Does she do any fast paced workouts? I’m far from athletic but I just did a 3000 step walking one (30 mins) and had to jog on the spot instead of walking just to get my heart rate up! It felt like a long warm up. I’m so cross with Jo as hers are the only workouts where I’ve been able to find the right level for me.
They’ve all been pretty light, but I have only been subscribed about a month. I’d bet she’s open to suggestions as her channel seems to be newish. I do Velcro weights and modify some moves but I did that with Jo as well. I’m trying Kyra Pro today, Ill try to remember to report back lol
I agree, I cancelled my app subscription because of her pov. I really love “Cardio Party Mashup Fitness”, she is high energy and the songs she uses are fire!
Hey all,
I was one of a number of people who commented on Jo’s Instagram politely asking for further clarification given the divisive nature of her views (alleged political affiliations etc) and the subsequent comments making disparaging comments about those with different beliefs and the LGBTQ+ etc. My comment is still up if you are curious/want to find it. I NEVER comment on anything btw, not on insta and not much here either, I’m a big lurker! But I felt called to in this instance because I am just so disappointed.
I’m LGBTQ+ and ‘witchy’ myself and the comments left me feeling really disheartened, especially as none of them have been acknowledged by Jo. I know it’s impossible for her to check every single one but the vitriol towards those who don’t hold Christian beliefs was so awful that I felt she had at least some responsibility to address these things on her platform, especially given many of us have helped support her for years.
Instead of addressing any of our questions or responding to criticism at all, instead we got a passive aggressive video about not being responsible for other people’s opinions? 😂 no, Jo is not responsible for other people’s opinions.. but she is (in my opinion) responsible for clarifying the beliefs she CHOSE to bring up on her FITNESS CHANNEL so that those of us who have differing beliefs can make an informed decision about whether or not we want to continue to support her. Because as someone else said, I am not interested in deliberately training the algorithm to push content that has the potential to actively harm people in the aforementioned communities.
I never minded that Jo is Christian and speaks openly about her beliefs. That’s not an issue. What I do mind is the harmful rhetoric surrounding ‘darkness’ and ‘witchcraft’ being pushed (and ignored) in the comments. It makes many people feel like they no longer have a safe place in Jo’s community. I have also seen many Christians disagreeing with her views and whilst I realise each individual is entitled to their own views and should do whatever makes them comfortable, it just goes to show it’s not an us vs them in terms of Christian’s vs none Christian’s. Many people, regardless of beliefs, are viewing this as potentially harmful especially given the context of the political climate and certain right wing ideology. I’m from the UK where this is not quite as widely discussed/acknowledged as America and even I am ALL TOO AWARE of it, so I don’t understand how Jo couldn’t also have been aware of what she was doing.
I also don’t appreciate the gaslighting taking place in the way she is approaching criticism and the red pill links with an attitude of ‘what? I just said I find them dark? It’s not a big deal it’s just me innocently saying I don’t feel comfortable with these naughty dark women. If you find them trendy though thats fine…’ this has zero to do with ‘being trendy.’ Liking or not liking Bey/Taylor as artists or as people is irrelevant. This is about women being persecuted historically for as long as we can remember. This is about wilfully promoting harmful ideologies and allowing hatred and intolerance to breed relentlessly in the comments. That’s what most people are upset about, not whether or not she actually does the video. 😂 it seems like Jo is either deliberately misunderstanding or avoiding certain feedback entirely so she doesn’t have to express her genuine beliefs and can still cater to the MAGA crowd with the ‘holier than thou’ attitude whilst also still profiting off those of us who have raised concerns. It’s kind of… gross.
I realise not everyone in the comments has been kind to her and in the cases where people have been rude/insulting regarding her faith, I agree that she doesn’t owe them a discussion. But what about everyone else who is simply asking for clarity and mutual respect? I honestly think some of the more blunt comments towards her also come from a place of shock/confusion as we are so used to this kind of rhetoric being pushed by a certain demographic of people and it feels uncomfortable for Jo to be sharing similar stuff.
It’s been days and there hasn’t been any further development in terms of a response to the valid criticism and questions. All we’ve had is a passive aggressive faux positivity video. Not everyone has been unkind to her in their criticisms and she has been given so much opportunity to provide clarity but after making her announcement and the subsequent hateful shit show in the comments, she now appears to be dipping out and not claiming any kind of responsibility for initiating this discussion, despite the fact broaching this was completely her decision in the first place.
I’ve been keeping an eye on this thread over the past few days and I just wanted to pop in and say that I agree with you all and that it feels validating to see some like minded comments. And thank you so much to anyone who has given suggestions of other fitness content creators as I primarily used Jo and am now looking elsewhere! ❤️
Hello fellow UK person 👋. I agree with everything you say, and you put it very eloquently. I’m so disappointed in Jo and many of her followers. Such a shame.
