Pride and Body: Jessamyn Stanley, Naked Yoga, and Queer Liberation (EXCLUSIVE)

For an exclusive interview with 'Distractify,' queer web yogi Jessamyn Stanley got candid about the magic of naked yoga, self-care, and the interconnectivity of humanity.

Close your eyes and image a yogi. Is your mental symbol rather skinny? Perhaps white (despite yoga's historical Indian roots)? Dare we are saying heteronormative? Is there Lululemon concerned? If your solution to all of these questions is a reluctant yes, it's time that you enlarge your thoughts and world view. And when you are at it, all through the breath of fireside — a Kundalini yoga methodology — liberate the ones preconceived notions.

According to yoga instructor, intersectional activist, Underbelly co-founder, and author Jessamyn Stanley, yoga is for everyone and every body. She literally wrote the 2017 ebook Every Body Yoga: Let Go of Fear, Get On the Mat, Love Your Body, a piece meant to "break all the stereotypes."

Proudly a "fat, Black, queer femme," Jessamyn has been a powerful voice in the on-line wellness house for years, as she introduced her widespread Instagram account @mynameisjessamyn again in 2013.

Focusing on Bikram yoga and the immersive feeling of being in and with the body — and 0 center of attention on weight loss and thinness worship — Jessamyn's powerful platform continues to prepared the ground for body positivity hopefuls and yoga fanatics alike.

With Pride Month in mind, Distractify caught up with the self-proclaimed Beyoncé of yoga to discuss all things related to queer id, body and intercourse positivity, OnlyFans, and the significance of self-care. Let's align some chakras.

Jessamyn Stanley on the weight of her queer id: "It's everything."

Being a colourful part of the LGBTQ+ group has formed Jessamyn in super techniques.

"My queer identity is the lens through which I see the world. Coming to understand that as a part of who I am was a huge part of my childhood," she solely told Distractify.

Jessamyn went on to discuss her popping out timeline, which spanned several years. She came out as a lesbian during her overdue early life, but as her knowledge and figuring out of queer language and herself expanded, so did the boundaries of her identification.

She got here out again as queer and polyamorous in her early-20s. The now-36-year-old yogi honors her evolving id as a way to understand and relate to anything outside of the mainstream.

"I understand the world as being bigger than the binary. And so my queerness allows me to make space for all the complexities of humanity and everything that seems to not fit," she continued.

Like any self-love and self-acceptance adventure, Jessamyn's road to queer enlightenment and body confidence used to be a long one. Declaring herself an alphabet mafia member at the age of 17 was just the start.

"I grew up in a household where it was not okay to talk about sex, sexuality, nudity, and masturbation — none of that was OK. And I felt deeply ashamed of my body," she advised Distractify.

The magic of movement allowed Jessamyn to see the light, as a way to talk.

"Practicing yoga has allowed me to reclaim my relationship with my body, it has allowed me to feel liberated and to be present within myself," the Yoke: My Yoga of Self-Acceptance creator shared.

As she launched years of deeply ingrained shame with each hip opener and pigeon pose, Jessamyn knew she had to inspire others to do the similar. And what higher method to shed body-centric disgrace than to shed layers of clothing while transferring said body?

Jessamyn Stanley started educating naked yoga classes on OnlyFans in October 2022.

Hoping to increase conversations about sexuality and destigmatize fats naked our bodies, Jessamyn launched an OnlyFans page in late 2022, offering reside nude yoga classes and Japanese rope bondage tutorials for curious subscribers.

Though she had up to now posted NSFW content material on socials — much of which used to be banned — one thing about diving into the arguable international of OnlyFans felt different. More specifically, Jessamyn learned she carried internalized biases concerning the particular content subscription provider.

This realization used to be a turning level for Jessamyn, instructing her that "we are the change that we want to see."

But nude yoga wasn't a new thought for Jessamyn; being in her birthday go well with has all the time been a part of her private practice.

"Sharing that practice with others is an opportunity to create a world where other people don't have the experience I had growing up, where people don't have to be ashamed of their bodies," she stated.

