Is it enough of space that I occupy?
To somehow sweeten my time under another lockdown, I got into a yoga teacher mentoring program. It is a six months cycle of diverse classes, workshops and self-study on selected topics. I have the freedom to choose the topic and it is going to be a body politics subject. I want to go beyond body positivity, which means more or less accepting the body as it is.
Body positivity tells us that the body is good as such and does not need corrections or adjustments. This is already a great message. We can move freely and with only the purpose of the pleasure of the movement. Body positive yoga is a type of movement where we don’t push the body into ultimate perfection. We actually forget about perfection. We stay in the asanas for pleasure. We do not chase after the perfect shape. We don’t use too many props to support the body in achieving the perfect shape. We can use the props, but only if it removes the struggle from keeping the posture or supports active mobility (this is the whole other topic to write about!). Body positive yoga wants to bring on the mat all kinds of people — with diverse body shapes, colours and abilities. Body positive yoga wants to reclaim yoga from social media representation. If you want to learn more check a few podcasts, like Black Girls in OM for example.
Body politics is a broader topic. I got into it because of the recent trials of changing the reproduction rights law in Poland. The country is on the way to go from very restrictive law into a complete ban. The interesting fact is that women in Poland have a major share in population (19,8 mln women vs. 18,5 mln men). Yet over the last 30 years, women’s rights in one of the largest EU countries have been restricted or ignored. The medical procedure that in the XXI century is clean and safe and supported with scientific knowledge is going to be restricted. I was stunned when found the global map presenting abortion restrictions. While in all EU countries abortion is accepted as pone of the human and reproductive rights giving a woman right to decide on her body and future life, in Poland the control over the women body remains strong.
Check the global map here: https://reproductiverights.org/worldabortionlaws?country=DZA
Why am I writing this? Because body politics appears to be a more and more important topic. The far-right political groups, in many cases supported by fundamental religious beliefs, without any background in science rise around the Western world. That worries me a lot. Why? Because while social-liberal views on politics give people space and the right to choose, the right side of the political scene gets into restricting free decisions. Taking away reproductive rights is one of the initiatives that emerged in the middle of a global pandemic time. So, yes this worries me a lot.
This text turns into a very gloomy and dark alley and I don’t want to do it. I want to write about how we can reclaim the space of freedom, how we can express our perception of the situation. How we can express our emotions. How we can speak about our needs by working with our bodies. It is on purpose that I have not utilised the phrase “use of the body”. Our bodies have been used too often and too much. We drag them to offices, we make them sit, we feed them with crap, we kill pains with pills, we demand from them to take us where we want and be quiet.
We put our bodies in tight clothes (have you ever looked at your belly and hips after a day spent wearing high-waist skinny jeans? Did you look at your legs and feet after a day in high-heels? Have you ever touched your breast after a long day in a tight bra?). Sometimes our bodies are so numb that we cannot feel anything anymore. I am not saying here that from now on we all should wear loose pyjamas all day long (even though that has been my favourite outfit long since the pandemics) but next time when selecting clothes just take into consideration is the size is good (sometimes we tend to buy a size smaller to convince yourself that our bodies are smaller than they actually are). We have been living in a culture where the female body has to be slim, small and not too tall and not to take too much space. I always had problems with it because my body is tall. So many times I tried to shrink myself. It did not bring anything good, so I dropped the idea and now take space with my hips, voice and look.
During the last Polish Women’s Kongres (you can watch it online on FB) the team presented a video — a mix of Belarusian Women responding to the voice of Alexandr Lukaszenko who says what is the role of a woman (decorate the world, bring kids) and how she should look like (being not too tall and not too short). In this video, women tell us in an assertive way what they need and how they want to live. It is a brilliant example of how to respond to the narrative we hear over and over since we were born.
Check the video here: (1:20:40) https://www.facebook.com/wyborcza/videos/641143156604558
I want to love their bodies as they are. I want to decide when and with whom I want to have kids, we want to take as much of space (also public) as we need. I cannot believe that it is 2020 and women still need to fight and voice these truths.
And here I am getting into the point of this text. What is my posture in space? How do I stand? What is my posture when I walk? When do I talk? When I negotiate? When I sit? When I think? When I carry something heavy? When I run? When I work? When I create?
Do I present myself to the world in a way that the world sees my strength, my confidence, my talents?
