Edited Clean Version Technology and the Culture of Control Raiford Guins Uses fiestas Mineo / London AEdited Clean Version Technology ond the Culture of Control Raiford Guins Univ of Meo ess Mines / Leadon EIntroduction Nichol, Marshall ond Me On the evening of November 20, 2001, one body was deemed op- tically correct. The body in question belonged to Brieney Spears, a body highly visible at the time through music videos, films, televised appearances, video games (Britney's Dance Beat, 2002), and maga- zine covers, as well as scores of Web pages promising uninhibited glimpses of her “celebrity skin.” Spears’s pre-"meltdown” perfor- mance on CBS's Michael Jackson: 30th Anniversary Celebration aired to an estimated 25.7 million viewers. Hers was not the only body showcased, however. Other bodies performed during the tele- cast. Their bodies were not deemed fit for prime-time viewing and underwent substantial correction prior to reaching the eyes of millions. On account of her “skeletal figure,” diva-in-crisis Whitney Houston had pixelated flesh digitally graphed onto her broadcast image to render her body fuller and presumably healthier than its off-camera dimensions. Not even the guest of honor, himself no stranger to the scalpel, was spared from the evening’s digital cosmetic procedures: the televised image of Michael Jackson was darkened digitally. The Entertainment News (E!) presenter who reported the use of digital effects to manage the presentation of bodies informed viewers that CBS's “procedure” was carried out to make Michael appear more “black” when performing alongside his brothers for the first time since the Victory Tour in 1984. Half a century ago on January 6, 1957, Elvis Presley was presented to U.S. audiences framed from the waist up on The Ed Sullivan Show: As is well known, manually