“‘Age before beauty’ is one of my favorite myths because I love to defy it.” – Natasha Vita-More, Transhuman Designer
What is “natural beauty”? It’s an interesting question because it intersects with that of an even larger question of what is natural and what is “unnatural,” most of which has been affecting the biotech industry as it continues having to deal with annoying anti-biotech activists who believe the industry to be “unnatural” – whatever that’s supposed to mean.
Don’t get me wrong, I certainly understand many of the arguments against how both men and women are pressed on these corporate standards of “beauty” via ads, commercials, and fashion, but then how long will it take until our preaching of “natural beauty” becomes an advertisement in itself? For a society that is keen on preaching the idea that beauty is subjective and shouldn’t be dictated by others other than yourself, we certainly do a lot of everything we claim to stand against.
FUTURE IMPLICATIONS
Right now we’re okay with people getting prosthetic limbs which enable them to become just as good as, if not better than, they were before losing their “natural” limbs. But then what will happen when these limbs enable them to become much more than what is permitted by these naturalist activists? What will happen when they embrace the “unnatural” realm – a Transhuman realm from cyborgization to post-humanity? What will happen when the very phenotype example of what is “human” is no longer recognizable? Will these primitivist activists declare all out war against 3D printed plastic surgery and body shopping just as they declare war against the plastic surgery industry of today?
Will “natural beauty” remain their rallying cry, demanding that people maintain the physical state in which “God” or “nature” left them with?
Photo Credit: Franz Steiner