Sexualising Women’s Bodies in Yoga

The other day I had a nasty encounter with a man in the street. In order to get to my point quicker I’ll keep this part short, but he was incredibly vile. He followed and verbally harassed me in a sexual manner whilst grabbing and rubbing his penis from the outside of his shorts. I said the only thing I could think to say in the moment which was, “You’re a c*nt!”, and tried to move on.

Aside from the inevitable wash of red hot rage that pulsed through my body, I was wrongly led (by my own societal conditioning) that it must have been something I had done, said or was wearing.

For context, I was wearing a pair of jeans, a cropped yoga top and a shirt over the top with the buttons open. My midriff was exposed, so it must be that, I thought. WRONG. I immediately caught myself and backtracked on my taking responsibility for the abhorrent actions of a troubled and insecure man, unable to engage with women without sexually harassing them.

But this whole experience lead me on a train of thought that I’ve been down a few times, especially more recently.

I am a yoga teacher and have been for the past 6 months. It’s been pretty life changing in a great way, but being a part of this burgeoning industry and engaging with it on a new level in terms of social media, there is something that sticks like a thorn in my side.

The sexualisation of bodies in yoga. I can only speak from my own experience as a woman and a woman in yoga, but what I’ve seen across yogi accounts in the comments can often be pretty shitty.

There seems to be this general consensus with a lot of people that doing yoga whilst also bearing skin means you are sexualising yoga. This is where my mind went during the encounter with that man - I am bearing skin so therefore I am inviting this attention. In bearing my skin I have sexualised myself. WRONG.

What makes this more confusing is that in some cases, where a woman has posted a picture or video of herself practicing yoga scantily clad, she is lifted up, respected and applauded for being comfortable in her own skin, comfortable in her ensemble and comfortable posting it for the world to see. So where is the line between body-positive-heroine and sexual-yogi-heathen?

There isn’t one. This is because the ‘problem’ doesn’t lie with the practitioner and their outfit. The problem lies with seer and their perception of that persons body - it is the seer who chooses whether or not to sexualise their body and their practice.

I’ve screwed over what I should and shouldn’t post so many times - is this too revealing? Will my parents be ashamed? Will people think I’m showing off, or a slut?

Now I don’t care. I guess the point I’m trying to make is that practicing yoga in your underwear or bathing suit does not mean you are sexualising yoga. In the same way that my bearing skin does not sexualise myself and invite sexual advances.

Women in particular are sexualised constantly outside of sexual settings - by men and women. Don’t let this dictate how you practice, what you wear, how you hold yourself. It is not your job to reign yourself in and make yourself small or cover up.

Any person, of any gender or orientation, of any body type or age is unequivocally permitted to practice yoga in whatever they choose - and if that’s a thong, then that’s cool with me. That’s not where the issue is. Let the issue remain with other peoples misperceptions, and not with you.