Welcome to Club Bounce: Where the big – and beautiful – people go
Overweight Americans, tired of discrimination, are fighting for 'size acceptance'. And they're taking their battle to the dancefloor, reports Guy Adams
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Garbo - a descendant of the film star Greta - founded Club Bounce after being refused entry to a Hollywood club
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The ladies call themselves "BBW" or "big, beautiful women". The gentlemen are known as "BHMs'" or "big, handsome men". Their common interest, when they're not pounding the specially reinforced dancefloor, is the noble cause of "size acceptance".
With a black President in the White House, and laws protecting gays, women and religious minorities, America's nightclub scene is fostering a new movement to secure civil rights for one of the few social groups who can still legally be persecuted: fat people. An explosion of "plus-size" entertainment venues, where revellers of all shapes and waistlines are welcomed, is managing to tap both the economic and political potential of the country's one in three adults who are clinically obese.
In Long Beach, California, Lisa Marie Garbo, who styles herself as the voice of America's BBW "community", has begun inviting patrons at her Club Bounce to sign petitions calling for President Obama to include the overweight in proposed new employment and hate-crime laws.
She is busily spreading the word among the 400 like-minded punters who attend her venue every Friday and Saturday. "In most nightclubs, overweight people get laughed at, treated like dirt and made to wait in line for hours by doormen. We're a feel-good club: a place where anyone can come and learn to feel good about themselves."
Ms Garbo, 41, whose weight has varied, over the years, from 19 stone to 23 stone, is a descendant of the film star Greta, whose sylph-like quality was never in doubt. She was inspired to open Club Bounce after being refused entry to a Hollywood nightspot, and now plans to roll out a chain of franchised venues across the country.
"People think being overweight is a choice, and have historically used that as an excuse to deny us rights. But it's not always down to that. I'm asthmatic. I was put on steroids when I was young. I'm not a perfect eater, and I don't exercise every day, but there are other factors making me the size I am, and it should never be used as an excuse for discrimination."
Roughly 70 per cent of her male guests, and 30 per cent of female ones, are "normal sized", she estimates. Many of the "smaller punters" pay the $15 (£10) entrance fee in order to have a chance of meeting an attractive, larger member of the opposite sex. "A lot of normal-sized people are attracted to overweight people. They celebrate them," she said
Most of the nation's handful of "plus-size" venues were started in the last couple of years, to cater for a community that grew up around internet chat-rooms. To many patrons, they provide a form of therapy, helping to revolutionise social lives that were previously non-existent.
"I see myself as a stepping stone," says Kathleen Divine, who owns the Butterfly Lounge in Orange County. "A lot of people who come along might never normally go out because of their size. The more they enjoy themselves here, the more confidence they get. It can really help their self-esteem. I've had people tell me that this club persuaded them to go out and get a better job."
Ms Divine has recently widened her business empire to include a dating site for BBWs, together with a fashion label called Big Girl Gear, which sells nightclub clothing for larger women. "There's huge demand for what we do. People have flown in from San Francisco, Las Vegas, and even the UK and Australia. You would be amazed by what happens on the dancefloor. I've seen 6001b (43 stone) women dance all night. I'm 2251b, and I can't keep going with them."
Lynn McAfe, of the Council on Size and Weight Discrimination, told the Associated Press last month: "It's nice to have a place to go where you can do a little flirting and maybe bring your thin sister or somebody from work who isn't fat, and they'll be in your world for awhile. That's an amazing experience for a lot of people who aren't fat, to spend a day or night in a world of fat people."
For a few, the plus-size scene can be truly life-changing. Two weeks ago, Mike Cooper, a Club Bounce regular from Los Angeles who was recently made the nightclub's "man of the year" for 2009, was married in Las Vegas. He'd met his wife, Blondie, at the venue. "It was the third-last song of the night and I saw this woman walking across the dancefloor. I asked her to dance. We've been inseparable ever since, and it's all because of this little place," he said.
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Comments
I've been to the States, and the obesity problem relates directly to the fact that most Americans are as ignorant about food as our own obese chav underclass.
Go into any American supermarket, and you'll see the range and quality of food is much lower that it is in the average U.K. supermarket. Americans have a very sweet tooth - the bread is uniformly tasteless, sugary pap. When I stayed with my then in-laws, I watched with incredulity as large amounts of sugar were loaded into spaghetti bolognese while it was being cooked.
One thinks of junk food when one thinks of the American diet - absolutely true, but it isn't just the well-known McDonald's and KFC, it's a vast range of processed pap, loaded with sugar, salt, preservatives and God only knows what else, that is doing enormous damage to the health of Americans. Add to that, of course, the sedentary lifestyle that most Americans lead.
It was not always thus: look at pictures of Americans in the '40s and '50s and you'll see that they mostly looked a great deal healthier.
