Dissemination and reception-appropriation of body norms on internet

This article proposes an analysis of the female body norms disseminated on social media and the ways in which they are received and appropriated. The focus is specifically on Instagram and a wellness practice, yoga. Based on a corpus of four Instagram accounts of female yoga influencers and a survey of yoga practitioners, we show how the social anchoring of the reception of aesthetic norms plays a decisive role in the ways in which these norms are appropriated. A study of the Instagram corpus reveals media models of ‘controlled’ femininity built around a slim, athletic body and articulated with a familialist morality based on the value of the home and heterosexuality. However, these dominant norms are received and appropriated in different ways by yoga practitioners. Three modalities are thus brought to light, with diverse relationships to these norms, between performance, indifference, and critique. Largely dependent on resources, particularly political resources, these three modalities clearly show how these norms can be circumvented or even challenged, while at the same time allowing the platform to be used to celebrate one’s differences.