After my yoga classes I generally like to take a few extra minutes getting changed and whatnot to rehydrate a bit and maybe chat a little with the other yogapeeps before I have to head over to work. It's nice to have a still moment in the morning. I usually finish up right at the same time that the Forrest class ends (what is that Forrest stuff all about anyway? whats the deal?) and all the women who take that class are pretty friendly and I even say hi to some of them. The women who take Mysore class all have longer practices than I do so I pretty much never talk to them.
Anyway, I was checking my phone and drinking some water this morning when I overheard the Forrest teacher musing with one of her students about why more men do not practice yoga. Naturally my curiosity was piqued, and the Forrest teacher said that while her classes are all female, her privates are all male.
hmm.. that sentence is funnier than i expected it to be...
At this point I chimed in and said that taking yoga classes is awkward for men for a few reasons.
1. Men don't want to look stupid and feel incompetent in front of a bunch of women.
I think that fundamental yoga stuff is easier for women than men as they are generally more naturally flexible, and people hate appearing awkward around people of their gender of choice. I don't think this feeling is unique to men.
2. Men are afraid of being seen as voyeurs.
Personally, I feel kinda awkward in a room full of lightly dressed women contorting their bodies. I do not check them out, except once in a while to O.O at some fancy posture or observe their vinyasa, but my fear is that all of them think "oh no. there is a man. he is looking at my boobies RIGHT NOW." I sometimes sacrifice the proper drishti so that women will not think I am checking them out. When I mentioned this, Forrestteacher and student were very surprised and said that the thought had never crossed their minds.
3. Yoga is for girls and girliemen. Real Men do Real Exercise.
I believe this is more a problem with marketing than anything else. The yoga market is extremely female oriented and advertisers market yoga products almost exclusively to women. I saw an ad once for EXTREME YOGA RAH RAH RAH but it was entirely unconvincing. On the other hand, I think the perception of yoga being purely about flexibility is unattractive to many men. Dudes don't see increased flexibility as increasing their sex appeal, whereas maybe doing boxing might score them some chicks, right? Girls like dudes with cauliflower ear, right?
Hi Dan - Interesting commentary. I think much of what you say is true about yoga in the US in general, but I don't find that to be true in the case of Ashtanga yoga, especially Mysore style (which is what you practice, is it not?). Also, the fear of looking stupid is definitely not gender-specific. Most people I know are intimidated by yoga because they believe it is supposed to be this graceful, aesthetically lovely thing when in fact the real work is often hideous and gritty.
ReplyDeleteAlso... didn't get the Forrest teacher privates joke until the second reading. Hahaha! Nice.
Thanks for the comment, Megan. I agree that marketing for mysore stuff doesn't have the same female bias - however I rarely see mysore marketed at all. Furthermore, i think ashtanga is something that one comes across when they are actively investigating yoga, but most men do not make it past the female dominated mainstream media and thus do not care to pursue the matter any further.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, a couple of my kung fu teacher colleagues mentioned their interest in ashtanga after I told them that I started to practice.
"Most people I know are intimidated by yoga because they believe it is supposed to be this graceful, aesthetically lovely thing when in fact the real work is often hideous and gritty."
THIS IS SO TRUE. i have heard some outrageous grunting and farting from very petite and graceful women.
most of the men with whom i've discussed this question have told me that they are turned off by "all the touching" that yoga entails. while most of these men have gleaned this impression through joking parodies of yoga classes in the media, the truth remains that there is a lot of touching--with sweat--in a mysore practice. i think for a lot of men the idea of chanting, stretching, and bending while some strange instructor (male or female) lays down on you, pushes on your ass, or pulls on your inner thighs as they sweat bullets conflicts with values of "personal space" that are extremely important to men in our society.
ReplyDeleteinterestingly, this gender bias is flipped on its head in india, where women are generally regarded as too weak to keep up with the strenuous practice of yoga. this is coupled with some prohibitive rules about men teaching women, women teaching yoga at all, and men and women practicing together, often leaving indian women without a proper instructor.
yeah, the touching is offputting at first. My friend brought her boyfriend to class and he was constantly glaring at the teacher for touching his girlfriend and shrugged off all the adjustments. There is a lot for men to let go of in a yoga class.
ReplyDelete