Fat Body and Mobility, from Double Jaepardy to Contradictory Injonction

Is obesity a dangerous epidemic that public policy should urgently address? Is mobility the appropriate remedy—or means of prevention—for this problem? Are large-bodied people inherently deficient, inactive, or ill-suited to movement? While public health discourses often tend to answer these questions in the affirmative, this article instead aims to nuance these claims. This begins with seeking clearer definitions—or rather, opening a discussion—around concepts whose meanings are far from self-evident and whose boundaries are often porous and unstable. It also involves examining how these notions interact and deconstructing the biomedical and social categories that place them in hierarchy, along with the often-persistent associations between “large body / obese body,“ “sport / physical activity,” and “large body / sedentary lifestyle.” Distancing ourselves from normative narratives on the body and prescriptive therapeutic demands is essential to better understand and rethink how body size and mobility relate to each other.