Eschatological Embodiment: How End Times Shape Ideal Bodies
Ysabel, Johnston BA, Graduate Assistant, Saint Louis University
This presentation will explore the eschatological dimension of body image. More precisely, I’m interested in how religious understandings of end times affect the lived experience of bodies in the here and now. In the same way that disability theology is sensitive to how eschatological views shape and are shaped by understandings of disabled embodiment, medical ethicists and practitioners should attune to the eschatological dimensions of other particular body schemas. This presentation will thus have three parts. First, I will discuss Gail Weiss’s work on both the production of, and healthy identification with, body schemas. Second, I will show how body schemas are tied to eschatological understandings. Eschatology offers a kind of boundary and direction for the formation of body schemas by offering hope of what the body might be, or will be. Third, I will explore a case of cosmetic surgery in order to understand how eschatological views might affect medical bodies.
In Body Images, Weiss effectively argues that a singular, fixed body image is harmful. For example, an anorexic person disassociates themselves from their body precisely because they have only one body image they identify with—a thin body. Rather, it’s healthier to have a fluid, imaginative multiplicity of body images in order to inhabit our changing bodies. Using Schilder and Merleau-Ponty, she argues these body images should be understood as schemas that contain both a visualization of the body and a concept of the possibilities open due to the body.
However, it’s unclear what these multiple images should be. A multiplicity of unachievable body images doesn’t seem to be healthier than one unachievable image. Therefore, it seems that some body images are preferable to others based on their coherence with reality. But, this “body in reality” is also problematic. Are we to always to prefer the body as it currently is? Isn’t there a way bodies, and thus body images, should be?
Eschatological views are an integral factor in shaping what constitutes a healthy multiplicity of body images. Eschatology typically has both a descriptive and normative vision, which often coincide: it is descriptive insofar as it articulates a coming reality, and normative insofar as it articulates the best form of reality. This descriptive account affects body image by giving license to expect a different embodiment than their current lived experience. It is appropriate to identify with the future self, whether that self is disembodied or differently embodied. This normative account affects body image insofar as it describes what kind of body is the best kind of body. What should one shape their body into, and how?
Lastly, I will discuss this account as applied to certain motives in cosmetic surgery. Citing some accounts of those who pursue such surgery, I will show how there is both an implicit acceptance of a certain body ideal and a belief that one is destined to embody that ideal. In many cases, this implicit eschatology can justify cosmetic surgery for these patients.
This presentation will explore the eschatological dimension of body image. More precisely, I’m interested in how religious understandings of end times affect the lived experience of bodies in the here and now. In the same way that disability theology is sensitive to how eschatological views shape and are shaped by understandings of disabled embodiment, medical ethicists and practitioners should attune to the eschatological dimensions of other particular body schemas. This presentation will thus have three parts. First, I will discuss Gail Weiss’s work on both the production of, and healthy identification with, body schemas. Second, I will show how body schemas are tied to eschatological understandings. Eschatology offers a kind of boundary and direction for the formation of body schemas by offering hope of what the body might be, or will be. Third, I will explore a case of cosmetic surgery in order to understand how eschatological views might affect medical bodies.
In Body Images, Weiss effectively argues that a singular, fixed body image is harmful. For example, an anorexic person disassociates themselves from their body precisely because they have only one body image they identify with—a thin body. Rather, it’s healthier to have a fluid, imaginative multiplicity of body images in order to inhabit our changing bodies. Using Schilder and Merleau-Ponty, she argues these body images should be understood as schemas that contain both a visualization of the body and a concept of the possibilities open due to the body.
However, it’s unclear what these multiple images should be. A multiplicity of unachievable body images doesn’t seem to be healthier than one unachievable image. Therefore, it seems that some body images are preferable to others based on their coherence with reality. But, this “body in reality” is also problematic. Are we to always to prefer the body as it currently is? Isn’t there a way bodies, and thus body images, should be?
Eschatological views are an integral factor in shaping what constitutes a healthy multiplicity of body images. Eschatology typically has both a descriptive and normative vision, which often coincide: it is descriptive insofar as it articulates a coming reality, and normative insofar as it articulates the best form of reality. This descriptive account affects body image by giving license to expect a different embodiment than their current lived experience. It is appropriate to identify with the future self, whether that self is disembodied or differently embodied. This normative account affects body image insofar as it describes what kind of body is the best kind of body. What should one shape their body into, and how?
Lastly, I will discuss this account as applied to certain motives in cosmetic surgery. Citing some accounts of those who pursue such surgery, I will show how there is both an implicit acceptance of a certain body ideal and a belief that one is destined to embody that ideal. In many cases, this implicit eschatology can justify cosmetic surgery for these patients.