All language subtitles for Big Girls Wanted Escaping Pearadise S01E01 The Mirage 1080p AMZN WEB-DL DDP2 0 H 264-RAWR[EZTVx.to]

As a photojournalist,

I love a good story.

I'm behind a lens.

I get to explore something
within myself.

I work regularly
for "The Washington Post,"

"The Wall Street Journal,"
"The New York Times,"

but the stories are not
about women who look like me.

As a fat woman, there is a way
that the world treats you.

This is something that
I have been told was shameful

since I was eight years old.

One day, early 2020,
I was scrolling on TikTok.

I saw a video of this guy.

He holds up a pair
of bathing suit bottoms,

and he says,
"If you can fit in these,

I want you in my pool."

Fascinated.
It was called Pearadise.

It's like, back-roll
Disney World,

This body-positive, safe space
where you can be yourself,

you can be comfortable.

And I had never seen
anything like that.

Hey, you.
Party at Pearadise.

It's run by a man
named Stefan Wilhelmy.

He's living in this mansion
in Vegas.

And he really loves
plus-size women.

Everybody deserves to be
treated with respect.

That is what Pearadise is about.

I wanted to go there.
I wanted to document it.

And I also wanted
to experience it, too.

You never know what's going on

inside somebody's house
'til you're in there.

When it was good,
it was [bleep] great.

Woo!

But you're giving up a lot
to engage in the sisterhood.

Pearadise was being
advertised as a safe space,

but it never was.

I've seen it firsthand.

That guy loves to watch
big girls eat.

Even if you're 500 pounds,

you're still not
big enough for him.

He's easing you
into his fetish.

Stick it in your mouth.

It's dangerous.

You need to be careful.
Like, it can kill you.

He's selling a fantasy.

"You'll be loved here.

You'll be worshiped
like a goddess."

But they don't tell you
the price that you pay.

As a photojournalist,
I love intimacy,

I crave it in my photos.

The important thing to me
to really capture was

moments that just defined what
Pearadise was, like right here.

My name is Emily Kask.

I'm 31 years old, and I am
a freelance photojournalist

who documented Pearadise.

When you're on TikTok,
if you're a plus-size woman,

Stefan's videos will start
popping up.

Over the course of 2020,
I'd get the notification

on my phone that
Pearadise is live.

It's like, "Oh,
my soap is on," you know?

Well, hello.
Hi, hi, hi.

I like pear-shaped girls,
and I live in Paradise, Nevada.

So I came up with Pearadise.

All the videos are
of these bigger women

just having fun together.

I had no fat friends
growing up.

Like super heroine chic era

where everyone was thin
as a rail.

And there was a long time
that I felt really

ashamed of my body.

Over the past few years,
the body positivity movement

really helped me start to feel
comfortable in my skin again.

This is OK.
This is OK.

This is OK.

I started following
all these plus-size influencers,

and I got to see these women
who were my size,

and they're doing
all these incredible things.

Instagram, TikTok,
social media in general.

We got to see people swapping
tips and tricks about how

to feel more confident
in your body.

Yeah!

It was a call to action
saying, "Stop hiding,

wear what you wanna wear,
life is too short."

Can you please show me
how amazing you look today?

The body-positive movement
changed a lot of people's lives.

- Tess Holliday...
- Myself included.

...she's at the forefront
of the body-positive movement,

has been credited
with transforming

the modeling world.

It was millions and millions
of people on social media

sharing our experiences
across the world to shed light

on some of the stigmas that
plus-size folks face.

Hello, my little dreamers.

There's a magnet
effect for these women

who's been told their body
isn't desired or wanted.

Finding a space of community is
really self-esteem building.

I messaged Stefan.
I said, "This is who I am.

"I wanna meet y'all.

I wanna photograph."
He responded back instantly.

And by the end of the week,
I was on my way to Vegas.

I roughly planned on being
there for about a month.

The end goal always seemed

like, "how do I get this story
in 'The New York Times'?"

But that was the goal
that I would tell people.

The real goal is just to see
inside this house

where I was the beauty standard.

I'm 10 minutes away
from the house right now.

I'm not really worried that
the girls are gonna like me.

I think we're gonna get along.

