Fat bodies: developing geographical research agendas

Abstract

Over the past decade geographers, especially social, cultural, critical and feminist geographers, have shown a keen interest in the mutually constitutive relationship between bodies and spaces. There is, however, one aspect of embodiment that has escaped geographers' attention, that is, fatness. In this paper I aim to develop some geographical research agendas that examine fatness as an important component of subjectivity. The paper begins by discussing some of the discourses surrounding fat and fatness, such as fat oppression, fat-phobia and fat acceptance. Secondly, there is an examination of some possible reasons why fat bodies have been for the most part absent from geographical research. Thirdly, the paper draws together the limited references that geographers have made to fat bodies, spaces and places. Finally, the paper offers suggestions for developing geographical research agendas that address fatness using a range of scales and theoretical perspectives.