Abnormal bodies

In western societies people are increasingly encouraged to participate in sport and physical activities because of the perceived benefits to their health and wellbeing. This is also the case in the Netherlands, where youth in particular are pushed towards an active lifestyle in order to counteract rising numbers in overweight and obesity in the Dutch population. Sport and physical education are often seen as key sites through which an active lifestyle can be established. Sport and physical education also form important sites through which people learn about (their) bodies and health. In other words, these are sites where norms about the body circulate, where dominant norms are (re)produced, and where they can be challenged. Yet these norms are mostly implicit. We know little about the body norms that Dutch people construct in sport and physical education and how these norms affect people’s experiences in sport, physical education and beyond these contexts. ‘AbNormAll Bodies’ explores which body norms Dutch youth and adults discursively construct in different sites, how these constructions are informed by discourses about gender and dis/ability, and how these constructions produce multiple subjectives and a hierarchy of bodies. By drawing on several theoretical perspectives and methodologies – ranging from the work of Foucalt and feminist poststructuralist theories to intersectional feminism and Creative Analystic Process (CAP) Ethnographies – this dissertation offers unique insights into the complex ways in which Dutch people experience, construct, negotiate and challenge body norms and health norms and how this is tied into existing power relations.