Heather RadkeBesprekingen

Butts - A Backstory by Heather Radke is just that; a history of butts, bottoms, bums and backsides. Heather Radke is an essayist and journalist and makes it clear early on that this exploration will focus on her own individual interest in the topic.

Published last year, the fact this wasn't going to be a - presumably dry - dull academic offering on the topic with the occasional interesting factoid was the primary appeal.

Don't take my word for it, let's hear it from the author in her own words:
"Ultimately though, this book is an idiosyncratic one. It stems from the questions that most interest me about the butt. Questions of race, gender, control, fitness, fashion and science." Introduction

I enjoyed setting expectations aside and following Radke as she covered various changes in fashion and the perception of women's butt size across history. A large derriere was once a sign of sexual deviance or sexual appetite which ironically led to the women's fashion for bustles. (See my review of Pockets - An Intimate History of How We Keep Things Close by Hannah Carlson for more on bustles.)

All that aside, I was very shocked to discover:

"In the early nineteenth century, there was a new mania for butts spreading through the British capital. Londoners were obsessed with butts. There were fart clubs where people gathered and drank different juices to see what sounds and odours they would produce." Chapter Life

Really? I wonder how prevalent this was. Black female bodies and sexuality were discussed and those who know their history won't be surprised to learn this included the case of Sarah Baartman. In the past, the butt had become a proxy for female genitalia, but like all fashion, the tides eventually turned.

After WWI, the art deco movement emerged which accompanied a significant change in women's beauty. After the lean war years of food rationing, women with curves were no longer desired and instead the flapper trend was born. Corsets and foundation garments were out and flappers were all about lean lines, straight sleeveless dresses with minimal bust or backside.

In France at around the same time was the dancing sensation Josephine Baker. Unfamiliar with her stardom and infamous banana dance - and putting this audiobook aside to watch it - I was struck by how similar the banana dance is to the provocative dance styles, hip shaking and twerking we saw emerging in the 1980s and 1990s and still today. Don't believe me? Check it out.

In the 1930s, women had difficulty buying clothing that fit off the rack due to a lack of a regulated and uniform sizing system. A study sent government employed measurers in multiple US states to measure the girth, length and height of the American woman. Later a statue of a man and a woman was created that were said to represent the average American - despite only white women being measured - and were named Norma and Normman. Radke takes the time to point out that the Norma statue doesn't have a thigh gap and how ridiculous the ideal of having a thigh gap is.

Moving on, in the 1980s Jane Fonda kicked off the aerobics craze and the infamous Buns of Steel movement. Prior to this, women didn't often work out as athletic bodies weren't considered attractive. Then Jane Fonda arrived and the rest is history. Just as Jane Fonda changed how women - and men - saw their bodies, more recent changes and influences were also included.

I greatly enjoyed learning about the influence Jennifer Lopez, Beyonce and Kim Kardashian had in popularising the return of bootylicious curves, which were a response to the 'heroin chic' look of Kate Moss. Entire chapters were devoted to Jane Fonda, Beyonce, Kate Moss, Jennifer Lopez, Kim Kardashian and Miley Cyrus and an entire chapter dedicated to the Twerk. My favourite chapter focussed on the work and opinions of Sir Mix-a-Lot and 'that' song Baby Got Back. ("Look at that butt Becky").

Those looking for commentary on butt lifts, butt implants and the BBL won't find any plastic surgery content here. Knowing in advance Radke was going to be following her interests, I can only assume this aspect of butt enhancement wasn't as engaging as the other topics.

Butts - A Backstory by Heather Radke primarily focusses on the female butt while covering a range of interesting topics: science, eugenics, fashion, history, music, celebrity culture, race, sexuality and female empowerment.

Highly recommended.

Road-trip audiobook!

Based on the cover, I came into this expecting a fun look at butts in pop culture, but instead it is a serious and heavy look at body image, sexism, racism, and cultural appropriation that stretches back to the dawn of mankind with the evolutionary reasons that butts exist. There's still plenty of modern pop culture, but it is all deeply analyzed for its usually negative impact on women and/or Black people.

Despite my misconception, I quickly found myself fascinated by the subject matter, and it kept me engaged for the entirety of my long drive. Good stuff.

FOR REFERENCE:

Contents:

Introduction

Origins
• Muscle
• Fat
• Feathers

Sarah
• Life
• Legacy

Shape
• Bigness
• Smallness

Norma
• Creation
• Proliferation
• Resistance

Fit
• Steel
• Joy

Bootylicious
• Kate
• Mix
• Jennifer
• Kim

Motion
• Twerk
• Miley
• The Year of the Butt
• Reclamation

Conclusion

Acknowledgments
Notes
Index

(2.5 Stars)

This book briefly (un)covers the possible evolutionary advantages and uniqueness of the human butt. Then quickly goes into the history, including racism, sexism, gender "norms" and stereotypes.

It was very interesting, but I feel like a lot of history was overlooked or left out to make sure it didn't go against the narrative the author wanted to push.

Engaging, informative, and wide-ranging. I love these types of microhistory, especially with the connections to recent culture.

The most interesting thing in this book was about the history of why women's clothes are so wonky½

This book immediately went onto The List after I ordered it for work: the combination of title, cover, and blurb being impossible to resist. And the book did not disappoint. In a series of essays, Heather Radke, explores the (feminine) butt. She starts with physiology and talks about how the butt is vital in being able to run (who knew?). She looks at the butt in fashion - exploring both the bustle in Victorian clothing and the pains of ready-made fashion which means no one's butt every truly fits well in a pair of pants. She also repeatedly engages with the intertwining of race and the perception of the female backside in multiple essays that are illuminating, enraging, and occasionally heartbreaking. There's also plenty of engagement with the butt in pop culture from J-Lo's butt to Baby's Got Back. I have been pushing this book at everyone I know since I finished it and if I'd borrowed it from my work library it would have gone back with a Staff Picks sticker. Highly recommended.

Like most nonfiction books, some chapters are interesting and some are boring. The Garment Industry’s sizing chapter was a bore for me, yet my brain decided to retain this chapter and not much else. Whoo knows?

This book wasn’t sure what it wanted to be. It certainly was not all about butts and it certainly wasn’t any sort of history of butts. It started good and on point, but a little less than halfway through it went off on personal stories that had nothing to do with butts, it took a turn to look at the exercise industry in general (she mentioned butts once in a whole section on Jane Fonda), and it seemed to focus a lot on modern stories like Miley Cyrus, Kim Kardashian, and Jennifer Lopez - which if you haven’t lived under a rock, you already knew about. I generally would call myself a feminist, but when she tried to assert that aerobics classes are trying to teach women to be submissive because you are supposed to do all the moves the instructor does, it went a little too far even for me. I think the author has a lot of self image issues and has dealt with a lot of difficulties due to her gender and identity, which I can empathize with, so a lot of that comes out in the book, which is fine if I’m reading a memoir, but it’s just not what I was expecting in a history of butts. I was expecting an entertaining history of butts, this was not that.½

I had heard this was good, but didn't have expectations beyond a funny and informative book. This reminded me of a much more digestible version of Fearing the Black Body. Its focus is definitely more on female bodies as a whole rather than butts specifically. And given everything that white cultures have ever enjoyed seems to be appropriated from Black culture, that plays heavily into the narrative of this book.

As the author states early in the book, the butt (especially that of a female) is one of the few parts of the anatomy that carries more meaning and weight beyond just it’s physicality.

Starting in the 1800s and moving to the present, this fun and interesting book looks at how western society has viewed and changed its views on the female butt.