Vogue declares the "Era Of The Booty" some 20 years late

CORRECTION: Vogue and by extension mainstream America is in the era of the "big booty". The brothas have been celebrating all things gluteus maximus since forever!

The excerpt from that Vogue magazine article is a puff piece to promote Jennifer Lopez and Iggy Azalea but I'm a bit annoyed with the tone of the article. It speaks as if the country, collectively, was on the same wavelength in terms of pop culture. We weren't and aren't. While reading it, I remembered the things she was talking about that happened during the 90s but my perspective of it is completely different. So different that it had me thinking even though we all lived through the same time period, we were having such different experiences that its seems like two different realities running parallel to each other: the mainstream (White America) and Hip-Hop (Black America).

In this instance the author of that article, Patricia Garcia, Vogue magazine and mainstream America are all waaay behind the curve. There are a number of truths in the article like there was a "waif look" period and the fashion industry did and does shun curvier shaped women by and large. But the article failed or refused to acknowledge that 20 years ago there was in fact a "booty era" and Hip-Hop and Black America lead the charge.

The first glaring omission from the article is:



Ms. Jackson, if your nasty. Going back to the late 80s when Janet wanted to assert Control of her life and career, the first thing she did was flaunt her sexual independence by showing off her assets proudly. The nickname brother Michael gave her was "Donk", short for donkey, a direct reference to her big booty. Janet in the early days was not known for overt booty shaking (that would come much later in the 90s and 00s), we just noticed the curves she had particularly around her hips and the sway of her back. But Janet did have an over all tight body. The article says "the look of pop music was set by Britney Spears over-toned abs." But I submit that Janet Jackson was the prototype whose playbook and style Spears, Lopez and pretty much every single female pop performer after her borrowed/copied from for years to come.



Patricia Garcia, must have forgotten this instant iconic photo. Janet Jackson was the full package some 25 years before JLo or Beyonce, Spears or Azalea and she wasn't the only one.

In her brief retrospective, Garcia says that in the late 90s Lopez's "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." For mainstream America maybe but, again, this was not the case in the Black America. In my previous article on Jennifer Lopez's desperate grab for attention, I mentioned that back in the 90s there wasn't that many big butts to chose from, other than Lopez there was Salma Hayek and Janet Jackson, by that I meant that's what mainstream America was paying attention to, although Garcia omitted Jackson and Hayek in her recollection. In Hip-Hop there were a number of plush round backsides and the talented ladies those booties backed up to choose from.



Starting with Patra. Around the early 90s there was an influx of Reggae dance-hall music that began to dominate radio and video (in Black America). Led by artists like Shabba ranks and Maxi Priest, the Caribbean sound was a major influence on Hip-Hop and R&B at that time. And Patra was one of the queens of that movement.

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There's a lot of truth in this piece.

 

Hell i said something similar to that in the fat shaming thread. Look the "baby got back video" mix said it was to celebrate womens bodies that didnt fit magaxine models.

 

I'm surprised that the article didn't feature Darcelle from Solid Gold. I think she kind of launched the booty craze for the 80's. Darcelle wore a lot of thongs on that show. But then, I think back to the classic disco song, "I Ain't Gonna Bump No More With No Big Fat Woman" when the Bump was the popular dance at the time and that was in the 70's. So, it can be said that the booty has always captured the hearts and imaginations of all men.

 

The writer who wrote that response doesn't seem to grasp that it can't be an "era" unless it is determined by mainstream society. Period. End of story. How it works is that new artistic expressions, new forms of dance, new slang, new styles of dress, new cultural revolutions, etc., etc., are often first developed in communities outside of Main Street America. In American history those communities have, more often than not, been populated with black folk. From there the phenomenon these communities create (The Charleston, jazz, rock 'n roll, disco, hip hop to name a few) are either eventually picked up and absorbed by the larger mainstream society or they are rejected/ignored (Go Go).

