ABSTRACT
This chapter raises the question of how social conditions translate into individual types of affirmation, lifestyle patterns and body practices and at the same time develop and change over the course of life. In addition to that it must be investigated how the biographical experiences appear susceptible to cultural and institutional discourses as well as flexibilising and (body-)optimising practices. Considering the widespread body-modifying and body-optimising practices in accelerated modernity we wanted to elaborate that individuals do not orientate their lifestyle towards social demands unmediated. Instead, one finds a complex transformative process making individuals predetermined by their biographic and psychic structures open for body-focused optimisation practices. In the end, to own an optimised functioning body and a perfect appearance that meets cultural standards of fitness and youthfulness also promises recognition, in a professional as well as in a romantic perspective. In sociology as well as in cultural studies a proliferation of the body is put forward.
