Can We Sweat out the Misogyny in America?

What is Misogyny:

In order to dissect misogyny we have to first define it. Websters defines it as, "hatred of, aversion to, or prejudice against women," (Merrian-Webster). This is a behavior that is not unfamiliar to our world and is deeply defeating that we haven't been able to shift away from it. Kaoverii paints a frustratingly good picture about how it is woven into our society, "When behavior patterns are old, deep, culturally accepted, and generational, and the people exhibiting them are in positions of power, it's very difficult to be responsive rather than reactive to toxic masculinity -and reacting to bad behavior tends to elicit shame which then shuts down dialogue," (Kaoverii 2019). They are right in how it is so deeply imbedded that the reaction is still very strong from both sides. I cannot write this paper without bias and a strong reaction when talking about misogyny because of how much I have experienced it in my own life.

But lets take a look at why we picked up this social structure in the first place. It can be argued that patriarchal social structures could have been adapted from our primate relatives (Ananthaswamy Douglas 2018). Physically, males are bigger and stronger than the females and for survival purposes the female could be submissive to the stronger being. In the article, Misogyny, Feminism, and Sexual Harassment, the authors break down how different religious structures have their own mentalities around the role of women:

As mythology spilled its vices about women, every religion had their own viewpoint. Hinduism presents diverse view about the position of women and some text place women as the highest goddess and some restrict them to the role of a mother, daughter and wife, as described in Manusmriti.[4] Tertullian, the father of Latin Christianity, said that being a female is a curse given by God and they are the Devil's Gateway. In the spiritual community it is a common trend for a male figure to guide the congregation to enlightenment. In the rise of the three biggest religions in the world, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam the patriarchal structure evolved. Control mechanisms have been deployed to ensure female subservience to males; for instance, in marriage, women often relinquish their identities to merge with their male partners. Peluso argues that, "Misogyny has been widely practiced for thousands of years. It is reflected in art, literature, human societal structure, historical events, mythology, philosophy, and religion worldwide." This omnipresence of misogyny underscores how deeply rooted these biases are, even within spaces that promote enlightenment, such as the hot yoga community. This practice has historically in the West drawn more female crowds so truly it is no surprise that even the yoga industry was plagued with this social oppression. This obviously is not just isolated in the yoga community, it happens atrociously in many religious communities but for the sake of this paper we are magnifying the hot yoga community. The profound contradiction lies in the challenge of dismantling and reconstituting the structures that have shaped societal conditioning, thereby fostering a deeper understanding of our interconnectedness while simultaneously addressing the exploitation occurring within communities that profess enlightenment.

The Paradox of Yoga Philosophy:

The Upanishads are some of the most ancient Indian texts that talk about yoga's history and where the rituals that inevitably evolved into the modern pastoral yoga we see globally today started. These texts talk about the devotion to Brahman i.e "higher self" and what that can do for the practitioner involved in these rituals. Looking at yoga from a religious standpoint it has almost all the elements as other religious branches. It has devotion to a higher being, it has discipline, it has order, and it has the promise to evolve oneself into a higher version. Granted the application and texts are very different than other major world religions but there are commonalities. Fast forward to the Bhagavad-Gita, one of the most infamous religious texts in yoga philosophy talks about what is needed for change and liberation, " One who neither hates nor desires the fruits of his activities is known to be always renounced. Such a person, free from all dualities, easily overcomes material bondage. And is completely liberated, O mighty-armed Arjuna," (Bhagavad-Gita 5.3). This has more of an individual focus and encourages one to go inward to free oneself from attachments. Imagine what could happen collectively from people freeing themselves from attachments of self and ego. Moving ahead to the early 20th century where yoga started emerging in American culture, there was this fascination with mystical and mindful practices. With the promise of nirvana, ascension, Moksha, i.e liberation this drew crowds of Americans suffering in socioeconomic depression times and in between World Wars (Deslippe 2018). Again the leaders of these groups were male and even some of them could not overcome the desires and draws of being in a seat of power with the "promise" to essentially save people.

