Goddess to the Core

by Sierra Bender

[wyvernfriend]

Just started and I'm already being rubbed up the wrong way. Somehow being a warrior isn't feminine.

While there were some good points in this book it's also absolutist. My way or the highway style of thinking. I also wanted a great big "citation please" stamp.

Bender has a vision of femininity, a vision that is absolutist and in many ways offensive. She also picks and chooses tropes and ideas, mostly from "native American" sources without citing the source, or tribe and without respecting the cultural context.

The exercises are offered with medical precautions and to modify them, but often without modifications, the photographs of the yoga positions owe more to art than utility.

An example of the absolutism and a couple of chapters that I wanted the "Citation please" stamp for were on page 254
"Our body has its own off and on switch that tells us what our body needsa and craves. [...]
To turn this switch back on, you must tame the stimulants that affect the nervous system, such as white and wheat flour, white sugar, white potatoes, milk products, too much caffeine, and too much alcohol. All of these foods create mucus that numbs our senses and slows down our energy. Mucus carries bacteria, which affects the immune system - and we wonder why we have such diseases as ADD, obesity, food allergies and addiction. It is this simple: we need to eat foods that clean our body, give us more energy, and are easily digested. If not, your body becomes a toxic dump, leading to disease. You can do all the exercise in the world, but if you do not have a healthy eating plan to go with it, you are defeating the purpose of exercising, so throw in the towel and save yourself the burn."
This is a simplistic view of mucus production and flies in the face of most advice, it's also very, my way or the highway thinking, which I find difficult to swallow.

The spirituality in the book is a mish-mash of cultures with a tinge of similar simplistic thinking and a lack of respect for the cultures she's mining. She mixes yoga, buddhism, ancient Celtic, Hindu, Greek, Roman, Christian and Native American beliefs with abandon and I felt a little uncomfortable with the glib way this was done.

It's good fuel for internal debate but I would explore other texts for more information. Her view of female warriors seems to be more domestic warriors than fighters and to be honest in my world there is place for both.

She did kinda lose me at having to give up coffee...