The brawny machismo of yesteryear has returned with full vengeance as politicians and billionaires have been flexing, preening and most ironically, fist-pumping to YMCA, a song noted for decades as a gay anthem. Even Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Meta, lamented the loss of “masculine energy” and sported a new boyish buffy-ness on Joe Rogan’s podcast. After being pardoned for Jan. 6, Enrique Tarrio, stands at the ready with brute force claiming, “success is going to be retribution.”
Muscular power is behind a blitzkrieg of executive orders that freed criminals, defied existing laws and intentionally targeted women, legal immigrants and the LGBTQ+ community. Ramped up and unchecked testosterone resides at the heart of what has been labeled toxic masculinity, which we can use as long as we don’t say male-dominated, which is now a banned word on National Science Foundation grant applications. Toxic masculinity is the unbalanced reliance on and reverence for muscular power – which often turns to violence when unnecessarily called into action.
I’m feeling the urge to bulk-up for a David and Goliath fight. But wait! As an embodied practitioner in yoga and dance, I need to prepare my body in a manner doesn’t turn my anger inward and resonates with my values.
I skipped the inauguration and instead re-read Martin Luther King’s famous Letter from the Birmingham Jail, a treatise on non-violent resistance. He advocates four steps: “…collection of the facts to determine whether injustices are alive, negotiation, self-purification, and direct action.” I am intrigued with the third step, “self-purification,” as both a physical and spiritual practice. King asks a chilling question, “Are you able to accept blows without retaliating?
Fight or flight are primal bodily instincts. How does one accept the blows without retaliation? The martial art form of Aikido provides a clue, emphasizing Ki, which is the binding force of our mind and body. Using circular energy, they draw the opponent in through centripetal energy and eject them effectively through centrifugal force.
This is done through multiple systems of the body– muscular, skeletal, respiratory, neurological, circulatory, etc. Each system embraces a type of intelligence unique to its gifts; muscles provide power, the respiratory system calms through breath, the heart nurtures our cells, the mind analyzes and discerns. All these systems work all the time, but when the “thinking” of one of these systems dominate we become unbalanced.
I look back. As a dancer, I relied entirely on the strength of my muscles during a career that demanded a high level of athleticism. My stallion-like muscles launched me into the air thousands of times. But after 20 years of dancing professionally, overuse of muscular power led to injuries. I was powering all actions with too much force. I turned to energetic healers to restore and re-train.
In the 1950’s somatic educator, Mabel Elsworth Todd, challenged physical education theorists by positing that cultivating an attentive mind was just as important as flexing muscles because the neurological system sequenced the muscles to fire in the most powerful yet efficient manner. Mindfulness was key. While dancers still augment dancing with specific strength training, dance training now focuses more intently on attentiveness, which has led to healthier bodies and longer careers.
In the 60s, the founders of Contact Improvisation, Steve Paxton and Nancy Stark Smith, wanted to change the paradigm of stereotypical gender roles in partnering. Instead of lifting a partner with sheer physical strength, they learned to re-direct their partner’s center of gravity over their center of gravity. Eventually, a small person could throw a big person over their head. Women felt the power of their own strength and men got to experience the ecstasy of flight. Both men and women benefited physically and emotionally from a more expansive view of strength.
All these complex skills of partnering require a curious mind to conduct a coordinated sequence of movements, which enhances flexibility and adaptability. Any athlete, whether a brutish 300-pound football player or a feisty, quick-footed boxer knows this to be true. Muscular strength is not bad; a good sweaty workout furthers our well-being and is necessary in protecting oneself. But hopefully, with maturity, we balance our chosen bodily affinity and we find the Ki necessary to turn the opponent in on themselves.
Rants against toxic masculinity can make even the gentlest bros want to throw a punch. Savvy marketing by MAGA has celebrated domineering and violent macho strength, capitalizing on the pain many men have felt, who want to be a protector and valued for their strength. Masculinity should be valued, but truly being a protector means balancing muscular power with a heart and taking on the role of responsible manhood.
Hopefully, this administration will self-destruct from its over-reliance on muscular power before it tears apart the Constitution. Right now, lawyers are at the forefront of the fight, but in the coming volatile years, resistance will be needed from everyone who believes in democracy, whether it means volunteering for non-profits or being on the front lines of a march.
I still don’t know if I can resist the temptation of retaliation if a blow came my way, but in the coming volatile years, whether one adopts weightlifting, martial arts, yoga, tai chi, running, walking, swimming, meditation or dancing, it is critical to engage in mindful self-care that hones the whole human – muscles, brains, heart, soul, breath and spirit.
