I think part of the reason why more men go for martial arts and more women go for yoga is that even though they are both very beneficial to at least your physical health, the Western world filters these two practices through their own lenses. So most guys here in America see martial arts as being about violence and being able to kick someone's butt and therefore more "cool" for guys to do, whereas yoga is just a bunch of stretching and contortion and holding weird poses and is somehow connected to hippie flower-power that's apparently emasculating. And since our society is still very much shaped around what men perceive more than what women perceive, this causes the gender split between martial arts and yoga. What so many don't realize is that both martial arts AND yoga are used for physical health, for mental and spiritual development, and for self defense.
|