Running as a way fat women re-story their bodies and construct a runner identity in a North American sociocultural context |
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| Affiliation: | 1. Marquette University, USA;2. University of North Carolina-Greensboro, USA;1. Nantes Université, Movement – Interactions -Performance, MIP, UR 4334, F, 44000, Nantes, France;2. University of Lyon, University of Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Laboratory of Vulnerabilities and Innovation in Sport (EA 7428), Confederation Interdisciplinary Research in Sport (FED 4272), F-69622, Lyon, France;1. Faculty of Sport and Health Sciences, University of Jyväskylä, P.O. Box 35, Jyväskylä, 40014, Finland;2. College of Education, Physical Education Department, United Arab Emirates University, P.O. Box 15551, Al Ain, United Arab Emirates;1. University of Cordoba, Cordoba, Spain;2. Marbella International University Centre, Marbella, Spain;3. Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, USA;4. Unió de Federacions Esportives de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain;5. University of Granada, Granada, Spain;1. School of Health Sciences, Liverpool Hope University, Taggart Avenue, Liverpool, L16 9JD, UK;2. Research Centre for Musculoskeletal Science and Sports Medicine, Department of Sport and Exercise Science, Manchester Metropolitan University, UK;1. Faculty of Kinesiology, Sport, and Recreation, 3-100 University Hall, Van Vliet Complex, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2H9;2. School of Human Kinetics, Faculty of Health Sciences, Montpetit Hall, 125 University Street, University of Ottawa, Ottawa, Ontario, K1N 6N5, Canada;3. Faculty of Human and Health Sciences, University of Northern British Columbia, 3333 University Way, Prince George, British Columbia, V2N 4Z9, Canada |
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| Abstract: | AimThis research sought to identify the process by which women who identify as fat or as not having a typical athletic body construct an athletic identity and persist in their running and other athletic endeavors despite body size-related barriers.MethodsFrom an online recruitment effort, 19 North American women runners in larger bodies completed interviews in which they told the story of how they had become runners. A narrative analysis with a feminist, constructivist approach was conducted to identify story types.ResultsFour narrative types were identified: reclaiming the body, reclaiming health, space-making, and future-imagining. Through finding a size- and pace-inclusive running community, running persistently, and completing races, women relinquished the stories they’d believed that their bodies were not athletic since childhood and constructed an identity of runner in a fat body.ConclusionsThese women’s engagement in running is a personal form of resistance against those who define athletic and healthy as “thin” or “fit.” They have found a welcoming athletic community and have moved on to leadership where they are working to make running accessible to other women in bodies like theirs. Those reading these narratives should consider ways in which fat bodies have been excluded from athletics, as well as ways to support the work being done by women runners in fat bodies to redefine health and athleticism. |
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| Keywords: | Running Women Women runners Fat Physical activity Identity construction Narrative analysis |
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