Body, Gender and Beauty: Modified Bodies Between Youth Culture Designs, Constructed Identity Models and Coping Strategies

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In the twenty-first century, the body has become a commodity and an asset, being at the mercy of social standardizations and economic interests (cf. Unterdorfer et al. 2009). Every day, humans (un)consciously modify and design their bodies. This indicates a worldwide phenomenon concerning (more or less) all humans. Since the postmodern era, an increasing tendency to design one’s visual appearance has been observed. There are (almost) no limits anymore for the body to become a performing object and scope of action (cf. Gugutzer 1998; Villa 2007). Cognitive processes dealing with constructions of identity/identities are becoming ever more subtle, because changed life situations are found in the globalized world. Due to major interventions of neo-capitalistic environments, existing identity models are becoming fragile, giving rise to the need to find alternative standardizations and new orientations. Social realities of young people are shaped by diversity and heterogeneity. Simultaneously they need to socialize to get around ideas of what is “normal” and what is not. These ambivalent re-quirements of customization and pluralization on the one hand and standardization on the other hand, create a big area of tension, especially for lesbians, gays, bisexuals, trans, inter and queer people.
Original languageEnglish
Title of host publicationYouth Cultures in a Globalized World: : Developments, Analyses and Perspectives
EditorsGerald Knapp, Hannes Krall
Number of pages14
Place of PublicationCham
PublisherSpringer Nature Switzerland AG
Publication date07.04.2021
Pages193-206
ISBN (print)978-3-030-65176-3, 978-3-030-65179-4
ISBN (electronic)978-3-030-65177-0
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 07.04.2021

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