From Jennifer Lopez to Kim Kardashian: How Butts Stole the Spotlight From Boobs

What did this year's Grammy gowns have in common? From Nicki Minaj in her fringed black Tom Ford to Iggy Azalea in a blue Armani Prive, from Beyonce in a black holey Proenza Schouler to Lady Gaga in a silver, thigh-revealing Brandon Maxwell — and, of course, Kim Kardashian in a wide-open vintage Jean Paul Gaultier bathrobe dress — ladies were much more interested in showing off their barely covered derrieres than their ample cleavage (also on display but not as attention-getting). There were lots of butt-to-the-camera poses and provocative stares over the shoulder. There were even backward gown squats with a bit of wiggling and wriggling. Forget the mani cam. It's all about the butt cam these days. Read more after d cut.......

 With the celebrated broadening of behinds, the word "hipster" has a new meaning. Kardashian, Kylie Jenner, Miley Cyrus and selfie queen Jen Selter have made the "belfie," or butt selfie, all the rage on Instagram, and special "belfie sticks" are being marketed for taking a better photo from behind. It used to be men who sang about booties — going back to Queen's "Fat Bottomed Girls" (1978), Sir Mix-a-lot's "Baby Got Back" (1992), The Black Eyed Peas' "My Humps" (2005) and Major Lazer's "Bubble Butt" (2013) — but as of last year, women have owned the theme (though Destiny's Child did give it a big bump in 2001 with "Bootylicious"). In 2014, red-carpet rearview pioneer Jennifer Lopez — who helped make the backside the focal point of both female eroticism and fashion — finally acknowledged her cultural contribution with her "Booty" video (a collaboration with Azalea), which was joined by Minaj's "Anaconda" (close-ups of shaking cheeks worthy of an X rating) and Meghan Trainor's "All About That Bass." By the time Cyrus grinded hers into Robin Thicke at the 2013 MTV Awards, booty-popping and twerking had crossed over as a dance craze. And after Kardashian broke the Internet in November with her booty-baring Paper cover, the rest was hindsight history. (The trend also has sparked controversy over cultural appropriation of black women's bodies.)

 There was a time when American women would do anything to minimize the size of their buttocks — Spanx, dieting, jogging — after the waif archetype took over fashion in the '90s. In 2004, the most common Google searches in the U.S. for "changing one's butt" were concerned with how to make it smaller. In 2014, these inquiries were outnumbered in every state by searches asking advice on how to get a bigger butt.

 According to the American Association of Plastic Surgeons, desire for bigger behinds in the past five years has led to the fastest-growing cosmetic procedure, the "Brazilian butt lift," in which fat is liposuctioned from other regions in the body to pad and "pop" the butt. "The biggest jump percentage is in butt enlargements," says Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Lawrence Koplin. "It's a significant monetary surgery now." Ninety-nine percent of women who are looking for butt augmentation are doing it by the fat-transfer procedure, notes Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Gabriel Chiu: "You can call it a twofer: You get to eliminate, via liposuction, a trouble area like love handles, belly, inner or outer thighs and put that 'junk in the trunk.' " For a price: The cost begins at $9,500, the procedure takes three to six hours with a minimum of 10 injections per cheek, and most Brazilian butt-lift patients must sleep on their stomachs and cannot sit down for two weeks.

 Evolutionary psychologists interpret the phenomenon by saying that women with wide hips look more child-bearing-friendly, while small waists relay the fact that they aren't already pregnant. There's also evidence, according to University of Albany psychologist Gordon G. Gallup, that women with bigger butts have smarter babies due to "gluteal femoral fat stores," specifically in the buttocks and thighs, which are high in omega-3 acids and promote brain growth as well as higher cognitive scores.


So are butts really replacing boobs as the new erogenous zone? "Breasts and butts seem to be on alternating wave cycles in terms of popularity," says Contreras. "Although both will always be very popular, usually one is getting more attention than the other. This time is definitely more about the booty."

 Hmmmm...what do they mean by women with bigger butts have smarter kids?