WHAT DIFFERENCE DOES THE BODY MAKE? 65bodies, embodiments, and styles of cognition is not inherently unprob-
lematic. Difference can be used to designate neural phenotypes, reify or
essentialize categories of the subject, and contribute to neurogovernmen-
tality. However, if the presumed universality of the body is an impediment
to recognizing the varieties of human experience — and, importantly, the
social inequalities woven through those variations — the presumed univer-
sality of embodied cognition operates in much the same way. I expand this
argument in chapter 3, where I describe how embodied cognition is being
grounded in neuroscientific research on mirror neurons. This literature
addresses the body’s role in intersubjectivity, but if embodied minds can
mis/fit in the world, so too can bodies and minds encountering each other.