Ironic that smoking rates during those days were more than double current rates. Alcoholism was rampant. The quality of the food consumed during that era was just pathetic. Most vegetables were canned. Spam was a big hit. Most stoves of that era included a deep fryer, and almost every meal had fried food of some sort. The oil used for frying was invariably solid Crisco, and it was reused many times before it was discarded. Gravy was served on everything. Bread was white-only and was made with bleached flour. Eggs were cooked in bacon grease. Every Sunday was like Thanksgiving; copious amounts of fattening food were served. Desert was served with every dinner. Salt was applied copiously to everything. True, the nominal portion size was smaller, but the food was much more fattening and (according to present standards) unhealthy. No one exercised. Those who did exercise were viewed as freaks.
I'm not sure how to explain today's obesity epidemic. Intuitively, I think the decline in smoking is mostly responsible. Smoking increases heart rate and the overall metabolic rate. Smokers substitute cigarettes for food and seek comfort and pleasure from smoking rather than from food. Most of the remaining smokers one sees on the street are generally slim. Perhaps this is no accident. In our zeal to suppress smoking, we may have created new problems (obesity, asthma) that barely existed in the heyday of smoking. I suspect that most of the morbidly obese women pictured here would be much slimmer if they smoked. Would they die of some smoking-related illness? Probably. Would they have lived longer had they refrained from smoking and remained morbidly obese? Who knows?
No matter what we do, we get old and sick and we die. Perhaps it is nature more than nurture that determines life span. Early in my adult life, I adopted a vegetarian diet, exercised regularly ( I ran every day), and eschewed the popular vices of the day (smoking, alcoholism, drug addiction). I am now far less healthy in my late 50s than my 75 year old mother-in-law, who smoked for most of her life, ate meat, never exercised, etc. I guess the joke is on me.
I am a recent immigrant from the UK, I cook, and I am amazed by the availability and price of first class raw ingredients in the USA. It is all a question of education. I do cookery demonstrations at my daughter's school to 14 year olds ..using basic ingredients. Most kids do not recognise the raw material and that is because of the demise of domestic science in education in preference to food technology.
Teach practical cookery in schools agian and obesity will be much reduced
Land of the ignorant and obese!! And we fight these people's wars for them??
America is a medieval nation of warmongering drongo scum.
If your comments are intended to impress people with your passionate intensity or to wound the feelings of Americans, I am afraid they do not have this effect. Some very immature and simple-minded readers may think, Yeah! Right! and approve of you, but everyone else will feel only irritation or disgust or pity at such silly remarks.
But if you comment because you want to make yourself feel better--are you succeeding even in that? I suppose you feel a rush of excitement on posting your comment and another on seeing it on the screen, and I expect you will feel excited on seeing someone has responded to you, until you read what I have said. But what then? Aren't you left feeling as frustrated and lonely as ever, and perhaps even more so, since you have made an effort to connect with other people and it has made no difference?
I suggest that instead of broadcasting your ignorance and small-mindedness you try to remedy them. Try reading something about American history--or any history. You sound as if you know nothing of the past beyond the last decade or two. Do you know anything about the rest of the world?
Do you know ANY serious subject thoroughly? Isn't there one you would like to know more about?
Knowledge cannot of itself make people happy but it does relieve the feelings of weakness and helplessness and loneliness with which you are clearly afflicted. It helps people feel that they have a place in the world and that there are other people who believe and feel as they do.
I cannot tell how old you are, but if you are still in school you will find that a devotion to reading and an increased ability to concentrate, to lose yourself in a subject, will greatly improve your schoolwork and can put you on the track to getting a decent job and meeting mature people with whom you can behave as an adult and not as a surly child.
If you are a grown man, aren't you ashamed that the way you write makes you sound like a kid in school? You need to do some real growing up.
Here is another suggestion. If you really hate a lot of what is happening in the world, instead of just typing nasty comments into your computer, why not do something about the way you feel? Do some work for a charity or help the poor or ill or old or other victims of the many things that make you angry. (If you are angry at the idea of British people fighting American wars, why not do something to help wounded soldiers? Don't you think that some practical help would do them more good than your comments on the internet? That is, if you really do care about your countrymen and not just about shooting off your mouth.) When you become familiar with people who have a lot more reasons than you to be angry and frustrated--and with the people who devote their lives to helping them--you may feel differently about your own anger. You may even give some of it up and be a more contented person.
There is a lot in this world to be angry about, but if we just sit and make nasty remarks about it, it is not going to change, is it? And WE are not going to change either.
Its true that the majority of the Americans are ignorant when it comes to thinking about how our countries are taken into war by evil and manipulative leaders. But there is a good reason for this - its because, all humans are easily lead and fooled; those who are literate as well those who are illiterate.