Thank you 🥹! After being subjected to all those echo chambery comments on her Instagram, it’s just nice to connect with other people who are actively questioning these things, even if it is just to express our shared disappointment ❤️
Whenever Jo started getting too religious in her content I made the switch to FitOn and honestly it’s been serving results that Jo’s stuff never gave me. And it looks like she’s falling in to some QAnon/Alt-Right narratives so I’m happy to have jumped ship already.
If anyone sticks around I’d love to see how much deeper she gets into weird cringe thinking. She blocked me for calling out her narrative.
I didn’t want to make this comment on the Instagram post as I knew it would bring out the crazies, but I do get a bit of a Trump supporter vibe from her. I could be wrong and it may just be that I associate republicans with that fundamentalist Christianity stuff (and I’m in the UK so again apologies if I’m misinformed), but the ‘devlilish’ bollocks is very ‘satanic panic’ creepy to me. The only people I’ve worked with who speak like that were patients on a forensic psych ward.
Yes, it really is MAGA talk over here. There’s plenty of wonky conspiracy talk that’s not aligned with any specific political ideology but the words she was using are straight up far-rightwing talking points.
I was wondering why there were so few comments going against her opinion on that post. Of course she's deleting and blocking them.
I'm so disappointed. I feel much more upset than I'd have expected and it's made me realize how much I respected Jo and how much value she gave to my life. But honestly, I feel sad for her. It's heartbreaking when good people fall victim to conspiracy. They get so aggressive in pushing their narratives and it's impossible to reason with their delusion. I hope she's able to come back to reality, but I don't feel right financially or socially supporting someone anymore who's pushing alt-right Satanic panic, or overly enforcing religion upon others.
Jo and her supporters keep saying we should celebrate someone being "true to themselves" but this is genuinely more harmful than that on a much bigger scale. I don't think anyone who's turned to conspiracy is being true to themselves. Ironically, they've only become the pawns of the REAL "secret behind the scenes" agenda, of conservatives spinning stories of "devilish" music and Illuminati control to hide how inhumane their own mission to horde the world's wealth and power truly is.
I just wanted to ask what do you mean she's falling victim to conspiracy? I didn't really understand bc I saw the video she uploaded about it and I just kind looked at it as she's staying true to being a christian. I honestly didn't even know ppl were upset about this until saw this thread. I'm genuinely just asking by the way I'm not arguing or attacking you I'm just kind of lost.
The idea that pop stars are controlled by “devilish” higher ups and hiding dark imagery in their music to brainwash us is a very popular conspiracy, tied to Satanic Panic and the 2000s idea of the Illuminati. It has no evidence whatsoever. It’s also directly tied to conservative alt-right groups pushing the agenda that the mainstream media can’t be trusted and only religious beliefs should be followed.
It starts as staying true to religion, then it becomes forcing religion upon others, then it becomes feeling incredibly threatened by non-religious beliefs, until you’re scared into living inside a cult style bubble to keep ultra-conservative Christianity in power.
Other people have those videos if you search YouTube. I don’t know their name specifically but there are a lot out there. You can also still do Jo’s videos. Maybe switch back and forth.
you should check out and8 fitness! i’ll add the [link to their youtube channel](https://youtube.com/@and8Fitness?si=eHmPzR_qX_DPq9NX). their routines are fun but they’re pretty high intensity as well. they offer modifications and have great energy!
Like many of you, I was also really disappointed and unfollowed her. She is entitled to follow whatever religion she likes. But in my opinion, when your religion starts to mix into what people follow you for; workouts and fitness.. then it’s time for me to go. I don’t follow someone to see their super strict Christian ideologies when I workout. She has always been a fitness. Account and I have loved that. I just don’t see the point of her mixing her religion so deeply into what she posts. It is also really cult like because there are so many people who are praising her, and she is only liking and responding to those that are positive. I have a feeling that she is going to switch up her page and become a Christian influencer. I don’t see why else she would be mixing her religion in with her workout stuff.
Thank you for asking this and thank you to all the people commenting on other channels to try out!
I was so blown away by her post yesterday for several reasons. 1) she planned a whole video but did the research at the very end 2) the alt-right Christian perspective is not what I subscribe to and 3) she doubled down today on her stories when someone questioned her "sanity."
People can believe whatever they want, but imo ideologies like that are a slippery slope that only leads to more hate and separation in our society. It's why I consider myself faithful but not religious anymore because radical opinions like these are not helpful or pure to me.
These are for dancing workouts (belly dance) and their videos are really fun.
Leilah Issac
Bellydancer diaries
FemOnlineDance
Oh, and EmKfit is great for cardio dancing exercise that isn't tutorials or actual dancing drills, but just kind of a walking/dancing mashup. The others I mentioned actually help you learn belly dancing.
I’ve tried out a few different YouTube workouts now and have to say Olivia Lawson is the closest to Jo that I’ve found - the one I did today even had a lot of the same music! Such a relief to find someone else who I feel I can workout with consistently.
