Politicisation of the Domestic: Populist Narratives About Covid‐19 Among Influencers

The article analyses the proliferation of narratives about Covid‐19 as an orchestrated political event among female lifestyle
influencers on Czech Instagram. As the Covid‐19 pandemic turned even the most basic everyday activities into politically
loaded questions, the boundaries between lifestyle, domestic, and political content posted by influencers became increas‐
ingly blurred. The article explores this process of “politicisation of the domestic” with a focus on (a) the gendered character
of influencer communities on Instagram, (b) the process of authority building within the newly politicised and gendered
spaces, and (c) the post‐socialist socio‐political context of the Czech Republic that frames current political events by sym‐
bolic references to a totalitarian past. Empirically, the article builds on data collected using digital ethnography and ethno‐
graphic content analysis of selected Czech female lifestyle influencers’ Instagram profiles.