I started yoga seven or eight years ago while on a tour break. Since then, I\u2019ve been off and on, focusing on mental and physical aspects, even completing teacher training. As yoga gains popularity and we’re told that it is spreading among and embraced by more people from all walks of life, one thing remains evident:<\/p>\n
It sure doesn\u2019t look like it.<\/p>\n
In the face of assertions about yoga\u2019s exemplary universality and reach, the actual universality and reach still seem to look like slender women who fit a certain, narrow mold. Looking at yoga-as-business, this makes sense: know your target audience, go for the common denominator, and you\u2019ll be viable. But it seems to land squarely at odds with yoga-as-practice.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a black male. My yoga wear consists partially of exercise gear\u00a0I\u2019ve owned and taken care of for a few years. My yoga pants are pajama pants from Target that I proudly altered with the help of a sewing machine. My shirts are graphic T-shirts\u2014ridiculous shirts, nerdy shirts, shirts from tours. The public faces of yoga don\u2019t look like me. Some of my yoga friends are pierced, inked, butch, swishy, curvy, rigid, bulging, sagging, brown, yellow, pasty, arthritic, or silver-haired. The public faces of yoga don’t look like them.<\/p>\n
Changing this representation deficit is not an overnight prospect, but it is an overdue one. A shift will not happen without looking around and within ourselves and taking deliberate action. Here are some steps we can take toward change:<\/p>\n
If we keep saying that yoga truly is for all bodies, then it\u2019s up to all of us\u2014but especially the de facto gatekeepers and ambassadors of the industry\u2014to put that into practice and broaden the representation of the public faces of yoga.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I started yoga seven or eight years ago while on a tour break. Since then, I\u2019ve been off…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":693,"featured_media":16855,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,1309],"tags":[760,761,762,51],"class_list":["post-19758","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-inspiration","category-yoga","tag-diversity","tag-image","tag-representation","tag-yoga-practice"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n