Grace and Body

People always want to express themselves to show their personalities, likes, and dislikes. Some people paint on canvases. Some people write poetry or short stories. Some people design their own clothes. And then there are some people who choose the option of piercing, tattoos, and modifying their bodies to represent themselves. Many people have a negative mindset towards body modification and the people who have the different modifications done to them. There are certain body modifications that have traditional tribal  roots, like scarification and earlobe stretching, that are now seen in current culture and can be seen on streets (Hussein). So if these body modifications are acceptable in a traditional tribal sense, why is there a problem in the current culture of the 21st century?

The problem stems from the opinions like Dr. Anthony Youn, a CNN contributor, who posses a negative opinion of body modification. Youn references how “Tattoos are just the tip of the iceberg for people interested in body modification,” and discusses the inappropriate name calling of other people with negative opinions (Youn). He says body modification is “referred to as "body mutilation" by detractors” (Youn). Where Youn may have a point in saying tattoos is the beginning for many people with body modifications, he encourages “detractors” by validating their misconception that body modification is the same as mutilation. Mutilation is a violent thing that some people may even perform on themselves because of depression and not having any to turn to in their life.

Body modification is a celebration of a persons body and a way to decorate your body with dermal, piercings, tattoos, and split tongues. Body modification is a form of empowerment for people. Dave Strohecker highlights Margot Mifflin’s Bodies of Subversion: A Secret History of Women and Tattoo (1997)  as an example of someone that, “argues that women’s role in the tattooing coincides directly with the three waves of feminism” (Strohecker). Are people typically empowered by mutilation? No, not typically.

Within Strohecker’s write-up about body modification he also talks about how body modification is occasionally used to cope with stress amount the disenfranchised. He pulls from Victoria Pitts, who in 2003 “has also argued that body modification serves as a means of stress management for the disenfranchised,” and with in her interviews “with members of the LGBT community, working class tattoo enthusiasts, female tattoo collectors, and “modern primitives” reveal that each of these groups uses body modification as a means of coping with stress resulting from various forms of oppression” (Strohecker). So instead of coping with stress via mutilation, disenfranchised and oppressed people are using body modification as a form of relief without hurting themselves over and over with no results.

Now with the information that people use body modification as a form of stress relief, these “detractors” will say that people who have modifications done to their bodies are mentally ill in some way or have had a rough up bringing. Youn discusses the body modification subject of Dennis Avner, who has spent years trying to appear as a cat. He quotes that, “Some have speculated that Avner may have suffered from body dysmorphic disorder, a psychiatric condition involving a person's self-image. It has a very high rate of suicidal ideation” (Youn). And that may be true about Ayner; However, not every person who gets modification has to have a psychiatric disorder or hate their lives. There are some people like Grace Neutral who feels more comfortable expressing herself through tattoos, scarification, and other body modifications.

Works Cited:

Strohecker, Dave Paul. “Body Modification, Gender, And Self-Empowerment - Cyborgology”. Thesocietypages.org. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

Hussein, Haisam. “A Breakdown Of Extreme Body Modification | VICE | United States”. VICE. N.p., 2016. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

This infographic shows some of the many different body mods available to the body modification community.

Grace Neutral is a social media sensation who has become popular for her lilac-eyed, split-tongued beauty that resembles an alien princess and her alternative definition of beauty. She has 457K followers on Instagram and a large following on Tumblr, the only two social media platforms she uses to interact with her community. She currently lives in East London as a hand poke tattoo artist. Neutral says that her tattooing is her “bread and butter” and would go crazy without doing for a couple of days. Her body modification journey began with splitting her tongue at age 21.

In an interview with Chemmie Squier for The Debrief, Neutral explains that she had her tongue split due to love of Marilyn Manson and mistaking the fact that he himself had his tongue split. She explains “I was so excited that I wasn’t even really thinking about the reality of what was going to happen” (Squier). In another interview with Tish Weinstock of i-D, Neutral also expressed this feeling of excitement that prevented her form thinking of the pain and whether or not celebrity rumors are true. Neutral told Weinstock that she “just wanted to start this exciting journey of altering my body. I [Neutral] was too elated by the outcome to even think about how much pain would be involved” (Weinstock). It is possible that Neutral’s excitement could have came from being able to express herself in a new way, but some might argue that her excitement is dangerous because it prevents her from thinking things all the way through.

However, a year earlier Neutral expressed a positive attitude about splitting her tongue and not showing any regret about the modification in an interview with Francesca Dun For i-D. In the interview Neutral said, “I got my tongue split because I wanted to and I liked the way it looked. It was amazing. Getting it done it was my first big body modification so I was running on excitement. After the cut, my tongue felt free!” (Dun). Regardless of excitement, Neutral seems to be happy with all of her extreme body modifications. She has regretted some of her tattoos from her younger years, but Neutral does not regret pointing her ears, removing her belly button, tattooing her eyes lilac, or her scarification.

