Cosmetic Sport?

Cosmetic Surgery and Sport, seemingly opposite in all every way, marketed towards different audiences, using different mediums, emphasizing different qualities, and yet comparison reveals there to be much in common between the two.

The first part of the 2x2 prescribed assignment is the identification of 2 poster projects (check) the next step is to connect them to 2 central themes of the class. Like previously stated cosmetic surgery and sport have more in common than what lies on the surface.

Let us begin with an examination of the Brave New World theme... what is the role of the government in deciding the lives we live? Hobbs vs Locke, in an unending battle to determine the extent of necessary government intervention. This concept is one addressed in every stage of the class, can the government (which for arguments sake lumped with the makers of the DSM, as we know they're related) declare apotomophelia to be a true disorder, worth of insurance coverage? Likewise, can the government decided that there are only 2 true genders? Or how about Pollan's battle with the FDA? Government regulation as a whole has been an integral and unavoidable part of the class discussion, therefore it is only natural that government regulation would appear in the poster projects as well. For cosmetic surgery the questions are centered around the WHO... who decides what is a necessity? what qualifies as sane-- in reference to patient's emotional state? etc. Contrastingly the for the use of performance enhancing drugs in sport it is a question of HOW. How much is too much? Where does the line for drug use lay? How can they combat this existing evil?

Although both industries engage varing specific question words of the central issue remains the same that is battled between John the Savage and Mustufa Mund what is extent to which government ought to regulate the literal bodies of its people?

Another similarity between cosmetic surgery and sport is the principle that ultimately the standard of excellence is decided by culture which also works to establish the science to legitimate this standard. Through the creation/invention of various procedures and drugs culture has driven people to strive for a specific standard of both beauty and athletic achievement. This correlates to the class for culture is alway enmeshed with science, forever people have studied what is culturally relevant, and when something is "discovered" that is not presently popular the cultural viewpoint shifts to incorporate the new advancement, as in the case with the invention of microbes as discussed in Latour. In constant circulating reference fashion, culture makes science and science makes culture.

Overall, although they appear to be in conflict, with emphasis on completely opposite values. Through examination, and perhaps the help of some strategic posters, one can see that there are central underlying parallels between cosmetic surgery and performance enhancing drug use.