The Perfect Body
Filed Under (Uncategorized) by Estee on 05-07-2009
I thought many of you would be interested in this upcoming conference in Europe: The Perfect Body: Between Normativity and Consumerism. Here are the details and click here for the website: http://www.esf.org/index.php?id=5256
ESF-LiU Conference
THE PERFECT BODY: BETWEEN NORMATIVITY AND CONSUMERISM
Chaired by:
Dr. Katrin Grueber
IMEW (Institut Mensch, Ethik und Wissenschaft)
Berlin
Germany
Dr. Ursula Naue
Life Science Governance Research Platform
University of Vienna
Faculty of Social Sciences
Department of Political Science
Vienna
Austria
9-13 October 2009
The conference will be held at Scandic Linköping Väst, Sweden – 7km from Linköping airport and 4km from the train station. Most notably, the Swedish chain Scandic Hotel´s commitment to sustainability won the Green Meetings Award in 2008. It is located in Linköping which is the capital of Östergötland county, situated in the center of a vast open farmland. It is Sweden’s fifth largest city with more than 136,000 inhabitants and has a long history as a city of learning.
Preliminary Programme
Enhancement as the improvement of desired characteristics (W. French Anderson) means to focus on abilities, capacities and quality of life. These categories can be viewed and defined from different value-driven perspectives which are based upon certain viewpoints on what constitutes “normality.” Furthermore they are framed by the concept of autonomy. The general approach towards the issue of enhancement can be understood in the context of consumerism – the “production” of enhanced persons as an act of individual freedom and choice. But another approach, which will be the main focus of the conference, is based upon the fact that perspectives of disabled persons on enhancement have been neglected so far. This is important as enhancement technologies can have different societal and political implications for disabled and non-disabled persons. The discussion about enhancement focuses on therapy of something in need of treatment. But with regard to disability, this debate about enhancement in contrast to therapy and treatment has to be re-thought and re-contextualised.
Hence, the conference takes as its starting point the view that it is socio-politically as well as ethically necessary and important to look at enhancement technologies from a “disability-perspective.” In the context of historic developments and the intersection of medicine and economy, enhancement technologies will be discussed from several different scientific perspectives. The conference is organised as an interdisciplinary dialogue and aims to provide an open forum for discussion and networking. This approach towards enhancement technologies is necessary, as the field of enhancement is an increasingly important area of intervention into life and the body. The conference will be the first international meeting to bring together Disability Studies, Science, Technology and Society Studies and Ethics.
The following are some of the questions that will be discussed:
* To what extent and in what way does consumerism influence the current debate about enhancement technologies?
* Which problems arise from this understanding of enhancement technologies for disabled and non-disabled persons and consumers of these technologies?
* What are the consequences of enhancement technologies for disabled persons?
* Is the “upgrade” an upgrade from old established norms or is a “new normal body” created?
* Who is excluded by both starting points of enhancing the human being?
* Do enhancement technologies carry a risk of excluding certain groups within society, such as disabled persons?
* How can consumerism be embedded in an ethical framework?
* What role does normativity play?
* What new possible forms of exclusion and inequality on several levels might occur as a result of using enhancement technologies? Questions such as these make it quite clear that the conference is a necessary and important way of approaching enhancement technologies that already have implications for both human beings and for society.
ESTÉE KLAR
TORONTO, ONTARIO, CANADA
Writer/Curator/Founder of The Autism Acceptance Project. Lecturer on autism & the media, and parenting. Graduate student Critical Disability Studies, York University. I like to write about our journey, musings, attitudes towards autism.
This is indeed interesting, but I find it somewhat wanting in a couple of respects.
1) In looking at the schedule, it seems only one small part will be devoted to genetics and enhancement. I feel that, going forward, genetics is the new untapped frontier where the most harm in this area will occur.
2) Although it’s laudable that anyone is talking about this, until such subjects are covered as part of plastic surgery and genetic research conferences, people will just continue to press blindly forward with whatever the public will pay for.
Joe
I couldn’t agree more, Joe. Aimee Mullins has often talked about this (plastic surgery). There’s a great article on design and disability in UTNE this month. She writes, “People would come up after my talk, and the conversation would go something like this: ‘You know Aimee, you’re very attractive. You don’t look disabled.’ I thought, ‘Well, that amazing, because I don’t feel disabled.’ It opened my eyes to this conversation that could be explored about beauty. What does a beautiful woman have to look like? What is a sexy body? And interestingly, from an identity standpoint, what does it mean to have a disability? I mean, Pamela Anderson has more prosthetic in her body than I do. Nobody calls her disabled.”
She mentions that this is no longer a conversation about overcoming deficiency but about augmentation and potential. With regards to prosthetics, she argues that they can stand as symbols that wearers have to create their own identities — “So people society once considered disabled can now become architects of their own identities.”
I think that’s what this is all about. Becoming architects of our own identities. So often, as a woman I can speak to this, we are pressured to accept the status quo — what we should look like and behave as women in order to be accepted. I see it no differently than for autistic people as well. It is why self-advocacy remains so important, why writing is important, why science conducted by autistic researchers remains important. No one should impose that architecture upon us because it just won’t do. We must create it for ourselves.