Butts was funny, eloquent, and fascinating, all in one. A subject not often touched upon, Radke was able to balance out the actual science/history of butts without making it either too dry or too jokey. Already recommended to a few coworkers!

Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke is a look at the human fascination with butts, starting from 19th century up to modern times. It's a mix of history and research, personal anecdotes and pop culture, looking at these issues through racial and feminist viewpoints

We start with Sarah Baartman, a Khoe woman from South Africa who became better known as the “Venus Hottentot", who was brought to London and later France and displayed to Victorian audiences, who came in droves to look at her large butt. Much of the way she was treated still resonates with some more modern stereotypes, such as how Black women with big butts are seen as hypersexualised and often dehumanised

The book tracks changes in what is seen as more fashionable or in acceptable when it comes to the size of your butt. Victorians wearing bustles to enhance figures to flappers have leaner figures. Aerobics craze in the 80s, into 90s heroin chic and back to twerking in 2000s onwards. Some parts I found more interesting than the others, I enjoyed learning about Buns of Steel background and Sir Mix-a-lot's Baby Got Back history (like how MTV originally banned but had previously allowed way more sexually suggestive videos to be aired).

Overly I did enjoy it but I've read other books that have focus on a particular subject matter that have held my attention better (like books by Mary Roach). This book does get a bit repetitive towards the end and I felt like one or two points were almost completely there but just not finished or tied together in a neater way. That said it is an enjoyable book and I also partially listened to the audiobook which I enjoyed. If you liked Wordslut by Amanda Montell or are interested in fashion history, this book may appeal to you!

When you came for the cover and thought it would be an unhinged novel about butts.... Only to discover its a whole memoir-of-sorts of Butts, and surprisingly... I don't hate it.

Personal Ratings : 3.5🌟

Butts by Heather Radke is a part-memoir that goes from the creation of a Butt, its metaphors revolving around it up till the pop culture surrounding the obsession with butts in general. The sexualization that females associate with butts and how at the end, it can be somewhat a pain.

I feel that the book was interesting and somewhat, fresh. Its definitely different from what I expected and I enjoyed how it had taken me by surprise to me somewhat loving the stories that the author had related in the book. The book is not that long, and I honestly liked how its panned out in a way that seemed natural and non-preachy.

The second half of the book went a bit flat for me eventho the first half had caught me by a good surprise. Nonetheless, I still enjoyed this read in a way that is a bit informative but also showed how the obsession with the human female body had led to various cosmetic surgeries that either works or did not work at all.

Interesting take definitely. Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the e-Arc!

Came for the cover, stayed for the content! Such an interesting book and really appreciated the conversations it brought up

Read this for the cover alone!!This was one of my favorite books in a long time! The writing was beautiful, and the characters were wonderful. I couldn’t put this one down!

I really wanted to read this book when I saw it. I'm unnaturally drawn to nonfiction books on unusual topics. The investigative journalism aspect to this book reminds me of author Mary Roach. I love her writing style. Humorous but still reverent. I identify with the author in this case as a woman who has a well endowed posterior, but really doesn't understand the fascination. I applaud her efforts in seeking out cultural, scientific, and pop culture references when trying to answer the question for herself (and the reader) - "What is the fascination with butts!?"
I also came to the same conclusion - it's really up to you to decide what the human posterior means to you.

Reading Heather Radke's 'Butts' made me feel so seen. I've never read anything that so perfectly resonated with my personal relationship with my own butt and the way in which the "mainstream" white culture (of which I am a part of) has change it's views on my lower half.

The first time I became aware of my butt being "an issue" was in early middle school. One of my teachers came up to me during recess and informed me that another teacher had asked her to tell me that my uniform skirt was too short in the back. None of my friends were told similar things about their skirts. Other girls, with willowy frames, 'got away" with wearing much shorter skirts than I did with no reprimands from authority. Looking back, this is probably when my fear of wearing short skirts was first engendered. To make matters worse, I was decidedly pear shaped throughout most of my adolescent and young adult life. Even my "friends" teased me about being flatter than they were. And my butt was never something to be complimented or valued at the same level as their breasts. It wasn't until I was in my early twenties, working at a job that hired predominantly black staff that I started to view my shape as something to be praised. I could go into great detail in how the women I met there had such a profound impact on my understanding of race, how women treat each other, and the values of diversity. But, suffice it to say, the biggest gift those women gave me was the encouragement to love my body, even before my own white counterparts had decided to embrace it.

