Weighing nearly 500 pounds, Zsalynn Whitworth is one mother so desperate to earn money for weight-loss surgery that she has started modeling for fat fetish websites.
As the subject of a new documentary, All of Me: A Story of Love, Loss and Last Resorts, which follows three women facing questions about obesity, identity and sexuality, Mrs Whitworth explains: 'It makes me feel like a circus freak.'
With gastric bypass surgery not covered by her insurance, the Austin, Texas resident must raise the money herself and adds: 'But if that's what guys want to see, I go to the circus.'
Desperate mom: Weighing nearly 500 pounds,
Zsalynn Whitworth has started modeling for fat-fetish websites to save
enough money for weight-loss surgery
'I'll never be a size 2, but I hope after surgery I can get to a size 18,' she explains. '[Fat acceptance groups] say it's OK being fat, but nobody likes being fat. Nobody likes being different.'
The mother of an eight-year-old daughter says she will continue to model for soft porn sites until she saves enough money, or she finds a job with full insurance coverage for weight-loss surgery.
For now, she trying to eat healthy. Earlier last month, Mrs Whitworth tweeted: 'Commercials for fast food really work!! I wanna go to every place near my house but I'm already dressed for the pool. #healthychoice.'
Judy Sinclair, a friend of Mrs Whitworth, also features in the film. She lost 180lbs after her own gastric bypass operation, enabling her to take up yoga for the first time.
Path to change: Mrs Whitworth, who weighs
490lbs, is the subject of a new documentary, All of Me, which follows
three women from Austin, Texas, facing questions about obesity, identity
and sexuality
Trying to save: With gastric bypass surgery not covered by her insurance, the mother-of-one must raise the money herself
Director Alexandra Lescaze follows the three women as they struggle to maintain their friendships as they hope to change with surgery.
'If I could still be my own weight and be healthy, I wouldn't be doing this,' Mrs Sinclair, 47, explains in the movie. 'I am doing this because I don't want to be 62, lying in a hospital bed.
The documentary, premiering this weekend, June 15 and 16, at the Los Angeles Film Festival, will also air in early 2014 on the PBS Independent Lens Series.
Surrounded by the temptations of fast food, ice-cream stands and drive-up food windows, the women are each other's only support as they try and stick to a healthy diet.
Weigh-loss plan: Judy Sinclair, a friend of Mrs
Whitworth, also features in the film. She lost 180lbs after her own
gastric bypass operation, enabling her to take up yoga for the first
time
First step: Director Alexandra Lescaze follows
the three women as they struggle to maintain their friendships as they
hope to change with surgery
Chronicling the women's battle with weight loss, the director uses flashback photos; in one scene, Mrs Brooks remembers a time when she was a 350lbs plus-size model.
'I would put on a bathing suit and chase an ice-cream cone,' she recalls in the movie. 'I had no idea I was the subject of so many men's fetishes. One person wanted me to sit on him.'
Meanwhile Mrs Sinclair is shown as a 16-year-old, when a boy apparently 'mooed' at her.
During the film, she and her husband take out a $19,000 loan to pay for weight-loss surgery, which reduces her stomach to the size of an egg yolk.
Expensive: During the film, Mrs Sinclair and her
husband take out a $19,000 loan to pay for weight-loss surgery, which
reduces her stomach to the size of an egg yolk
Helping hand: Surrounded by the temptations of
fast food, ice-cream stands and drive-up food windows, the women are
each other's only support as they try and stick to a healthy diet
'I hope that people realize the social stigma of being fat and how difficult it is to live and how nonconducive it is to losing weight,' the director explained to ABC News. 'The film breaks the stereotypes of culturally framing fat people as lazy, dirty and stupid.'
Ms Lescaze said she became interested in the topic when she met a woman who had undergone weight-loss surgery.
'Fat people are seen but not heard,' she explained. 'You look at them, but don't get past the fat. The reactions we are getting to the film are "Wow, these women are intelligent, funny and brave and have deep interior lives."'
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