Michelle Sank's In My Skin and the Illusion of Self-Empowerment

Excerpts from "Portraits of Young People Searching for a More Perfect Self Through Body Modification" by Sahara Borja (http://www.featureshoot.com/2013/09/portraits-of-young-people-searching-for-a-more-perfect-self-through-body-modification/). I didn't copy the whole article since its images depict almost entirely-nude figures (therefore, if you do decide to look at these very saddening images, be warned).

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While they appear comfortably seated in the safety and security of their own homes, the subjects of Michelle Sank’s series In My Skin are anything but settled. The young men and women portrayed here – including a few who identify as transgender – have spent much of their youth working through a deep disconnect of their bodies. [...]

What is the through-line between those who have suffered from anorexia to those who obsessively body build to those who have felt they have been ascribed the wrong gender all their life? “A sense of nonacceptance of their body image,” writes Ms. Sank from her home in the UK, “but at the same time a sense of empowerment at having made changes.” [...]

Unfortunately, it is the same media’s insistence on sameness, an impossible “everlasting” youth, and consumption that have – more than informing – squashed a sense of individuality that should be celebrated as we come of age. [...]

“These images are about young people under 25 in the UK who are challenging their body image. I am looking at those who have had or are considering having cosmetic surgery in order to become more acceptable to themselves and achieve their ideal of being ‘beautiful’. Social consensus in Western society today is particularly focused on physical beauty and achieving and maintaining the “perfect” face and body. Intertwined with this I am also documenting body dysmorphia as young people try and conform to this social expectation resulting in eating disorders and body transformation. Lastly I am documenting transgender youths and the struggles they have [living] in a body they were born into but have no affiliation with.

“I think that young people today are more susceptible to what is expected from them through a never-ending exposure to different media sites. The pressure on having the perfect look is constantly promoted through magazines, television, online sites, pop idols, fashion industries etc. I feel more than ever it is about being loved and accepted through how one looks at a very young age.”

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Jacques Lacan identified the futility of all such attempts at self-empowerment because they are an unconscious plea to the collective, societal "Other" that implanted (sometimes literally) the idea in such people in the first place. They are also futile because these attempts are rooted in a fantasy. It is this same Other that doesn't care and in Biblical language is what St. John calls "the World." The Other tells us that we can and should fit certain criteria, and that it is only "just" to offer an environment of support and tolerance for those who pursue any and all acts of self-empowerment. But the reason for this is that all acts of self-empowerment, even those that threaten to destroy the social order, fit in with this collective "Other," which is not about social order but about minimizing the raw shock force of reality itself in all its painfulness, sinfulness, and brokenness.

Christ offered the only solution to escape slavery to the Other. On the Cross, He said, "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit." Instead of self-empowerment--i.e. taking matters into His own hands--He surrendered Himself to the true Other Who DOES love Him and loves us infinitely, to the Other Who CAN do something about our brokenness, namely, heal it. It is in total surrender that we find our truest selves.

Surprisingly, many intuitively know this fact, yet attempts at self-empowerment are so subtle and insidious that when you add up all the minute ways in which we attempt self-empowerment--it becomes a tidal wave of despair. The power of evangelizing--isn't it both in repeating the message but also in living it? People must see that we Christians live the words of Christ: "Father, into Your hands I commend my spirit. You have redeemed us, O Lord, God of truth. Glory to You, O God, glory to You!"