We introduce a notion of a K\"ahler metric with constant weighted scalar curvature on a compact K\"ahler manifold $X$, depending on a fixed real torus $\mathbb{T}$ in the reduced group of automorphisms of $X$, and two smooth (weight) functions $\mathrm{v}>0$ and $\mathrm{w}$, defined on the momentum image (with respect to a given K\"ahler class $\alpha$ on $X$) of $X$ in the dual Lie algebra of $\mathbb{T}$. A number of natural problems in K\"ahler geometry, such as the existence of extremal K\"ahler metrics and conformally K\"ahler, Einstein--Maxwell metrics, or prescribing the scalar curvature on a compact toric manifold reduce to the search of K\"ahler metrics with constant weighted scalar curvature in a given K\"ahler class $\alpha$, for special choices of the weight functions $\mathrm{v}$ and $\mathrm{w}$. We show that a number of known results obstructing the existence of constant scalar curvature K\"ahler (cscK) metrics can be extended to the weighted setting. In particular, we introduce a functional $\mathcal M_{\mathrm{v}, \mathrm{w}}$ on the space of $\mathbb{T}$-invariant K\"ahler metrics in $\alpha$, extending the Mabuchi energy in the cscK case, and show (following the arguments of Li and Sano--Tipler in the cscK and extremal cases) that if $\alpha$ is Hodge, then constant weighted scalar curvature metrics in $\alpha$ are minima of $\mathcal M_{\mathrm{v},\mathrm{w}}$. Motivated by the recent work of Dervan--Ross and Dyrefelt in the cscK and extremal cases, we define a $(\mathrm{v},\mathrm{w})$-weighted Futaki invariant of a $\mathbb{T}$-compatible smooth K\"ahler test configuration associated to $(X, \alpha, \mathbb{T})$, and show that the boundedness from below of the $(\mathrm{v},\mathrm{w})$-weighted Mabuchi functional $\mathcal M_{\mathrm{v}, \mathrm{w}}$ implies a suitable notion of a $(\mathrm{v},\mathrm{w})$-weighted K-semistability.