Did you want a long post on body modification? I bet you did!
The other day, I was in my freshman biology seminar. I looked around, and noticed something: I am the only person in that entire class, literally half of the freshmen biology majors in this school, with any visible body modifications other than earlobe piercings at standard size and two small, unobtrusive cartilage studs. And I thought, Why should I notice that?
The answer is sort of perplexing. Most people, if you go up to them and ask, will say something like, "Oh, well, even if you really want to have piercings, you could never get a job with a bunch of holes in your face." This is commonly accepted as a truth in, as far as I can tell, most societies. Some accept body modification to greater or lesser extents, but there are still constraints on it. We are still not allowed to go out and do whatever we please with our own bodies, literally the only thing in the entire world we can one hundred percent completely own.
Oh, sure, you can go get piercings and tattoos. You can get subdermal implants. You can split your tongue, alter your bone structure, remove or add body parts, scarify yourself, brand yourself, or in any other way modify your body. It's possible, ninety-five percent of it is legal, oftentimes there are trained professionals who will help you do it or do it for you so you don't give yourself a horrible infection and die, etc. So in the sense that it's physically possible and legally permissible, yes, you can do whatever you want to yourself.
But not if you want a job. Not if you want to be taken seriously. Not if you want people to treat you like an actual human being with real, human thoughts and the potential to offer something to society. The message that we are constantly bombarded with is, "You can do that if you want to be a freak who can never go anywhere in life. Meanwhile, the normal people will be over here, being better than you."
Now, please understand, I'm not saying that discrimination against people who modify their bodies is a horrifying epidemic of human right's abuses. I'm not conflating it with sexism or racism or ableism or any other -ism. What I am saying is that it definitely exists, and when you look at it, it doesn't make any sense.
Why can't someone with visible facial piercings get a white-collar job? What makes someone with a lip piercing less able to, say, work as a bank teller than someone without one? What if the person who doesn't have one is actually a really shitty bank teller? Does not having a hole with jewelry in it in their face automatically make them more suited for the job? If the answer is yes, why? Why is someone with a facial piercing less suitable? Why do they look less professional? Are they any less professional than, say, a man with long hair, or a woman who doesn't wear skirts and high heels?
There are companies that have a 'no visible tattoos or piercings' policy. This is very common. One of the biggest complaints I hear from my parents when I want to do something else - with my body - is that if I do this or that, I'll never be able to get a job. No one will respect me. No one will want to hire me. As a woman looking to enter a scientific field, I'm already at a disadvantage here, so piercing myself is pretty much suicide, apparently.
But why? My IQ doesn't drop with every hole. The jewelry doesn't change who I am. I am not any more or less suited for anything because of how I modify my body, and I shouldn't be penalized for it. No one should. If it is agreed that people own their bodies, and that an invasion against someone's body--such as murder, assault, or rape--is wrong, it must also follow that, since we own our bodies, we have control over them. If I want to cut my hair, I can. If I want to dye it, I can. If I want to go get a tan or stay away from the harsh light of the unforgiving sun so that all the pigment is leached from my skin, I can. If I want to have sex, I can, and if I don't, then I can say no. If I want to shave my legs or pluck my eyebrows, I can, but if I don't want to, I don't have to. This is my body, that I own, and being a legal adult, there is no decision regarding it that I cannot make.
So why can't I decide to modify it? Why is that so horrifying that I'm promised I'll never get a job if I do? Why am I told that my body is my own and I can do whatever I want with it because I own it, but I'm not allowed to modify it?
There are people who don't care about body modification. There are people who are really into it. There are people who wouldn't do it themselves, but don't judge other people for doing it. And then there are people who seem to be personally offended and upset by what other people decide to do with their own bodies, who say that putting jewelry in it is wrong, that putting ink on it is wrong, and that if you do these things, the very least you can do is have the courtesy not to show it to us common, decent people. We don't want to see your eyebrow rings or lip rings when we go to the bank. We don't want to see your stretched ears when we visit the doctor. We don't want to see a tattoo creeping up your neck or on your arms when we go to a clothing store. These things disgust us, and since they disgust us, you have an obligation not to modify your own body.
