Vogue Declares Big Booties ‘Officially In’; Credits Iggy Azalea and Jennifer Lopez.

In a recent article on Vogue.com, writer Patricia Garcia enthusiastically declares, “We’re Officially in the Era of the Big Booty.”She writes, “As we await the premiere of Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea’s new music video, it would appear that the big booty has officially become ubiquitous. In music videos, in Instagram photos, and on today’s most popular celebrities, the measure of sex appeal is inextricably linked to the prominence of a woman’s behind.”

 
She goes on to say, “Perhaps we have Jennifer Lopez to thank (or blame?) for sparking the booty movement. When she first arrived on the scene in the late nineties, a lot of the buzz surrounding her focused on the back of her voluptuous body. Her derrière quite literally stood out against the other sex symbols of the moment, signaling a shift away from the waif era of Gwyneth Paltrow and Kate Moss and the outrageously large-breasted Pam Anderson. Lopez’s behind was so unique, and evidently so valuable, there were rumors she had taken out insurance worth millions to protect the asset.”The article continues to give kudos to Kim Kardashian, Jen Selter, and Destiny’s Child, and even features a Vine of Nicki Minaj teaching a few lithe models how to booty shake to her new hit song, Anaconda. Sigh…haven’t we been here before? In an article about big booties becoming big business, we asked why black women weren’t reaping the benefits. And now, we have Vogue, giving kudos to Iggy Azalea and J. Lo for a body trait championed by women of African descent since Saartjie Baartman aka Venus Hottentot first appeared in European society in the 19th century (The Venus Hottentot is largely thought to be the first African woman to appear in Western culture. She was paraded around London and Paris as a part of a ‘freak show’; her round posterior, was looked at as an inferior or savage trait. She was analyzed like she was an animal or a member of a different species. She died of a sexually transmitted disease and was ultimately dissected and her likeness displayed for years in Paris’s Musée de l’Homme).
 

But while big butts were frowned upon for centuries, of course it takes two non black woman to make it ‘hot’ and ‘trendy.’




At any rate, the days of cultural appropriation never seem to end.
When black women have big butts, it’s, “so gross” and “so black” (ref. Sir Mix A Lot’s 1992 hit Baby Got Back).


20 years later, and they’re officially ‘in.’
Thanks, Vogue.
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