Moving as a 'scrawny, brown body': navigating sticky emotional geographies of physical activity in Singapore

Recent studies on emotional geographies of physical activity have furnished valuable insights into the affective and emotional intensities of space in mediating physical activity engagements. Nevertheless, I suggest there is potential in departing from an ahistorical treatment of emotion to critically consider how people's health engagements are mediated by their sticky emotional relations to space stretching over multiple space-times. I bring these ideas to life through an empirical exploration of physical activity engagements in Singapore that involved in-depth interviews with 17 fitness trainers and diaries from 22 fitness participants. Drawing on Sara Ahmed's idea of 'sticky emotions', I argue that people's physical activity engagements are not just mediated by the immediate affective intensities of space such as energies and atmospheres. Equally importantly, their access to physical activity spaces is also profoundly shaped by their sticky emotional histories and memories of racism, misogyny, and sizism, amongst others. However, instead of theorising minority health subjects through a discourse of passivity and victimhood, I also explore how they could actively 'unstick' their bodies from public exercising spaces to create socially fitting environments. This paper emphasises that paying attention to sticky emotions could sharpen a feminist sensitivity to power geometries that are necessarily entwined with people's health engagements. Accordingly, it aims to develop an ethical corrective to understanding issues of health access, particularly amongst minority communities.

Automated summary

This paper explores the impact of emotional geographies on physical activity and emphasizes the importance of emotions in people's health engagement. By studying physical activity participants in Singapore, the paper highlights the influence of emotional histories and memories on people's access to physical activity spaces. The paper also examines how minority communities can actively transform these spaces to better fit their needs.