Transgression as Identity cont.

In terms of resistance as disdain and rejections of the dominant culture, a variety of public identity statements would cross the boundaries and repudiate the larger society-especially articulated in fashion and adornment. Wilson (19xx) suggest that the 19th C. dandy was the archetype of anti-fashion-oppositional style hostile to the conformist majority and designed to shock. But as we shall see, what is especially interesting about contemporary forms of fashion and adornment is the use of the body and adornment of the body as fashion. The body, long the center of the private realm, has itself become the template up which aesthetic sensibilities are inscribed. Perhaps inversion, indeed a transvaluation, is nowhere more evident that in the decorations and modifications of the genitals-what had been made private and hidden through shame, have become adornments and bases of pride. While not typically displayed in “polite” company, the various rings and things are proudly shown off within the alternative community.

For Simmel, the original basis of covering the genitals was adornment and that adornment was to call attention to the sexual parts. Only later did shame emerge as a means of social control and with it, people knew they were naked and felt ashamed-so they covered their parts with the leaves of figs. Following his insights, we would note how for certain cultures of resistance, making the private public, especially the pubic, can be seen as a rejection of civilization and its repressive morals, values and its constraints. “What seems evident is that in traditional societies, ritual body modification practices connect people and their bodies to the reproduction of long established social positions whereas in the industrialized West body piercing seems to serve the function of individuating the self from society. (Holtham, 1992) In her study, she suggested that:

Whereas Bill de-emphasizes the sexual aspect of body piercing and says his involvement is to do with 'the mapping of his own history and personal evolution'. The many piercings and tattoos he wears having a 'synergistic effect on his life', facilitating an 'alternative spirituality'. Bill and George emphasize what they call the 'tribal aesthetic' in both their own bodies and in their piercing studio in an effort to 'honor the tribal roots of body piercing'. George's interest in piercing stems from what he describes as 'the desire to experience his mind and body on different levels and thus become more self-aware.' Louise describes the demand for professional piercing services in Melbourne as having 'gone through the roof' in the last three years. Her business began as a two hour service on a Saturday afternoon above a gay male adult bookstore in 1990 and has since expanded to two studios in Melbourne and Sydney, with six piercing staff working full-time six days a week. Louise credits the phenomenal rise in interest in body piercing to a range of factors. Predominantly the increased visibility of piercing having a kind of 'flow-on' effect as new people become aware of the options available to them to augment their bodies. Louise also performs many piercings as part of commitment ceremonies and ritual acts of submission or attachment. She also senses in her clientele a general move toward 'reclaiming their bodies and taking pleasure in the look and feel of the piercing'. The three interviewees all credit the rise of interest in body piercing in part to do with a general disaffection with the governing narratives of our lives. Specifically, Louise thinks many of her clients are 'on the search, searching for meaning, and for feelings of belonging to something larger than themselves that isn't religious'. (Holtham, p.7)

Modern Primitives

Interestingly, in the English language, the word “primitive” was first used by the Christian Church to refer to the pure beginning of its own religion (“primityve churche of Christ”). Over time, its meaning slightly changed and was used to describe that which was original in form, as opposed to a reproduction. Yet, it was in the 20th century, that the term acquired a negative connotation, used to describe non-Western appearances and activities. Western Europe and Euro-America espoused the Ideology of Progress, where heterogeneity threatened humanity’s unitary ascension to greater knowledge, sophistication, and “goodness.” “Primitive” became a powerful label used to describe the ignorant, barbaric, and uncivilized (Strauss, in Vale and Juno, 1989). Cultural differences marked the stages of development, with the West representing the most developed and advanced of all. Cultural diversity was to be stamped out and replaced by refinement, enlightenment, “civilized behavior.”

In Western culture, forms of body modification such tattoos, scarification, and piercings have typically been regarded as a regression toward primitive practices. What’s more, it is in the Judeo-Christian context that tattooing and modifying the body is regarded as trangressive. Leviticus 19:28: “You shall not make any cuttings in your flesh on account of the dead or tattoo any marks upon you.” Yet, in other non-Western cultures, body modifications are considered “sacred or magical, and always social. The unmarked body is a raw, inarticulate, mute body. It is only when the body acquires the ‘marks of civilization’ that it begins to communicate and becomes an active part of the social body” (Strauss, in Vale and Juno, 1989). While tattoos, piercings, and other forms of extreme body modification are not considered “civilized” modes of communication in mainstream Western culture, there are indeed social. By transforming the body into a medium of identification and art, one is actively defining and exhibiting his membership to the liminal.

