Who is doing yoga and who can do yoga
On the eve of the anniversary of the pandemic, I’m the same as everyone, flooded with different and new emotions that I wasn’t prepared to confront or process.
The renewed BIPOC awakening in 2020 was one of the year’s most searing waves. I was therefore glad and honored to moderate a webinar last week, Yoga and Society: Realities and Misperceptions Fueled by the Media, with Dr. Jennifer Webb and my colleague Sat Bir Singh Khalsa. Dr. Webb is doing radical work at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte (UNCC) on who actually is doing and can do yoga (everyone), and who the media has shown until very recently is doing and can do yoga (Hollywood stars and thin, white, wealthy women in spandex tights).
The shift of focus on the perception of the bodies associated with yoga—from groups of male ascetics living together outside of society, to wealthy, privileged, and famous people who are mostly women—has taken place over 100 years though the currency of the dollar and the unbounded reach of global markets. Dr. Webb’s presentation shows this.
Dr. Webb also shows the research she and others are doing that expands an understanding of who can do yoga and who can benefit from yoga. She’s working on a study called “Stress Management, Mind-Body Intelligence, & Lifestyle Empowerment through Yoga” with eight weeks of Jessamyn Stanley’s app The Under Belly.
Here are women Dr. Webb mentioned in her presentation who are influencing the yoga community today, along with a few others that my friend Annie at Sun and Moon Studio in Arlington has introduced me to.