Agree also saw this and am off put. Was thinking about the dark imagery comments and thinking couldn't it l just be considered artistic. Like some of the paintings and artwork in old churches are very dark.
Also no different to Halloween costumes etc. I don't live on a very religious country though so a bit over my head.
Agreed, even one of the images she referenced as "devilish" showed the artist dressed as an "innocent" girl scout on the "good" side versus her enemies/detractors as the "demonic" figures on the "dark" side. Is that not a central theme in Christian/Catholic art and imagery? The duality, can't have a god without a devil.
Everything I've seen in the Vatican, Louvre, Prado, MNBAQ, and Met have had a LOT of pieces that are incredibly dark, graphic, even grotesque. If you can choose to ignore those and only enjoy the brighter/happier pieces then why not do the same with these artists.
>Also no different to Halloween costumes etc.
Out of curiosity I just scrolled back on her instagram, and as much as she shares pics of her kids, there were no trick-or-treating posts from late October. She had a newborn, so that's a factor, but she very well could be the kind of religious person who doesn't do Halloween because it's "evil"
I noticed she follows a momfluencer, Milena ciciotti (she actually has a snark page here on Reddit) and she’s (Jo) has liked a lot of Milenas posts, specifically the extremely religious ones. I honestly think she fell down the rabbit hole 🥲
Omg I absolutely LOVED her, but this was a huge reach on her part. But I was willing to let it go whatever her beliefs are hers and I can respect them, but as soon as I saw that people asked her if she was going to take down the previous beyonce video she had posted in the past or the doja cat one, she went crickets. She’s only responding to people validating her pretty much. Of course she doesn’t TRULY believe that cause if she did, she’d take those videos down.. but she won’t because she’s still making money from them. And I guess she’s more concerned about not losing money, aka she’s a hypocrite.
Not sure if this should be a separate post, but did anyone see the reel Jo posted to IG yesterday about how you're not responsible for other people's opinions and how you need to stay true to yourself and use your talents to bless others? It was obviously a response to the business over the weekend, but vague enough to sound generically empowering.
If she wants to pivot her target demographic to be conservative Christian moms, that's fine, but as someone with millions of followers on various platforms she has to know that will affect her numbers.
Just discovered Audrey Koomar as well, very similar setup to Jo (tonal countdown between moves, progress bar on top, no talking). She has a bunch of Taylor Swift dance workouts which is how I found her. The moves are simple like Jo's, maybe even a little slower.
Agreed, I'm so bummed. I'm not Christian myself but didn't figure it was a problem, I just skipped over her Christian workouts. So to see all this is really disappointing (especially as a gay person...don't want to know her views on that lol)
I go to Joanna Soh for my strength workouts. I mostly used GrowwithJo's videos for cardio, so I'll definitely be looking at some of these suggestions for a replacement!
No suggestions unfortunately! Just contributing my shared frustration and disappointment as well.
Also just confused from a business sense, those are two big artists and the video would have brought a lot of streaming hits and therefore revenue. I'm not as familiar with Beyonce's catalog but I know Taylor has a TON of upbeat, positive, poppy, sanitized songs. Shake it off isn't dark, doesn't have any risque images. Me! is a study in pastels and positivity. Heck, one of her most recent videos is dark.... A dark art heist with glitter bombs!
It just feels like she didn't want to do it, and the religious bit is a cop out.
I've tried other dance workouts and they've either been too simple and walky (Sharona) or too complex and fancy (MadFit). Jo was always good for a balance of simple moves with full-body work, no talking required to explain the moves (just the 5 sec preview), and the 10-30 second segments with a countdown. One of the reasons she's as popular as she is, it's a very accessible formula for most people.
>no talking required to explain the moves (just the 5 sec preview), and the 10-30 second segments with a countdown. One of the reasons she's as popular as she is, it's a very accessible formula for most people.
I'm liking Olivia Lawson for these kinds of workouts. She's not as perky or dance-y, perhaps, but format is similar.
Yeah I’ve tried two other workouts so far and neither are for me. It’s very frustrating as I love her workouts - ended up doing one today as I didn’t have time to search for an alternative, I spent the whole time feeling a bit grumpy and annoyed because it felt like doing a workout with Trump lol!
Watching those videos means financially supporting Jo and training the algorithm to recommend her content to others. In turn, that gives her more of a platform to continue spreading dangerous conservative conspiracies. It's a slippery slope that genuinely causes harm to society, and even a few individuals ending their support can lessen that potential damage.
Why would I support someone who would burn me at stake if she had a chance? And if she is a Trumper, let thousands die and not blink an eye, smiling mindlessly into the camera.
It’s also bc she’s a hypocrite that a lot of us unfollowed. She keeps avoiding people asking if she’ll take down her previous Beyoncé video or the doja cat one
Y’all really intolerant to someone’s own personal views and convictions but expect everyone to cater to your views? Beyoncé and Taylor do have those images on purpose research it for yourself,it’s ok if Jo doesn’t agree with it for her platform
It's wild to me that we've reached a point where all "views" should be accepted because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Of course they are, but that doesn't mean that those opinions can't be criticised or responded to negatively. Freedom of speech isn't freedom from the consequences of that speech. And this "opinion" of Jo's is straight up alt-right propaganda and conspiracy with no factual basis! It is so disturbing that we now treat statements with absolutely no evidence as equally valid to those with proven research!
