Issue #05: Body Social, Body Political.
July – October 2013
The thesis that social phenomena permeate and shape human bodies is common knowledge since Mauss and later Foucault investigated the social nature of our habitus (acquired abilities). Our contemporary bodies are more than ever inscribed by culture, constrained by the geopolitical environment and moulded by the social media patterns. More than ever, the body is receiving intensified scrutiny in order to better expose it to mass culture and pl(a)y it to the all mighty consumerism. Undoubtedly, the body senses, and when it does, the selves (our energies, behaviours, desires) suffer.