Jessica decided on an unusual act: after consulting with doctors, she chose to amputate her leg in order to wear a more advanced prosthesis that bends at the knee.
Jessica was born with a shortened hip and from childhood she could only walk with an orthopedic prosthesis, which, however, did not allow bending the knee. She limped badly, but was convinced that her diagnosis “far from precludes an active social or romantic life.” Realizing that for her “the main problem is not a shortened hip, but self-perception,” Jessica decided on an unusual act: after consulting with doctors, she chose to amputate her leg in order to wear a more advanced prosthesis that bends at the knee. The list of arguments “for” was as follows: natural gait; the ability to wear feminine clothes, tight dresses and trousers; freedom of movement below the knee; the ability to walk long distances, on slopes and sands, without getting tired and without pain.
Paradoxical at first glance, the decision has borne fruit. As a result of the operation, Jessica managed to achieve everything she hoped for. Her story demonstrates that self-awareness and rational treatment choices can completely reshape our body’s history. In the perception of the body, the moment of internal pragmatics triumphs more and more often, defeating the external, conditional canons of beauty. A person goes to another level – a more complex one, where, for example, a prosthesis is organically built into the boundaries of his body, and the body itself begins to function as a new synthesis of biological and mechanical elements, a cyborg (short for “cybernetic organism” *).
Cambridge astronomer Stephen Hawking communicates with the world using a computer that synthesizes human speech. South African runner Oscar Pistorius competes with ordinary athletes, running on prosthetic legs – special “blade” feet. American Aimee Mullins, who also had both legs below the knee amputated as a child due to a congenital absence of the fibula, was also a successful athlete. In 1999, she was invited as a model by designer Alexander McQueen, and she paraded on prostheses with high-heeled boots carved from ash. Named one of the 50 most beautiful people in the world by People magazine, Aimee says that with 12 pairs of prosthetics that change her height and image, she feels like “the architect of her body.”
Conclusion? The outdated concepts of “defect” or “physical defect” cease to be a sentence. The body absorbs new technological additions necessary for successful functioning. A special model of corporality is actualized, in which the boundaries of the body are mobile. These are not clear contours, but rather a series of shells – bodily horizons, bodyscapes, which are marked through a series of objects. Such items of “clothes-equipment”** include prostheses, glasses, wigs, mobile phones, cameras, miniature laptops, keychains, credit cards, makeup, medicines, jewelry … All of them actively interact with our body, practically grow together with it and simultaneously function as magical amulets: remember the feeling of sudden panic when your phone, car or computer breaks down.
Among the latest developments of scientists in this direction are neuroimplants that take on the functions of individual parts of the brain, and a prosthesis that replaces the damaged vestibular apparatus; next in line is the prevention of diseases with the help of nanotechnology, the creation of artificial intelligence. We become cyborgs without realizing it, but those who do it consciously have a better chance of success in the society of the future.
* The term was coined by the Americans Manfred Klines and Nathan Kline; in 1960, their article “Cyborgs and Outer Space” was published in the Astronautics magazine.
** E. Farren, E. Hutchison “The body, cyborgs and new technologies.” Fashion Theory, 2009, No. 11.