Introduction

Digital fashionistas: young women, wealth-in-followers and matronage in Yaoundé, Cameroon

“…2017; Sylvanus 2019; Dosekun 2020), even as studies of social media influencers proliferate in the field of media studies (e.g. Marwick 2015; Abidin 2018; Arriagada 2021; Iqani 2021). Since young women use fashion to enter sexual economies and patronage networks with men, and since fashion is a means of asserting one’s economic and social position in female circles of status and wealth, how are young women using fashion – and the digital images through which it is circulated – to enter into relations with wealthier and more powerful women rather than men?…”

“…Within media studies, the literature highlights how social media influencers in Chile (Arriagada 2021), Singapore (Abidin 2018), South Africa (Iquani 2021) and the USA (Marwick 2015) all create value based on affect, numbers of followers and reputations for self-branding. Fashion influencers are hired by brands to market sponsored products to their followers, who are in turn maintained through affective and intimate engagement.…”

“…Here, value is produced in capitalist and neoliberal terms: through, among others, the extraction of labour by influencers from followers and by brands from influencers and followers; and through quantification of influence, usually numbers of followers, constituting a measurement of value of social relations for brands (Rocamora 2022). That is, market value is conceived in financial terms through the value of labour directed towards the promotion of the brand being reduced to a uniform or commensurate measurement (Rocamora 2022; Arriagada 2021; Iquani 2021; Marwick 2015).…”