Body Kindness

Join me in conversation with Dr. Sabrina Strings, author of Fearing the Black Body: The Racial Origins of Fat Phobia. She also is a certified yoga teacher and advocate for inclusivity in yoga. We discuss our experiences  with yoga and hope for systemic change. She shares a personal story on racism and body part fetishizing (Michelle Obama arms) she encountered in yoga classes when she was really seeking refuge for grad school stress. Strings was made to feel like she didn’t belong.  She explains why yoga is much more than the commercialized Asana and why her recent yoga experience made her stop going to studios at all, including fat phobia and ableism. She shares her research on the lightening of the yoga journal covers to become more White, contorted, and back branded women’s bodies. Dr. Strings’ Research Mentioned Strings, Sabrina & Headen, Irene & Spencer, Breauna. (2019). Yoga as a technology of femininity: Disciplining white women, disappearing people of color in Yoga Journal. Fat Studies. 8.