Decolonize Your Body

Decolonization is for sure a “woke” buzzword. Its meaning has broadened from the sociopolitical process of colonized territories gaining independence to a cultural process of dismantling various harmful effects of colonization that remain in the lived experiences of people for decades after a place is first colonized.

Colonization, or settler colonialism, is an ongoing process. In the United States, indigenous people are still displaced from their ancestral lands, and systemic racism based in white supremacy keeps African-American descendants of slavery largely stuck in lower socioeconomic brackets, or even incarcerated and stripped of any wealth they had, while white descendants of colonizers enjoy more wealth, safety, health, and social status.

Patriarchy, white supremacy, and capitalism are interlocking systems of power, control, and oppression that have been implemented through colonization. When we speak of “decolonizing” various aspects of our lives, we’re talking about finding ways to resist the oppression of these systems and to reclaim our sovereignty and our inherent right to exist and enjoy our lives for their own sake, apart from serving the capitalist machine.

Land is colonized, populations are colonized, and bodies are colonized. Colonization of our bodies shows up in our obsession with being productive and our feelings of guilt when we slow down or rest or seek pleasure. It shows up in the objectification of female bodies and the standards of beauty that favor whiteness and thinness. That feeling that you’re not enough (not thin enough, not smart enough, not working hard enough)… that’s a product of colonization.

Colonization is a lived reality right now. We are all playing our roles in colonial, patriarchal, white-supremacist capitalism. We’re descended from colonizers and/or colonized. Some of us are benefitting in certain ways from this exploitative system, and all of us are suffering from it in other ways.

While there’s no escaping colonization entirely, it is possible to implement decolonizing practices into our lives. We decolonize our bodies when we prioritize pleasure and rest, and deprioritize productivity. Learning about our bodies and their capacity for pleasure is decolonizing. Loving and enjoying our bodies exactly as they are, for our own pleasure rather than in service to someone else—that’s decolonizing.

In a few weeks, I’m hosting a mini-retreat for women and femmes called Decolonize Your Body. This workshop will be embodied and decolonizing, helping us to find home in our bodies, claiming our sovereignty and our pleasure. Decolonizing our bodies is a process, a practice, an ongoing way to exist and resist in these colonial times.

This blog post was especially informed by Decolonizing the Body, by Kelsey Blackwell

©️2025 Sarah Goodrich, Goodrich Sexuality Education, LLC. All rights reserved.