Lemme guess: the chick in the yoga pants caught you staring at her.

[SSG Snuggle Bunny]

So she told you to f-off and now you're all butt hurt.

FanBoy    (3181 posts)    
 
Why Your Yoga Class Is So White

Thick, glossy copies of LA Yoga, Yoga Journal, and Yoga Magazine cover the rickety folding table in the lobby of Green Tree Yoga and Meditation. The magazines share tales from Malibu, Santa Monica, and Pasadena. Nearly every spread features a thin woman, usually in slim yoga pants and a tight tank, stretching her arms toward the sky or closing her eyes in meditation. Nearly all of these women are white…

The magazine images may seem like stereotypes, but they’re grounded in reality: About one in every 15 Americans practices yoga (= ~6% of the population), according to a 2012 Yoga Journal study, and more than four-fifths of them are white (and more than likely most of them are also upper-middle class)…

But often, yoga is a privilege of the upper class. An average one-hour yoga class in Los Angeles costs $17. Most require students to bring their own equipment. A mat costs around $20; lululemon yoga pants, $82.

“That upscale white woman is the image of yoga,” Rollan said. “I think a lot of us see yoga as something that’s not for us, because of the lack of imagery [of people of color in yoga]. It is changing, but the image of a white, affluent, thin person is still very entrenched.”

http://www.theatlantic.com/national/archive/2014/07/why-your-yoga-class-is-so-white/374002/

 

And as soon as the lower classes get invested in yoga, the upper classes will abandon it and move on to the next status marker.  BECAUSE IT’S NOT ABOUT THE BENEFITS/DRAWBACKS OF BEHAVIORS — IT’S ABOUT MARKING STATUS.

When I was young, yoga was a kind of weird hippie thing, for outsiders and Californians.  I went to a yoga ranch about 20 years ago, and it was dirt cheap but getting some cachet outside the “weird/California) parameters.  But one thing I did learn: the guru of yoga and founder of the sect that ran the camps spent his old age crippled and decidedly not the picture of health, despite all his years of yoga practice.

Now there’s a ****ing yoga studio on every corner of my small town, and for the most part, it’s the local rich folks and wanna-bes and their hangers-on who practice.

FanBoy     (3181 posts)

1. Americans ruined yoga for the rest of the world

Countless articles about the highly lucrative and often ridiculed yoga culture begin by locating us within a spacious, candlelit studio with polished wood floors, possibly bamboo in—pick your random major metro area. On the occasion of my visit to a new studio around the block from my apartment in Harlem, I didn’t get past the reception area or the blonde waif with a face scrubbed free of character, who informed me that following an introductory series, I would be expected to pay 25 bucks for the privilege of accessing the space for a self-led practice.

“So I’m paying you to teach myself,” I said, clarifying the deal that all but included a bridge. “Well in India,” she replied, invoking the yogi motherland, its mere mention imbuing higher power credibility to what sounded like an old-fashioned big city scam. Maybe yogis practice to their own tune in India, but this is New York City, this is Harlem, and what I should have said while I was mindfully annoyed—but didn’t—is that this is the land of pricy Lululemon gear where yogis fit their lotus between a mani/pedi and a cocktail.

In America, classes are described as sweaty, flow, and power; they’re built around endless sun salutations (yogi calisthenics) and doused with a photoshopped version of femininity. Yoga may have its roots as a practice largely for the benefit of men in India, but in this country, $20-$25 buys women an entrée into a world where hips, sacrums, and elongated necks are prized, and a woman’s body is worshipped. In exchange for 90 minutes of our time, we attain a personal encounter with our inner goddess by pushing ourselves to reach high, dig deep, and make contact with our perineum—but often as a means of peddling a stereotype of femininity, one tied to a certain aesthetic of what a woman’s body should be.

