ABSTRACT
Genomics offers us numerous subtle opportunities to fashion flesh. There is nothing new in wishing to repair, reshape or enhance parts of our bodies. ‘Flesh’, cutaneous, carnal, and now molecular and nano, was our first and continues to be our most intimate, yet social canvas. We fashion flesh not only so as to change our identity, but so as to belong. Flesh has become not only a material that can be fashioned, but one of fashion. Bodies are now dressed by and with modern technologies, as with clothes; where ‘fashion sets the terms of all sartorial behaviour’ (Wilson 1985: 3). Bespoke items have always been the height of fashion, whereas mass consumption has become the goal of fashion, even for flesh. But what do fashion and genomics have in common? Fashion, as an act
of manipulation and creativity, is what occurs with genetic material. But fashion, as a descriptive noun suggesting a trend that appeals and is usually transient, is not so obviously part of genomic progress. Yet ‘fashion’ as verb and noun are difficult to separate; together they form a conundrum and a paradox, as both exploit potential, often as novelty, in order to fit and to appeal – pragmatically and aesthetically, materially and socially. Fashion, in its exploitation of potential, is in effect part of the politics of progressive technologies. We may initially think fashioning flesh is all about cosmetic surgery, but if we look a little deeper we can find the influence of fashion throughout medicine. Genomics is offered up repeatedly as having the potential to revolutionise many medical practices; what must be considered is what fashionable influences will pervade such revolutions; what might we find hidden in the material and social potential we seek to exploit?
