In the history of fashion, periods of slimness alternate with periods of voluptuousness. The cult of the callipygian is always found in those periods where rounded, curvaceous, voluptuous women embody the ideal of beauty. The posterior loses its aesthetic value in periods where slimness is the norm.
The Rococo was a period of sophisticated eroticism. It is evident from illustrations of the period that a lovely backside was admired just as much as a lovely bosom. A publication entitled Servants of Beauty, which appeared in Leipzig in 1774, gives the following opinion of what constitutes a lovely backside: “Those buttocks are considered beautiful that are evenly placed, not too high, and not uneven as in lame people whose hip-bones are displaced, that do not stick out like a bay window; not so large and fat that you could dance on them, but not so skinny and sharp that you could drill holes with them, but rounded, hard, taut, so that they have a pleasing resonance when slapped, smooth and white…” We see that the image of a firm bottom is not new, just the concepts change.
Goethe was also aware of the charms of a lovely backside;
“I know a girl who has a lovely mouth,
And lovely round cheeks…
And something else round as well,
That I never grow weary of gazing on.”
33. Berthomme de Saint-André, 1927.
34. Achille Devéria, circa 1830. Lithograph.
35. Achille Devéria, circa 1830. Lithograph.
36. Achille Devéria, circa 1830. Romantic Lithography.
It was the fashion to emphasise these curves with extra padding, for instance with an item known as the “Cul de Paris”. This was described in a women’s dictionary of 1725: “A French backside is a rounded, soft and lightly padded cushion or loincloth that a woman wears beneath her skirts so as to pad out her rear end and draw attention to her figure”. The “Cul de Paris” experienced its greatest triumph during the Biedermeier period, when it developed into a fixed steel frame which gave the impression of curves which often did not exist.
Men also took pride in having taut buttocks. During the Renaissance especially, opulent male figures were appreciated. Many contemporaries described the closely-cut breeches which particularly emphasise the buttocks as shameless. A chronicle from 1492 records: “Young men wore tunics that came no longer than a hand span below the belt, so that their breeches could be seen quite clearly, in front and behind, and they were so tight that the cleavage of their buttocks was obvious; a fine thing!” In the first half of the sixteenth century wide breeches which gave the impression of huge buttocks became fashionable, quite in keeping with the course sexuality of the period. In our own day the cult of the callipygian has gained a considerable improvement in status thanks to the modern fashion for trousers, especially the worldwide triumphal progress of jeans, for both sexes.
Nevertheless fashion has never managed to achieve a genuine “décolletage” of the buttocks. An erotic story from 1905 describes a “ball” of the buttocks: “Lovely lady, I think that bottoms have been condemned to suffer since the creation of the world; now it is time that they were honoured, it’s only fair… Choose a form of exposure that corresponds to the form of its beauty. You are permitted to adorn it elaborately with pearls or diamonds, veil it with gauze, frame it with ruches and frills, drape it with blue or red, according to the colour of your hair. If you adorn this part of your body with the same artistry as you adorn your bosom, I can guarantee, ladies, that you will look divine, and the success of the festivities will be recorded for posterity.” Only recently have “décolletages” for bottoms been seen at “Love-Parades”[36]
But there may be an archaic need to expose this part of the body which so fascinates one’s sexual partner. This may well be a survival of the time when copulation took place exclusively from behind. J. Eibl-Eibesfeldt[37] claims that bushmen still prefer to copulate in this position even today. Even in our own culture, the archaic methods of copulation play an important role. Freud established that in all fantasies or memories of origins, coitus a tergo, in the manner of animals, is imagined.
37. Lobel-Riche, 1936.
38. Lobel-Riche, 1936.
In antiquity, the admiring observation of the posterior was one of the common ways of evaluating a female. Competitions to discover the loveliest bottom were common. One of Alkiphron’s “hetaerae[38] letters” describes a wild symposium held by courtesans in which the spectacular climax is a dispute between two of them as to who has the prettier and more graceful bottom. The dispute is arbitrated by an exhibition: “First of all, Myrrhina loosened her girdle – she kept on her thin silken garment[39] – and swayed back and forth, so that her bottom trembled like thick, creamy milk, and she looked over her shoulder to watch its movements; she uttered soft sighs, as though she were in the throes of love’s ecstasy. But Thryallis didn’t let herself be intimidated, but went even further in shamelessness.
“‘I’m not going to compete in thin robes’, she said, ‘and I’m not going to be coy, but I’ll be naked as in a wrestling match. Coyness has no place in this competition’. She cast off her garment and swayed her hips slightly. ‘Look’, she said, ‘see how even the colour is, how spotless, how pure, see my rosy hips and how they shade into my thighs, there are no bulges of fat visible, nor any bones, nor any dimples. And indeed, by Zeus, it doesn’t tremble like Myrrhina’s – and she smiled slightly. And then she demonstrated the play of muscles and swayed her buttocks so that the muscles danced across her hips, and everyone applauded and victory was awarded to Thryallis.” The decision was influenced not only by the appearance and characteristics of the posterior but also by the charm of the environment in which it was exposed.
The well-known Judgment of Paris is the model for such beauty contests. A similar competition in Syracuse is at the base of the legend of the founding of a cult of Aphrodite. The two daughters of a simple peasant were competing to see which had the prettiest bottom; to judge between them they chose a young man of good family who promptly fell in love with the older sister while his younger brother fell for the younger sister. There was a double wedding and the two girls dedicated a temple to Aphrodite, to whom they gave the name “Kallipygos”, “She of the lovely Buttocks.”
Exposure and demonstration of the buttocks is part of the repertoire of erotic gestures which prostitutes use to arouse their clients. Already in the fifth century B. C. admiration was being expressed for dancers who danced “with kilted-up skirts” and then undressed and allowed their posteriors to be admired.
The posterior gained aesthetic recognition thanks to this exhibitionism; it is unjustly despised, because the charms of a beautiful bottom appeal to the aesthetic sense of both sexes. F. Th. von Vischer[40] states that it is the “peach-like shape” of the bottom which creates aesthetic appreciation. The effect of these sculptural charms explains why many content