Satirical or serious?

[Narz]

After 20 years of yoga, I’m hanging up my mat for good | Anita Chaudhuri

The practice’s modern iterations – including pricey paraphernalia and cultural appropriation – have left me cold, and I’ve had enough, writes Anita Chaudhuri

www.theguardian.com

"The practice’s modern iterations – including pricey paraphernalia and cultural appropriation – have left me cold, and I’ve had enough"

Spoiler :

Iwas saddened but not surprised to read yoga teacher Puravi Joshi’s recent newspaper account of her less than zen-like experience working in an industry that is supposed to be all about inner smugness … sorry, I mean peace. Joshi recounted a litany of micro-aggressions doled out by studio bosses who made her audition for prime classes, critiqued her physique and gave western explanations about Hindu gods being like “cartoon characters”.

For the past 20 years I have been haphazardly “practising” (as they say) yoga but I have finally decided to roll up my mat for the final time. “But why?” I hear you ask. It’s true that for a while it looked as if yoga offered a quick fix for all of life’s biggest challenges – materialism, anxiety, ageing, spiritual bankruptcy – but alas, in the aftermath of Covid, many studios faced actual bankruptcy. Now, as centres struggle to stay afloat, it’s becoming harder to find a “normal” class. By that I mean one where people show up without a £1,520 Prada mat. One where you do a bit of deep breathing, a bit of ouchy stretching, a bit of lying on your back thinking about what you’re going to watch on Netflix when you get home (possibly not Bikram: Yogi, Guru, Predator).


Instead, studios are offering gimmicks such as disco yoga, gin and yin yoga, paddleboard yoga, rooftop yoga, doga (yoga for you and your downward-facing dog), yoga with cannabis oil, yoga among the dinosaurs at the Natural History Museum and yoga brunch.

More serious classes don’t hold much appeal either, as these are teeming with competitive handstanding and unsolicited lessons in Hinduism 101. On one occasion, a non-Indian teacher (which is the norm) had the temerity to correct my pronunciation of a Sanskrit mantra. This was the last straw. I really wanted to send her an angry email afterwards. But then a YouTube class caught my eye: “Rage yoga – class includes cursing and alcohol.” Maybe I’ll get my mat out for one last time …

The last two sentences make me think maybe it's tongue in cheek.

Also, Hindu gods are definitely like cartoon characters, similar to Roman/Greek gods that way.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

I've never been into yoga, but it seems that minus the spiritual part, it's just another kind of exercise class. I remember doing stuff like that in elementary school gym classes. Nobody screeched about "cultural appropriation."

Mind you, this was back in 1970 or so, when people didn't slap down the "cultural appropriation" card every 5 minutes, not realizing that the same ideas can occur to different humans in different times and places (ie. braided hair).

As for the tone of the article, it comes across as a "mom blog" (that's actually a recognized type of "journalism" that receives awards) in which the most ordinary things that most of us shrug at are accorded the status of The Most Important Social Question EVAR That Keeps Me Awake At Night For Fear I Am A Horrible Person For Not Going With The Current Trend, Whatever It Is Or If It Even Makes Sense.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Well the article sounds serious about how the practice have become commericalized.

 

[Narz]

I've never been into yoga, but it seems that minus the spiritual part, it's just another kind of exercise class. I remember doing stuff like that in elementary school gym classes. Nobody screeched about "cultural appropriation."

Western yoga is another exercise class. People might throw a lil Hindu or new age fusion in there (most will at least throw in a lil pop psychology)

If you throw in too much religion some people will balk, if you strip it out some people will complain that's it's supposed to have those elements.

But I've literally never bought anything at a yoga studio either. Almost all will even lend you a free mat if you didn't bring one.

As for the tone of the article, it comes across as a "mom blog" (that's actually a recognized type of "journalism" that receives awards) in which the most ordinary things that most of us shrug at are accorded the status of The Most Important Social Question EVAR That Keeps Me Awake At Night For Fear I Am A Horrible Person For Not Going With The Current Trend, Whatever It Is Or If It Even Makes Sense.

