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.