To the folks in white communities these forms of music, styles of dress, way of talking haven't really arrived until they become commonly available to people in their own households, participated by their very own neighbors and discussed of course in their own magazines and TV shows. The writer would have been more impressive if he took the time to explore this and educate his audience that this type of cultural poaching has been going on for an eternity in America, but instead he talks about this whole booty business bullshit as if he is surprised that a craze that arguably started in black America has now gone "legit" without black people getting any credit. The only mention he made of white society appropriating black culture was his mention of Bo Derek's use of cornrows in "Ten." Really? That's some lazy shit right there not to mention a bit of a weak argument since 1)that hairstyle never became a trend in the white community and 2) one could make the argument that black women have been mimicking white women's hairstyles since Madam C Walker provided them the means.

Plus the writeup seems to make the same mistake that simply because there were a handful of white female stars who definitely had that waif-look, that that meant that was the only preferred body type by white America. If that was the case why was Baywatch so popular? Why weren't there any popular waif-like white women in porn? Why was Anna Nichole Smith on the verge to becoming a household name? Truth is men of all races have appreciated women with shapely forms. It is natural. Biological. Look at the Hollywood starlets from the 40s through the 60s. You're telling me those ladies weren't "phat"? Granted the so-called "ideal" white woman of the last couple of decades didn't fit the standards of those in the 40s, 50s and 60s (in large part to gay designers who preferred females with slender bodies that could best fit their designs), but black guys have to stop acting as if they were the first men on Earth who appreciated a round ass.

Speaking of that why would any reasonable black man go out of his way to ensure that black men basically get credit for starting trends that would reduce women to the sum of their bodyparts? It's sexist in general. And while I'm at isn't it funny that black women who used to write articles decrying black men for objectifying black female bodies in that way are now writing articles/blogs in which they demand/beg white/mainstream society to acknowledge that they have been booty-licious all along? And why would ANY community want to take credit for something as crass as twerking? That shit belongs in strip clubs, some lowdown dancehalls or the privacy of one's bedroom. The fact that is now performed on stage by the leading ladies of the music industry and by teenagers in video selfies only reinforces that we are reaching a cultural nadir.

The woman who wrote the Vogue article has a Spanish surname so I'm assuming that she is Latino. If so the fact that she could be so ignorant of the booty craze kicking off in black America in the 90s is an indication of how easily other non-whites such as (non-white) Latinos, Asians and Arabs can be assimilated within white America. Unless they live in poor urban areas they don't experience or acknowledge new craze created by black Americans any faster than their white counterparts do. In fact they wait for white America to give the approval. That is true assimilation.

 

The issue with an "era" no matter what is is that by the time its accepted by the mainstream the originators are replaced with mainstreams own versions and the history revised to reflect that since thats generally the story that will be retold most often (i.e. rock and roll and jazz). It doesn't matter that go go isn't accepted because if it was we'd be seeing and hearing a myriad of white gogo bands like they've always been there.

The cornrow issue wasn't that it became common among whites it was that it became popular only after they saw themselves in it. Suddenly the style is beautiful but only after a blonde haired white women is doing it. It doesn't work in the reverse thats called assimilation or conditioning. Its the same with any form of cultural expression co-opted by the mainstream:

first they ignore it

then they mock it

then one of them does it half decent so they like it

then more show an interest so they love

then they act like they've always done it and barely acknowledge where it comes from.

the vogue article establishes the setting and thinking of that period to contrast with the present day. 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.

you yourself admit that in the bold. And don't act like stacked white chicks have been the standard for the last 30 years Anna Nicole Smith was an outlier at best since white people seem to become fascinated with thicker chicks every 5 or 10 years or so...dolly parton, anna nicole smith, emme, a few years back it was christina hendricks and every time they act like its something special or different to see a white chick bigger than a size 6. But most of the time thin is in preferably with big boobs..hence Pam Anderson's popularity or Jenny McCarthy.

its pop culture dude calm down..at one time looking like a beatnik was considered crass and low down guess who started that trend...

seems like you are you finding fault with her for not knowing the true history of the subject of her article.. if thats so then why the dissertation above??