In addition for Neutral’s popularity to orbit around her look from her body modifications, her unique opinion on beauty has garnered her attention for people around the world. In her 2015 interview with Weinstock, Neutral defined beauty as “To feel completely comfortable in your own skin, and love yourself from the inside out. Most importantly to not give a shit what anyone else thinks because when it comes to you -- you're the most important and only your opinion matters” (Weinstock). It is very interesting to see someone define beauty as feeling for yourself and not an opinion form someone else. I suppose that’s what draws people to Neutral. With Grace Neutral’s different definition of beauty and participation in the body modification community, she has become a voice and advocate for alternative beauty. As I said in my discussion of body modification before, there are people who believe that the main reason people get modifications done to their bodies is because of some type of  psychiatric disorder. There is no proof saying that every person who gets body modification done do it in order to satisfy a need presented by a psychiatric disorder. Neutral try to destroy this stereotype by creating her own definition of beauty that allows for normalization of the body modification community. She has also been questioned about her opinion about these stereotypes in interviews.

In another interview from 2015 for The Debrief, Chemmie Squier asks Neutral for opinion about the stereotype that people with tattoos and body modifications are insecure with themselves. Neutral responded by saying that, “I think that’s because body modification and the whole look of it has been underground for so long that a lot of people just assume something really bad has happened to them in their past or they must be really mentally unstable and that’s not the case” (Squier). The key issue that Neutral points out is the fact that the body modification scene is still very underground. She elaborates that, “It’s just that we find these things more beautiful and we live in a world where we are told what is beautiful and nothing else can be,”  as a possible reason as to why the body modification scene is so underground at the moment (Squier).

Squier also queried Neutral about any advice she can give to this almost hidden community of unique beauties so that they can be safe. Neutral said for people to educate themselves and to research body modification artists. She likens the research to researching for a good plastic surgeon for when a woman may want to have her boobs done. Neutral clarifies that, “Body modification is so underground and it’s such a grey area when it comes to legality and stuff, you really have to be careful. Nobody wants to be cut up by a butcher, you want a surgeon!” (Squier). This advice is something a lot of young body modification interested people need to hear so they are not taken advantage of or get ill due to an infection. Now all of this advocacy is good coming form Neutral, but will it change larger society to accept body modification as part of the traditional definition of beauty?

Works Cited:

Dun, Francesca. “ Grace Neutral’S Beauty Is Out Of This World | Read | I-D”. i-D. N.p., 2014. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

Weinstock, Tish. “ Grace Neutral Was Born To Be Different | Read | I-D”. i-D. N.p., 2015. Web. 26 Oct. 2016.

Squier, Chemmie. “We Chatted With Grace Neutral About Her Clothing Collection, Tattoos And Body Modification”. The Debrief. N.p., 2015. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.

“WARNING: This film is not for the weakhearted. It takes a tame sketch of a nude woman and cuts, tweaks and snips at it until it resembles a zombie-like figure. The plastic gloves, scalpel and precise trimming of body hair only up the ante of this strange and captivating commentary on the impossibility of female body expectations” (Brooks).

Work Cited:

A U.K.-based online doctor service asked photoshop experts to edit the phot to their countries beauty standard. This is three of the results.

I have included the video “Supervenus” made by the animator Frederic Doazan. Katherine Brooks of the Huffington Post describes the video as managing to “capture all the horror and grotesque idolatry wrapped up in Western beauty standards... in just under two and a half minutes” (Brooks). Her article was written in 2014 seven months after the short film was shown at festivals starting in February. This video illustrates the Western beauty standards as being an hour glass frame, large breasts, thin thighs and arms, blue eyes, no gray hair, and tall in stature. I needed to pull the ideas of Western beauty standards from this video because it is almost impossible to get a straight answer from Google, whether it be a general search or on their Google Scholar, about the definition of Western beauty standards.

I was also able to find an article from Buzzfeed featuring the venture of U.K. based online doctor service. They had taken a picture of a young woman of an average, healthy size and sent the photo to photoshop experts in 18 different countries. The adjusted photograph from America shows very similar results to the standards based on my observations from Doazan’s short film. This classic idea of Western beauty does not seem to have changed over the years, but there people challenging and investigating different beauty standards.

Grace Neutral has worked with i-D to investigate the beauty standards in Korea and Brazil. While in those countries, Neutral interviews people following those beauty standards and those who challenge those beauty standards for videos that are now posted on i-D’s YouTube channel. Neutral will also immerses herself into he beauty cultures of each country, even though she does not even fit in with Korea’s or Brazil’s beauty standards.

Beauty standards seem to all be derived off of the Western ideal based off of Neutral’s and i-D’s findings. It seems interesting that the beauty standards from around the world may be based on the standard of a country with people that look nothing like the locals. There are people that challenge the beauty standards, abroad and here in America, but this Western beauty standard has been around for years influencing generations. There is hope when people who look like Grace Neutral and redefine beauty like her become popular due to social media. Neutral is not the only person who looks different and has a large presence in media. Kat Von D from LA Ink is still a popular person in media and has had tattoos all over since she caught the attention of the public eye. Von D even has her own make-up line, creating her own definition of beauty for people to apply to their faces everyday.

Will Beauty standards change? Only time will tell.

Works Cited:

Brooks, Katherine. “Everything Wrong With Western Beauty Standards, In One Horrifying Animation (NSFW)”. The Huffington Post. N.p., 2014. Web. 28 Oct. 2016.