Effacing the Face: Botox and the Anarchivic Archive

Cooke, Grayson

doi:10.1177/1357034x08090696

Cited by 9 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 2 publications

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“…Akin to life's transience, however, these products and technologies, such as Botox®, are ephemeral. If they are not continually consumed, time will eventually "rewrite" itself on the body (Cooke 2008). People also reflexively modify the body following life events and temporally defined turning points, typically through make-up, hair, and fashion makeovers; weight loss/muscle building; cosmetic surgery (Kinnunen 2010;Schouten 1991); tattooing (Oksanen and Turtiainen 2005;Velliquette, Murray, and Evers 2006); and less often in the West scarification and branding (Pitts 1998).…”

Section: Materialising Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ma(r)king memories: exploring embodied processes of remembering and forgetting temporal experiences

Steadman

Banister

Medway

2018

Consumption Markets & Culture

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Based on in-depth interviews with nine tattoo consumers, participant observation at a tattoo studio, a tattoo consumption diary, and photography, we investigate embodied processes of remembering and forgetting temporal experiences. We unpick participants' experiences of combatting the fragility of memory, negotiating which temporal experiences to remember or forget, and constructing temporal order through their tattooed bodies. These insights are enriched theoretically with reference to Ricoeur's ideas concerning time, narrative, and memory. By focusing upon the embodied dimensions of memory work, we contribute fresh insights into the underexplored relations between bodies, time, and consumer culture. Furthermore, we indicate the continuing significance of temporal continuity, durability, and the past in accelerating Western cultures. Finally, we elucidate the importance of also attending to "absences" in consumer research. We conclude by considering the wider implications of our findings for better understanding an accelerating, liquid, and unstable consumer culture, beyond the context of tattooing.

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Section: Materialising Memoriesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Ma(r)king memories: exploring embodied processes of remembering and forgetting temporal experiences

Steadman

Banister

Medway

2018

Consumption Markets & Culture

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“…There is also the danger of 'muscular recruitment', the appearance of secondary lines as the face attempts to use different muscular pathways to work around the paralysed muscles. New, inappropriate lines can therefore appear in unexpected places (Cooke, 2008).…”

Section: Notesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Body, Image and Affect in Consumer Culture

2010

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This article is concerned with the relationship between body, image and affect within consumer culture. Body image is generally understood as a mental image of the body as it appears to others. It is often assumed in consumer culture that people attend to their body image in an instrumental manner, as status and social acceptability depend on how a person looks. This view is based on popular physiognomic assumptions that the body, especially the face, is a reflection of the self: that a person’s inner character or personality will shine through the outer appearance. The modification and cosmetic enhancement of the body through a range of regimes and technologies can be used to construct a beautiful appearance and thereby a beautiful self. The article begins by examining body images in consumer culture and their relation to photography and moving images. This is followed by an examination of the consumer culture transformative process through a discussion of cosmetic surgery. The article then questions the over-simplistic logic that assumes that transformative techniques will automatically result in a more positive and acceptable body image. The new body and face may encourage people to look at the transformed person in a new way. But the moving body, the body without image, which communicates through proprioceptive senses and intensities of affect, can override the perception of the transformed appearance. A discussion of the affective body follows, via a closer examination of the body without image, the opening of the body to greater affect and indeterminacy. The affective body image and its potential greater visibility through new media technologies are then discussed through some examples taken from digital video art. The article concludes by examining some of the implications of these shifts within consumer culture and new media technologies.

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“…Prior to Berkowitz’s book, only a modest number of critical reflections on Botox emerged (Cook and Dwyer, 2009, 2017; Cooke, 2008; Lemma, 2010); however, most of these tended to deploy Botox as a metaphor for the fantasy of effacing time and experience and did not engage extensively with the subject of skin. Laura Hurd Clarke’s research on body work and ageing included interviews that explored older women’s attitudes towards non-surgical cosmetic procedures.…”

Section: Overview Of Cosmetic Minimally-invasive Procedures: Practicementioning

confidence: 99%

Collapsing the Surfaces of Skin and Photograph in Cosmetic Minimally-Invasive Procedures

Hurst

2018

Body & Society

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This article proposes that cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures – Botox injections, soft-tissue fillers, microdermabrasion, chemical peels and laser treatments – are an under-researched area and provide a number of promising paths for skin studies research. I argue that cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures collapse the difference between the surfaces of the photograph and the skin – the primary surfaces of cosmetic surgery – more successfully than cosmetic surgical procedures. More precisely, I maintain that the difference between photograph and skin is collapsed in two ways: first, through narrating the transformation of the skin’s surface in a way that more closely matches the photographic promises of the cosmetic surgery industry; and, second, by depicting the surgical penetration of the skin through advertising photography. The article concludes by suggesting that further investigation into cosmetic minimally-invasive procedures could offer a new way to think about relationships between ‘normative’ and ‘non-normative’ skin modification practices.

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Effacing the Face: Botox and the Anarchivic Archive

Cited by 9 publications

References 2 publications

Ma(r)king memories: exploring embodied processes of remembering and forgetting temporal experiences

Ma(r)king memories: exploring embodied processes of remembering and forgetting temporal experiences

Body, Image and Affect in Consumer Culture

Collapsing the Surfaces of Skin and Photograph in Cosmetic Minimally-Invasive Procedures

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