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."
That Pix is the best argument yet.
BTTT!!!!
He was already here in my head.
“Big Butt”
by Bobby Jimmy And The Critters
(c)1985
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UBB4Y6VWt-g
A few people might remember this one.
I have never understood womens need to have plastic surgery to get big boobs, butts, lips, or whatever. It can’t simply be to attract men, as most men find most women attractive provided they are not morbidly obese and are breathing and shower more than once per never
Ditto.
The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin.
That’s what I said.
Have Another by Lou Monte for those who appreciate that
https://youtu.be/SRdETBa0Jaw
I Don’t Want Her You Can Have Her She’s Too Fat For Me for those who think 125 is too fat
https://youtu.be/9h-a9cvsbMM
“The bigger the cushion, the sweeter the pushin. That’s what I said.”
I love that CD.
Got to see them in concert in ‘93 at the Orpheum Theatre in downtown Minneapolis. Extremely loud - but a great concert
“our cultural obsession”
I suspect that the “our” that is obessessed with big butts and twerking is pretty much one particular ethnic group.
I honestly thought at first she was in a gray chair.
Laz? Did you get a new screen name?
Our cultural obsession?
Believe me, I long ago got over my obsession with the twerking chocolate thunder big bootie corpulent hambeasts.
In fact, I never had one.
“Does my big butt make me look fat?”
No, the extra 150 lbs of fat you carry around makes you look fat.
ps: no Stacey Abrams jokes yet?
Chubby Chaser?
i guess fitted means stretched in britspeak...
I don’t seem to have a problem with this obsession and happy to let others have the fat butts due to my considerate and sacrificing nature
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.