Emily’s Scars was a very interesting article to read (even though it was hard for me to understand at times). I found the passages about surgically reshaping feet to be the most eye opening. It certainly brought up some interesting points about society at large. Frank claimed that to a certain extent it has no longer become about making shoes to fit the foot, but making feet to fit the shoes. This is a very profound statement. When I began to read this passage I thought about how disturbing and unnecessary these procedures were, but as I continued to read, Frank began to convince me of the legitimacy of this type of technoluxe. Medicine is used to heal, and if a person feels so self conscious about their feet (just an example) then what should stop them from getting them reshaped if they have the resources and feel that that will improve their quality of life. Frank doesn’t seem to take a hard fast stand on weather its wrong or right, and neither can I, but at least now I can understand where these patients are coming from. He also brought up the topic that foot reshaping (or any form of technoluxe) gives people a higher chance of succeeding at work place, etc. Basically, beautiful people make more money. But something I was thinking when I read this is that the only people who can afford these types of (frivolous) surgeries already have a surplus of income. The rich just keep getting richer. This article really made me realize that we (as a society) put too much evidence on looks and normality and not enough on individualism.
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I think Frank was actually against "making feet to fit the shoes". He associated this to a process which arises from neo-liberalism - the self in conquest, within ones "field" - and neo-liberal is actually a dirty word meant to condemn, well, the way things are.
ReplyDeleteThe foot-shaping passages in "Emily's Scars" made me think a bit about adaptation and evolution and how humans have found a way to circumvent the "natural" processes. Say that, hypothetically, a non-beautiful person is born to a massive inheritance (I imagine they exist, but I only seem to hear about the orange-colored heirs that go on to be socialites). If they pump that money into plastic surgery and the plastic surgeries don't fail, they will be able to ensnare a superficial significant other who would have otherwise ignored them.
ReplyDeleteThe genes they pass on will not reflect their surgically-perfected selves, and in this hypothetical world where romance is dead and the homely don't reproduce, it would appear that evolution has lost out to money. Basically, "survival of the fittest" is replaced by "survival of the richest."
How's that for unscientific? Wow, I kill me.
You mention that if the surgery (whatever it may be) "heals" self consciousness then it is a what medicine is intended for. I found this really interesting but a shortfall of this is that self consciousness is almost always deeper than specific thing that the person focuses on. In the example of the foot reshaping: the patient would most likely not be satisfied with the operation or else would "pick" a new feature to be self conscious about. This can be seen in those that get repeated plastic surgeries to "improve there image.
ReplyDeleteI think I over did the "" lol