Althouse: "Some say 90 minutes is simply how long it takes to pace through all the sacred asanas, and that we shouldn’t tamper with tradition."

May 28, 2017

"Some say 90 minutes is simply how long it takes to pace through all the sacred asanas, and that we shouldn’t tamper with tradition."

"But there is nothing traditional about most of today’s yoga studios, which are more about monetizing relaxation than they are about honoring whomever yoga is supposed to honor. I recently went to one class, supposedly a hybrid dance-yoga endeavor, in which the instructor shimmied around a stage to Jason Derulo. We’re not exactly meditating in the Indus Valley anymore...."

From "Yoga Classes Should Be Shorter/The light in me honors the light in you, but it is also extremely busy," by Olga Khazan (in The Atlantic), who got what she was asking for, comments denouncing her for "#whiteproblems" and bumbling through the puzzle of "cultural appropriation." (Is it better or worse to take less of the culture?)

ADDED: "Been around the world, don't speak the language/But your booty don't need explaining...."

28 comments:

MayBee said...: There are many, many, many different forms of yoga and yoga classes. Take what works for you, discard the rest.; 5/28/17, 8:56 AM
Paco Wové said...: We need an acronym for this kind of article, like NGTNLW, "Navel Gazing Thumbsucker By Narcissistic Liberal Woman"... no, that's not quite right. Help me out here.; 5/28/17, 8:59 AM
n.n said...: #ProgressiveConfusion; 5/28/17, 9:00 AM
Wince said...: There was a totally hot young woman at my gym who (unwittingly?) wore those shear essentially see through lululemon leotards.

She would warm up with a face-down, butt-up stretch that would show everything from behind.

Talk about a downward dog!

ARH-WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!; 5/28/17, 9:11 AM
rhhardin said...: Think of it as native American culture.

Sitting in the feathered headdresses in the yoga position outside the teepees.

Tom toms to the meditation.; 5/28/17, 9:12 AM
Chris N said...: Needs more brain scans/empathy.

In all fairness, I think this is collective emotional progress.

Before you know it, it'll be a coalition on the verge of political victory again.

***David Frum-Campbell still gets expelled for badthink despite his noted hyphenated name change. Sad!; 5/28/17, 9:28 AM
madAsHell said...: which are more about monetizing relaxation

I think it's more about competitive shopping at Lululemon's.; 5/28/17, 9:28 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: "So, you men could not keep watch with Me for one hour?

With the exception of baseball, all events should be limited to one hour.; 5/28/17, 9:39 AM
William said...: Yoga pants are a worthwhile contribution to our civilization. The thing that I like about yoga pants is that you rarely see women who shouldn't be wearing yoga pants wearing yoga pants. This isn't true about bare midriffs, peasant blouses, and ski clothes. Apparently most of the women who wear yoga pants are fitness buffs and yoga practitioners......Yoga itself I'm not so keen on. I'm pretty good at breathing.; 5/28/17, 9:48 AM
Marc in Eugene said...: The first thing I noticed is that Khazan wants the Feds to regulate the practice of yoga. Then I realised she was attempting to be humorous. Finally, I was left wondering why, if there is a market for 55 minute yoga classes, there aren't more of them? As she rightly observes, the masses aren't there for the purpose of worship or whatever religion there is in 'yoga'-- how careful of 'tradition' can Sunny's Studio and Day Spa at the strip mall be?

On the other hand, it's a relief of sorts to know that it's not just Catholics who begin streaming out of the temple before the end of Mass 'because we've got such a busy day ahead'.

The Captcha makers have quite odd notions of what constitutes a hill.; 5/28/17, 10:00 AM
Robert Cook said...: "...which are more about monetizing relaxation."

While there are yoga classes that are about relaxation, most are not, and are physically challenging, (though less punishing than much of what American considers meaningful exercise).

That said, what commercial gym or exercise class or exercise device is not about monetizing exercise? (BTW, I have taken yoga classes--though not presently--and I have had a Total Gym for nigh on 20 years. You can take Chuck's endorsement to the bank...it's a great machine and it does what is claimed for it.); 5/28/17, 10:33 AM
Ann Althouse said...: "Finally, I was left wondering why, if there is a market for 55 minute yoga classes, there aren't more of them?"