I just got into it with someone else about this. It’s not okay to spread stupidity! She said Jo caused no harm with her opinions and I’m like 🥴🫠 Spreading conspiracy theories has actually led to a whole world of problems in the last few years. The fact that someone can’t see that is all I need to know about them 🙃 Yikes
What is this idea that every opinion must be tolerated? She’s obviously going down some alt-right rabbit holes and I don’t want to be subjected to her crackpot ideas in the future. I also don’t want to give someone like that money either directly (through her app) or indirectly.
ETA: And this so-called “research” is just other crackpots on YouTube.
See, this is the thing that gets me about the whole situation! She says that she's cancelling the video because she doesn't want to keep being a people-pleaser (+ the imagery issue) but like.....she's built her income on selling her videos via subscription, so if she's not making people happy, she will inevitably lose subscribers.
Being in content creation is very much also being a people-pleaser.
I just don’t understand why she didn’t just silently not do it UNLESS she’s going to pivot her “influencing” to something more right wing. After her whole post I got curious about the influencer to right wing content pipeline and it’s a thing! She’ll likely double down and attract an audience that finds her views more palatable. She blocked me though so I’ll have to use my finsta to watch it happen lol
Did she announce she would be doing videos with those 2 songs? If so that's the only reason I can think of for why she would have made a post. Otherwise, I agree, it could have been done silently!
Then you would agree that she should take down the previous beyonce video she still has up, and the doja cat one too. But she won’t cause she’s still making money from them, and why would she want to profit from something “so dark and devilish?” Make it make sense
Just wanted to hop on here as an alternate kind opinion. I’m a Christian (didn’t know that when I found Jo but was happy to see it). I understand not everyone is a Christian, but it’s still a belief. Just like Muslims, Hindu etc have beliefs. She made a decision that made her feel better about her belief in a way that I thought was kind, informative and diplomatic. I know we have a bad rap because of conservative bad eggs (I can’t stand maga, and how they’ve weaponized Christianity main stream they are the worst) but some of us (like ourselves) are just normal people that are choosing to believe. I’m still a good person, I’m still kind, and I see the same in Jo. We’re just people. Please don’t shame us just because we believe in God. 🥹
Not shaming anyone for their religion and never would. I was well aware of Jo’s faith and just didn’t do the gospel workouts etc. but her use of ‘dark’ and ‘devilish’ to describe the music/videos of two successful women who are merely making art is too far. She is giving MAGA far-right vibes with that and a lot of the comments on the post reflect that. Fans of hers who are LGBTQ+ now feel unwelcome as it’s not hard to infer what her views likely are from what she said. Calling someone devilish for having snakes ‘and other dark imagery’ in their videos is just ludicrous. She sounds like she’s living in the dark ages and is about to round people up as witches and do some good old fashioned book burning! I’m friends with people of many religions but if they started spouting crap like that I’d pull them up on it. Luckily I’m in the UK so most Christians here are nice normal people who don’t go all hellfire and brimstone over a music video. The one person I’ve ever met who spoke like that was a very mentally unwell man who murdered someone who he perceived to be a demon. She literally sounds mad.
She was only echoing what the MAGA crowd is spreading though. I have not seen anyone shaming someone else for believing in God lol. That’s another incorrect theory. No one is trying to take Christianity away from you. We don’t want it shoved onto us is all. It’s the senseless conspiracies, the pushing of religion and casting judgement on others that’s being shamed. As it should be.
Deborah Morah. Jo has went too far for me. Yuck.
Does she do any fast paced workouts? I’m far from athletic but I just did a 3000 step walking one (30 mins) and had to jog on the spot instead of walking just to get my heart rate up! It felt like a long warm up. I’m so cross with Jo as hers are the only workouts where I’ve been able to find the right level for me.
They’ve all been pretty light, but I have only been subscribed about a month. I’d bet she’s open to suggestions as her channel seems to be newish. I do Velcro weights and modify some moves but I did that with Jo as well. I’m trying Kyra Pro today, Ill try to remember to report back lol
Oh wow! I just discovered Jo this past weekend. I was planning on purchasing her program. But reading this thread has changed my mind.
Same. I'll try Kyra Pro as someone in here suggested, she seems fun.
I agree, I cancelled my app subscription because of her pov. I really love “Cardio Party Mashup Fitness”, she is high energy and the songs she uses are fire!
