Voices

Seems like an agenda behind the allegations

Several of the women quoted in support of this article seem to miss the point of the #MeToo movement.

When an employer engages in unwanted touching or doesn't respect boundaries, a female employee is often powerless to stop it. Economic necessity and desire for career stability or advancement can render her powerless.

However, when a paid yoga teacher publicly crosses boundaries and makes a woman uncomfortable, she holds the power. She can publish a scathing Yelp review and take her business elsewhere, to one of the half dozen other yoga studios in town.

The complaints of the women who instead chose to spend years returning to this studio, despite their allegations, ring a little hollow.

Additionally, conflating teaching complaints (“his assists hurt me”) with sexual harassment complaints (“he touched me in a sexually inappropriate way”) distorts how prevalent the harassment claims are.

Obviously, no one should be sexually harassed in a yoga class or anywhere else. It just seems like there's another agenda behind these allegations.

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