In the flesh : the cultural politics of body modification / Victoria L. Pitts.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Pitts-Taylor, Victoria.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Body marking.

Scarification (Body marking).

Body piercing.

Tattooing.

Human body--Social aspects.

Human body.

Physical Description:

vi, 239 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm

Edition:

First Palgrave Macmillan edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Palgrave Macmillan, 2003.

Summary:

The 1990s Saw the Dramatic Rise of Spectacular Forms of Body Modification, Which Included the Tattoo Renaissance and the Rise in Body Piercing, the Emergence of Neo-Tribal Practices Like Scarification and Flesh Hanging, and the Invention of New High-Tech Forms of Body Art Like Subdermal Implants. This book, based on years of interviews with body modifiers throughout the United States, is both sympathetic and critical, and provides the most comprehensive look at this phenomenon. From punk rock to "modern primitives," from queer sadomasochism to cyberpunks, sociologist Victoria Pitts provides insight into the full range of body modification subcultures. Whether by turning themselves into female punks, neo-tribal "primitives," or science fiction cyborgs, body modifiers are engaged in the project of "reclaiming" their bodies from the machine of modern life. Pitts explores the connections between body modification and contemporary struggles over sex and gender, and widespread attitudes about identity, consumption, and the body.

Contents:

Introduction: Bodies of Power: New Body Art Technologies 1

Chapter 1 Subversive Bodies, Invented Selves: Theorizing Body Politics 23

Chapter 2 Reclaiming the Female Body: Women Body Modifiers and Feminist Debates 49

Chapter 3 Visibly Queer: Body Technologies and Sexual Politics 87

Chapter 4 Modern Primitivism and the Deployment of the Other 119

Chapter 5 Cyberpunk, Biomedicine, and the High-Tech Body 151

Conclusion: Reading the Postmodern Techno-Body 185.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [199]-234) and index.

ISBN:

0312293100

0312293119

OCLC:

51389223