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

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.

基于对前所未有的更大人群的研究, 这篇文章探索了肥胖人士乘机的亲身体验。理论上, 本文推动了对肥胖具身化、处理微观政治冲突和舒适的交通空间体验的的地理理解（Bissell 2008、2016）。本文结合了莱德（1990）对具身化“外观不良”的研究、艾哈迈德（2004、2006）对身体强度和反常现象学的研究, 理解平面空间中肥胖的过度存在。本文探讨了如何结合平面空间的物质层面和社会层面, 使肥胖身体以某种方式（对某些人来说, 自我主张的限制）而过度体现。本文通过更广泛的政治和经济背景, 认为肥胖是可变的、航空旅行的措施排斥了许多肥胖者。

Este artículo trata de una exploración sobre las experiencias personificadas de volar cuando se está obeso, a partir de investigación con un grupo de gente significativamente más grande que el estudiado en cualquier investigación anterior sobre este tópico. Teóricamente, este artículo incrementa el entendimiento geográfico en lo que se refiere a la personalización de la gordura y la experiencia personalizada de los espacios del transporte que acompañan los enfrentamientos micropolíticos y las comodidades (Bissell 2008, 2016). Al hacer esto, desarrollamos un enfoque para comprender la hiperpresencia del cuerpo obeso dentro del espacio del avión, juntando el trabajo de Leder (1990) sobre la “des-apariencia” personificada, con el trabajo de Ahmed (2004, 2006) sobre las intensidades corpóreas y la fenomenología homosexual. El artículo explora el modo como se combinan los aspectos materiales y sociales del espacio del avión para convertir en hiperpresentes los cuerpos obesos de modos que, para algunos, restringen la auto-defensa. Desplegamos esto dentro de contextos políticos y económicos más amplios que enmarcan la gordura como mutable y que gobiernan el acceso al viaje aéreo de tal manera que son exclusivistas para mucha gente gorda.

Key Words:

• air travel
• embodiment
• fat
• flying
• mobilities

关键词：:

• 航空旅行
• 具身化
• 肥胖
• 飞行
• 流动性。

Palabras clave::

• personificación
• gordo
• movilidades
• viaje aéreo
• volar

Acknowledgments

We would like to express our sincere thanks to all of the participants who took their time to share their experiences with us. We also thank Kathy Burrell, the anonymous reviewers, and Kendra Strauss for comments on earlier drafts of the article.

Notes

1 Although fat is often considered an insult, fat activists have worked to reclaim this term as a marker of pride (Cooper 2010). Overweight and obese, often used in academic work, are problematic as they pathologize fat. We use the term fat in line with fat activism. All interviewees identify as fat, having responded to a call for people with experience of flying while fat.

2 Poria and Beal’s (2017) and Small and Harris’s (2012) research brings an awareness of fat embodied experience to tourist studies. They use terminology (obese, morbidly obese, overweight), however, that pathologizes fatness.

3 Closed questions asked demographic questions, frequency of flying, and how concerned people were about a range of aspects of flying (see Figure 1). Open questions asked about positive and negative experiences of flying, solutions or workarounds to make the experience less stressful, changes they would make to air travel, advice they would give other fat airline passengers, and anything they thought we should have asked but did not. Both the surveys and the interviews focused on people’s experiences rather than explicitly on elements of the space of the plane, but space was important in responses.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the University of Liverpool for partially funding this research.

Notes on contributors

Bethan Evans

BETHAN EVANS is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography and Planning at the University of Liverpool, Liverpool, L69 7ZT, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include critical geographies of fatness and feminist and embodied geographies.

Stacy Bias

STACY BIAS is a freelance researcher, activist, and artist based in London, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include combining qualitative interviews and ethnographic research with illustration and animation to create humanizing narratives that amplify marginalized voices.

Rachel Colls

RACHEL COLLS is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Geography at Durham University, Durham, DH1 3LE, UK. E-mail: [email protected]. Her research interests include critical geographies of fatness and feminist and embodied geographies.