For my module, I also did four journals.
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In the Decorated Body,
France Borel discusses about the human body being a product of culture and not
of nature. She asserts that the purpose of altering our bodies is to follow
social norms so that we can be embraced by our society. She provides that for
years, the practice of scarring or applying tattoos on children’s bodies was an
indication of their rites of passage and milestones in their lives. She also
brings up ancient examples like how young Chinese girls had their feet
intentionally deformed by binding to guarantee their matrimonial success. She
adds that having such body modifications like tattooing and scarring is a way
of asserting your individuality and raise cohesiveness within a group. Finally,
she concludes that transforming your appearance like shaving and applying
makeup is also a form of body decoration so to put it simply, we all have been
modifying our bodies without realizing it.
I feel that most of France’s
arguments are not convincing and not current. For example, she only brings up
third-world examples where body modifications are pre-requisites for
matrimonial success. Also, the examples given date back to the eighteenth
century so her examples are not current and representative of the modern era. I
feel that the transition from the seventh paragraph to the eighth paragraph is
not smooth as the eighth paragraph totally breaks the flow of her argument. I
think she could have added elaborated on her point by giving modern examples
like the rising trend of plastic surgery in 2009 and people tend to go to such
extremes to achieve social acceptance. However, I agree with her revelation at
the end where she concludes that we as humans constantly alter our appearance
to meet our individual expectations on looking our best. This new perspective
really gives light to the overarching topic as it is relevant.
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