Somatechnics and Makeover Reality TV: The Viewer and Participant in Somatechnic Symbiosis

“Somatechnics” is a newly coined term used to highlight the inextricability of soma and techne, of the body (as a culturally intelligible construct) and the techniques (dispositifs and ‘hard technologies’ ) in and through which bodies are formed and transformed. This term, then, supplants the logic of the ‘and’, indicating that technes are not something we add to or apply to the body, but rather, are the means in and through which bodies are constituted, positioned, and lived. (Somatechnics CFP, 2007)

The Somatechnics Project is an interdisciplinary, international network of scholars and researchers who work in the area of body modification. Nikki Sullivan, Director of the Somatechnics Research Centre at Macquarie University, has contributed to the development of a theory which, unlike many feminist theories of embodiment, does not operate from the assumption that bodies and technologies exist outside of, or separate from, one another. Rather, bodily-being “[…]is always already technologised, and technologies are always already enfleshed” (Sullivan para. 7). If applied to the varied practices that encompass elective cosmetic surgery, a theory of somatechnics effectively disengages with circular arguments feminists have had regarding body modification, which often rely on an idealized image of a pre-cultural body, and with the implicit belief that women are the ignorant victims of a manipulative patriarchy.

Using the theory of somatechnics, I intend to explore the practices of elective cosmetic surgery as they are reflected on North American Reality TV, in order to examine the symbiotic relationship between viewers and participants of programs such as The Swan (Fox), Extreme Makeover (ABC), I Want a Famous Face (MTV), Dr. 90210 (E!), and A Personal Story (TLC). Participants inscribe indicators of cultural capital including youthfulness, class status, and ‘healthfulness’ onto their bodies through cosmetic surgery procedures within a televised narrative emphasizing individuality and self-regulation. Media convergence creates a seamless transition from television set to the internet, such that viewers and participants foster a popular discourse of body modification in online in chat rooms, on websites and in weblogs. The resulting environment (what I refer to as ‘makeover culture’) is pervasive and ripe for critical study.

An interesting symbiosis emerges between the participants and viewers of makeover Reality TV: for the participant, the body-as-text is also the body-in-(televisual) text, creating a level of meta-performativity that runs parallel to the meta-somatechnic practices of the viewer, whose embodied engagement with/through media technology occurs for the purpose of witnessing cosmetic body modification in process. Here, viewer and participant simultaneously reflect somatechnics as the constituted, lived engagement of body/technology through different but related technological and embodied means. Concepts of power, normalization, conformity, and authenticity are complicated by this shift in theoretical analysis, and I intend to explore these angles more fully in my presentation.
References:

Somatechnics. “Somatechnics Conference 2007.” http://www.somatechnics.org/content/section/4/26/ (15 Aug 2007).
Sullivan, Nikki. “Somatechnics, or Monstrosity Unbound.” Scan: Journal of Media Arts Culture 3.3 http://scan.net.au/scan/journal/display.php?journal_id=83 (10 Aug 2007).