My guess is that there's some emotional reward in submitting to the extra degree of physical and mental constraint imposed by a charismatic dominatrix.; 5/28/17, 10:59 AM
Ann Althouse said...: I mean, I'm assuming that's why you read this blog.; 5/28/17, 11:00 AM
Gojuplyr831@gmail.com said...: rhhardin, your post reminded me of an incident from some years ago. A new age guru thought he had discovered the ultimate road to enlightenment by combining new age, Eastern meditation and Native American spiritual traditions. His brilliant idea led to the deaths of several people in a sweat lodge.

Yoga pants are a push up bra for your ass.; 5/28/17, 11:12 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Don't assume.; 5/28/17, 11:13 AM
Gojuplyr831@gmail.com said...: Oooooh, Mistress, bind me with your logic and force me to make logical arguments.; 5/28/17, 11:19 AM
Lem Vibe Bandit said...: This would be a good time to put up a haiku, countering Althouse braggadocio.

But I don't know any.

Welp! 🤷🏽‍♂️; 5/28/17, 11:25 AM
Bad Lieutenant said...: No sweat Lem, I'm sure rhhardin has it covered, soon as the sunspots clear up or whatever.; 5/28/17, 11:28 AM
Lucien said...: Once you see that there are yoga competitions, yoga franchises, and hefty fees to become trained as a yoga teacher, you start wondering whose culture is being appropriated.; 5/28/17, 12:10 PM
Luke Lea said...: This comment has been removed by the author.; 5/28/17, 3:29 PM
Luke Lea said...: Sexual selection really did run the other way in Africa. The women worked and the men pranced.; 5/28/17, 3:30 PM
Ken B said...: You say "take". Who has had their yoga taken from them?

In one of your posts on the horrors of impious yoga you made a great deal of it being a religious issue. What then do you say of a Black Mass?; 5/28/17, 4:01 PM
Marc in Eugene said...: "I mean, I'm assuming that's why you read this blog." Yes, indeed, I derive 'emotional satisfaction' from the blog; why not admit that? if it were a series of sterile exchanges of academic nonsense, pft, who wants to waste time on that? between the author and her sources and the commenters, there's a very wide swathe of humanity represented here. On the other hand, you don't strike me as a typical sort of dominatrix, Dr A. :-); 5/28/17, 4:36 PM
Cynicus said...: The second white women are made to submit, they will be out of the movement so fast your head will spin, and the woke will find themselves back in a tiny minority of bitterness. Never forget Trump won white women.; 5/28/17, 4:58 PM
takirks said...: Sacred... asanas...?!?!?

Y'know... I'm not entirely certain exactly where the practice of Yoga falls, in terms of actual, legitimate Hindu theology, but I'm pretty sure I've read where the modern version of what we're daring to term "sacred" only came about since the turn of the 19th Century, and was the product of the usual marketing of Eastern mysticism to credulous Western audiences.

A useful primer on this "sacred" tradition would be here:

https://www.mindful.org/yogas-twisted-history/

Most of this crap is about as much cultural appropriation as claiming that La Choy is culturally appropriating Chop Suey as a dish, when it was developed here in the US, or that Taco Bell is appropriating Mexican culinary tradition by serving its seventy different dishes based on the same five basic ingredients...

These people are both historically illiterate, and complete 'effing idiots. Every time I start to think that maybe, just maybe, the academy hasn't gone nuts in this country, they come up with some BS like this, and it's all I can do not to go catatonic with laughter at the sheer ridiculousness of their claims.; 5/28/17, 7:20 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: My heritage is mostly English. Been a lotta Magna Carta appropriation going on. Not so much with the food though.; 5/28/17, 11:37 PM
Freeman Hunt said...: Really we're talking about ancestry, but call it heritage and one can stake claims.; 5/28/17, 11:40 PM
Bad Lieutenant said...: Cynicus, you're so right. White women are easy to fool, but noooobody has a sharper sense of their own self-interest.; 5/29/17, 8:41 AM