Yoga Instructor Named Katchie Ananda Responds to Mr. Timothy Villareal Re: “Transgender Ideology”
Editor’s Note: A feature last month, “‘Transgender Ideology’: Does It Erase Women?”, in which DailyClout contributor Ora Nadrich interviewed former birth worker Ms. Isabella Martin, elicited a storm of controversy.
DailyClout reader Mr. Timothy Villareal wrote to us, taking issue with the crux of Ms. Martin’s argument; that “transgender ideology” erased the positive presence of women in public spaces. Mr. Villareal wrote a rebuttal to Ms. Martin, in which he expressed his disappointment at what he felt was her erasure of transgender people.
Now another voice has spoken out in response to Mr. Villareal’s letter. This one is from international yoga teacher Ms. Katchie Ananda. She was another guest of Ms. Nadrich’s. Ms. Nadrich interviewed Ms. Ananda subsequent to her interview with Ms. Martin, and Ms. Ananda described her view about how “transgender ideology” was bringing turmoil to the world of Yoga.
From Ms. Ananda’s Letter:
“DailyClout can bring social healing, compassion, and wisdom by
interviewing these important voices.
As I see it, DailyClout’s mission is to be a truth teller, stand for reality and
liberty and say what other platforms don’t dare to utter. In our time, where
compassion and kindness have been weaponized against people,
DailyClout has an important function and purpose, which is to speak the
truth.”
Ms. Ananda quoted from Mr. Villareal’s letter as follows:
“In her interview with Ora Nadrich, doula Isabella Malbin manifests, sadly,
the gross anti-intellectualism that is so prevalent in much of the podcasting
atmosphere of our time.”
Ms. Ananda responded:
“This is a typical argument made by some men, who don’t like when women
talk or organize amongst themselves and divert from the current orthodoxy
of what these men think is right. And if women do disagree, they are
accused of being hysterical or anti-intellectual.”
Ms. Ananda lifts out another quote from Mr. Villareal:
“Ms. Malbin had an unfortunate experience in her volunteer group of
progressive ‘woke’ doulas, formed an impression about what all
transgender persons must think and believe, and has shared this view with
an interviewer, Ora Nadrich, who seems supportive, with whom she can
commiserate via Zoom.”
Ms. Ananda continued:
“This is not about an isolated, merely “unfortunate” incident. What we are
currently seeing is a groundswell of a grassroots movement, led by female
humans, who are fed up with the gaslighting and pushback on the large-scale
erasure of our sex-based rights. It might be news for Mr. Villareal, but
women will not fade quietly into the night and will continue to fight for reality
and to have a voice.”
The next quote Ms. Ananda took out of Mr. Villareal’s letter is as follows:
“While the interviewer and interviewee fretted over whether they and all
women are being erased, I cannot help but wonder how our transgender
brothers and sisters, who come from all walks of life and points of view,
must have felt erased by a distinctly non-mindful, linear conversation
between two individuals that culminated with an intimation that transgender
people are more likely to be mass shooters; an absurd intimation made in
societal context wherein grievance killings from all ideological and
psychological strands are tragically commonplace.”
Ms. Ananda responded:
“From his lofty height, Mr. Villareal can not see that the two women “fretting” is
just the tip of the iceberg, nor can he recognize that these women should
be commended for having the courage to speak up, since there are dire
consequences for doing so.
Let’s be clear: nobody wants to erase transgender
people—this trope has been a sleight of hand perpetuated in the media ad
absurdum. When women say that we don’t want male bodies in female
sports, we do not say that they shouldn’t play sports (as it is most often
portrayed). It means that we would like to keep female sports for female
people because we fought hard for that in the first place.
We are witnessing a general confusion, especially among our youth, which
is made worse by giving them powerful drugs that do not make the mental
health issues they experience go away.
This is not about whether self-identified trans individuals have the right to full civil rights in our civic society. Of course, they do and I’d be the first to fight those battles with them, shoulder to shoulder. This is about whether people can change sex and the answer is no, they can’t. Sex is written into every cell of the human body and while we may change some of the secondary sex characteristics, we cannot change our embodied biological realities in which our lives are inextricably bound, and which will ALWAYS inform our lived experience.
We can’t place ourselves above nature and it is hubris to think that we could.
We must be willing to speak clearly and unambiguously, just as Rosa Parks did on December 1, 1955, in Montgomery Alabama when she was told to vacate her bus seat. Rosa Parks answered as a black woman and simply said “No.”
Women all over the world are saying “No” to this agenda to erase our sex-based reality and the rights upon which it is based.”
Katchie Ananda is a yoga and dharma teacher who has been teaching full-time since
1991. She was certified in Integral, Jivamukti, Anusara, and Ashtanga yoga by Richard
Freeman. A committed student of Vipassana meditation, she has practiced with teacher of mindfulness, Jack
Kornfield since 2001 and is certified to teach by him.
The co-founder/director of Yoga Sangha, a former beloved yoga center in San
Francisco, Katchie has been offering training and workshops worldwide.
Her leadership in yoga has inspired many people over the years and she volunteered at
San Quentin prison, teaching yoga and dharma to long-term inmates.
She has brought her teachings and stories all over the world and is loved by her
students for her humor and authenticity.
She lives in the USA with her husband Joshua and dog Naya www.katchieananda.com
and can be reached at Katchie.ananda@gmail.com
There are almost no platforms upon which this important debate, along with debates about other issues, are featured. We at DailyClout take pride in offering a forum for this kind of cutting-edge, substantive debate. Do you agree with Ms. Ananda? Or with Mr. Villareal?
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