Peter Stringfellow caused outrage when he banned fat women from his glitzy London nightclub. What message does this send to women everywhere? Gemma Simms reports... Tamar Altman weighs 100 kilos (220lb) and people have made fun of her size since she was five.

The 57-year-old glass painting artist, from Great Milton, tried various diets from the age of 11, after getting sick of all the cruel jibes from school kids.

Even as an adult she could rarely walk down the street without someone stopping to stare or laugh at her.

"We want size discrimination to come under the same kind of legislation as race. People are fat for many different reasons and are not just sitting at home stuffing their face with cream cakes - I don't even like cream cakes," said Tamar, who is a size 22 to 24 and 5ft 6in tall.

The pressure on her to be slim was enormous, she was given tablets, injections, anything to make her lose the pounds. Now she is furious with nightclub owner Peter Stringfellow, who is featured on tonight's new series Club Culture. Last year he decided to ban fat women from his glitzy London club, Stringfellows.

Tamar says he is putting unnecessary pressure on women to be slim following his ban. "He is an insecure, insignificant little twerp and a sad person but I am concerned about how what he has said will affect the public.

"The psychological damage that bullying can do to a person for being the wrong size can stay with them all their lives. It affects the whole psychology," she said. Peter Stringfellow, who claims to have had more than 2,000 lovers, said following his decision to ban fat women: "What's the point in going to a nice place if it's not surrounded by nice people that you want to look at?"

But his casual comment has angered Tamar and she is worried that young girls will become obsessed with their weight.

"When Stringfellow opens his mouth and says something like that, it encourages bullying. I think it's a very serious issue and he is causing pain to a lot of people. It's outrageous. "I say a person lives in the body they live in and people can look attractive whatever their size. People have turned away from me in the past but I'm afraid they've missed out on an interesting person."

Tamar's husband Raphael, 54, has known her for 36 years. They have two grown-up children together and are very much in love.

Raphael said: "We have a 31-year-old romance because of the person Tamar is. There's a tyranny among men to conform to a particular taste among women.

"There are men and boys who find it difficult to find larger girls attractive although some men are finding themselves able to come out more.

"The whole notion of what makes a woman sexy is not simply down to what she looks like. A woman's sexual appeal has much more to do with attitude to sex and there is something sensual about lying with a soft body that is satisfying." He said that people tend to assume people over 50 no longer have a sex life, especially people who are fat and over 50. "We have had a very sexually active life from start to finish."

Tamar added: "Being fat does not necessarily mean you have to be unhealthy. Life in general would be easier if I was thin - but if you lose a leg you don't go on dreaming of being Fred Astaire." MY DAILY DIET

Despite her size, Tamar eats a healthy diet. She admits she will eat the occasional plate of chips just like anyone else but this is her average daily intake:

BREAKFAST - Two slices of Irish soda bread with smoked mackeral spread on it (she likes to eat plenty of oily fish because she suffers from arthritis), washed down with a cup of tea, coffee or fruit juice

LUNCH - Sandwich and drink with fruit. Or a spinach and cheese bake with courgettes, green beans and chicken

SUPPER - Leftover from lunchtime

Tamar also makes a lot of homemade soups and eats a lot of vegetables with fish or organic meat.

WOMEN UNITED

Peter Stringfellow's ban has raised the anger of women from many different spheres.

Paula Rogers, wife of Jeffrey Rogers, the leading fashon designer and creator of fashion label Rogers + Rogers, said: "I find this comment both astounding and insulting to all women. The implication is that unless you are the archetypal size ten female you are unattractive.

"All women are beautiful, no matter their size. If Peter Stringfellow segregates on size, what next then? Will he therefore in the future only allow minimum height women, or just blondes in his club?"

Anti-diet campaigner Mary Evans Young, who founded the Diet Breakers organisation in 1992 to help women break free of the diet mentality, also hit out.

"The truth of the matter is, the more you diet, the fatter you'll get. I would like everyone to think before they call someone fat. It's so cruel," said Mary, who lives in north Oxfordshire. BEHIND SCENES WITH THIS CHARMLESS MAN

One phrase women of generous build would never use to describe Peter Stringfellow is "that charming man", writes GEORGE FREW.

Stringfellow, King of Clubs, is the man who made headlines almost a year ago when he announced that he'd decided to ban fat females from his nightspot on the grounds that "there's no point in going to a nice place if it's not surrounded by nice people that you want to look at".

Tonight, a new Channel 5 series, Club Culture, kicks off with a look behind the scenes of the Stringfellow empire and trails him as he goes about his daily business.

He even allows the cameras to follow him to his morning appointment with his personal hairdresser. Peter Stringfellow has a personal hairdresser?

I know what you're thinking - he must be the most under-employed personal hairdresser in the country.

Discovering Stringfellow has a private individual who does his hair is like hearing that Lon Chaney had a private beautician.

The Stringfellow business plan includes wall-to-wall totty who encourage mug punters to cough up for champagne at £495 a bottle.

If you ask me, the well-built brigade are better off out of it all...

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