Our bodies

 We think of ourselves as owning our own bodies, and fundamentally we do. When exactly did we take full ownership of our bodies? Who taught us about our bodies, educating us about the complex physical, emotional, intellectual, sexual and spiritual elements that inhabit them?

This is an important question because while our bodies are ours to use, maintain and share, society has many expectations for our bodies. Our bodies are sexual, which has personal and social consequences. Our physical and emotional bodies can impinge on others. Unhealthy bodies can spread disease, as HIV and covid have taught us. Religious and moral directives seek to tell us how to use our bodies. Our brains try to make sense of our bodies and those of others. Society tries to tell us what it means to be beautiful, sexy, moral, masculine and feminine. Business tries to tell us what body norms we must achieve in order to fulfill their needs for us to consume.

So the bodies we own are not really the bodies we own. They are the bodies we use to navigate our way through life. How we negotiate the pleasure, pain, human engagement and health of our bodies will result from how smart and informed we are.