Facing the World

Hair is one of the first noted moments of physiognomy and accordingly, coiffure reflects cultural tastes-and distastes. In the biker cultures of the 50's the DA, ducks ass was de rigueur, and at the time, was very daring rejection of dominant norms. One of the defining markers of the counterculture of the 60's was “hair, hair, gimme lots of hair” as the musical proclaimed. As a rejection to the trim crew cuts of corporate life and/or militarism, long hair, afros etc, became the initial badges of membership in subcultures of resistance that would defy social, political or cultural conventions. It was at this time that hairstyles became important for the images of popular musicians, the Beatles initiating the radical styles of the early sixties, while till this day, most male musicians have long hair. We might also mention how beards again became fashionable, at that another rejection of the “clean- look”. Further more, the beard might designate wisdom and masculinity.

For our purposes, what become important are the more extremes of coiffure, multi colored, multi spiked, teased, locked etc. ( Spiked Hair ) From what we have said, hair stands as one of the most blatant markers of fashion and identity, it is easily recognized. Following musicians and the long hair of the 60's counterculture, among the punk cultures that emerged in the 80's, the Mohawk became an important marker of working class resentment, soon appropriated by others seeking to articulate resistance. Perhaps De Niro’s character in Taxi made this point. From this followed various spikings and dying/tinting hair in colors not found in nature, bright reds, yellows, greens, blues and often in phosphorescent hues. That three spikes-in three colors- stands out as a marker of difference is easily gainsaid. More recently, braided hair/dreadlocks have become popular among those who would identify with Jamaican culture, often identified with pot and Marley that have to represent another version of the “primitive”, at least its spontaneity, its Dionysian excess and vitality-seen as the opposite of the “civilized” Westerner. Finally, for men, the ponytail, a maker of androgyny, often found among artists, people in computer and advertising industries, even some academic specialties like communication, cultural studies and theater. As an indication of resistance, that can easily be trimmed and/or dyed back to the natural condition, much like henna tattoos, need not be permanent.

Tattoos

The tattoo may well be the prototypical marker of the “primitive” and indeed, early travelers to Polynesia, Samoa, New Zealand (Maori) and Australia, including Melville, often remarked on the elaborate body designs of the native peoples. Although bodily enhancement may be relegated to specific cultural norms, within those limits an individual has a great amount of room to use decoration as an expression of their own personality and what they conceive as their "self". The [Maori] tattoos identified who the person bearing them was within the society.... the person's position in life, his or her rank and parentage, their marriage status, what line of work they were in, and their 'manna' or power bestowed by the gods (Vale and Juno, 114). Facial tattoos were used as signatures when Europeans became involved, demonstrating the personal link between the design and the individual. Tattoos showed political allegiances and tribal connections. The only people who were not tattooed were sacred virgins and rulers, those who were outside the scope of everyday social interaction. This lack of tattoo identified these individuals as different and 'special' (Wall, 1998).

The tattoo has had a long history of being a proletarian art form, initially embraced by seafarers and adventurers who came in contact with the native of the South Pacific. Eventually it was embraced by and urban workers where it often became a visible marker of class difference, real men, workers, had tattoos as opposed to the effetes of the offices. As an urban art form of workers, prisoner, bikers etc, mainstream society began to regard the tattoo as the mark of an unsavory character. Today, tattoos have become appropriate among large number of youth-in part because of their unsavory connotations. Tats are considered, cool, artistic, hip, counter culture, they have become adornments that are adored. (Facial Tattoo) Moreover, they are as likely to be found on women as men-an homage to the imagined equality of primitive society. Certain tattoos have an important erotic function, especially the relatively small butterfly, flower or design that some people, mostly women, place on the butt, pubis or inner thigh. The function here is to create a mark of intimacy, known only to the lover(s). Finally, it might be noted that one of the most popular forms of tattoos, often found in beach based tourist destination as well as cities is the henna tattoo which unlike the engraved inks, will fade away in a few weeks.

