Should a hetero man wishing to do try this go into it expecting that it would be a mostly gay thing and he will (assuming he’s in good shape and potentially attractive to other men) probably get approached sexually or is there a strong presumption of personal space in these scenarios and you will be left alone?
I’m of the opinion that no one should ever sexually approach anyone else while nude, unless they’re both at a sex club. To do so would be tacky, and counter to the purpose of the class, which seems to have more of a spiritual/naturalist thrust (heh) than anything. But should a man actually get angry? Only if the propositioned is aggressive and/or repetitive about it. Otherwise a “no, that’s not why I’m here,” type of response should be suffice.
What do you mean sexually? Like “How would you like to downward face my dick?” or “You have a great warrior pose, want to get some fro-yo and discuss breathing?” Cuz the former is crude but the latter is just a fact of life in my opinion. Sometimes people ask you out and we don’t get to pick who does so.
I think if I were the instructor, I’d be giving strongly worded missives to my class that this is Not Acceptable, and kicking out anyone who does it anyway. If I’m paid by the person, I don’t want people avoiding my class because they’re made to feel like it’s a meat market.
I can’t watch the video, but I would say that hitting on someone in that context is inappropriate. By all means, make friends with people, but its a context where nudity should be asexual, and so I think a sexual advance essentially misses the purpose and ruins the space. I don’t think I’d be upset about it, unless it were particularly crude and off-putting. If someone were just making a simple discussion and invitation for friendship, that’s just fine, though still probably would want to at least be partially dressed before bringing it up, because I’d still feel like those things should be separate spaces.
But, really, if a man goes in there expecting that it’s mostly a gay thing, he should be prepared for whatever sort of results might happen. Yeah, a crude hit on is uncommon, but not outside of the realm of possibility. If it’s going to make him that uncomfortable that he’d get pissed off, rather than just a little uncomfortable or awkward, he should probably reconsider, since that sort of defeats the purpose too.
You are in luck, astro, for I have been to such a class before.
I know the yogi socially and he suggested I try it for back issues that I have. This particular yogi has sort of hippy-dippy leanings (being naked, not ever eating HFCS or synthetic sweeteners, yoga to raise consciousness). First, the class was open to both sexes. However, the two times I went, I’m pretty sure it mostly gay men. Well, I know that they were all men, and I surmised that they were mostly gay. (One was wearing a wedding ring, but that could mean any number of things.)
There were no sexual overtures. (And I was—easily—among the better looking people there. Not so much because everyone was fugly or nothin’, but I am a very handsome boy. So if anyone were going to be propositioned, it was me.)
Anyway, the classes were actually pretty vigorous (cycling through salutations and poses pretty quickly, etc.), so there really isn’t any to time to mack on anyone else. We did do Happy Baby Pose, which generated some giggling.
But overall, at least with this instructor, there wasn’t anything untoward going on. I think you should totally do it!
Of course it’s his fault, whether he’s getting hit on or raped. Anyone who goes out naked in public is asking for it. For future classes I recommend, at minimum, a banana hammock *a la *Borat.
Eh. People have a perfect right to proposition other people; getting mad over it is unreasonable and when you get right down to it hypocritical, unless you’ve never propositioned anyone. Now if they won’t take no for an answer or are all obnoxious about it, that’s another matter; but then, that would also be true if they were trying to get you to go to a game or something instead.
I think if you’re the sort of person who gets pissed off about homosexual advances, then a naked yoga class is probably not for you.
On the other hand, I do think that such an advance would be a breach of etiquette. I would feel that the person was not respecting the intended asexual nature of the situation, and was putting me in an awkward position. If he wanted to come on to me, he should have waited until after class was over.
Back when I was younger I got hit on at the gym a couple of times. However, they had the good grace to approach me in the weight room, not in the shower.
Just to be clear I have no plans (and the human race should be thankful) of doing naked yoga at this time. The OP was mostly a thought experiment as to how etiquette is observed in those scenarios.
I have to admit the one part that kind of squicked me out was that in several of the bent over poses in the video it seems inevitable there’s going to be some degree of asshole spreading in front of other guys faces. Does not seems like a comfortable workout environment for a non-gay man.
As the OP states ‘after naked male yoga’ I think it’s a bit unreasonable for a straight man to be PO’d about getting hit on. Is it that hard for straight men to say sorry not interested and move on?
Hitting on a guy during the class is a bit tacky in most situations so the sexuality doesn’t matter there.
Agree - as a straight man - I think I’d actually be flattered - as long as it wasn’t done crudely or something. I could see being uncomfortable, but not angry. I can see how some guys might be offended, but I’m pretty sure none of them are going to a yoga class.
Yeah, I’ve known guys who think being approached is a call for a beat-down. Living near Chicago’s Boystown, it happened a lot when I was in my 20s. I wrote it off as guys being guys and moved on. There was a creep that tried to follow me back to my place once and him I confronted firmly, but he backed off saying he thought we’d “had a moment” when we passed on the street. Not so much. That crap was inappropriate regardless of gender, though.