one
thing one way, then you think, "Oh my God, I've got to do the other side." It's
really insane, and I feel sad about what society is doing to women.'
Joan Rivers, 74
'You paint the house and maintain the car, right? Well, I go to my surgeon every
six months and ask for touch-ups.'
Scarlett Johansson, 22
'I definitely believe in plastic surgery. I don't want to be an old hag. There's
no fun in that.'
___
-Why is the westernized idea of beauty what it is today? Can we blame our own visual culture? What does this say about us as a society and culture?
-How does our culture accept and deal with the idea of fragmentation, ie; you are your arm, leg, nose. How does this affect us as individuals??
___
COSMETIC SURGERY AS TECHNOLOGY OF THE GENDERED BODY
Balsamo suggests in her essay that perhaps the boundary between genders is
eroding. Cross-dressers are persons who take on the characteristics of the
other gender which is not their own. Between the ninteenth and twentieth
centuries cross-dressers would seek help from medical professionals, who
considered it a mental illness. It was not until the 1960's that
cross-dressers began to form support groups, and it became more accepted in
society. Though, to this day, cross-dressers are still considered by many,
including psychiatrists a perverse fetish.
Many believed that cross-dressing was an act to cover up homosexuality.
German physisist, Magnus Hirschfeld coined the term "transvestism" (latin for
cross-dressing) in 1910
Many men say that they cross dress to become more in touch with their feminine
self and to temporarily escape the expected masculine norms. It also brings
erotic pleasure to some men for doing so. Many women say that they cross dress
because they felt a sense of freedom or power, and felt it fit with their way of
life.
Since female cross-dressing is more accepted, not as much research has been done
on this group. Transvestism is becoming more accepted because of the ways in which it is
displayed in popular culture. Films such as "Some Like it Hot", "Tootsie", and
"Mrs. Doubtfire" are examples of this. Yet it is represented in a more comedic
language. On the other hand, films such as "Psycho", and "Silence of the Lambs"
represent cross-dressers as sychopathic serial killers. These interpretations
result in either laughter or fear. The comedic being an "unreal"
representation of transvestism, and horror representing the "real"
transvestism. Unfortunately, neither is a positive symbol.
http://www.glbtq.com/social-sciences/cross_dressing_ssh,2.html
___
For what main reasons are men electing to have cosmetic surgery, and why are these reasons kept secret?
There seems to be a trend with men engaging in female body activities. Will this trend only gain momentum, or will we see the opposite take place? Will women engage in male-body activities?
___
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