ABSTRACT
The body has taken on a central role in many of the emergent debates about managing life risks in late modern society. Individuals are increasingly expected to take responsibility for the care of their health and to monitor the state of their body. ‘Health work’, consisting of a balanced diet, regular fitness activities, proper sleep and medical check-ups, is seen as crucial, if not essential, for good citizenship, particularly in societies under neoliberal rule that champion individual freedom against collective responsibilities and therefore propagate voluntary self-discipline rather than state interventions. The body itself is the primary means of communicating biological states of health and illness, or moral qualities of appropriate and inappropriate, both to the individual concerned and to other bodies. However, and this is of utmost importance for the following discussion, such messages are far from being matter-of-fact or value-neutral. The meaning and implications of body messages emanating, for example, from a straight back, accurately angled knees, a slack handshake, a courteous bow or the bulky frame of a yukata-clad sumo wrestler; the slim silhouette of a styled aesthetician; and the nimbus of bodies in uniform are deeply interwoven in a complex web of cultural and social relations. Fine arts, consumption habits, education, communal life and political economy are most noteworthy among the institutions through which the powers of society act upon the human body and its regulation.
