Tags
Bullying, cyber-harassment, cyber-stalking, Elephant Journal, harassment, Racism, sleazy, Waylon Lewis
Feel free to download this badge and display it on your own blog!
*steps up on soap box*
For more reasons than I can count, I’ve never been a fan of Elephant Journal or it’s so-called Editors.
Personally, I can’t understand why that site has a high readership (so they say) when for the most part, the quality of the articles is low. There are exceptions, but not too many.
On top of that, the site often objectifies women and uses sleazy headlines to create controversy and drive comments. Any time someone makes this criticism, the response is always “what do you mean?” or worse – some form of personal attack.
My first inkling that Elephant Journal even existed was when Waylon Lewis set me up in a ridiculous article designed to goad me into making comment. Oh, it wasn’t that harsh, but the intent was there. That resulted in my first ever guest post over on Linda’s blog: “I don’t know how old yoga is and neither do you” (part 1 and part 2).
Even then, I realised something was off in Elephant Journal-land and I didn’t want to play the game. So I didn’t post my reply on Waylon’s site – Linda and I did it our way instead.
Mostly, I simply ignore Elephant Journal. I don’t read it. It’s not in my RSS and I never go there unless someone I know asks me to look at a specific article (usually in disbelief/outrage at its contents).
So why am I writing this post?
It’s because Waylon’s latest bad behaviour caused a yogi named Chelsea to write this post:
Sometimes it is Not “All Good”: How Yoga Teaches Me to Speak My Truth
I urge you to read Chelsea’s post and the reader comments, and then make up your own mind.
Oh, and while Chelsea doesn’t link to it in her post, this is the follow up piece by Waylon that is nothing more than a nasty and unnecessary personal attack on her. (Web archive of the article is here).
This is far from the first and probably won’t be the last of Waylon’s very bad manners and poor behaviour. And in case you’re wondering, yes, there’s way more to this story than my initial contact and Chelsea’s story than I’m saying. But those aren’t my stories to tell.
Of course, there’s a lot of crap going on in this world and if we paid attention to it all we’d probably explode.
But sometimes you’ve gotta make a stand. Well, I do anyway. Once I saw a guy smacking his girlfriend around and I went over and intervened (not thinking of my own safety). It’s just how I’m wired.
Importantly: how will people get it through their thick skulls that certain actions and behaviours aren’t okay with others unless someone (or multiple someones) speaks up?
So this is me speaking up. In this particular instance, I didn’t feel like it was okay to passively sit by and not get involved.
Hence the “This blog is an Elephant Journal-free zone” badge I’ve just created and that will now be proudly displayed on the right hand side column of this blog for as long as I write it, linking back to this post.
I also invite anyone who also feels the same way to post it on your own blog.
More on this debacle from others:
- From Chelsea: Yoga for All People: An Open Letter to “W”
- From Linda: Enough’s enough
- From Nathan: Elephant Journal’s Got Issues
~ Svasti
P.S. Waylon if you’re reading this, feel free to make however many attacks you like against me. Publish derogatory blog posts, write rude and obnoxious things about me. I don’t care. You can’t touch me. I’m not changing my mind about you unless you show a significant turn-around in the way you behave and the way that Elephant Journal operates. Until then, this blog will always and forever be an Elephant Journal-free zone.
*jumps down from soap box and skips off into happier territory*
Svasti: A Journey From Assault To Wholeness 
I wrote a response to all of this on my blog.
http://dangerousharvests.blogspot.com/2011/08/elephant-journals-got-issues.html
It’s really disappointing how poorly all that was handled on EJ.
Thanks Nathan, your post is really wonderful. I appreciate your point of view, and that you’ve linked your post with this one. Cheers!
Coming over from Natan’s site and just want to say I’m saddened to learn that Elephant Journal has a history of this behavior.
Yes! You rule.
Yep, will be thinking about this all day- I agree w you Svasti.
took the words right out of my mouth. you rule
Kali Grrls rock…..
i’ve been thinking. that we all should take a different kind of stance.
ignore it.
don’t visit it.
don’t talk about it
don’t feed the troll.
because the editor thrives on controversy. it’s just fuel for his fire/ego. when someone’s ego is SO bat-shit whack, the worse thing you can do to him is pretend he does not exist.
just a thought.
I know what you mean. I was loathe to include a link to EJ but in this case, it’s warranted.
But seriously, as I said, sometimes you’ve just gotta take a stand, point at the crappy things going on and say, look over there!!
EJ has done many, many crappy things before this and I’m sure it won’t be the last time either. But it’s like standing up to the class bully – it has to be done.
Glad you like the badge! 😉
Yoga is being sold to the highest bidder … and the bidder has built-in/at-the-ready biases.
I had thought EJ could help me with supporting my primarily home practice and simple quest for knowledge …
But it seems it’s all young people competing against each other, trying to connect to each other, Asian-against-black, trendy-against-trend challenged …
I learn nothing from EJ except how to waste my time …
that being said, i like your stamp. and i might also use it. i’m a bit torn.
Pingback: enough’s enough | linda's yoga journey
Hi — I’m here via Linda’s blog, trying to tamp down a brushfire before it spreads.
She quoted a comment of mine on Google+, on a posting discussing this posting. It was intended as an ironic jab at the kind of belittling language you and others have been experiencing here. I’m with you 100% on this matter.
I apologize for any hurt I’ve inadvertently caused. I’ve been corresponding with Nella Lou for a quite a while and trusted her to understand my comment as I intended it, but it didn’t occur to me that it was, in fact, public.
Simply put, I do not think you’re a humorless feminazi prat. I think the people who call you a humorless feminazi prat are asshats, and I’m really happy there’s finally some social penalty for their asshattery.
