Abstract
Lisiunia Romanienko’s book is based on fifteen years of experience with defiant communities who engage in body modification. These experiences include interactions with Gutterpunks, bikers, and anarchists as well as other communities which engage in body modification in New Orleans, New York, and Poland. Through her analysis, Romanienko explores the political, cultural, and economic conditions that have given rise to the use of body modification as a specific form of resistance. Her analysis provides an international comparison of body modification and demonstrates how various groups use body modification differently.
She explores how body modification can be used as private as well as public symbols that portray a particular identity to an intended audience. Private genital piercing is one way to facilitate an intense sexual expression and exercise erotic agency. Public piercings are primarily intended as public displays of defiance. Individuals are motivated to modify their bodies by rebellion and defiance, demonstrating their rejection of conformity and conventionality. Such displays also provide a sense of status and belonging within one’s group. Thus, one’s body becomes a canvas for displaying discursive resistance. The body becomes a unique and valuable resource for individuals otherwise alienated from political processes to nonverbally express their ideologies and disrupt traditional power arrangements that would otherwise silence defiant and resistant ideologies. When legitimate institutional means are unavailable, body modification provides individuals an opportunity for self-determination, empowerment, and political engagement.
Those interested in body modification, identity construction, symbolism, as well as historical and political considerations of the use of body modification would be interested in reading this book.