The Feminist Yogi: Reconciling a Problematic Sexist Culture and The Practice of Yoga

The Feminist Yogi:

Reconciling A Problematic Sexist Culture and The Practice Of Yoga

Abbie Levesque

Lesley University

Introduction

The vision of Yoga as a practice in the West is a heavily gendered one. That is, Yoga is considered a practice for women. But even in the women-dominated sphere of Western Yoga, there are patriarchal complications that take away from what many women consider their “safe space.” The question of how Yoga can again serve as a safe space and feminist practice was best phrased by Heyes when she asked “Western fitness activities are too often presented as cultivating a uniform and conforming body. How might yoga, as it can be practiced in the West, function against these trends to offer a form of embodied care of the self that moves us into freedom?” (2003) That is, we as women who practice yoga must ask what parts of yoga are problematic to feminist ideals and what the yoga community must do to change this. I have been a practitioner of yoga for five years, and a staunch feminist for just as long. As such, I have personally observed the harmful patriarchal structures that have become a part of the yoga community, and how those structures hurt the women who practice it.

Defining Third Wave Feminism

Feminism has many branches and waves. For the purpose of clarity, one must define the terms of what feminism means in context. Modern day feminism is usually put under the branch of “Third Wave Feminism” as opposed to first and second wave feminism, which are associated with women gaining suffrage, and gaining equal rights in education and in the workplace. Third Wave feminism focuses on intersectionality, which is the recognition of class, race, and sexuality on feminism, and on issues such as patriarchal structures such as the glass ceiling and body image issues. It also works towards making the feminine be seen as equal to the masculine, instead of women having to adapt to the patriarchal structures to gain respect and power.  (Stanford 2012)

As a movement, there are many divides. Herein, women will refer to any person who chooses to identify as such- this includes any trans individuals. Third Wave feminism does not deem the masculine as inherently bad, but the patriarchy as inherently harmful and oppressive. By living within the patriarchy, Third Wave feminism upholds that women are oppressed in several ways. First, they are objectified, and viewed as sexual objects. They are their for the pleasure of men, regardless of their own intents or desires. For example, women are often told to smile more, or else they look “bitchy.” They may also be told that they “look prettier when they smile.” This disregards that perhaps the woman does not want to smile, and owes no one her smile. She is, in the male mind, an object for his viewing pleasure. Secondly, women and feminine actions are viewed as lesser than men and their masculine actions. For example, a women may enjoy buying and putting on makeup, or like shoes. These things are considered feminine and bring value judgements about the women who do them: that they are dumb, vain, or shallow. In reality, liking makeup, shoes, or other feminine things does not make someone dumb, vain, or shallow. It simply makes them a person who likes those things- conversely, we do not apply the same kind of judgement to men who keep well groomed, or have hobbies such sports or going to gym. Overcoming the demonization of the feminine and allowing women to derive power not just from masculine actions, but from feminine ones as well is vital to the Third Wave. A large part of modern day feminism focuses on this and the sexualization and objectification of women. (Stanford 2012)

The products of patriarchal culture show their faces in ugly ways. It’s worth noting that of the 8 million people who suffer from eating disorders, “90-95% of these are women” (Lintott, 2003 as cited in Douglass, 2009). It would be difficult to not conflate the heavily gendered nature of eating disorders with the objectification and sexualization of women’s bodies. if a man is not good looking, he may have other redeeming qualities. And men are more easily considered good looking without having a perfect body. But for women, their inherent value to men is in how sexually pleasing they look. Essentially women are taught through the patriarchy that if they are not good looking and thin, they are valueless to society. This holds true even in the world of yoga, and has since it’s inception. Notably, “The gender divide established at the dawn of modern physical culture between regimens aiming at (masculine) strength and vigor on one hand and those that sought to cultivate (feminine) grace and ease of movement on the other persists throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first” (Singleton 1972). This gender dichotomy is problematic for feminist who want to do yoga. It seeks largely to cultivate grace and a fit body, and much of the culture and media that surround it objectify and sexualize the women who practice it. In order to fully build yoga as a safe space for women to reap the spiritual, therapeutic, and physical benefits as well as cleanse it of its possibly harmful effects, there must be a profound change in how the Western Yoga culture treats the women who practice it.

The Inherent Misogyny of Western Yoga

Western Yoga is largely considered a women’s practice, but the culture surrounding it is built out of patriarchal ideas, some of which are inherently harmful to women. Often, spirituality based practices, or practices that are aimed towards women seem to be exempt from feminist critique, as it’s said to either be a part of a foreign culture and therefore wrong to critique, a religious practice and therefore exempt from critique, or not possibly harmful because its target audience is women. But one must remember that “The irreducibility of the phenomenon does not mean, however, that the historic

element can be ignored. A religious phenomenon acquires its most complete meaning when set within the totality of the sacred and the historical” (Gleig 2012). That is, when looking at yoga as a spiritual, physical, and therapeutic practice, it is even more necessary to observe the history and culture to gain a more complete meaning of its positive and sacred parts.

