Here’s a really interesting stat from the outstanding book Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are by Seth Stephens-Davidowitz:

“In 2004, in some parts of the United States, the most common search regarding changing one’s butt was how to make it smaller. The desire to make one’s bottom bigger was overwhelmingly concentrated in areas with large black populations. Beginning in 2010, however, the desire for bigger butts grew in the rest of the United States. This interest, if not the posterior distribution itself, has tripled in four years. In 2014, there were more searches asking how to make your butt bigger than smaller in every state.”

Over the past 16 years there has been a marked rise in surgeries to make one’s posterior larger. In 2016 there were nearly 22,000 buttock augmentation surgeries and another 4,200 buttock lifts. (In researching this IFOD I learned buttock augmentation can occur either by use of actual implants or via fat grafts.  Who knew?) The numbers for these procedures were negligible in 2000 and the 2016 numbers are a 20%+ increase over 2015.. Note, even though this is a lot of butt surgeries, it pales in comparison to the 290,000 breast augmentation surgeries in 2016.

As for Kim Kardashian, she claims (credibly) that she has not undergone any sort of surgical procedure. Her bodacious bottom is due to genetics and hard work.  Here’s a link to her lower body workout in case you want to put some junk in your trunk: Kardashian Butt Workout