Radke chronicles the rise of white-dominated mainstream culture's acceptance of and then valuation of having a large butt. Her narrative of how this happened over the decades, through the appropriation of black and latin culture was so insightful and truly helped give defined shape to the experience I'd had in my own life. Through a lens of cultural criticism and racial equity, Radke provided me with the verbiage for feelings I hadn't been able to articulate at the time. For example, her chapter discussing Miley Cyrus's foray into twerking and the infamous MTV VMA's show that garnered much media attention finally solidified my own thoughts on the situation. At the time, the performance hadn't sat well with me, but I hadn't been able to say why. It wasn't that I begrudged Cyrus for being provocative. No, that I understood. But, in a time before racial diversity education and the concept of appropriation were widespread terms in the cultural vernacular, I didn't have the resources to understand and explain why Cyrus's actions rubbed me the wrong way.

This book is about butts, but also so much more. It was personally fulfilling to read, but also incredibly educational. At times gut-wrenching and shameful, it is important for women (especially white women) to understand where this internalized spectrum of ridicule and acceptance for butts comes from.

This was an incredibly fun non-fiction to read, the perfect book to carry around in your bag. It's a conversation starter, a laugh-out-loud-on-the-train commute/waiting room/airplane/sit-by-the-pool-and-watch-butts-walk-by kind of read. I thoroughly enjoyed it on multiple levels.

First, on content: Radke's research is well done. This is not an academic, peer reviewed piece of scholarship, but it is a well-researched, chronological and multi-disciplinary perspective on that part of our body we might often despise/regret/wish hidden/love/extoll/exhibit. Butts begins with an evolutionary explanation, a physiological treatise in what, why, and how we have butts at all and what they do for us. It then moves on into history proper, working to the present, and ending with a significant number of chapters focused on butts in the contemporary moment (Kim Kardashian and others) and in popular Western culture. [Radke is up front with the Western-centric focus of her study; this is a commentary on butts as understood in Western culture and history and is not a global study.]

Second, prose: Radke's delivery is on point for a non-academic, general audience non-fiction. The prose is smooth, hilarious in so many parts, and remains lighthearted throughout, even when the content gets heavy and educational.

Whatever you feelings and thoughts about butts, backsides, or bottoms, Butts is a great read.

Thanks to Netgalley and Avid Reader Press for the ARC of this! I borrowed the audio from my library and switched between the formats.

This was humorous and full of information with a lovely conversational tone that made it easy to read. I don’t know that I’ve ever thought so much about butts, so it definitely made me think. Overall I enjoyed reading this.

What an interesting book! This book was a history of the female butt, from its evolutionary origins, to its perception from the 19th century to today. The book tackles things like fashion and beauty standards in regards to the ideal female body type over time. It talks about how butts are represented in pop culture and in various art forms. I don't read a lot of non-fiction outside of autobiographies and memoirs, but I thoroughly enjoyed this one!

I immensely enjoyed this book - on its face, it's a fun cultural history of butts, but upon reading it, you'll see that it's a thoroughly researched account of how anti-Blackness, male sexual preferences, eugenics, and other Western ideas have shaped our hegemonic notions of what it means to be a woman. In this case, the butt is a case study for all of these topics, with Radke noting that virtually no other body part garners the same levels of awe, disgust, shame, and obsession than the butt. Radke's personal interest is in reconciling the fraught relationship she's always had with her own butt, a body part that has often brought her shame and frustration, and deconstructing the societal forces that have led us to see butts in a certain way.

Radke traces some of the major figures that have shaped public perceptions and trends in butts, whether through bigness, smallness, motion, fitness, or another lens. She looks first at Sarah Baartman, or the "Hottentot Venus," a Khoi woman from present-day South Africa who was essentially enslaved and brought to Western Europe because of her large butt. She also looks at the bustle, a 19th-century undergarment intended to give its wearer the illusion of having a big butt underneath her petticoats; "Norma," a statue made in the 1930s to approximate the normal and ideal white American woman; the thin, boyish look of the Flapper girl; Buns of Steel; Sir Mix-a-Lot; Paris Hilton; J-Lo; Beyoncé; Big Freedia; Miley Cyrus, and so many others. I truly learned so much and even learned to look at cultural figures I previously knew in a different light.

Radke's writing is deeply researched but accessible, personal, and easy to read. She talks a lot about her own body and experiences that draw the reader in while also positing excellent historical and sociological arguments that teach the reader to question and doubt ideas they might hold. I simply loved this.

A surprisingly informative book. I did not know how much history was tied to butts. I learned so much about slavery across the ages, much of which was disgustingly tragic, but still so very important.

