Yoga with Adriene - Redo of PMS Video

The world has gone mad

'Women' has become an offensive, dirty word when used by …. female people. (Male people using it about themselves, stand up and clap and cheer, obvs.)

You may now only refer to, talk about and provide for the experience of the half of the human race born female if (and God help you if you don't) you rush immediately to say that no, those experiences are absolutely inclusive of everybody and nothing whatever to do with being female. Really. Honest. No, I'm really really not being offensive honest.

Erasing, excluding, silencing people born female. For what? To 'include' less than 1% of the population, and who see 'inclusion' not as 'add to' and 'everyone', but 'remove from them and give to me'. Punishing and erasing women is what inclusion now means.

Stand by to see women as a class get more and more obviously, loudly pissed off and start creating strong boundaries they wouldn't have had to create if a very small number of people hadn't treated them so contemptuously and so very rudely.

If it's to do with periods then it's for women and about women.

Well, it's now for women and transmen, who also have periods.

I also can't really see how yoga exercises can be specifically for periods - you don't do it with your uterus.

So, I have Crohn's disease which gives me a lot of abdominal pain and I find this helps me with that pain too so I think it is good to open it up to more people to help with all sorts of health conditions.

As it's done in your own home it's not an issue if a man is doing it at the same time.

Interesting Lamahaha. I've never got on with Yoga (only stopped by on here because I'm nosey) but when I did try it, the stuff that resonated the most was always to do with being aware of your body and being in tune with it.

As for the video being neutral or for everyone. Eh? If it's to do with periods then it's for women and about women.

Of course you may decide to let it go because you like her. I get that - done it myself on other occasions. But it's still a nonsense.

QuaterMiss

Your post reads like you are blaming this on transwomen?

If it's anything like the issue with Always it is transmen who are campaigning for this. It's them for whom being referred to as women because they have periods is the problem.

Transwomen and men can't be blamed for everything.

I got this email this morning. And felt very disappointed.

I trust with Adrienne that this comes from a place of kindness - a genuine desire to do the right thing.

I just wish people would realise kindness isn't just an easy thing. Sometimes you have to think long and hard about what is kind, and sometimes it's the hard thing to do, the thing that doesn't get you the slaps on the back in the moment, the thing that doesn't always feel immediately gratifying, the thing which isn't simple but after real intellectual grappling you've decided is the right course.

Adriene is trying to be kind. But really she's avoiding the hard work behind that drive.

It's disappointing, but I still love her.
As I feel her attempt to be kind is genuine.

I went to India to deepen my practice: I stayed 18 months the first time and return for longer or shoretr periods almost every year.

That's amazing - I'm extremely envious.

Practicing genuine Yoga would root out completely any idea of being the opposite sex. It just doesn't compute. It would teach you to feel completely at home in the body you have been given, completely at one with it, body and mind harmonized.

Very, very well said.

While I'm glad that more and more Westerners are discovering the benefits of Yoga, I've been sceptical about Western teachers from the start. ALL of them.

This is what put me off Yoga for about 45 years. I’m still sceptical about the Western interpretation - but simultaneously compelled to scroll through Instagram watching the usual suspects (barely there leotard, cute puppy, professionally lit and directed moves ...) and wishing I could motivate myself to do more.

I wonder if there are yoga classes specifically for transmen? I know there are many transmen who experience atrophying of the vagina and cramping pain after orgasm. Testosterone is not kind to the female reproductive system. Rather than modifying this video she should concentrate on producing one that will help them directly. She could have so easily just done a different intro with a ‘hi there’ welcome while wearing beige socks and no one would have objected. But it’s the virtue-signalling of making a big ole announcement that’s annoying.

I've been practicing Yoga since I was 18 and that was in 1969. It was not a popular "thing" then, in fact I was laughed at and derided, but I persevered because it changed my life from the start and continued to be my foudnation over the decades. I would have been a fraction of who I am today without it.

Back then, I went to India to deepen my practice: I stayed 18 months the first time and return for longer or shoretr periods almost every year. I was lucky enough to find the best and mosy genuine teachers, who were not into it for commercial reasons.

While I'm glad that more and more Westerners are discovering the benefits of Yoga, I've been sceptical about Western teachers from the start. ALL of them. I don't know who Adrienne is but I'm wary from the onset. Almost all of the imported versions of Yoga have been modified and adapted and watered down to suit Western trends and ideologies.

So this latest "inclusive" development doesn't surprise me in the least. It was bound to happen, eventually.

