Rethinking the ‘Fit’ in Fitness: Misfitting (Loudly) to Transform Physical Activity Futures

The fitness industry has long glorified an “ideal body.” Anyone not “fitting” this ideal is cast as non-normative, and likely excluded, discriminated against, and pressured to conform to mythical standards. Using the feminist materialist concept of misfitting in our narrative thematic analysis, we thought through 22 participants’ stories of in/exclusion in the world of physical activity and fitness. Participants recognized being a misfit (noun) …