Fearing fatness and feeling fat: Encountering affective spaces of physical activity

Windram-Geddes, Morgan

doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2013.06.006

Cited by 31Physical Education and PedagogyObesity and Health PracticesCorporeality, Perception, and Education

Fearing fatness and feeling fat: Encountering affective spaces of physical activity

Open access

Windram-Geddes, Morgan·2013·Emotion, Space and Society

DOI 10.1016/j.emospa.2013.06.006

Open this paper in CoChat — free account Open PDF

Abstract

The intention of this paper is to reveal how emotional dynamics of girls' fear and repulsion of fat operate within spaces of physical activity including Physical Education (PE). Through engagement with girls' everyday embodied experiences, understandings and practices of physical activity this paper weaves dialogue between contemporary obesity and health discourses and girls' emotional embodied experiences of encountering material and non-tangible spaces of physical activity. This paper draws from PhD research of a feminist ethnographic study with PE teachers and female pupils in Scottish primary and secondary schools; the paper reveals girls encounters with both material objects – such as swimming pool water—and non-material, discursive spaces of school-based physical activity, rooted within contemporary health discourses which perpetuate a ‘fear of fatness’. Such intra-active encounters reveal new ways of understanding how girls and young women come to feel their bodies inside of contemporary obesity debates.

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1016/j.emospa.2013.06.006

Cites

37 of 37 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Recomputing p-values needs the paper’s full text.

Claims the paper makes

We couldn’t retrieve this paper’s full text, so its claims and self-check weren’t run. The registry and citation checks still apply.

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

The emotional dynamics of fear are used as a threat by both teachers and girls themselves to incite or motivate participation in physical education.
“The findings also show that the emotional dynamics of fear are used as a threat by both teachers and girls themselves to incite or motivate participation in physical education (Windram-Geddes, 2013, pp. 48-49).”
From Pedagogies of embodiment in physical education – a literature review (2022) · cites this paper as Windram-Geddes, 2013
Girls shared personal practices of binge eating and exercise to sustain or achieve thinness.
“Girls shared personal practices of bin eating and exercise to sustain or achie thinness.”
From Pedagogies of embodiment in physical education – a literature review (2022) · cites this paper as Windram-Geddes, 2013
Fears over the potential for fat to be placed on the body became real within the spaces of physical activity as fat was used as a tool by both PE teachers and girls themselves to incite or motivate participation.
“Fears over the potential for fat to be p on the body became real within the sp physical activity as fat was used as a t by both PE teachers and girls' themse incite or motivate participation.”
From Pedagogies of embodiment in physical education – a literature review (2022) · cites this paper as Windram-Geddes, 2013