That's not right. If you don't want to stretch your ears, then, fine, don't stretch your ears. But don't you dare tell me I can't stretch mine to whatever size I want, and then wear whatever I want in them, and then do whatever I want to do with my life. Don't you dare tell me I can't pierce my eyebrow, my lip, my cartilage, my nose, my tongue, or any other part of my body, whether or not you can see it. Don't you dare tell me that I can't decide to get a deeply personal and meaningful work of art tattooed on my body where you can see it. And if I do these things, don't you dare tell me that I'm one bit less presentable to society than you are, because I'm not.
The superficial changes I make to my body are mine to make. They're not yours to judge. They're not yours to police. And they don't make me any less intelligent, or less presentable, or less able to be taken seriously, or anything that I hear so often. The piercings in my face don't say a goddamn thing about who I am except that I'm expressing myself with my skin and that I find these things beautiful and the act of body modification amazing and profound. And to those people who will take me less seriously, who will hire someone less suitable than me because they are more 'wholesome', who will try to tell me, for my own good of course, that I'm mutilating myself and it's disgusting, I have this to say: Fuck you.
In the world we live in today, self-expression using your body as a medium is, to varying degrees, socially unacceptable. It's underground. It's counter-culture. It means you can't get a good job and live a good life and do everything that society expects of you, and so you are called a drain on society and a waste, even though society itself is telling you that it doesn't want you, thankyouverymuch, it will take these people over here who are no different from you except that they have no piercings or tattoos and this, somehow, makes them better.
This is what it's like now, but it shouldn't be, and I am willing to make myself an example. I'm willing to use my body as an educational tool, to quietly push myself into these places where I am apparently not welcome and say, "Hello, I'm just as able as you." Or even, "Hello, I'm better at this than you." I do this as a woman in male-dominated spaces, because I know that even though it shouldn't be, at that time and in that place, it's on me to show what women are capable of, and I will do this as someone who believes in freedom of expression, even though it should be perfectly self-evident that having a facial piercing or a tattoo has absolutely nothing to do with my worth as a worker, a student, or a human being.
This kind of discrimination isn't as serious as the kind that kills people and maims their spirits, keeps whole populations crushed under oppressors because it's the oppressors who make the rules, but it is discrimination, and that's wrong. And maybe people who read this will think to themselves, Well, this is all nice and fine, but who really cares? It's not a big deal. You can just not put holes in your face. but it's a big deal to me. I want to be able to express myself. Body piercing and tattooing are, to me, important and beautifully artistic forms of self-expression. They are the purest kind, the kind you do with your body as the canvas, the kind you not only do but live. They should be respected as such, not relegated to gimmicks and nasty, disgusting things done by stupid, nasty, brutish people who aren't good for anything anyway.
There are worse things happening to people every day, in every part of the world, awful and terrible things. This is less important than fighting racism, or for women's rights, or for queer rights, or for the basic human rights of people denied things we can't even comprehend being able to be denied, but that doesn't mean it has no importance. It's a form of normative oppression, and while the fact that that normative is 'white, male, hetero-' may be coincidental, it still remains a fact. It's just another way that people are kept from straying outside the arbitrary lines drawn for them, and it's wrong.
Body modification is becoming incredibly mainstream, so much more so than it ever has been. It's something that people are doing, not druggies or gang members or punks or goths or gays but people, all kinds of them, who look at their bodies and think, What can I do to make this more beautiful? and then decide that they can do whatever they want, and do it. I'm not conceited enough to think that I can create any significant change, but maybe I can change a few minds, and even if I don't, I'm not going to smother my own self-expression because other people have decided my control of my body is frightening to them. I'm not going to listen to the people who tell me I won't get a job. I'm not going to let myself be seen as someone who isn't as smart or as capable or as trustworthy as someone without piercings.
When someone tells me that it's just not professional, I'm going to tell them that that's bullshit. When someone tells me that I'm not going to get a job, I'm going to tell them that that's bullshit. When someone tells me, no, it's true, just wait and see, I'll tell them that I know, it is true. But it shouldn't be, and I'm not going to live my life based on how things shouldn't be. That's another form of self-expression that's important to me. I'm going to believe in the goodness of humanity, and that people do what's right, and that's how I'm going to live.
