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Thoughts on strength
Dec. 17th, 2011 11:49 amThis is part of a fundraising letter I got from LAVA (all-female acrobatic company in NYC, for those who don't know).
One day this summer I was wearing a tank top and a man said to me, "Wow, look at those arms. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with you."
It wasn't the first time I had heard this. I said, "I'm not a fighter, I've never been in a fight, and don't know that first thing about fighting. It couldn't be further from my mind." But isn't it interesting how unusual it is for most people to see upper-body strength in a woman -- the kind required by the work we do at LAVA -- and also how much people associate the amassing of strength with aggression or an intent to cause harm?
My strength, and the strength of other members of our growing LAVA community, is gained through practices that include balance, support and connection. Far from using my strength to hit or hurt someone, I use it to hold myself up and to hold others up. I like to imagine how our assumptions about the world might change if we were to stop associating strength with the powers of dominance and destruction and begin to associate strength with the powers of balance and support.
Slightly pretentious but quite thought-provoking. I don't think that I HAVE generally associated physical strength with aggression or the intent to cause harm, but people do -- I've gotten the same "hate to get in a fight with you" style of comment. Maybe it's not until you do acrobatics that you learn that physical strength can hold another person up and keep them safe and let them feel like they're flying.
One day this summer I was wearing a tank top and a man said to me, "Wow, look at those arms. I wouldn't want to get into a fight with you."
It wasn't the first time I had heard this. I said, "I'm not a fighter, I've never been in a fight, and don't know that first thing about fighting. It couldn't be further from my mind." But isn't it interesting how unusual it is for most people to see upper-body strength in a woman -- the kind required by the work we do at LAVA -- and also how much people associate the amassing of strength with aggression or an intent to cause harm?
My strength, and the strength of other members of our growing LAVA community, is gained through practices that include balance, support and connection. Far from using my strength to hit or hurt someone, I use it to hold myself up and to hold others up. I like to imagine how our assumptions about the world might change if we were to stop associating strength with the powers of dominance and destruction and begin to associate strength with the powers of balance and support.
Slightly pretentious but quite thought-provoking. I don't think that I HAVE generally associated physical strength with aggression or the intent to cause harm, but people do -- I've gotten the same "hate to get in a fight with you" style of comment. Maybe it's not until you do acrobatics that you learn that physical strength can hold another person up and keep them safe and let them feel like they're flying.