One of the first misogynistic practices that was and is contributing to the harmful aspects is its obsession firstly with being a “boys club” and secondly with the body. Singleton makes note of the obsession with both from as early as the 1930’s and 1940’s when he talks about Balsekar, saying that his book on yoga “juxtaposed... a series of glamour shots of the semi- or fully naked author in various heroic postures. The message is clear: through yoga, one can develop a body such as this” (Singleton 1972). It’s important to note that the initial culture of yoga was completely free of women- they only came into the practice when it began to combine with harmonial gymnastics and dance (Singleton 1972). This attitude that only men can be allowed to achieve physical and spiritual perfection and obsession with strength and dominance may seem harmless, but in putting men above women, and building a culture of male dominance, there is direct harm done to women, as Sayers discusses in how making women powerless may be a cause of woman-on-woman animosity and a contributor to eating disorders, saying “Feminist theorists have suggested that a major cause of young women's  intense likes and dislikes of their teachers and, in the first place, of their mothers is due to the low status accorded women in male-dominated society (see, e.g., Phillips 1996). Others argue that these feelings toward female authority figures contribute to women's eating disorders” (Sayers 828). As mentioned earlier, Singleton notes the gender divide: on one hand, strength, and on the other, grace. And within a patriarchal culture, women being barred from having strength put them below men within that society- they are actually being stopped from drawing the strength from femininity that they might otherwise. In modern times, while women are now allowed to do yoga, they still must do it to be more feminine and graceful, and thus the “boys club” of yoga is still present in that women are discouraged from drawing power from even their own femininity, and therefore kept under patriarchal and misogynistic practices.

It’s worth noting that women are also discouraged from fighting back on their subordination. Blum and Stracuzzi say that “Psychiatric discourses have recast women's responses to subordination as

disorder, hysteria, or madness” (2004). This is another problem with the yoga culture- it is considered so feminine in part because it is a “calming” or “serene” practice. In reality, “Contra the popular image of gentle, calming stretches, some poses fill [one] with burning rage” (Heyes 2003). But women are not allowed to express this anger in their practice. They are taught subordination and to eschew all feelings as hysterical and feminine. So long as this attitude towards women exists, and so long as they internalize it, the yoga community cannot make the changes it must to become a woman and feminist friendly practice. This is because of the other problem yoga presents: an obsession with women’s bodies and the sexualization of women who do yoga.

This obsession with the body is common Western yoga practice, with yoga classes filled with “eastern women in Lycra who gaze ardently into the mirror as they take the pose, and ask which postures are most effective for burning calories” (Heyes 2003). Instead of finding therapeutic, spiritual, or health benefits, women practice yoga to become more pleasing to the male gaze. Men do not help fight this dangerous obsession. As a personal anecdote, often during yoga practices at my University, male student would walk by the windows and shout obscene comments- always towards the women practicing, and never once the men. Even the knowledge of the male gaze reinforces the idea in women that they are only of value if they are nice to look at. The dangers of this in the forms of eating disorders and the robbing of power from women are both obvious, patriarchal, and at odds with feminism. This, then, is the inherent misogyny of Western Yoga- that it is a way to reinforce the male gaze and take away women’s ability to gain power in society, especially from things deemed feminine. In fact, it is very possible that without the reinforcement of the male gaze, women could gain power from a feminine class filled with grace and gentleness- not only physically and therapeutically, but also in that it can help them combat the patriarchal power system.

The Media and Yoga: The Sexualization of Women Doing Yoga

In order to begin changing the yoga community and allow women a space of empowerment away from the male gaze, the media surrounding yoga must change. Note Fig 1, attached to the end of this paper. All poses are of a male, and unsexualized despite many of the poses being strenuous. In addition, there are the following three covers to Yoga Journal: Feb 1998, July 1975, and June 2005.

These images further show the problems with media’s portrayal of yoga. Note that like in fig 1, The cover with a male shows a man in a non-sexualized, seated pose. This is one of the few covers with a man in a pose at all- most covers of men are portraits. Men eventually disappear from the covers altogether in the 2000’s. The covers from 1975 and 2005 both show women in strenuous, sexualized poses- chests pushed out, genitals exposed, and featuring a great deal of flexibility. The poses are also rarer, and moderately to very advanced. Over the years women were featured both in sexual and non-sexual covers. Some, like men, were portraits, and others feature women contorting themselves in tight clothing. Notably, these women are always thin and physically attractive. As male covers disappeared, so did non-sexualized covers of women. Now all covers feature poses like this. This is extremely harmful to the yoga community. It invites further the male gaze, and re-enforces that women’s only value is to look sexy while doing yoga.

