In the discussion of what a “good” or “beautiful” body is, we might notice that this is in fact an abstraction made real. What proof do we have? For starters, we can see that a standard of beauty is completely tied to specific cultures and time periods at a minimum. We know that there are other countries and cultures that value very different ideals of beauty than we. For example, the super skinny body that we fetishize in contemporary American culture is very different from what was idealized in the eighteen hundreds, or what might be considered beautiful halfway around the world. In fact, as I was mulling this whole idea over, I recalled a time when I was out at dinner with two friends and colleagues, one of whom was part of the queer community, and another who was a longtime member of an intentional community for caregivers. I remember ordering food with them and being refreshingly surprised that they just ordered their food, instead of agonizing over what and how much to eat, and then talking about it and making apologies for their choices or plans on how they would make up for their dietary transgressions. They laughed when I expressed to them my delight in their ease of ordering and eating. I realized that I was the only one of the three of us who was so accustomed to those kinds of conversations. I realized further, that it seemed like communities who were already marginalized seemed less affected by the ideal. It occurred to me that perhaps because I was the “closest” to the ideal, I was under the most tyranny. The others, although not unaffected by the prevailing narrative, were less subjugated to it. It reminds me again of the duendes. The littlest kids were most scared of the imagined elves, perhaps because they were most like them.