But: trying to adapt Yoga to suit transgender ideas of "identity" is fundamentally agaist everything that Yoga, genuine Yoga, based on the philosophy of Patanjali, teaches. Practicing genuine Yoga would root out completely any idea of being the opposite sex. It just doesn't compute. It would teach you to feel completely at home in the body you have been given, completely at one with it, body and mind harmonized.

It's what happened to me as a deeply unhappy, overweight teenager who felt ugly and rejected and unloved by all the world, especially men. All of that changed fundamentally.

So there's that. I just don't trust these basically new age teachers who try to put their own idealogical stamp on an ancient, very wise teaching. I know that some of them are very compelling and are gifted communicators. But that isn't the point. This person, whom I don't know, appears to be such a one. As I said, I'm wary.

TequilaPilates It is the fact that she has sent out an email specifically to let the world know that menstruation is no longer to be considered as something only experienced by women.

This a ridiculous position to take.

If the original video had made no reference to women or men no-one would have bothered to notice.

I am absolutely and completely sure that any person who considers themselves to have transitioned from female to male but who still retains a uterus would have no difficulty understanding that it is their female biology the video was meant to address, rather than their wardrobe or chosen pronouns.

I am less certain that male to female transitioned persons would acknowledge that ‘feeling like a woman’ does not come with free menstruation attached. It would be outrageous if ‘gender neutral’ language were to be used to avoid hurting the feelings of biological males.

Are there any examples of things aimed at men being ‘redefined and inclusive’?

Oh they'll get to it.

Already, Dr Harrop has fallen foul of TRAs by asserting he is a gay man who is attracted to men with penises (as if there are any other kind ).

affirming, neutral gender pronouns.

Many women find 'gender neutral pronouns' and the avoidance of the word 'woman' to be the opposite of 'affirming'. 'Woman' is not a dirty word.

I'm sure she means well ... if she's leaving the original version in place that's good, but there's a fair chance she'll get abuse for 'othering'.

But why does this make anyone feel excluded?

As above, she usually refers to viewers as "friends" so if in this video she says "welcome friends" that's going to make you feel excluded?

The video for pms/cramps will still be there so if you have need of it it's there, she just won't be wearing pink socks or specifically saying ladies (which I don't see as a bad thing). What are you losing or having taken away?

She could have made the original version without specifically saying "ladies" just because that's her normal style - would you have complained about her not adding it?

Why doesn’t she just do a new one for transmen with uteruses and leave the other one as is?

One that reminds anyone watching that I am here to create spaces that feel welcoming and supportive for everyone, and I am fully committed to this.

This isn’t what the redo is doing unfortunately. It is making plenty of people posting here feel very unwelcome and unsupported.

Are there any examples of things aimed at men being ‘redefined and inclusive’?

”She makes open access videos for everyone, men and women. They aren't just for women.”

Well this particular one obviously is.

I've reflected, and tbh I think I'm about equally annoyed with the 'pink socks and Ladies' approach in the first place as I am with the wokey climbdown. She's normally effortlessly neutral just by saying 'friends' and I like that.

I completely agree.

She's got such a lovely voice. My real life yoga teacher is from the US and has a similar accent - her voice talking you into shavasana is something else. Like being coated in caramel

True, zebra. And given how grateful I am to Adriene for the hours and hours of genuinely enjoyable exercise which has helped my back no end, I'm not going to bitch at her.

I go to her for lovely chirpy yoga, not grumpy radfemness (got you lot for that).

On which note I'm going to go do her Love Yoga Flow.

She's not taken the old video down, as yet. I hope she doesn't.

I can still see that (wonderful) video for women on YT. I find that yoga is fantastic for period pain - so will continue to add views to her "Yoga For Women" video

I can't say I agree that she needed to make another video, but you know what happens to women who don't kowtow to the "inclusivity" demands. You've seen the aggressive campaigns, the threats, the hatred. It's not nice, and she probably doesn't want this directed at her yoga channel.

I've reflected, and tbh I think I'm about equally annoyed with the 'pink socks and Ladies' approach in the first place as I am with the wokey climbdown. She's normally effortlessly neutral just by saying 'friends' and I like that.

Remaking a video because a tiny tiny number of female people choose to deny biological reality is nuts, though.

I’ve unsubscribed. So tired of this bullshit.

Successful woman bet she was hounded to change it.

I don’t see how trying to be kind to a very marginalised group of women is somehow no ok with feminist no matter how GC they may be.
I thought the same back in 2010. And now here we are.
Only women have periods. If that statement is unkind then something is very wrong.