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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Yoga with Adriene - Redo of PMS Video

307 replies

ThePawtriarchy · 20/10/2019 06:36

I’ve just seen the message in my inbox from Yoga with Adriene saying that she’s done a redo of her really popular ‘Yoga for Cramps and PMS for Women’ video to remove the reference to ‘Hey Ladies’ etc and make it all gender neutral, to be inclusive.

I actually just feel really sad now. I feel excluded as a woman, there’s nowhere that’s safe where I don’t have to consider men first.

OP posts:
MarshaBradyo · 20/10/2019 18:43

I agree. But that doesn’t exclude someone on how they identify does it?

MarshaBradyo · 20/10/2019 18:44

Although I’ll add if people do it just for exercise it doesn’t bother me.

CharlieParley · 20/10/2019 18:45

Yoga is very much about working with what you have. Yes, it can help you improve, get fitter, stronger, more flexible, but listening in to your body, paying attention to how it responds to the asanas, to every breath as it flows into and out of your body, to focus your mind on your body as it is in the moment of your practice, not how you wish it to be, that is real yoga for me. The improvements you wish to achieve come with practice, if they are rooted in what is possible for you.

I've done yoga classes with teachers who treat is as nothing but exercise. And I agree with Lamahaha and the others that is not yoga. I also believe it's more dangerous done that way.

CharlieParley · 20/10/2019 18:57

Sorry for the repeat posting. Wonky connection on train. Please ignore the first post.

Wilmalovescake · 20/10/2019 19:03

Oh Adrienne. I’m so sad to see this, and will also be unsubscribing despite really liking your videos.

Only women can menstruate. As a yogi you should be encouraging people to accept their bodies, not indulging their dysmorphia. This movement is eroding women’s rights and you have a platform to speak into that that most of us could only dream of. Use it wisely x

TequilaPilates · 20/10/2019 19:05

womenspeakout

Well, 10 years of doing it has helped keep me stronger and more flexible, so if it's all the same to you I'll carry on thanks. I don't need the spiritual side nor the accepting my body as it is side. I hate my body and if someone offered me a body transplant tomorrow I'd bite their hand off.

No amount of yoga or mindfulness or breathing or chanting is ever going to make me accept it so I'll do my best to keep mobile with whatever tools I have available and if that offends you sorry (not sorry)

MarshaBradyo · 20/10/2019 19:07

I’d like to know why people have to halt how they feel to do yoga

It must be one if the most inclusive and kind activities you can do

Yes I can think of exact words but being exclusive doesn’t seem to fit

MarshaBradyo · 20/10/2019 19:08

I can’t think of

zebrasdontwearbras · 20/10/2019 19:15

This thread has driven me to google 'yoga'. Mumsnet can do this to me while cooking Grin

So: the dictionary definition: "a Hindu spiritual and ascetic discipline, a part of which, including breath control, simple meditation, and the adoption of specific bodily postures, is widely practised for health and relaxation."
An actual Yoga site, however, describes it as this:

"Yoga is a Sanskrit word derived from the Sanskrit root “yuj” which means to connect, join or balance.
The most important thing, however, is that Yoga – with its entire applications and implications – is a powerful means to an end. The ultimate end of all human pursuits is “Moksha.” Moksha is freedom from all bondage; freedom from insecurities; freedom from the clutches of desires; freedom from the sense of limitations and inadequacy; freedom from all that thwarts us on our divine journey in life. In other words, the end of all human pursuits is everlasting peace, happiness and a sense of fulfillment. This is possible with steady and prolonged sincere practice of Yoga. It activates a process of cleansing and purification of mind, which in turn, prepares us for the dawning of Self-knowledge. Yoga means this connection; this knowledge that removes the impurities and the veil of ignorance that keeps us strangers to ourselves.

Yoga should never be mistaken for any other mode of exercise, which is operational only on a physical level."

So very supportive of what Lamaha says. My own yoga teacher is much like Lamaha describes - she calls yoga her religion, and is very much into the mind/body aspect.

zebrasdontwearbras · 20/10/2019 19:27

So not really a question of being "inclusive" or "exclusive" - those buzz words of our time - but more a personal journey of balancing mind and body. Perhaps it would be good for people who do genuinely feel a 'mismatch' between mind and body, but not necessarily to affirm a gender identity that is at odds with the physical body. More to help acceptance of the physical body.

