Thursday, January 19, 2012

C'est la vie

I really shouldn't have watched that Equinox yoga video. Once I did, the floodgates were thrown open, and I found myself reading stuff that yogis and yoginis of all stripes have been saying about the video, throwing my blogging drishti even more off... Maybe this means that I never had any blogging drishti, to begin with. But whatever.

Anyway.... I really only have this to say:  Let's face it. Whether we like it or not, the yoga world is divided into two groups of people: (1) Those who look good wearing very little, and who also possess the uncanny ability to float from handstand into Bakasana, and then back into handstand and into lotus, all the while wearing very little, and (2) everybody else, who either lack said ability, or who is unwilling to exhibit said ability while wearing very little.

For reasons that are really not very mysterious, many people who belong in group (1) have a proclivity to display said ability on videos. You can say what you like, but I'm afraid nothing you say or do (short of, I don't know, stationing yourself at every possible location in which such videos might be made, and physically stopping these people from making these videos) is going to change anything. C'est la vie.  

6 comments:

  1. I'm sorry to read about how this issue seems to be troubling you. This reminds me of the brouhaha from the different yoga 'scandals' in the past year (remember tinyshortsgate?), which delivered nothing except heaps of polarizing judgements, and ugly ones at that.

    I read Budig's interview with the video model on HuffPo and this line pretty much sums up the real issue underlying the horrific reactions to the video (in my view, anyway):

    "This exercise helped me learn that the way we react to something is a reflection of the way we feel inside."

    http://www.huffingtonpost.com/kathryn-budig/yoga-briohny-kate-smyth_b_1202653.html

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    1. Yes, D, "the way we react to something is a reflection of the way we feel inside." Very true. I think this applies to myself too. So rather than be upset, I'll try to shift my drishti back to things that really matter. Thanks!

      P.S. Yes, I remember tinyshortsgate. Not pleasant.

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  2. Or how about this:

    The yoga world is made up of 2 groups of people: enthusiastic and successful people, and bothered and jealous people. The first group contains Briony and the people who support and encourage her (whether they are "successful" or not). The second group contains people who are bothered by Briony's video, perhaps because they are not so successful and therefore jealous. Many of these people don't try as hard or don't commit themselves as deeply as someone like Briony, and they seem to have a bone to pick about it. I will note that this latter group often drops out of Ashtanga yoga very quickly because everyone is "so advanced". Huge egos! If they can't achieve what they see others do, they complain about others showing off and just claim that those who have achieved are the ones with the big egos. They have trouble admitting when they can't do something and lack the will to try to develop the skill. No grit!

    No one is forcing them to watch a video of someone else doing yoga. If they're going to watch it, they should enjoy it and emulate it--and only dare to criticize it if they have something constructive to say. I could understand the reaction if the person in the video was asking people to emulate them but they didn't know what they were doing. But Briony is doing it rather well.

    I'm honestly sick of hearing what this latter group has to say. Such a distraction. I didn't really even want to take the time to comment on it, but I felt the need to chime in a bit. I wish everyone would stop giving this group the time of day and would instead spend their time and energy on what they themselves need to do.

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  3. Very well-said, Frank. Although I must say that many people out there will disagree vehemently with much of what you say here. But I'm sure you know that already :-)

    I will say this much: Briony has a beautiful practice, and as somebody who is always working on his practice, I can say that a beautiful practice (or any kind of practice, really) is something that takes real work. I think this fact alone speaks more than anything else.

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  4. The truly offensive aspect of this clip is how aspeational it is - rather than the % sexuality - which will, as people have pointed out, be dependant on who is looking at it

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    1. Thanks for sharing, Anonymous. But--excuse my limited English ability--what does "aspeational" mean?

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