What began as an esoteric practice tied to meditation has become an industry with a corporate studio culture and a practice built on the notion of twisting ourselves into becoming someone else…“Yoga has been the place where the super-fit, super lean go hangout together.” Only in yoga will people chant in a foreign language, oblivious to the meaning of the words and then closely examine their curves in pants now worn by porn stars.

J. Brown, who owns the Abhyasa Yoga Center in Brooklyn, calls it “chicked out” yoga, its classes offering a little bit of everything, he says—a little cardio, a little weight loss, a little spirituality. They can be in gyms or in studios resembling mediations halls…what they have in common is a yoga scene that celebrates the commodified male ideal of the feminine—“the white dancer chick…”

…yoga in its commodified form capitalizes on body imagery, hyper-aggressive classes, and a culture of competitiveness that urges women to be more, do more. Yoga culture has found a place within the multitude of think pieces that scrutinize the most effective octave of our voices, or applauds our panache for empathy and team-building…It plays to the part of us, and the conversations about women, that center on what we can do to be happy, successful, fit, and of course, less intimidating to men. And like those conversations, the yoga image is constructed for and by a decidedly fit, white, middle-upper middle class, even as much of the nation staggers through the fallout of the nation’s economic meltdown…

http://qz.com/300251/americans-ruined-yoga-for-the-rest-of-the-world/

I don't know how something that has brought so much joy to millions around the world can be bad.

And women seem to enjoy it too!

FanBoy     (3181 posts)

3. Do Yoga, Get Rich?: High Rollers Are Hitting The Mat

A photo essay in the June 2007 issue of Vanity Fair glamorized the pioneers and promoters of yoga in a stylized spread worthy of the poshest celebrities and millionaires who have graced the pages of that magazine. In the intro, the author noted that yoga is fast becoming a “multi-billion-dollar industry,” and the photos celebrated that industry’s success stories…. In other words, no matter how enlightened you are, it’s hard to deny that yoga is a business. (In fact, the more enlightened you are, the better, because you can charge more for those workshops and lectures!)

A number of wise celebrities and retailers have caught on to the trend and started selling up-market products geared towards the yoga set. Supermodel Christy Turlington is a long-time yogi who now channels her love for the practice into a successful line of “yoga-inspired activewear” called Nuala, which she produces in conjunction with Puma. Lululemon, a Canadian company also devoted to “yoga-inspired athletic apparel,” is a favorite of fit celebrities everywhere…It seems that, in spite of the current retail recession plaguing brands everywhere, Lululemon continues to be inspired by yoga, and consumers continue to be inspired to buy Lululemon’s clothes. …
Perhaps it’s because yoga has so much profit potential that a surprising number of moguls and high rollers have been lured to its halls. …. William H. Gross, the Chief Investment Officer of Pimco, is one of the richest and most successful investment bankers in the world. What’s his secret? In an interview in 2006, Gross said, “the most important part of my day isn’t on the trading floor” but rather in the health club where he does yoga…Donna Karan, a fashion industry icon, is another for whom yoga and meditation provides a sacred sanctuary.  …Yoga’s sister practice, meditation, has provided a similar refuge for the very rich and very busy. Last week, the New York Times reported that Edwin Catmull, the head of Pixar Animation Studios and Walt Disney Animation Studios, just returned from a meditation retreat at a center for Buddhist meditation and yoga in the mountains of northern Colorado… Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple and king of the Macintosh empire, has been a seeker in the yogi tradition for years. He has studied Eastern philosophy and meditation extensively…

There are also a number of luminaries of media and politics who have been rumored to be yoga devotees. In the media set is news anchor Katie Couric, who recently stopped by the HuffPost Oasis at the Democratic National Convention and showed off her pike headstand to a room full of awed onlookers. And if you run in political circles, you might run right into Senator Harry Reid of Nevada relieving politics-induced tensions by doing his daily exercise routine, which includes walking, push-ups, and – you guessed it – yoga. So it’s official: yoga is not just for hippies anymore…

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2008/09/30/do-yoga-get-rich-the-busi_n_127151.html

Rocker     (205 posts)

20. Yeah, everybody knows yoga is a racist scam!!! LMFAO

Go to TJMaxx or Ross, buy a mat for $8 and go home and do some stretches, it’s what every single one of my athletic buds has done for decades.  Get a few soft, reusable ice packs too.  Stay hydrated.

