Bodies Without Borders

221 Pages·2013·1.06 MB·English

by  Erynn Masi de Casanova, Afshan Jafar (eds.)

Bodies without Borders
Also edited by Afshan Jafar and Erynn Masi de Casanova :
Global Beauty, Local Bodies
Bodies without Borders
Edited by
Erynn Masi de Casanova
and
Afshan Jafar
BODIES WITHOUT BORDERS
Copyright © Erynn Masi de Casanova and Afshan Jafar, 2013.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2013 978-1-137-37218-5
All rights reserved.
First published in 2013 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-349-47603-9 ISBN 978-1-137-36538-5 (eBook)
DOI 10.1057/9781137365385
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available from the
Library of Congress.
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Knowledge Works (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: December 2013
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
For Joaqu í n, seeker of knowledge
E. M. C.
For my Jaan, who makes my life possible
A. J.
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Contents
Bodies, Borders, and the Other: An Introduction i x
Erynn Masi de Casanova and Afshan Jafa r
1 The Global Martial Circuit and Globalized Bodies 1
Lionel Loh Han Loong
2 West Indian Immigrant Women, Body Politics,
and Cultural Citizenship 2 5
Kamille Gentles-Peart
3 Don’t You See? (Personal Reflection) 4 5
Mónica G. Moreno Figueroa
4 New Femininity, Neoliberalism, and Young
Women’s Fashion Blogs in Singapore and Malaysia 5 1
Joel Gwynne
5 Fashion of Fear: Securing the Body in an
Unequal Global World 7 5
Barbara Sutton
6 My Struggle with the Headscarf (Personal Reflection) 1 01
Nahed Eltantawy
7 The Face Is the Mask: Global Modifications of the Body
and Soul (Personal Reflection) 1 07
Thomas J. D. Armbrecht
8 Images in Skin: Tattooed Performers in Germany in
the Twentieth Century and Today 1 13
Verena Hutter
9 Fragments: Stories of An-Other Life
(Personal Reflection) 1 37
Anisha Gautam
viii Contents
10 “ A Mover la Colita ”: Zumba Dance-Fitness in Mexico
and Beyond 1 43
Diana Brenscheidt gen. Jost
Bibliography 1 63
Notes on Contributors 1 87
Index 191
Bodies, Borders, and the Other:
An Introduction
Erynn Masi de Casanova and Afshan Jafar
Bodies in Transnational Perspective
What is the meaning of this book’s title, B odies without Borders? Human
bodies obviously have some physical boundaries that separate them
from the world outside, but these boundaries can also have points of
entry or exchange connecting the body with this exterior space. Just
as virtual reality and new forms of body modification have problema-
tized the boundaries of bodies, empirical studies of globalization have
shown that borders between nations have not been erased, but have
become increasingly porous in the last few decades. As scholars have
demonstrated, borders and nations still matter, but the rate and speed
of cross-border interactions—at the microlevel and the macrolevel—
have increased (Appadurai 1996; Harvey 1991; Moghadam 2005).
In this volume, we focus on the role of bodies in the flows of peo-
ple, money, commodities, and ideas across national borders. In other
words, we are concerned with bringing the body into examinations
of transnational processes such as migration, economic globalization,
and cultural globalization. 1 Many of the people portrayed here are
engaged in “transnational body projects,” defined as “a (re)fashion-
ing of individual bodies that makes use of resources that stretch across
national borders” (Casanova and Sutton 2013, 60).
Part of the impetus for compiling B odies without Borders came from
our realization that most studies of globalization remain at the level
of abstract theory, or focus on interactions and exchanges between
massive macrolevel entities, for example, nation-states, multinational
corporations, or international aid agencies.2 Although these types of
studies are necessary for understanding large-scale processes of glo-
balization, as we read we noticed that it was nearly impossible to find
any actual people in them! And when individual people do appear,
it’s often difficult to learn anything about how bodies are involved in