The answer is sort of perplexing. Most people, if you go up to them and ask, will say something like, "Oh, well, even if you really want to have piercings, you could never get a job with a bunch of holes in your face." This is commonly accepted as a truth in, as far as I can tell, most societies. Some accept body modification to greater or lesser extents, but there are still constraints on it. We are still not allowed to go out and do whatever we please with our own bodies, literally the only thing in the entire world we can one hundred percent completely own.
Oh, sure, you can go get piercings and tattoos. You can get subdermal implants. You can split your tongue, alter your bone structure, remove or add body parts, scarify yourself, brand yourself, or in any other way modify your body. It's possible, ninety-five percent of it is legal, oftentimes there are trained professionals who will help you do it or do it for you so you don't give yourself a horrible infection and die, etc. So in the sense that it's physically possible and legally permissible, yes, you can do whatever you want to yourself.
But not if you want a job. Not if you want to be taken seriously. Not if you want people to treat you like an actual human being with real, human thoughts and the potential to offer something to society. The message that we are constantly bombarded with is, "You can do that if you want to be a freak who can never go anywhere in life. Meanwhile, the normal people will be over here, being better than you."
Now, please understand, I'm not saying that discrimination against people who modify their bodies is a horrifying epidemic of human right's abuses. I'm not conflating it with sexism or racism or ableism or any other -ism. What I am saying is that it definitely exists, and when you look at it, it doesn't make any sense.
Why can't someone with visible facial piercings get a white-collar job? What makes someone with a lip piercing less able to, say, work as a bank teller than someone without one? What if the person who doesn't have one is actually a really shitty bank teller? Does not having a hole with jewelry in it in their face automatically make them more suited for the job? If the answer is yes, why? Why is someone with a facial piercing less suitable? Why do they look less professional? Are they any less professional than, say, a man with long hair, or a woman who doesn't wear skirts and high heels?
There are companies that have a 'no visible tattoos or piercings' policy. This is very common. One of the biggest complaints I hear from my parents when I want to do something else - with my body - is that if I do this or that, I'll never be able to get a job. No one will respect me. No one will want to hire me. As a woman looking to enter a scientific field, I'm already at a disadvantage here, so piercing myself is pretty much suicide, apparently.
But why? My IQ doesn't drop with every hole. The jewelry doesn't change who I am. I am not any more or less suited for anything because of how I modify my body, and I shouldn't be penalized for it. No one should. If it is agreed that people own their bodies, and that an invasion against someone's body--such as murder, assault, or rape--is wrong, it must also follow that, since we own our bodies, we have control over them. If I want to cut my hair, I can. If I want to dye it, I can. If I want to go get a tan or stay away from the harsh light of the unforgiving sun so that all the pigment is leached from my skin, I can. If I want to have sex, I can, and if I don't, then I can say no. If I want to shave my legs or pluck my eyebrows, I can, but if I don't want to, I don't have to. This is my body, that I own, and being a legal adult, there is no decision regarding it that I cannot make.
So why can't I decide to modify it? Why is that so horrifying that I'm promised I'll never get a job if I do? Why am I told that my body is my own and I can do whatever I want with it because I own it, but I'm not allowed to modify it?
There are people who don't care about body modification. There are people who are really into it. There are people who wouldn't do it themselves, but don't judge other people for doing it. And then there are people who seem to be personally offended and upset by what other people decide to do with their own bodies, who say that putting jewelry in it is wrong, that putting ink on it is wrong, and that if you do these things, the very least you can do is have the courtesy not to show it to us common, decent people. We don't want to see your eyebrow rings or lip rings when we go to the bank. We don't want to see your stretched ears when we visit the doctor. We don't want to see a tattoo creeping up your neck or on your arms when we go to a clothing store. These things disgust us, and since they disgust us, you have an obligation not to modify your own body.
