That was back in 2007. It is now three years later and here I am writing this article about my own understanding of posthumanism and beauty.

To start, one person who has had a most profound impact on my understanding has been Donna Haraway. I read Primate Visions and Simians, Cyborgs and Women: The Reinvention of Nature with fervor, along with about 12 other books from a variety of disciplines. After I read these, I was not sure what knowledge I had acquired. At that point I needed to walk away and just let it stew, as my advisor says. What in the world did these books have to do with what I wanted to know? They fit, but how did they fit for my perspective?

Over time, I realized what the key was to my own understanding. On pages 196 and 334 of Primate Visions, Haraway makes reference to the tools of early primate females, the baby-sling and the containers for carrying things that these female primates invented to make their lives easier. These inventions were right alongside male-created weaponry tools. Those baby-slings combined with modern cosmetic surgery and other technology adaptations for women were a revelation. I was a converted cyborg feminist or, as I now think, a posthuman feminist. I love the liminal space and the intersections.

Sometimes when I bring up Haraway, I get snide looks or wrinkled faces, but I don't care. The understandings of feminism I held prior to my introduction to Haraway left me distant from wanting to identify myself that way. Now I embrace it, because what it means to me is a feminine understanding of humans, culture, and technology - the key being the inclusion of technology to our understanding of humans and culture. This is posthumanism to me: an academic approach that includes technology in various forms as viable variables to understanding society and culture.

My understanding of cosmetic surgery has been opened up. Now I see it clearly as a technological choice that we have, but the main importance in understanding that adoption is its cultural effects. Cosmetic surgery is nothing new to our society, by any means; however are we studying the effects thoroughly? These effects benefit those who choose to undergo the surgery and the surgeons who are willing to offer their expertise.

This is not limited to cosmetic procedures. We have the power to take control of our bodies and we are doing this from the banal to the extreme.

I had a great conversation the other day with a dear friend about how we both are really redheads on the inside. Neither of us are natural redheads, and we prefer different shades, but on the inside, we are redheads. This color on our heads expresses the person inside us that we know is there.

Another dear friend loves heels like mad. It could be snowing or raining or she has to walk ten miles, but she is always in heels. This is an augmentation of her natural structure. She is a tall person and these "foot extensions" are a beautiful extension of who she is.

Take a look at The Apprentice:


On that show, virtually every female is in heels. We all know (and some of us are) these women, and I do not mean to leave any other human representation out, but I am still beginning this deep understanding, and I have to start with what I am, a woman. I will venture out and apply outward from there in due time. To apply a theory it has to be tested and perfected over time, which I will need to do in pieces.

Therefore, this is where I am: the study of posthuman beauty. The wondrous interplay of (wo)man, technology and culture (particularly film and advertising) has me in a flurry to unravel the narrative of what this has to tell us about ourselves and any other sentience we may later introduce.