Butts: A Backstory

What is the "formal" name for the human rear end? Butt? Buttocks? Glutes? Butt seems to be the most common option for this important part of the body. There has been some theory that this is the secret part of homo-sapiens strength. They can run for long distances to catch 4-legged prey.

The book then launches into a post-colonial anti-racist view of how white culture views butts. Large and backsides were speculated as being related to reproductive ability. "Good" European females were expected to be slender, with the large anatomy of Africans in the circus sideshows. Victorian could put on complex outfits to appear bigger, but then they could take them off.

There are various tangential explorations. A quest for the "perfect" figure ended up empty. No woman had the exact measurements that were identified as ideal. Clothing sizing was initially created to make things easy for the military. Women's sizes branched out of those, with an almost guarantee that they will not be good fits for most people. (However, it does make it easy for the clothing manufacturers.) There are also "fit models" that come in to test new clothing. (They need to have enough shape, nut not too much.)  Buns of Steel popularized toned glutes. The Kardashians popularized curvy figures. (Ironically, they claim some "biracial" heritage from Armenian ancestry, despite that being the definition of "caucasian")  Large butts come in and out of style, with the black influence often driving their respectability. The book mentions whites criticizing blacks for doing "white things" and blacks criticizing whites for doing "black things". Yet when people come together, we do get some of the most innovation.