Yoga on the D.C. Subway Tracks? It’s a “Selfie” Culture Run Amok

 By Stewart J. Lawrence

Professional photographers are known to go just about anywhere to try to get a revealing shot of an interesting subject. But when the subject is your wife, and she’s just hopped on to the railroad tracks at a busy Washington, DC-area subway stop to practice yoga, you might think twice about whether it’s a good idea to encourage her folly by joining her with your camera.

That was certainly my reaction when I read the news late last month that a local yoga devotee, Holly Bentley, had been caught conducting an impromptu photo shoot on the subway tracks at the Falls Church metro station last December 12th. Her brazen act of trespassing was recorded on a surveillance video of the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA) and turned over to D.C. police, who are deciding whether to charge Bentley and her shutterbug husband with a crime. NBC4-TV first reported the incident April 24, which caused a minor uproar on Twitter.  Even Jennilyn Carlson, publisher of the online site Yogadork, who is normally a cheerleader for all-things-yoga to her roughly 150,000 weekly readers, felt compelled to issue a public statement urging other yogis not to follow Bentley’s example.

Amazingly, Bentley expresses genuine surprise that anyone might consider her extended photo shoot on the metro “dangerous.” She regularly posts her yoga “selfies” – most of them shot in unusual and out-of-the-way settings -- on her Instagram page. In a relatively short period, she’s attracted more than 3,000 followers. Apparently, you can’t keep your eager fans happy -- or advance your reputation – by posting yet another shot of yourself doing a handstand on a lake or a hilltop. You have to up the ante – and take some additional risk, however ill-advised.

In fact, Bentley is not the first yogi to cause a stir of late by engaging in what many consider dangerous yoga stunts. Last September an aspiring actress and model, Rachele Brooks Smith, struck a precarious one-legged pose on the ledge of a high-rise building and posted a 30-second video of her exploits on You Tube.   Many yogis reacted with a mixture of disdain and horror, suggesting that Smith was putting her life at risk merely to create a splash and a bigger name for herself “I am so tired of seeing all of these yoga fanatics trying to do poses off of cliffs and other unsafe backdrops just to ‘Instagram’ it,” one yoga critic said.

Another notorious “selfie” addict is Hilaria Baldwin, wife of actor Alec Baldwin, who met her future husband when he ventured into her yoga class. She’s been widely criticized for posting photos of herself practicing yoga in high heels, and in all sorts of uncomfortable and dangerous positions, including while hanging from the rooftop of her mansion. Last year, she posed in a headstand atop railroad tracks somewhere in rural New York, prompting more criticism. Amazingly, when asked about her motives, Baldwin claimed: “My intention is to promote health and encourage you to care for your body.”

Apparently, not all yogis think Baldwin and Smith are “extremists.” In fact, there is a strong current of opinion that applauds these women for pushing the envelope and crossing the boundaries of what’s considered “acceptable” behavior for a yogi – and a woman. And while some may object that such daredevil exhibitionism distracts attention from yoga’s traditional focus on interiority and spiritual development, commercial industry is prepared to reward yogis that display callisthenic prowess and daring, however quirky or extreme. Baldwin and Smith, like other pop yoga and fitness celebrities, have done very well for themselves financially, and Bentley, who’s still a newbie, may well have bigger plans for herself, too.  

And therein lay the problem: All this high-risk behavior and the ensuing buzz and controversy over it turn out to be good for business but bad for the public, especially the WMATA which would like to instill greater safety awareness among metro riders. Suicides on the metro have reached an alarming level in recent years. And in the past six months, the number of incidents of people deciding to trespass onto the tracks, sometimes to retrieve pieces of property, but other times out of idle curiosity, or to search for mischief, has mushroomed.  In this setting, the last thing the WMATA needs is for anyone with a public following – and the halo of spiritual acceptance that a practice like yoga provides -- to engage in reckless acts of bravado that might encourage others, especially impressionable youngsters, to engage in similar acts of disrespect and defiance.

There’s a deeply disturbing irony here. Yoga claims to offer its practitioners a longer, safer and healthier life – and one of its core principles, “ahimsa,” calls on them to avoid placing others or themselves in harm’s way.  But the status-seeking and glamour that define so much of today’s yoga lifestyle have weakened observance of these principles. Bentley and her husband are full-grown adults and presumably members of families with siblings or younger relatives, yet they seem blithely unaware of the poor example their behavior sets, or the genuine threat it might pose to others, as well as themselves. 

Can you imagine other would-be healing professionals -- doctors, nurses, or even other practitioners of Eastern medicine, such as acupuncturists – conducting themselves in such a devil-may-care fashion?  Not if they expected to retain their jobs or licenses, I suspect.

Personally I’d love to see Bentley and her husband in a televised public service announcement in which they urge WMATA commuters to use the subway for its intended purpose, and to abide by all safety guidelines. But DC police might also consider “throwing the book” at them, sending a signal to other yoga “selfie” hounds that might be tempted to place private whimsy above public safety.  For an unregulated industry that often seems to be twisting and bending out of control, the message would likely reverberate nationwide like a noisy cautionary “Om.”