Friday 31 July 2009

Goddess and Me

I have always been kind of a tom boy. I try to tell myself it is because I have an athletic brother. It is a story I like to tell frequently about how we climbed trees and played in mud. As long as it was possible without embarrassing me I competed with him. Pushed myself to race with him, be strong, unafraid of insects, bugs, firecrackers, and darkness. He is my little brother so I had some time before he shot up to 6 foot plus. After which all my efforts were just attempts at humour at least from his point of view.

But when I was a kid, I could fight. While the other girls and boys fought coquettishly showing the first signs of flirtation, I fought to prove that I was stronger. In hindsight that was of course a very bad idea. By the time I was in my late teens I was no longer in a position to overpower any of them boys who had all grown up to be men but also had no idea about how to be anything but a tom boy.

And truthfully I am not sure if I would have turned out different if I had a sister in his place. Though I believe I am feminine in my own way I cannot relate easily to the mainstream idea of feminine. I cry at the movies but Karan Johar movies frequently make me cringe. I like romance but the idea of a knight in shining armour protecting me, taking care of me seems weak. And it was a bunch of exercise videos that got me thinking about all this.

Since I am lazy as hell and easily bored I adopt a different form of workout every couple of months. My latest is a bunch of exercise videos directed at women. Though I like to believe we women are special advertisements, products that claim “I am worth it" " You are a goddess" only to then take my money and put it firmly in their annual sales typically annoy me. While these exercise videos are tough and very good “total body workout" they have their quirks like all products directed at women.

So instead of squatting and bending I am "reaching down to gather flowers" and in place of stretching side to side I am "throwing the flowers into the air". Also while making me balance on one leg while kicking the other out they insist that this will give me the posture to be more "graceful and poised". Add to that a bunch of ballet inspired steps and it is complete chick flick of an exercise video.

The first couple of times of course I smirked and made smart ass comments for the benefit of my husband. One evening after a mentally exhausting day I switched this thing on for a workout. And as I reached down to gather flowers and then got up to scatter them I felt myself unwinding completely and giving in. When I did my ballet steps and stretched up to feel "tall and beautiful" I could feel the stress leaving my body and a smile on my lips.

Don't get me wrong I still feel most of it is idiotic. But the exercise video took me away from my laptop with emails, my sink full of dishes, and my dinner that had to be cooked to a place where I was just stretching and chucking flowers. As silly as that might be perhaps that is the point. I had been looking at it wrong and taking the whole thing oh so seriously. Maybe all I needed to do is to take it with a liberal pinch of salt. Maybe it is the silliness that makes this video and all "goddess" products actually worth our while. And while I will fight against the popcorn idea of feminine till my last breath I know I have lots of place for silliness in my life :).

I am considering starting a food blog in place of the recipe section. What do you think?

7 comments:

balai said...

Although we get the picture of you floating in the air...flowers falling all around; a video of your workout would have made a great companion to this wonderfully written post :)

Miss M said...

Hehe wait, did I read it right.. your work out is something to do with throwing flowers around and the picking them up? Hehe it is SO funny and innovative! Really. Am hearing about this for the first time! :D I think I am less feminine and more masculine than you regarding this.. I would've never chosen a workout exercise that includes flowers.

When I was in 4th std, my class teacher told my mom, "your daughter is a tomboy", and I think I still am. I'm really not sure whether that's a good thing or a bad thing.

stringOfPearls said...

Balaji - A video would be most unflattering :). Thank you for your comments
Miss M - The workout is great though. Very very effective. Flowers or not I would recommend it

No food blog recommendations? Sigh ...

Miss M said...

Oh yes! Start with your food blog! I have always ALWAYS loved food blogs. So please do go ahead and start one of your own. :D

Anonymous said...

Just stumbled on your blog from God knows where...

Lovely post. But truly, I still hate stuff catered for just girls - just cannot relate somehow. I feel it is just another way for society to put us in the "feminine and delicate" box, when so many of us are anything but!

Unknown said...

Food blog is a great idea! I bookmark all your recipes and have tried some of them with very positive results.

stringOfPearls said...

Nishitak - thank you for the kind words

Charu - nahi re i am postponing. I spent some time looking at other food blogs and figured for now I should stick to following food blogs :)

A Woman Second

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