Pilates for the Queer and Transgender Community

Cultural sensitivity, competency, and care are among the greatest superpowers a movement facilitator can possess. As I understand it, our role as educators is to support individuals in deepening their own self-knowledge and their own capacities to feel and experience joy, all while healing physical and emotional wounds. This is a tall order. Wellness should belong to everyone. As a member of the queer and trans community, I have come to expect care-oriented progress and if we want self-care to be available to those who need it most–those on society’s fringes–it is absolutely essential to cultivate safer spaces.

I want my queer and trans clients (and yours!) to experience Pilates in spaces that are inclusive, body-affirming, accessible, and genuinely welcoming. Extracting ‘the Method’ from narrow ideas of who Pilates is for, what bodies are valued, or what “belonging” looks like is challenging and relentless work. This blog post is intended to provide an introduction to the ways that we can create safer Pilates spaces for the queer and trans community.

Setting Up the Space: Non-Negotiables

We learn a lot about the safety of a new environment within the first few minutes of entry. There are many simple ways we, as people who craft spaces, can set them up to make the firm statement: “The LGBTQIA+ community is wanted here.”

Pronouns

The great thing about pronouns is that you have a head start; you already use them without thinking too much. Pronouns are words that we use as placeholders for nouns and proper nouns so that our sentences sound less clunky. Common pronouns are “she/her/hers,” “they/them/theirs,” and “he/him/his.” These pronouns have a second job, however.They also communicate the holder’s gender identity.

When we make assumptions about an individual’s pronouns, we are (perhaps, unintentionally) presuming that their gender identity is a) visible (ex, “girls always have long hair and small chins) and b) that their gender identity correlates with the sex that they were assigned at birth. These assumptions, though normalized in places with histories of white Christian colonization, erase the lived experiences of non-binary, genderqueer, two-spirit, intersex, and trans folks. When cisgender people–those whose gender identity is aligned with the sex they were assigned at birth–share their pronouns, they are acknowledging and validating experiences of gender and sex that are different from their own.

So, how can you put this into practice at your studio?

Write staff’s pronouns next to their names on your website.

• On your registration forms or intake forms, provide space for your clients to share their pronouns.
• Someone new in your group class? Ask their name and their pronouns.
• Avoid using pronouns when you are not sure which ones somebody uses.
• Pronoun stress? Practice in the shower. Think about it before bed. Integrate they/them pronouns into your child’s bedtime story.
• Most importantly, ask questions and notice when you fall into the habit of making assumptions. If you mess up, apologize quickly and move on.

These techniques help create safer spaces for LGBTQ+ community members while modeling your values and best practices for allies.

All Gender Bathrooms

The concept of Men’s and Women’s bathrooms is exclusionary to those who live outside of the gender binary and dangerous to trans folks living in countries and U.S. states where it is illegal to use bathrooms that do not correlate with one’s assigned sex. All Gender Bathrooms are a simple, inclusive, and safe fix.

Consensual Hands-On Cueing

Tactile feedback is a significant and valid part of many of our teaching practices. It is always possible that harm will occur in the studio despite whatever precautions we may take, so I like to think of consent in Pilates as a practice of harm reduction. It is important to understand that consent is an ongoing, continuous process; it is not as simple as asking for blanket permission and then moving forward from there, doing whatever you like. Here are the steps that I like to take:

1. Ask how clients feel about touch in the intake form. This is an opportunity for them to reflect and share their thoughts outside of the power dynamic of the Pilates studio.
2. In group classes, touch feedback should come with an anonymous opt-in process. For example, while in child’s pose: “If you would like to be offered tactile feedback during class, place your hand on your lower back.” Let them know that you will still ask before offering touch.
3. When offering touch, ask about the specific area first. For example, “May I place my hand on your knee?” This person might be happy to receive touch on their knee but would decline if you were to touch their sacrum.
4. When working with private clients, after a consistent period of them them accepting tactile offerings, you may transition to narration instead of invitation. Perhaps saying, “I am coming around to place my hand on your knee.”

Consent is a great way to practice clear communication and boundary-setting with your clients.

Inclusive Verbal Cueing

Gendered and herteronomative language is deeply ingrained in our culture and, as such, has permeated Pilates. In many ways, this language is obvious once you begin to look for it, like referring to an entire group class as “ladies” or the cue “curl back through your bra line.” However, some examples are less overt.

For example, our legs are not straight. And they cannot be straight. They are composed of spiraling bones which are covered in soft flesh. “Straight” is not something that our bodies do. If you venture into the average Pilates class, you will likely encounter a teacher instructing the class to straighten their limbs or spine. Not only is this impossible, but I find that it tends to miss the mark altogether. Our spines are remarkably curved structures, and any attempt to make them otherwise will result in a great deal of tension and a loss of the trunk’s build-in suspension system. “Straight” connotes a kind of rigidity that is, in fact, structurally unstable. I often liken embodied stability to the structural integrity of a skyscraper; we need to have a little give–a little sway–so that we do not tip over.

I believe that the prevalence of ‘straight’ is proof of underlying heteronormativity and militarism. The instruction to be straight is a request to fall in line, to conform, and to eliminate one’s oddities, queerness, and fleshiness. The instruction to be straight prioritizes a rigid appearance of precision over honoring our bodies as sensory, feeling, and kinetic organisms. It is aesthetic-more about the performance of achieving something rather than the experience of doing it-and all-around impractical.

So, as I step off my soap box, I imagine you are thinking something along the lines of, “Okay, Sofia, but if my leg is bent and I want to return it to my usual standing position, what would you call that if not ‘straight?’” There is no single best answer but I have my own personal preferences. To find solutions to such questions, I like to use an associative writing exercise I call “Cross-Referencing Connotations of Language Inside and Outside of the Studio.”

This exercise guides you through the process of reflecting on the language used in your movement practice to determine if this language aligns with you values. It is also a process that will allow you to pinpoint language that may not cause direct or major harm but nonetheless creates an undertone in your practice that may be hierarchical, normative, white-washing, exclusionary, and so on.

• Choose a cue, word, or phrase that you commonly use in your movement practice. This may be language that you think privately or that you say aloud for others to hear. Perhaps it is a body part, image, shape, position, or action.
• Write down 5-10 common phrases or words that you may bear during daily living or in media that use or contain the language in step 1
• Next to each of these common phrases, words, or cultural references, briefly note the values ascribed to this phrase. Perhaps you ask
• Who says it or who is associated with it?
• Is it good or bad?
• Is it gendered, racialized, or politicized?
• Is it associated with privilege?
• Is it inclusive or exclusive?
• Is it violent?
• How does reading or hearing it make you feel? Emotionally? Physically?
• After mapping these associations, do you still feel aligned with this language? If you do not, write a list of synonyms and repeat steps 2 and 3 for each to find language that feels better aligned with the values you wish to embody.

Traditionally, Pilates is taught without demonstration, making it inherently an oral tradition wherein movers depend on words in order to take action. I often lead movement teachers through this exercise when they come to me to develop a more affirming, thoughtful relationship to language in their pedagogy. However, habitual wording that has been drenched in restrictive values infiltrates the inner (and outer) dialogues of practitioners, and students just as much as their teachers. I do not want your practice to be stripped of motion. But, instead, I hope you to feel empowered to observe and take action; notice the language choices most prevalent in your practice and, when appropriate, use the options you generated in this exercise to adapt.