Bauserman
6
losing the battle he is supposed to be waging against the expansion of the flesh attached to his body, as it continually drags his body down in ways beyond his control. He wants us to see his body as losing its ability to remain tight, which is to say controlled, directed, and distinctly formed. Jon’s picture allows viewers to visually accept the body performed as the only way the body can be seen. After Jon’s grueling eight-week ordeal, his performance has changed dramatically, as viewers are asked to find his performance as the real definition of his self. Now that his body is tightly controlled, Jon is able to hold his shoulders back, lifting his body. His arms no longer dangle uselessly at his sides, and, instead, are held slightly away from the body, allowing each body part to be seen separately, not as a single mass (seen in the previous image). The belly has gone away, offering a new performance for the supposed consumptive power inherent within Jon. He no longer is forced to live with his body protruding onto the world, and his new performance allows viewers to find him living up to the ideal that was within his own body, maximizing himself, not merely performing the dominant male role. Jon’s performance directs viewers to follow his journey from his previously stigmatized body to the new body proposed. Previously, Jon was shown to be taking up space, allowing his body parts to expand without direction onto the world. Following his transformation, Jon’s body is now partaking of and living within the definable world. From the ways in which his body had merely taken up space, a clear manifestation of taking in resources, the more correct (innate?) performance centers on Jon’s ability to define for himself the space his body will take up, leaving this final step of control in his