• Nagarjuna [he/him]
    ·
    4 years ago

    No link, it was for class. It was about the idea that capitalism encourages people to see their bodies as commodities they're in charge of shaping through commodity consumption (of gyms, supplements, fitness classes, cosmetic surgery) and as something that always needs to be improved, even as bodies naturally move away from the norm through aging.

    They places the idea of the body project as a neoliberal development, and contraste it to the welfare capitalist model of the body as an exploitable resource.

    I think it missed a lot of details, like how that's only really true for moderns, and not colonials, and how its both consumption and reproductive labor going into bodies, but it got me thinking.

    • penguin_von_doom [she/her]
      hexagon
      ·
      4 years ago

      Hmm, that is interesting, because taking care of your body is definitely something, that a lot of emphasis was placed on in former Soviet countries, and sports and fitness activities were widely promoted. There is a definite public health benefit from a population that is active. The big problem with capitalism IMO is both the commodification of this health, and creating the conditions where, you are often really pressed by time so you cannot really dedicate more to your health and fitness... because you have to slave for your boss.