One time, maybe a few times, or maybe every time you enter an elevator you get a weird feeling or is it just me. Sometimes it gets so crowded in an elevator that we as people are bumping in to one another accidently and accidently. I have a story… one time in an elevator, I was so squished between people in an elevator that I was rubbing all on top of someone because people just kept coming in like I’ve never seen before. I didn’t know if everyone else felt the same way or if it was just me. I feel as humans we like to have a more space, but at the same time we like to get to places as fast as we can, so we try to all cram together to get as many people in as we possibly can.
Well in the elevator during this specific time, a guy was touching my hair with his beard because he was taller than me. I couldn’t even move to see what it as touching me until some other people exited the elevator to see him there still way too close to me when there was more room at this time once people exited. So I had to say something to him because he didn’t understand my gestures, which were all hinting for him to give me some space to move.
Specifically, from reading “the body reader”, in Arthur Frank’s piece of writing states “A medical anthropology unable or unwilling to examine how culture infolds into the body (and, reciprocally, how bodily processes outfold into social space) is not very likely to get far in the conceptualization and empirical study of the sociopolitical roots of illness or the cultural sources of healing.” I really like that quote because it proves to us that we feel the need to infold our bodily fluids and motions as humans because we don’t want to be judged in a bad way. It reminded me of my time in the elevator because I didn’t know whether to say anything to the man about giving me some space.
I definitely felt very awkward and couldn’t understand why he wouldn’t move. Just like we discussed in class about out body’s being open in any type of way gives off the impression that we are “dirty” or “unmannerly”. I just would love to know how other personality types feel about the elevator situation I had experienced. Body and mind both are connected and not connected at the same time, which is so mind blowing to me. As a human I feel like sometimes if we didn’t have certain norms about how our bodies are then there wouldn’t of even been that thought in my mind in the elevator. As well as the others in the elevator witnessing this situation… did they even find it weird? That’s what so wild about all the different types of mind’s there are in the world. The mind is such a insane part of our body that no one will ever think the same. Has anyone else had these thoughts or a situation similar?
“The body reader” Edited by Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut.
Unruly Bodies 
I resonate with this story! I feel like this when I take public transportation into the city. ESPECIALLY when there is a sports game being hosted in town. Everyone has to scrunch together to make enough room for other passengers, so the greater good becomes about eliminating your personal space and keeping your mouth shut so that way it is possible to cram the maximum amount of people. It is strange to think about how ready people are to abandon their personal space so they can catch a train because for some odd reason, waiting for the next train is simply too much of a hassle. To me, your story also demonstrates the idea of society shaping the body.