With over 21 million posts, #yoga is a popular way people choose to portray themselves on Instagram. Yogalebrities such as @laurasykora have gained over a million followers by combining yoga practice with fashion. Yoga companies have realized the potential for sales and turned yogagrammers into marketers.
These yogalebrities often receive free samples, but these samples are anything but free - the yogagrammers are expected to promote products whether pair of pants or brand of juice. Even when the Instagrammer chooses not to list the brand, followers ask where they can find the products. This relationship promotes the brand and the Instagrammer, and they both gain followers.
However, as yogagrams have become more popular, the number of people trying to get the attention of companies and the number of yoga companies trying to get the attention of consumers has increased. This social media production, which Duffy describes as “aspirational labor” creates and recreates an environment that paints yoga in a particular way. Not only do these “tastemakers” help set fashion in the yoga world, they also provide an image of yoga that overemphasizes difficult and sometimes dangerous poses.
This paper will examine celebrity yogagrammers and look for patterns using a semiotic analysis. In addition to selling clothing, these yogagrammers also sell a particular version of the fitness-oriented body and in doing so have an impact on the yoga world as a whole.
This paper will capture a picture of yoga on social media at this particular place in history, which is ever-changing. It is part of a larger study that examines the changing image of yoga in American society. As yoga has increased in popularity, its focus on asana (physical postures) has begun to overtake the other aspects of the tradition.
About the presenterDanie Greenwell
Danie Greenwell is a graduate of Drexel University’s Communication, Culture, & Media doctoral program. Her dissertation explored the way in which mental and physical health messages are communicated: whether in the yoga studio, in mass media, or on social media. Her other research interests are focused on health, fitness, wellbeing, and sustainability and how these are related to promotional culture and consumer decision making.