That's not right. If you don't want to stretch your ears, then, fine, don't stretch your ears. But don't you dare tell me I can't stretch mine to whatever size I want, and then wear whatever I want in them, and then do whatever I want to do with my life. Don't you dare tell me I can't pierce my eyebrow, my lip, my cartilage, my nose, my tongue, or any other part of my body, whether or not you can see it. Don't you dare tell me that I can't decide to get a deeply personal and meaningful work of art tattooed on my body where you can see it. And if I do these things, don't you dare tell me that I'm one bit less presentable to society than you are, because I'm not.
The superficial changes I make to my body are mine to make. They're not yours to judge. They're not yours to police. And they don't make me any less intelligent, or less presentable, or less able to be taken seriously, or anything that I hear so often. The piercings in my face don't say a goddamn thing about who I am except that I'm expressing myself with my skin and that I find these things beautiful and the act of body modification amazing and profound. And to those people who will take me less seriously, who will hire someone less suitable than me because they are more 'wholesome', who will try to tell me, for my own good of course, that I'm mutilating myself and it's disgusting, I have this to say: Fuck you.
In the world we live in today, self-expression using your body as a medium is, to varying degrees, socially unacceptable. It's underground. It's counter-culture. It means you can't get a good job and live a good life and do everything that society expects of you, and so you are called a drain on society and a waste, even though society itself is telling you that it doesn't want you, thankyouverymuch, it will take these people over here who are no different from you except that they have no piercings or tattoos and this, somehow, makes them better.
This is what it's like now, but it shouldn't be, and I am willing to make myself an example. I'm willing to use my body as an educational tool, to quietly push myself into these places where I am apparently not welcome and say, "Hello, I'm just as able as you." Or even, "Hello, I'm better at this than you." I do this as a woman in male-dominated spaces, because I know that even though it shouldn't be, at that time and in that place, it's on me to show what women are capable of, and I will do this as someone who believes in freedom of expression, even though it should be perfectly self-evident that having a facial piercing or a tattoo has absolutely nothing to do with my worth as a worker, a student, or a human being.
This kind of discrimination isn't as serious as the kind that kills people and maims their spirits, keeps whole populations crushed under oppressors because it's the oppressors who make the rules, but it is discrimination, and that's wrong. And maybe people who read this will think to themselves, Well, this is all nice and fine, but who really cares? It's not a big deal. You can just not put holes in your face. but it's a big deal to me. I want to be able to express myself. Body piercing and tattooing are, to me, important and beautifully artistic forms of self-expression. They are the purest kind, the kind you do with your body as the canvas, the kind you not only do but live. They should be respected as such, not relegated to gimmicks and nasty, disgusting things done by stupid, nasty, brutish people who aren't good for anything anyway.
There are worse things happening to people every day, in every part of the world, awful and terrible things. This is less important than fighting racism, or for women's rights, or for queer rights, or for the basic human rights of people denied things we can't even comprehend being able to be denied, but that doesn't mean it has no importance. It's a form of normative oppression, and while the fact that that normative is 'white, male, hetero-' may be coincidental, it still remains a fact. It's just another way that people are kept from straying outside the arbitrary lines drawn for them, and it's wrong.
Body modification is becoming incredibly mainstream, so much more so than it ever has been. It's something that people are doing, not druggies or gang members or punks or goths or gays but people, all kinds of them, who look at their bodies and think, What can I do to make this more beautiful? and then decide that they can do whatever they want, and do it. I'm not conceited enough to think that I can create any significant change, but maybe I can change a few minds, and even if I don't, I'm not going to smother my own self-expression because other people have decided my control of my body is frightening to them. I'm not going to listen to the people who tell me I won't get a job. I'm not going to let myself be seen as someone who isn't as smart or as capable or as trustworthy as someone without piercings.
When someone tells me that it's just not professional, I'm going to tell them that that's bullshit. When someone tells me that I'm not going to get a job, I'm going to tell them that that's bullshit. When someone tells me, no, it's true, just wait and see, I'll tell them that I know, it is true. But it shouldn't be, and I'm not going to live my life based on how things shouldn't be. That's another form of self-expression that's important to me. I'm going to believe in the goodness of humanity, and that people do what's right, and that's how I'm going to live.