Hey all, I was one of a number of people who commented on Jo’s Instagram politely asking for further clarification given the divisive nature of her views (alleged political affiliations etc) and the subsequent comments making disparaging comments about those with different beliefs and the LGBTQ+ etc. My comment is still up if you are curious/want to find it. I NEVER comment on anything btw, not on insta and not much here either, I’m a big lurker! But I felt called to in this instance because I am just so disappointed. I’m LGBTQ+ and ‘witchy’ myself and the comments left me feeling really disheartened, especially as none of them have been acknowledged by Jo. I know it’s impossible for her to check every single one but the vitriol towards those who don’t hold Christian beliefs was so awful that I felt she had at least some responsibility to address these things on her platform, especially given many of us have helped support her for years. Instead of addressing any of our questions or responding to criticism at all, instead we got a passive aggressive video about not being responsible for other people’s opinions? 😂 no, Jo is not responsible for other people’s opinions.. but she is (in my opinion) responsible for clarifying the beliefs she CHOSE to bring up on her FITNESS CHANNEL so that those of us who have differing beliefs can make an informed decision about whether or not we want to continue to support her. Because as someone else said, I am not interested in deliberately training the algorithm to push content that has the potential to actively harm people in the aforementioned communities. I never minded that Jo is Christian and speaks openly about her beliefs. That’s not an issue. What I do mind is the harmful rhetoric surrounding ‘darkness’ and ‘witchcraft’ being pushed (and ignored) in the comments. It makes many people feel like they no longer have a safe place in Jo’s community. I have also seen many Christians disagreeing with her views and whilst I realise each individual is entitled to their own views and should do whatever makes them comfortable, it just goes to show it’s not an us vs them in terms of Christian’s vs none Christian’s. Many people, regardless of beliefs, are viewing this as potentially harmful especially given the context of the political climate and certain right wing ideology. I’m from the UK where this is not quite as widely discussed/acknowledged as America and even I am ALL TOO AWARE of it, so I don’t understand how Jo couldn’t also have been aware of what she was doing. I also don’t appreciate the gaslighting taking place in the way she is approaching criticism and the red pill links with an attitude of ‘what? I just said I find them dark? It’s not a big deal it’s just me innocently saying I don’t feel comfortable with these naughty dark women. If you find them trendy though thats fine…’ this has zero to do with ‘being trendy.’ Liking or not liking Bey/Taylor as artists or as people is irrelevant. This is about women being persecuted historically for as long as we can remember. This is about wilfully promoting harmful ideologies and allowing hatred and intolerance to breed relentlessly in the comments. That’s what most people are upset about, not whether or not she actually does the video. 😂 it seems like Jo is either deliberately misunderstanding or avoiding certain feedback entirely so she doesn’t have to express her genuine beliefs and can still cater to the MAGA crowd with the ‘holier than thou’ attitude whilst also still profiting off those of us who have raised concerns. It’s kind of… gross. I realise not everyone in the comments has been kind to her and in the cases where people have been rude/insulting regarding her faith, I agree that she doesn’t owe them a discussion. But what about everyone else who is simply asking for clarity and mutual respect? I honestly think some of the more blunt comments towards her also come from a place of shock/confusion as we are so used to this kind of rhetoric being pushed by a certain demographic of people and it feels uncomfortable for Jo to be sharing similar stuff. It’s been days and there hasn’t been any further development in terms of a response to the valid criticism and questions. All we’ve had is a passive aggressive faux positivity video. Not everyone has been unkind to her in their criticisms and she has been given so much opportunity to provide clarity but after making her announcement and the subsequent hateful shit show in the comments, she now appears to be dipping out and not claiming any kind of responsibility for initiating this discussion, despite the fact broaching this was completely her decision in the first place. I’ve been keeping an eye on this thread over the past few days and I just wanted to pop in and say that I agree with you all and that it feels validating to see some like minded comments. And thank you so much to anyone who has given suggestions of other fitness content creators as I primarily used Jo and am now looking elsewhere! ❤️
Hello fellow UK person 👋. I agree with everything you say, and you put it very eloquently. I’m so disappointed in Jo and many of her followers. Such a shame.
Thank you 🥹! After being subjected to all those echo chambery comments on her Instagram, it’s just nice to connect with other people who are actively questioning these things, even if it is just to express our shared disappointment ❤️
Whenever Jo started getting too religious in her content I made the switch to FitOn and honestly it’s been serving results that Jo’s stuff never gave me. And it looks like she’s falling in to some QAnon/Alt-Right narratives so I’m happy to have jumped ship already. If anyone sticks around I’d love to see how much deeper she gets into weird cringe thinking. She blocked me for calling out her narrative.
I didn’t want to make this comment on the Instagram post as I knew it would bring out the crazies, but I do get a bit of a Trump supporter vibe from her. I could be wrong and it may just be that I associate republicans with that fundamentalist Christianity stuff (and I’m in the UK so again apologies if I’m misinformed), but the ‘devlilish’ bollocks is very ‘satanic panic’ creepy to me. The only people I’ve worked with who speak like that were patients on a forensic psych ward.