I'm a little nervous about
this, like, dude, though.

When I walked into the house
for the first time,

He introduced me,

and I was just another
fat girl in that moment.

And that in itself was
a little shocking,

but it was, like, liberating.

I knew that I looked like them,
but these women were

just really open
and really did accept me.

The person who stood out to me
the most was Kass.

What is going on?

There was something
really magnetic about her.

Can you give us a house tour?
I can give you a Kass tour.

Kass really loved Stefan.

Him and Kass were
in a committed relationship,

and they got along really well.

Kass helped build the following
of Pearadise on social media.

Give yourself a compliment,

and eventually you start
believing it.

People really liked
what she was putting out

on the internet.

Women were starting to see
the house and visit.

I don't know who needs to hear
this message today,

but here you go.

Sis,

quit waiting to live
your life until you're skinny.

Live your life today.

I looked at Kass and saw
someone who I wanted

to learn from.

By the way, the brunette
loves the blonde.

- Oh, my God.
- Just gonna put that
out there.

Oh, my God.

- Just gonna...
- I love you too.

Late one night, we were up,
and she was like,

"Nobody tells you
that you're pretty, huh?"

And I was like,
"They'll tell me I have,

like, a pretty face."

She's like,
"No, you're beautiful."

And I just...

Nobody had ever said that to me
in such earnestness before.

As a woman, you can do
more things in the world

if you know that somebody feels
that way about you, you know?

I mean, at the end of the day,
everybody just wants to feel

heard and loved and seen.

And that's a lot of
what happens in Pearadise.

We're our own utopia.

It's crazy to say it like that,
but that's what it is.

You don't have to hide
who you are.

We are the body
positivity community.

I am an SSBBW, which means
Super Size Big Beautiful Woman.

I was bullied 24/7
for being a fat girl.

I didn't finish school
because of it.

That's why a place
like Pearadise feels

like a paradise.

Plus-size people should
have a place where they can come

and not worry about what
they're wearing.

Stefan, that man
is everything.

He gave me somewhere
to call home, and I love it.

I'm never leaving.

He can't get rid of me.

He genuinely loves women.

Our bodies are celebrated

in a way that a lot of people
don't understand.

Stefan is Pearadise.

He is the reason that
we all have it.

Come meet Stefan.
Come meet me.

Come meet the girls.
Come to Pearadise.

♪ Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you ♪

During the course
of my stay there,

it became very clear to me
who the main players were.

Stefan would refer
to the people who were there

frequently as the inner circle.

There were certain roles
that people took on,

and Heather was like
the Kris Jenner of the house.

Hey.

My name is Heather Edmonds,

and I was at Pearadise
for three years.

I was definitely part
of the inner circle.

When you live in the house,

you are expected to take
on responsibilities.

I haven't eaten
properly in days.

He will expect you to clean.

He will expect you to cook.

He will expect you
to order groceries.

He'll have you fold boxes
and label boxes

to help him
with his business.

There was a herd mentality
that we all had.

You do your part.

You do what's needed
as a collective.

- You're cooking.
- I'm crooked.

You're cooking.

There we go.
Hi, Sue.

I'm making bacon.

He would put us on camera
doing videos

for the Pearadise TikTok.

Those drew people in.

And it absolutely exploded.

We're getting kind of close.

Stefan and the other women
have gained mass following.

Keep going,
keep it going, keep it going.

Because of that house.

Here's the link.
Come to our Discord.

The link is in the bio.

Stefan is posting the women
from pretty much the minute

he wakes up to the minute
that he goes to bed.

You have people that started
questioning what he's doing

for his own
personal satisfaction.

This man has created a farm
of fat ladies.

The name Pearadise is
a red flag.

Pearadise was constantly
described as a cult.

It appears that we may have
a BBW cult on our hands.

Like, all these enormous women
hanging out with this one,

like, sort of skinny,
rich dude in a compound.

That's a [bleep] cult, mate.

We call it the Pearadise effect.

That people don't wanna leave.

- Are you ready?
- Yep.

No, absolutely not.

Like, I couldn't be
a cult leader if I wanted to.

Manipulating people is
not my thing.

Welcome to Pearadise!

Hey, my name is Stefan,

and I'm just a normal guy.

