Eating the Other Yogi: Kathryn Budig, the Yoga Industrial Complex, and the Appropriation of Body Positivity

Abstract

This paper discusses the appropriation of body positivity discourse by Kathryn Budig and the yoga industry. During the appropriation process, the political nature of the movement is decontextualized and erased through adoption of individualized messages of body acceptance that largely ignore bodily differences, which reflects an ideology of body-blindness. Despite the best of intentions and positive, heartfelt messages of body acceptance, Budig's developing role as the face of body positivity continues overrepresentation of the ideal yoga body in mainstream yoga culture and contributes to restricted systems of meaning regarding who is an "authentic" yogi, and what the practice of yoga consists of, that continue to marginalize Other yogis who face burdens of new industry demands to #loveyourbody (as long as it is white, thin, acrobatic, female, heterosexual, and so on). By downplaying the importance of the movement's systemic critique of dominant yoga culture to focus on individual solutions, Budig and the yoga industrial complex contribute to the marginalization and "eating" of the Other yogi while simultaneously profiting from the individualization and depoliticization of the body positivity movement.