Reading Yoga

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.