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Rustic_Professional t1_j865pph wrote

>"It definitely had an impact," said Nenna Joiner, owner of Feelmore in Oakland. "As a female body, going to work every day, how is it to own a business in the city of Oakland with some of the difficulties. It won't stop you, but it will make you pause and think about your own mortality."

Emphasis mine.

I don't understand this thing of referring to people as bodies. It's not uncommon to see activists use the phrase "black and brown bodies," or something similar, but this is the first time I've seen someone refer to themselves as a "female body."

It sounds dehumanizing: You're not a black person, or a brown person, or a female person, you're a body.

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MeltingMandarins t1_j87i2c7 wrote

In practice, it’s mostly about in-group signalling.

But the idea was to emphasise the physical aspects of power/discrimination. It’s not a pure synonym for person. It should be used when you are talking about something where the actual body is particularly relevant. That’s mostly when you want to emphasise physical assault.

It works here, because she feels at risk not because she’s female in her head, but because she’s likely smaller/weaker or perhaps “looks” like a target. She’s a person wandering around in a female body, and is therefore has different risks than a person wandering around in a male body. (Actually debatable which one is at higher risk overall, depends on circumstances.)

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