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A review by emrodav
Butts: A Backstory by Heather Radke
3.0
Hmmmmm. 3.5 stars, probably.
Butts: A Backstory has quite a lot going for it. Radke is a great writer, able to balance historical narrative and smart commentary well. The subjects chosen for each section are interesting and worthy of discussion, and I learned a lot (especially about Sarah Baartman, who I was unfamiliar with before reading this book).
However, Butts is somehow both too narrow and too broad in its scope. By narrowing the context for the book down to women in the UK and USA in the last 250 years, so many possible avenues that could've been explored...aren't. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed what I learned and what Radke wrote about, but I could feel throughout the book that there were so many possibilities ignored!
On the other hand, Radke tries to look at how women, their butts, their feelings about their butts, their feelings about others' butts, and others' views about their butts, shape culture. This involves looking at racism (a very important theme in this book, not going to discount that at all), cultural appropriation, body image issues, women's fashion, celebrity culture, fashion, and more. It's a lot! It feels at times like these are a series of essays connected by the theme of butts (specifically women's butts), but it's not all enough to make a cohesive book out of it.
I don't know! I did really enjoy what I learned in the first 1/3 of the book, and I enjoyed Radke's writing style quite a bit. And I do think the discussion of body/size/physique and racism is important. I just don't think Radke was able to bring everything together in what is overall a pretty short book.
Butts: A Backstory has quite a lot going for it. Radke is a great writer, able to balance historical narrative and smart commentary well. The subjects chosen for each section are interesting and worthy of discussion, and I learned a lot (especially about Sarah Baartman, who I was unfamiliar with before reading this book).
However, Butts is somehow both too narrow and too broad in its scope. By narrowing the context for the book down to women in the UK and USA in the last 250 years, so many possible avenues that could've been explored...aren't. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed what I learned and what Radke wrote about, but I could feel throughout the book that there were so many possibilities ignored!
On the other hand, Radke tries to look at how women, their butts, their feelings about their butts, their feelings about others' butts, and others' views about their butts, shape culture. This involves looking at racism (a very important theme in this book, not going to discount that at all), cultural appropriation, body image issues, women's fashion, celebrity culture, fashion, and more. It's a lot! It feels at times like these are a series of essays connected by the theme of butts (specifically women's butts), but it's not all enough to make a cohesive book out of it.
I don't know! I did really enjoy what I learned in the first 1/3 of the book, and I enjoyed Radke's writing style quite a bit. And I do think the discussion of body/size/physique and racism is important. I just don't think Radke was able to bring everything together in what is overall a pretty short book.