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hearthandhomemagick · 3 years

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Cottage Witch Journal Entry - Post Yule & Christmas

Okay, so far this forum of mine has discussed some very off the wall topics that invade my head throughout the day. Some very self destructive thoughts, and some self awareness thoughts. Thoughts on religion, video games, spirituality. Hell, I may even choose to discuss sexual exploration in the future. Who knows? All I know is that after looking back at some of my posts, I’m starting to realize how chaotic one individuals thoughts can be. How genuinely complex a humans life and mind can truly be.

Think about it, if you’ve read my posts in the past, regarding witchcraft, self care, self love, eating awareness, hyperawareness, overthinking, and so on and so forth, then you would think you’d be able to point me out in a crowd.

The truth is, you wouldn’t. A great deal of my writing is simply the regurgitation of my persistent, sometimes unrelenting, thoughts. I’m noticing the complexities of humanity, and it’s beautiful and tragic all at once.

Last time we spoke, I discussed in a mini post that Judy Alvarez was mine for the taking a staple of independence and power to me and that getting my power back was of high priority to me. It’s been a few days, but this still remains a significant thought in my head. I find myself becoming more and more enthralled by her character and persona, drawn into why I relate to her as much as I do. Then, I noticed the underwater life she loves so much, and am reminded of the blue jellyfish behind my left ear. I see her whale tattoo and think of the same one I have under my left boob. I think of how I wanted to shave the right side of my head similar to Judy’s hair back in High School and my mom telling me it wouldn’t look good. And finally, I think of her selflessness, and her need to help a traumatized soul, and how I used to be a Sexual Violence Outreach Advocate, just trying to help a traumatized soul. I relate to her in more ways than one, as silly and stupid as it sounds, and these may be extremely minute to notice, but important for me.

My boyfriend and I had a few conversations this weekend, all separate times, that really pinned me to myself. One conversation, he asked me what exactly I believed, in that moment, when it came to religion and spirituality. From there we got into a lengthy discussion (mostly my fault) where I explained my thoughts in detail. One quote I said stood out (I was also stoned so when I said it, it came out as a surprise to me as well), for I digress from the want to overexplain myself.

As I told my boyfriend, Hyperawareness will destroy a man before it enlightens him. And this year, Hyperawareness seemed to be the proprietor of my mind, for it most definitely would have destroyed me had I continued.

Another conversation we had, which we both agreed to, was the power of our physical bodies directly correlating to past experiences we’ve had with other humans. Also, our relationship with unsustainable lifestyles.

Example, my body issues are founded on the idea that I wasn’t allowed to be a tomboy and play sports or take karate or MMA Fighting classes, but I also wasn’t perceived as delicate and pretty because of my weight/I was bigger than other girls. I was discouraged from doing the physical things I was interested in, and gave up as a result.

Those experiences have perpetuated in many areas of my life as well. In High School, I chose Shop as my number one elective and Weight Training as my second. They chose to put me in Theatre and Intensive Reading instead (Intensive Reading is a class kids take when they make below average on state wide tests). Now, my first choices were classes I felt would develop my character and reflect the life I wanted to live, and I was told it was a bit manly for me to choose those classes. Now, as an adult, I don’t go out of my way to work on mechanics, even though it’s an interest of mine and I haven’t done weight lifting because I thought I’d look like a man. False ideas.

When you are denied your own personality as a child, and don’t realize that is what is happening because it is still happening, it becomes a spiral of what options do you actually have? You become an open book for others influences to freely write in, because you want to be your own independent self but you don’t even know who or how that person is. So, for a while when I got out of High School I was clinging to others personalities in an attempt to find myself. That’s not a good way of doing it, either.

I lived to please, so when people called me Sunshine, I figured the Sun didn’t wear a lot of black and didn’t act like a man.

Reality check, I was overthinking it.

I should dress and live how I see fit, regardless of the typical aesthetic. Fuck the idea that I have to subscribe to one aesthetic anyways. If I want to own a Bee Hive, a Cottage in the Mountains by the river with a tiny self sustaining garden, all while wearing black alternative outfits that somewhat line the aesthetic of post apocalyptical, then fuck yes I’m going to be a gentle, bright, motorcycle loving, knife wielding, MMA Fighting, Yoga and Meditation doing, soft spoken bad bitch.

