The diagonalist movement is sustained by credentialed body practitioners without medical expertise

Evidence

This helps make some sense of the outsize role among the diagonalists of a group I will broadly describe as body people. We are all body people, of course, living inside bodies as we do, trying to enjoy them and keep them from harm. But here I am talking about people who are in the business of bodies. Not doctors (though there are a few of those sprinkled in) and certainly not epidemiologists with actual expertise in infectious disease. Rather, these are people who, like gym owners and advanced yoginis, can make a claim to special knowledge about what is right for other people’s bodies: trainers, yoga teachers, CrossFit instructors, masseuses, mixed martial artists, chiropractors, lactation consultants, doulas, nutritionists, herbalists, menopause coaches, and certified juice therapists. — Naomi Klein, Doppelganger, 564

Categorization

• DEFINE: Defines ‘body people’ — the occupational category whose special-knowledge claims make them diagonalist foot soldiers.
• XREF: Connects to Michel Foucault’s biopolitics and the broader wellness-as-authority literature, and to how expert-adjacent authority substitutes for scientific expertise.