"When you practice yoga naked, you're able to connect with your physical body in a way that is fundamentally different. ... That [transformational experience] is something that transcends the fear and the biases that I have felt encumbered by."

Jessamyn made it a point to recognize the judgment and stigmas confronted by way of those that've come ahead of her.

"I feel so grateful for the community that has been built [on OnlyFans] over years and years, and really through toil and suffering by sex workers to make a space where it's okay for all of us to create the content that we want to create," she said.

Jessamyn Stanley is on a mission to "take yoga where it needs to go and get it out of this fitness bulls--t."

When we requested Jessamyn in regards to the overall targets of her naked yoga classes, she honed in on the essence of yoga, which doesn't value physical look.

"One [goal] is to show fat people being happy, living our lives unapologetically. We are not just the before in a 'before and after.' We are powerful, and our bodies are incredible machines. And I think that visibility and representation of naked fat bodies is really crucial for all people," she started.

"Yoga — especially in the West — is very much mired in fitness culture and in white patriarchal ideology. It becomes about what you look like and whether or not your body looks, quote, good enough."

Jessamyn clarified that true yoga doesn't claim any of that. "Yoga is really about the union of the different complexities of yourself," she persisted.

Believe it or now not, there may be additionally a way of practicality connected to naked yoga, because it "allows for an attention to alignment" and "anatomical accuracy."

So pass on, get on the mat and free yourself from that neon spandex jail — within the privacy of your personal space, in fact.

Jessamyn Stanley handles online backlash with compassion, empathy, and curiosity.

Since changing into an inspirational public figure, Jessamyn has labored with fashionable health- and fitness-focused manufacturers like Gatorade, U through Kotex, and Adidas, and even landed herself a place at the quilt of Cosmopolitan UK in 2021.

With all of this girlbossery and over 580,000 Instagram followers beneath her belt, Jessamyn has encountered inevitable backlash, bullying, and negativity — even from the conservative mouth of Piers Morgan, who berated Cosmo for "promoting obesity" in the midst of a virulent disease.

Jessamyn — being the sensible soul she is — believes damaging feedback and online trolling spawn "from sadness, or a feeling of fear or confusion, and a lack of curiosity."

"A lot of people, when they see me — a fat, Black, queer person living their life unapologetically — they get scared. I understand that, and I have compassion for that. And ultimately, I don't feel like that has anything to do with me. ... From where I sit, I offer love to that person. Usually, for me, love comes in the form of silence," Jessamyn defined.

But Jessamyn is only human, so she's "popped off" on a couple of web haters over time. She graciously admits that form of engagement is "energy draining" and "just enables the negative energy to grow further," so she tends to steer clear of it.

"If I was a Sagittarius, I would pop off 100 percent of the time. But I'm a Cancer, I just don't have it," she joked.

Jessamyn Stanley believes "self-care is the only way that we will survive."

According to Jessamyn, non-public practices and rituals are not simply for a laugh (despite the fact that doing a 10-step skincare routine while looking at a true-crime documentary is actually a blast), they are for survival — particularly for queer individuals.

"Thinking about the LGBTQIA+ community, it's like, we are out here in the streets. ... And that means that you have to be constantly refilling your own cup. ... You have to love yourself like you would love the person that you love most in the world, and let that be your guiding light," Jessamyn stated. "Going for a run or a walk, that is you fortifying yourself so that you can show up for your community."

With a snigger, Jessamyn referenced a lyric from Miley Cyrus's 2015 song "I Forgive Yiew": "You’re lucky I’m doing my yoga, or you might be dead."

"That's the vibe. Literally take care of yourself so we can take care of each other," she stated.

But Jessamyn views yoga as more than only a "survival" software for LGBTQ+ individuals, it is a tool for embracing and remembering "the interconnectivity of all of us."

"It sucks, because you end up having to remember that the person who is oppressing you or trying to oppress you, they are also going through the same s--t that you're going through. ... I don't want to think about their humanity. But if you do think about their humanity, you're able to listen to them better, and you're able to work with them toward a future that we can all live in," she said.

And with that, we enter shavasana, a pose that allows us to chill out and reflect on Jessamyn's wisdom. Namaste.

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