Tuesday, November 22, 2011

Ayn Rand Meets Yoga?

Some folks in the North American yoga community are quite unhappy with yoga clothing company Lululemon's current advertising campaign referencing Ayn Rand, a darling amongst a certain cross section of conservatives. Here is one of a number of posts on the blog Yoga Dork about this issue.

I don't have a lot of time today, but this is one of the points I made on the original post.

the fact that a a company like Lululemon has become so synonymous with yoga practice that it’s silly bags are actually in need of commentary demonstrates how far much of the modern yoga world has sunk. I long for the day when this company and it’s overpriced products is a barely remembered footnote amongst yoga practitioners. But I doubt that will be anytime soon, given how strongly a foothold consumerism has over us all.


Another point that might be useful to make is that it's foolish to expect a corporation in this day and age to uphold yogic values, even if they claim to do so. Certainly, a small percentage of larger companies are making a good faith effort to be more responsible to their communities and the planet, but I'd place a big emphasis on the word "small."

5 comments:

Eco Yogini said...

you've got it- the fact that we even are bothered by this means that Lululemon (unconsciously or not) affects north american yoga. boo that.

Brikoleur said...

Good lord. What next? A rakusu with "Greed is good" embroidered on it (in golden thread, naturally?)

Nathan said...

"A rakusu with "Greed is good" embroidered on it (in golden thread, naturally?)"

I'd like to hand these out to fortune 500 CEO's.

Ben said...

It sucks too that "who is John Galt" seems to play an important part of the "Atlas Shrugged" movie that's being promoted right now...

Nathan said...

Hmm - maybe that's the link - trying to piggyback off the movie. I tried reading Atlas Shrugged, but after 250 pages decided it was a better doorstop than a novel.