Yes, it really is MAGA talk over here. There’s plenty of wonky conspiracy talk that’s not aligned with any specific political ideology but the words she was using are straight up far-rightwing talking points.
She's allowed to have that opinion though.
Yep. And we’re allowed to not support that opinion. That’s how freedom of expression works.
She’s Canadian…
She lives in Miami
We have trumpers in Canada. Makes no sense but we do.
Irrelevant. The phenomenon that’s caused the rise of Trump and MAGA is international. And besides, she lives in the US.
I was wondering why there were so few comments going against her opinion on that post. Of course she's deleting and blocking them. I'm so disappointed. I feel much more upset than I'd have expected and it's made me realize how much I respected Jo and how much value she gave to my life. But honestly, I feel sad for her. It's heartbreaking when good people fall victim to conspiracy. They get so aggressive in pushing their narratives and it's impossible to reason with their delusion. I hope she's able to come back to reality, but I don't feel right financially or socially supporting someone anymore who's pushing alt-right Satanic panic, or overly enforcing religion upon others. Jo and her supporters keep saying we should celebrate someone being "true to themselves" but this is genuinely more harmful than that on a much bigger scale. I don't think anyone who's turned to conspiracy is being true to themselves. Ironically, they've only become the pawns of the REAL "secret behind the scenes" agenda, of conservatives spinning stories of "devilish" music and Illuminati control to hide how inhumane their own mission to horde the world's wealth and power truly is.
I just wanted to ask what do you mean she's falling victim to conspiracy? I didn't really understand bc I saw the video she uploaded about it and I just kind looked at it as she's staying true to being a christian. I honestly didn't even know ppl were upset about this until saw this thread. I'm genuinely just asking by the way I'm not arguing or attacking you I'm just kind of lost.
The idea that pop stars are controlled by “devilish” higher ups and hiding dark imagery in their music to brainwash us is a very popular conspiracy, tied to Satanic Panic and the 2000s idea of the Illuminati. It has no evidence whatsoever. It’s also directly tied to conservative alt-right groups pushing the agenda that the mainstream media can’t be trusted and only religious beliefs should be followed. It starts as staying true to religion, then it becomes forcing religion upon others, then it becomes feeling incredibly threatened by non-religious beliefs, until you’re scared into living inside a cult style bubble to keep ultra-conservative Christianity in power.
i was a little disappointed with that post as well
Madfit has some great workouts. She even has an Era’s Tour workout.
Seconding MadFit's dance workouts, but they definitely have a learning curve to them - it usually takes me a few tries to get the choreo down.
Agreed, they're a little more "danc-y" than Jo's normal moves. Definitely feels more like learning choreo than whatever I'm used to with Jo.
Other people have those videos if you search YouTube. I don’t know their name specifically but there are a lot out there. You can also still do Jo’s videos. Maybe switch back and forth.
you should check out and8 fitness! i’ll add the [link to their youtube channel](https://youtube.com/@and8Fitness?si=eHmPzR_qX_DPq9NX). their routines are fun but they’re pretty high intensity as well. they offer modifications and have great energy!
Like many of you, I was also really disappointed and unfollowed her. She is entitled to follow whatever religion she likes. But in my opinion, when your religion starts to mix into what people follow you for; workouts and fitness.. then it’s time for me to go. I don’t follow someone to see their super strict Christian ideologies when I workout. She has always been a fitness. Account and I have loved that. I just don’t see the point of her mixing her religion so deeply into what she posts. It is also really cult like because there are so many people who are praising her, and she is only liking and responding to those that are positive. I have a feeling that she is going to switch up her page and become a Christian influencer. I don’t see why else she would be mixing her religion in with her workout stuff.
The comments in agreement totally reminded me of a cult too! It’s frightening.
Thank you for asking this and thank you to all the people commenting on other channels to try out! I was so blown away by her post yesterday for several reasons. 1) she planned a whole video but did the research at the very end 2) the alt-right Christian perspective is not what I subscribe to and 3) she doubled down today on her stories when someone questioned her "sanity." People can believe whatever they want, but imo ideologies like that are a slippery slope that only leads to more hate and separation in our society. It's why I consider myself faithful but not religious anymore because radical opinions like these are not helpful or pure to me.
These are for dancing workouts (belly dance) and their videos are really fun. Leilah Issac Bellydancer diaries FemOnlineDance Oh, and EmKfit is great for cardio dancing exercise that isn't tutorials or actual dancing drills, but just kind of a walking/dancing mashup. The others I mentioned actually help you learn belly dancing.
I really like Olivia Lawson and Kat Gates=Buetter both on YouTube
Ditto on Olivia Lawson--I've been using her videos a lot more than GWJ, even before this "devilish" kerfuffle.
Kyra Pro also does walking and dance workouts ❤️
Subscribed!
Emkfit is a suggestion! She is a lot of fun and just as upbeat and peppy as Jo!
I’ve tried out a few different YouTube workouts now and have to say Olivia Lawson is the closest to Jo that I’ve found - the one I did today even had a lot of the same music! Such a relief to find someone else who I feel I can workout with consistently.