Here’s the thing, I haven’t even bought myself clothes this year, because people were literally buying clothes for me. WHICH I AM EXTREMELY GRATEFUL FOR!!!! But, over the weekend I got rid of a lot of those clothes because they restrict my personality, I never wear them or they don’t fit anymore.

After the lengthy conversations, we both agreed that our youthful selves are not finished being fully alive. We didn’t stop being young once we got out of High School, we stopped being young when we started saying we were too old. So, we are starting to set goals together. Getting rid of old clothes was the first step, and we took into consideration that we are still individuals just helping each other accomplish a common goal, so the next step is our physical selves.

The plan is to clean out our storage room and transform it into a self-care/training area. Together, we will start the P90X after work on some days, while I try to keep up with yoga on my off days. This month, being aware of what I eat without the focus of losing weight has helped me actually lose weight. Now, focusing on my workout regime is the goal. Not to lose weight, but to be able to start MMA Fighting Classes.

MMA Fighting is something I started in High School right before going to college, but never finished. It’s something I want to commit to so as to release anger while Yoga will help me process my anger. So, healthy eating to support energy, and healthy workouts! I have also been having more endometriosis pain than usual, so avoiding my health won’t help me!

Spiritual wise, I want to focus on my better self. I want to put more effort into me rather than letting myself go in a world of people who don’t care if my personality exists or not. I want to be open, strong and powerful in what I believe. I want to own my shit, and fuck anyone who wants to stop that type of Sunshine. In the words of Meghan Thee Stallion, “Fuck being good, I’m a bad bitch. I’m sick of motherfuckers tryna tell me how to live.”

I’m inconvenient, and I’m happy with that. I’m not perfect, but I’m a process. I’m not weak and quiet, I’m strong and silent.

This specific post is a reclamation of my power. Somewhere along the road of this shitty adult life, I forgot the beauty in my own power. I’m equal, not less than.

Thank you for reading, if you did. This is, again, one of those things where I am journaling my thoughts, and trying to go over everything in my head without going crazy. If you thought this was annoying, just remember I deleted 5 paragraphs before posting, because I was overthinking and didn’t want to overexplain. (I do everything in copious quantities). If it bothered you, look past my post. If you related, let’s talk about it. All in all, thank you for being alive, darling. I’ll see you later!

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sportsandfitnessinfo · 7 years

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New Post has been published on http://fitnessandhealthpros.com/fitness/who-gets-to-be-fit-working-out-the-intersections-of-fitness/

Who Gets to be Fit? Working out the Intersections of Fitness

As you’ve scoured the Internet throughout the course of your fitness journey, have you ever used the Google image search engine? I know I have. I’ve used it to find pictures of specific muscles and proper lifting form, and even cute fitness attire, among many other things. When we search for images, we are often looking for representative images of that person, object, or idea. We tend to see the top search results as the “truest” or best representations of whatever it is that we’re looking for.

Now, do a Google image search for “fit woman.”

I’ll wait. What do you see?

More than likely, you’re looking at dozens of images reflecting a very similar look.

Now repeat the search with “healthy woman.” Again, you see a very similar and consistent image.

While none of these women are problematic themselves, the problem lies in who is not there and what that says about the way we frame our visions of fitness.

Visual imagery is powerful, particularly in fitness culture. It reflects, perpetuates, and creates norms that we internalize about fitness. If we consistently see images of the same thing, we begin to believe that that recurring image is the standard or the definition. This can be dangerous for those who are taking their first steps toward changing their activity and self-care practices.

Spots are going fast, and it always sells out!

Click to register now!

Intersectionality 101

Feminists, particularly women of color, had been advocating for a more complex analysis of women’s multiple identities for years, but it was black feminist legal scholar Dr. Kimberlé Crenshaw who coined and theorized intersectionality to give meaning to the ways that identities and their oppressions overlap.1 Crenshaw investigated a court case in which a group of black woman argued that because they were both black and women they were unable to access jobs within their company. The judge dismissed their complaint, pointing out that black men were working in the factory and (white) women were working in the front office. What the judge failed to see was how they were being uniquely discriminated against for being both black and women.