Rings, posts and studs

The nose

The rejection of modernity, the embrace of the ludic, carnival is most clearly articulated in by the “modern primitive” in which stainless steel, silver, titanium or titanium replace bamboo, wood or bone piercings. The representation of the “primitive other” with the bone in his/her nose has long been a part of defining the modern in relation to the primitive “Other”, the good ascetic as different from the evil impulse, uncivilized “savage”. T he ringed nose in your face-as well as the face of the pierce is the expression of transforming passivity to activity, a disdain of repression and marker of the rejection of the modern. As befits the carnivalesque, the ring is always the reminder of the flowing of snot, another repulsive fluid of the body. Moreover, as earlier noted, and reminiscent of Freud’s early relationship with Fliess, the nose is the intrusive phallus, as in keep you nose out of my business. In the hierarchy of facial adornment, septum ring stands at the starting point. Surely, the many others, the eyebrow rings, posts and tattoos join the chorus, but rarely as stars. Thus many women might have a small stud in a nostril, much like traditional Indian women. Others opt for small nasal rings.

Satanic Horns

Perhaps the ultimate symbol of resistance and repudiation of the dominant culture and its notion of the good, is the celebration of Satan and the embrace of evil. In the inverted world of the grotesque as beauty, where there has been a transvaluation of the ethical, the ultimate evil becomes the ultimate good, the fallen angel becomes the simulated ubermench. And thus we that the implanted horns that advertise inversion to all those who would enjoy the scoptic pleasures of the liminal. But even more important, the horned person commands the gaze of the other and in commanding that gaze, making the “normal” Other view those horns, making him/her repulsed by the repulsive, the horned “devil” triumphs over das Mann. The gaze does not turn one into an object as Sartre would have it, but commanding the Other’s look, renders him/her the object.

Beware of Forked Tongues

In the Judeo-Christian West, the fall begins with the snake, the slivering phallus that embodies pure evil. Satan after all was a fallen angel and might have a trace of residual goodness, while the snake is without any redeeming value. In Western popular culture, the snake is often the “ur” symbol of evil, the floor of the temple is covered with snakes. Former WWF wrestler, Jake the Snake was the personification of the baddie who let his snakes play on his defeated adversaries. We yet warn of speaking with forked tongues. Thus the Split Tongue, the snake or lizard, much like horns, celebrates what had been evil and indeed, much of what we said about horns can be said of forked tongues.

Pubic Art: Ring and Things in One’s Things

As we have suggested, one of the most important moments of the rejection of modern ascetic is the valorization the genital and making the shame based private the pride based public. We might call this pubic art, decorations/piercings of one’s genitalia ( Male genitalia ) and/or proximate parts for purposes of display to others. Such displays are discreet in that as part of a subculture, are typically only displayed within that subculture. It is interesting that one of the more prevalent form of display has become the Internet and a number of sites, BME: Body Modification Ezine, require a photo of one’s piercings to be posted as the entry requirement to the members only sections.

There are a large number of various rings, studs, posts and other things that people do to their genitals ( Female genitalia ), the most common of which are rings. Perhaps the one known most widely is the Prince Albert, a single ring in the glans, purportedly used to tie it to the leg. But men often have several rings, locks and other things implanted into their penis, scrotum and perineum. Some prefer posts to rings and a series of parallel posts is called a “ ladder”. Similarly, women are likely to put rings in their nipples, labia, clitoris, hood etc. Quite often women report that piercings enhance their sexual relations and are often provide sexually stimulation in everyday life. (We are reminded how in the days of foot operated sewing machines, occasionally some of the seamstresses would begin to sew at much higher rates-at least for a short time-and utter a load sigh of relieve as they finished the cuff).

Big Balls and Power Cunts

We have argued that the embrace of the carnivalesque primitive stands as an inversion that empowers, that one reclaims agency by transforming the body. Just as carnivalesque is grotesque by exaggeration, so too can and do body mods use saline injections to mold and shape, and most of all amplify through swelling certain parts of the body. For some modern primitives, when it comes to genitals, bigger is better. For men, the notion that size matters always confronts physics when many try to stretch their penis. As Newton showed, there is a law of the conservation of penis matter, the longer its stretched, the thinner it gets, till we have the 24" noodle. But there is a quick and simple alternative, the saline injections of the scrotum. In a matter of minutes, one has “big balls”, the universal symbol of male power-another indication of reclaiming activity from passivity.

Similarly, in the world made egalitarian by feminism, or is it perhaps the reclamation of the egalitarian world of the pre-modern primitive that existed before the “Motheright” was overturned, woman is again powerful. In much of the statuary of pre-modern South America, Africa and Polynesia, females are often seen with exaggerated vulvas-celebrations of her fecundity and role in reproduction. Thus we see that if a hypo of salt water can give guys big balls, so too can a hypo can give the woman exaggerated labia, mons or both. If an inflated scrotum can give him symbolic power, inflated labia can restore equality and perhaps indeed express the empowered woman.

