- Joined
- Aug 22, 2016
Wow. Great post.
Do you know anything about the etymology of the whole "bodies" thing? It sounds very brutalizing to me and I don't recall it before, say, five years ago.
"Bodies" comes from the writings of Michel Foucault, a French postmodern scholar. Along with Jacques Derrida, his work created some of the foundation for critical theory.
A lot of his work was focused on power, the use of power, unequal power relationships, etc. He would write about different "bodies," both the human body and metaphorical bodies. Like he'd write about "the power of the state impressed on the body" and later talk about the "growth of the body politic."
The postmodern critical theory scholars inspired by Foucault took up his terminology cargo cult style. They couldn't grasp his metaphorical style well enough to truly use it themselves, and instead just started sprinkling "bodies" throughout their papers.
Over time, the use of "bodies" in academic writing has evolved into referring to people as "bodies" in speech, which has taken on a purpose of its own separate from the Foucault fandom. Religious leaders find that people will more readily die for them if they teach them to view their bodies as "containers" or "vessels" which they will discard as their souls rise to heaven. The use of "bodies" seems to mirror this. It also makes it easier to abuse people in the way of the group's goals. That old lady defending her store isn't a person, she's an "oppressive white body" whose presence endangers black bodies.