If our true will is simply droppin’ some fat to satisfy a scale, then we should be damned to a life of obligatory fitness. If our workouts are rituals of the celebration of movement, ability, and therefore life, we’re pretty magickal.
I have a vague yearning and I’m not sure where it’s leading me, but the yearning is basically this: to have movement more incorporated into my everyday life and to have it be about celebrating life, (not about fitting into some crappy and ridiculous beauty-ideal-of-the-moment.) I want to dance, to move, and I want to bring that into our world more. I want more movement as part of rituals, for instance, at church.
I don’t want movement separated out into machines, expensive equipment, or tape measures.
It seems like we are all sitting still.
As I was searching for “Functional Fitness,” I came across the Physical Subculture gym. I’m diggin’ some of their philosophies, and I’m sure I could learn a lot from them. But, they might not have fully incorporated women in their world view. They described one of their workshops as being a gathering of brethren, even though their were women there. Uncool. They do link to Stumptuous, so that’s a good sign.
Check out today’s article in the New York Times Health section about weight as a main measure of health – this makes me very happy. It feels right, at a gut level.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/08/19/health/19well.html?em
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Mistress Krista, who commended my understanding of gender roles in my book, wrote the intro for it. The Mighty Kat, another strong force in the world of female empowerment, positively reviewed it, and the three of us are discussing co-writing a book together in the future.
Our powerlifting team is mostly women, 2 of which hold world records and the rest state grabbing a state records. Look through the pictures on the website… the majority of them are women being strong. In fact, peruse the videos of our past strength camps and see the women-to-men ratio as being pretty dominate.
Now I’m a fan of pedantic art and can understand the preference for a literal use of a word. But ‘brethren,’ of which our use is playful, almost sarcastic (think Shakespearean’s classic mocking of pomp) shouldn’t have the power to undo all that Bodytribe truly stands for. Granted we are the kings and queens of ‘uncool,’ but it has little to do with a perceived chauvinism.
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Hi Chip!
Thanks for coming by and commenting!
Thank you for sharing all the ways in which you are involved with strong women. It’s important to me, as a woman, that women are included.
I hope you could see from my post that I was inspired by your philosophy. I was so excited to read your blog just as I was yearning for more movement in everyday life.
I *was* put off by your use of the word “brethren” without any “sistren” type word used in conjunction with it. I’ve experienced a lot of gender exclusive language in my day and I’m tired of it. I want to be explicitly included if I am meant to be included.
When I was reading your blog, I guessed from your philosophy, your pictures, and your link to Mistress Krista at Stumptuous, that you are happy to have women participate.
I’m glad you heartily confirmed that. I would love to visit your gym when I come through Sacramento. AND I would still like you to make it known and add a playful “sistern” to the playful “brethren.”
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Sistern, indeed. Gender is such a non-issue around here that we almost forget that terms such as brethren have gender connotations, thinking instead that it simply represent a group or family of people. A reminder is sometimes necessary.
On the blog I sometimes post pictures of our dry erase board, which has a posted challenge with everyone’s times written in underneath. There is rarely a separation between men’s and women’s posted times, sometimes even in the load used. In fact one of the big no-no’s around here is when newbies ask if they can do ‘girl’ pushups (ya know, on the knees). The veteran women here are quick to point out how it’s that sort of idea that keep women away from personal empowerment through strength. Then they go and crank out a whole bunch of good ol’ fashioned from-the-toe pushups just to show us boys how they should be done.
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