Susana Rocha Teixeira (Bielefeld University)
Abstract
In the last few decades, the body has increasingly taken the center stage in various countries in the Americas. Bodies are modified, improved, discussed, and displayed in forms of media such as Instagram, TV-shows or magazines. Progress in the field of medicine contributed to this situation. Amongst others, new forms of surgery and developments regarding prosthetics allow humans to replace missing or dysfunctional limbs, and offer patients ‘normal’ bodies. At times, particular measures and prosthetics result in bodies which are better than ‘normal’, as the case of the South African sprint runner Oscar Pistorius has shown. His running blades caused a controversy…