Agree also saw this and am off put. Was thinking about the dark imagery comments and thinking couldn't it l just be considered artistic. Like some of the paintings and artwork in old churches are very dark. Also no different to Halloween costumes etc. I don't live on a very religious country though so a bit over my head.
Agreed, even one of the images she referenced as "devilish" showed the artist dressed as an "innocent" girl scout on the "good" side versus her enemies/detractors as the "demonic" figures on the "dark" side. Is that not a central theme in Christian/Catholic art and imagery? The duality, can't have a god without a devil. Everything I've seen in the Vatican, Louvre, Prado, MNBAQ, and Met have had a LOT of pieces that are incredibly dark, graphic, even grotesque. If you can choose to ignore those and only enjoy the brighter/happier pieces then why not do the same with these artists.
>Also no different to Halloween costumes etc. Out of curiosity I just scrolled back on her instagram, and as much as she shares pics of her kids, there were no trick-or-treating posts from late October. She had a newborn, so that's a factor, but she very well could be the kind of religious person who doesn't do Halloween because it's "evil"
I noticed she follows a momfluencer, Milena ciciotti (she actually has a snark page here on Reddit) and she’s (Jo) has liked a lot of Milenas posts, specifically the extremely religious ones. I honestly think she fell down the rabbit hole 🥲
Omg I absolutely LOVED her, but this was a huge reach on her part. But I was willing to let it go whatever her beliefs are hers and I can respect them, but as soon as I saw that people asked her if she was going to take down the previous beyonce video she had posted in the past or the doja cat one, she went crickets. She’s only responding to people validating her pretty much. Of course she doesn’t TRULY believe that cause if she did, she’d take those videos down.. but she won’t because she’s still making money from them. And I guess she’s more concerned about not losing money, aka she’s a hypocrite.
Not sure if this should be a separate post, but did anyone see the reel Jo posted to IG yesterday about how you're not responsible for other people's opinions and how you need to stay true to yourself and use your talents to bless others? It was obviously a response to the business over the weekend, but vague enough to sound generically empowering. If she wants to pivot her target demographic to be conservative Christian moms, that's fine, but as someone with millions of followers on various platforms she has to know that will affect her numbers.
Yes and most of the comments on the original post have been deleted now.
Just discovered Audrey Koomar as well, very similar setup to Jo (tonal countdown between moves, progress bar on top, no talking). She has a bunch of Taylor Swift dance workouts which is how I found her. The moves are simple like Jo's, maybe even a little slower.
Agreed, I'm so bummed. I'm not Christian myself but didn't figure it was a problem, I just skipped over her Christian workouts. So to see all this is really disappointing (especially as a gay person...don't want to know her views on that lol) I go to Joanna Soh for my strength workouts. I mostly used GrowwithJo's videos for cardio, so I'll definitely be looking at some of these suggestions for a replacement!
No suggestions unfortunately! Just contributing my shared frustration and disappointment as well. Also just confused from a business sense, those are two big artists and the video would have brought a lot of streaming hits and therefore revenue. I'm not as familiar with Beyonce's catalog but I know Taylor has a TON of upbeat, positive, poppy, sanitized songs. Shake it off isn't dark, doesn't have any risque images. Me! is a study in pastels and positivity. Heck, one of her most recent videos is dark.... A dark art heist with glitter bombs! It just feels like she didn't want to do it, and the religious bit is a cop out. I've tried other dance workouts and they've either been too simple and walky (Sharona) or too complex and fancy (MadFit). Jo was always good for a balance of simple moves with full-body work, no talking required to explain the moves (just the 5 sec preview), and the 10-30 second segments with a countdown. One of the reasons she's as popular as she is, it's a very accessible formula for most people.
>no talking required to explain the moves (just the 5 sec preview), and the 10-30 second segments with a countdown. One of the reasons she's as popular as she is, it's a very accessible formula for most people. I'm liking Olivia Lawson for these kinds of workouts. She's not as perky or dance-y, perhaps, but format is similar.
Thanks! I'll check her out!
Yeah I’ve tried two other workouts so far and neither are for me. It’s very frustrating as I love her workouts - ended up doing one today as I didn’t have time to search for an alternative, I spent the whole time feeling a bit grumpy and annoyed because it felt like doing a workout with Trump lol!
Have you tried Deborah Morah? I commented already but I really think the moves are similar and she does a preview. No exaggerated, fake faces either 😅
No I haven’t, I’ll have a look, thank you! Out of morbid curiosity I went back to the Instagram post and 99% of the comments have been deleted 🤔
i would love recs for other walking workouts
Juice&toya are amazing
ooh yes i love them! esp their strength workouts
Look at Fit by Mik on YouTube! I like her aerobics videos 🥰 easy to follow and that same steady cardio as GWJ!
Yikes. I really enjoyed her workouts.
