Someone asked me the other day why I sport a "Fuck Yoga" T-shirt. That I designed and silkscreened myself. So: Thoughts for the day: On Yoga.
WHEREAS:
This is a blog, and hence these comments are somewhat unsolicited;
I am not a lecturer on all things postcolonial;
Opening up a 'dialogue' on this blog is pretty, shall we say, limited, if not unilateral;
AND WHEREAS I am brown and from once-(thrice-,actually) colonised:
THUS: The Essential notes.
Stemming from Postcolonial theory [my own compacted paraphrasing] : The analysis of the Mess left in countries whose peoples and resources have been colonised and/or appropriated ; The examination of resistance ; The emergent "reconstitutive"forces after the pullout of the colonisers -- the replay of oppression and control amongst the oppressed ; the coloniser's exotification of the colonised in attempt to concretise the idea of non-colonial practise ; the reaction of the colonised to said exotification ; the recognition that the colonised are not only contained in ex-colonies, but are also a product of diaspora, deplacement, relocation, and re-belonging, and that none of these products can ever 'return home' -- and the process and negotiation amongst the colonised in recapturing a cultural identity and control independent of, yet marked by, colonisation ; The emergence of intermingling cultural voices and symbols woven into a was-colonising country's new fabric :
My 'problem' with the vast copulative practise of yoga these days is that it is, at its simplest, a cultural form of appropriation. The new colonial norm: Resources are already under control, so culture. That's the new capital. Oh, but better than that: Adopting this new capital will make everyone feel like it's such a happier, more multicultural world. And nobody can argue with that fuzzy fraternal feeling (or, at least, anybody who does question that fuzziness just hasn't yet found "the way").
On a more personal level: When, within my own lifetime (and certainly within my parents' own lifetime), yoga as a practise (and therefore the person who practised it) was sneered at and considered weird and unholy -- such a whole-hearted reversal without considering this weird point of departure seems so very contradictory to yoga's fundamental precepts.
It is further distasteful that suddenly, because some well-meaning (but blatantly unaware) white person discovered the benefits of this cultural practise, it is now deemed socially acceptable and OK and, dare I say, *desireable* in a way that it never has before. And pre-fabricatedly so. And not the least of which: Said white person makes the (f)act of being able to practise yoga look so damnably easy.
So: Briefly: That's my take behind the "Fuck yoga" prin-T. From the perspective of one whose roots are partly Indian (well, present-day Pakistan, uprooted [not by choice] to Delhi in the 1947 Partition); of one who, not incidentally, knows a posture or two about yoga (as a child, we practised sun salutations every day on our front garden lawn. See "within my own lifetime, yoga as a practise was sneered at" above: indeed, that was my lifetime, and being sneered at happened to me. See, I could probably school a "Yoga By Sarah" studio owner in not only the practise of yoga, but also the philosophy of it. Which, if I may be blunt, Sarah doesn't seem to quite understand. So, Sarah: please don't invite me to your studio. I can't be a neutral participant.); and one who, as you've just discovered, tends to rant some.
Please accept my sincere wishes for civil unrest, more than a general state of malaise.
And encore une fois mes meilleurs.
Commentaires
- bald, albertan white guy.
"Cultural appropriation" is such a negative view on this. Cultural appropriation connotes acculturation from a minority cutlture by a suggestively more dominant culture. Another view of cultural appropriation can be seen as one culture stealing another's. There is no dominant culture, just an assortment of cultures and cultures should not be seen as "stolen" when one culture adopts another's. Good examples of this adoption is Elvis Presley and Marshal Mathers who both have adopted black music traditions. Marshal Mathers (A.K.A Eminem) is an example of adoption of inner urban attitude that _doesn't_ come with the dance form. Mathers alone continually succeeds in "Hip-Hop" or "Rap", a perceptively black genre, which can, but not necessarily, attest to young whites fascination with black youth culture in a sort of "if he can do it..." or "I'm going to be like him..." proclamation.
I agree with Riviera that many young whites feel that they do not have a culture of their own and perhaps this reason explains white youths' fascination with black youth Hip-Hop and/or B-Boy culture. One can say that self asteem issues may be the reason for many young whites/chinese/filipinos/hispanics/russians et., al.) for adopting young inter-urban or thug culture to extremes; but what's keeping another from saying that these youths do have high self-esteem and are very comfortable with adopting other cultures in extreme? One cannot deny that Hip-Hop or break dancing are areas of common ground for multi-cultural youth that provides space of peaceful or friendly interracial interaction. Most bring this interracial interaction up because it challenges the old status quo of racial politics in a world where our youth sees past cultural segmentation (which is a good thing right?)
Oh, by the way, take into account the sole black person's non-black 'attitude'; did this person adopt the white culture of how white youths act? Why wasn't his actions taken into consideration?
responding then on a rather emotional level: while i appreciate the accessibility of 'Other' cultures in today's mainstream, i find myself still remaining quite critical of process. i am not arguing changing the end result. i actually do hope for a more multicultural, more integrated, more equitable world. you are quite right in that elvis presley, bob marley, the clash, and other musicians from decades both past and present have incorporated, or 'adopted', Other musical traditions in their work; even so, even from these beginnings: exotified, commodified. my experience is that music is quite generally more universal in communication than ideas; so i am not critiquing this . . . in fact it seems quite wholly appropriate. my point related to yoga is -- well. i think i've elaborated on this enough. so perhaps i should just ask:
how do we know there is no dominant? from what perception is this felt? i don't feel it. and not simply because i'm choosing to talk about the race cards here: even as a minority woman, i am acutely aware of how i am positioned with Privilege. perhaps the example of the 'non-practising' black youth could be about something larger than a person simply 'not being' black.
Syl