It can be hard to see with clarity the systems within which we live, especially when these systems seem abstract and ideological, or when we benefit from them directly. But they shape the social landscapes within which we live, and they have observable and experiential consequences on our bodies, individually and collectively. In the words of somatic psychology expert Christine Caldwell, “The marginalization of the body has such a long and cross-cultural history that we barely notice or care that the oppression of our bodily selves is constant, insidious, and potentially devastating.”
