Coyos

An article by Kate Spicer in the London Sunday Times announced that a new social type has emerged: “the cocaine yogi.” Strangely, the writer did not take inspiration from words like “Boho” and “Bobo” to come up with the obvious coinage, “Coyo.” Anyway, the Coyo likes to take drugs and party—and then atone for it with yoga and healthy food. These poor souls follow “a punishing regime of feast and famine, detox and retox, binge and purge” (Robert Downey Junior, a Bikram practitioner, is apparently the ultimate Coyo). Several things annoy me about this article, but the most annoying is the idea that yoga practice and healthy food constitute “redemptive hell.” The writer seems to think that they are just something people do to offset the effects of too many martinis. I practice yoga every day and I’m a vegetarian who eats mostly organic food. This lifestyle is not hell, but rather a wonderful privilege. I also commit plenty of weekend sins—but yoga is not my way of atoning for them.