“How problematic to have both a body and a mind, for the former stands in almost monstrous contrast to the latter’s dignity and intelligence. Our bodies smell, ache, sag, pulse, throb, and age. They force us to fart and burp, and to abandon sensible plans to lie in bed with people, sweating and letting out intense sounds reminiscent of coyotes calling out to one another across the barren wastes of the American deserts. Our bodies hold our minds hostage to their whims and rhythms. Our whole perspective on life can be altered by the digestion of a heavy lunch”.
-Alain De Botton
The human body is many things.
It is on some days, a spectacular machine that runs with clockwork precision; on other days, an untamed beast, steered only by its impulses.
The human body has been evoked as an epitome of strength and endurance. Its contours and symmetry have been a subject of creative imagination since the dawn of civilization.
And yet, our body can be so fragile that it is brought down to its knees by something as innocuous as the common cold.
Philosophers, who espouse a multitude of perspectives and theories about the human mind and the meaning of our existence, often tend to overlook the body.
The body is seen as something passive- merely a vessel, a container for the intangible life force that courses through us.
But our bodies are much more than that.
For long, a school of thought grounded on self-deterministic principles proposed the body as an “object” or “property” which is subject to our self-determined goals and aspirations.
The simple adage that “As a human being, we have the right to donate our organs in ways that we deem fit” is an extension of this view of the body as personal property.
But if we dig deep into the sense of ownership we feel for our bodies, we realize that it is way more profound and significant than merely possessing an object-say owning a car or a house.
Those who advocate the principle of self-ownership will tell you that our bodies are different from an ethical standpoint from our other belongings (the car and the house) in a sense that- We ARE our bodies. The car or the house however useful is not a part of us (Carter, 2019).
Viewing the body as a “material object” or “property” immediately attaches an economic value and utilitarian perspective to it.
The body as an instrument of labor has been utilized in ways that range from the horrors of the slave trade to the organized industrial workforce.
The body can be an instrument of pleasure, aesthetics, art, and activism.
The body and its shape, color, and ethnic contours can very well become a battleground of political warfare.
The philosophical, ethical, and political discourse on racism, has its inception in the color of our skins.
The worldwide activism on women’s reproductive rights begins at the prospect of a functional uterus. A global movement is spurred merely by the physiology of a female organ.
One of the early proponents of phenomenology, Max Scheler (1913), highlighted through the intricacies of the German language the difference between the ‘thing body’ (Korper) and the ‘lived body’(Leib).
While our body as a thing is a mass of muscles, nerves, and viscera. The lived body is unique to our constitution, with its unique set of lived experiences and subjective sensations which cannot be replicated in another.
Another important thing about our bodies is- while they are concrete physiological entities, the meaning of our bodies is often socially constructed.
Our corporeal identities, or what is widely conceived as “body image” is a complex social, cultural, and gendered construct (but that’s a discussion for another day!)
Why is it important to dwell upon the meaning of our bodies?
They are in a way similar to each other. It is the mind that renders us unique, isn’t it?
Notwithstanding the superiority of our unique mental faculties, our body is our only home.
How we view our bodies, determines the ways we tend to them.
The meanings that we attach to it reflect on our viewpoints related to its image.
And often these viewpoints are gendered, culturally constructed, trans-generationally passed on, and at the same time fluid and subject to change with changing times.
A paradigm that believes in the prioritizing of aesthetics over endurance (ask women) will encourage behaviors that treat the body as an object of beauty.
What we eat, what we wear, and how much weight we choose to shed, is driven by the motivation to enhance the physical appearance of the body. Often the reference points for these parameters are set according to the ideals and standards of the current times (however unrealistic).
A paradigm that glorifies strength (as in men most often) will engender the behavioral drive to build stronger muscles, enhance endurance, tolerate physical pain.
Scars that might be a symbol of disfigurement in a woman are often worn with pride as a symbol of valour in men, as it might signify strength.
The meanings we ascribe to our bodies, hence relate directly to our mental states, how we view our ‘selves’, and how we gauge our self-esteem.
The first step to taking care of the body is therefore to introspect into our very own personal meanings attached to it.
Analyze whether that meaning holds good in itself or are they simply an extension of unrealistic expectations generated by socio-cultural reference points.
The second step to correct any maladaptive behavior affecting our bodies also lies in digging deeper into these personal meanings and correcting any cognitive distortions related to them.
Any person who falsely believes that their self-worth is contingent on the contours of their body parts aligning to a particular frame first needs to restructure their belief system.
Similarly, anyone who succumbs to the physical or physiological pleasure of a sugar rush as an escape mechanism will binge eat when faced with a stressful situation. In the same way, they might go overboard with drugs in favor of a more sustainable form of a high.
So, before we choose for ourselves: a weight-loss plan or a beauty regimen; before we decide to plunge into a binge-eating episode or starve ourselves on a very-low-calorie-diet, it is important to sit back and reflect on what our bodies mean to us and whether our actions are drawn keeping in mind these uniquely individual meanings.
Otherwise, we will spend a lifetime chasing fads and trends instead of celebrating this gift that is given to us.
Our body is the only place where our soul can rest, rent-free.
References:
Carter, I. (2019). Self-ownership and the Importance of the Human Body. Social Philosophy and Policy, 36(2), 94-115.
Schicktanz, S. (2007). Why the way we consider the body matters–Reflections on four bioethical perspectives on the human body. Philosophy, Ethics, and Humanities in Medicine, 2(1), 1-12.