Yet despite being just 5ft 4" and tipping the scales at 30st, Mrs Ruffinelli, 39, from Los Angeles, says she is healthy and has a shape that other women envy.

'I have an extreme physique,' explains the mother-of-four, who has a proportionally small 40-inch waist. '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.'

Now she is to appear on a new documentary, World's Biggest Hips, alongside three other women who boast supersized rear ends.

Among them is Austrian Claudia Floraunce, 40, who also lives in Los Angeles and tips the scales at 23st, and Las Vegas native, Denise Souder, a 56-year-old grandmother-of-two with 74-inch hips - and who, like Mrs Ruffinelli, has turned her 'curves' into cold, hard cash.

'Growing up, I was the chubby girl,' explains Mrs Souder. 'I was always the chubbiest girl in the class but I never let it stop me from doing whatever I wanted to do.

'There are challenges - I can't get on a rollercoaster. You learn to get around your hips, you learn to embrace your hips, you learn to shop for your hips. 

'If someone wants to make a comment about my hips or my size, I don't care what your opinion is.'

Mrs Souder makes her living courtesy of a double life as 'Sweet Cheeks', a plus-size stripper and 'fetish provider' who specialises in services such as squashing and trampling.

'Only in Vegas could you have a stripper like me,' she chuckles. 'They come here on their bachelor party, take the blindfold off and I'm standing there with Twinkies in my hand. It's funny!'

And she's not the only one to monetise her curves. Mrs Ruffinelli has become something of a minor celebrity, while Miss Floraunce hopes to make it as a plus size model.

All, however, are adamant that big really is beautiful. 'I think a lot of people like looking at me because I am a very unique size, very large, but I carry myself with a lot of confidence,' explains Miss Floraunce.

'I get a lot of people saying, look at those hips, look at those curves, your waist looks so tiny compared to those hips. Curves are in and I am in... Finally.'

Miss Floraunce, who moved to Los Angeles from her native Austria aged 19 and gained 12st 7lbs within six months of arriving, says learning to love her supersized proportions has taken time.

'In Austria, it's really rare to have curves,' she says. 'When I go back there, I get stared at. It used to bother me but now I'm like, Why don't you take a picture? It lasts longer.'

(dailymail.co.uk)