Book Review
Title: Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke
Genre: Non-Fiction
Rating: 5 Stars
The introduction of Butts introduces us to why Heather Radke even thought to write a book on the topic and essentially it is because she had a lot of questions about butts which made her research it. From its technically correct name to the racial and sexual connotations of the butt, there is so much we don’t know about this area of our bodies since we can’t see it properly. The butt can only be viewed completely either with extreme effort or by someone else entirely which is a mind blowing thing in and of itself.
The first thing Radke looks at is the origins of the butt. Radke looks at the discovery of why humans have butts to begin with when our closest animal counterparts don’t. There are several different advantages to this uniquely human muscle including being able to run for long distances although for many years scientists believed that humans were bad at running. Radke discusses how these muscles and the ones they are connected to are extremely useful even today but muscle isn’t the only thing the butt is made up of.
Radke then looks at the purpose the amount of fat, people especially women tend to carry around their butts and it seems to serve a reproductive purpose. For women, pregnancy and breastfeeding are resource expensive on the body so the fat we store around our butts, hips and thighs is a reserve that can be used to feed children in the event we aren’t consuming enough but it doesn’t really do anything else. This leads Radke into looking why butts are attractive from an evolutional and societal perspective and the difference is striking. Radke’s writing is clear and concise while not being overly clinical which I enjoy in non-fiction.
Radke then looks at the life and legacy of Sarah Baartman, she was a Khoe woman from South Africa who coincidentally had a large butt. She was taken and used as a freak show attraction in London commonly referred to as the Hottentot Venus but beyond this she was used a reason to continue slavers citing these people are less evolved and more closely related to the great apes that European white people. Even after her death, Baartman was used to perpetuate racial stereotypes and colonialism, treated as a specimen rather than as a person. Many scientists believed that a large butt like the one Baartman possessed was a sign of hyper sexuality and women who had large butts regardless of race were often labelled as immoral.
It wasn’t until the 80’s with the help of Nelson Mandela that Baartman’s preserved remains were returned to South Africa and given proper burial rites that she has been denied for so long. However, the ideas of using physical features to determine social hierarchy gave rise to the eugenics movement. It also solidified the butt as something sexual and intrinsically linked to sexuality, feminist and beauty standards. Radke also looks through time as shows us how through the early nineteenth century butts were preferred large and fashion even reflected this with the bustle however, moving into the early twentieth century we encounter the flapper movement and a drastic shift in the opposite direction. During this time both fashion and beauty claimed a more boyish almost immature figure was the most desirable which was interesting to see.
I loved how Radke makes the point that normal while being the ideal is unattainable to most people. When we look at clothing in particular we can see this clearly, as clothes are not designed to fit correctly but to fit as many different body shapes and sizes as possible. This is because companies that creating clothing see that it isn’t financial viable to make bespoke clothing since everybody is unique. Even two people who have the exact same measurements won’t have the same distribution of fat and muscle over their bodies meaning the same clothes will fit them differently.
Due to this many brands create clothing designed to fit as many people as possible which means for most of us especially when the same clothing can fit drastically different and make us question whether our bodies are normal, when normal doesn’t actually exist. The eugenics movement drove this home, the idea of normal as they tried to create a perfectly average person but they soon realises after measuring thousands of men and women that no one exactly matched the proportion of the statues that were created, proving that this imagined normal was impossible to achieve for most people.
After looking at the racial, societal and cultural meanings of the human butt, Radke begins to look at specific people who have been sexualised or made famous through their butts. We look at musical artists like Sir Mix’s-A-Lot and Beyoncé who through their songs Baby Got Back and Bootylicious both brought butts into a positive and began to redefine the normal appearance of butts and how they were seen by the masses. Radke then looks at two people in particular known for their behinds and will be forever associated with butts, J-Lo and Kim K. These two women are widely known for their butts and Kim K had made a fortune off hers again redefining the boundaries of feminist and attractiveness which has been a common theme through the 20th and 21st century but now rather than coming from a male gaze the change is coming from the women attached to those butts.
Overall, Butts was actually a really interesting read that looks at the sexual, cultural, racial and societal views on the butt and how it has changed through time. The audiobook was also great and not that long if you’re looking for a quick and informative read on a rarely talked about topic.
Buy it here:
Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com
Comments