Reading Yoga: Changing Discourses of Postural Yoga on the Yoga Journal Covers. (June 2014)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Markula, Pirkko
• Is Part Of: Communication & sport. Volume 2:Number 2(2014:Jun.)
• Page Start: 143
• Page End: 171
• Publication Date: 2014-06
• Subjects: yoga -- neoliberalism -- self -- discourse -- body; Communication in sports -- Periodicals; Mass media and sports -- Periodicals; 306.48305
• DOI: 10.1177/2167479513490673
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2167-4795

Abstract

Postural yoga has become a very popular physical activity in the United States. In this process, yoga has also transformed into multiple different forms. In this article, I employ Foucault's theoretical work to understand how yoga has become appropriated in the U.S. media by analyzing the covers of a popular yoga magazine, the Yoga Journal . My Foucauldian discourse analysis indicated that while the Yoga Journal covers have changed quite significantly over 35 years, the magazine appeared to offer a model for "holistic arts of living" for contemporary (middle class) Americans. These "arts" evolved into a simple life of love, joy, and inner strength in the middle of the modern distractions. However, on the Yoga Journal covers, postural yoga also developed into a practice of finding one's "true self, " creating a lithe yoga body, and becoming a conscious consumer. When read through the covers of a popular magazine, postural yoga Americanized, feminized, and commercialized into a Western fitness practice increasingly governed by the neoliberal rationale.