When we in the West look at the Taliban and say to our selves "why dont those rag heads use their brains and start think for themselves and become free" - that is an act of hypocrisy. Why? Because, we do the same - our nation voted Blair in, he fooled us with the 45 minute threats and the Taliban terrorism. Now we look back and laugh at how we were fooled - hahaha!
Its a trait of the human condition to be lead like sheep. Some humans are leaders, but most are sheep - such is life.
Consider the German nation in WWII, the whole nation supported Hitler. Why? The very same reason as above - a shepherd and the flock of sheep. Even though, Germany was a literate country, their people were so easily fooled. All it needs is a leader who is an excellent orator and is able to make a powerful case for whatever he desires.
There is a serious problem with democracy, this problem is know as "toeing the party line". Whilst Blair was in charge, virtually no Labour MPs (apart from the few like Robin Cook) had the guts to disagree with the leader. Any who thought about disagreeing, were promptly brought back into line by the party whip. So essentially, the democratic hierarchy is reduced to dictatorship. Even the opposition party became sheep to carry favour (in the future) from the Americans. Democracy has no solution to cater for evil leaders.
So you see, the ignorance of the Americans (or any other nation) is caused by a trait of human nature which is easy to expliot by the evil leaders.
The people of the world are generally good, sadly, the leaders can be evil. They can drag nations to hell with a smile and a joke.
To motivate yourself you look at the mirror and do you like what you see? I guess not.
Been politically correct maybe been tolerant makes you eat more. Trust me it is disgusting to see you with no waistline, large backside look like a back of bus and a balcony in front of you.
You will newer know how nice and relaxing it is going for a long walk and going regularly to gym.
Only useful things about fat people that motivation to us not to be like you.
there is nothing remotely noble in this, their common interest is in stuffing their faces with even more junk food.
Is this the future of the human race?
The utter destruction of the worlds rainforests and jungles, ENTIRE ecosystems and species completely destroyed and erased from the planet in order to mass produce the basic junk food ingredients like palm oil.
Producing millions upon millions of tons of appalling, poisonous junk food so that an increasing number of already massively overweight people can stuff their faces and consume consume consume even more.
The utter rape and destruction of their entire planet and every other species, so that we can literally eat ourselves to death.
There is nothing 'noble' in this, it is utter selfishness and greed.
No matter what personal sympathy I may have for these people's feelings about their weight, it does not compare to the sheer anger and outrage I feel at the environmental impact of their consumption: the palm oil plantations, the cleared rain forests, the cattle grazing on that cleared land, the welfare of those cattle, the battery eggs, the caged chickens, the mass transportation of living livestock, the plastic cups, polystyrene packs, the vats of fizzy pop, the chemicals, preservatives, additives, the factories to produce that crap, the land used to build the fast food joints, the cynical, criminal advertising to promote the product -
These are the other costs! Not only the health of the fat people, but the world that their habits leave behind! There is nothing I can accept about that culture, although it pains me to be thought of as discriminatory against them ...
However, how would they would react if they were told that their group has the power to save the world? They seem to be seeking recognition, why not give it to them to great doses for lobbying for sustainable food and eco-system preservation?
I have lived and worked in the US, the food is good and cheap, what is easily available is mostly processed, fatty, sugar laden and comes in huge portions. (and that from me, I am 5,11" and weigh 210 Ibs)
There are many restaurants in the US that cater for people who choose to eat healthy food. Its all about choice. If you are stupid enough to fall for the advertising of fast food outlets you deserve to be fat for own stupidity.
There was a time when a bit of chubbiness was seen as a good thing. Of course being obese is a health risk but being a bit "overweight" can be a good thing. In the event of world supplies being seriously disrupted for any number of reasons, the thin people like myself will be the first to perish. My girlfriend is a very curvy girl and has a BMI of 27 and I find her very attractive.
Everything in moderation.
If the obese want equal employment rights does that mean we'll soon find on the job application form a requirement to fill in your weight and height - "only for anti-discrimination monitoring purposes to ensure we meet our quota". People may think that question intrudes on their privacy. Imagine a job advert including "we welcome applications from the fat clinically obese people as they are currently under-represented in our workforce".
Perhaps ridicule of fat people is for the best. To encourage the obese to celebrate their fatness and thereby encourage more people to become obese seems unwise. It is encouraging unhealthy living, onset of various diseases, shorter life span and over-consumption of food and other materials (when the planet's resources are getting scarcer).
Prophet Mohamed has prescribed the following as a model of how to eat a meal,
your stomach should contain:
1/3 food
1/3 water
1/3 air
But yes it is true that America abounds in bad fast food.
P.S. You're very nearly as fat as we are. Plus you're uglier.
Intake of calories-Calories used= gain/lose weight?
So the choice is eat less or exercise more?
Simples