The body of the citizen, especially the female citizen, faces pervasive threat as we negotiate an epoch of escalating terror and violence. No longer confined to declared warfronts and conflict zones, these forces have infiltrated both public and intimate spaces, civic and domestic contexts. The bodied self can be insulted, subjugated, incarcerated, curbed by religious decree, dictatorial whim or popular sentiment. It can be deprived of the rights of mobility and expression. The body in need of protection resorts to armour: an outer skin that cannot easily be dented or pierced, An armoured body can extend its capabilities through the mailed fist, the spiked helmet, the radiation-proof bodysuit, or heightened fight/ flight reflexes. But the body pays for this protection with its freedom. The armour becomes a cage, protected by, yet trapped within, an exoskeleton.