Misogyny In Yoga Hurts Men, Too

Patriarchal structures are harmful to the men who practice yoga, as well. Physical culture, which modern Western yoga sprang from, was “Inspired by the principle of mens sana in corpore sano, [and] physical culturalists aimed to develop their health and strength, disciplining their bodies to conform to dominant codes of manliness distinguished by self-restraint, hardiness and endurance... Photographs of perfect male bodies were an essential feature of physical culture” (Zweiniger-Bargielowska 2006) Just as women are forbidden from power, men are forbidden from gracefulness and calm. And due to these things being deemed feminine, they, like the women who are allowed to experience them, can’t draw any power from them. By demeaning the feminine, men are also denied a full range of experiences and emotions that may empower them. In addition to this, the obsession with male perfection is as unhealthy for men as it is for women. Well men may not have the media saturation of objectification that women do, the obsession with the body is unhealthy, and Research has shown that males within microcultures valuing fitness and slimness, such as participants in certain sports, are more likely to develop eating disorders than males in the general population” (Harrison & Cantor 1997). The demeaning of females causing problems to men is a feminist problem, and the rise of eating disorders in male populations, a human one.

Reclaiming Yoga: Changing the Yoga Community

The current problems within yoga that are at odds with feminism are now apparent. The objectification and sexualization of women under the male gaze both in media and in practice, and the demeaning of the feminine as lesser than the masculine are both things that need to be changed in the yoga community. The question becomes, can the yoga community make that change? In looking at Islamic yoga, Hatley says that there is “a model for mapping religious change, tentatively identifying three phases: “inclusion” of Islamic superhuman agencies, subsequent “identification” of these with indigenous ones, and eventual “displacement” of the latter” (Hatley 2007). What Hatley is saying is that change can most definitely take place, and eventually be accepted with the religious community of yoga. In addition, at one time yoga was progressively feminist. In his book on hatha yoga, Yogi Ramacharaka (formerly known as William Walker Atkinson) also affirmed that ‘there is nothing especially novel or new about their exercise, and they bear a very close resemblance to the callisthenic exercises and Delsarte movements in favor in the West’ (Ramacharaka 1904, 192)... [These types of movements] also challenged the convention that women who danced in public were sexual objects on display for male audiences by facilitating visions of active womanhood and bold new forms of physical expression” (Vertinsky 2012). The idea that yoga and yoga type movement could challenge the patriarchy is not new, then. But since then, feminism has marched forward and yoga has stagnated.

So what can be done to reclaim the practice of yoga and have is become a feminist-friendly practice? There are several steps that must be taken. First and foremost, it must be made clear to the media that sexualization of yoga is no longer acceptable. This can be achieved in several ways. Boycotts are the easiest way to make such messages clear, but take large scale coordination to be effective. More effective is for members of the community to write in to agencies that sexualize yoga and voice their distaste at these portrayals. Boycotts are silent, but letters, especially in even small volumes, show an active distaste for specifically that portrayal and are more likely to convince offenders like Yoga Journal to change their ways.

Additionally, women must now reclaim the feminine- that is, it’s time for women to be able to derive power from grace and femininity as much as they can from strength and masculinity. This is a much slower moving change, and takes much more effort. First, women must start being nice to each other. This seems strange but women are so “catty” towards other women because they perceive the feminine as weak and negative. Thus, women turn on each other, trying to gain what little power they can by overpowering women. But what this actually does is reinforce that the feminine should be a negative thing. Instead, women should form femme alliances, and rejoice in their femininity together- this way, women stop reinforcing the patriarchal ideas around them and instead embrace a counter to them.

Finally, women must start raising their voice against the male gaze and demeaning objectification. Women are taught to be passive and subordinate, and that all reaction to harassment are hysteria. As a culture, this must change. This goes hand in hand with femme friendships. If a woman is harassed in class by a male, she should be unafraid to confront him, loudly tell him he’s making her uncomfortable, and, if he persists, bring it to the attention of everyone around her. And in turn, the women around her should support her in this. It is only when the power structure is challenged that it can change, and it can only be changed if women send the message that they will no longer be subordinate, and when someone tries to force them under the male gaze that they will fight back. It must be made clear that within the yoga community, women will not stand being demeaned and sexualized any longer. When women begin to wield their power, then yoga will allow women space to explore their own bodies and spiritualities away from patriarchal structures, and reconcile feminist ideals with yogic practices.

More specific practices that can be taken on especially by yoga instructors are zero tolerance policy on sexual harassment in their studios and classes. A removal of mirrors from studios is also recommended- if a pose needs to be adjusted, the instructor should guide them into it, and not rely on mirrors to help their students self correct, as they only encourage the visual culture of having to look pleasing during their yoga practice. The emphasis should be not on how the poses look, but on how they feel. Women-only practices are also a recommendation, as even though they are divisive and separatist remove the male gaze completely.

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