It's also very interesting to see the evolution of humanity through the lens of the butt. I realize how crazy that sounds, but so much of a woman's value seems to be tied to the butt which is ridiculous in my opinion, but ridiculous or not, we have people who supposedly buy insurance for their butt, and others who will not eat a carb to ensure their butt does not expand an inch, and basically many whose life choices are dictated by their butt and it's mostly in the pursuit of male attention.

This was not an "easy read". Parts were very heavy and triggering. But it was definitely worth it and I will recommend it to everyone.

Excellent title, but a bit of a letdown.

I think I over-hyped this for myself. Maybe I went in with too many expectations of how I thought it would go, but I thought I'd be reading something with a touch more humour (though I think that maybe speaks more to my perhaps immature sense of humour than to the book itself.

It started out strong, thoughtful, and lighthearted (appropriately so, which was a feat considering how dark some of the historical content was). I loved the meticulous research and the clear passion the author showed on the subject! However, around the middle of the book the tone changed, and it became harder to read - slower, and a little disjointed.

If the second half had maintained the tone of the first, I think I would have enjoyed it much more. I still appreciate all the effort and the interviews in this part of the book without question! It just seemed to drag.

If you're interested in this very specific history, I recommend giving Butts: A Backstory a go! Thank you to NetGalley and Simon & Schuster for the opportunity to read an eARC in exchange for an honest review.

This a very light non-fiction book for you to read if you want to start reading more nonfiction books. Very informative, and very fun, it was a bit slow at first but I got the hang of it eventually.

As expected from the book's cover, this is fairly light but still has a lot of good information. Radke uses her personal experience as well as historical and pop culture examples to explain how we perceive butts and how what we think they should look like has changed over time - especially acknowledging her privilege as a white women and how Black women are sexualized differently. I love reading deep-dives on topics that I haven't really looked into before, and I appreciate how this tackles one specific aspect of women's bodies that has been analyzed endlessly.

No one ever really thinks about the history of butts. And honestly, it's a quite interesting. What makes them so interesting? Why are people so interested in them? How do styles and cultures dictate what is acceptable in the sizing and shaping of them? Radke answers these questions and more, with a historical and social lens that focuses on our backsides. The information presented was informative, interesting and at time quite entertaining. From early fascination with butts and people trying to link the size to intelligence, to the sexualization and acceptance (for some people and not others), I thought this was an intriguing read. The personal anecdotes, historical research and the ever changing politicization of butts, this was interesting book from start to finish.

What a cheeky cover! BUTTS is a historical, sociological and cultural history of the backside - specifically female ones within Western societies. In particular, this book focuses a lot on the racial lens by which we value (and evaluate) the butt.

Radke covers a wide range of topics - from how pants sizing works (the most interesting section), bustles, the cruel fascinating with Sarah Baartman in 1800s Europe, famous 21st century celebrity butts (think JLo, Kim K), and twerking.

While I blazed through this book - it’s super readable for an academic analysis - I have to admit that I was a little bit bored with the subject matter, especially in the second half of the book. I just don’t think the chapter organization and storyline for the contemporary analysis was done as well as the historical sections. I do appreciate/value all of Radke’s racial commentary, and she had some really good points - but I can’t say this book will stay with me long term.

I voluntarily obtained an ebook version of this graphic novel free from Netgalley and Simon & Schuster in exchange for an honest review!

3.5/5 ⭐️

Heather Radke starts off slow in this her-story of butts but pulls in the readers around chapter three. The feminist perspective of backsides has been long overdue so this book is a hot take. It will be the next book club pick for many, I believe. The author takes readers from drag attire to Victorian fashion and back to modern culture. There are devoted sections to specific humans such as Miley Cyrus and the Kardashian's. I've been recommending this book to all the non-fiction readers around me.

Butts: A Backstory is a comprehensive and engaging look at the evolution of Western beauty standards about butts. Heather Radke’s own perspective is so relatable - especially the struggle to find a well fitting pair of jeans (which she compares to trying to fit into the template of someone else’s body). This book looks at the history of how the beauty standards of the butt have ebbed and flowed over time, from the coerced performances of Sarah Baartman, to the later heroin chic ideal of the 90s, to the Brazillian butt lifts of more recent years, each in its context of gender and race. Radke’s book is both serious and humorous, when appropriate.

Thanks to NetGalley and Avid Reader Press for the eARC in exchange for an honest review.

Such a wide breadth of information presented with wit, relevance, and clarity. Learned so much! I've recommended this to lots of people already.