Historically, a lexical field common to that of territory has often been used to talk about the female body: discover, conquer. This place of the individual body within the social body can often be studied through the words and language we use. « What is a body? Women’s bodies have always been a battlefield to be controlled and disciplined, and if that is not possible, to be violated, tortured, killed. It is a space that unfolds, expands, and contracts according to events and days, shaping, deforming, and recreating itself in encounters with others. » (Mara Montanaro, Traveling Feminist Theories, Paris, Les Éditions de la Rue Dorion, 2023, Chapter 3)

Chosen words that can speak of both body and territory interact with the real individual body. « Why the body? It is evident that it is in the relationship we have with our body, in the way its relationship to the other is structured, that the system of oppression and exploitation, of which notably women’s bodies, feminized bodies, and all dissident bodies are victims, is rooted and perpetuated » (Ibid, 2023). The effect of these words, when printed on fabric like a decorative pattern, proposes the body as the starting point of identity. The word and concept of territory are ambiguous in geography and geopolitics, but among all definitions, the common point remains the idea of an inhabited space. The body, in addition to being an inhabited space, becomes over time an entanglement of affects and words.