Things to Think and Talk About (Sexed & Gendered Bodies I)
Check out some of the following videos and press articles on vaginal rejuvenation and designer vaginoplasty:
Fox News: Vaginal Rejuvenation
Salon.com: Designer Vaginas
CBS News: Sex Laser
Globe and Mail: Designer Vaginas
Seven News: Vaginal Rejuvenation
The Observer: The new nose job: designer vaginas
Rotton.com: Designer Vaginas
SheTV: Body Watch
Detroit MetroTimes: Does this make my labia look fat?
And consider them within this broader context:
Wired Magazine: The Coming Boom
“Big Pharma has made billions pumping up the male population. Now neuroscientists are reverse engineering the female orgasm.”
Some questions to think about:
How do the women who undergo the surgery describe their motivations? How do they describe their bodies? What ideals do they attribute to female bodies and sexuality? How do they describe post-operative changes in their bodies, sexual and romantic relationships?
What roles do men play in these stories? How are their bodies described? What qualities of masculinity do these men portray? How do they describe their relationship with the women involved? How do they react post-surgery?
What kinds of experts tell these stories? How do the doctors describe their motivations? How is the doctor-patient relationship portrayed? How do the plastic surgeons differ from the neuroscientists? How do each approach the female body and female sexuality?
How do the reporters present the issues? What kind of scenes are used to stage different people and roles? What risks are presented? What benefits are considered? On which points is there certainty? What points seem more ambiguous? What jokes are told?
What are the biopolitics involved? What role do markets play? How is health implicated? In what ways are these technoscientific practices presented as inevitable? How can these kinds of biotechnologies regulate bodies and sexuality? What kinds of state regulation are possible or desirable?
What do you think?
Let me take a moment to leave a comment as it will very likely be the last, with the semester coming to an end. As much as I enjoyed commenting on the posts whenever I can, the rapid flow of time and new entries pass over before I can keep up with the pace. I’d like to know if others feel the same way.
Regarding the choice of topic with specific emphasis on vagina rejuvenation and hermaphrodism to illustrate the class theme of technoscience and bodies: gender, identity, body modification and sexuality… it seems like an idiosyncratic (illustrative of your personal preferences/interests) decision to be using those over the myriad of other um, less sexually explicit examples do choose from is it not?
Don’t get me wrong, here’s absolutely nothing wrong with that of course, I just hope that you’d to keep this in mind for the upcoming poster seminar session, as my poster contains some of those same idiosyncrasies as well, using anime caricatures over others to portray the topics I’m interested in.