What is it about?
This article explores why human movement is rarely perfectly balanced. Our bodies don’t operate like symmetrical machines: one side often leads, one hand writes while the other supports, and even walking shows subtle asymmetries. I call this tendency “motor skew.” Rather than treating it as a defect, the article argues that motor skew is built into how embodiment works. It shows that identity and experience emerge from this structural imbalance, not from a neutral or centered ground.
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Why is it important?
Many theories of embodiment assume balance, harmony, or symmetry as the norm. This article challenges that view, showing that skew and asymmetry are not problems to be corrected but conditions of how we live, act, and perceive. The idea of motor skew helps explain why no body is ever perfectly aligned, and why this misalignment matters for psychology, philosophy, and disability studies. It reframes embodiment as something inherently uneven — with consequences for how we think about health, ability, and identity.
Perspectives
I was struck by how much effort we spend chasing symmetry — in posture, fitness, or even architecture — and how rarely it actually exists. Writing this article allowed me to turn that problem around: what if asymmetry is not a flaw, but the structure of embodiment itself? Motor skew became a way to describe the skewed, tilted, off-center way we exist in the world. For me, this perspective opens new ways of thinking about human difference, vulnerability, and resilience.
Chris Sawyer
Read the Original
This page is a summary of: Motor Skew and the Ontology of Embodiment, Human Studies, September 2025, Springer Science + Business Media,
DOI: 10.1007/s10746-025-09812-2.
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