Week 2 Discussion: Subverting Norms of Beauty & Identity – Discussion Group A

You are not your face or your body, yet you identify with both. This is reasonable, as your identitya sort of web that connects you to othersis built upon the reactions of others, and those reactions are informed by social interpretations of your face and body, which are presumed to reflect your self. We all know this: our appearances give other people messages about who we are. But we are not passive or inert; rather, human beings actively decide how to use their appearances, as displayed in faces and bodies, to interpret their selves and uniquely exhibit their identities.

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This weeks discussion has 6 parts:

1. Using this week’s reading from Newman, along with the video lecture, explain the difference between self and identity. (1/4 point)

• Newman, D. M. (2019). . Sociology: Exploring the Architecture of Everyday Life (Brief Edition/6th Edition) (63-78). Thousand Oaks, CA: SAGE Publishers.

2. According to LeBreton, how does a facial transplant impact identity? (3/4 point)

Le Breton, D. (2014). . Body & Society Vol. 21(4): 3-23.

• Deeply engage the reading, with quotations and proper references.
• As you answer this question, think back to the definition of identity you stated in part 1, and stick to it in your answer to part 2.

3. According to Negrin and the research upon which she draws, what is the complex relationship between cosmetic surgery and identity? (3/4 point)

Negrin, L. (2002). . Body & Society Vol. 8(4): 21-42.

• Do women use cosmetic surgery solely to match mainstream standards of beauty, or do they more actively negotiate beauty norms and associated ideologies?
• Deeply engage the reading, with quotations and proper references.
• As you answer this question, think back to the definition of identity you stated in part 1, and stick to it in your answer to part 3.

4. How does body artist Orlan’s use cosmetic surgery to address idealized female beauty? (1/2 point)

• What statement does Orlan’s work–especially her 1990 project, The Ultimate Masterpiece: The Reincarnation of Saint Orlan–make about identity? The short video in our materials which documents Orlan’s plastic surgery is a part of this project. You might also find it useful to read the brief summary of this project in her .
• Again, deeply engage our course materials in your response here, with quotations and proper references.

5. What is an interesting question, either on this topic, or linking this topic with another in our class, to guide discussion in this week’s forum? (1/4 point)

Your initial post should be at least 300 words long.

6. After finishing with your own post, also post a comment on at least two of the posts of your classmates. You might want to respond to the question they posted at the end of their post. You are welcome to post even more than 2 comments! Thoughtful, positive, questioning, and educational comments, which help to develop the group conversation, can both help others engage the subject more deeply AND improve your own grade! (1/4 point for each comment=total 1/2 point)

Make sure you’ve properly cited, including page numbers, paragraph numbers, and/or time stamps for all in-text citations.

I also wanted to add that in the discussion 1 that you did for me, the work cited was wrong and I lost a point because of this. Here is the comments I got back: “there is clear engagement with this week’s concepts, but remember the class’s citation rules. you need page numbers/time stamps/paragraph numbers for every idea or specific detail that you draw, not just direct citations (#3; several instances referring to the text without p. number (“argument of Lorber”, “the introduction”). otherwise, no credit is given for that question”

I will insert an example of a sample post for citations down below.