Between Well-being and Distinction: Gender, Race, and Coloniality in Yoga Practice in a Brazilian Capital

Abstract

Yoga has been widely disseminated in the West as a universal practice for promoting well-being and self-care. However, its contemporary incorporation occurs in contexts marked by structural inequalities that strain such universalizing claims. This study analyzed the sociodemographic profile and motivations of Yoga practitioners in a capital city in the Brazilian Midwest, interpreting the findings based on intersectional and decolonial frameworks. This is exploratory and descriptive research conducted with 102 practitioners linked to private Yoga studios and spaces through a semi-structured online questionnaire. Sociodemographic data were subjected to descriptive statistics, and open-ended responses regarding motivation underwent thematic categorical analysis. A predominance of cisgender women (94.1%), white people (64.7%), and individuals with higher education or postgraduate degrees (68.7%) was observed. The main motivations for the practice were related to mental health, well-being, and quality of life. The findings indicate that, although discursively presented as a universal practice, Yoga is configured as a socially stratified practice, concentrated in groups with higher cultural capital and marked by processes of feminization, racialization, and elitization. It is concluded that its contemporary configuration reproduces structural inequalities of gender, race, and class, highlighting the need to critically problematize the processes of appropriation, commodification, and medicalization of bodily practices in the health field.