“We have the right to our own body” is an argument many are willing to make, but is our body really our own? Somehow we were put on this Earth, and somehow we will be taken off of it. How we chose to live is our prerogative. We are given the one chance to have a life, and make whatever we want from it. Yes, there are “rules” and “guidelines” that we are told to follow, but essentially it is our decision. On the other hand we have our bodies.
I was born and raised Catholic (now whether or not that has anything to do with this argument, I guess is left up to the question of nature or nurture). I have this idea that our body is not “our own”, but rather a unit we are given to use in the one life we have. We are born in bodies and die in bodies, but they do not define us. Our personality, soul, beliefs, actions, morals, and goals do. All intangible, yet this world seems to place a greater emphasis on the visuals. As discussed in Emily’s Scars, through time our lives became “some- thing-raw material-that people expected themselves to do something with”. An evolution of finding “something” turned into physical uniqueness.
“The contemporary twist on the modern project of the self is that many of us moderns-most observers agree the number is increasing-include doing things with our bodies among the ways to seek the unique point of our lives. At the extreme, the point of one's life can be the modification of one's body.10”
How far is too far with this modification, and does it really better one’s life? I feel that the idea of “being different” has created this world of judgment, and also an impossible strive for perfection. The judgment comes from first visual impressions, the strive for perfection comes from the modifications and distances being taken by people we view as “perfect”.
As history has shown, this demand for physical changes is not about to end, but is one’s truly creating “something” out of their life by changing their body? Our lives are ours to do what we wish, but bodies…. bodies may just be something to carry those lives around in, and should have no impact on how we as people are defined.
Lauren Daggett
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I like your idea. I feel like society has put such a high value on the appearance of an individual, and not on the actions or who the person is. The body has not become "something to carry lives around in" but sort of symbol for who the person is, hence the idea of individuality and "expressing who you are". Its the "who I am in a nutshell". If you don't want to read the whole essay read the abstract, so to speak. An interesting thought..
ReplyDeleteJust as you started with a disclaimer, I should warn that while I AM a confirmed Lutheran, I have never considered myself a particularly religious person.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about the title, and I'm really glad you brought up the "how far is too far" question. I think there are two extremes to this. There is the OBVIOUS example of someone going overboard with cosmetic surgeries to match society's idea of perfect, but what about people going over the top in an attempt to show "who they are"? I think you can go too far on either end, and lose your identity when the whole time you were trying to find it.
Signing in with the 'raised Catholics': your body is emphatically NOT 'your own' in Church teaching. And this is a very anti-Cartesian view.
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