Intensities of feeling: towards a spatial politics of affect
Thrift, N. J. (2004) · Geografiska Annaler Series B Human Geography · doi:10.1111/j.0435-3684.2004.00154.x · Cited by 1,923 · see citing works
Human geography without scale
Marston, S., Jones, J., & Woodward, K. (2005) · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2005.00180.x · Cited by 1,562 · see citing works
After or beyond feeling? A consideration of affect and emotion in geography
Thien, D. (2005) · Area · doi:10.1111/j.1475-4762.2005.00643a.x · Cited by 593 · see citing works
Childhood and the politics of scale: descaling children's geographies?
Ansell, N. (2009) · Progress in Human Geography · doi:10.1177/0309132508090980 · Cited by 351 · see citing works
Managing Uncertainty: Obesity Discourses and Physical Education in a Risk Society
Gard, M., & Wright, J. (2001) · Studies in Philosophy and Education · doi:10.1023/a:1012238617836 · Cited by 295 · see citing works
What else? some more ways of thinking and doing ‘Children's Geographies’
Horton, J., & Kraftl, P. (2006) · Children's Geographies · doi:10.1080/14733280600577459 · Cited by 286 · see citing works
The Scottish Health Survey
Sharp, C., & Rutherford, L. (2014) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/978144627305013501440 · Cited by 215 · see citing works
Anticipating fatness: childhood, affect and the pre‐emptive ‘war on obesity’
Evans, B. (2010) · doi:10.1111/j.1475-5661.2009.00363.x · Cited by 194
“Everybody's looking at you!”: Girls negotiating the “femininity deficit” they incur in physical education
Cockburn, C., & Clarke, G. (2002) · Women s Studies International Forum · doi:10.1016/s0277-5395(02)00351-5 · Cited by 185 · see citing works
Not just growing up, but going on: Materials, Spacings, Bodies, Situations
Horton, J., & Kraftl, P. (2006) · doi:10.1080/14733280601005518 · Cited by 177
‘Gluttony or sloth’: critical geographies of bodies and morality in (anti)obesity policy
Evans, B. (2006) · Area · doi:10.1111/j.1475-4762.2006.00692.x · Cited by 168 · see citing works
Measuring Fatness, Governing Bodies: The Spatialities of the Body Mass Index (BMI) in Anti‐Obesity Politics
Evans, B., & Colls, R. (2009) · Antipode · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00706.x · Cited by 163 · see citing works
The Emotional Self: A Sociocultural Exploration
Lupton, D. (1998) · SAGE Publications Ltd eBooks · doi:10.4135/9781446217719 · Cited by 158 · see citing works
The ‘obesity crisis’ and school physical education
Kirk, D. (2006) · Sport Education and Society · doi:10.1080/13573320600640660 · Cited by 151 · see citing works
‘I see her being obesed!’: Public pedagogy, reality media and the obesity crisis
Rich, E. (2011) · Health An Interdisciplinary Journal for the Social Study of Health Illness and Medicine · doi:10.1177/1363459309358127 · Cited by 150 · see citing works
Disordered eating and disordered schooling: what schools do to middle class girls
Evans, J., Rich, E., & Holroyd, R. (2004) · British Journal of Sociology of Education · doi:10.1080/0142569042000205154 · Cited by 146 · see citing works
Becoming “the fat girl”: Acquisition of an unfit identity
Rice, C. M. (2007) · Women s Studies International Forum · doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2007.01.001 · Cited by 142 · see citing works
Fat bodies: developing geographical research agendas
Longhurst, R. (2005) · Progress in Human Geography · doi:10.1191/0309132505ph545oa · Cited by 139 · see citing works
Materialising bodily matter: Intra-action and the embodiment of ‘Fat’
Colls, R. (2007) · doi:10.1016/j.geoforum.2006.09.004 · Cited by 138
Re-conceiving ability in physical education: a social analysis
Wright, J., & Burrows, L. (2006) · Sport Education and Society · doi:10.1080/13573320600813440 · Cited by 134 · see citing works
Flexing Femininity: Female body-builders refiguring 'the body'
Johnston, L. (1996) · Gender Place & Culture · doi:10.1080/09663699625595 · Cited by 112 · see citing works
Outsize/Outside: Bodily bignesses and the emotional experiences of British women shopping for clothes
Colls, R. (2006) · doi:10.1080/09663690600858945 · Cited by 109
The body as research tool: embodied practice and children's geographies
Woodyer, T. (2008) · Children s Geographies · doi:10.1080/14733280802338056 · Cited by 99 · see citing works
An elephant in the room and a bridge too far, or physical education and the ‘obesity epidemic’
Gard, M. (2004) · doi:10.4324/9780203563861-14 · Cited by 97
Institutionalising Technologies: Masculinities, Femininities, and the Heterosexual Economy of the IT Classroom
Holloway, S., Valentine, G., & Bingham, N. (2000) · doi:10.1068/a3238 · Cited by 91
Playing the field(s): an exploration of change, conformity and conflict in girls’ understandings of gendered physicality in physical education
Hills, L. (2006) · Gender and Education · doi:10.1080/09540250600881691 · Cited by 82 · see citing works
Renegotiating the Primary School: Children's Emotional Geographies of Sport, Exercise and Active Play
Hemming, P. (2007) · doi:10.1080/14733280701631817 · Cited by 78
Body, Corporeal Space, and Legitimating Chronic Illness: Women Diagnosed with M.E.
Moss, P., & Dyck, I. (1999) · doi:10.1111/1467-8330.00110 · Cited by 68
Introduction: Questioning Obesity Politics
Colls, R., & Evans, B. (2009) · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00705.x · Cited by 66
The Body in Theory
Callard, F. (1998) · doi:10.1068/d160387 · Cited by 60
Beyond “healthy eating” and “healthy weights”: Harassment and the health curriculum in middle schools
Larkin, J., & Rice, C. M. (2005) · Body Image · doi:10.1016/j.bodyim.2005.07.001 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Choosing Health ? Exploring Children's Eating Practices at Home and at School
Rawlins, E. L. (2009) · Antipode · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.2009.00709.x · Cited by 48 · see citing works
Touching at depth: The potential of feeling and connection
Tahhan, D. A. (2013) · doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2012.03.004 · Cited by 25
Being ‘able’ in a performative culture: Physical education’s contribution to a healthy interest in sport?
Evans, J. H., Rich, E., Allwood, R., & Davies, B. (2007) · doi:10.4324/9780203933619-12 · Cited by 20
A Fruitful Direction for Research in Children's Geography: Fat Chance?
Cunningham, C. (2003) · doi:10.1080/14733280302184 · Cited by 14
Embodying and Destabilising (Dis)ability and Childhood
Holt, L. (2010) · doi:10.1057/9780230274747_15 · Cited by 10
Physical Education and School Sport
Armour, K., & Kirk, D. (2010) · doi:10.4135/9781446278833.n12 · Cited by 10

