Fitness muses and the body-consumption-happiness triad

Abstract

We analyze how Fitness Muses are produced and produce themselves by mapping their strategies to engage with followers and by understanding the relationships established between bodily architectures and consumption. In this virtual ethnography, we extracted photos and texts from Instagram profiles of nine women for three months. The results point to: different investments in producing bodily architectures by means of consumption focused on the body exposure; public display of intimacy; and the relationship between goods, services, and products as a condition of happiness. The performatic images of their spectacular lives encourage their obsession about an irreproachable life whose noises and seductions support the never-ending promise that consumption of the products advertised is key to reach that lifestyle. Thus, by adding likes, accumulating followers, participation in events, marketing products, Fitness Muses constantly underscore the triad bodyconsumption-happiness.