Meet The Women With The Biggest Hips In The World | HuffPost Life

Meet The Women With The Biggest Hips In The World

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A new documentary on Channel 5 is set to showcase four women who are contenders for the title of 'world's biggest hips', while also shedding some light on how they get by on a daily basis with such bountiful assets in tow.

Mikel Ruffinelli, 42, from LA, Denise Souder, 56, from Las Vegas, Marlena Plummer, 35, from New York, and Claudia Floraunce, 40, from LA, have a combined hip circumference of almost 27 foot.

Before they hit the big screen tomorrow, we got the lowdown on these four body-confident ladies.

Currently holding the world record for the biggest hips in the world is Mikel Ruffinelli, 42, whose hips measure around eight foot in circumference.

The mum-of-four, from Los Angeles, loves her womanly shape as does her husband Reggie.

Ruffinelli says: “I’m extreme, I have an extreme physique. I love my curves, I love my hips and I love my assets.”

But with the visual perks come the physical drawbacks and Mikel is forced to side-shuffle around her house to avoid getting stuck in corridors and even struggles to fit in the shower.

She is forced to drive a wide truck which she accesses using a step ladder as she doesn’t fit into a standard size car.

Meanwhile grandmother Denise Souder, or ‘Sweet Cheeks’ as she is known, is a 56-year-old Las Vegas stripper whose hips measure 74 inches – twice the size of the average woman.

Souder sells scantily clad clips of her hips online and even ropes her daughter Rachel, 23, in for the saucy shows.

She said: “God gave it to me, why not love it and use it? I do like to get up and walk from my seat to the bathroom and just kind of take a glance at who’s looking.”

But Souder's story is worrying. Her partner Steve is a self-confessed 'chubby chaser' who admits that his lover would become significantly less attractive to him if she lost her hips.

The pair met when Steve posted an ad in the local paper looking for a woman over 21 stone. Before long, they were married.

But twelve years ago Steve left Souder for a bigger woman.

Despite their relationship tumult, Steve broke up with his new love when she decided to have weight loss surgery, and a year ago, he rekindled his relationship with Souder.

And while Steve is happy to fatten up Denise further, he admits her suffering health makes him feel guilty.

Denise suffers from arthritis in her hips and knees, which affects her mobility and can be painful.

Steve said: “I want her to be as fat as she can be but not be unhealthily fat and there’s a fine line there. As you get older it can become more problematic so there’s part of me that feels guilty that I like it so much.

“It’s something that as she gets older I struggle with because I feel bad about it but I also like it. I feel conflicted sometimes especially if she’s in a lot of pain or having a particularly hard day.”

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Marlena Plummer, 35, is a hip-heavy singleton from New York whose hips span an impressive 83 inches.

But far from letting her hefty hips hold her back, active Marlena partakes in swimming and even pole dancing in her spare time.

And now she is on the lookout for love.

She said: “I believe there’s somebody out there who’s going to love me for me.

“I always had hips even as an infant. I have a small appetite and it’s a mystery why my hips are the way they are but I love my hips, I love my shape and I love me.”

Aspiring actress and plus-size model Claudia Floraunce, 40, moved to Hollywood from Austria with dreams of making it big.

She believes her 64 inch hips hold the key to potential stardom and has amassed a legion of fans on YouTube where she posts videos about her love handles.

Claudia said: “I find my hips very sexy, in fact I find my whole body very sexy.

“I think people like looking at me because I’m a very unique size. I’m very large but I carry myself with a lot of confidence.

“I get a minimum 27 marriage proposals every day. To have curves is in and I’m in – finally.”

In the words of Shakira, these hips (certainly) don't lie.

The Women With The World's Largest Hips airs at 9pm on Wednesday 18 February, Channel 5.

Body Image Heroes

Jennie Runk(01 of21)

Runk is the star of a May 2013 H&M swimwear campaign that gained widespread media attention for not relegating the gorgeous size 12 model to the "plus-size" pages of their website. In an interview with activist group SPARK, Runk told a young blogger: "I remember often feeling like I should be unhappy with my body, but it was confusing, because I never thought there was anything wrong with it until people started talking about it."In a piece for the BBC, Runk wrote of her newfound media attention: "This is exactly the kind of thing I've always wanted to accomplish, showing women that it's OK to be confident even if you're not the popular notion of 'perfect.'... There's no need to glamorise one body type and slam another." (credit:H&M)

Jennifer Lawrence(02 of21)

The famously outspoken "Hunger Games" star has been extremely vocal about resisting diet culture and pressure to be unnaturally thin. "If anybody even tries to whisper the word 'diet,' I'm like, 'You can go f*ck yourself,'" Lawrence said in an interview for the November 2013 UK issue of Harper's Bazaar. She also hit the nail on the head during a Nov. 7 Q&A with Yahoo! employees. "The world has this idea that if you don't look like an airbrushed perfect model," she said to Yahoo! CEO Marissa Mayer. "You have to see past it. You look how you look, you have to be comfortable. What are you going to do? Be hungry every single day to make other people happy? That's just dumb." (credit:Getty)

