In the Flesh: The Cultural Politics of Body Modification [Paperback]

Victoria Pitts (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2003 | ISBN-10: 0312293119 | ISBN-13: 978-0312293116 | Edition: 1st

TThe 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.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...this work provides insight into a relatively understudied segment of the population."--Library Journal

". . . a fascinating and sensitive look at body modification subcultures and the political debates surrounding them."-Patricia Clough, author of Autoaffection: Unconscious Thought in the Age of Teletechnology

"The book refreshingly moves the arresting figure of the extreme body modifier out of the realm of the pathological and the masochistic and reveals how these practices and their disturbing embodiments challenge the tyrannical concept of normalcy that keeps the rest of us narrowly in check."--Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University

From the Inside Flap

". . . a fascinating and sensitive look at body modification subcultures and the political debates surrounding them."-Patricia Clough, author of Autoaffection: Unconscious Thought in the Age of Teletechnology

"The book refreshingly moves the arresting figure of the extreme body modifier out of the realm of the pathological and the masochistic and reveals how these practices and their disturbing embodiments challenge the tyrannical concept of normalcy that keeps the rest of us narrowly in check."--Rosemarie Garland-Thomson, Emory University

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 256 pages
• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan; 1st edition (May 16, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0312293119
• ISBN-13: 978-0312293116
• Product Dimensions: 5.5 x 0.6 x 8.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 11.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #345,636 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
  • #91 in Books > Arts & Photography > Other Media > Body Art & Tattoo

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Modifying the Medical Line January 9, 2004

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

In the Flesh is an insightful examination of the more extreme body modification subculture, one that invites the reader to re-examine his or her expectations about bodies, body politics, and medical technologies. A generous writer, Pitts presents her research to the reader and offers a framework for investigating how some bodily alterations are medicalized or accepted because they enforce normative expectations about health and beauty, and how others are pathologized. In lively and lucid prose, the author provides us with a useful look at an important issue, and does so (much to her credit) without confining her research participants or her readers to a specific political camp. There may be bright political lines between circumcision, botox injections, Michael Jackson, and flesh hangings -- or then again, maybe there are not. In the Flesh gives us new tools with which to draw those lines for ourselves.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent Qualitative Research! December 1, 2003

By Elizabeth Wood

Format:Paperback

This book does a great job of opening up the lives of body modifiers and situating them clearly in a complex cultural context. Victoria Pitts beautifully balances her own qualitative analysis with the voices of those she interviewed. This book is accessible while still delving deeply into social theory. Pitts neither romanticizes nor objectifies body modifiers. Instead she honestly explores their narratives, from "reclaiming," to "queer," to "modern primitive" to "cyberpunk." I'd recommend this book to any reader interested in cultural studies, body modification, social theory, deviance, the construction of identity, or the politics of bodies.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars A fascinating look at a freaky world October 27, 2003

By A Customer

Format:Paperback

This book is an engrossing and well-crafted analysis of a sub-culture which moves beyond the radar of our nation's more austere population. In showing and telling this seamy and sadistic underbelly (with all its diverse accoutrements and experiments) Victoria Pitts manages to achieve a very difficult balance: she gives the members of a distinct sub-culture the right to tell their own stories in their own distinct voices, yet she also provides erudite and elucidating commentary on that sub-culture. Her insights prove as interesting as the strange stories her subjects tell, stories which, suprisingly enough, have relevance to the reactions many of us experience toward contemporary culture, though we may often respond through less extreme measures. I reccomend this book as a fine example of the interesting work being done in academic scholarship and the pleasures such work can offer, even to non-specialists.