Phagocytes and macrophages are often taught/discussed as having the capacity to attack, eating, or otherwise fight infection. On the outset this seems to be a useful metaphor that is helpful in understanding microbiology. However, I find this metaphor troubling, not only because it ascribes a certain level of agency, but also for it’s inherent pro-capitalist masculinity. Phagocytes don’t seem to “make decisions” in any proper sense; they aren’t, like us, social creatures who are defined by culture and make choices. They simply respond to chemical signals in the host body and are often stimulated by pathogens.

To use the metaphor of attack/eating, we ascribe to them not only social capacity, but one of violence. We understand our bodies as being constructed of tiny, microscopic, building blocks of violence. This is not how I would like to imagine my body, which I then place into constellation with other social bodies. I would like to imagine my body as being made up of six billion happenstance recycling plants or water refiners. I want to refocus not on the attack, but on components of reuse and community health. My body is not made of conquest.



How we think about ourselves is shaped by how we think about the world, and how we think about the world shapes how we think about ourselves. I’d like to start to shift away from masculine violence toward community health.

