Woman asked to cover up after going topless during hot yoga

A Canadian woman is calling for equality after she was asked to cover up when she removed her top during a hot yoga class.

Jennifer Frizzley was overheating during the session and didn't have a sports bra with her.

Her usual yoga gear was dirty and she was wearing a thicker shirt than usual so she had asked permission from the front desk of Quantum Yoga Class in Victoria, British Columbia to remove her top.

Telling the CBC that she "wasn't making a political statement", Frizzley was approached by the instructor after the class and told to cover up.

"I was told that my body was distracting and that I needed to cover up," Frizzley said. "We need to be really careful because this ideology is unjust, it's discriminatory and it's very dangerous."

Frizzley told CTV News: "I'm not trying to force my boobs on anyone, but it's not equality, and it's not fair."

The woman has launched a social media campaign to raise awareness. Photo / 123RF

Quantum Yoga is looking to tighten its dress code after the incident, with owner Ken Mayes saying that management "need to do a better job explaining our policies and our dress code".

Frizzley told the Kelowna Capital News: "I don't think [the instructor] is in the wrong, per se, she's just propagating a culture in which it's okay for men to be shirtless but it's not okay for women to be shirtless."

Frizzley has launched a Facebook group to promote topless yoga and to try and find spaces where willing participants can perform their exercises in peace.

"I think it's about desexualizing the body and allowing people to be free and make their own independent choices," she said. "We shouldn't be forcing people to wear things or take things off."

In New Zealand, nude yoga classes have been held in Auckland since 2016, when a group's founder told the Herald that: "There are lot of people with insecurities and fears about how their body looks.

"Everybody has something that they aren't comfortable with and there are so many images in society of body 'perfection' that we assume we need to look a certain way to be 'normal'. The feedback from people is amazing when they share with you how they feel more confident and their insecurities are becoming less and less part of their mind. It's about all shapes and sizes, all people are welcome."