Batty Politics: Desire and Rear Excess

Abstract

In the 21st century ‘rear end aesthetics’ (Hobson, 2005) valorizes racial alterity. It also severs links with the steatopygia of Baartman as it connects with the desire for the derrière of the Sable-Saffron Venus alter/native which we see replayed in hip hop, soca, dancehall and in the boom boom brasilera. Black women’s excessive bottoms have now entered the global body market in ‘erotic capital’ (Lee, 2010; Hakim, 2010) as they are being reproduced through aesthetic surgery’s stylization possibilities on a variety of bodies including those of Black women themselves. In February 2011, 20-year-old Black British student, Claudia Aderotini from Hackney East London, journeyed with friends to Philadelphia for silicone injections to enhance her bottom. She paid £1,000 for the procedure which she felt would boost her hip hop career as she had been dropped from a previous promo because her bottom was too small and as such did not possess erotic capital. Unfortunately, her ‘pumper’ used industrial grade silicone. She never came home. She died twelve hours after the procedure was done in room 425 of the Hampton Inn Hotel near the airport. This was a tragedy but one that makes us wonder what alter/native-body desires and agencies are being made visible through the manufacture of batty by both Claudia and the celebrity known for her bottom (batty) and breast enhancement, Nicki Minaj?