The critique of power, from Michel Foucault to Edward Said to Ann Laura Stoler, has long taught us that carnality and flesh, instead of being private domains, are sites that have been deeply penetrated and structured by power. Human flesh has undeniably been one of the highest prices paid for the history of human enslavement. And often in feminist and racial discourses, understandably, we end up with a longing for that lost and violated flesh or, inversely, a total refusal of the body.