Flagged first, then by citations

7 of the 44 references couldn’t be matched to a known paper.

Sorted by citations

Pedagogies of embodiment in physical education – a literature review
Aartun, I., Walseth, K., Standal, Ø. F., & Kirk, D. (2022) · Sport Education and Society · doi:10.1080/13573322.2020.1821182 · Cited by 137 · see citing works
Obese persons’ physical activity experiences and motivations across weight changes: a qualitative exploratory study
Bombak, A. E. (2015) · BMC Public Health · doi:10.1186/s12889-015-2456-0 · Cited by 51 · see citing works
“The pleasure-based activity motivations of participants in the present study strengthens the appeal for a greater focus on affect in body and physical activity related research [41, 42] and echoes findings from other studies on activity among obese persons [37, 38].”
Result
Towards a critical geography of physical activity: emotions and the gendered boundary-making of an everyday exercise environment
Coen, S. E., Davidson, J., & Rosenberg, M. W. (2020) · Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers · doi:10.1111/tran.12347 · Cited by 43 · see citing works
Teaching ‘health’ in physical education in a ‘healthy’ way (Abordar la «salud» en la Educación física de forma «saludable»)
Gray, S., MacIsaac, S., & Jess, M. (2015) · Retos · doi:10.47197/retos.v0i28.34950 · Cited by 29 · see citing works
“For example, in Scotland, researchers found that some teachers morally judge their pupils based on appearances (Windram-Geddes, 2013).”
Background
Social Geography II: Islamophobia, transphobia, and sizism
Hopkins, P. (2019) · Progress in Human Geography · doi:10.1177/0309132519833472 · Cited by 26
Introduction: Spatial Perspectives and Childhood Studies
Hackett, A., Procter, L., & Seymour, J. (2015) · doi:10.1057/9781137464989_1 · Cited by 17
The weight of (the) matter: A new material feminist account of thin and fat oppressions
Norman, M., & Moola, F. (2019) · Health · doi:10.1177/1363459317724856 · Cited by 12
Exploring stigma of “extreme” weight gain: The terror of fat possible selves in women's responses to hypothetically gaining one hundred pounds
Fahs, B., & Swank, E. (2017) · Women s Studies International Forum · doi:10.1016/j.wsif.2016.12.004 · Cited by 12 · see citing works
“Further, the fear of fatness may connect to other sorts of phobic or disgusted reactions to “Othered” bodies (Fahs, in press; Seidman, 2013; Windram-Geddes, 2013) and has substantial overlaps with symbolic racism (Crandall, 1994).”
Background
Participatory video with children and young people
Blazek, M. (2016) · doi:10.1007/978-981-4585-89-7_20-1 · Cited by 12
On judgement day: Anorexic and obese women’s phenomenological experience of the body, food and eating
Moola, F. J., & Norman, M. E. (2016) · Feminism & Psychology · doi:10.1177/0959353516672249 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“We follow in the footsteps, then, of scholars who invite the study of how thin and fat bodies are experienced, with a focus on feelings and emotions (see also Norman & Rail, in press; Fraser, Maher, & Wright, 2010; Windram-Giddes, 2013).”
Background
Children’s emotional geographies at a boarding school in rural China
Zhou, Q.-S. (2024) · Children's Geographies · doi:10.1080/14733285.2024.2313521 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Moving as a ‘scrawny, brown body’: navigating sticky emotional geographies of physical activity in Singapore
Shee, S. Y. (2021) · Gender Place & Culture · doi:10.1080/0966369x.2021.1994931 · Cited by 11 · see citing works
“These studies cover a wide range of sporting spaces, including gyms (Johnston 1996; Coen, Davidson, and Rosenberg 2020), surfing (Evers 2009; Roy 2014), roller derby (Pavlidis and Fullagar 2014), and schools (Evans 2006; Windram-Geddes 2013).”
Background
The experience of feeling fat for women with anorexia nervosa: An interpretative phenomenological analysis
Major, L., Viljoen, D., & Nel, P. W. (2019) · European Journal of Psychotherapy & Counselling · doi:10.1080/13642537.2018.1563909 · Cited by 13 · see citing works
“Some studies have reported an association between feeling fat and fearing fatness (Windram-Geddes, 2013).”
Background
Integrating person-centred care and social justice: a model for practice with larger-bodied patients
Kanagasingam, D., Clarke, L. H., & Norman, M. E. (2023) · Medical Humanities · doi:10.1136/medhum-2021-012351 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