You know, that's my tagline
on Instagram.

I created Pearadise.

My ideal type has always been
very tall and very big.

She would be six foot or taller,

and she would definitely
be 500 plus.

What'd she say?

Hey, we're putting food
in that.

Part of my mission
with Pearadise is

to teach people
it is completely normal

and completely acceptable

to have an attraction
to plus-size women.

You know the song, "I like
big butts and I cannot lie."

It literally just is there.

Or Motto Motto, ♪ I like 'em
round, I like 'em chunky ♪

You guys ready
for a swimsuit check?

Hell yeah!

Yes, we got one,
the next one right here.

Like, basically go
all in a row.

Like ducks in a row.

Everybody, everybody,
everybody, yes.

Pearadise is a place
of acceptance and love

for plus-size people to visit.

Three, two, one, walk.

Yes, keep going, keep going.

We have six bedrooms.

I always tell people, like,
you know, "Send me a DM.

Get in contact with me,
tell me about yourself,"

because it's not
an open invite.

- Your turn, Stefan.
- All right, let's see if we get

another 16 million views, right?

plus-size people in a swimsuit
can let loose

without ever feeling judged.

Can't do that
at a public beach, sadly.

The privacy that we have
makes Pearadise paradise,

that you can...

be yourself

and not feel watched.

People love to compare me
to, like, Hugh Hefner

of plus-size women.

I kind of, like,
don't really wanna be.

I want to be unique.

This is Stefan.
This is Pearadise.

I'm originally from Berlin.

Growing up in Germany,
my mom was a home Ec teacher,

so my parents are health nuts.

I was interested in
plus-size women before,

and when I brought one home,
I immediately got judged.

It was one of the reasons why
I moved out when I did.

America just fit and worked,
and it was just

the land of the free

where there's big,
beautiful women everywhere.

2004, I came here
with two suitcases

and started a new life.

All right, so,
this right here

is the chip that I invented.

I invented a piece
of electronics

for high-end convertibles that
allows you to put the top

up and down while
you're driving,

and I sell it
directly and worldwide.

This right here

was my ticket to freedom.

I lived in that house
all by myself.

It's like American dream.

In 2020, when COVID happened
and everything got locked down,

I went on TikTok and just put
myself out there.

I said, "Hey, guys, I'm Stefan,
and I like plus-size women."

Three days later,
I had 1,000 followers.

10 days later,
I had 5,000 followers.

Within a month or so,
I started inviting people over.

Swimsuit change!

And we made so many videos.

I never really had
financial interest in it.

Like, I don't benefit from it
other than making people happy.

Stefan finds a lot of purpose
in creating this space.

And he definitely had the most
plus-size-friendly house

that I've ever seen.

He had these lawn chairs
that could hold

several hundred pounds.

There was ramps coming
into the pool.

The beds were like
extra sturdy.

So he really did want everyone
to feel welcome.

This is our Pearadise
living room.

Cooking central,

because there's always
good food in this house.

Everybody here loves to cook.

There are girls living
in his house,

and there were people
who come visit.

They'll fly in,
and they'll stay

for a couple days, a week,
and then they'll go home.

A lot of locals would come by.

They will spend nights sometimes
in one of the empty bedrooms.

Ivy lived locally, and she was
there probably every day.

Oh, damn!
Now there's an Ivy in my spot.

- That sucks.
- That was
pretty comfortable.

My name is Ivy,

and I was there basically
every day for several months.

The first time I saw Pearadise,
I was like, "Damn,

that looks like fun."

- There's a request
for your makeup.
- Hi.

I went overboard,
but it's cool.

The community, it was
almost magical.

- You're my new best friend.
- Honestly, I'm down.

Here are all these other women

who not only like me
for who I am,

but see me for who I am,
not what I look like.

Pearadise gave me
the sisterhood that I needed.

It was pretty obvious that
he was very interested in me.

I do like attention,
and I was eaten up.

Stefan is physically attracted
to a plus-size body.

Well, right here.

I wanna feel loved.
I wanna feel desired.

And that's not something
that happens very often

to a fat girl.

You might be led to believe
that this is your only chance.

If you don't think that
you deserve better,

you're gonna settle
for something less.

