One of the key feminist analysis of the roots of oppression has been the criticism of the dualistic nature of western thought. Beginning with Plato, exacerbated through asceticism, and magnified by the industrial and scientific revolution, the body/soul dualism, and the mechanistic and dominating interpretations of nature and of our bodies have devalued the physical and overvalued the mental.11 In response to this history feminists have asserted that,

"'bodily repression' disdain for our embodied state leads to 'loss of a sense of our connectedness to the rest of nature, to the cosmos, and to each other.' Embodiment , connectedness, reciprocity, and communication are crucially linked. We cannot afford to devalue any of them."12

In response to bodily repression a new valuation of bodyliness, sexuality, and a particular reappraisal of the woman's body ensues.

On one hand feminists have held that all historical evaluations of the meanings of women's bodies are subject to reappraisal. Women are bound by their bodies no more than men and are as capable of rational thought and judgment. This new understanding has freed women to pursue careers and disciplines previously closed to them. On the other hand feminist have also taken their bodies more seriously, exhorting the positive aspects having a body in the first place and then specifically of a body that menstruates, is pregnant and bears children.13

Another element of embodiment crucial to relational feminist ethics, which begins to focus on the relationality of embodiment, is touch. Touch can be coercive and powerful . It can be used to objectify, to control, and to harm. But touch can also play a healing role in relationships persuading people to change.14 The insight that touch plays an important part in building relationship should not be overlooked. As Paula Cooey says,

"Touch .... communicates in a way that exceeds or transcends reduction to verbalization. Touch, then, never occurs uninterpreted (and therefore unmediated by language), but it escapes total translation into words. Right when words fail, touch becomes a major expression of extreme feelings ranging from aggression to intimacy."