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."
“butts became a sort of lens through which you can see the world”
So, she’s a democrat, they’ve all got their heads up their butts.
killer curves may be spell check for Killer Whale?
Cruising Broadway and my wheels spin slow
Rolling with your posse is the only way to go
The girlies by the college was looking for a ride
We tried to pick em up but we had no room inside
We put em on the trunk we put em on the hood
Some sat up with the driver they made him feel good
The posse’s getting bigger, there’s much too many freaks
My muffler is dragging, my suspension’s getting weak
Now the freaks are getting hungry & Mix-a-Lot’s treatin’
We stopped at Taco Bell for some Mexican eatin’
But Taco Bell was closed the girls was on my tip
They said, “Go back the other way we’ll stop and eat at Dick’s”
Dick’s is the place were the cool hang out
The swass like to play and the rich flaunt clout
Posse to the burger stand so big we walk in twos
We’re getting dirty looks from those other sucker crews
Kid Sensation dropped a 20 and didn’t even miss it
Her boyfriend’s illin, he went to slap her face
My homeboy PLB cold sprayed the boy with mace
Cause I never liked a punk who beat up on his girl
If you don’t have game then let her leave your world
We took his girl with us
With him she rode the bus
She gave the boy the finger and the sucker starts to cuss
Boy I got a def posse you got a bunch a dudes
You’re broke cold crying about the rock man blues
Ya beat up on your girl and now your all upset
She’s with the Mix-a-Lot posse on the Broadway set
LOLOL!!!
If that’s what you want to call it. I like my women with meat on their bones. Don’t want folds just curves. Ashley Graham not Kate Moss.
When I said that your bustle
Was cute as could be
You said Darlin, that’s no bustle,
That’s me
Homer & Jethro - “Let Me Go Blubber”
This is a profound cultural thing; I find big butts to be a turn off.
Not mine either. Don’t like the toothpick look, but slender and athletic is my preference. And don’t get me started on trout lips and artificial eyebrows! YUCK!
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.