I don't feel I can criticize the overwhelming Orientalism of like, yoga and Buddhist spaces in San Francisco because people get so precious about it

Adrianna Tan

But it is VERY weird

What Is Orientalism? A Stereotyped, Colonialist Vision of Asian Cultures

Your everyday yoga class is actually a textbook case study in Orientalism.

Pocket (getpocket.com)

Raindrops and Roses

@skinnylatte You absolutely should. It IS very weird.

Adrianna Tan

@raindrops_and_roses well someone said *I* was being racist (towards white women) for saying i felt uncomfortable going to Marina yoga studios...

Adrianna Tan

the equivalent of 'white lady yoga' in Singapore is, yoga in Singapore is absolutely a 'upper class Chinese lady in Singapore yoga'

BUT

we also have yoga in temples and traditional spaces there

Alexia Gaudeul

@skinnylatte to me, those are just two cultures mixing. Greeks made fun of Romans copying them too. I do not believe it is good to essentialize something like yoga and say only people born in the culture in which it originated should be teaching or practicing it.

Adrianna Tan

@agaudeul I generally agree on most things like food, but it is important to consider the white gaze on consuming ‘Oriental’ practices. This is very prevalent in ‘new age and spirituality’ spaces, where it is hard to avoid a sense of.. colonialism really. At the same time, the people who sell the other extreme of it (only Indians can practice and sell yoga and Indian culture is the purest and the best) are kind of gross as well.

Alexia Gaudeul

@skinnylatte I am not completely sure colonialism is the right term to use there. I do not see a will to dominate or exploit, but I may be wrong. I would just say ignorance is the main factor. Sadly, not everyone has the privilege of being able to access and understand fully the meaning of a practice that is rooted in another culture.

Adrianna Tan

@agaudeul in the city where I live, it is impossible to find a yoga practice that isn’t a new age hippy dippy space. Look deeper and it all devolves to anti-vax crunchy BS. In Buddhist circles we call it ‘McWellness’ based on misinterpretation and consumerism.

I get around this by simply not engaging. I’m not hardcore about it, but there are some harms they perpetuate. I’m not arguing for authenticity, just that people see that there is a harmful Orientalist aspect.