SALON

Friday, Nov 3, 2006 2:04 PM UTC

Where have all the booties gone?

Celebrity culture seems to have abandoned the "healthy butt" trend.

By

Topics: Jennifer Lopez, Broadsheet, Love and Sex,

Where have all the booties gone?Booty queens: Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez.

Ah, celebrities. They’re never far from view, gazing from ubiquitous newsstands, inhabiting our subconscious minds with their dewy skin and perfect smiles, and, whether we like it or not, influencing our self-images. When icons like J.Lo and Beyonce hit the scene, it looked as though the craze for excessive thinness might have finally run its course — if voluptuousness was celebrated by the mainstream media, maybe regular women could at last enjoy a second helping of dessert.

Now, as the New York Post reports, that voluptuousness is burning off like a low-cal protein bar. In a piece titled “Et tu Booty?” Post writer Mackenzie Dawson notes that as more and more actresses and singers drift toward malnourishment and career trajectories rise according to the number of ribs displayed by backless dresses (a look exemplified by, but not exclusive to, Nicole Richie), the trend toward abundant backsides is in its death throes. Beyonci and J. Lo themselves haven’t become emaciated to follow the wave (though the former is visibly thinner), and Details magazine rather dubiously noted earlier this year that some curvy women still thrive in Hollywood. But the celebrity-rag spotlight has simply turned from ample curves to gaunt images of predominantly white starlets like Kate Bosworth and Keira Knightly.

This time, however, the female populace isn’t ready to go gently into stomach-growling nights. Dawson quotes professional women getting uppity about the thin trend: “I am so exhausted by the enthusiastically skeletal teen queens who stagger around Hollywood proclaiming 95 pounds to be their ‘natural’ body weight,” said one, while another opined that “men will always choose the Monica Belluccis, Scarlett Johanssons and Salma Hayeks over the Kate Bosworths of the world.” Another expresses outrage that celebrity culture “pay[s] lip service to ‘embracing individuality’” but then devotes attention to ritualistic starvation. And rightfully so; after all that adoration of celebrity curves and touting of “healthy” body images, we’re right back to where we started, with Hollywood starlets passing out in public and insisting that they’re simply “overtired” while struggling to hide protruding collarbones.

Blame for the current trend can’t rest on the stars alone; the media is capitalizing on corpselike actresses with unabashed glee. Celebrity weeklies like Star and Us Weekly run regular features like “Star Bodies: Too Thin?” and set newsstand sales records with cover stories such as “Nicole Seeks Treatment.” The eventual result? Normalization of the idea that having an eating disorder will get you desirable attention — not exactly an ideal message for young women still developing their own body images. Studies show that girls remain as susceptible as ever to cultural beauty standards, and feel tremendous pressure to meet them. It’s doubtful that the booty backlash is helping to ease their minds.

More Melissa Lafsky.

Next Article

Related Stories

More Related Stories

Featured Slide Shows

The week in 10 pics

close X
  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11
  • Lisa Montgomery embraces her nephew Thursday after a tornado tore apart her home in Cleburne, Texas. The twister killed six people and destroyed entire swaths of the North Texas town.
    Credit: AP/LM Otero

  • Jack McMahon, the defense attorney for abortion doctor Kermit Gosnell, speaks outside the Criminal Justice Center in Philadelphia Tuesday. His client was convicted of killing three babies in his clinic, and will serve multiple life sentences.
    Credit: AP/Matt Rourke

  • A photo taken Monday captures Vice President Joe Biden's response to a Milwaukee second-grader's innovative proposal to end America's epidemic of gun violence. This guy!
    Credit: AP/Jenny Aicher

  • Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., flanked by a grouper-eyed Michele Bachmann, addresses the IRS' admission that it targeted Tea Party groups in advance of the 2012 election. In an op-ed for CNN Thursday, the Kentucky senator slammed the president for his faux outrage.
    Credit: AP/Molly Riley

  • Ousted IRS chief Steven Miller is sworn in on Capitol Hill Friday. Miller testified before the House Ways and Means Committee on the extra scrutiny the agency gave conservative groups applying for tax-exempt status.
    Credit: AP/J. Scott Applewhite

  • Attorney General Eric Holder pauses as he testifies on Capitol Hill before the House Judiciary Committee Wednesday. Holder is under fire, among other things, for the Justice Department's gathering of phone records at the Associated Press.
    Credit: AP/Carolyn Kaster

  • O.J. Simpson sits during an evidentiary hearing at Clark County District Court in Las Vegas, Nev., Thursday. Simpson, who is currently serving a nine-to-33-year sentence in state prison for armed robbery and kidnapping, is using a writ of habeas corpus to seek a new trial.
    Credit: AP/Las Vegas Review-Journal/Jeff Scheid

  • Major Tom to ground control: On Sunday astronaut Chris Hadfield recorded the first music video from space, a cover of David Bowie's "Space Oddity."
    Credit: AP/NASA/Chris Hadfield

  • When it rains it pours. President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference Thursday with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, inexplicably inspiring an #umbrellagate Twitter meme.
    Credit: AP/Jacquelyn Martin

  • A smoke plume rises high above a road block at the intersection of County A and Ross Road east of Solon Springs, Wis., Tuesday. No injuries were reported, but the the wildfire caused evacuations across northwestern Wisconsin.
    Credit: AP/The Duluth News-Tribune/Clint Austin

  • Recent Slide Shows

  • Share on Twitter
  • Share on Facebook
  • Thumbnails
  • Fullscreen
  • 1 of 11

Related Videos

Comments

 22 Comments

Comment Preview

Your name will appear as username

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href=""> <b> <em> <strong> <i> <blockquote>

follow salon

Most Read

Popular on Reddit

links from salon.com

From Around the Web

Presented by Scribol
listener_new_rect The Listener: So long, Sookie Stackhouse

Recommendations