This yogi got banned from Jivamukti for practicing without a shirt
Johnston practicing this summer at the Yoga Solstice in Times Square event.
Twenty-nine-year-old activist Moira Johnston has gotten a lot of attention for strolling around Manhattan sans shirt recently. Her campaign (surprise, it’s not for PETA!) aims to remind New Yorkers that men aren’t the only ones who can shed clothes during a sweaty summer run—it’s legal for women to go topless, too. (It’s been on the books since 1992.)
But after running into Johnston (and her now somewhat-famous breasts) at the Times Square Yoga Solstice, we learned something interesting. Yoga, in fact, started it all.
“I was in a class at Jivamukti lying in savasana, and I suddenly just felt inclined to take my shirt off. I decided I wanted to try practicing topless,” Johnston explains. (I’m usually thinking, “Is it time to wiggle my toes yet?”)
Later, she says, she asked Sharon Gannon and managers at the studio if it was alright. They said no. She then did it anyway, and it wasn’t long before they had a staff member follow her into class to make sure she remained fully clothed. When she didn’t, they kicked her out and told her she wasn’t welcome back, she says.
When Johnston started to chat with friends about the experience, she found out that many didn’t know that toplessness was legal for women in New York. Of course, yoga studios are private businesses, so just like they can force you to take your shoes off, they can tell you to put your shirt on. The problem, Johnston explains, is that legally, they can’t differentiate between men and women. So, if dudes are allowed to disrobe during class, women have to be able to as well. “It’s a civil rights issue,” says Johnston.
And she’s letting studios around the city know. Elena Brower’s Virayoga was the only one that didn’t even think twice about letting her vinyasa flow free, says Johnston, while others, like Bikram Lower East Side, New York Yoga, and Pure Yoga told her to cover up.
Johnston also says many studios say they have policies that ban everyone from disrobing, but they don’t enforce the policy for men. Jivamukti, for example, posted a “no-shirts, no-yoga policy” soon after the hubbub, but Johnston says her friends still see shirtless men on the mat often. (We’re looking at you, David Life.)
“The most ironic thing is that this is the yoga community, and we’re supposed to be transcending gender and celebrating equality,” says Johnston. “I would have thought that this community would embrace it even if it wasn’t legal.” —Lisa Elaine Held
What do you think? Should everyone just keep their shirts on, or should we stop being so stuffy? Would it distract you to practice next to someone topless? Tell us, in the Comments, below!
I like what Johnston is doing – even if I don’t want to deshirt, I support her right to do it.
people are allowed freedom of speech but speaking out non-stop in a yoga class isn’t cool either. i would not let her practice topless in my class either.
If she is comfy sure why not. Personally I dont want to give me or my neighbors a black eye, so I will stay covered up.
Her boobies are harmless though :) And we all have nipples.
First, as a teacher or as a student, I do not want people be topless in my yoga classes! Please be respectful and have a shirt on not just for modesty but to absorb perspiration instead of dripping it possibly on your neighbors’ mat.
Second, Moira is absolutely right! If there are classes that allow shirtless men than she should be able to do so too. It is about gender equality, and since toplessness is legal, it is absolutely hypocritical and unjust to kick her out of class.
So as a yoga studio, please establish your rules, shirt or no shirt, then enforce it equally regardless gender.
I take no issue with what she is doing. If guys can practice sans shirt-ladies should have the same right…and it’s the law.
When will it ever end! Breasts are not sexual objects. It is all in the distorted mind of the beholder whether pervert, sex addict, religious fanatic or just plain narrow minded individual.
We are all as we were created whether male or female until media exploitation or surgery takes over.
In the cold light of day when something is taken out of context it can be sensationalised and distorted to “shock” people just like 99.99% of Fox news.
Very often the people who complain about this sort of action are not even present or involved in the situation.
If you are in a mixed yoga class and some of the females are top free it is only a matter of minutes before it becomes the norm and attracts as little attention as any other part of the anatomy such as legs, bottom or face.
For those who have not visited a naturist beach, perhaps you should try it before criticising the naked body. After five minutes it becomes the most natural thing you have ever done and unless you have distorted mind, totally non sexual.
There is a big difference between nakedness as a natural act and that of exploitation for commercial purposes.
She should be allowed to take her top and for that matter her bottom of also if she so desires. If you are affronted by that you should look at your own repressed mind not try to repress everybody else.
I was kicked out of bikram once for sipping water…
This woman needs to find something that is really worth fighting for. Being able to go topless is a HUGE civil rights issue for which she is willing to walk around without a top? Someone has some serious attention issues.
I took my shirt off once at jivamukti and was promptly (yet discreetly) asked to put it back on. I didn’t take it personally. I thought it was nice actually!
I personally would not want to see a topless female in a yoga class I am attending. Let’s all be respectful of others and not be a distraction to another person’s practice. Not everyone is OK with that.
I agree with Andrea. It’s best for both men and women to keep their shirt on in class. When sliding from knees-chest-chin to up-dog there’s a lot of friction to your skin. Depending on the type of mat you have, it can be bad for you.
I am a woman who, just like a man, feels like taking my top off sometimes, and for all the same reasons – feeling hot, sweaty, constricted, etc. Women and men both have chests that look appropriate to their gender, and saying that it’s okay for only one half of society to have the freedom of choice to be bare-chested, when it’s clearly a human experience, not just a male one, is sexism. When we’re entrenched in discrimination however, it can be hard to see it as such. It’s seen as being natural, even though it’s us humans that make up the rules. Just as it used to be seen that black people were naturally created as “less than”, therefore allowing discrimination to be “justly” wielded against them. We’ve come a long way since those times, but we must realize that this same sort of unconscious discrimination is continuing in bikram yoga studios, and anywhere else a woman is denied the same human experience as a man, simply for looking different.