bodies are just bodies

that one time i became a nude, photography by paul goode

nothing more, nothing less. but we have so much tension around bodies — the way bodies look, how they’re seen or not seen, valued or not valued. we use the difference between bodies to control, to harm, to kill. we are obsessed with how bodies are portrayed, what bodies can and cannot consume, what they can and cannot do. we regulate the body (our own, and others’). we shame the body. we point at other bodies and say — yes, or no. or, maybe: if you just lose a little weight, lighten your skin a little, and remove that excess body hair. or, if only you were a man. we deny the body, ignore the body, make judgements about bodies. we use the body as an excuse for violence, for greed, for lust. no wonder we are so ashamed of bodies. and even if we state that we are “body-positive” — what does that even mean? I am also life-positive, tree-positive, ocean-positive. body-positive just means: this society is extremely body-negative, and I’m tired of it. because the body is just the body. the body is not a opinion. the body is a pure fact, an inescapable vessel; a changing form which holds our minds, hearts, souls, and whatever else is inside. for now. the body is not the problem. our minds are the real problem — our habits of consumption, our assorted, violent tyrannies, the ways in which we consume, but do not give; judge, but do not listen; look, but do not see — which is the real problem. and that applies not just to human bodies. but to all bodies. ocean-bodies, tree bodies, this earth-body and the seamless universe-body which is life.

and can the way we treat bodies not be very simple? respect bodies. listen to bodies. care for bodies. allow freedom to bodies. to our own bodies — and to all others.