ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of key concepts discussed in the subsequence chapters of this book. The book intends as an introduction to the popular area of scholarship now known as Body Studies. It develops the issues already raised by considering issues of conformity and resistance. The book considers the multibillion pound business of the beauty industry. The iconography of the flapper enters into Western culture. The ‘Cartesian Dualism’ argues that there has always been a distinction maintained between the head/mind and the body. The book explores how the body may be modified through practices such as tattooing, scarification, piercing or bodybuilding. It explains that body as an essentialist attribute but in terms of socio-cultural constructionism. The book considers debates around cyborgs which are increasingly relevant for Body Studies as the interface between human and machine becomes intensified.
