As someone who owns a rear that happened to be the receiving end of many jokes and ridicule this book was something that deeply fascinated me. Such a great in-depth look at the history of the butt diving into the racism and classism involved with a critical look at the how we talk and portray the booty. Truly loved this book.

Thank you to Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster and NetGalley for this fascinating exploration of obsession with the female derriere.

Author Heather Radke researches and presents the scientific and cultural origins of the female butt as sexual object and how they came to shape our future and present perspectives.

It is an interesting read that examines early development of public female sexuality as determined by historical racial bodily difference and social inequity between blacks and whites.
Much of the book examines the history of social perspectives between black and white women as the beginning of the butt as sexual commodity. "Black American women were furious [about current butt fetishization]: "We are the originators of something, then it's appropriated by white people, then its repackaged by a mainstream consciousness..."

White people have picked at and over the marketable, historical components of white sexualization of black women's bodies' more attractive components and publicly marketed it to white women for profit.

Body image is intimately personal to every woman, though, the ever-changing rules of which are dictated by an invisible omniscient "they."
Radke explains that she began this research project as a way to understand the source of her shame for her own "too big butt.” She comes to the conclusion that understanding how past people have viewed present body parts leaves owners of these bodies able to choose how to interpret, and keep or toss, those cultural norms.

Four stars.

Initially I was unsure how well this would be written. However I found the authors journalistic approach to the evolution of butts to be extremely though provoking and informative.

I was not aware of all the cultural and psychological backstory surrounding a woman’s backside nor did I realize how prominently it has been portrayed as a symbol of beauty and reproductive capability throughout history.

I can appreciate that while an unusual subject matter, butts have much more significance in our societal opinions, culture and psychology and I feel this book allowed me to feel more educated on a topic that we tend to think of so very little.

This was highly informative and worth the read to understand how something so common can have such a large impact on our lives.

I really really enjoyed this book! Understandably, butts can be a funny topic, but this book really delves into the very complex and serious history of (women's) butts in the context of culture. It's a book about racism, sexism, misogyny, cultural appropriation, fatphobia, and colorism.

We learn first about why humans have butts, and what makes them so interesting. Why do people sexualize butts? We learn about Sarah Baartman and her horrific treatment at the hands of men and white Europeans. We learn about bustles, flappers, and Coco Chanel. We recall "Buns of Steel" and Jane Fonda's aerobics craze. We rehash Baby Got Back, Bootylicious, and Miley Cyrus' appropriative performance at the 2013 VMAs. We hear about famous butts, from Big Freedia to Kim Kardashian to Jennifer Lopez and more.

The (white) cultural fascination with butts is intrinsically entwined with hypersexualization, exotification, and fetishization of Black women's bodies, cultural appropriation, and straight-up racism. A phrase I found super poignant was how white people often have "predatory enthusiasm" about Black culture. I found that Heather Radke did a very good job of making sure the reader did not forget that fact for a moment.

I highly recommend this book as an insightful, interesting, and rather quick read. Many thanks to NetGalley, Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster, and Heather Radke for a free electronic copy of this book in exchange for my honest review.

I received an eARC of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

A nonfiction book about society’s obsession with butts. I was intrigued. This book went into a brief discussion of: the scientific and evolutionary history of the butt, western society’s reactions to butts that were different than they have seen, Fashion, eugenics, race inequality and racial stereotypes, as well as a brief explanation of Western society’s changing attitudes towards larger butts in more recent history.

I learned a lot from reading this book and I took copious notes. I went into this book thinking it would be a lighthearted history of society’s obsession with butts and left with a greater understanding of how controversial butts have been in our society and the negative connotations that are still attached to large butts. I honestly cried over when I read about the treatment of Sarah Baartman and the other women from the Khoe tribe. I struggle to put into words how this book affected me because I feel like I’ve learned a lot of things that were never discussed in, for example: a history class, that I feel like I should’ve known about before I casually decided to read a book about butts. The close relationship between fashion and racial inequality was something I felt I should’ve known or realized before this but I never really stopped to ask myself how we got standardized clothing sizes.

Needless to say this book has affected me and I have already been discussing it with family and friends. I will be purchasing this book when it comes out so that I can have my own copy to annotate and reference as I continue to try to learn more about the things that were discussed in this book.

Early in Butts: A Backstory, author Heather Radke dismantles the “adaptationism” theories of evolutionary psychology — the notion that perceived sexual markers, like a peacock’s tail or a woman’s rear end, signal reproductive health to prospective mates (which is what I know I had been taught) instead of being merely physical artefacts of some minor modification that happened along the way — and offers instead the idea that, when it comes to women’s butts, the attractiveness and meaning of these incidental mounds of muscle and fat is entirely culturally imposed. In the West, the idea of what attractive backsides look like has varied greatly over the years — from extravagant Victorian bustles to narrow-hipped flappers; from hardened Buns of Steel to bulbous Kardashian belfies — and while these standards have generally been determined by straight, white men, women from all walks of life have endured the incessant evaluation of a body part they can’t even properly see. More social commentary than straight-up science, Radke looks at the cultural meaning of the female butt from many fascinating angles, and with writing that is equal parts informal and journalistic, she presents an eye-opening overview of something I had never given much thought to at all. Engaging and provoking, I’m rounding up to five stars.