{"product_id":"butts-a-backstory","title":"Butts: A Backstory","description":"\u003cb\u003e\"Lively and thorough, \u003ci\u003eButts\u003c\/i\u003e is the best kind of nonfiction.\" --\u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cb\u003eA \"carefully researched and reported work of cultural history\" (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) that explores how one body part has influenced the female--and human--experience for centuries, and what that obsession reveals about our lives today.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eWhether we love them or hate them, think they're sexy, think they're strange, consider them too big, too small, or anywhere in between, humans have a complicated relationship with butts. It is a body part unique to humans, critical to our evolution and survival, and yet it has come to signify so much more: sex, desire, comedy, shame. A woman's butt, in particular, is forever being assessed, criticized, and objectified, from anxious self-examinations trying on jeans in department store dressing rooms to enduring crass remarks while walking down a street or high school hallways. But why? In \u003ci\u003eButts: A Backstory, \u003c\/i\u003ereporter, essayist, and\u003ci\u003e RadioLab \u003c\/i\u003econtributing editor Heather Radke is determined to find out. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Spanning nearly two centuries, this \"whip-smart\" (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e, starred review) cultural history takes us from the performance halls of 19th-century London to the aerobics studios of the 1980s, the music video set of Sir Mix-a-Lot's \"Baby Got Back\" and the mountains of Arizona, where every year humans and horses race in a feat of gluteal endurance. Along the way, she meets evolutionary biologists who study how butts first developed; models whose measurements have defined jean sizing for millions of women; and the fitness gurus who created fads like \"Buns of Steel.\" She also examines the central importance of race through figures like Sarah Bartmann, once known as the \"Venus Hottentot,\" Josephine Baker, Jennifer Lopez, and other women of color whose butts have been idolized, envied, and despised. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Part deep dive reportage, part personal journey, part cabinet of curiosities, \u003ci\u003eButts \u003c\/i\u003eis an entertaining, illuminating, and thoughtful examination of why certain silhouettes come in and out of fashion--and how larger ideas about race, control, liberation, and power affect our most private feelings about ourselves and others.","brand":"Avid Reader Press \/ Simon \u0026 Schuster","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":51947949064423,"sku":"9781982135492","price":19.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0449\/4075\/5096\/files\/imageloader_ebf4237a-612b-4d8f-9879-4185c164af0e.jpg?v=1775503956","url":"https:\/\/arvidabookco.com\/products\/butts-a-backstory","provider":"Arvida Book Co.","version":"1.0","type":"link"}