Decoder Ring: The Butt and the Bustle

Slow Burn

Slate Podcasts

News, Society & Culture, History, Documentary, Politics

4.6 • 25.1K Ratings

🗓️ 22 November 2022

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For about two decades towards the end of the Victorian era, in the 1870s and 1880s, a large bustle-enhanced bottom was the height of fashion. In this episode we explore how it’s connected to today’s big booty craze. We look at the bustle’s history with a curator fascinated by old undergarments; consider the various theories about its popularity with the author Heather Radke; and then hone in the tragic story of Sarah Baartman. The bustle may be old-fashioned, but it still has a lot to tell us about race, sex, power and how much people know, or let themselves know, about what they put on everyday. We hear from Heather Radke, author of Butts: A Backstory, as well as Kristina Haughland, Janell Hobson, Pamela Scully, and Maria Garcia. This podcast was written by Willa Paskin, who produces Decoder Ring with Katie Shepherd. This episode was edited by Andrea Bruce. Derek John is Slate’s Executive Producer of Narrative Podcasts. Merritt Jacob is Senior Technical Director. If you haven’t please yet, subscribe and rate our feed in Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. And even better, tell your friends. If you’re a fan of the show, I’d love for you to sign up for Slate Plus. Slate Plus members get to listen to Decoder Ring without any ads. Their support is also crucial to our work. So please go to Slate.com/decoderplus to join Slate Plus today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Before we begin, a heads up this episode contains adult content and descriptions of racism.
0:07.0	Heather Radke remembers when she started to think there might be something wrong with her
0:17.2	butt.
0:18.2	This thing happened in high school that's like so small, but you know how these things
0:21.5	are, they really get you.
0:23.2	This was in Lansing, Michigan in the 1990s.
0:26.2	And heroin, chic and wefish models like Kate Moss were all over high fashion magazines.
0:31.8	And a slim, small, stereotypically white woman's rear end was the mainstream ideal.
0:37.9	What was in super mainstream teen magazine pop culture at the time was thin, like buttless,
0:48.6	maybe some boobs, but not even like too much boobs.
0:51.4	That was what was in.
0:52.7	Heather's white too, but that wasn't her body.
0:55.4	When I was like a teenager, I got a big butt.
0:57.0	My mom has a big butt.
0:58.6	Heather hadn't thought much about it one way or another though, until the thing happened.
1:04.3	Somebody reported back to me that my body had been disgusted across country practice.
1:09.7	One person was like, I, oh my butt's getting so big.
1:13.1	And another person was like, well, at least it's not as big as Heather's.
1:16.1	It's not like that's like a horrific story of bullying or something, but I remember that
1:20.8	moment being like, I guess there's something wrong with my body.
1:24.4	We definitely like, whatever gave me a small complex obviously.
1:28.8	But as Heather got older and left her predominantly white high school and went to college, she
	...

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