In suicide bombing the body itself becomes the weapon, not merely its concealment.

Evidence

The trapping of the body is added to the ambush location. The candidate for martyrdom transforms his or her body into a mask that hides the soon-to-bedetonated weapon. Unlike the tank or the missile that is clearly visible, the weapon carried in the shape of the body is invisible. Thus concealed, it forms part of the body. It is so intimately part of the body that at the time of detonation it annihilates the body of its bearer, who carries with it the bodies of others when it does not reduce them to pieces. The body does not simply conceal a weapon. The body is transformed into a weapon, not in a metaphorical sense but in the truly ballistic sense. — Achille Mbembe, Necropolitics, 155

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘the body as weapon’ in a literal, ballistic sense rather than metaphor — a precise analytic distinction between masking and weaponization.
• STORYSTEM: The image of the body as a mask hiding a weapon, and the intimacy that makes the bomb part of the flesh, could ground a narrative about a character whose body is inseparable from a destructive purpose.
• XREF: connects to: Weapons’ means, not ends, determine the form of violent action. — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 119; A remote-controlled suicide bomber is essentially a human drone; The suicide weapon and the drone emerged together, not in sequence — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 313 (+2 more)

Related

• A remote-controlled suicide bomber is essentially a human drone (similarity 0.80)
• The moral difference between state violence and suicide bombing is not self-evident. (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Weapons’ means, not ends, determine the form of violent action. #exemplifies (0.82) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 119
• Weapons constitute the essence of combatants, not mere instruments #corroborates (0.80) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 609
• A remote-controlled suicide bomber is essentially a human drone #complicates (0.78)
• The suicide weapon and the drone emerged together, not in sequence #expands (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 313
• Combat against an invulnerable enemy becomes an inquiry into his body’s flaw #expands (0.75) — Grégoire Chamayou, A Theory of the Drone, 292