Politicized Bodies In Madeline Ashby's Company Town

Throughout the course, we have established that bodies are relational to one another as opposed to individual. Politicized bodies differ on the basis of their personal traits (such as gender, race and class), however, they are similar in their shared humanity. At our core, what makes us relational is the fact that we are intersectional human beings. Yet, despite this relationality and base sameness, we have witnessed the governmental labeling of bodies as disadvantageous/weak because of their differences and have seen efforts to correct “disorder” and difference through eugenics. In Madeline Ashby’s Company Town, the reader has witnessed the labeling of politicized bodies as disadvantageous by the state and requiring correction through the social practice of body modification. Body modification, the synthetic …show more content…
Politicized bodies such as African American women, mental health patients and homosexuals were forcibly sterilized throughout the latter half of the 20th century. These bodies faced discrimination for their undesirable differences resulting in medical sterilization by the state. Additionally, those who were considered “fit” were encouraged to mass-produce. The body augmentation practices in Company Town promote a “throw-away” society where one can eliminate undesirable traits and human qualities in order to achieve the social standard of inhuman perfectionism and longevity. The body augmentation policies reinforce eugenicist stereotypes because they eliminate qualities that mass-society has determined to be undesirable, weak and disadvantageous. Hwa, as a disabled, organic, low-class citizen, could not afford these augmentations even if she wanted them. Like eugenicist policy in the 20th century, Hwa was continuously coerced to augment herself to become more desirable and confirm with social