The student-run magazine of San Francisco State University

Xpress Magazine

The student-run magazine of San Francisco State University

Xpress Magazine

The student-run magazine of San Francisco State University

Xpress Magazine

Twerk it Out

Sudan Medran (left), Vona Battle (middle) and Alexa Delaat (right) stand on their tippy-toes to resemble The Twerkulator's golden mannequin butt in Vallejo. (Annastashia Goolsby/ Xpress Magazine)
Sudan Medran (left), Vona Battle (middle) and Alexa Delaat (right) stand on their tippy-toes to resemble The Twerkulator’s golden mannequin butt in Vallejo. (Annastashia Goolsby/ Xpress Magazine)

Recently, famous entrepreneurial socialite, Kim Kardashian, “broke the internet” by releasing exclusive photos of herself posing nude for a spread that will be featured in the Winter 2014 issue of Paper Magazine.

These photos, taken by renowned French artist, Jean-Paul Goude, caused a frenzy among the Facebook and Twitter-spheres because of Kardashian’s flawless derriere. From comment after comment, Kardashian’s photos received both positive and negative reviews from celebrities and non-celebrities alike – the latter being the most dominant.

“Wait, I don’t get it. No disrespect to Kim but… people are offended by my breastfeeding selfies and are fine with her (amazing) booty cover?” tweeted actress, Alyssa Milano, who recently gave birth to her newborn baby.

However, with either good or bad reviews, Kardashian viewed the revealing photoshoot as something positive not only for herself, but also for other women.

The “Butt Culture” phenomenon has been sweeping the world for several years, and it has never been more prominent as it is today. Women everywhere are viewing the booty with more confidence these past couple years.

The butt in today’s popular culture is getting a huge bump. The pressure for a woman to have a nice shape down there is high as ever.

For example, surgical procedures seeking to enhance a woman’s “donk” is increasing in popularity over the last couple months. The Brazilian Butt Lift, a surgical process which costs about $10,000, allows women to increase their butts to roughly two sizes up through the usage of fat injections. Comparing this procedure to about ten years ago, butt enhancement involved silicone implants.

The butt movement of today certainly has not risen on its own. In the nineties, actress and musician Jennifer Lopez, arrived in the entertainment world flaunting her voluptuous body. Her buttocks, in particular, was what stood out to everyone. Her derriere was so unique that many thought Lopez had surgeries to enhance it and insurance to protect it.

Then fast-forward to today’s time, in Nicki Minaj’s recent music video for her hit-song, “Anaconda,” Minaj is seen shaking her behind in addition to other women dancing in the same manner. Minaj and her dancers happen to show off their butt more than their own faces. It is as if this bootylicious video suggests that a woman’s behind is the most appealing part of her body.

The rap song in itself also contributes to the gluteus culture as it samples Sir Mix-A-Lot’s, “Baby Got Back.” “My anaconda don’t want none unless you got buns hun…” sings Sir Mix-A-Lot.

The infamous dance move, twerking, also made a huge impact in the butt movement after Miley Cyrus’s notorious performance with Robin Thicke at the MTV Video Music Awards in 2013.

Twerking, as defined by the Oxford dictionary, is a type of “dance to popular music in a sexually provocative manner involving thrusting hip movements and a low squatting stance.”

On-stage, Cyrus took upon the role as “twerk queen” after stripping off her emblazoned leotard and began the sexualized dance as Thicke performed “Blurred Lines.”

Alexa Delaat (left), Vona Battle (middle) and Alicia Lugo (right) grab each others bums to highlight the curvature of their backside in Vallejo. (Annastashia Goolsby / Xpress Magazine)
Alexa Delaat (left), Vona Battle (middle) and Alicia Lugo (right) grab each others bums to highlight the curvature of their backside in Vallejo. (Annastashia Goolsby / Xpress Magazine)

The twerking and lap dancing that Cyrus carried out demonstrated that a woman does not need to have a big butt in order to be a part of the trend. Instead, she showed women that knowing how to captivate one’s attention to a butt is all that is needed.

“We’re in a cool ass time of people actually being able to be themselves comfortably without being judged as much,” says Mikey Snider, one of the four men known as the Twerk Mob, who run The Twerkulator.

The Twerkulator, a gold-chrome party bus that roams up and down the West coast, was highly inspired by the infamous dance move. Curtis Nelson, creator of the bus, had the idea to turn a used RV into a mobile club that would simply give people another party experience.

Even though the interior portion of The Twerkulator is decked out in “white ostrich feather and chocolate wooden floors with five televisions lining the walls,” what matters more is that party-goers on the bus will have a good time and, most importantly, twerk their way into the night.

“At this time right now, [after] Miley Cyrus did her twerking thing, twerking became really huge along with butts,” says Brandon Coleman, a man part of the Twerk Mob, describing how The Twerkulator name came about.

Without a doubt, butts certainly took over the popularity of other womanly body parts, such as the breasts. Women are seeing that having a curvaceous behind is more of a positive aspect rather than a negative one because celebrities are constantly flaunting their own.

The derrieres of Kim Kardashian, Nicki Minaj and Jennifer Lopez are inspiring women that being voluptuous is not a bad thing. Miley Cyrus, on the other hand, proved to the world that even though she does not have a big booty, it still is something that a she has and can be proud of.

Despite the booty being curvy or not, what these celebrities are showing is that it is okay with having a booty or not.

Without a doubt, the underlying message that popular culture is trying to say is that a woman’s buttocks is one of her greatest assets. No pun intended.

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Twerk it Out