BY KRISTOPHER KARCHER
A few days ago, reader James Beach responded to my last article about DECOY by Keith Walker. I found it incredibly interesting and wanted to make a short post to respond to his comment.
THE QUESTION: What would you do if you were in the same situation as the married couple in DECOY? Would you give up your body and live in someone else's?
“Maybe...
much would depend on the particular circumstances. Popular movies have also
asked this question (minus the heavy sci-fi quotient): BEING JOHN MALKOVICH
offers 15-minute thrill-rides through the actor's body, while AVATAR provides
space-travelers the opportunity to live as an alien in another ecosphere.
As
far as my body goes, I've learned to live with my unique defects (a GQ model
I'm not!) but the opportunity to experience life inside the vessel of another
is appealing, if only for the novelty.
I
once had a waitress friend who would dress down (glasses, loose-fitting
clothes, no make-up) or dress up (violet contact lenses, push-up bra and
tube-top, "glamour shot" cosmetics) just to research what she already
knew... the big titties got her the tips. In a way, I suppose that was her way
to live inside a different body.
Plastic
surgery manipulates the flesh so that average-looking or ugly people can
experience life from the vantage point of a body that they fantasize is
attractive. (Usually they look fake or bizarre, however!) The old TWILIGHT ZONE
series pushed this concept to the limit in the 1960s with an episode wherein a
youth is forced to live inside a "model body" (a dozen model
bodies are displayed to choose from) and winds up loving the feeling after much
resistance under the argument of the freedom of the individual and the sake of
art.
Long
answer to a simple question, but then, what are we but molecules that are
constantly rearranging themselves? We can logically get new bodies every seven
years, if we can acquire the skill to master the molecule.”
While James makes many interesting points here, I wanted to focus on
one point I really didn’t even think to touch on, body image. To refresh your
brain, DECOY, a short play by Keith Walker in Series A of the Strawberry One-Act Festival at the Theatre at St. Clement's on August 23rd at 1pm, focuses
on a newly married couple, the groom of whom is sick. He is given an option to
try a second round of normal treatment, or try a newer technique where the mind
and everything who the man is on the inside is just transported into another
body. Completely forgetting about just being sick, if you could have a new
body—say look exactly like Zac Efron—would you?
I mean think of the possibilities here. You’d be hot, you’d be healthy,
you’d be more agile and strong, and you would be hot! No more being insecure
about love handles or the crook in your nose, you could custom design your body
like you could a car. Yes we have plastic surgery now, but with this new
technology your options would be limitless, and who doesn’t want to change
something about the way we look?
I will be the first to admit that there are things about me that I
would change, but I am a strong believer that I was given the body I’m in, and
I can mold it into what I want naturally, and the things I cannot naturally
change (other than piercings and tattoos), I’ve learned to love. For me, it is
just a part of the human experience. BUT- I’m not condemning anyone who has
“had work done.” Another part of being human is making your own choices.
Everyone’s body is their own. Do what you want!
To end this post, I will leave you with this. There are normal
civilians who have had crazy amounts of plastic surgery just to look like
celebrities. The three depicted in the video below have spent their life savings and
many months of recovery to look like Jennifer Lawrence, Justin Bieber, and
Madonna.
Sometimes plastic surgery
goes horribly, horribly wrong.
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