Disco for chubbies does fat lot of good

CHUBBY people now have their own discotheque in Berlin, run by a woman nicknamed "The Mother Teresa of the Fat".

"In a normal night club, you see very few plump women. They don't dare dance since they are afraid of the looks and comments of others," said Gitty Hinz, manager of the "Zwo Fuffzig" discotheque that is dedicated to the portly.

Hinz, who herself weighs a hefty 80 kilograms, said in a recent interview that "of course, we have no bouncers at the entrance. Everybody can come".

She said she got the idea of a dance hall for bulkier folk when she saw such an establishment in New York.

"Zwo Fuffzig," the name a reference to a high weight, is in the downscale NeuKölln neighbourhood of the capital, and is open every other weekend.

Hinz says a typical evening brings in some 120 people, 60 percent of them fat.

But there is one major problem -- "It is the lack of men," said Hinz.

Only about 15 percent of her clients are men, she said.

Why? "Fat men do not see themselves this way," she said, noting that when she tries to give chubby fellows her prospectus in the street, they either shy away or almost throw the leaflets back at her.

One of the few corpulent men to cross the threshold into "Zwo Fuffzig", Malik, 36, avoided speaking about his obesity. "I come here but I also go to normal nightclubs. I don't have a problem," he said, still however refusing to give his last name.

Women at the club were more forthcoming. Hannelore Bauersfeld, who was dressed to the nines, said: "I feel truly comfortable here. We talk informally right away and call ourselves by our first names."

She said she thought fat women had the most beautiful faces. Hinz, 56, said experience had taught her that men like chubby women.

"In reality, men like fat women. They show off their thin girlfriends but they want to be spoiled by plump women."

Hinz said many corpulent women have a hard time facing up to what they are. "They do not take care of themselves and dress badly," she said.

To remedy this, she recently organised a "Chicke Dicke" (Fat and chic) evening, where one owner of a clothing store for hefty women partied with many of her clients.

When the heavy dance, they feel good about their bodies again, and no longer feel shame, Hinz said.

"Many call me on the telephone the following day to thank me" for their evenings at the "Zwo Fuffzig."

The German weekly magazine Der Spiegel said in a recent edition that in western Germany 21,1 percent of women and 18,1 percent of men are overweight.

This is more than in France where the figures are 10,5 percent for women and 9,6 percent for men but less than in Kuwait where 44 percent of women are overweight while the percentage for men is 32 percent. -- Sapa-AFP