The invisible corset: Discipline, control and surveillance in contemporary yogawear

Abstract

This article examines the ways in which contemporary yogawear brands contribute to the perpetuation of patriarchal social constructs around the female body and new modes of moral distinction, discipline, surveillance and social control. They do so by promoting an internally and externally self-monitored body. The yoga uniform and its symbolic ‘invisible corset’ respond to the social need to create similarity and sense of belonging whilst simultaneously creating status and class division. Yogawear poses a paradox as it concurrently empowers and controls the female body, signalling both austere and hedonistic, individual and collective values with a postfeminist sensibility. This article evaluates the idealized bodies of Lululemon Athletica and Aloyoga – the two leading global yogawear brands in the sportswear and fashion industries. Specifically analysing the interplay of gender, social class and race on social media, it examines how yogawear and the yoga uniform reinforce traditional, regulating and standardizing female body ideals validating certain body types and silencing others.