Comments on: Yoga and Pole Dancing

By: Kevin

Kevin — Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:58:10 +0000

Plenty of men do yoga as well in America, although most of the marketing is clearly aimed at women.
This is the irony of yoga in America which I am surprised you did not mention. Yoga in India is primarily a religious practice carried out by men. The stuff about purification and physical-spiritual benefits isn’t made up either. It’s a centering practice far different from Jane Fonda style aerobics in which your aim is to feel the beat and feel the pain. Not very yoga-like at all.

By: Dawn.

Dawn. — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 19:39:31 +0000

“American women scream about female circumsion(tp) in Africa & Asia yet do the very same operation here along with implants and a load of other crap.”

It is not shameful for women to “scream” about circumsions forced on uneducated/unknowing women in 3rd world countries that ultimately render the woman unable to recieve pleasure or allow childbirth if she chose to.

Many woman under going this process are not made aware that it is going to happen.

The difference is choice.. if the woman wants this procedure than by all means.. who are we to say whats right and wrong for an individual.

I believe you may have “misinterpreted” the issue that you’ve brought up.

Either way… I’ve enjoyed reading all of your opinions and also learned from them

By: Lukobe

Lukobe — Wed, 20 May 2009 02:39:05 +0000

tp?

By: c noir

c noir — Wed, 20 May 2009 01:06:56 +0000

I wonder, if they really want to get in shape, why these ladies don’t take to churning butter, hoeing the garden and washing clothes by hand?
but you won’t get that level of flexiblity by doing those things welmer. Most men would enjoy a woman who can bend her body like a paper plane with ease.

If there is any lesson here, it is that the cultural trappings Westerners borrowed during our own cultural revolution of the 1960s and 70s were often either misrepresented or foolishly misinterpreted
I can agree with this and in fact ague that we continue to get things misinterpreted. American women scream about female circumsion(tp) in Africa & Asia yet do the very same operation here along with implants and a load of other crap.

By: Lukobe

Lukobe — Thu, 14 May 2009 02:17:29 +0000

Middle-class American guys are doing it too — well, at least one of them is — http://videogum.com/archives/wtf-youtube/just-your-average-american-dad_053961.html

By: novaseeker

novaseeker — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:33:20 +0000

Interesting stuff, Welmer. It’s quite ironic, isn’t it?

Of course, you’re aware that middle class American women are also taking up pole dancing … “for their health and confidence” … of course …

By: Lukobe

Lukobe — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:30:20 +0000

There’s also this bit:

According to the Hatha-Yoga-Pradipika text, a yogini is more specifically a woman initiate who can preserve her own genital ejaculate (rajas) and contain the male semen (bindu) by means of the practice of the vajroli-mudra, also practiced in reverse by advanced yogis. [11]

Of course, the beauty of Wikipedia, Welmer, is that you are free to go in and correct the Yogini article as you wish. Then again, the yoginis would probably revert your changes, etc. The discussion page could get very heated!

By: Welmer

Welmer — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:26:18 +0000

Oh yes, the Wikipedia article. I thought about including it to make my point about how far off Americans are in their understanding of Yoga (obviously it was written by American women — probably practitioners and teachers of “Yogini”). Nowhere does it mention that Yogini means hooker to Hindus. One more example of the limits of Wikipedia.

But this part is almost as good as NOI literature:

A woman dedicated to the pursuit of spiritual knowledge and mystical insight, or a Yogini, has many faces: from devotional to demure, and from fiery to fierce; all of these can be embraced under the rubric of a Yogini. Yogini is a term that finds reference in several texts related to Hinduism and Buddhism where its literal meaning is “shaman” or wisdom seer (rishi), a definition that could just as easily be interpreted as “alchemist.” It is generally agreed upon that some of the very greatest of the ancient rishis were in fact women.[9] A female rishi is known as a rishika.[10]

In a wider and general context, a Yogini is a human woman who, through the practice of Yoga, may possess supernatural powers, including the ability to transcend the normal aging process via internalization of the reproductive power known as urdhva-retas (upward refinement of the seed-force) and even death, attaining divya sharira (immortal divine body).

As for the striptease aerobics, at least people aren’t pretending that it will “purify your essence” or somesuch garbage.

By: Lukobe

Lukobe — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:04:48 +0000

A follow-up — what do you make of things like striptease aerobics, where both the source and the adaptation are from the same culture? http://www.amazon.com/Carmen-Electras-Aerobic-Striptease-Collection/dp/B0007TKH98

By: Lukobe

Lukobe — Thu, 14 May 2009 00:02:02 +0000

Funny stuff, and your point about cultural borrowing is well taken, but of course what goes on in most yoga studios is really the modern-day equivalent of calisthenics or in exercise classes at the gym and has nothing to do with temple prostitution. I figure, if all it takes to get people to exercise is to couch things in vaguely “exotic”-sounding terms, more power to them — though they should indeed not be surprised or take it personally if people from the original culture laugh a bit at them.

Either way, looks like you should update this article, Welmer: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yogini