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Sophia de Oliveira Barata: ‘The Alternative Limb Project’ (2014)

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I’m done w diagnoses there’s nothing wrong w me. I’m just a bit peculiar and eccentric

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“Muscles of the thigh in man.” Animal mechanism. 1874. 

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guess who horribly sprained his ankle...on his left leg. not the biid-affected one. this is a huge bummer after my last major injury, which was a deep laceration exactly on my right knee, as if the ceramic soap dish in my shower heard my deepest longings and tried to fulfil them

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i haven't done much research on this myself, but this might be best described as supernumerary phantom limbs – it seems like it might have a similar etiology to xenomelia (an alternate term for specifically the "i feel as if i shouldn't have this limb" type of biid/bid). i wish i had more information on this, or had seen any communities for it outside of an alterhuman context, but i hope having a word for it is helpful.

somebody has got to tell me if there is a name for something like BIID but instead of amputating limbs you feel like you should have more. because literally my entire life i have had these phantom arms around my waist, i even try to use them sometimes before i remember they aren't real. it really feels like my body is missing another set of arms that it should have. occasionally this is distressing but for the most part i just find it strange. i would LOVE to know if there is some kind of label or community for that so i'd have some better language to describe this. it's not related to my alterhumanity or my plurality, it feels like this human body should have those arms and all of my alters experience the feeling, so i really have no clue where to start trying to figure this out

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if it was possible, i would like to change my form in all kinds of ways – that optimistic, utopian vision of full morphological freedom. but i can't even do something that's medically possible now. i can't remove a part of my body that i feel completely alienated from. and it should be enough that i don't want it! yes, i do feel an inescapable mental torment and i think there's probably something wrong with how my brain recognizes that limb...but that doesn't matter! it's part of me and i don't want it to be. that should be enough.

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If you have bodily autonomy, then there is always a chance that you will do something to your body that you will regret. This is not an argument for taking that autonomy away.

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commision for rusty (pixelatedwah) –> https://twitter.com/PixelatedWah

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first of all i love your desktop theme second of all youre cool

thank you! i've never actually seen my blog on a pc – i exclusively use tumblr on my phone – so it's nice to know my desktop theme looks good on a bigger screen. and i'm honored that i made that impression! i'll try to keep being cool on this blog, even though i don't often have much to say.

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“Foot of black-necked swan.” William Beebe. The bird, its form and function. 1906.

Internet Archive

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as a trans person who isn't on HRT, i appreciate your post. i'm scared of gaining weight; it'd probably make my dysphoria worse. overall i think it's rational to have this preference, but i feel guilty about it.

One day I hope we get a posthuman future where we can all edit our appearance with sliders like the Skyrim character creation menu. Or maybe Dragon Age 3; I don't wanna have to sit through a lecture from Michael Hogan every time I go into the nano-transmogrification booth.

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Response IV, 2014

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i feel like a lot of people kinda don't realise bodily autonomy also must include the right to harm yourself. yeah genuinely. and it makes no difference whether that harm is likely or unlikely, objectively real or ideologically imagined. if you want the government to define what it'll allow you to do with your own body and enforce what you cannot "for your own good" you are 1) basically begging to live in a police state 2) a huge idiot because it will inevitably bite you in the ass when something you do gets defined as harmful

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I think that people who want tattoos should get tattoos; I think that bodybuilders and trans men and anyone who wants it should have ready access to testosterone; I think that estrogen should be over the counter; I think that breast reduction and breast removal and breast augmentation should be readily available; I think that people who want brown eyes should be able to use Latisse; I think that people who want piercings should get piercings.

I think that people who want thicker beards and body hair and hairlines should have ready access to minoxidil; I think that people should have ready access to finasteride, dutasteride, and anti-androgens of all sorts; I think that people should have ready access to surgery to split their tongues, point their ears, and similar; I think that people should have ready access to more mundane plastic surgery; I think that people should have ready access to fertility treatments and sterilization; I think that people should have ready access to vaginoplasty, metoidioplasty, and phalloplasty; I think that people should have ready access to prosthetics, mobility aids, and similar; I think that people should have ready access to voluntary euthanasia.

In the future, when people can perform body modifications beyond our current reach, I hope that they have access to those body modifications. I hope that people who want to be squids or squirrels or tigers can manage it; I hope that people who want to be uploaded to computers can manage it; I hope that age-prevention is cheap and widely accessible.

People are the sole owners of their own bodies, and they should be able to do as they like with them.

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Henrik Aa. Uldalen

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Eloise Parry shoots the Alternative Limb Project by Sophie De Oliveira Barata, for Dazed. 

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Ian Cumberland - Black Hole II, 2016