NotNormativelyHuman 193
existing norms of human embodiment. The new technologies (detailed
below) go beyond that; they no longer address urgent pathologies or
malfunctions of bodily organs but the biological composition of human
life: organs, blood, genes, all with a view on their plasticity and
malleability. As a result, "[l]ife is not imagined as an unalterable fixed
endowment. Biology is no longer destiny" (N. Rose,PoliticsofLife39-
40). The ongoing biotech revolution, together with the broad array of
medications available for every conceivable illness, from hypertension
to attention-deficit syndrome, is rapidly expanding the discretionary
autonomy of human beings over life, their own and that of others. The
biology of humans is progressively becoming a structure that can be
modified or at least managed (more on this below in the chapter on
"TextualizingLife").
The ways in which people are actually engaging the new and
exciting biotechnical potentialities in their daily lives are of course
manifold and often contentious.^40 "[T]he intense investment of bodily
markers with social [and I would add personal] anxieties.. ." (Sielke
and Schäfer-Wünsche 27) which has marked the cultural history of
human biology is not at all abating; rather, it is intensifying under the
newbiotechnicaldispensation.Hence,itisimportantto payattentionto
thetermsandconceptsinwhichthedebateisbeingconducted.Thefirst
thing to notice when looking at this shining new world of biological
self-management or entrepreneurship is a cultural logic described by
SaskiaSassenasa"newlogicsofexpulsion" (1;italicsoriginal).Within
this logic, non-normative forms of life that cannot or will not be
optimized are sequestered from public attention and appreciation:
"Excommunicated from the sphere of human concern, they [non-
normative human beings] have been rendered invisible, utterly
disposable.. ." (Giroux 175). "Excommunication," a term with strong
religious connotations, suggesting the impossibility of ever attaining
grace, is a particularly apt way of describing the sequestration suffered
bypeople with non-normativebiologies:thedisabled,theaged,persons
with bodily features that do not appeal to the public taste norms. Their
(^40) Clarke et al. have noted growing resistance against biotech measures and a
"(re)emergentpublicdiscoursethat'more(bio)medicineisnotnecessarilybetter'
..."("TheoreticalandSubstantiveIntroduction"14).