Whipped into Shape: Infrastructure as Punishment for the Unruly Citizen

This article interrogates how inflexible designs and policies of airline seating, as well as critical socio-political rhetoric, discipline and marginalize bodies that do not conform to normative standards. Situating airline seating within fat and disability studies models, Mortimer argues that these punitive measures are not neutral, but rather reflective of cultural narratives of productivity, morality, and bodily discipline. Mortimer draws from ethnographic analyses of first-person accounts and policy reviews to demonstrate how shrinking seats, rigid policies, and moralized discourse construct a “space of calculability” that pressures fat individuals to monitor and minimize their bodies to justify their presence in public space. Mortimer’s article concludes with a call to action: not only is further research toward fat justice needed, but also collective political intervention and a broader societal shift in conceptualizing body diversity and value to transform public policy and perception.