Yeah it's funny, everyone can be their own lil ranting Rush Limbaugh or whoever.

 

[Narz]

Well the article sounds serious about how the practice have become commericalized.

I'm sure in some rich places or some studios.

It's like saying I'm gonna go barefoot cause some people spend thousands on fancy shoes.

You can do yoga free at home but if you're gonna go somewhere and do it w live instruction your teacher should be compensated.

Im sure this commercialization exists but I don't see it where I've done yoga

 

[Gori the Grey]

My own sense for the spirit in which we are to take it.

I suspect the author is in earnest about missing the kind of "normal" yoga classes she was able to get before Covid.

I suspect the human starting point for the article was growing frustration with all the different fad yogas out there, but also bemusement. I suspect the beginning of the article was learning about Rage Yoga, as one of these fads. Then, I'm proposing, it clicked in the author's mind "I could complain about all of the fad yogas, say I've had my fill and I'm hanging up my mat, and then clinch the bit with a reference to Rage Yoga being the one form of yoga I might now practice: i.e. raging about all of the other yoga fads."

The tone of the article, then, in my reading is wry, tongue-in-cheek. We too go along for the ride with her, in that list of odd forms of yoga. The last little twist lets her communicate that she still likes yoga, she just hates yoga fads.

She isn't hanging up her mat. She'll practice at home (as one does) until she learns of a place that practices the next yoga fad: OG Yoga.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Western yoga is another exercise class. People might throw a lil Hindu or new age fusion in there (most will at least throw in a lil pop psychology)

If you throw in too much religion some people will balk, if you strip it out some people will complain that's it's supposed to have those elements.

But I've literally never bought anything at a yoga studio either. Almost all will even lend you a free mat if you didn't bring one.


Yeah it's funny, everyone can be their own lil ranting Rush Limbaugh or whoever.

Well, throwing in religion or pop psychology would have been inappropriate when I was in Grade 2, even though back then if a teacher wanted to demand that the kids pray in the morning and say grace at noon, they were allowed to do so even if the kids weren't believers or had a different faith. At least they're not allowed to do that now, thanks to the Charter, though the now-former Minister of Gutting Public Education was determined to shoehorn her brand of Christianity into the new curriculum (her successor will undoubtedly continue her efforts).


You should see those dumb "mom blogs" on the CBC.ca site. To see a university-educated woman whining about whether she was failing her children by allowing them to read Harry Potter books is mind-croggling. No, they're not the greatest literature. Some parts of them are really ridiculous. But for a lot of kids, they're the gateway drug to get them to enjoy reading, and how is more literacy a bad thing? (I did my HP fandom in reverse - movies, YT videos to explain the movies and books, then fanfiction, and I finally got around to reading the books).

Eventually those blog articles were closed to comments. The moderation there made NO sense (even less sense than it does in the main news section). They use stock photos at the start of each "article", and when someone made a derogatory comment about said photo, all I said was that they were talking about a stock photo and the author's real photo was at the end of the article.

BOOM. My comment was "deactivated." Thou shalt not post basic informative facts in a completely neutral tone. And they usually shut down the news articles to comments in a mere few hours, yet they used to let the mom blog articles stay open for YEARS.

So I'm not a fan of mom blogs. I realize that mothers like to talk about their kids, but to simper on and on about stuff that is not really the end of the world-level problems is just so mind-numbing.

Well the article sounds serious about how the practice have become commericalized.

Most things are commercialized now. I watch some people's review channels on YT, and there's usually some kind of product placement in addition to a request to support their Patreon channel (or whatever you call it).

At least my local newspaper didn't ask for money to have a free subscription when I signed up for it the other day. I have no idea how useful it's going to be, but with Google and FB's war on Canadian news links starting, having a way to access news is important.