Coming back to the hot yoga community Andrea Jain paints this picture, "Although yoga can be empowering for women and men, it is also a site of rampant and various manifestations of sexual violence, usually committed by men against women or sexual minorities. Because of the ways it embodies these contradictions, yoga is a fascinating space in which to explore feminist questions of power and agency," (Jain 102). In the Bikram Yoga community, this is an infamous case of what Jain describes. You have this male teacher who establishes himself in the West, sees not only capital gain but also influence and power. Justice was served when he was faced with a $7 million lawsuit for the atrocities he committed in his community. He fled the country and still is wanted by US Authorities for this lawsuit.

In order to unravel these layers we will look at the introduction of yoga in the west and how it started building in America to again set the stage for when Bikram Choudhury finally arrived and established his empire.

Yoga in Early America:

Yoga was introduced to America starting in the late 19th century. It increased in popularity in the early 20th century during the World Wars and going through the Great Depression (Deslippe 2018). Yoga teachers would travel from India to the United States and travel city to city offering teachings and lectures. That mobility is a huge part of how yoga gained popularity in the West. As popularity gained so did the structure of special groups within these teaching circuits. Phillipe Deslippe breaks down how these private groups looked at the time in his article The Swami Circuit: Mapping the Terrain of Early American Yoga: There were also several personal relationships and social formations that existed within and alongside the private group classes and professional dyadic relationships. Some classes developed into chapters that had remarkably long lives and which continued to exist, sometimes for decades, after the exit of the teacher, such as Yogi Hari Rama's Benares League. The sense of revealed secrets within a private group class often gave students a sense of being special and select that was furthered along by their teacher (Deslippe 2018).

Like any other patriarchal religious structure, the leader has his disciples around him. The paradox is you have this new age thinking tied into historical social oppression and because there is privilege in America for the practitioners who are primarily white, the target audience is perfect for new teachings and new spiritual practices. Even through a Great Depression and turmoil in the United States, you have these people yearning for something new and something to bring light to dark times. This paves the way for opportunities of spiritual leaders to come and seize an opportunity. How does that prepare for what happens in these communities later on down the road and the hot yoga community? Andrea Jain describes it best as, "In the yoga world, even as industry leaders brand themselves as embodiments of ethical integrity, many late-twentieth-century and twenty-first-century scandals have revealed sexual corruption, violence, and abuse. A number of yoga gurus and teachers have been outed as sexually active with students, usually with young, white women," (Jain 105). One of the biggest scandals is tied to Bikram Choudhury, the founder of hot yoga.

Case Study Bikram:

Hot yoga is widely popular throughout the world known for its structured modern postural yoga sequence and the element and discipline of practicing in a 105 degree heated room. It is estimated that in the US alone, "With the number of US yoga practitioners rocketing from 20.4 million to 55.1 million between 2012 and 2020 (Zuckerman, 2020), there is an increasing body of research on the benefits of hot yoga (e.g., Gupta & Maurya, 2020;Lim & Hyun, 2021)," (P H Hui Kogen Parma Vuillier 2022). It is unclear what those numbers would be worldwide but it is evident that Bikram Chonduray built a grand empire in the yoga world. Who is Bikram Choudhury?

Bikram is the CEO of Bikram Yoga Inc. and founder of Bikram's Yoga College of India, which provides certification in Bikram Yoga, a school of modern postural yoga performed as a series of twenty-six postures. Bikram is a multimillionaire who has exploited the cultural cache and economic capital of yoga, claimed copyrights on yoga postural sequences, pursued litigation against rival yoga studio owners and teachers, and battled allegations of sexual harassment and rape, all while serving as the self-proclaimed guru of Bikram Yoga and a teacher of spirituality (Jain 105).

He traveled to the US in the 1970's after his guru and teacher passed away, Bhisnu Ghosh who was the younger brother of Paramahansa Yogananda, a teacher who is largely accredited for bringing yoga to the West in the 1920's and the author of the book Autobiography of a Yogi (Jain 106). Bikram came to the United States and opened up a small studio in Beverly Hills. It's an epicenter of white affluence, privilege, and curiosity.

He brought a different way of practicing yoga with the heat. He learned these techniques when he traveled to Japan and practiced in hot rooms. He worked to curate the environment to mirror the environment in Calcutta where he is from. This heated practice changed Modern Postural Yoga. Not only are you in uncomfortable poses but now you are working towards this union, this yoking of mind, body, and spirit in 105 degree heat. a community working to develop their higher conscious and inner knowing then are we ever going to be free from this injurious social structure?

