I am living and practicing Pilates in a bigger body (or some may prefer ‘larger’ body).
When I started, I wanted to see other bodies like mine doing Pilates. It was difficult to find any videos or websites online that represented bigger bodies doing Pilates. I was very interested in seeing what the exercises looked like in different body types.
When I Googled “Pilates”, all I found were a lot of very thin, white women in super adorable clothes doing really hard things. I also saw a lot of things that seemed to require extreme flexibility (back bends and crazy leg stuff).
I went to Instagram to find others like me, and still found very few accounts. Eventually, I started finding more bodies of different shapes and sizes doing Pilates. It made me feel connected to the online community.
So, why did this matter?
It’s about inclusion and representation. Period.
The Pilates Industry needs to expand and show:
More BIPOC bodies
More body shapes and sizes [these two things are different]
More disabilities
More respect
More community
Even Instagram needs to update their settings to show more of the above in hashtags such as #pilatesforallbodies #pilatesforeverybody
BECAUSE - I tag all my posts with these hashtags to show love for my fellow #biggerpilatesbody folks and I NEVER see my posts as relevant. They still don’t rank higher than the thin white women. It’s an issue. I want to see all kinds of bodies inspiring more people to do Pilates.
Those of us who do Pilates are obsessed. We love Pilates. It makes us strong. It makes us confident. It makes us happy.
If the lack of representation in the community keeps people AWAY from Pilates, that is a disservice to Joseph Pilates. He wanted everyone using Contrology to build uniform development.
Let’s make a happy community full of respect for all humans.
