Fat Blokes

Fat Blokes is a (sort of) dance show about flab, double chins and getting your kit off in public. It uncovers why fat men are never sexy but always funny, always the ‘before’ but never the ‘after’ shot. Accompanying Scottee on stage are a cast of four other people who haven’t ever done a show like this before.

Scottee describes the reasons behind the show as a reaction to two things. The rst being the level of violence directed towards fat people in the gay community. In an interview with GCN, the artist described some of those events - “I’ve been at Prides where I’ve had glass bottles thrown at me. I’ve been in queer nightclubs where people have tried to set re to me. This is because I’m fat, they are explicitly slurring me because I’m fat at these moments of violence. So wanted to explore why being fat in the community means you are considered to be such a fucking enemy.” Scottee is not the only member of the show to be victim to such violence, another cast member detailed being glassed while walking down the street merely because someone took issue with their weight.

The show is also a reaction to the type of “hashtag body positivity” found on social media where people are “selling us these capitalist ideas where if we buy a bath bomb or a scented candle that we will somehow eradicate all of the marginalisation that happened to us throughout our lives, that it will eradicate all of our social trauma and we’ll be happy people.”

The show has certainly found its audience, touring to packed houses and standing ovations, igniting audience members who welcome the fact that it’s also about sexualising fat people. As Scottee continues, “I am always desexualised because of my fatness. People will see me as funny or broken, but never as sexy. Or if they do see me as sexy, often it’s about fetishizing me. With this show we want to show we can be fat, sexual queer human beings.

Fat Blokes will be staged in Project Arts Centre from February 14 to 16. Tickets available at www.projectartscentre.ie.