Posted on 12/28/2022 12:32:41 PM PST by algore
After almost a decade of our cultural obsession with twerking, peach emojis and Brazilian butt lifts, 2022 apparently marked the end of the era of the big booty.
But this cultural obsession with the derriere, both large and small, actually goes back much further than that — centuries, in fact. And it can tell us a lot about our relationship with gender, race and bodies, according to journalist Heather Radke, whose book, Butts: A Backstory, details the cultural history of the bottom.
"For me, butts became a sort of lens through which you can see the world and just kind of start to understand how we think about bodies," Radke told The Sunday Magazine host Piya Chattopadhyay.
Sarah Baartman, an 18th-century Black woman from South Africa, was "foundational to our obsession with butts," according to Radke. Nicknamed the "Hottentot Venus," she was brought to Europe and put on display for people to marvel at her large backside — at least larger than what Europeans at the time were used to. Black women and big butts started to become associated with hypersexuality.
Kim Kardashian's infamous Paper magazine cover from 2014 that "broke the internet" was compared to images of Baartman and accused by critics of culturally appropriating and sexually exploiting the Black female body.
"It shows how this really pernicious stereotype about Black women formed, and it formed in the performance halls of London," Radke said.
Bustles — padded or metal undergarments that were worn under skirts to add fullness to their backsides, popular during the Victorian era — are also thought to be inspired by Baartman's silhouette. For Radke, this propensity to turn Black women's bodies into fashion statements was an early example of what was to come throughout the next 150 years.
After the heroin chic era of the late '80s and '90s, when waif-like models like Kate Moss were upheld as the ideal, there was another cultural shift — again toward bigger butts.
This was partly due to the rise of hip hop in popular culture, says Kyra Gaunt, an ethnomusicologist and social media researcher at the University of Albany. She says that when hip hop artists started catering to a more commercialized audience in the '90s, Black women's bodies became more commonly seen in MTV music videos.
Then in 1992, Sir Mix-a-Lot released his song Baby Got Back. Although it faced some controversy at the time for its overtly sexual lyrics, it became a de facto hit, spending five weeks at the top of the Billboard Hot 100 chart and becoming the second best-selling song in the U.S. that year.
"Although it might be the year of the butt for white women or for non-Black women, actually all of the celebration of the butt hasn't really been that helpful to Black women," said Radke.
And now this new cultural shift away from big butts is just as problematic, Gaunt said.
"Women whose bodies are naturally like that are not getting rid of them. It's not a trend," said Gaunt. "That's not going to change what happens with the … Black and brown female bodies for which this is their natural inheritance."
No one wanted to appropriate the black woman hips.
the agenda was a 15 inch waist or the appearance of it.
and a bustle accentuated the waist.
I must’ve missed that whole ‘big butt’ obsession. Never considered it interesting or obsessive or attractive. Not at all. Must be some other culture, but not mine.
IT is part of the negro culture, NOT America’s.
It is inner city, most men are not attracted to monster butts attached to fat broads.
I’m not small myself but at least I don’t go around declaring myself to be beautiful because I’m fat. Maybe I can start a fad where big beer bellies are considered sexy.
I like .......oh, nevermind......................
There are anatomical differences between different races
European (white) women have hips/buttocks wider side to side
African (black) women hips/buttock are wider front to back
Anyone who thinks big (fake) knockers, fat butts, and fat lips are on the way out should go to the Daily Mail “Femail” section. Ugh. Like this headline:
“Amy Schumer shows off killer curves” (HUH??)
so some men like bubble butts and some wide loads?
I think everyone has a weird shaped body.
Particularly women. Fine differences in the skeletal structure when adding fat makes the fat hang or sit on the skeleton differently for each of these fine differences.
I have a bone deformity. I was born with birth defect HME which populates benign tumors thoughout my body, mostly on joints and my rib cage. I also have this strange form of HME that defies any body symmetry at all. Basically not a single in my body is the same left or right.
My right arm is pretty normal. My left arm is twisted. I have the same muscle tone and mass on each arm but my left bicep is remarkably smaller than my right. I can lift the same and actually hold more weight with my deformed left arm.
From the minor differences in my skeleton as I gain any weight (Accumulate fat) things look markedly different on each side.
Anyway, back to huge asses - The black woman’s skeleton is slightly different than other races. Very different from the asian skeleton. A slight amount of fat piled onto , say, a 2 mm difference in the posterior hip will result in inches of fat piling up on it.
My good friend in her 50s is an army vet. Her pics from the army she is a 5 foot tall HOTTY. After the service she packed on about 100 pounds and the poor girl is completely rotund. My ex was also an army vet at about 5’4” and 120 pounds in the service. She’s been out for the same amount of time (They actually served very close to each other, and at the same time) and gained the same weight. She gained it all over her body, not just her ass. She’s spry and lithe to this day.
She dumped me, but that’s another story for another day.
More than a mouthful is a waste!..No, wait...Never mind!
That’s Oprah-sized!
I didn’t know we were in an era of big booty. But... it’s fine with me. Why should it end?
Evidently she had liposuction.
I imagine that Heather Radke’s first dates are lots of fun.
Suitor: “What do you do for a living, Heather?”
Heather: “I study butts.”
people are generally insane.....just insane.
Meh, women with wide hips give birth easily thus reducing both infant and maternal mortality. Thigh and butt fat is directly correlated with lactation effectiveness and thus infant survival. Abdominal fat reduces fertility. Thus the male preference with pear shaped women over apples or rectangles
Amy Schumer and killer curves? No, Amy Schumer is simply an overweight pig. I don't see any curves there, just a small blimp.
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