The Butt Rough Draft - Grade: A PDF

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1 The Stereotypical Butt

“…I’m not cute or built to suit a fashion model’s size…I say, It’s in the reach of my arms, The span of my hips…I’m a woman Phenomenally. Phenomenal woman, That’s me.” (Angelou 2-13). This is a quote from the popular poem, “Phenomenal Woman”, by the late Maya Angelou. With this quote, Angelou suggests that a woman’s beauty is not determined by her body falling between society’s standards, but by her confidence and personality. In the article “The Butt” written by Erin Aubry Kaplan, which was published in the LA Times in September 1997, the body part “the butt” is presented as a powerful weapon and part of the female body. With an underlying tone of sarcasm along with multiple pop culture references and personification, Kaplan is able to show that all throughout history “the butt” has been a large controversial issue and has created stereotypes in today’s society. The 80s idol Madonna is the first pop culture reference that Kaplan makes. Kaplan informs readers about Madonna by mentioning the book Stolen Women: Reclaiming Our Sexuality, Taking Back Our Lives written by, African American psychologist, Gail Elizabeth Wyatt. Wyatt states that Madonna, a white woman, was described as being able to move from “a ho’ and being a film genius” (5). During Madonna’s time, the women, in order to be considered pretty, were expected to be skinny and pale. Madonna was said to “put on that image” (5). African American women however, are said to not be able to “move that easily” (Kaplan 5). They are not able to, like Madonna, move back and forth from the two different personalities. Kaplan uses this example to show that compared to white women, African American women are held more responsible for the suggestive impressions they make. Madonna was said to be an image, so it was understandable that she performed suggestive actions. Kaplan says, “black women have little or no context to work with” (5). This meaning that black women are

2 automatically stereotyped as a hoe if they are blessed with a big behind. The comparison between Madonna and African American women, as a whole, shows how “the butt” has created stereotypes in today’s society. The next pop culture reference that Kaplan makes, in order to inform readers of the stereotype made toward African American women and their big butts, is with the rapper Big Daddy Kane. In this particular rapper’s music videos, he has plenty of African American women with big butts performing. Kaplan states that these music videos are said to “embrace life that arcs above both the piety of church and family and the sexual kitsch of gold-painted talons and obvious hair weaves.” (8). With this example, Kaplan is able to give the readers a stereotype that most believe are true. The stereotype being that women with big butts are seen as improper and how society does not really approve of them. Also, by being featured in the videos similar to the ones like with the rapper Big Daddy Kane, Kaplan shows readers that the women are considered “low class and ghettoish” (8). This stereotype created, due to the rapper Big Daddy Kane, helps the author show readers that the butt is one body part that is not considered favorable when it is not within society’s standards. Selena, the Mexican and American superstar, is the next pop culture reference Kaplan uses. Kaplan mentions that the question was raised about whether or not she would have been as famous as she was if she did not have the big butt. There were also questions raised on whether or not she had some African decent. The reason for those particular questions to be raised, was that those of African decent were stereotyped to be the only race to have big butts. When Jennifer Lopez is asked to play Selena in the movie, Kaplan shows that in this special circumstance “the butt was of prime visual concern” (10). Although Jennifer Lopez was not of the same decent as Selena, the butt was so important in making the movie that her origin was overlooked. Selena

3 was also said to portray her butt as “more dutifully than nastily” (10). This meaning that Selena was not placed in the category of women that people looked down upon because of their large butt. Kaplan then compares Selena’s actions to the R&B singers Foxy Brown and Li’l Kim. Foxy Brown and Li’l Kim are said to “infuse new blood into that most promulgated black-woman image of the sexually available skeezer” (10). The stereotype that no matter the age, any African American woman who is brave enough to wear revealing clothes is created. With this, Kaplan reveals to readers that compared to women of other races, African American women with big butts are still stereotyped as women with low morals. Kaplan’s next pop culture reference includes multiple songs that, unlike the previous reverences, embrace the love for big butts. Contrasting the other songs that degraded women who had big butts, Kaplan describes how in the particular song “Baby Got Back” the rapper Sir Mix-A-Lot actually “condemns Cosmo magazine and Jane Fonda for deifying thinness” (11). However, Kaplan then goes on to say that the same men that embrace an African American woman with a big butt are the same men that “are quick to denigrate black women as they are to celebrate them” (11); thus creating another stereotype. Still, African American women with big butts are not seen as respectable women and Kaplan is able to allow the readers to see the stereotypes that are formed about African American women. The personification of “the butt” is also used by Kaplan, in her personal anecdote, to reveal her sarcastic tone and convey her ideas. She says that her butt “swallows up [her] peripheral vision and sops up reserve confidence like gravy” (6). Here, her butt is described as a powerful force that is very controlling; this is similar to a human being. Also by saying “my butt looms triumphant” (6) and “My butt refuses to follow the current trend.. nor does it care..”(6) Kaplan sarcastically personifies it as having its own mind and doing whatever it wants to do.

4 Kaplan goes on to say that “[her] butt sees things very clearly: [she] walk[s] behind it. It dictates all [her] steps forward..” (6). In this anecdote, “the butt” is portrayed as a controlling human that has its own rules that it is going to abide by despite what Kaplan, the butt’s “owner” has to say. For example, her butt is said to “refuse to follow the current trend of black marginalization”(6). With this personification, Kaplan is able to explain how her butt, since it is so big and has a mind of its own, does not fit within society’s measurements. She also goes on to say that “[her] butt has reverse self esteem…like the brain, it may even have profound, uncharted capacities to heal”(7). Meaning, that Kaplan’s butt does not care that she is ashamed and that she is stereotyped because of it. By using the personification of the butt as an example, readers are able to see that even the author herself struggles with her butt, with it not falling in society’s set standards, and being stereotyped. Through the effective use of the multiple pop culture references and powerful personification, Erin Aubry Kaplan, with a sarcastic tone throughout the article, is able to gain the credibility of the readers during the 1990s. Kaplan, with this article, is also able to convey to readers that the body part “the butt” is still a very controversial and sensitive issue in America today. Readers are also able to be informed, by Kaplan, that over the many years that the African American decent has been in the United States, the big butt has created multiple, negative stereotypes, that degrade African American women with big butts as a whole. Although it is now slowly becoming accepted in today’s society there will always be negative assumptions towards women that are highly blessed in their rear end. With this being said, try to remember the next time you judge a woman with a protruding behind.

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Works Cited Kaplan, Erin Aubry. “The Butt”. Black Talk, Blue Thought, and Walking the Color Line, Lebaron University Press of New England, 2011. 3-15. Print

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