Prompt 7

Due: Friday
Comments due Sunday

We have been reading and thinking a lot about 'radical' body modification in class (although some of you question how 'radical' these acts really are). For this blog I want you to consider the political implications of "mainstream" body modification, those body projects that take as their goal the normative body standards (young, thin, fit, etc.). Do these body projects hold the same political potential as Pitts finds for their more radical counterparts? Are they promoted or normal in any way or are they still subject to the same taboos as non-normative body modifications? It will be useful to think about Pitts's argument here. Can you apply any of the arguments seen in In the Flesh to these mainstream body modification projects?

Prompt 6

Due Friday
Comments due Sunday

This week we began to think about writing in general and writing at the University. For this post, I want you to consider the idea of authorship and the act of writing and in this way you should be looking forward to your reflection paper (to accompany your media project) and backwards at the writing experience you've accumulated both in and outside of class.

• First, consider formal writing, or what many of your instructors will call "academic prose" or "college writing" - what do these definitions entail? Where do you practice this sort of writing? Why?

• Second, think about informal modes of writing. For instance, as Megan pointed out on Monday, painting your nails might be considered a way of "speaking" through the body - an act of body modification that communicates or expresses something. We also saw how extreme body modification can function as a way to assert authorship or control. What other of our activities might be considered acts of inscription? How do they "write" and what do they say?
  

• Finally, I want you to consider the limits of authorship and writing that we encountered in both the composition pieces and in Victoria Pitts. Where do you encounter these limits (or do you encounter limits)? Are authorship and control not equal terms, as Pitts would argue? What are these limits? How do they function? Is there a way to get around them?

Prompt 5

Due Monday
This week we begin to think of the body not only as the subject of argument, but also the means of making an argument. How might an individual use his or her body to inscribe an identity or resist a culturally-determined identity? BUT to start that discussion, I think it is important to track how body modification is perceived by those outside of its outside - you know, folks with a more traditional view of the body and its practices.
The first place I want you to visit is National Geographic pictorial on body modification. National Geographic is an interesting place to start because they have made an entire society - The National Geographic Society - based on the voyeuristic practices of gazing at other bodies.
The second place to find this viewpoint is on a national news program, and for that I want you to listen an NPR program, Marketplace's "Inc.'s a bit more at ease with ink".
After investigating these two cultural artifacts, I want you to
1. talk a bit about how these two sources approach the body
2. map yourself on to that argument. Do you agree with one of these viewpoints? Is tattooing and other body modification still an exotic practice? Is it, as Marketplace indicates, becoming less exotic?
Have fun!

Prompt 4

This week we will begin thinking about changing established definitions for the body. Our case study for this week is Dove's advertising campaign ("Real Beauty") which relies on your understanding that the bodies used in the campaign are outside of "normal" standards of beauty. But the campaign also deploys those bodies in such a way that it asks you to question those standards (is it our idea of beauty itself "distorted"). In this way, the campaign's rhetoric relies on a beauty norm in order to persuade you that it is the norm itself that is aberrant, not those "other" bodies; the accepted definition, the ads say, is not real. Or is it? Don't forget that Dove is trying to sell firming cream and hair conditioner with this campaign!

Looking at one of the print advertisements and one of the videos released by Dove, I want you to give me a brief analysis of how Dove is making its argument in those particular pieces. How does Dove both engage with and distance itself from an accepted beauty norm?

Finally, I want you to give your own opinion on the ethics or success of this campaign: does Dove really want to change the way we understand beauty? is the campaign ultimately radical (does it really change the definition of beauty) or conservative (does its maintenance of a beauty ideal, albeit changed, defeat any real change)?

Short Writing Assignment 2

cpVanishing race - Navaho
Originally uploaded by jilliansayre

Our second short writing assignment is an extended blog entry (400-500 words) that will analyze one photo from our Edward Curtis collection (on Flickr). Your entry should determine what argument is being made about the body/bodies in the photograph, and then support that with a thorough visual analysis. This means you will need to demonstrate a familiarity with the strategies of visual analysis, including the terms outlined in our readings for this week.
One tool available to you through Flick is a textual annotation. In addition to your written analysis, you will make at least ten notes on the photograph itself. These should work for your argument in focusing your audience; your annotations should help, not distract from the argument you are making about the photograph.

Please note that when you attach your photograph to your blog (as I have done above), your annotations are not visible. You will need to click on the photograph to see the annotations.