A dialectical understanding of history shows how societies contain within themselves their own negations. For Marx, capitalist political economy led to alienation and crises and indeed the very overcoming of capital by democratic socialism. Much the same can be said about modern culture, we could argue that the repressive values of modernity, anality as normality, Christian repression without transcendental meaning, has within it a historical basis of its negation. More specifically, below the surface of the modern Apollonian, is the earlier Dionysian of the Christian carnival. Just as Godzilla was reawakened from the depths of prehistory by modern weapons, so too has modernity revived the grotesque of its own history. More specifically, capitalism in its consumerist form, required the erosion of its underpinnings of restraint and control, and thus advertising/consumerism colonized consciousness so that desire became unfettered to be realized in shopping and mass culture. Media, especially film and television, to insure audiences have encouraged the erosion of standards of taste such that we have seen the return of the carnival in commodified form.

At the same time, advanced capitalism has transformed itself into a vastly profitable globalized profit machine that is rapidly changing. To achieve obscene profits, capitalism has employed leading edge technologies, computerization, job export and deskilling, and delayering of management in favor of quality circles that have had a major impact on the labor forces of the advance industrial societies. There have been an ever smaller number of people who amass great wealth while the majority of people, the ones in lesser skilled service occupations, have been steadily losing ground. For many such people neither the available jobs nor the dominant cultures of modernity hold much lure for defining one’s self. In face of these transformations, there has been a wide range of responses. Some would find meaning in religion, at least conservative religions that provide stability in a sea of change. Thus many have embraced fundamentalisms or cultural conservatisms. But many people, especially those marginalized by the economy, have moved to the limits of the cultural boundaries that have themselves been rapidly shifting as the culture industries have spearheaded the carnivalization of culture.

Thus we have seen the proliferation of a number of subcultures of resistance, transgression and inversion that provide people with compensatory alternatives that valorize identities of transgression, inversion and resistance-and in turn gain attachments, recognition, empowerment and meaning. But joining certain subcultures often requires dramatic initiation ritual and/or various accouterments or markers of having moved from the dominant society to subcultures of opposition and/or resistance. These various moments come together in the subcultures of body modification-and insofar as many of its proponents see themselves as “modern primitives” reclaiming their bodies through primitive markings/piercings.

'lifestyle', or more importantly as part of what they regard as a movement toward what has been described as 'modern primitivism' - the harking back to something more 'basic' and fundamental in human nature: pain, ritual, a concern with the processes of the body and exploration of different levels of consciousness and physical experience. (See Juno and Vale's excellent non-academic ethnographic anthology Modern Primitives.) It is upon this common interest in adorning and modifying the body that small affiliational communities - or tribes - of 'modern primitives' have developed in the wealthy, industrialized Western nations. (Holtham, 1992, p12)

With Simmel we see the function of vanity, wherein the adorned individual accentuates his personality by wearing jewels and metals, which simultaneously invokes both admiration and disdain from others. He distinguishes and amplifies himself in the view of and at the cost of others. To be extraordinary, however, is not simply a matter of exhibiting the material objects themselves; but further, a display of its “more-than-appearance value.” Simmel, “it is not something isolated; it has roots in a soil that lies beyond its mere appearance, while the unauthentic is only what it can be taken at for the moment” (p. 342). Thus, with regard to the extreme piercing and dress, it is not only a “fuck you” to mainstream society, but also a method of generating a reaction of disgust and fear. It is the antithesis of the admiration generated from mainstream fashion and couture. After all, one who would vacuum, reroute, and inject saline and posts into his or her most sensitive body parts, clearly does not fear pain. Consequently, to adorn and modify the body is a choice to not only reject mainstream conventions, but also to reclaim agency. The pain and identity (as liminal) is chosen, and the fashion serves as a statement of who the individual is and who he is not. Further, those modifications and styles that are clearly visible, call attention to one and thus almost mandate that one is looked at. But whereas for Sartre, to be looked at was to be rendered powerless, to be made an object, for the modern primitive, to be looked at, to command the gaze, is to have power over the Other and indeed, whether the gaze is the disgust by the mainstream, or the acceptance by the subculture, to be viewed, and to be viewed as “different”, is to gain empowering recognition. As most sociological accounts of life in the present age note, all that is solid, melts into air. The traditional sources of stability in people’s lives, their community, their workplace and even families has been eroded. In an unstable world, extreme body modification becomes an act of identification and empowerment, where one is able to reclaim his/her body in a way that cannot be moderated by others. Thus, to accentuate one’s personality, in essence to become extraordinary, allows one to take control of at least part of his existence and impose stability. While one cannot make certain that he will not be abandoned by his lover, or receive the dreaded pink slip at the monotonous desk job, there is a sense of permanency in being a “body mod.” For even after the saline is drained, and the posts and rings are removed, the individual has become a sort of artist and transformed his body into a piece of art. Moreover, for those who take the modifications to the extreme of extremes, reversing the procedures, and fading back into the mainstream and pushed to the bottom becomes nearly impossible.