When will the race-baiting end?

Gracchus     (963 posts)

22. The whole fitness culture seems to have become about status as much as health.

Being out of shape and fat is considered a marker of poverty and all of the negative stereotypes that go along with it including laziness, lack of discipline, and stupidity. Why do people post pics of themselves after working out on social media if it is just supposed to be about health? Why the need to constantly talk about working out? It is the culture of narcissism that has ballooned in this country big time.

Fitness culture seemed to be friendlier 20 or 30 years ago. What happened to yoga is a good example of this trend.

You assholes feel entitled to demand those who declined to take care of themselves be paid for by those who are healthy while you dictate the size of a soda but won't stop yapping at people who take care of themselves.

Maybe you're just petulant control freaks.

http://www.jackpineradicals.com/boards/topic/why-your-yoga-class-is-so-white/

[Carl]

And they wonder why normal people consider them freaks.

[Big Dog]

Oh, for ****'s face. Not another War on Yoga Pants.

Yooooooga pants!

If it's not "cultural appropriation", then it's "white privilege" or some other class warfare bullshit.

Eat a bag of dicks, lurking Dummies. Your very own Felonia von Pantsuit (who will never be President of the United States) self-identifies as a Person of Yoga. Are you going to call her out for it?

[SVPete]

Oh, for ****'s face. Not another War on Yoga Pants.

Yooooooga pants!

If it's not "cultural appropriation", then it's "white privilege" or some other class warfare bullshit.

Eat a bag of dicks, lurking Dummies. Your very own Felonia von Pantsuit (who will never be President of the United States) self-identifies as a Person of Yoga. Are you going to call her out for it?

Thank you, BD, I was just about to post, .

I don't think I've been within 20 feet of the door of a yoga, and don't have plans to enter one. In my chosen form of exercise, walking/running, whether ordinary running or in races, there are plenty of minority folk, to the point that I don't think their presence anything other than part of normal (if half marathon and marathon walker-runners can be called normal, ).

[Ralph Wiggum]

Oh, for ****'s face. Not another War on Yoga Pants.

Yooooooga pants!

If it's not "cultural appropriation", then it's "white privilege" or some other class warfare bullshit.

Eat a bag of dicks, lurking Dummies. Your very own Felonia von Pantsuit (who will never be President of the United States) self-identifies as a Person of Yoga. Are you going to call her out for it?

Yep, the perpetually offended at pretty much everything.

Mmmmmm, yoga pants...

[SVPete]

Felonia von Pantsuit ... self-identifies as a Person of Yoga

It's a good thing I already H-5ed you! CC needs an In Case Of Emergency Break Glass mind bleach dispenser!

[Mr Mannn]

The desperate search for things to be offended with goes on. All things normal and innocent must be condemned. These people are utterly pathetic.

[67 Rover]

Thank you, BD, I was just about to post, .

I don't think I've been within 20 feet of the door of a yoga, and don't have plans to enter one. In my chosen form of exercise, walking/running, whether ordinary running or in races, there are plenty of minority folk, to the point that I don't think their presence anything other than part of normal (if half marathon and marathon walker-runners can be called normal, ).

No such creature as too much of a good thing. Your welcome.

[98ZJUSMC]

The desperate search for things to be offended with goes on. All things normal and innocent must be condemned. These people are utterly pathetic.

I mean, really.... how ridiculous can..... wait ..

Never mind.

[Big Dog]

No such creature as too much of a good thing. Your welcome.

 

[Adam Wood]

Felonia von Pantsuit

PFAAAAHAHAAHAHAAA!!!!

I'm going to laugh about that one all day long.