reinforcing stereotypes

I’m not even going to try to begin arguing the commonly used,
mood altering drugs which I find not such a big deal due to the
fact that they are temporary and don’t really change the way
society views you, but morehow you view society. Nor am I going
to argue anything else that has little change in the way society
views someone. What I am upset about and going to argue is the
things that greatly affect the way your viewed by society and
how your modifications can even change the way society thinks
as a whole. For example, if we allow people with “so called”
disorders to cut their own limbs off, and we help or allow
them to do so how are real amputees going to feel? I find it
to be extremely humiliating and degrading to the actual amputees.
If this amputating normal working limbs thing takes off
and it becomes acceptable to do so, society will never know if
they’re looking at a real amputee or just a wannabe. I know I
could never look at someone I knew purposefully cut off their
own limb and not think bad things about them. Whether I like it
or not I’m going to label them, and not necessarily a good
label either. My point being, society will now be judging all
amputees in a much more negative way. Eventually there will not
be a real amputee group which society looks at normally and a purposefully amputee group. The two groups will merge, the real amputees will unfairly be grouped with the ones who had no real reason to be amputated. So as far as Biopolitics is concerned, no I don't think we should be able to drastically alter our image, whether it improves our own life or not. Of course there are many exceptions.
Carl Elliot has a great point in his book, “Better Than Well” where he talks about black people getting some type of surgery so they now appear to be white. He says all this does is confirm the stereotype that white people are better than black people, and I totally agree with him. He also states that women getting breast implants, fat reductions, and any other cosmetic surgery making a woman look less like the average human and more like a supermodel only reinforces the shallowness of society and human nature. Elliot says, “As long as we live in a society in which a person's happiness is so dependent on the opinions of others, we will always have the problem of people feeling oppressed by cultural standards” (pg 206). This quote pretty much sums up my personal view on Biopolitics. I feel the more society allows stuff like this to happen, the more people will feel the need to change. My opinion however greatly differs with anything else that doesn't change the way society looks at you.