It ain't easy being big.
Every day, heavy-set people have to fight a thin-centric media filled with stick-figured magazine models and shows like The Biggest Loser. At the grocery store, they're inundated with low-carb, low-fat options that don't taste nearly as good as their high-calories counterparts. Clothing manufacturers stop sewing at a certain size, limiting fashion opportunities. Obesity is the new national health scare. Airlines are instituting, in essence, fat taxes. And to top it all off, the big and beautiful can't even relax at a Ybor City club without getting laughed at.
"When we both were thinner, we went to clubs in Ybor all the time," says Nicole Llorca, 31, standing by her sister Cassandra Ray in the back of Club Rubenesque in Tampa. "When we started gaining weight, I could see the difference [in people's attitudes]."
Llorca's sister adds, "Who wants to pay money to go into a club and get made fun of?"
Ashamed at her weight gain after the birth of her child, Llorca just stayed home.
"I was very, very shy about myself," says Llorca, who weighed 320 pounds last year. "People have always said, 'You have a pretty face, but if only you lost a little weight.'"
Then her sister heard about Club Rubenesque, a nightspot specifically for "people of size." One Saturday, they showed up at the Howard Johnson on N. 50th Street and, for the first time in years, Llorca danced without feeling self-conscious.
That was a year ago. Nicole has since lost 99 pounds — "I'm happy with my size now," she says — and gained some self-confidence. And she's engaged to a man she met at Club Rubenesque.
Those are the stories Sandi Hernandez loves to hear.
Two years ago, Hernandez created Club Rubenesque — a once-a-week dance party for BBWs, BHMs and FAs (that's Big and Beautiful Women, Big Handsome Men and their Fat Admirers) — to "give us BBWs a place that we can call our own."
"If you love yourself and accept yourself and have self-confidence, it's going to show," explains the 43-year-old New York native.
And what better way to show it, and flaunt it even, than a club?
It wasn't easy. Hernandez says one venue owner told her, "Nobody wants to see fat people dancing." Others quietly passed on the idea until she found a Comfort Inn willing to rent out its ballroom. Six months later, the group moved to the Howard Johnson. In February, Club Rubenesque moved to the Chambers Alternative Nightclub, a large venue on Franklin Street just north of downtown Tampa.
The concept of a plus-sized dance venue in Tampa Bay isn't new — in 2001, a Riverview woman opened a now-defunct BBW club in Tampa — but the idea is gaining ground. After Club Rubenesque moved from the Howard Johnson, a similar event, "Biggie Nights " replaced it. Over a hundred people are on the Meetup.com lists for each event.
On this Saturday night, around 11 p.m., a fetish party takes up the Chambers' downstairs dance floor while Club Rubenesque patrons shake their moneymakers on the second floor. As I walk in, a DJ turns up the volume on a Lil' Jon rap, sending four African-American women in jeans and skirts to the wood dance floor. Thirty other patrons mill about tables set up around a large stage and bar. Some women are decked out in lacy black dresses, showing off ample breasts. Others wear the more casual jeans and low-cut tank tops. The girl-to-guy ratio is a generous 10-to-1. And there are few wallflowers here.
On the other end of the club, a tall man in jeans and a gray T-shirt leads a plump blonde girl in a tight white dress to the dance floor. She seems shy at first, but the hip-hop beats and the man's gyrating pelvis set her loose. She turns her back to him, bends over, touches the floor and grinds on him.
Watching all this is 21-year-old Kimberley Green. She's wearing a form-fitting brown dress and green flip-flops. Her friend Kayla stands nearby, sipping a mixed drink.
"The main reason we come here is it's a place we feel comfortable," Green says. "When we go to clubs in Ybor it isn't that we don't have fun, but we feel like everyone is looking at us when we're dancing."
As the song winds down, the DJ directs our attention to the stage for "Moulin Rube," a burlesque show celebrating sexy women of size. After two thick women give a crowd-pleasing performance, Llorca appears from behind the curtains in a skimpy, bright pink outfit. She dances effortlessly to Madonna's "Material Girl." Between lip-synching, she lets out a coy smile. The crowd hollers.
After the show, I catch up with David Monell, Llorca's fiancée. At 5-foot-7 and 130 pounds, Monell isn't the average Rubenesque clubber, but he insists, "This club is fucking awesome."
Monell admits he was wary at first when his cousin convinced him to come last year.
"When I walked in, I was like, 'This isn't really my scene, but you know, my buddies are here, so let's just have a good time,'" he recalls.
That night, Monell met Llorca and "hit it off immediately."
"Nicole is the first heavy-set woman I've ever dated," he says. "Good thing I came down here, because I was really shallow before."
Llorca finds us and cozies up to Monell.
"I don't want people to judge me for who I am, and I like I how I don't have to change anything about myself here," he adds.
And to the patrons of Club Rubenesque, that's a big deal.
Club Rubenesque is every Saturday night at Chambers Alternative Nightclub from 9 p.m. to 3 a.m. at 1701 N. Franklin St., Tampa. For more information, visit clubrubenesque.com.
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2008.