The Dys-Appearing Fat Body: Bodily Intensities and Fatphobic Sociomaterialities When Flying While Fat

Bethan Evans, Stacy Bias and Rachel Colls

Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 2021, vol. 111, issue 6, 1816-1832

Abstract: This article offers an exploration of the embodied experiences of flying while fat, based on research with a significantly larger group of people than any previous research on this topic. Theoretically, this article advances geographical understandings of fat embodiment and the embodied experience of transport spaces that attend to micropolitical encounters and comfort (Bissell 2008, 2016). In doing so, we develop an approach to understanding the hyperpresence of the fat body within plane space, drawing together Leder’s (1990) work on embodied “dys-appearance” with Ahmed’s (2004, 2006) work on bodily intensities and queer phenomenology. The article explores how material and social aspects of plane space combine to make fat bodies hyperpresent in ways that, for some, limit self-advocacy. We set this in broader political and economic contexts that frame fatness as mutable and that govern access to air travel in ways that are exclusionary for many fat people.

Date: 2021
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/24694452.2020.1866485 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:raagxx:v:111:y:2021:i:6:p:1816-1832

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/raag21

DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2020.1866485

Access Statistics for this article

Annals of the American Association of Geographers is currently edited by Jennifer Cassidento

More articles in Annals of the American Association of Geographers from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().