TOTW: abstractions and embodiment

Topic of the Week - This won't be fully fleshed out (ha, did you see what i did there?) but I've been thinking a bit about the way that anarchists (at least as victims of western civilization) can be very abstracted from our bodies, how that is a part of computer culture, the impact of smelling people, of hearing them move and breathe, of the ways that being in someone's presence is more than the sum of its parts, of how ideas float away from our physical beings, of generalizations and how they are fun to play with but also distract from our subjective, individual experiences.

For Steve Paxton (1939-2024)

From Autonomies

Five years ago, we wrote a short piece lauding Steve Paxton’s work as a dancer and his vision of dance, which we entitled: “Anarchic movement: Ambulations in thought after Steve Paxton”. This week (21/02/2024), we learned of his death. In sadness and celebration, we share our modest thoughts anew.

Half-nudity

from nudism as an illegalism

Anarchists don't talk about topfreedom much. My experience is that, when women and enbies take their shirts off in our spaces, no one usually remarks upon it (although people do sometimes cheer, depending on the context). [...] It's the police, the neighbours, or the owners of the bar who will typically take issue, and for anarchists, the only question is how the rest of us will act to stand up for the members of our party who have magnetized some antagonistic attention to themselves.

Self and the Body, on Immediatism podcast

Immediatism offers readings of four essays on the body and the self. "Anarchism & the Body," by Michelle Campbell, is a call for more anarchists to contribute writing in this area. "Agency & the Body: On Body Positivity, Ressentiment, & Desire," by Rhyd Wildermuth, is a disclosure of Rhyd's own experiences growing up with a different body type and his thoughts around agency and fitness; as explained in length in a chapter of his upcoming book, Rhyd's view is that we ARE our bodies. "Access Intimacy: The Missing Link," by Mia Mingus provides a terminology for that feeling when someone really "gets" you based on a shared experience of disability or hardship. In Cory's view, noticing when we do or do not have access intimacy with a person can help us to realize when empathy is coming naturally and when it is not, and to identify whether the other person is being empathetic with us. Finally, "On Self-Love & Gun Powder," by Flower Bomb, recorded in response to a listener request, is on a nihilistic love for both chaos and the whole self.

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