The only thing better than yoga pants would be eating breakfast tacos in yoga pants. I mean, I’m imagining based on what I’ve heard from a friend.
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I can do that right here in CA.
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Isn’t that my job? I was already thinking about it, as it happens. As a yogi, cyclist, and genderqueer person these kinds of clothing issues do affect me. Also I am interested in how these supposed norms originate - yoga pants are a fairly recent phenomenon, so I am interested in how or why people consider them gendered. Which also feeds into my curiosity of the gendering of yoga practice between India and the US. I encounter this all of the time, but it is rarely discussed.
I have an annoying habit of questioning assumptions in conversation which others assume to be implicit. Reading the topic I thought it was going to be about yoga pants themselves, then I had to re-think it in terms of gendered clothing, which I was already trying (and failing) to make sense of.
I think that’s also relevant here. Why do men defend women’s right to wear whatever they feel comfortable in, while denying themselves that same right? If it’s nobody else’s business if or why a woman wears yoga pants, doesn’t the same axiom apply to you?
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…quietly hides pic-a-nic basket…
True dat.
They do look nice and stretchy so I probably would wear them but tracky-dacks are just so comfy, no matter how daggy they look. 
Course, that assumes that I’m actually wearing pants today.
What’s considered comfy can vary wildy. And I think for some, there’s more than just feeling physically comfortable to think about.
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I guess they’re tight pants, so tight pants are more socially acceptable for women? Tight pants are a look most guys can’t pull off unless they’re rail thin. Average sized or even thinner than average guys just can’t get away with it.
Yoga is very gendered. I went to yoga with another straight male friend, and we were both genuinely interested, but the discomfort at our presence was palpable.
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I can accept that people feel that this is true on some level, but it doesn’t really make sense to me without knowing how or why. For example, what does it mean to “pull off” the look of wearing tight clothes? Is it because thinner guys appear more androgynous, and so more closely fitting into the already existing gendered expectations? Personally, I associate yoga pants and other spandexy things with athletic wear, so I would more likely expect those wearing such things to be muscular. But that’s because of my attributing them that “athletic” category. I don’t judge anybody’s level of fitness based upon what they are wearing.
Where was this? Yoga has classically been an almost exclusively male discipline, which carries its own problematic baggage. It interests me how people gender it differently once it is transplanted elsewhere. And what is the reason for doing so? People are often quick to explain norms away simply upon the basis that they exist without any interest in the (IMO) more interesting questions of how and why.
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There were several lines in his statement that said to me he didn’t intend it as satire, although perhaps he was exaggerating for effect, and while he really hopes people will drop it, he just can’t stop digging himself deeper into that hole. No, of course he doesn’t deserve death threats over his comments, but I can’t help but connect this to a lot of body issues that many people are especially sensitive over.
As I’ve noted quite often, since it’s a bit of personal issue for me, I’m genderqueer and just starting to present as female in public more often - kind of a balance for presenting as male so much. If this guy (or some other jerk) really objects to women over 20 wearing yoga-pants because they don’t have bodies he finds pleasing, I can only imagine how he’d feel to seeing me in even a fairly standard body-covering outfit. (So am I OK in a restaurant wearing a fairly modest skirt and a 3/4 length sleeve top?)
TLDR: This is just gender-policing bullshit and we really don’t need it, satire or not.
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I’m guessing you are not gay or familiar with popular gay male beach attire.
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You’re “Oll Korrect” in my book, no matter what you’re wearing. 
Judging solely from the content of your comments here, I’d wager that you’re a far more decent person than the gentleman in question… and you’re probably much better company too.
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You’re a good guesser.
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I just started a yoga class last week, and it’s almost half men. Well, 3/8ths men, to be exactly accurate.
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Is that the owner of lululemon sounding off again?
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I think I found the real purpose of the letter:
“OH no - it would be horrible if men started to walk around in nothing but a Speedo. Just think of it. All those nearly nude men walking round, their pronounced bulges bobbing with each step… wait - what was I talking about? OH yes, definitely do NOT start wearing Speedos out in public. That would be awful.”
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I used to take yoga to try to help with my pain before I know what caused it. I liked it. I actually had a few things that would bring a euphoria. If it was more convenient and I could afford it, I’d do it again. There weren’t a lot of other men, but no one seemed to care who was there doing what. This was early 2000s.
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Those things are the worst since there’s always some asshole who says “but it’s optional” and rubs their tweed on everybody.
@japhroaig I am looking at you (and shuddering in remembrance)!
Call me a traditionalist, but food orgies should always be clothing verboten, and all conversations conducted in Swiss German.
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wait…
#FOR MONEY?!?!?!
I KNEW IT!
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To be fair - maybe it was just you.
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Of course not, that would make it frivolous! Society needs to find more interesting ways to compensate me for my services.
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Yeah, it could have been. Two working-class types, one nonwhite and the other too-white, would look out of place in a yoga studio.
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