I just finished watching a documentary on National Geographic channel about body modification. The location was the West African state of Cameroon. Here, mothers and grandmothers of young girls whose breasts have emerged use large wooden staffs heated in the fire to iron the new breast tissue. It is an attempt to keep them looking as girls instead of women. These women are trying to ensure their daughters get an education.

As a nursing mother this was quite disturbing to me. I felt outrage when they spoke about how the tissue was sometimes permanently damaged and many women were left without the means to feed their babies. Some girls even do it to themselves in a desperate attempt to maintain their independence and attend school. I wondered then how on earth children could do that to themselves?

Then cut to the next scene in LA where a man was getting implants in his butt.

What an impact this had on me! I realized that while they were nowhere near the same thing, nor had they the same impacts on the person undergoing the procedures, the way I felt about them was cultural. I felt that traditional, North American plastic surgery was ‘normal’ and the other body modifications were ‘barbaric’. With this simple technique the show managed to turn its audience inward so they could truly realize something about themselves.

I understood then, that this was something I wanted to incorporate into my work. I want to be able to have my readers take what I give them and examine it against their existing beliefs. To give them that little ‘Ah Hah’ moment. Easier said than done but what’s one more challenge right?