Thanks.
Petteri, I had already removed the reference so I deleted your comments and mine. easier that way.
Okay, glad to have that cleared up. Thanks!
Bwahahahaha! Someone or several someones consider me a “humorless feminazi prat”? Fantastic! Hahahahaha!!
I suppose what we’re all learning is that Google+ conversations aren’t as private we might’ve thought…
I think the video is disgusting. There’s nothing funny about it. Making fun of people is not funny and coming from someone or some group calling themselves buddhists or yogis is simply incredible.
Then later they have the nerve of displaying on their site that map. What kind of people are they? Don’t you have any common sense anymore? Any respect? Anything goes nowadays? Bless people who take a stand against this type of behaviour. It means we are not alone!
OK so having never read EJ in my life (no headline of any article anyone has ever shared from that site has ever appealed to me enough to be bothered to click), I thought I’d head over and have a look-see as to what the craic was.
And lo! Twas awful.
How many people subscribe to this site? And why? Jeez!
Your first instinct was right all along 😉
i gots my badge. looks real pretty 🙂
Nice work!! 🙂
svasti, I think it’s very interesting that W has chosen to respond to Nathan’s blog and not our posts AND that he has tried to recruit a well-known yoga teacher over to his side in an attempt to “defend” himself against us.
actions speak louder than words, eh?
comes off a bit pitiful and sad…..
Misogyny has many faces…
Svasti, I remember when W used Linda-sama’s words without permission, and even before then I had found EJ hard to read. I’ve reached a point in the past 2 years where I can no longer stand the kind of casual, brainless, and selfish -isms that so many with privilege throw around with no concern for who they hurt. EJ often had articles that made me uncomfortable and so I never wasted more time reading it.
I am not at all surprised to hear of the current issue but I am disgusted and frustrated. Chelsea handled the issue beautifully, and I thank you for introducing me to her blog!
I have a very small blog that I am infrequent in posting to but I shall be using your badge. Thanks for making it.
i have been catching up with all of this as i have avoided EJ for years just because it always seemed like i was watching “entertainment tonight.” you know that feeling…..anyhoo, i have discovered a lot of cool people in the blogosphere because of this. and i also feel pretty strongly about the badge. if you have a blog, put it up. (unless you support EJ)-but don’t blame any writers. i like a few people who write for it-like claudia.
@bindifry, I was able to stick it on my page, too—finally. It took much doing. To put it on my blog proper, it would have had to have been my avatar, My current blog site is plenty inflexible because it has too may training wheels … well, the badge is prominent enough …
Marry me.
Love, Lo 😀
Good work everyone – there is more here too:-
Elephant Journals and Amerian Idols
http://yogawiki.co/Main/AYogaBook/ElephantJournalsAmericanIdols
Thank you – Im young (21) so I know I dont have much wisdom but Im finding it. I used to think that Elephant Journal was a great source – but then all the thinspo pictures posing as yoga images really started to bother me. I had an experience which one might call mystical where I realized the poison in the new age movement. Their readership is so high because people like to think that theyre better than others, and practicing things such as yoga, meditation, and organic eating does that for some. Now we have people lost in their own heads, feeling sanctimonious, and spending more time and money on yoga than they do on charitable giving, volunteering, or relationships. Im trying to figure out who sponsors Elephant Journal, and I thought it interesting that the process for unsubscribing from them was the same as yoganonymous. IDK maybe they just use the same software or whatever – but maybe theres a bit of the devil (using term lightly) in these sights. Brainwash is everywhere and psychological warfare is a thing. How does one protect themselves?
i just started following elephant journal on fb. nothing really struck me as good or bad yesterday, when all their stories started filling my feed, but then this morning i clicked on a story, and it tried to get me to pay money to read the story. i thought it might be an error, so i clicked through many different stories, none of which i could read without separately creating an account and paying $. is it just my lack of experience or is this just ridiculous?!? i know sites like the new york times? and other major media outlets charge to view their website, but they make articles available to anyone when they post on fb. anyone else experience this awfully insane practice?
Nope they want your money to fill your head with their nonsense. It’s now 2021 and that idiot Waylon is being so divisive and inflammatory it’s disgusting that he even calls his magazine “mindful.” Totally laughable.
I was JUST about to pay for a year membership to Elephant, and something told me to check it out on google first. I found this and a few other blogs about it, and I’m SO glad I did not give any money to that site. Thank you for posting this. Seriously.
While the old elephantjournal article has been removed, it has also been preserved here: https://web.archive.org/web/20130209165936/http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/08/map-designed-to-be-offensive-to-everyone-on-the-planet/
Whoever manages the EJ Facebook page is a prick. I commented once on an article about the title being clickbait, and I was immediately banned from commenting on and “liking” EJ’s posts.
Elephant Journal promoting incest –
http://www.elephantjournal.com/2011/10/confessions-of-an-incest-survivor-it-wasnt-all-bad/
– the kind of male fantasy mongering common among men’s magazines, but this one attempts to persuade readers that multiple class A felonies can actually be pleasurable for the victims. Do not believe for an instant that this article is genuine testimony from a female incest survivor. There is no ‘Sister Shamu’ – just a picture of a pretty woman amid several other pictures of pretty women, only this one is presumed to be saying that she enjoyed being incested as a child. And finishing off a defence of the systematic hunting down, enslavement, violation and torture of children in the ‘home’ with a claim of being against paedophilia (after saying that paedophilia was fun for the victim) – that isn’t even logical. Have no doubt, all decent people. This is the enemy.
THANK YOU! I cannot stand Waylon Lewis and his posts on his Facebook lately have been so divisive and inflammatory it’s laughable he thinks he’s so “mindful”. He’s a shill and people who follow him are gullible dupes.