Biotechnological Bodies: Standardization and Control in Young Adult Dystopian Fiction

Contemporary young adult dystopian narratives reveal how bioengineering is framed not as an abstract field of technological progress, but as a mechanism of discipline and control associated with the modification of the body, the erasure of variation, and the isolation from nature. This book highlights how the promise for surgical enhancement through technology transforms young people into regulated and disciplined bodies in Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld, focusing on Uglies, Pretties and Specials. It demonstrates that, in young adult dystopias, biotechnology functions not merely as a sign of scientific advancement, but also as a mechanism that enables bodily standardization, estrangement from nature, and biopolitical control. It examines how incorporating bioengineering into the beauty industry would contribute to the unnatural development of the human body, which can be easily controlled by the power of biotechnology.