Transforming Ourselves to Transform the World

[marmar]

Transforming Ourselves to Transform the World
Five activists share how shifting their relationships with their own bodies helped them build community.

NICOLE FROIO
12 MIN READ
NOV 21, 2022


(YES! Magazine) The concept of cuerpo-territorio (“body-territory”) around which the Xinka women in Guatemala organize themselves recognizes the interconnectedness between human bodies and all other living beings.

Within this Indigenous philosophy, the body is understood as disputed political territory that is part of the land that has been colonized, exploited, and destroyed by a capitalist, patriarchal system. Both individual and collective subjugation are important pieces of this concept: The colonization of land is interconnected to the hierarchies placed on our bodies to maintain capitalism.

Our intersections—from gender and racialization to (dis)ability and sexual orientation—are what define our place in the hierarchy of capitalism. These predefined roles become even stricter in times of crisis. Take the COVID-19 pandemic—not only did it disconnect us from our communities and reveal the fragility of our bodies, but it also continues to disproportionately impact the most vulnerable among us. But what happens when we step into our autonomy and shed the trappings of heteropatriarchal capitalism? What is the ripple effect of that autonomy in the communities we’re a part of?

....(snip)....

For Sonya Renée Taylor, author, activist, and founder of The Body Is Not an Apology, radical self-love is essential to achieving collective liberation. Originally a renowned slam poet, Taylor began to delve into body-liberation work in 2010 during a conversation with her friend Natasha. Natasha, who has cerebral palsy, was hesitant to ask her sexual partner to use a condom. She thought she couldn’t demand something from her sexual partners and that she should feel lucky to be having sex in the first place. Taylor responded quickly: “Your body is not an apology. You do not use it to say ‘Sorry for my disability.’”

In July 2010, Taylor turned the phrase into a slam poem that reads, in part: “The body is not an apology. Let it not be common as oil, ash, or toilet. Let it not be small as gravel, stain, or teeth. Let it not be mountain when it is sand. Let it not be ocean when it is grass. Let it not be shaken, flattened, or razed in contrition.” In 2011, Taylor posted a photo of herself on Facebook with a caption about society’s insistence that she make her fat, Black body smaller. “For this one camera flash, I am unashamed, unapologetic,” she wrote. People began sharing their own photos, showing off their racialized, disabled, queer bodies without shame. That was the birth of The Body Is Not an Apology, a global digital media and education company that Taylor says has now reached tens of millions across 140 countries who seek to learn about identity, liberation, and social justice. ..............(more)

https://www.yesmagazine.org/issue/bodies/2022/11/21/transforming-ourselves-to-transform-the-world

[niyad]

1. heteropatriarchal capitalism. Says so much. Thank you for this thoughtful,

thought-provoking article.

[OldBaldy1701E]

2. You know

We Americans can improve ourselves without 'transforming the world'. The U.S. desire to turn the entire planet into a strip mall is getting old. A very good article that points out that the 'Greek ideal' is about propaganda and control. I mean, think of all the industries that exist in our society just to 'improve yourself'. It is insane, especially when most of the examples of this ideal get it from genetics, not effort. Typical flim-flam in the name of profit.