Getting ‘in’ and ‘out of alignment’: some insights into the cultural imagery of fitness from the perspective of experienced gym adherents
Neville, R. D., & Gorman, C. (2016) · doi:10.1080/2159676x.2015.1099561 · Cited by 7
“…admit of such feelings is only beginning to be adequately reflected in the literature (cf. Andrews and Silk 2011, Duffy et al. 2011, little 2012, Windram-Geddes 2013, Caudwell and Rinehart 2014, Flanagan 2014, pavlidis and Fullagar 2015). perhaps this is the point where we can legitimately…”
Understanding fatness in the public sphere of young students: social representations and emotional response.
Mondragon, N. I., & Txertudi, M. B. (2018) · Cadernos de Saúde Pública · doi:10.1590/0102-311x00197917 · Cited by 6
Feeling/filling closet smoking spaces: negotiating public–private spheres, traversing emotional terrains
Tan, Q. H. (2016) · Asian Geographer · doi:10.1080/10225706.2015.1137218 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“Conversations between work on geographies of (non)health and emotion suggest that “bad feelings” can become reinforced in nonsmoking spaces (Windram-Geddes 2013; Smith and Tucker, 2015).”
Background
‘The tables have turned’: Sport, emotion & the passive counter-politics of youth citizenship
Tang, V. (2015) · doi:10.1016/j.emospa.2015.04.004 · Cited by 6
Children and Young People's Emotional Geographies
Blazek, M. (2018) · doi:10.1007/978-981-4585-88-0_9-1 · Cited by 6
A Research Agenda for Emotional Geographies
Drozdzewski, D., Webster, N. A., Osborne, T., & Conradson, D. (2026) · doi:10.4337/9781035319626 · Cited by 4
Children’s views of obesity, body size and weight: systematic review of UK qualitative evidence
Lorenc, T., Burchett, H., Mendizabal‐Espinosa, R. M., Stansfield, C., Sutcliffe, K., & Sowden, A. J. (2026) · Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health · doi:10.1136/jech-2025-225045 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Weight loss, cure, and temporality in the “Diet Capital of the World”: Disciplining fatness in Durham, North Carolina
Elledge, A. M. (2023) · Environment and Planning D Society and Space · doi:10.1177/02637758231206621 · Cited by 5 · see citing works
“Windram-Geddes (2013) understands these sites as “place[s] of inescapable accountability for both creating and monitoring health” (46).”
Background
PEDAGOGI PENDIDIKAN JASMANI
Sa’adah, F., Sumaryanto, S., Subagyo, S., & Komarudin, K. (2021) · MAJORA: Majalah Ilmiah Olahraga · doi:10.21831/majora.v27i2.47125 · Cited by 1
Mobilizing the Sense of “Fat”: A Phenomenological Materialist Approach
Slatman, J. (2021) · Human Studies · doi:10.1007/s10746-021-09595-2 · Cited by 1
Ambivalence in encounters with my big fat Greek closet
Chairetis, S. (2019) · doi:10.13131/2611-657x.whatever.v2i1.29 · Cited by 1
Encountering fat others, embodying the thin self: Emotional orientations to fatness and the materialization of feminine subjectivities
Norman, M. E., & Rail, G. (2016) · Subjectivity · doi:10.1057/s41286-016-0005-7 · Cited by 2 · see citing works
“The fear of obesity – of becoming obese (Windram-Giddes, 2013) or having a daughter who is obese – shapes encounters that occur across time, where the past-self (obesity ‘‘has been a problem since I was young’’; our family has ‘‘a problem’’) affects the practices of the present-self (‘‘I always…”
BackgroundInfluential
Caught in the Middle: Biomedicine, Social Constructivism and Young People’s Experiences of Obesity in Poland
Boni, Z., & Ulijaszek, S. (2025) · Medical Anthropology · doi:10.1080/01459740.2025.2597988
“As a result, many of them stopped attending PE classes at school altogether (see Windram-Geddes 2013).”
Loditasunaren gizarte-irudikapenak eta emozioak gazteengan
Mondragon, N. I., & Txertudi, M. B. (2018) · doi:10.26876/uztaro.104.2018.2
“…ikerketetan gazteek loditasunarekin duten harremanari buruz eratorritako ondorio nagusia berau lehenengo pertsonan bizitzeari dioten beldurra da (Vartanian, 2010a; Windram-Geddes, 2013), aurreko emaitzetatik ondoriozta dezakegu horren kausak gizartearen onarpen eza edo bazterketa izan daitezkeela.”
Background
An investigation of Inhibition of Return to Body Information in Young Women with High or Low Shape/Weight-Based Self-Worth
Forsyth, M. J. (2018) · ANU Open Research (Australian National University) · doi:10.25911/5d6514d30fc77

