Butts

Overthink

Ellie Anderson, Ph.D. and David Peña-Guzmán, Ph.D.

Philosophy, Society & Culture, Education

4.7 • 549 Ratings

🗓️ 28 April 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Bottom, rump, booty, fanny, tush, and derriere! In episode 171 of Overthink, Ellie and David talk about butts. Why do humans have bigger rear ends than other animals? Why are butts often seen as a site of aversion? And is anal sex a metaphor for the universe? They discuss the evolutionary history of butts, how the music industry helped normalize bigger butts, and how the exploitation of Sara Baartman in the 19th century is part of a larger story about the sexualization of black women. In the Substack bonus segment, your hosts talk about Marquis de Sade’s discussion of anal sex and appeals to nature in justifications of human sexual practices.

Works Discussed:

Georges Bataille, “The Solar Anus”

Leo Bersani, “Is the Rectum a Grave?”

Janell Hobson, “Venus in the Dark: Blackness and Beauty in Popular Culture”

Dinah Holtzman, “Ass You Lick It: Bey and Jay Eat Cake”

Sadiah Qureshi, “Displaying Sara Baartman, the ‘Hottentot Venus’.”

Heather Radke, Butts: A Backstory

Christopher Wallner et al, “Interethnic Influencing Factors Regarding Buttocks Body Image in Women from Nigeria, Germany, USA and Japan”

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Transcript

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0:22.8	entrepreneurs like you. Sign up for your $1 a month trial at Shopify.com slash setup. Hello and welcome to Overthink.
0:50.1	The podcast where two philosophers bring you into their conversations about anything and everything, including body parts.
0:57.3	I'm Ellie Anderson.
0:58.7	And I'm David Peña-Gusman.
1:00.6	As always, for an ad-free extended version of this episode, community discussion, and more.
1:05.1	Subscribe to Overthink on Substack.
1:08.2	David, I feel like in an episode such as this, a natural place to start is with
1:14.7	jokes. How do you feel about butt jokes or the related poop jokes? I mean, I liked them when I was a kid.
1:24.0	I have to say my partner dislikes that they didn't die with my childhood.
1:29.0	I still like butt jokes.
1:30.5	I like toilet humor.
1:33.2	And I think it needs to be brought back from this association that we have that only children can laugh at bodily functions.
1:40.7	Oh, I think in my social view, it has already been brought back. I mean, I hang out with a lot of people who work in the comedy world in L.A. And I feel like we haven't really moved beyond it. I don't think there's much of a pretentiousness around these kind of jokes or a sense that they should have been left on the playground. There is a wholesale embrace of them. And I have to say, I really appreciate that. I think poop jokes and butt jokes are hilarious. I don't want to see. I think of you as a poop joke girl. Definitely. It's because you know me well. I think people who don't know me are like, oh, you know, kind of like, femme blonde girl. Wow. And I'm just like, no, no, no, you don't know. Like I'm, I can be really
2:19.5	crass and childish for sure. I mean, that might not be quite so surprising. But David, why,
2:25.8	why does your partner dislike that you like these jokes? Like, what's his rationale? Why is he
2:30.6	anti? He thinks that they're so predictable and that they're low-hanging fruit.
2:35.7	And in a sense, they are, right?
2:37.4	Like, they are jokes that anybody finds accessible that don't really need a lot of thought
	...

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