I’m breastfeeding now and I can’t put on my old jeans and this piece makes me feel proud to have reserves. Gives new meaning to the phrase tap that ass :)
I think all the fuss about women’s bodies is meant to distract us from notions of having actual freedom or rights, or intellectual pursuits. Like the name of the game is keeping us stirred up and ashamed so we stay in place.
What a terrific interview! I'm super interested to read this book now. One thing I am curious about is the linkage of the bustle to big butts – on one level the connection is super obvious, and on another, I wonder about the bustle as merely yet another iteration of hip and butt padding used as foundation garments in western women's dress ince the early modern period. Most of these accentuated the hips and not exclusively the butt, and had an important function as skirt supports, so I am curious as to Radke's exploration of the bustle as part of that sartorial lineage. I know she alludes in the interview to this usually being explored as being conceptually attached to the corset and other support garments, and it definitely is, but while the bustle is an especially exaggerated form of this garment, we also see things like bumrolls and rumps (the names these things had are... astounding). There are any number of well-researched resources on this online, by historians and hobby costumers alike, and while no one ever elides the connection to Big Asses, I don't know if I've seen them placed in the context of butts instead of the context of dress. How cool!
This was fabulous! As a white girl who was told by a black girl in college that I had a “black girl booty”, it helps me understand so many of my confusing feelings. She meant it in the best way, as a compliment or a celebration, but damn has it stayed with me. The strange both/and of pride/specialness (the feel good of being complimented and having something good that someone notices) and then wrongness (like I didn’t fit right in whiteness, my body was somehow wrong racially, and like I’d appropriated something or crossed a line I wasn’t supposed to and didn’t mean to). I’ve never really understood it all, but this piece helps make sense of all the layers I could feel and didn’t have words for. Thank you!
I'm in the middle of this book right now! I picked it up after hearing the author on You're Wrong About. It wasn't mentioned in this interview, but I found the sections on Norma/Normman and how they do clothing sizing absolutely fascinating. Our clothes today are literally not meant to fit us (unless you happen to be an actual fit model).
I bought the book this morning (I live in the Netherlands) on my way to work and it was a great surprise to find this amazing interview on today’s substack. I am more and more convinced I chose wisely my next reading! Thanks AHP!
This is fascinating and I can't wait to get my hands on this book! And now I know that my inability to run for more than five minutes is thanks to my flat ass, so there's that ;-)
Late to this, but in talking about how fashion is a pendulum, I'm thinking about the mini-series The Supermodels and how the response to the era of the Supermodel was The Waif where the models were treated as little more than walking hangers.
What an absolutely fascinating discussion! Can't wait to read the book!
Something I've now seen twice from Heather is this claim there's no clinical word for butt... Almost directly after she's literally just said the word "buttocks". Each buttock is formed of the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles plus a layer of fat.
Don't get me wrong, I'm highly interested in the book, but starting from this premise makes me question subsequent information.
I’m breastfeeding now and I can’t put on my old jeans and this piece makes me feel proud to have reserves. Gives new meaning to the phrase tap that ass :)
I think all the fuss about women’s bodies is meant to distract us from notions of having actual freedom or rights, or intellectual pursuits. Like the name of the game is keeping us stirred up and ashamed so we stay in place.
(1) this was so great, and (2) omg, I would read the hell out of a book about eyebrows
What a terrific interview! I'm super interested to read this book now. One thing I am curious about is the linkage of the bustle to big butts – on one level the connection is super obvious, and on another, I wonder about the bustle as merely yet another iteration of hip and butt padding used as foundation garments in western women's dress ince the early modern period. Most of these accentuated the hips and not exclusively the butt, and had an important function as skirt supports, so I am curious as to Radke's exploration of the bustle as part of that sartorial lineage. I know she alludes in the interview to this usually being explored as being conceptually attached to the corset and other support garments, and it definitely is, but while the bustle is an especially exaggerated form of this garment, we also see things like bumrolls and rumps (the names these things had are... astounding). There are any number of well-researched resources on this online, by historians and hobby costumers alike, and while no one ever elides the connection to Big Asses, I don't know if I've seen them placed in the context of butts instead of the context of dress. How cool!
This interview is a fucking delight, AHP! I mean it brought me SO much unexpected happiness just now. Thank you!
This was fabulous! As a white girl who was told by a black girl in college that I had a “black girl booty”, it helps me understand so many of my confusing feelings. She meant it in the best way, as a compliment or a celebration, but damn has it stayed with me. The strange both/and of pride/specialness (the feel good of being complimented and having something good that someone notices) and then wrongness (like I didn’t fit right in whiteness, my body was somehow wrong racially, and like I’d appropriated something or crossed a line I wasn’t supposed to and didn’t mean to). I’ve never really understood it all, but this piece helps make sense of all the layers I could feel and didn’t have words for. Thank you!
This was a surprising delight! Just trust you, indeed!
I'm in the middle of this book right now! I picked it up after hearing the author on You're Wrong About. It wasn't mentioned in this interview, but I found the sections on Norma/Normman and how they do clothing sizing absolutely fascinating. Our clothes today are literally not meant to fit us (unless you happen to be an actual fit model).
I bought the book this morning (I live in the Netherlands) on my way to work and it was a great surprise to find this amazing interview on today’s substack. I am more and more convinced I chose wisely my next reading! Thanks AHP!
This is fascinating and I can't wait to get my hands on this book! And now I know that my inability to run for more than five minutes is thanks to my flat ass, so there's that ;-)
Late to this, but in talking about how fashion is a pendulum, I'm thinking about the mini-series The Supermodels and how the response to the era of the Supermodel was The Waif where the models were treated as little more than walking hangers.
What an absolutely fascinating discussion! Can't wait to read the book!
Something I've now seen twice from Heather is this claim there's no clinical word for butt... Almost directly after she's literally just said the word "buttocks". Each buttock is formed of the gluteus maximus and gluteus medius muscles plus a layer of fat.
Don't get me wrong, I'm highly interested in the book, but starting from this premise makes me question subsequent information.
How did I never realize before that bustles were basically prehistoric BBLs!? Thanks, ladies! 🫡❣️