Authors: Windram-Geddes, M.
Affiliations: University of Dundee (GB)
Corresponding author: Windram-Geddes, Morgan
Venue: Emotion, Space and Society
Publisher: Elsevier BV
Published: 2013-11
Volume: 9
Pages: 42-49
ISSN: 1755-4586 (ISSN-L)
DOI: 10.1016/j.emospa.2013.06.006
OpenAlex: W1985489571
Cited by: 31
References: 44
Citations by year: 2026: 1 · 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 2 · 2019: 4 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 4 · 2015: 6
FWCI: 8.70
Type: journal article
Language: en
Open access: hybrid
doi.org
Licence: cc-by-nc-sa
www.elsevier.com/tdm/userlicense/1.0/ (tdm)
creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/ (vor)
Locations: Emotion, space and society (publishedVersion, cc-by-nc-sa)
Topics: Health Sciences › Health Professions › Physical Therapy, Sports Therapy and Rehabilitation › Physical Education and Pedagogy
Health Sciences › Health Professions › Pharmacy › Obesity and Health Practices
Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › General Arts and Humanities › Corporeality, Perception, and Education
Keywords: fear of fatness, body image, girls' physical activity, physical education, obesity discourse, health discourse, affective space, school-based physical activity, young women, embodiment, swimming pools

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review

Fearing fatness and feeling fat: Encountering affective spaces of physical activity

Abstract

Integrity signals

Claims the paper makes

Claims other papers make about this one

Cites

Cited by

Record

About these checks