This summer loves big butts and it cannot lie

(AFP PHOTO / Alaistair Grant)

We're bizarre creatures, us women. One day, we hate our curves, the next, we're in love with them. But it seems like this summer will be a good one in particular for those who, in the words of Sir Mix-A-Lot, got back.

According to an article in the New York Daily News, "big bums are shaping up to be the summer of 2010's hottest trend," and the publication seems to be backed (pun intended) by many a celebrity quote.

Tennis star Serena Williams, for instance, told Harper's Bazaar: "I'm super-curvy, I have big boobs and this massive butt. Since I don't look like every other girl, it takes a while to be okay with that. But different is good."

Reality TV star Kim Kardashian - who has set out to rival Jennifer Lopez as Hollywood's most sought-after derriere - is equally comfortable: "Yep, I'm the girl with the big butt," she told the Daily Telegraph. "[...] I guess I've learnt to appreciate it now. I'm Armenian and we're curvy women, so, yeah, I pride myself on being happy with what I've been given."

The trend also seems to have caught on with the very young, with Madonna's daughter, Lourdes blogging that she was "totally obsessive about '80s shorts ... the kind that makes your butt look kinda big."

The Daily News quote Stylesight trend analyst Sharon Graubard on the reasons behind the phenomenon: "I think it's about the diversity of our population and more accepted beauty, and a wider range of accepted beauty," she explained. "We have all these Brazilian models, and as our population becomes more diverse, we're appreciating different body parts [...]. In Brazil, it's been all about the butt."

Expectedly, the new obsession with the backside has already prompted product launches en masse, with examples including The Big Butt Book, which brings you 400 pages of celebrity bums (Taschen, €39.99), or even shapewear that's designed to enhance your butt rather than to disguise it: the Pure Style Girlfriends' Bump-A-Booty Padded Panty ($30), for instance, will give all those skinny models, that used to be so en vogue yesterday, something to hang on to in these new, bootylicious times.