Posts Tagged ‘commercialization of yoga’
Vivienne Tam launched her new designer yoga wear line yesterday at New York Fashion Week. Rodney Yee and Colleen Saidman were on hand to guide 20 yoga teacher/models through a “live sculpture garden” in the outdoor plaza of Lincoln Centre. Rushed production directors reminded models to look peaceful and serene, even though “this is fashion, not yoga.”
The union of yoga and fashion is nothing new, with designers such as Marc Jacobs and Donna Karan releasing yoga lines years ago. There is also no shortage of yoga wear which is designed to look good in the studio and on the street. Even the announcer in the NY Post video above was aware that yoga has become big business, citing Lululemon’s multimillion dollar stake in the yoga apparel world.
In the video, one of the models makes the classic argument for capitalizing on yoga: “If it spreads yoga to more people who otherwise wouldn’t try it, then it’s a good thing.”
What do you think? Is this argument applicable any more? Will fashionable yoga clothes get people on the mat? And if so, does it even matter?
For a guy whose life mission includes encouraging people to slow down and relax, Eoin Finn is incredibly busy.
The yoga teacher, avid surfer and ocean worshipper – who is based in Ucluelet, on the west coast of Vancouver Island – has a packed travel schedule and many projects on the go. He’s also the new father of Ananda Lion (best baby name ever). I caught up with him via Skype from his oceanfront home, where he was briefly resting between appearances at Wanderlust California and the Toronto Yoga Festival (August 19-21).
Eoin talked to me about yoga in the modern era, Blissology, the precarious balance between love and selfishness, Joseph Campbell, his Hammock Enlightenment project, and the inherent contradiction of being an environmentalist yoga teacher who is often on the road. Check out our two-part conversation below!
The great commercialization conversation is moving out of the yoga blogosphere and into… the yoga studio. This weekend marks the grand opening celebration of Down Under Yoga in Newtonville, Massachusetts and the festivities include sample classes, nibbles and a summit entitled “Balancing Acts: Poses, Products, and the Future of Yoga in America.’’
Studio founder Justine Wiltshire Cohen has invited leading Boston-area teachers, including Natash Rizopoulos and Patricia Walden, to the summit, which will be focused on the commercialization of yoga. “Everyone is afraid to talk about the white elephant in the yoga room,” Justine said in an article in The Boston Globe (she obviously doesn’t hang out in the yoga blogosphere, where nobody is afraid of any white, pink or blue elephant).
The article notes that the Down Under “website makes it clear where [Justine] stands on the question. ‘We believe that yoga studios should act in ways that are consistent with the teachings of yoga,’ it says. ‘We will never sell plastic water bottles that go into landfills [because ahimsa means ‘do no harm’]. We will never sell $150 yoga pants [because aparigraha means ‘identifying greed’]. We will never accept offers from companies to promote their gear in exchange for free publicity or products (because satya means “truthfulness’’). We will never brand, trademark, or pretend we’ve made up a new style of yoga.’”
It will be interesting to see what comes out of this conversation. I wish I could be there, to hear these respected and knowledgable teachers discuss this in an open forum. It’s a rare opportunity to hear these issues discussed by experienced teachers, without being filtered by the media (or bloggers).
And speaking of the media, The Boston Globe article contains some interesting tidbits, including a quote from Yoga Journal editor-in-chief in regards to Judith Hanson Lasater’s infamous letter: “We also need to run a commercial venture… We are Americans and one thing Americans do is shop and like nice things. And one of the ways we identify ourselves is having a certain look. The yoga industry does support our desire to create self-identity through what we wear or what we purchase.’’
As well, the journalist takes a low blow at Anusara Yoga, singling it out as a “particularly irksome” brand of yoga and referencing the recent NYT profile of John Friend. It’s unclear if this was a paraphrasing of a comment by the Down Under Yoga founder, or if it was the only example of branded yoga that the journalist could find.
What direction will the future of yoga take? And are we willing to follow the trajectory, or take the next exit?
As promised, the Toronto yoga community gathered together last week to discuss the unwieldy and far-ranging topic of yoga teacher standards, regulations and expectations (see my earlier post). The Yocoto (Yoga Community Toronto) organizers graciously recorded the conversation and posted the audio on YouTube. Click on the above link for the introduction, and then hop over to either the Yocoto website (for a nice flowing playlist) or YouTube to listen to the 11 part conversation in its entirety. It’s about 2.5 hours long, so make a pot of tea, sit in a comfortable chair and get out your notebook.
Many senior teachers, studio owners and teacher trainers, along with newly minted teachers, had something to say about the integrity of teaching yoga. They spoke with passion and intelligence, and truly from their hearts. There were many threads in the conversation, and it seems like more questions were raised than answered. What does it mean to be a yoga teacher? What are we standardizing? And if we’re going to have standards, what are they based on? Another thread that emerged was the realization that as professionals, if yoga teachers don’t self-regulate, they run the risk of being regulated by external forces.
This conversation was really just the seed, rather than a solution. The closest thing to a conclusion was that dialogue, discussion and community are first and foremost, before standards and certification. Also, it’s important to have this discussion while respecting different lineages and traditions. Continue Reading
So
it looks like the Wall Street Journal has also become obsessed with yoga, following on the heels of the NY Times’ yoga blitz last month. After last week’s lululemon story, another article about yoga turned up on their Speakeasy blog yesterday – Stefanie Syman, author of The Subtle Body, with an analysis and history lesson on the commercialization of yoga.
Like “Star Wars” or Matisse, the merchandising, advertising, and profiteering of yoga has run the full gamut, from action figures to deluxe vacations to how-to-books that apply yoga to almost every human endeavor…
Now, there’s nothing left to exploit. But before you condemn any number of culprits (shareholders, American materialism, craven gurus, cynical marketers), you better understand that this process took some time — a century in fact — and yoga’s most committed followers have hurried it along. (via WSJ Speakeasy blog)
She notes that the early American practitioners were from families with money and that the first time yoga was used to sell something non-yoga-related was a 1963 7-Up ad in Life Magazine. Basically, what I hear her saying in this post is “yoga in the west has always been commercialized, what’s the big deal?” Like much of Stefanie’s writing and yoga commentary, I find this piece to be complacent (she also told Well+GoodNYC, “What I find more surprising is how much Sturm und Drang ads like ToeSox and Girls in Yoga Pants stir up. Isn’t it pretty obvious that a sustained yoga practice has nothing to do with either of these cultural instances, that women’s sexuality will long be exploited to move merchandise, and that the best thing to do is to ignore them?”).
However, this article did make me pause to reflect on my stance against the commercialization of yoga, and why I feel compelled to monitor and write about it. I realized that my anti-commercialization views aren’t fueled by nostalgia (believing that yoga used to be much less commercialized or market driven) or a desire for purity (I don’t consider myself a yoga purist at all ~ mainly because I don’t believe that there is such a thing as a “pure yoga”).
I realized that I resist the commercialization of yoga because I resist the commercialization of everything. I don’t believe that yoga deserves special treatment; I believe that the commercialization of everything, from food to sex to art, is unhealthy for people and our world.
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