Wellness and white power: a fantasy theme analysis of U.S. wellness influencer content and its utilization of white power discourse

ABSTRACT

During the COVID-19 pandemic, wellness influencers used far-right ideologies to spread misinformation about health and wellness on social media. Extending the application of symbolic convergence theory (SCT) in this study, I argue that these influencers are an identifiable rhetorical community that utilize white power discourse to facilitate convergence. A fantasy theme analysis of Instagram posts reveals several important fantasy themes. They include mother-as-warrior, where mothers are situated as revolutionary agents against the state, paramilitary wellness, which highlights influencers’ calls for active resistance against health-related government mandates, and homeschooling and homesteading as both forms of resistance and idealized representations of a “well” life. These themes serve as the rhetorical foundations of this community and have several important implications for understanding the proliferation of white power rhetoric in online spaces, including the potential for violence.

KEYWORDS:

• Symbolic convergence
• fantasy theme analysis
• social media
• wellness influencers
• white power discourse

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Funding

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Notes on contributors

Alexandra N. Sousa

Alexandra N. Sousa is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University Southeast, in the Department of Communication Studies. She studies issues of identity and inclusion within organizations and processes of organizing, in hopes of addressing communication that leads to unjust marginalization.