Now, imagine an asterisk with many lines. Each of those lines represents one aspect of your identity. These lines will represent, minimally, race, ethnicity, gender, sex, sexuality, age, ability, and religion, to name a few. The point in the center at which all those lines cross is you.

Intersectionality insists that examining women’s experiences through a lens of gender alone is not enough because how we experience womanhood is shaped by these other parts of our identities.

Maybe you’re aware of how you experience all these identities. Maybe not. But, what intersectionality asks us to do is consider how other women might experience those identities in profoundly different ways. While as women we may share some important common experiences, there are so many variables that can potentially make our lives very different from one another.

Intersectionality And Fitness

So, what does intersectionality have to do with fitness? Actually, a lot! How we “see” fitness culture and fit bodies is profoundly shaped by the imagery and advice that dominates magazines covers, advertisements, meal plan suggestions, and fitness routines, as well as by our own lives. Importantly, these dominant messages about fitness also inform the assumptions that are made about what we have access to, our time constraints, what we value, and what we desire for ourselves.

Looking back at the Google image search of “fit woman,” we can see a recurring image of a white woman with low body fat, visible muscles, an hourglass figure, no visible physical disabilities, feminine characteristics, and trendy workout gear, with access to well-equipped gyms. There is a particular aesthetic that is associated with being a fit woman that we have been told represents fitness, and while these women are arguably fit, it renders invisible the multitudes of women who embody fitness but don’t reflect those images in any way.

When we step into a gym, onto the sidewalk for a run, or into a grocery store to buy food for our meal prep, we bring along with us complex identities that influence the choices we make or that determine whether or not we even have those choices. I am profoundly aware of myself as a woman of color when I walk into certain grocery stores, and I am reminded of my own experiences as a formerly poor brown woman who grew up thinking that certain foods, such as fresh cherries, were “white.”

No one in particular said this to me or made me feel this way, but because cherries were expensive, and I lived in a racially tense part of Texas where many of the Latinos I knew were poor, I conflated economic struggle with race. And while it was just a perception, it was still strong and meaningful enough to shape how I saw food and to influence my actual diet. Intersectionality has given me a more complex understanding of how race, class, and food interacted in ways that made certain foods seem inaccessible to me.

Using an intersectional lens to look at my physical environment has also made me more critical about fitness advice. Oftentimes advice columns on how to “get fit on a budget” recommend that women just “strap on those walking shoes and take a walk around your neighborhood!” While this sounds like an enjoyable and low-cost way of exercising, it’s not ideal for neighborhoods where women feel vulnerable to danger or where, in my case, there are inadequate sidewalks and loose dogs. If outdoor exercise is not common in your neighborhood, it’s easy to feel like a spectacle. When my husband, a high school teacher, mentioned to his female student that he enjoyed running at the nearby community park, she asked, “Aren’t you embarrassed?” Clearly for this student, a young Latina, exercising in public made her feel vulnerable and subject to the public gaze.

Examining and Redefining Symbols of Fitness

As many of us who have been in the game for so long know, the bodies we see as symbols of fitness take serious work, time, and resources to achieve.

Simply “wanting it enough” is, quite bluntly, not enough for women with inadequate access to clean resources and good grocery stores; with little control over their physical or home environments; who feel vulnerable as ethnic, sexual, or gender minorities in their fitness space or who have demanding jobs that are physically draining.

Add to this a lack of transportation, the demands of juggling multiple roles as mothers and spouses, or living with disability, and it’s easy to see how the bulk of what is recommended or prescribed has a specific audience in mind and is exploiting the pressures women face to look like the fitness norm.

Something I often hear from my students when I talk about the power of imagery is, “Well, I don’t pay attention to those things. They don’t affect me!” But in her powerful documentary, “Killing Us Softly 4,” feminist scholar Jean Kilbourne reveals that only eight percent of an image’s message is received by the conscious mind.2 This means that we are vastly unaware of the impact an image has on our consciousness!

That is a big deal, because it is at that level of consciousness that we normalize concepts like beauty, health, and race. In other words, we come to see certain representations or ideas as being the “normal” or “right” way to be.