The scale, arch enemy
of most people,

especially plus-size,

is a common household item here
that nobody is afraid of.

And people regularly just
step on it just for fun.

And they make
their own decisions

if they're happy
with the number or not.

The first night that
I went to the house,

he asked me to stand
on the scale in front of him.

He was very slick about the way
that he asked me.

He said normally he can
like pinpoint

within five to 10 pounds
of how much

somebody weighs just
by looking at them.

With Stefan, it felt
incredibly comfortable

when I probably wouldn't have
even stood on a scale

in front of my ex boyfriend who
I had been with for 10 years.

The scale will go
to about 700 pounds.

It was just so commonplace.

They would weigh themselves,
and he would be like,

"Oh, you gained five pounds!"
And there was a bit of joy.

Stefan would, like, run in
with the camera and be like,

"Well, how much do you weigh?"

Like, out of nowhere,
Stefan just appeared.

Ooh!
489.

I win.
I win.

He says, "This is just
a body positive space

and I just love fat women
and it's totally innocent"

when it's totally not.

At Pearadise,

I remember feeling
so viscerally uncomfortable

with having a camera
right in my [bleep] face

as I'm just trying to eat.

Mm. Look at all
this deliciousness.

That's part of his fetish,

knowing what I know now,
he's what's called a feeder.

He gets off sexually

on watching people eat
and gain weight.

We are getting ready
to approach Las Vegas Boulevard.

One of his favorite places
to take everybody at night.

If you come to Pearadise,
it's always the same routine.

He's gonna drive them down
the street at some point,

probably take them
to Heart Attack Grill.

Are you ready to break
the Pearadise house record?

- For what?
- For burgers.

I'm Nurse Ricky,
I'll be taking you home.

We have nothing green.

No lettuce, no pickles,
no relish.

It's healthy,
and we don't like it.

I mean, it doesn't get
any more American

and any more Vegas than this.

Going to the Heart Attack Grill
is like, it's a show.

You step on that scale
in front of everybody.

If you're over 350,
they ring a cowbell,

and you get free food.

Looks like everybody
is eating for free!

- Besides you.
- I know.

I'm used to that, though.

People love to see people eat.

It's a phenomenon.

We can see the viewer numbers
spike up.

It's double the viewers.

Stick it in your mouth.

The Heart Attack Grill,
its feederism content.

Stick it all in there, Sarah.

Oh, my God!
Why do you put it on me,

without telling me?

We're all Heart Attack Grill!

There are so many TikToks
of them going and weighing

themselves outside
of the restaurant.

Come on, girl.

Get on the scale.

- 2,642.
- Oh, my God.

If you're someone who's
turned on by feederism,

You're tiny, you're tiny.

you have an arousal that's tied
to watching other people

consume food

and or have their body
change as a result.

And that's where you might see
the social media account

or a TikTok dedicated
to the eroticization of food.

For someone who has a really
traumatized relationship

to their body or food,
there's a powerful draw

to finding someone who
actually says to you,

"I'm turned on and enjoying
watching you eat."

At Pearadise, he's easing you
into his fetish.

When I was at the house,
he introduced me to Feabie

pretty quickly on

and was like, "You could have
people buy you food."

And I was like,
"OK.

I don't know how I feel
about it."

Feabie is a fetish website
for feeders and feedees,

so people who like to watch
people eat

and watch people gain weight,

and people who they themselves
like to eat and gain weight.

Women would be on these fetish
websites, dating websites.

They would post videos
of themselves eating.

I get really self-conscious
about eating in front of people

personally, so I'm not
into that.

It felt like a lot of the people
who were into it, like Stefan,

they don't really see
fat women as people.

They see them
as sexual objects.

Feederism can be deadly.

You need to be careful.

Like, it can kill you.

People come and they use
the word feeder as a negative.

Yes, there's health concerns.
Absolutely.

But I always found
it interesting.

Keep coming that thing.
You've got this.

Because one thing I cannot
lie about is, like,

I like big girls,
so why wouldn't I like

a big girl to voluntarily
want to gain some weight?

Like, I would never say
no to that.

Yeah, like, curiosity is
what kills the cat.

