Prompt 7

The type of body modification that is seen as normative, as in, in an attempt to achieve mainstream society’s ideal of beauty by using body modification to achieve ‘normal’ look, is also subject to Pitt’s argument of radical body modification. Normative and non-normative body modification alike is used in moderation by the mainstream. Most people only get a few tattoos or body piercings, just like most people engage in only mild amounts of normative body modification. On this opposing end of the spectrum, there’s a variety of cosmetic surgeries which I would equivocate to radical body modification. These are much the same in several ways. One, they are painful and pose risk to health, just like radical non-normative body modification. Two, they alter the body from it’s ‘natural’ state dramatically. From collagen to silicone, sucking to sewing, many of these procedures are even more radical as compared to non-normative body modification, in regards to how much the body is altered. The process overall is very similar, simply achieving results striving for a different end. The major difference is that these body modifications are ‘hidden’. People that have been cosmetically altered can often pass as ‘natural’. In that way, it isn’t as subject to taboo as much. However, if one is aware of the extensive cosmetic surgeries another might have gotten, I believe they would be subject to similar scrutiny like that of a non-normative body modifier. Cosmetic surgery is often viewed as extreme vanity; a criticism body modification escapes. But in essence, both types of modification are methods of enhancing a body; similar ends are gained through similar means. Another major difference is that normative body modification seems to end at a very specific standard; there are a vast variety of ways to modify one’s body on the non-normative spectrum; limitless amount of art, piercings wherever one can find a place to put them, vast designs of scarification. However, in normative body modification, one cannot select from a great variety of noses, lips, chins or breasts, because only a few ‘ideals’ are sought after. There’s a good reason why it’s difficult to tell models in magazines apart. While the non-normative body modifier has freedom of expression (to a relatively greater extent), the normative body modifier has conformation to society’s very selective beauty ideal.