Culos: Una Historia Trasera - by Heather Radke (Paperback)

About the Book

Whether we love them or hate them, think they're sexy or weird, consider them too big or too small or the complete opposite, humanity has a complicated relationship with butts. It's a body part that only our species possesses, key to its evolution and survival, and yet it has come to mean so much more: sex, desire, humor, shame. This cultural history takes us from the showrooms of 19th-century London to the aerobics studios of the 1980s, from Sir Mix-a-Lot's Baby Got Back to the mountains of Arizona, where humans and horses compete each year in a feat of gluteal endurance. From evolutionary biologists studying how the first butts developed, to models whose measurements have defined jean size for millions of women, to fitness gurus who created trends, this book also shines a light on racial bias through figures such as Sarah Bartmann, Josephine Baker, Jennifer Lopez, and other women whose behinds have been idolized, envied, and scorned. Part deep investigation, part personal journey, and part cabinet of curiosities, this is an entertaining, revealing, and thoughtful exploration of why certain shapes come in and out of fashion, and how our conceptions of race, control, liberation, and power affect our perceptions of ourselves and others.

About the Author

Master en Bellas Artes por la Universidad de Columbia, donde continúa como consejera, imparte clases de escritura creativa y ha fundado la Incarcerated Writer's Initiative, es redactora colaboradora y reportera de Radiolab, el podcast neoyorquino ganador del prestigioso premio Peabody. Elabora artículos, críticas y reportajes para The Paris Review Daily, The Believer, Guernica, Topic, Longreads, The White Review y otros medios, principalmente sobre temáticas de género. Su primer libro, Butts: A Backstory (2022), ha sido considerado por The New York Times como un «minucioso y contrastado ensayo de historia cultural», y calificado por The Washington Post de «entretenido y acertado».