{"id":4254,"date":"2021-06-15T09:00:32","date_gmt":"2021-06-15T13:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/?p=4254"},"modified":"2024-05-29T19:34:52","modified_gmt":"2024-05-29T23:34:52","slug":"yoga-beyond-the-binary","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/culture\/yoga-beyond-the-binary\/","title":{"rendered":"Yoga Beyond the Binary"},"content":{"rendered":"

The binary thrives in a colonial patriarchal collective consciousness and ultimately contributes to a vision of the world where feminine people are expected to be a certain way, and masculine people are expected to be quite different and complementary.<\/p><\/h2>\n

It is Pride month, so I thought my queer self would take you on a deep-dive about yoga and the gender binary. These are just some of my thoughts about why I find it unhelpful to use terms such as \u201cmasculine\u201d and \u201cfeminine\u201d to describe energy, embodiment, or intent when teaching yoga. I also thought I would add a reminder about yoga\u2019s roots and how Hinduism\u2019s stories operate outside the binary with deities and heroes who trouble gender.<\/p>\n

How do you feel about using \u201cmasculine\u201d or \u201cfeminine\u201d to describe energy \/ intent in yoga? How do you feel about hearing it in a class?<\/p>\n

What does it mean to use the terms \u201cmasculine energy\u201d or \u201cfeminine energy\u201d in yoga?<\/h3>\n

What do you actually mean? If you mean soft, healing, proactive, fiery, why not just say that? The idea that you don\u2019t need to explain what you mean when you say \u201cmasculine\u201d or Feminine\u201d energy implies that everybody shares the same definition of these words, which is not true. The way that some qualities are perceived as either masculine or feminine changes through time and space.<\/p>\n

In some cultures, the moon is described as having masculine energy, which is the opposite as the way our Euro-dominant culture views the moon.<\/p>\n

How the binary confines us<\/h3>\n

The binary thrives in a colonial patriarchal collective consciousness and ultimately contributes to a vision of the world where feminine people are expected to be a certain way, and masculine people are expected to be quite different and complementary.<\/p>\n

If the moon is feminine, and the sun is masculine, what energy am I tapping into if I wasn\u2019t to embody twilight? If we are describing both ends of a spectrum, let\u2019s name that it is a spectrum, and contextualize it as such! If we can name the in-between, maybe the binary does not give us such a helpful vocabulary after all.<\/p>\n

Naming the in-between<\/h3>\n

Reminding yourself\/your students that we all embody both the masculine and feminine energy is helpful but is not enough to highlight and celebrate all the things that exist outside of the binary.<\/p>\n

If we aim to live in balance, don\u2019t we aim to spend most of our time in the middle? Right in the middle of fiery energy and complete inertia? Of intense effort and complete ease? Of inward, solitary contemplation and outward, public conversations? Of the feminine and the masculine energies? So why can\u2019t we name that space?<\/p>\n

Going back to yoga\u2019s roots<\/h3>\n

South Indian folklore, tradition, and faith recognize the fluidity of gender, and the full spectrum of these lively energies that morph, disappear and transform inside of us, as well as the existence of energies and people existing outside of the binary. In Hinduism, Brahman (who could be compared to the monotheist God) is considered by many to be genderless. Hindus also revere androgynous deities such as Ardhanarishvara, who is said to represent totality beyond duality. Hinduism has many stories about deities changing their sex, and cross-dressing, and South-Indian culture recognizes a \u201cthird-sex\u201d named Hijra.<\/p>\n

So let\u2019s go beyond the binary, and explore our expressions and energies as part of a tremendous spectrum where everything and its opposite can co-exist. Let\u2019s embody all the nuance of the natural world.
\nThis blog was originally a post on Laura\u2019s Instagram account<\/a>.<\/p>\n

By Laura Chaignon<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Laura Chaignon<\/a> (she\/her) is a queer european settler based in Katarokwi (Kingston) in so-called Canada. Laura is a mindfulness and yoga facilitator, and an arts worker. When teaching, she thrives to create an approachable and inclusive space, allowing students to grow into the shapes they individually need to cultivate joy, healing, and rest. Her intention is to inspire authentic movement, radical care, and boundless imaginings. She is a lover of community, of silly jokes and of all things imperfect.<\/p>\n

Laura’s profile photo was taken by Chelsea Stevenson (@surefootyogi)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Photo by Matt Nelson<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/p>\n

<\/h2>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The binary thrives in a colonial patriarchal collective consciousness and ultimately contributes to a vision of the world where feminine people are expected to be a certain way, and masculine people are expected to be quite different and complementary. It is Pride month, so I thought my queer self would take you on a deep-dive …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":4259,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1451],"tags":[1229,1228],"class_list":["post-4254","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-culture","tag-beyond-binary","tag-yoga-and-binary-terms"],"featured_image_src":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/06\/matt-nelson-bx4WS8mhz3w-unsplash-scaled.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4254"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5016,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4254\/revisions\/5016"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4259"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/omstars.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}