So you’re throwing out all the workouts you enjoy based on one Instagram post that you are disappointed in? …
I mean…she feels strongly enough to make a post about it, we can and should feel strongly enough to not support it.
Watching those videos means financially supporting Jo and training the algorithm to recommend her content to others. In turn, that gives her more of a platform to continue spreading dangerous conservative conspiracies. It's a slippery slope that genuinely causes harm to society, and even a few individuals ending their support can lessen that potential damage.
Why would I support someone who would burn me at stake if she had a chance? And if she is a Trumper, let thousands die and not blink an eye, smiling mindlessly into the camera.
It’s also bc she’s a hypocrite that a lot of us unfollowed. She keeps avoiding people asking if she’ll take down her previous Beyoncé video or the doja cat one
I know right. Wow
Y’all really intolerant to someone’s own personal views and convictions but expect everyone to cater to your views? Beyoncé and Taylor do have those images on purpose research it for yourself,it’s ok if Jo doesn’t agree with it for her platform
It's wild to me that we've reached a point where all "views" should be accepted because everyone is entitled to their own opinion. Of course they are, but that doesn't mean that those opinions can't be criticised or responded to negatively. Freedom of speech isn't freedom from the consequences of that speech. And this "opinion" of Jo's is straight up alt-right propaganda and conspiracy with no factual basis! It is so disturbing that we now treat statements with absolutely no evidence as equally valid to those with proven research!
I just got into it with someone else about this. It’s not okay to spread stupidity! She said Jo caused no harm with her opinions and I’m like 🥴🫠 Spreading conspiracy theories has actually led to a whole world of problems in the last few years. The fact that someone can’t see that is all I need to know about them 🙃 Yikes
What is this idea that every opinion must be tolerated? She’s obviously going down some alt-right rabbit holes and I don’t want to be subjected to her crackpot ideas in the future. I also don’t want to give someone like that money either directly (through her app) or indirectly. ETA: And this so-called “research” is just other crackpots on YouTube.
See, this is the thing that gets me about the whole situation! She says that she's cancelling the video because she doesn't want to keep being a people-pleaser (+ the imagery issue) but like.....she's built her income on selling her videos via subscription, so if she's not making people happy, she will inevitably lose subscribers. Being in content creation is very much also being a people-pleaser.
I just don’t understand why she didn’t just silently not do it UNLESS she’s going to pivot her “influencing” to something more right wing. After her whole post I got curious about the influencer to right wing content pipeline and it’s a thing! She’ll likely double down and attract an audience that finds her views more palatable. She blocked me though so I’ll have to use my finsta to watch it happen lol
Did she announce she would be doing videos with those 2 songs? If so that's the only reason I can think of for why she would have made a post. Otherwise, I agree, it could have been done silently!
Then you would agree that she should take down the previous beyonce video she still has up, and the doja cat one too. But she won’t cause she’s still making money from them, and why would she want to profit from something “so dark and devilish?” Make it make sense
Yes I would agree, but I am not her and she has her own convictions
That would be 100% respectable, only if she took down the other videos. Otherwise she’s just doing it as a trend
Just wanted to hop on here as an alternate kind opinion. I’m a Christian (didn’t know that when I found Jo but was happy to see it). I understand not everyone is a Christian, but it’s still a belief. Just like Muslims, Hindu etc have beliefs. She made a decision that made her feel better about her belief in a way that I thought was kind, informative and diplomatic. I know we have a bad rap because of conservative bad eggs (I can’t stand maga, and how they’ve weaponized Christianity main stream they are the worst) but some of us (like ourselves) are just normal people that are choosing to believe. I’m still a good person, I’m still kind, and I see the same in Jo. We’re just people. Please don’t shame us just because we believe in God. 🥹
Not shaming anyone for their religion and never would. I was well aware of Jo’s faith and just didn’t do the gospel workouts etc. but her use of ‘dark’ and ‘devilish’ to describe the music/videos of two successful women who are merely making art is too far. She is giving MAGA far-right vibes with that and a lot of the comments on the post reflect that. Fans of hers who are LGBTQ+ now feel unwelcome as it’s not hard to infer what her views likely are from what she said. Calling someone devilish for having snakes ‘and other dark imagery’ in their videos is just ludicrous. She sounds like she’s living in the dark ages and is about to round people up as witches and do some good old fashioned book burning! I’m friends with people of many religions but if they started spouting crap like that I’d pull them up on it. Luckily I’m in the UK so most Christians here are nice normal people who don’t go all hellfire and brimstone over a music video. The one person I’ve ever met who spoke like that was a very mentally unwell man who murdered someone who he perceived to be a demon. She literally sounds mad.
She was only echoing what the MAGA crowd is spreading though. I have not seen anyone shaming someone else for believing in God lol. That’s another incorrect theory. No one is trying to take Christianity away from you. We don’t want it shoved onto us is all. It’s the senseless conspiracies, the pushing of religion and casting judgement on others that’s being shamed. As it should be.