Revisiting embodiment in contemporary social theory : elective cosmetic surgery-'reflexive self-control' or 'intimate troubles'

Abstract

Embodiment as an issue for social scientists was recently taken to another level of interest with the crowning in Beijing in December 2004, of ‘“Miss Artificial Beauty”, or “ren zao mei nu”, the term used for China’s growing ranks of beauties who get their good looks by going under the knife’ (Straits Times, Dec 19, 2004). It appears that the symmetry between reflexivity, identity and embodiment within postmodern society has achieved its full expression. As noted by Anthony Giddens (1991: 56) ‘[T]o learn to become a competent agent able to join with others on an equal basis in the production and reproduction of social relations-is to be able to exert a continuous and successful monitoring of face and body.’ For Giddens such monitoring is an aspect of ‘reflexive self-control’ and denotes a high level of reflexivity in individual choice and freedom. However for contemporary theorists of gender (Plummer 2003: 6), while postmodern society offers an ever wider range of choice of medical technologies and drugs ‘to transform that most central organ of intimacy: the body’, elective plastic surgery, cosmetic surgery, implants, are all part of what Plummer describes as ‘intimate troubles’, as the postmodern world becomes characterized by new sexual and gender identities. The paper considers these inclinations to radically transform the body through elective cosmetic surgery. The questions I am seeking to answer in this paper include: How are social scientists dealing with these new aspects of embodiment and identity? Are these new forms of embodiment best understood as providing increasing choices and freedoms or as ‘intimate troubles’?