Huge hips may be the hot new body part, no ifs, ands or really big butts about it.
That's the prediction of Claudia Floraunce, 40, an aspiring actress and plus-size model who recently moved her 64-inch hips (and the rest of her body) to Los Angeles from her native Austria in hopes of becoming the next big sex symbol.
“I find my hips very sexy, in fact I find my whole body very sexy," Floraunce tells Barcroft TV. "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.”
Floraunce is hoping to thrust her huge hips into the forefront of fashion with the help of a new documentary, "World's Biggest Hips," that debuted Wednesday on the British TV network Channel 5.
The documentary profiles four women who feel blessed to be broad in the beam.
The one who gets the most hip hype is Mikel Ruffinelli, 39. Her backside measures 8 feet around, despite only having a 40-inch waist.
Ruffinelli's hips are so humongous that she has to turn sideways in her house to avoid getting stuck in corridors.
The inconvenience doesn't get Ruffinelli down, though.
"I have an extreme physique," Ruffinelli (pictured below) said, according to the Daily Mail. "I love my curves, I love my hips, I love my attributes. I love my shape and I see no reason to diet because I don’t have health problems. Men don’t fancy skinny girls, they like an hourglass figure."
mikel ruffinelli
However, the demands of having huge hips can weigh heavy on a woman.
Although Souder loves the public attention she gets for her ample hips, her relationship with her husband, Steve, has had its ups-and-downs related directly to her weight gain.
Twelve years ago, when Souder's husband dumped her for a heavier woman when she decided to have weight loss surgery.
They rekindled their relationship a year ago, but Steve keeps trying to plump her up more. The extra pounds exacerbate her arthritic hips and knees and affect her mobility.
“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," Steve said, according to HuffPost UK.
"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.”
Having huge hips might be hard at times, but it doesn't stop New Yorker Marlena Plummer. The 35-year-old has 83-inch hips but still swims and pole dances.
Plummer says she's been hippy since before she can remember, but doesn't know why.
“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," she said, according to the Mirror.
Ed, the star of a TLC special, "My Giant Face Tumor," suffers from Neurofibromatosis, a disorder that causes tumors to grow uncontrollably along nerve shafts. These tumors have completely taken over his face, robbing him of sight, eroding his skull and causing deep emotional scars.
Eye Socket Strength
Yang Guanghe pulls a vehicle with his eye sockets in Anshun, Guizhou Province of China on April 28, 2012. Yang Guanghe dragged a 1.6 ton vehicle successfully.
Chandra Bahadur Dangi
Guinness World Records officials have measured Chandra Bahadur Dangi to confirm his height of 21.5 inches (54.6 centimeters). That makes him not only the world's shortest living man but the world's shortest person ever recorded in Guinness' 57-year history.
Paul Mason
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Chris "The Dutchess" Walton has entered with Guinness World Records book with record-setting fingernails to 19 feet, 9 inches long.
Donna Simpson
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Pauline Potter
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Susanne Eman
Big model Susanne Eman, a 32-year-old single mother-of-two from Casa Grande, has made it her goal to break the world record for heaviest woman. Currently, she weighs nearly 700 pounds and hopes to tip the scales at 1200 pounds within the next decade.
Eye-Popping Contest Winner 2011
Jalisa Thompson, from Atlantic City, took the top honor and the $500 prize for first place at the Ripley's 15th annual Great Face Off.
Man With 12 Fingers
Yoandri Hernandez Garrido, 37, is known as "Twenty-Four" because he has 12 fingers. Hernandez, who lives in Baracoa, Cuba, is proud of his extra digits because they enable him to make a living by scrambling up palm trees to cut coconuts and posing for photographs with tourists.