But, like, you know, I...yeah.

I try everything.

Technically, between
two consenting adults,

they can do anything.

Hi!
It's my place.

The real Pearadise is what's
happening live at the house

real time,
when the live streams are off.

Thank you guys for watching.
I'm gonna have to--

I'm gonna have to get off
of live because, um...

you know how it is.

The live stream turns off
once it's hot-tub time.

It takes a lot to surprise me.

One night, I remember standing
in that pool room...

and seeing everyone take
their clothes off.

And that little voice came
in the back of my head

and I said,

"Well, shit, they get naked,
I get naked too."

A lot of the photos that I took,

I'm clearly inside the pool.

That's my bathing suit top
right there.

I was the second oldest woman
in the house.

These women are young.

If you are naive,
maybe you lived in a small town

your whole life,
you don't understand

what's being presented
on social media

is not the whole story.

For the young girls who are
coming in that don't really

have a lot of experience,

you learn quite a bit
when you come to Pearadise.

I was 19 or 20,

and I joined
the Pearadise Discord.

My name is Savy,

and I'm a survivor
of the Pearadise House.

On the Discord,
I flirted with Stefan.

He told me that I'm his type.

Nobody's ever said this
to me before.

I decided to plan this trip
to go to Vegas.

Right before I went,
I told him,

"Hey, I don't want there to be
any expectations.

"I'm not really the type
of person to, like,

give my body up to anybody."

That's the rough part
of being a big girl

is people think
you're desperate.

The first night, we get
into the pool,

and I take my swimsuit off
under the water.

And next thing I know,

he's taking a picture
of everybody.

All in the name
of body positivity, right?

And then I was lying
on the couch

in the living room.

Unprovoked, he just comes up
and kind of grabs my butt.

But I remember laying there,
just being like,

"Oh, this doesn't--
this doesn't keep going."

The whole time, Stefan was
pushing my boundaries,

chipping away at them.

Any opportunity he could,
he was touching somebody.

I was laying down on the bed
in my room,

and he just comes in
and sits on the bed next to me,

doesn't really say anything.

Stefan lifts up my shirt

and just, like, grabbed
my stomach.

Kind of just like
nervously laughed.

I was afraid that it would
lead to something else.

What if he gets up
and closes the door?

Now I don't feel safe,
like, at all.

After I told him he was
making me uncomfortable,

he kind of stopped.

But it all seemed like
he was mad at me after that,

like he didn't want me
there anymore.

Stefan is many things.

He is a very brilliant mind.

He's also a piece of shit.

If you're in his house,

you kind of have
to let him grab you.

For me specifically,
do not touch my belly.

Do not [bleep] touch my belly.

The little meat right here.
Little belly meat.

With social media,

a lot of people are eroticized.

There are sometimes parts
of our bodies that carry

a lot of shame.

And to have that area
seen or touched

can really put us
in a trauma response.

It's not an innocent touch.

It's the same as somebody
grabbing your boobs.

He is sexually gratified
from it, and that's a problem.

Existing as a bigger person,

people react to you
in one of three ways.

They will shame you,

they will sexualize you

or they will ignore
your existence entirely.

And there is very
rarely an in-between.

I was 25, 26,

and I believe at the time,
Stefan was like 43, 44.

It was the very first night
I was there.

One of the other girls pointed
at me and said,

"She should be worried
because she's his type."

Everybody took their clothes
off and got in the pool.

There was definitely
a sense of like,

"If you don't want to be here,
you can go home."

But not removing his hands
from me at all.

And it felt very like,

"I'm gonna continue to do
what I want to you anyway."

Having sex with Stefan
wasn't required,

but it felt like
an unspoken rule.

When I was there,
he had romantic or physical

encounters with many
of the women in the house.

As far as I know, I was
the only woman in the house

at that time who was not having
a relationship with Stefan.

We all wanna fit in.

And so, if everyone
around you is telling you

to drink that Kool Aid,

it's gonna be something that's
really hard to push back on.

Stefan wants a harem
of fat women

that he can pick and choose
from on a day-to-day basis.

He felt very entitled
to people that would

stay in his house.

He sees it as loyalty.

My name is Pao,

and I am Kass' best friend.

