The body and human rights, an exercise

We have an ambiguous, often antagonistic, relationship with our bodies. Society is quick to devalue particular bodies: black and brown bodies; women’s bodies; queer and gender-nonconforming bodies; immigrant, migrant, and refugee bodies; and more.

Despite this devaluation, Genesis tells us that God created us in God’s image and likeness. (Gen. 1:26) This sentiment is reaffirmed elsewhere in the Bible.

God’s image is in each of us, no matter our weight and skin tone, which body parts we have, or how well our bodies work. God has created us with inherent worth and dignity.

Theologians have spent millennia debating what precisely this means. What is sure, however, is the ways society devalues our bodies run counter to the image of God found in each of us.

Draw

We can use the often-stigmatized body as a metaphor for often-denied human rights. Here is an exercise you can do on your own or in a group.

First, draw a simple stick-figure. Then, label the various parts of the body.

Be thorough!

After you’ve labeled the drawing, ask the following questions:

• What rights do we associate with what you see from our own body?
• When are you most aware of your exercising these rights?

Notice

Notice the body parts you may have drawn. How do they connect with human rights?

Brain We have the right to the freedoms of thought and conscience, and we have a right to dissent. We have a right to education and cultural expression.

Eyes We all have a right to access the press, media and to information.

Mouth We have a right to freedom of speech and expression.

Nose and lungs We have a right to a clean and sustainable environment. Remember Eric Gardener pleading, “I can’t breathe!”

Heart Everyone has a right to love and the right to religious affiliation.

Arms We have a right to work and to have leisure. Each of us has a right to equitable collective organizing.

Stomach All people have a right to access to quality, affordable food and water.

Legs People have an inherent right to migrate, to movement and to association. We have a right seek asylum and sanctuary.

Reproductive body parts We all have a right to reproductive health, justice, and care.

Reflect

Our bodies are more than the sum of their parts.

Did you give your drawing a race or ethnicity? How does skin tone effect one’s life experience?

Did your stick figure have a gender? How might that change the rights to which we are entitled?

What is the age of the stick figure body you have drawn? Do rights differ based on one’s age? Are there rights granted to adults but not to children?

Was your drawing of a fully-able-bodied person? What rights should differently-abled people have?

What spiritual as well as social needs do we associate with the body?

How do we privilege some bodies over others?

Do we associate with bodies inscribed with narratives that resemble our own?

What are the consequences of our recognition of human rights and the need to secure them among vulnerable peoples?

In what way do human rights point to human responsibilities?