That women are identified with the body in a deeply somatophobic tradition of thought has created an ambivalence toward embodiment in feminist theory. Is it a condition to be embraced and revalued, or critiqued and transcended? Either alternative reproduces the symbolic structures of male domination. By celebrating embodiment, feminists have naturalized sexual difference; by calling for its transcendence, they have reproduced somatophobia. This chapter argues for moving beyond the celebration/transcendence binary and with the nature/culture opposition that underlies it to place practices of embodiment and their analysis firmly in the domain of disciplinary power.
Shatema Threadcraft, “Embodiment,” in Oxford Handbook of Feminist Theory, ed. Disch and Hawkesworth, p. 207