Lamahaha · 20/10/2019 19:27

Thank you for posting that, Zebra Smile!
Pilates nobody said you shouldn't do yoga only for the physical benefit. Just that it's wonderful when one can really, truly get past hating and destroying one's own body and feel at home in it!
As a teenager I had an eating disorder; I was fat, felt ugly, hated my body; I drank, I smoked, and was desperately unhappy with myself. When I started yoga I stopped drinking and smoking overnight, and ina few weeks I'd lost all my excess weight. Can you understand why I wish everyone could get the full benefit?
Yet what you do is surely better than nothing. Good luck!

MarshaBradyo · 20/10/2019 19:33

Yes they are buzzwords but I couldn’t think of any other and just posted instead

But how can people be prescriptive over what others do yoga for or should feel when they do? Ok maybe a purist will say I can for the former but the latter? Yoga is such a personal ‘journey’ that shouldn’t it accept each and every person’s

MarshaBradyo · 20/10/2019 19:33

Person’s journey that is not random apostrophe

TequilaPilates · 20/10/2019 19:34

It bothers me not one iota. I know the health benefits that it gives me and I don't intend to give it up because you don't consider me to be spiritual enough. Tbh, unless you are all Hindu are you actually doing authentic yoga?

zebrasdontwearbras · 20/10/2019 19:39

Tequila I don't think you should give up yoga - but from what you've said here, I think you could get a whole lot more out of it which would be beneficial to you. An acceptance of your physical body, a truly spiritual experience and acceptance, and a balance between your mind and your body. I hope you do! Good luck.

TequilaPilates · 20/10/2019 19:40

Pilates nobody said you shouldn't do yoga only for the physical benefit.

Think you'll find that they did on the previous page. Anyway, I'm glad you've got so much out of it. For me, I don't want, and will never, accept my body. It's only my non acceptance of it that keeps me moving forward. Accepting means accepting it's limitations and I'm not going to do that. I will forever push to fix it, to get better. I'm not just going to accept it because that's giving in.

TequilaPilates · 20/10/2019 19:42

An acceptance of your physical body,

I don't want to accept my physical body. It's broken, faulty, it lets me down constantly. I don't want to accept that.

As for spirituality - no thanks, that's not for me.

zebrasdontwearbras · 20/10/2019 19:44

Well it was kindly meant, Tequila. I mean your body is your body - surely gaining an acceptance of it is part of life.

TequilaPilates · 20/10/2019 20:20

I mean your body is your body - surely gaining an acceptance of it is part of life.

Why? What does acceptance mean? Not trying to change it? Live with it as it is?

No. I can't accept that the rest of my life is going to be like this.

zebrasdontwearbras · 20/10/2019 20:27

Acceptance means accepting the things you can't change and working on the things you can change - only you know what those thing are in your life.

Which is why yoga is so good as a mind/body experience - balancing mind and body.

ThePawtriarchy · 20/10/2019 20:30

I don’t doubt her intentions are good. I have massively benefitted from her practices. I do appreciate that the original has been left up.

I’m just fed up with the constant onslaught against women specific resources. It’s correct that it’s her only women specific video, so the people that felt excluded by one word in it instead of accessing all the rest of the content? 🤷‍♀️

OP posts:
TequilaPilates · 20/10/2019 21:06

Acceptance means accepting the things you can't change and working on the things you can change - only you know what those thing are in your life.

I'll not know what I can't change unless I try will I? Accepting means stop trying.

If I had accepted 10 years ago I wouldn't have tried doing exercise and would be much worse than I am now.

Accepting would have meant relying on mindfulness (which is all that the NHS offered) rather than having surgery privately to greatly improve one problem but I only discovered that by not accepting.

I won't ever be accepting. I will always be fighting to improve.

MarshaBradyo · 20/10/2019 21:09

Acceptance means accepting the things you can't change and working on the things you can change - only you know what those thing are in your life.

This could apply to people who want to feel a certain way about their identity. Only they know what that is and how yoga helps them to do it.

zebrasdontwearbras · 20/10/2019 21:12

I don't think we actually have a meeting of the minds here, Tequila and we don't really seem to agree on much, so I think I'll draw a line under this discussion rather than derail the thread - you have totally misunderstood what I have been trying to say about yoga and the mind/body. It isn't "not trying" though, just so you know. Yoga is journey.

TequilaPilates · 20/10/2019 21:14

zebrasdontwearbras

I agree which is why it's probably best to not apply your own rules onto someone else.

I'll practice yoga in the way that I want and in the way that helps me. You do you.

I don't think it's particularly helpful to be telling other people that they're doing it wrong to be honest. You don't own yoga.