Cultural Appropriation in Yoga Clothing

Is ignorance bliss, or is that just a good instagram filter?

If you’re wondering why I stopped posting asana yoga pictures, it’s not just because of the pandemic. It actually has more to do with deepening my understanding of the other limbs of yoga and learning how to be actively anti-racist.

Of course you can still practice yoga in Calúnica Eco Wear. Any comfortable clothing is yoga clothing, especially if it’s been sourced to cause no harm, but I feel like using yoga as a marketing niche is unethical.

It’s a painful process to align beliefs with behavior, but totally worth it! Last post, I talked about the pursuit of happiness and how mindfulness has helped me be aware of my own contradictions.

Remember, it doesn’t really matter what our intentions are, it’s important to do the work to make sure our actions actually have a positive impact.

Learning how harmful cultural appropriation is in the western yoga community was especially confusing for me. How can something that seems so beautiful and peaceful actually be used to alienate and exploit? Cultural appropriation is such a big part of our neo-colonial culture that it’s hard for white people to even notice when we’re doing it, but just because it’s hard, doesn’t mean we can’t. We should do better.

When I listened to the ‘Yoga is Dead Podcast.’ Tejal and Jesal finally pointed out what was wrong. The western yoga community often excludes South Asian voices and actually creates space for competitiveness, judgement and exploitation. According to Susanna Barkataki, western yoga has been co-opted by capitalism. Norms like idolizing money, youth, whiteness, competition, and perfection have nothing to do with yoga, but are a huge part of the online yoga community and studio culture. 

My intention when starting this company was to rebel against the exploitation of women of color that work in most of the world’s garment factories; but by perpetuating the appropriation of Indian culture, I was actually causing harm in my own community.

At first, I found myself justifying being a white woman selling yoga clothes. I tried to make it better by emphasizing the history of yoga, explaining the eight limbs of yoga, positive body image, etc… (Like the more dedicated cult participants in Festinger study), it was hard for me to change my belief because I had a lot invested (literally) in the belief that was being challenged. 

Finally, I admitted to myself that by using yoga as a marketing niche, I was destroying something sacred, actually trying to profit by cultural appropriation, and continuing a legacy of colonialism.

Now that I’ve stopped using yoga as part of my marketing strategy, I feel a lot better and hopefully this brand is more inclusive too. I am so sorry for not doing it sooner. I’m also more aware of the inspiration I use and consider the meaning symbols can have for people of different backgrounds.

I apologize for all the offensive things I’ve done.

If I’m missing something, please call me out. I am slowly learning to be better. Because this blog is about my personal journey as an eco designer and I happen to be a white woman, this post is very white-centered. I encourage you to learn about racism from people of color. If you want to know more about how to avoid cultural appropriation in yoga and life, a good place to start is to listen to Yoga is Dead Podcast and read Susanna Barkataki’s book Embrace Yoga’s Roots.

Thanks so much for reading this post. Let’s keep challenging this racist, capitalist patriarchy we live in with mindful actions.

Next time, I will talk about another topic related to greenwashing activewear that has been weighing on my mind and what I’m doing about it!