Audiobook review of Butts by Heather Radke

In Butts: A Backstory (8 hours), a typically cheeky however all the time fascinating cultural historical past of the butt, Heather Radke makes the case that our butts are proxies for society’s unfavorable views of race, gender and intercourse.  

Emily Tremaine’s narration captures the nuances of Radke’s message. Her tone is lighthearted when describing an unlikely race between people and horses (we win, by the way in which, due to our butts); outraged when recounting the tragic story of Sarah Baartman, the so-called “Hottentot Venus”; and convincing when connecting society’s altering definitions of the unattainable “ideal butt” to racism and sexism. Best of all, Tremaine is passionate when she provides voice to Radke’s name to reject these expectations and as an alternative embrace ourselves—butts and all—as distinctive and priceless and delightful.