We each have a tiny outpost of the wild that we carry with us wherever we go, namely, our bodies. Like the wild outside us, we constantly try to control and modify our wild bodies. We clothe, tattoo, and sculpt them. We overfeed them; then we starve them. We restrain them from the healthy stress of exercise, or we punish them with the excessive stress of anxiety. We’re proud and ashamed of them. We flaunt and hide them. We love them and hate them. And we do all this because of the linguistic architectures and the social constructions in which our bodies live and move and have our being (Acts
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