Walter Benjamin (1968 argued that art, when mechanically reproduced lost its “aura”, its unique qualities imparted by the artist. He saw that mechanical reproduction enabled a democratization of culture and pluralization of interpretation. Jessica Benjamin (1992), in her psychoanalytic approach to female masochism suggested that women endure pain and humiliation to gain recognition. In her analysis of The Story of O, she described how the heroine “voluntarily” submitted to sexual servitude and degradation to gain recognition and personhood. While the story is fictional, Benjamin suggests that speaks to the real issues that many women face. If we join Benjamin with Benjamin, we might note that to decorate one’s body is to claim authorship and reclaim embodied “aura”. But insofar as this may well involve pain, that pain is an expression of agency and means to recognition and inclusion. (We would also note that for many women, genital piercings seem to both cause sexual pleasures and enhance the pleasures of sexual intercourse.) Further, as we have argued, insofar as global capital has displaced many from the contracting mainstream of the culture, the pain of modification becomes a way of authoring ones one pain, that seeking pain rather than being pained, turns passivity into activity, controlling pain and the impression that marking make on Others.

Postmodernists argue that we are now in an age without grand narratives, a moment when the modern social order has imploded into a plurality of subcultures and decentered subjects. While they have the description right, the analysis is quite lacking. Rather we argue that capitalism, in its global form, remains the grand narrative of our times. Similarly, the fragmentation of social was rooted in the class structure and division of labor, but flourished through the proliferation of segmented marketing producing a pluralization of life worlds of consumer subcultures and life style enclaves. Capitalism then fostered the carnivalization of culture as a marketing tool to erode any restraints upon spending money. But at the same, globalization has produced a plethora of goods for these many subcultures, it has also produced a surplus of people whose job prospects are bleak and promises of stability are meager. These factors dispose a prolongation of youth, sociological understood as an extended moment of the life cycle beyond adolescence, but not fully integrated into adulthood, at least as it has been traditionally understood. The we might also not the contradictions between the Apollonian nature of the traditional culture of control and restraint, and its negation in the Dionysian frenzy of passion and indulgence-much of which has encouraged by the very culture industries of late capital.

These forces have converged in the production of a plurality of sub cultures of resistance. To be sure, most of these subcultures valorize cultural inversions and celebrate the grotesque rather than assume political forms that would transform the nature of globalization. Among these many articulations of resistance, typically embraced by the young and young at heart, are the many expressions of body modifications that would reject modernity and embrace the primitive. As such, a proliferation of identity granting communities of meaning have emerged to provide people with the social attachments, dignity, agency and meaning that have become so problematic in late modernity. While many of us may well find their life styles, values and even their modified bodies grotesque, it may well be that their life style proves more adaptable to the rapid changing world of today-by escaping to a simpler, and perhaps gentler past.

Globalization, in its neo-liberal form has had profound consequences on modern society. Capitalism, has always depended on the commodification of labor, but nevertheless, in face of the shallow meaningless of self interested profit, it produced certain cultural formations in which communities nevertheless found realms of meaning. These have included religion, nationalism and consumerism/popular culture. But capitalism in it current global form, produces surplus populations who find little wealth, power or meaning. A growing number of people elect to create spaces within the society where they might withdraw and create alternative identity granting communities of meaning. The most interesting of these movements have been the various marginal cultures that stand at the liminal edges of society and may often repudiate dominant cultural norms and life styles and articulate cultures of inversion. One of the more interesting of these is the "modern primitive movement" who would embrace the body practices of pre-modern or primitive peoples. More specifically, there has been growing movement of people to decorate their bodies through various tattoos, piercings and even more extreme forms of body modification that might include various genital piercings and modifications. By transforming their bodies into works of art in an information age, people can find agency in the production of an auratic self that clearly repudiates the dominant, repressive life styles and values. Notwithstanding their cultural resistance, their withdrawal from the social order serves to sustain structures of domination.

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