Fatness, Fitness, and the Moral Universe of Sport and Physical Activity

Abstract

We use what we call collaborative autoethnography in this article to tell the story of “Lindsey,” a person for whom sport and physical activity have been both friend and enemy throughout her life. Our intention is to place stories about disordered eating and over-exercising alongside modern panics about obesity and to wonder how children are likely to process the different things they are told about body weight, sport, and physical activity. We do this not to pathologize Lindsey’s behavior but rather to pathologize the moral universe that makes the moral superiority of the fit, athletic body possible.

Exploring the experiences of female sport fans: A collaborative self-ethnography

“…Similar to Collinson's (2003) description of the data analysis technique in her auto-ethnography of two individuals' experiences with running, we engaged in a constant comparison method between our two divergent (yet somewhat similar) sport fan experiences. In addition, we, like Zanker and Gard (2008), relied on our dual positions as researchers and fans to deepen the data analysis process. They stated, ''.…”

“…Although recent research in the field of sport sociology has provided validation for the utility of self-reflexive methods (e.g., Collinson, 2003Collinson, , 2008Denison & Rinehart, 2000;Sparkes, 2000;Zanker & Gard, 2008), these methods are not generally used in the sport management context. However, we argue that we should not dismiss or ignore our own personal interests and experiences as a means of informing our research.…”

Sexual abuse and the grooming process in sport: Learning from Bella's story

“…Ultimately The process we have engaged in to get to this stage is like the collaborative autoethnography process described by Zanker and Gard (2008) who, with their cowriter/participant, produced an evocative performance text that explored the experiences of the latter in relation to disordered eating and over-exercising. Like them, we hope, that the vignettes and selected poems about Bella's grooming and undisclosed sexual abuse that follow, offer her a space in which to tell, retell and reunderstand her own life.…”

Ideational border crossings: rethinking the politics of knowledge within and across disciplines

“…However, it has been rather less reflexive as to the origins, encodings and limits of its own stance/ definitions regarding health, or its relationships to public health knowledge/s, prompting a hardening of attitudes and closure of boundaries on all fronts (between and within different forms of science). And without an adequately transdisciplinaryinformed theory of health or 'body knowledge', or, specifically, how the concept health is configured both 'within' and 'between' communities of practice (academic and non-academic), our perspectives have consequently been resigned to positiontaking and polemic, claim and counter-claim around who has the better version of truth (Zanker & Gard, 2008). Standpoint research such as this regarding obesity and health renders us unable to determine what health or other knowledge/s can be trusted and accepted and should be taken seriously and reflected in communities and schools (Evans et al, 2008).…”