Stefan would always talk
about this kind of

sister-wife situation.

Kass, she was embracing it,
but it definitely was not

the dynamic that she wanted.

Kass loves Stefan so much.

She would have done anything
for him, for sure.

He knew that.

And seeing the way
that Stefan treats people,

it was very clear to me
the level of manipulation

that happens is
out of this world.

There's a lot of conditioning,
and there's so much going on.

You have that feeling of, like,

"Right now, I can't say no."

At Pearadise, he basically had
all the women in the house

wrapped around his finger.

Despite him doing what he did,

I was scared of
hurting his feelings.

I was scared of making
everybody else

feel uncomfortable
because I was upset.

After I left the house,

I had to decompress.

I was just thinking, like,
"I'm not the only person

he's done this to."

And then I saw a video saying
that Pearadise isn't safe.

I'm gonna just rip
this bandaid off.

Pearadise is not
a safe and positive place.

That's literally
like her punchline.

All the videos I ever see seem
to be fetishizing bigger girls.

The friends said,

"I think you should
tell that girl your story."

You do not owe any man

who makes you
uncomfortable anything.

And I am done being nice.

Done.
Be afraid.

I've never hated
anyone in my life.

But I physically cannot
stomach this man.

My name is Kimmi Hauder.
I'm 38.

I used to go by Piggy Stardust
when I was a content creator.

I had about 30,000 followers.

So the first time I saw
Pearadise was on TikTok.

Stefan was constantly getting
a lot of hate,

just because he supported
plus-size people.

And I felt really bad for him.
And so I jumped in.

I even made a video
in support of Pearadise.

It's just like a, "Hey,
we're all in this together"

type situation.

If you're watching this
and you're not Stefan,

please go follow him.
He's [bleep] awesome.

My heart breaks for him
right now 'cause he just--

And I joined the Discord
to make friends

with other plus-size girls.

Go follow him, go tappity-tap
that love on his page.

I wanted to be included
in the community.

The issue for me really became
the fact that he was

begging women to come
to his private house.

There's no safety or guide
rails for that situation.

I realized, "Hey, guess what?
I was wrong."

I'm gonna just rip
this bandaid off.

BBW Pearadise is not
a safe and positive place.

This was just going off my gut
and wanting to fix

what I thought that
I had done wrong.

And then women were coming out
in my comments about how

they felt validated that
someone with a plus-size

community was finally
speaking out about this guy.

There's so much I can't say,
but he's not a good guy.

What really shocked me was
instantly having the validation

that my gut instinct was right.

Savy told me that they were
touched without consent.

I think it took
a lot of courage.

And so my first
real question was,

"What do you want me to do?"

I'm so thankful
for these strong women.

They need to be heard.

I was just gonna be quiet

until I talked to Kimmi.

And Kimmi's like, "I'll be
in your corner

no matter what happens."

I said, "Full speed ahead.

Talk."

Stefan, you barked up
the wrong [bleep] tree.

You have sexually
assaulted people.

I am done being nice.

Done.
Be afraid.

I remember being in the office

with Stefan and Kass and Heather

when he watched Piggy's video
for the first time.

My journalist instincts just
kicked in immediately,

and then I was like,
"I have to document this."

It can.

What do I [bleep] do right now?

What the [bleep] do I do?

The vibe in the house
absolutely shifted,

and it went into a dark spot

that I had not witnessed
my entire time there.

There became a witch hunt
to figure out who this woman is.

You need to go
after this girl.

The main objective was
to shut it down.

Hello, everybody.

There are a few individuals that
are publishing false

and defamatory information
about me,

and are alleging very egregious
false allegations about me.

It was like a whole world
collapsing to me.

Things that were said about me
that I absolutely despise.

I was literally just here
sitting like,

"What the [bleep]
is happening?

This can't be real."

I want to state
with 100% clarity

that the accusation
of sexual assault is

absolutely false.

And that was only the beginning.

There was no consent.
We were sexually assaulted.

Stefan is lying.

No one deserves to feel
that way.

No one deserves to be
another victim to him.

I am a victim.

I'm telling my story now.

Eventually you will
get caught.

This man is going to go down

and I will be the last person

to put the dirt on his grave.