Black women have been blogging about this for years, pointing out how normalizing thin, white bodies can subsequently masculinize black women’s bodies, such as those of Serena Williams and Gabby Douglas. Looking more closely at some of the practices of fitness culture, such as tanning and the “build a better booty” movement, we should think critically about the fact that black women have not always been able to enjoy having bountiful backsides or dark bodies because of sexual and racial stigma. An intersectional approach to fitness reminds us that we can’t divorce race from gender, sexuality, and body type in how we see and shape our (and others’) bodies.

Whose Space Is It, Really?

We often cheer each other on to take up space, but depending on who we are or what we look like, we won’t take up space the same way. For Muslim women, for example, religion and gender intersect in ways that create different experiences of fitness. Wearing clothing or head coverings that comply with their religious beliefs may disqualify them from certain competitions, or may subject them to harassment in spaces that others may find to be welcoming and inclusive.

Queer women and gender nonconforming folks have also expressed feeling alienated, policed, and unsafe in gyms.

Gyms, of all places, should be spaces where patrons feel safe and empowered.

But if you don’t perform femininity in ways that don’t fit the norm, such as by choosing not to shave your underarms, or if you are transgender, you can face hostility.

So what does this mean for all of us? Just looking at the Girls Gone Strong Facebook page, I see a growing representation of diverse women across race, ethnicity, age, sexuality, and ability. We need to continue working toward broadening our ideas of fitness so that they are more inclusive, attainable, and in touch with our identities and lived realities as women. Using intersectionality to understand the differences in our fitness experiences leads to a more inclusive vision in our efforts to build communities and cultures of fitness.

How To Be The Change

Below is a preliminary list of tips for developing and adopting intersectionally minded fitness practices for fitness professionals, and everyone.

Tips for trainers, gym owners, and fitness marketers:

Strive for diverse images and anecdotes in your marketing materials, instructional videos, and fitness literature. Provide a wide representation of race, gender expression, class, ability, and religion.

Ask for your clients’ pronouns and names. Make it a standard part of your sign-up forms. Also consider gender-neutral restrooms and showers.

Ask your clients to describe their environments and come up with a plan for exercising on days they can’t make it to the gym that is sensitive to those environments.

When discussing eating, don’t make assumptions about access to grocery stores and transportation; fresh food is difficult to keep on hand if grocery stores are not close by.

Ask your client what kinds of foods are important to them and that they like to eat. Asking that they avoid a food that is closely linked to their identity may negatively affect their relationship with food. (Read more about giving culturally sensitive nutrition advice in this article by Erika Kendall.)

Beware of clichés! Fitspirational posters urging folks to “move more” might be frustrating for clientele who have disabilities or who work physically demanding jobs, such as hotel housekeepers or manufacturing plant workers.

Make it a point to connect your client with other clients or people in your fitness community with whom they may identify more personally.

Consider a sliding pay scale; if this is not possible for you right now, perhaps create a program where clients with more resources can donate to support clients with financial challenges.

For everyone:

When people of color, queer folks, disabled folks, or other marginalized communities create exclusive spaces to practice fitness, be supportive! There is a reason why they feel it is important to have their own space.

If a friend does not feel comfortable training in a certain gym or space, offer to accompany them or suggest a new place where you can work out together.

Avoid romanticizing others’ bodies: your Latina friend’s “curvy” body, your black friend’s generous behind, or your Asian friend’s lithe frame may be enviable to you but may have complicated histories for them.

Be careful with the language you use to describe body shape: boy-shaped, womanly, and manly are phrases that are not only unscientific, but they can misgender others or can remind others of an identity that they no longer identify with.

Read your favorite fitness magazines and blogs with a critical eye. Asking ourselves questions about what we consume keeps us in control of how media makes us feel or what it encourages us to believe.

Avoid clichés such as “No pain, no gain,” which can be dangerous for those with chronic pain or illness.

Offer to babysit! The lack of childcare can be a major deterrent to going to the gym for women who are mothers.

Be compassionate.

If fitness seems a lot more complicated than it did before—good! Understanding how intersectional identities create difference and shape experience can lead to a more empathetic trainer-client relationship, and can help us engage in our own and each others’ fitness journeys more meaningfully and compassionately.

Save $ 200! Early bird price for the Women’s Strength & Empowerment Weekend ends soon!

The Women’s Strength and Empowerment Weekend, powered by Girls Gone Strong, was designed to create a space for women to rise, teach, lead, learn, and connect with one another. Throughout the weekend you’ll hear from some of the most well-respected women in the world from every facet of the health and wellness industry, from PhDs to Registered Dietitians to top CrossFit athletes, and pre and postnatal fitness and body autonomy experts.

