Mutilation Autonomy

David Cronenberg says, "The body is reality".

Anthony Loffredo, also known as The Black Alien Project, has made headlines in recent years for extreme body modifications such as ear, nose and finger removal. Lofreddo has taken The Black Alien Project to such extremes that his right to do so has been questioned, with critics saying he is "mutilating" himself. Loffredo says, "This type of change, it’s not just a tattoo, it’s something bigger.”

If mutilation refers to alterations that render something inferior, ugly, dysfunctional, or imperfect, then who decides what is inferior, ugly, dysfunctional or imperfect?

Anthony Loffredo's finger removal surgery. Photo via Instagram, @the_black_alien_project.

In the 1990's, the body modification movement gained immense traction. Participants saw their bodies as a canvas for exploration, but also something that needed to be reclaimed from the dominant culture. In The Cultural Politics of Body Modification, author Victoria Pitts says, "Instead of an object of social control by patriarchy, medicine, or religion, the body should be seen, they argued, as a space for exploring identity, experiencing pleasure, and establishing bonds to others. A "deviantly" altered body was, as it had been in the past, also framed as a way to express social disaffection and rebellion and to establish one’s membership in an alternative community, as well as a way to establish one’s own individual, unique identity."

Body modification holds a special place within the queer community. Also from The Cultural Politics of Body Modification, "...Gay men and leatherdykes have eroticized practices like scarring and branding and used them to reject the assimilationism of the more mainstream gay rights movement, to mark themselves as "queer among queers...". The body is also seen as a place for queer self-realization. Piercer Lynn Loheide shares a testimonial from their client, Happy, a transfemme person who received a PA genital piercing: "I needed a ceremony. A coming of age, a right of passage that I never got. In the absence of elders to construct such an ordeal I took it upon myself. I endeavored to create an experience that would impact me such that I’d never be the same. That from then on I would be a new person. Not better, not wiser or more enlightened. But simply able to take the temple that is my body for what it is."

Still from Bloodsisters: Leather, Dykes and Sadomasochism dir. Michelle Handelman.

When critiques of body autonomy start, there are consequences for trans people, indigenous peoples, women, and people living with disabilities specifically. Arguments about the "sanctity of life", "respectability" and "undue risk" are used to fuel arguments against gender affirming care, Indigenous cultural practices, abortion and medically assisted death, for example.

War has been waged against trans people by limiting, and in some cases, fully removing access to gender affirming care. Trans bodies represent a dangerous possibility to the powers that be, a possibility outside of our world structured around gender binary. From Leslie Feinberg in Stone Butch Blues: "I wouldn’t have survived much longer without passing. And the surgery was a gift to myself, a coming home to my body. But I wanted more than to just barely exist, a stranger always trying not to get involved. I wanted to find out who I was, to define myself. Whoever I was, I wanted to deal with it, I wanted to live it again. I wanted to be able to explain my life, how the world looked from behind my eyes."

In Canada, Inuk peoples were once banned from practicing their cultural tradition, kakiniit, which are permanent skin markings. Jana Angulalik, author of "Reclaiming agency: Reviving the once banned practice of traditional Inuit tattoos in Canada", says of her kakiniit, "These markings are sacred to me and have deep, beautiful meanings and stories behind them. I wear them for many reasons, including to proudly identify as an Inuk woman and to reclaim agency over my body as an Indigenous person." Māori peoples in New Zealand have also experienced colonial bans to their practice of tā moko, which are similar permanent markings signifying cultural identity. Though these outright bans have been lifted, cultural autonomy without discrimination is still not a reality. As recently as 2019, a Whangārei man was denied a job with Air New Zealand because he carries tā moko.

Pihoak Bessie Omilgoetok of Cambridge Bay cleans the blubber from a seal pelt with her ulu. Photo by Kaitlyn Van De Woestyne.

In Clementine Ford's book, Fight Like a Girl, she says, "It shouldn't be considered a 'privilege' to be able to control our own bodies nor should it be treated like a favour done to us by the state. It's a right that, by and large, has been stolen from us and used to keep us in thrall to a paternalistic body that pretends to know what's best for us but is really only interested in maintaining the order that has proved best for them." In the context of body modification, it is important to recognize the gendered ways in which women's autonomy is perceived. Modification of women's bodies is more likely to be seen as self-harm, for women to be perceived as victims of their own choices. There is much invested in the "production of the socially trained, docile body...", philosopher Susan Bordo describes. In the case of abortion, writer Alice Minium says, "You’re mad that I’m expressing autonomy of choice. You’re mad that I’m considering other options. You’re mad that I don’t view [child-bearing] as my ultimate potential. You’re mad that I dare be selfish enough to make choices based on my best interest, something women are not supposed to do.”

In 2023, artist Jeanette Lodoen exercised her right to medical assistance in dying. Unlike the other 10,000-or-so cases of MAID that year, she invited CBC News to witness the whole thing. Jeanette believed that if lawmakers were to regulate this choice, they should see what the process is like from start to finish. Jeanette spoke about living a good life, as well as the right to seek a good death. After the experience, one of her family members said, "It left all of us with a better understanding of what it is to die, to have agency and take control. It was a good death." In discussing medical assistance in dying, it is important for me to acknowledge that currently in Canada, MAID is offered to people living in poverty and with disabilities who are without help from the government. Autonomy is a state free of undue influences, such as poverty.

Jeanette Lodoen's self-portrait. Photo by Don Somers for CBC.

Foucault's concept of Biopower is relevant here. He theorizes, in summary, that populations are controlled en mass when they are controlled at a personal, bodily level. This involves surveillance, lack of access to health care, confinement and eugenics, for example. Biopower is a way for institutions to fulfil industrial needs. The body is seen as capital, as a cog in the state machine.

I believe that each person's right to bodily autonomy is of utmost importance, especially in times when freedoms are under constant attack by the white christian right and capitalism. I believe that ideas about body regulation/ preserving the ideal body are directly correlated to fascist ideas about purity and obedience. Every person should have the right to tear their politicized limbs away from dominant culture. The body is reality!

If you would like more about bodily autonomy, modification and mutilation:

Art

Diana-Sofia Estrada, Cannibalism #1 and Exceptionalism #2 (2021)

Artists

Raelyn Gallina

Orlan

Stelarc

Film

Stigmata: The Transfigured Body dir. Leslie Asako Gladsjo (1991)

Crimes of the Future dir. David Cronenberg (2022)

Every Body dir. Julie Cohen (2023)

Initiatives

Inuit Tattoo Revitalization Project

Writing

Bodies of Inscription: A Cultural History of the Modern Tattoo Community by Margo Demello (2000)

My Body Is My Own: Claiming the Right to Autonomy and Self-Determination by UNFPA (2021)