Oh, memory...

The idea of a history, and of memory is something I find to be very interesting with humans.  Although, with all things, it has to do with the general human obsession with classifying things that are life, and things that are death.  Because, at some point, all people seem to grasp the inevitability of their own passing, they create a wild fantastical story about the past in order to pre-preserve themselves.  We call this 'history.'

Body Manipulations

It's interesting, to say the least, to see the kinds of different things different cultures do to their bodies.

Sure, the above image looks pretty grotesque--and in some ways, yes, it is rather misogynistic, as it only is required of women to partake in the lip plate practice--but let's look at some western interpretations of body manipulations, shall we?

First off, we have plastic surgery, which is altering the form of human itself.  Generally permanent, and dripping with self-loathing (it's a completely personal, individual choice, with zero cultural symbolism at all) plastic surgery, which is generally practiced by women, can also be seen as barbaric and misogynistic.

Decorative corneal implants are another practice also generally practiced by women that kind makes me sick to my stomach.  This is one of those Western ways of showing off wealth that you just have to ask yourself "Who the FUCK came up with this?"

I put up this photo (which I think is fairly clear) as opposed to putting up a rather graphic one of something called 'genital pearling' which is generally a male practice.  The actual photo is available HERE but you should really only look at if you...don't want to vomit.  The practice apparently came from the Yazuka Crime Organization in Japan, and is meant to symbolize the number of years a person has spent in prison.

This brings me to my next point on this matter: why do westerners, particularly Americans, performing these types of extreme modification?  Interestingly (albeit, rather unsurprisingly if you've ever studied culture) the rationales have to be separated by sex, before ultimately coming to the same goal.

For women, body modification all about conforming to the standard of beauty for the time, usually defined by men; for men, body modification is meant to replicate battle scarring, essentially showing how strong a man is in relation to other men.  Essentially, it's all about showing yourself as an ideal mate.

God, sex is weird.

S-Curve

I was at the Kellen Archives recently, attending a presentation on using the archives for research papers, design inspirations, etc.  We were broken up into groups to survey various collections of images, one of which was a collection of photographs from the 'S-Curve' corset era.

What a bunch of fucked up shit that was.

We spontaneously started somewhat of a discussion on female oppression when we reconvened, and all I could think of was the discussion we'd had in digital before, about the 'barbaric' lip discs.  I just can't believe that the culture that came up with this corset could have ever found itself to be more 'civilized' than a culture that required less clothing due to their climate and protective darker pigment.

Theophane Ruth Burke Woodruff

Compiled by Scott Woodruff