You’ll be surrounded by a group of like-minded, strong women who are there to lift each other up, and help each other become the best version of themselves in a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment.

You will leave the weekend feeling heard, loved, supported, and empowered and most importantly knowing that you have finally found your tribe.

Last year we sold out in just 26 hours, so if you’re interested in attending, click the button below.

Learn more here!

References

Crenshaw, K. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review. 1991. 43:1241-1299.

Kilbourne, J. Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women. The Media Education Foundation. (Study guide here)

Originally at :Girls Gone Strong Written By : Larissa Mercado-Lopez

#Fitness #gets #Intersections #Working

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corneliussteinbeck · 7 years

Text

Who Gets to be Fit? Working out the Intersections of Fitness

Now, do a Google image search for “fit woman.”

I’ll wait. What do you see?

More than likely, you’re looking at dozens of images reflecting a very similar look.

Now repeat the search with “healthy woman.” Again, you see a very similar and consistent image.

While none of these women are problematic themselves, the problem lies in who is not there and what that says about the way we frame our visions of fitness.

Spots are going fast, and it always sells out!

Click to register now!

Intersectionality 101

Intersectionality insists that examining women’s experiences through a lens of gender alone is not enough because how we experience womanhood is shaped by these other parts of our identities.

Intersectionality And Fitness

Examining and Redefining Symbols of Fitness

As many of us who have been in the game for so long know, the bodies we see as symbols of fitness take serious work, time, and resources to achieve.

Whose Space Is It, Really?

Queer women and gender nonconforming folks have also expressed feeling alienated, policed, and unsafe in gyms.

Gyms, of all places, should be spaces where patrons feel safe and empowered.

But if you don’t perform femininity in ways that don’t fit the norm, such as by choosing not to shave your underarms, or if you are transgender, you can face hostility.

How To Be The Change

Below is a preliminary list of tips for developing and adopting intersectionally minded fitness practices for fitness professionals, and everyone.

Tips for trainers, gym owners, and fitness marketers:

Ask for your clients’ pronouns and names. Make it a standard part of your sign-up forms. Also consider gender-neutral restrooms and showers.

Ask your clients to describe their environments and come up with a plan for exercising on days they can’t make it to the gym that is sensitive to those environments.

When discussing eating, don’t make assumptions about access to grocery stores and transportation; fresh food is difficult to keep on hand if grocery stores are not close by.

Make it a point to connect your client with other clients or people in your fitness community with whom they may identify more personally.

Consider a sliding pay scale; if this is not possible for you right now, perhaps create a program where clients with more resources can donate to support clients with financial challenges.

For everyone:

If a friend does not feel comfortable training in a certain gym or space, offer to accompany them or suggest a new place where you can work out together.

Avoid clichés such as “No pain, no gain,” which can be dangerous for those with chronic pain or illness.

Offer to babysit! The lack of childcare can be a major deterrent to going to the gym for women who are mothers.

Be compassionate.

Save $200! Early bird price for the Women’s Strength & Empowerment Weekend ends soon!

We have brought these women together at this event to create a united voice to educate and inspire the Girls Gone Strong community, both fitness professionals and enthusiasts alike. Yes, women of ALL ages, shapes, sizes, races, and ability levels are invited. You’ll be surrounded by a group of like-minded, strong women who are there to lift each other up, and help each other become the best version of themselves in a warm, welcoming, and inclusive environment. You will leave the weekend feeling heard, loved, supported, and empowered and most importantly knowing that you have finally found your tribe. Last year we sold out in just 26 hours, so if you're interested in attending, click the button below.

Learn more here!

References

Crenshaw, K. Mapping the Margins: Intersectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence against Women of Color. Stanford Law Review. 1991. 43:1241-1299.

Kilbourne, J. Killing Us Softly 4: Advertising’s Image of Women. The Media Education Foundation. (Study guide here)

The post Who Gets to be Fit? Working out the Intersections of Fitness appeared first on Girls Gone Strong.

from Blogger http://corneliussteinbeck.blogspot.com/2017/03/who-gets-to-be-fit-working-out.html

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