Thursday, November 17, 2011

Breasts are not the same as the Penis Yoga Journal

Can we just agree that a breast is not the same as a penis?

Why do men and women continually compare breasts to penises? They are not the same. Look in any anatomy book. Or just look at each other, they are not even located in the same body region!

Recently I saw a letter to the editor in "Yoga Journal Magazine" by a reader (with a woman's name) who said she got a chuckle from the woman who found men in lycra doing backbends in a yoga classes unpleasant. She inquired if that same woman would find it wrong if it was a woman with large breasts in a tight top, or was she only disturbed by a man's anatomy. After all, she asked, isn't yoga about getting comfortable with our bodies.

Well Yeah, but I don't have to be comfortable with YOUR body, especially if your penis is looking back at me, at my eye level, as I come down into a flat back for the sun salutation. (It's a bit disturbing that she says "large" breasts. Only big breasts in tight shirts are distracting? not "average-sized" breasts?)

When women's breasts can penetrate and piss and when men's penises can feed babies, then we can compare.

Men in lycra doing back bends know exactly what they are doing. What if your daughter or your son was in the class with you? How would you feel then? What if you were introducing your niece or nephew to his or her first yoga class? If the yoga studio gave you a questionnaire and said, Class A taught by Man in tight lycra and Class B taught by Man in pants, which teacher would you pick for your son? For your daughter?

Even in a gym environment, personal trainers are required to wear comfortable and APPROPRIATE clothing. So what's up with men in lycra anyhow? Yes, women's bodies are distracting in tight shirts in yoga class, but women's dress is distracting in every environment! At least in the office I work in I don't have to see what is in men's pants even if some women are intent on showing cleavage - there is a difference.

Lycra is ugly on everyone. It is not sexy. And it does not look like it is worn to be comfortable. As a teacher, I'm not going to say you can't come into my class, but while we are on the subject, men in shorts can be just as much a problem, especially on the floor for Prasaritta Padottanasana: legs wide, reach up..... Oops.

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Sexual Harassment is a Big Fat Lie!

Sexual Harassment is a Big Fat Lie?
Right?
No one believes these women. No one believes these children. Why should they? Where’s the proof?
Do you believe my story? This is just one of many:

My first job in New York City after moving here from Detroit with my five year old daughter and my husband. I signed with a temp agency that sent me to a garment manufacturer who said he wanted to hire me as the receptionist and secretary to the VP. It was late summer shortly after we moved here in June. By Autumn the VP was giving me letters that had to go out that night. After a few nights of this, after everyone had left, he threw me up against a wall, shoved his knee into my grown, grabbed my breasts and smashed his face into mine, his tongue slobbering all over me. I pushed him away and he said, "Is it because you're married?"

It didn't stop. The VP came to work one day with a black square suitcase, said he wanted to take me to a special lunch, at the 21 Club or the Rainbow Room. After I could have the rest of the day off and we would go to a hotel room. Another woman, (a dark haired angel) in the small office saw the suitcase and told me there were sex toys in it. She said that he had harassed her in the past with the same lunch offer. She offered to stay late at the office if the VP kept me after hours. She never witnessed him touching me but she could see how distressed I was and knew what was going on. Every night she gave up her personal time to act busy at her desk to save me from the VP's "unwanted advances". I was grateful.

Like the battered women who do not leave men who hit them, like those who know exactly what I am toaking about, I still wonder, 30 years later, why didn't I quit? Why was I so desperate? I was young, living from paycheck to paycheck. I was responsible for the family while my husband looked for work (and that VP knew this!) He was a family man. For xmas he bought tickets for me and my family to see the Rockefeller xmas show because his kids enjoyed it so much.

If I say he was the VP of Sweet-Orr, in midtown thirty years ago, do you know him? If so, I am sorry, I am very very sorry. But this is a true story. Respectable men do this! I cannot prove it. I was molested and harassed and I can remember it clearly.

I had to post this. The present sex scandals of women and young boys makes me so daman mad and sad. If we all stand up and tell our story, can we at least make a dent in this? Point the finger. Go on.
POST YOUR OWN STORIES. GO AHEAD.