177: Yoga Drag Race Season One (feat Beau Brink)

How did Indra Devi turn the sari into a wellness guru lewk? What bold statement were the TV designers making when they dressed Richard Hittleman and his yoga models back in the 1960s? Did Lululemon founder Chip Wilson invent the category of “yoga pants” so that yoga instructors could correctly assess posture, or so that creeps could create NSFW subreddits, or so that the culture war would have yet another reason to police the bodies of girls and women?

Journalist Beau Brink (see ep 143: “Trans Reality, Trans Possibility) is back—this time as our aesthetics correspondent—to school Matthew in yoga, gender, fashion, the historical relationship between the onesie and fatphobia, the price of cotton in China, and what it means to take your clothing, your identity, and your privacy seriously. May the best Yoga Drag Queen win!

(Correction: Beau meant to reference Sam Levinson, not Sam Levine. Apologies.)

Show Notes

Brief: Marianne Williamson’s Spiritual Therapy Schtick — Conspirituality

Google Ngrams: "peperomia"

Google Trends: “peperomia”

Google Trends: “minimalism”

Google Trends: “maximalism”

Google Ngrams: “athleisure”

Kyle Chayka, “The Oppressive Gospel of ‘Minimalism’”

Rosemary Feitelberg, “Politicians and Fashion Designers Increasingly Team Up to Benefit Both Sides”

Louis René Beres, “Aesthetics and politics: Donald Trump’s idea of art and beauty”

Clare Kane, “No, You Don't Need Lululemon — Here's What "Yoga Clothes" Really Look Like”

Michelle Goldberg, The Goddess Pose

Nehmat Kaur, “The Sari Has Never Been About a 'Hindu' Identity”

Adriana Aboy, “Indra Devi’s Legacy”

Hilary McQuilkin and Kimberly Atkins Stohr, “The complicated history of women's fitness”

Caroline Hamilton, “Dancewear Through the Decades: 100 Years of Studio Fashion, From the Chiton to the Leotard”

Maren Hunsberger, “Why Do More People Prefer to Practice Yoga at Home Versus the Studio?”

“Lululemon founder Chip Wilson says pants 'don't work' for some bodies”

“Yoga Clothing Market to reach USD 70,291.0 Million by 2030, emerging at a CAGR of 7.8%”

“List of yoga pants subreddits,” Reddit, 2020

“r/girlsinyogapants stats,” Subreddit Stats

Stephen MacDonald, Fred Gale, and James Hansen, “Cotton Policy in China”

Margaret Talbot, “Abercrombie’s Legal Defeat—and Its Cultural Failure”

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