Chubby Chaser
A chubby chaser is someone who is especially attracted to larger or fat people. The term can be used across genders and sexual orientations, but it has a long history in gay male “chub” culture, where chasers are men attracted to chubs or other larger men.
Chubby chaser can be neutral, playful, or derogatory depending on context. Within chub communities, chaser has often been used as a self-description. Outside those spaces, it can imply that someone is fetishizing a person primarily because of their size.
Origins of the Term
The term "chubby chaser" was in use by at least the 1970s. Reed Wilgoren, founder of the gay men’s group Girth & Mirth in San Francisco in 1976, recalled that “chubby chaser” was already being used at the time. The phrase also appears in the 1976 gay bathhouse comedy "The Ritz," showing it had already entered recognizable gay slang by then.
Girth & Mirth and similar clubs helped build a distinct chub-and-chaser subculture. They created social spaces for larger gay men and the men attracted to them at a time when thin, youthful bodies dominated mainstream gay imagery.
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