Indian woman with two wombs has given birth to two boys
Rinku Devi, 28, with her one-week-old sons (yet to be named) at the Mati Sadan Parijat Nursing Home on August 5, 2011 in Muzaffarpur district of Bihar, India. An Indian woman with two wombs has given birth to two boys, one from each uterus. Delighted mum Rinku Devi delivered her one-in-fifty-million babies last Friday (29 July) in the northern city of Patna. Stunned doctors said giving birth to healthy babies conceived in different ovaries is so rare an average of one case is reported each year anywhere in the world. The babies, however, are not twins, as they were conceived at different times. According to gynaecologist Dr. Dipti Singh, "Rinku Devi suffers from a rare medical condition known as the uterus didelphys in which the womb develops in two parts, each with its own fallopian tube. It is quite a rare congenital condition and less than 100 women around the world are known to have it." Rinku's condition was not diagnosed until she went into labor, but after a one-hour-long surgery, she gave birth to two little boys weighing 2 kilograms and 1.5 kilograms respectively.
Foot Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale
Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale, 42, hammers in a nail using his feet on July 9, 2011 in his workshop in Welete Suk, on the edge of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Foot Carpenter Sintayehu Tishale
In this photo, Sintayehu Tishale, 42, plugs in his electric drill with his feet on July 9, 2011 in his workshop in Welete Suk, on the edge of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia.
Most Fingers And Toes
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011.
Most Fingers And Toes
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011.
Most Fingers And Toes
Akshat Saxena had 34 fingers and toes at birth in India in 2010. That set a Guinness World Record for most digits, although doctors later amputated many of them in 2011.
Huge Leg Tumor
Nguyen Duy Hai, 31, of Vietnam suffered from a 176-pound tumor in his leg and has appealed for funds to pay for a surgery to remove it. The tumor has left him unable to walk.
Hairiest Girl in the World
Supatra Sasuphan eats lunch in Ratchabophit school in Bangkok, Thailand on February 28, 2011. After Supatra was named the 'hairiest girl in the world' by Guinness, she says that getting the award has boosted her confidence and she has taken up dancing, singing, and acting. She loves listening to Thai pop music and makes her own dance routines to the latest hits with her friends.
Most Pierced Woman Marries
Elaine Davidson, who holds the record for World's Most Pierced Woman with 6,925 piercings, outside Edinburgh Registry Office following her wedding to an unnamed man.
Larry Gomez: The Wolf Boy
Larry Gomez, better known as "Wolf Boy" at the Venice Beach Freakshow, suffers from Hypertrichosis or "Werewolf Syndrome."
Conjoined Twins
The two-headed conjoined female twin babies in a hospital on May 9, 2011 in Suining city in southwest China's Sichuan province. The twins were born on May 5, 2011 by caesarean. Two previous ultrasound scans in September and February both reported a single embryo to her mother Bao Qiaoying, a migrant worker, until a check on May 3rd found it had two heads. The parents wanted to abort the fetus but it was already too late. The hospital says they are China's first reported two-headed conjoined twin babies, born 4.05kg together.
World's Shortest Woman
Indian Joyti Amge, alleged world's shortest girl with a height of 22.8 inches, poses with her toys on the evening of her 17th birthday on December 15, 2010 in Nagpur.
World's Tallest Man
Sultan Kosen, the world's tallest man, with AOL Weird News editor Buck Wolf. At 8-foot-1, Kosen is the tallest man measured by Guinness World Records in more than two decades.
Tallest and Shortest Men
Sultan Kosen, world's tallest man, meeting the world's shortest man, He Pingping Turkey to celebrate the 15 January opening of the new Guinness World Records Live! Roadshow at Forum Istanbul.
No Bathing Man
Guru Kailash Singh, of India, has refused to bathe for 37 years in the hopes that the gods will bless him with a son after the birth of seven daughters.
This baby with six legs was born in Sukkur, a city in the Sindh Province of Pakistan on Friday, April 13, 2012, according to the National Institute of Child Health.
Lots Of Fingers And Toes
Arpan Saxena, pictured here at 4, has 13 fingers and 12 toes, some of which are fused together.
Affluent Americans may want to double-check how much of their bank deposits are protected by government-backed insurance. The rules governing trust accounts just changed.
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Ohtani tagged Braves ace Max Fried for a two-run shot in the first inning, then hit a solo shot in the eighth as the Dodgers prevailed in a battle of NL favorites.
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