Whether she was sitting in dressing rooms with her mom as they tried on clothes, walking down the street to unwanted cat calls, or ignoring the kids snickering in middle school hallways during the era of rail-thin supermodels, the generous shape of her rear end made her feel unattractive and out of place. Growing up, Heather Radke always felt that her butt was too big. Our feelings about our bodies are the legacy of people and stories from long ago.”Ī fascinating journey into the scientific and cultural history of the female butt–for fans of Mary Roach and Mark Kurlansky. Refreshingly straightforward and well-researched, Butts: A Backstory has forever changed the way I perceive my own body and the bodies around me: “On and in our bodies, we carry histories…histories of our families, our lives, and of the world. Radke’s analysis of butts and how/why they’ve been sexualized is also an examination of racism, cultural appropriation, and colonization, and the generations of harm caused by white people: “…white culture and fashion have both proved relentlessly adept at cherry-picking throughout the centuries, finding a way to poach the parts of other people’s culture, histories, and bodies that suit them and leave behind the rest.” A satisfying mix of personal narrative and historical analysis, Radke uses one physical body part-the butt-as a jumping-off point to reevaluate the way we look at our bodies AND to question the very reasons we’re judging our bodies in the first place.

In Butts: A Backstory, Radke explores the butt and its significance in Western culture. Content Warning(s): Racism, colonization, cultural appropriation

Butts the backstory