Socio-spatial inequalities and emotional landscapes of body size

1. Socio-spatial inequalities and emotional landscapes of body size Peter Hopkins School of Geography, Politics and Sociology Newcastle University UK NE17RU peter.hopkins@ncl.ac.uk

2. Geographies, bodies and size • Feminist geographies and bodies/embodiment (e.g. Longhurst, 2001) • Fat bodies (Longhurst, 2005) • Childhood obesity, health and policy (Colls and Evans, 2007, Evans, 2006) • Medical and health issues (Reilly, 2007)

3. The medicalisation of social life ‘Medicalisation refers to the drawing of boundaries around social groups on the basis of presumed health, illness or susceptibility to disease. Such boundaries are overlaid with attitudinal, behavioural and territorial markers, and may be used as criteria in determining the differential apportionment of goods and services (Smith, 1993: 62).

4. The study • Interviews and participatory diagramming with young people about their everyday experiences of their social size. • Focus upon the everyday and the social aspects of size through discussions about consumption, everyday places and feeling different.

5. Emotional geographies … • ‘…silencing of emotion in social research and public life’ (Anderson and Smith, 2001: 7) • ‘Emotions are, without doubt, an intractable if intangible aspect of all of our everyday lives’ (Davidson and Bondi, 2004: 373) • Spaces of Stress/Security, Stimulus/Ennui, Status/ Stigma (Ley, 1983)

6. Brad ‘I enjoy it because I know it marks me out as different’ …say if I have a problem at a restaurant or somewhere, then they do tend to listen to you a bit more… A place where I do worry about is sometimes at the cinema, em … and if you sit down and then … I always think, oh … I feel really sorry for whoever’s sat behind me because obviously the view’s gonna be severely restricted and you … you do kind of work your way down the chair … Ten words: authority, control, assurance, safety, presence, confident, positive, empowered, responsible, tall.

7. Steven … I get stopped in the street at least twice a week… … it’s usually, did your mum put you in a growbag or … what did your mum feed you or, em … So sometimes you feel it is … it is a bit of a disability … Ten words: special, separate, different, restricted, ridiculed, privileged, happy, confident, proud, patronising

8. Star I have to be really comfortable knowing who I’m with. So walking round the university, probably not, I wouldn’t be eating something, em … if I’m with somebody that I feel really comfortable with, then I probably wouldn’t mind so much but if I’m with people who I don’t know, then … then I wouldn’t like it. … where you sit around the table if, eh … if there’s a table with a table cloth, for example, you might go and sit there because you feel you’re more concealed than if you’re … Ten words: frumpy, dumpy, able to conceal myself (skilled at clothing readjustment), eat a lot/enjoy eating

9. Sue … if I was on a lunch break, I couldn’t eat out into town on my own cos I’d feel conscious of people looking at me … …the beach would be an example… I feel quite anxious and I feel … quite negative about myself, em … I think another place like that would be going out at night to say a club or, em … like a social … or for example birthdays, like celebrating my friends’ birthdays, em … I’d become quite conscious of myself then. Ten words: insecure, confident personality, perfectionist, low self esteem, negative body image, good sense of humour, kind hearted, worry about others opinions

10. Conclusions • The cultural politics and emotional geographies of social size • Young people, self-governance, in/exclusion and senses of belonging • Intersection of social size and gendered stereotypes • Intersectionality and social size • Size as relational and situational