Ross Anderson-Doherty, Alyson Campbell, J. Graffam
{"title":"Baking Cake Daddy: transforming fat-phobia to fat-positivity with a slice of fat-queer subversive fun to fatten the stage","authors":"Ross Anderson-Doherty, Alyson Campbell, J. Graffam","doi":"10.1080/21604851.2022.2049494","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"ABSTRACT This article examines the genesis, making processes and performance choices of Cake Daddy, a queer and fat-positive live performance work (Belfast, Melbourne, Sydney, 2018–19). The show was made in response to performer-creator Ross Anderson-Doherty’s experience of shock and fatphobia in the audience’s reaction to his naked fat body in a previous production. This experience – and the unpacking of it – proved a catalyst for Anderson-Doherty to respond in the best way he knows: through performance and his own form of queer performance pedagogy. Through a Practice as Research methodology we, who are also members of the Cake Daddy creative team, trace the queer and “fat” dramaturgical choices within the creation and staging of this fat-positive and celebratory production. This includes the hybrid cabaret-theater form of the production, its (at times) conversational/dialogic mode, the visibility and participation of audiences, the virtuosity of Anderson-Doherty’s singing and hosting, the sharing of deeply personal material, the flaunting of fat/ness and fat sexuality onstage and the shared act of committing to a fat-positive community pledge: all of these, we assert, lead to a fat-queer utopian performative moment. Borrowing from queer theory’s move to see queer as a verb, rather than a noun, Anderson-Doherty’s co-option of fat as a verb has brought this forth: Anderson-Doherty “fattens” the space – and in the performance’s final moments he teaches audiences to conjugate that verb together as a temporary community.","PeriodicalId":37967,"journal":{"name":"Fat Studies-An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society","volume":"45 1","pages":"556 - 571"},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2022-03-14","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Fat Studies-An Interdisciplinary Journal of Body Weight and Society","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1080/21604851.2022.2049494","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q3","JCRName":"SOCIAL SCIENCES, INTERDISCIPLINARY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
ABSTRACT This article examines the genesis, making processes and performance choices of Cake Daddy, a queer and fat-positive live performance work (Belfast, Melbourne, Sydney, 2018–19). The show was made in response to performer-creator Ross Anderson-Doherty’s experience of shock and fatphobia in the audience’s reaction to his naked fat body in a previous production. This experience – and the unpacking of it – proved a catalyst for Anderson-Doherty to respond in the best way he knows: through performance and his own form of queer performance pedagogy. Through a Practice as Research methodology we, who are also members of the Cake Daddy creative team, trace the queer and “fat” dramaturgical choices within the creation and staging of this fat-positive and celebratory production. This includes the hybrid cabaret-theater form of the production, its (at times) conversational/dialogic mode, the visibility and participation of audiences, the virtuosity of Anderson-Doherty’s singing and hosting, the sharing of deeply personal material, the flaunting of fat/ness and fat sexuality onstage and the shared act of committing to a fat-positive community pledge: all of these, we assert, lead to a fat-queer utopian performative moment. Borrowing from queer theory’s move to see queer as a verb, rather than a noun, Anderson-Doherty’s co-option of fat as a verb has brought this forth: Anderson-Doherty “fattens” the space – and in the performance’s final moments he teaches audiences to conjugate that verb together as a temporary community.