The uncanny valley: Transformations of the body and debates about sexualization

Abstract

Themes of transformation recur in a wide range of media and more broadly in self-help and makeover culture which invites us to join in with a process of endless improvement that Meredith Jones has described as ‘always-becoming’. The visual effects that are achieved through CGI (computer-generated imagery), Photoshop and 3D printing technologies, as well as a multitude of body modification practices can also be considered as part of a battery of techniques that are widely seen as tools of transformation. This article considers how these techniques are bound up with the interruption of ideas about how girls and women should look and behave, and, more broadly, about age-appropriate appearance and behaviour. It asks how we might consider current debates about the sexualization of culture in this broader context where self-presentation is so closely tied to representational practices and where representational regimes are being radically transformed.