If we told someone in the 1990s that there was some sort of butt procedure done every 30 minutes in 2015, they’d probably wonder how that could even be possible. Why would anyone want a big butt? Just 20 years ago, the ideal body type was referred to as “heroin chic,” with an androgynous look and a very thin body. No one particularly cared about having a big booty.
Well, not entirely true. No white people particularly cared about having a big booty. According to Vogue, the “era of the big booty” began in 2014, although it was sparked all the way back in the late 1990s when Jennifer Lopez became popular. The article goes on to thank Kim Kardashian and Instagram sensation Jen Selter. Yes, these women have beautiful bodies, and, yes, they do have big, beautiful butts, but these women also have something else in common – they are not black.
Photo courtesy of @jlo on Instagram
Larger butts have been part of black and Latino culture for a long time. But for some reason, we can’t accept something as beautiful until white girls start doing it. For years, Vogue mocked the presence of a bigger butt in fashion, but they suddenly consider us to be in the era of the big booty? Suddenly, they are willing to go back and thank the women that brought us the big booty. Although the article does thank Beyonce, Rihanna, and Nicki Minaj, these women have been on the scene for years. So why does Vogue only feel the need to thank them now?
Photo courtesy of @beyonce on Instagram
Perhaps it’s the same reason that Vogue compared Lupita Nyong’o to Audrey Hepburn when she sported a tall up-do at the 2016 Met Gala, even after Nyong’o explicitly said that her hair was inspired by Nina Simone, the singer and civil rights activist.
We try to pretend that we are accepting and embracing black culture with our new beauty standards, but we are really just trying to overshadow it.
Photo courtesy of @nickiminaj on Instagram
Today’s ideal body type is what’s known as “slim-thick,” a term that basically means that the woman has a flat tummy, thick thighs, and a round butt. While it could be lauded as a good goal for women, who tend to have more curves than the “heroin chic” look of the 1990s, every woman is different. Many white women do not naturally have the exact body type of a slim-thick woman, which explains why so many have resorted to surgery.
Gif courtesy of giphy.com
In 2015, 2,540 buttock implant surgeries were done, according to the American Society of Plastic Surgeons. 4,767 buttock lifts were done.
The biggest butt surgery, though, was buttock augmentations with fat grafting, meaning that fat was taken from other parts of the body to increase the butt. 14,705 of these surgeries were done in 2015.
Photo courtesy of @kimkardashian on Instagram
Once upon a time, if a white girl had a big butt, it was frowned upon. She was expected to work out to get rid of it, not work out to lift it and show it off even more. Butts were not something to look at in white culture. They weren’t embraced in the way that they are in black or Latino culture.
As a white woman, I’m no authority on black or Latino culture. I’m not even an authority on white culture because everyone’s experience is different. What I can say is this. Over the past few years, I’ve suddenly heard friends tell me that their butts are too flat. I’ve seen them go to the gym for hours to lift it. I’ve even heard them talk about surgery to make it happen. After years of liking their bodies and liking not having a big butt, they’ve suddenly done a 180.
I’ve heard guy friends suddenly claim to be ass men and openly gawk at a woman’s derriere. They compare them to more famous butts, but I’ve noticed I don’t hear that the girl has a beautiful butt like Nicki Minaj or JLo. They all say that she’s got a butt like Kim K.
Gif courtesy of giphy.com
It’s time to give credit where credit is due. If you are a white woman, you’re probably not going to have a butt exactly like JLo, at least not without surgery. And why do you want one? Well, probably because having one is considered sexy. That’s what it all comes back to. Our society has been sexualizing black and Latino bodies and culture for far too long. We want to believe that we’ve come so far, that we don’t do that anymore, but we are still enforcing stereotypes. Being too sexy used to be an insult, saying that a woman is not pure enough. Today, a lot of women embrace the idea of being sexy.
Gif courtesy of giphy.com
And that’s fine, but, somewhere, subconsciously maybe, we are remembering the stereotypes. We remember that we were told Latinas are always “provocative” and that black women are just “so sexual.” We’ve taken the very things about them that society used to mock and exaggerate and now we call those things our own. By putting our own stamp on these traits, we’re insulting their culture and not giving credit where it is due. But it’s time to stop.