Beth Berila is professor of ethnic and women’s studies at St. Cloud State University.
Melanie Klein is an associate professor of sociology and women’s studies at Santa Monica College.
Chelsea Jackson Roberts is founder and director of yoga, literature, and art at Spelman College.
Description
Introduction: Beth Berila, What’s the Link Between Feminism and Yoga?
Section 1: Chelsea Jackson Roberts, Inclusion/Exclusion in Yoga Spaces
Ch 1 Marcelle M. Haddix, In a Field of the Color Purple: Inviting Yoga Spaces for Black Women’s Bodies
Ch 2 Jillian Ford, “I’m Feelin’ It.”: Embodied Spiritual Activism as a Vehicle for Queer Black Liberation
Ch 3 Enoch H. Page, The Gender, Race, and Class Barriers Enclosing Yoga as a White Public
Space
Ch 4 Roopa Kaushik-Brown, Towards Yoga as Property
Ch 5 Kerrie Kauer, Yoga, Culture and Neoliberal Embodiment of Health
Ch 6 Carol Horton, Yoga is Not Dodgeball: Mind-Body Integration and Progressive Education
Section 2: Melanie Klein, The Intersection of Yoga, Body Image and Standards of Beauty
Ch 7 Diana York Blaine, Mainstream Representations of Yoga: Capitalism, Consumerism, and Control of the Female Body
Ch 8 Jennifer Musial, ‘Work Off that Holiday Meal Ladies!’: Body Vigilance and Orthorexia in Yoga Spaces
Ch 9 Sarah Schrank, Naked Yoga and the Sexualization of Asana
Ch 10 Maria Velazquez, Reblog If You Feel Me: Love, Blackness, and Digital Wellness
Ch 11 Kimberly Dark, Fat Pedagogy in the Yoga Class
Section 3: Beth Berila, Yoga as Individual and Collective Liberation
Ch 12 Thalia González and Lauren Eckstrom, From Practice to Praxis: Mindful Lawyering for Social Change
Ch 13 Punam Mehta, Embodiment Through purusha and prakrti: Feminist Yoga as a Revolution from Within
Ch 14 Steffany Moonaz, Yoga and Disability
Ch 15 Beth S. Catlett and Mary Bunn, Yoga as Embodied Feminist Praxis: Healing and Community-Based Responses to Violence
Ch 16 Ariane Balizet and Whitney Myers, Yoga, Postfeminism, and the Future
Ch 17 Jacoby Ballard and Karishma Kripalani, Queering Yoga: An Ethic of Social Justice
Conclusion: Chelsea Jackson Roberts and Melanie Klein, (Un)Learning Oppression Through Yoga: The Way Forward
Reviews
Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Change invites us into a vibrant conversation about what yoga as a practice of freedom might look like. Drawing on rich narratives and research about yoga’s transnational history, this volume protests attempts to strip mine yoga, to reduce it to a windowless commodity. The book is essential reading for yogis, activists, and scholars who do not want to reinforce white supremacy and other exclusions. A celebration of a vital grassroots movement that honors the human body in all its manifestations, this book illuminates yoga as an act of resistance, a way of creating justice in our many communities.
— Becky Thompson, Simmons College
Taken as a whole, this anthology provides a comprehensive overview of the challenges facing yoga culture in the United States. The lived experiences of the authors as scholars and yoga teachers, many of whom are also members of marginalised communities, provide unique insights into these challenges. Notably, this collection moves beyond a purely scholarly approach, taking into account the physical practice of yoga and the way in which yoga has the potential to be a site for embodied social change that could greatly benefit vulnerable communities. This change, the authors argue, cannot be achieved without the conscious effort of those involved in the yoga community. Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Changeis an invaluable resource for those who want to instigate that change.
— Sex Roles: A Journal of Research
Yoga, the Body, and Embodied Social Change invites us into a vibrant conversation about what yoga as a practice of freedom might look like. Drawing on rich narratives and research about yoga’s transnational history, this volume protests attempts to strip mine yoga, to reduce it to a windowless commodity. The book is essential reading for yogis, activists, and scholars who do not want to reinforce white supremacy and other exclusions. A celebration of a vital grassroots movement that honors the human body in all its manifestations, this book illuminates yoga as an act of resistance, a way of creating justice in our many communities.
— Becky Thompson, Simmons College
This is an exciting and unique collection exploring feminist literature on yoga, body politics, mindfulness, and social justice. Berila, Klein, and Roberts bring together an impressively diverse and interdisciplinary array of authors—from academic fields such as Africana Studies, anthropology, education, English, health sciences, history, justice and social inquiry, political science, sociology, sports studies, and Women’s & Gender Studies, as well as craniosacral therapists, meditation and yoga instructors, and activists—to critically explore the gendered, racialized, and queer politics of yoga. Authors emphasize the liberatory potential of yoga, particularly for marginalized groups. It will be useful not only for feminist teachers and scholars, but also social justice activists and yogis.
— Christa Craven, The College of Wooster