Nickolay Lamm(03 of21)

Lamm, an artist who works for MyDeals.com, used CDC measurements of an average 19-year-old woman to create a 3-D model which he then Photoshopped to look like a Barbie doll. His images of "normal" Barbie next to the doll sold in stores is truly worrying."If we criticize skinny models, we should at least be open to the possibility that Barbie may negatively influence young girls as well," Lamm told the Huffington Post in an email. "Furthermore, a realistically proportioned Barbie actually looks pretty good."It's awesome to see a man take a stance on these issues, especially considering that many men experience their own body struggles -- often in silence. (credit:Nickolay Lamm)

Trina Hall(04 of21)

Hall, a Dallas-based yoga instructor, abandoned all dietary restrictions between March and July of this year in order to see how her body changed when she wasn't actively limiting her eating habits -- and how people in her life reacted to her changing shape. The results of her project were not what she expected:

The people who didn't know, who were just with me in my life -- there was no difference that I could tell in the way that they treated me. The difference came in my own perceptions of myself, and I began to treat myself differently. I was very judgmental, and I would look in the mirror and critique myself... I would pick apart my body. Instead of looking at the whole of my body, I would look at different parts and analyze what's wrong with them.

"My most shocking discovery through the process is that I’m afraid of not being loved," Hall wrote in a Jul. 30 blog post. "I noticed the self-talk was that my beauty is only on the surface."The experience moved Hall to better understand the dialogue happening inside her own head, and inspired her to help other people suffering from poor body image. "I want to empower people to love their bodies... if it's going to start somewhere, it has to start within," she wrote. (credit:Trina Hall)

Shailene Woodley(05 of21)

Woodley, who was nominated for a Golden Globe for her role in "The Descendants," told Flavorwire in July:

I saw somebody -- what I thought was me -- in a magazine once, and I had big red lips that definitely did not belong on my face. I had boobs about three times the size they are in real life. My stomach was completely flat. My skin was also flawless. But the reality is that I do not have those lips and my skin is not flawless and I do have a little bit of a stomach. It was not a proper representation of who I am. I realized that, growing up and looking at magazines, I was comparing myself to images like that -- and most of it isn’t real.

Because of her discomfort with how women are constantly Photoshopped and edited on-screen, Woodley doesn't wear makeup to events. What a badass. (credit:AP)

Elena Raouna (06 of21)

Raouna, who was crowned Miss British Beauty Curve 2013, told the Daily Mail: "you don't have to be size zero to be a model, and you can be pretty and plus size at the same time." The beauty queen hopes to use her platform to inspire young women to be comfortable in their own bodies, regardless of their weight. "My confidence has grown over the years and hopefully I can inspire other plus-size girls to be confident in their own skin," she said. (credit:Elena Raouna )

Kelsey Miller(07 of21)

The Refinery29 staff writer turned to intuitive eating, a practice where you learn to listen to your body's signals and eat accordingly, to help manage her body demons -- and is chronicling her journey on the Internet via the Anti-Diet Project. "The goal here is not fast weight loss," Miller told the Huffington Post in an email. "It's about creating a healthy, neutralized relationship with food and learning how to be fit and active every day -- but still have a life." (credit:Rockie Nolan)

Sheila Pree bright(08 of21)

Pree Bright's photo series "Plastic Bodies" examines how beauty ideals affect women, especially women of color. Her striking images combine doll parts with segments of human bodies, and the discord between the two is startling. She told HuffPost in an email:

American concepts of the “perfect female body” are clearly exemplified through commercialism, portraying “image as everything” and introducing trends that many spend hundreds of dollars to imitate. It is more common than ever that women are enlarging breasts with silicone, making short hair longer with synthetic hair weaves, covering natural nails with acrylic fill-ins, or perhaps replacing natural eyes with contacts.Even on magazine covers, graphic artists are airbrushing and manipulating photographs in software programs, making the image of a small waist and clear skin flawless. As a result, the female body becomes a replica of a doll, and the essence of natural beauty in popular American culture is replaced by fantasy.

(credit:Sheila Pree Bright)

Adele(09 of21)

Adele says she tries not to worry about her body image and doesn't want to be a "skinny minnie." "The first thing to do is be happy with yourself and appreciate your body -- only then should you try to change things about yourself." (credit:Getty)

Rebel Wilson(10 of21)

The actress took to Twitter to say, "I'm not trying to be hot. I'm just trying to be a good actress and entertain people." (credit:Facebook)

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Source: Dove Real Beauty Campaign, 2004.

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Source: The Renfrew Center Foundation for Eating Disorders, “Eating Disorders 101 Guide: A Summary of Issues, Statistics and Resources,” 2003.

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Source: Shisslak, C.M., Crago, M., & Estes, L.S. (1995). The Spectrum of Eating Disturbances. International Journal of Eating Disorders, 18 (3): 209-219.

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Source: Collins, 1991.Source: Mellin et al., 1991.

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Source: Rader Programs

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