Jane

I'm developing an extra stomach muscle- my BD gag reflex! It must be all the work outs from the youtube teachers, Dolphina, and the UBDC thread.

Suheir

Hey, I think I have that one, too!

Brea

That makes a lot more sense. For instance, Hawaiians tend to be very large, but they move quickly and are very athletic because in their culture, that's how they learn to be. I think it's very interesting.

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Shanazel

Uncompromising, perhaps, but not rude, Brea. Now if you bellowed, "B*****t!" that might be considered rude.

karena

It also goes beyond nationality. For example I have a friend who is researching talent and elite athletes. He is looking at (and I always get this slightly wrong) the way in which talent is constructed and how this impacts on elite athletes. So, if you're always told your rubbish at sports, maybe that changes the way you develop, whereas if you're told you're great you become so. Like "throwing like a girl"; everyone throws like that, and then the boys are taught different but the girls aren't. Don't we all know the girls who developed early so always hunched, ashamed of their chest? (And there is alot more to his research than that, but that's the bit I remember. And yes, not all girls "throw like a girl". And, in case that doesn't translate across cultural boundaries, here if you can't throw a ball well in a sporting context it's described as throwing like a girl. Nice!)

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"Nothing is black and white, it's all shades of grey" Me

adiemus

But remember that we are all able to develop and grow despite our past - so while we may never become 'naturally' able to move or adopt postures, we can develop towards this ideal.
I think this is important because we all have aspects of ourselves that were formed from early life experiences - some of us are transformed by these experiences, others are not, and all of us are capable of change.
With regard to 'the goddess' I do think it's something that appeals to the mystical and the mysterious and 'special', and this is often about fulfilling a need to feel special and OK, and this often springs from childhood needs to belong...

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He wahine, he taonga- Every woman is a treasure(Maori proverb)

karena

Exactly. We don't stop changing till we die (although thinking about it, we still do, either rotting or something more). This idea of the body being a related of its context is an ongoing process. We'll change even if we're not conscious of it.

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"Nothing is black and white, it's all shades of grey" Me

Brea

Shanazel! You make me laugh loudly in quiet computer labs! Shame! I liked the choice of the word 'bellow'.

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Andrea Deagon

I'm trying to get a handle on this issue. I am very conflicted here because some part of me (probably the part that took shape in the 1970's :-)) likes the goddessy stuff as an experience when I'm dancing. But I keep it strictly out of history, where it doesn't belong, and I find myself rolling my eyes at some (well most) of the goddess rhetoric I hear. The historian in me rebels at vague visions of past cultures that are really just extensions of ourselves -- I think that's what narks me about the whole phenomenon.

What I want to know is, what in particular bothers other people about the goddess stuff? What button does it push, that brings on the eye rolling and finger-down-throat gesturing?? Wht does the goddess stuff say that you don't want to hear?

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"I am not contradictory, I am dispersed." (Roland Barthes)

Caroline_afifi

'Release your inner Goddess'. I find the stuff patronising really. I am not fussed on anything that has a fantasy base, so anything that I perceive as 'airy fairy' pushes the wrong buttons with me. I prefer to draw on reality and there are enough 'real' female icons without having to resort to fantasy.
this is just my personal take on it all.