Mindfulness and Social Change

Yoga philosophy illustrates how the practice of breath and physical postures helps guide the mind to a more present and attuned state. In that state in achieving "yoga" you can start to unearth and unravel the societal conditioning's that tie all of us to our attachments. Several of those attachments can be being scared of losing power, of losing control, and fear of being vulnerable. When talking about dismantling a societal conditioning, vulnerability has to be at the forefront. Change happens at many levels but in order for a social condition to shift one has to be with themselves and that can be a very vulnerable and uncomfortable process. As humans we carry the pain and trauma from our lineages before us. To face that pain and trauma is intimidating and raw. Yoga helps with the mindfulness aspect in how to observe these parts, create space, support, and ultimately detach from the stories and feelings they bring. The direct opponent to liberation and vulnerability is fear. Fear is an oppressor's best tool. In a patriarchal structure fear is used to control the oppressed. Valin Jourdan puts it best:

Liberation of ourselves as learned through the philosophy of yoga frees us from attachments and conditioning that cause us to be distant from dialogue and distant from ourselves as members of humanity. Liberation begins as a process within us, rather than outside ourselves. Liberation requires vulnerability. But fear prevents vulnerability. The very thing every human being wishes to be and wishes not to be, is vulnerable. Yoga at its truest definition is about concentrating the mind, controlling internal energy (pranayama), controlling bodily movements (asanas), practicing discernment and rising to our highest state of consciousness (liberation). Through yoga we become aware of how we embody social constructs and socialized norms (Jourdan 2020).

Here lies a question, are we capable of mass interwork movements to help liberate our society from oppressive structures? The practice leading to yoga asks us to sit with these attachments to who we think we are, our attachments to dualities, and how we can let go.

Our attachments are what create suffering and in turn this suffering is past down generation through generation because of our resistance to detaching to narratives. This is a lot easier said than done because as a new generation comes up they get to decide if they want to change the social dynamics they were born in. There is also increased demand/access for mindful practices and self evaluation. The Internet and social media have changed the discourse of human socialization and discussion. People are talking about their own journeys with focusing on mindful practices like hot yoga that teaches you to be with yourself and essentially carry yourself through discomfort and change.

Could there be potential in people participating in collective "waking up" and fighting back, forcing liberation to come through?

The term Satyagraha was developed by Mahatma Gandhi in 1907 when India was faced against colonialism and human rights violations (Editors of Encyclopedia 2024). It reads, "According to this philosophy, satyagrahis-practitioners of satyagraha-achieve correct insight into the real nature of an evil situation by observing a nonviolence of the mind, by seeking truth in a spirit of peace and love, and by undergoing a rigorous process of self-scrutiny," (Editors of Encyclopedia 2024). During the Civil Rights Movement Martin Luther King Jr talked about soul force. This idea that nonviolent resistance and using truth and not being swayed by what is perceived wrong to achieve liberation (Jourdan 2020). Another paradox within the yoga world now on a more philosophical level is brought up in the Bhagavad Gita where Arjuna is in turmoil about using force and violence to liberate his people. Krishna who is God Vishnu in a human form instructing him that righteousness and fighting for what is right will bring liberation. There is force used but there are ideas of nonviolence. Is nonviolence and soul force ingredients for what is needed to free us from misogyny? Or are there a combination of techniques and duality of violence and nonviolence to break free from the handcuffs of the patriarchy? These questions leave an uncertainty in the air because there is no perfect answer and one can't perfectly predict how humans will shape a new evolution of thinking. It is clear though that internal focus and being with oneself through different levels of discomfort help an individual create space to work with parts of themselves that are fear based.

Internal work could be an imperative part of the equation for evolution.

Conclusion:

Let's come back to the question, Is hot yoga a vital component in liberating society from the crippling effects of misogyny? This is somewhat obvious and painful to answer because the simple answer could be no. As disheartening as that answer is, I believe there is so much more room to explore this topic. Yes misogyny has been engrained in us for at least 4000 years but that is not to say that the evolution of the human species cannot transform its collective consciousness as more generations resist patriarchal order like we see in the United States today with Trump coming back into office in 2025.