200 RüdigerKunow
time, fatphobia is a good example of the entanglements which bind
together norms and exceptions. All the public attention to the BMI did
not stop the trend toward Americans putting on more and more weight.
And so, instead of the BMI norm, its counterpart, being overweight, is
becoming a new, unofficial and perhaps even a counterfactual norm,
evenifobesityhasinthemeantimecometobescriptedasanepidemic,
as "infectobesity" (Gilman 138; Oliver 110)^46 and thus analogized with
contagiousdiseasesliketheplagueorleprosy.
The polemical nature of norms noted by Canguilhem generates in
dialectical fashion the desire for correction. There is then something
irksome,naggingaboutnorms,andovertime,humanshavedevelopeda
sheer endless inventory of practices and devices to camouflage if not
expunge non-normative aspects of their biology. The "will to cleanse,"
manifestinnorms(Bachelardqtd.Canguilhem146),findsitsexpression
inabroadspectrumofdevicesdesignedtoproducebiologicalorbodily
normativity, however virtual: among them wigs, prostheses,
exoskeletons,implants,andmanyotherdevices.
The examples discussed so far are part of the unending, everyday
negotiations of many U.S.-Americans between their personal
embodiment and normative biologies. These negotiations become much
more urgent in moments of acute crisis, such as those produced by a
severe illness. Then the question of what is normal and what is not,
becomes crucially important, even existentially so. In her Cancer
Journals(1980/1997), African American feminist Audre Lorde recalls
herexperienceduringandafteradoublemastectomy.Iwilldiscussthis
moving account in more detail later on. At this point it is important to
note how the losses inflicted on her by this operation become a "new
normal" for Lorde—but in different, even antagonistic ways, in which
others, the medical community and the U.S. in general, are also
involved.
In the diary section which forms the first part of her memoir, Lorde
recallshowafterheroperationarepresentativeof"ReachforRecovery,"
a volunteer visitation program sponsored by the American Cancer
(^46) Seven out of 10 Americans are overweight; about a third are obese; six in a
hundred are very obese—always according to the currently prevailing norms
("ObesityRates&Trends"n.pag.).