Commodifying the followers or challenging the mainstream? The two-sided potential of curvy fashion bloggers

Authors

  • Marco Luca Pedroni Università Cattolica of Milan
  • Maria Paola Pofi

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS0001383

Keywords:

Digital influencers, fashion blogging, digital culture, audiences, public, commercialisation of attention

Abstract

Digital influencers and fashion blogging are the subject of a growing interest as a pattern of both production and consumption of digital culture. This essay examines the process of co-evolution of digital influencers and audiences by taking into consideration the work of female curvy fashion bloggers. It is argued that, although plus-size social media influencers may play a counter-hegemonic role by conveying alternative narratives regarding body and beauty, many curvy blogs are not significantly different to ”standard” female outfit blogs, in which an audience is commodified as a source of material income and symbolic capital. Digital influencers, therefore, work as examples of co-opted audiences able to enhance further processes of co-option. The article also studies the social media influencers’ relationships with their audiences, focusing attention on the manner through which the blogger produces, develops and maintains this relationship. Cultural studies and political economy perspectives on public are discussed to contextualize the analysis of curvy blogs, as fashion studies have so far shown a limited interest in audience as an issue. The qualitative empirical material of the essay, made of 15 semi-structured interviews with female curvy bloggers and the content analysis of 40 curvy blogs, is analysed according to a grounded theory framework. Three main theoretical dimensions are discussed: the blogger’s career, success and professionalization, their faceted role in the process of audience shaping and the (reframed) narratives of beauty and body they spread. Drawing on a typology of curvy bloggers, the antinomy between “commodifying the audience” and “challenging the mainstream” is presented as a misleading way of interpreting the phenomenon, as the commercialisation of attention and the engagement of followers work as powerful and connected poles of a continuum.

Author Biography

Marco Luca Pedroni, Università Cattolica of Milan

Ph.D. in Sociology and social research methodology. Formerly a Research Fellow and an Adjunct Professor of Sociology of Culture at the University of Bergamo (Italy) and an Adjunct Professor of Communication Theory and Sociology at the Politecnico of Milan, I am currently a Post-doctoral Research Fellow in the Sociology of Culture at the Università Cattolica of Milan, where I am also part of the Centre for the Study of Fashion and Cultural Production (ModaCult). I am currently working on the role of identity and storytelling in the social media, on the themes of sharing and the collaborative economy, and on the cultural industries such as fashion and gambling. I've taught as a Guest Lecturer for several courses and institutions, including the London College of Fashion, the Milano Fashion Institute and the Marangoni Institute. I am the Editorial Assistant of the forthcoming International Journal of Fashion Studies, published by Intellect Books, with the first issue scheduled for Spring 2014. I'm the author of Coolhunting (2010) and a co-editor of Moda e arte (Fashion and Art, 2012). My most recent book is From Production to Consumption: The Cultural Industry of Fashion (Interdisciplinary, 2013).

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Published

2018-09-01

How to Cite

Pedroni, M. L., & Pofi, M. P. (2018). Commodifying the followers or challenging the mainstream? The two-sided potential of curvy fashion bloggers. Observatorio (OBS*). https://doi.org/10.15847/obsOBS0001383

Issue

Special issue on The co-option of audiences in the attention economy

Section

Articles

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