Pilates class

TikTok user @succulentaddict8′s comments about pilates have not gone down well.

“If you’re 200lbs, you shouldn’t be in a pilates class,” she said in a recent (now-deleted) video, adding, “you shouldn’t be allowed to be a pilates instructor if you have a gut.”

Though the creator has since apologised for the cruel comments in a video she has also now deleted, some creators feel the damage is done.

Personal trainer Court responded, “There are so many people on this Earth who are so fearful of going into the gym and starting their fitness journey because of people like that.”

But it’s not the first controversy about who “should” go to pilates this year.

“SkinnyTok” influencer Toni Fine suggested Black women attending the classes are doing so to get “proximity to whiteness,” despite (among a million other problems people have raised with that statement) a Black woman, Kathy Stanford Grant, having essentially introduced the activity to America.

What is it about pilates in particular that seems to evoke such strong images of exclusivity, thinness, and wealth in some people’s minds (think the ‘Pilates Princess’ archetype)?

And how did we get here from Joseph Pilates’ original mission – to provide gentle, safe exercises for all?