Butts and Science: What's up?

The wise words of Sir Mix-A-Lot "I like big butts and I can not lie" has echoed through many great minds over the past decades, but do we really like BIG butts or is it something more?

“A woman’s beauty lies, not in any exaggeration of the specialized zones, nor in any general harmony that could be worked out by means of the sectio aurea or a similar aesthetic superstition; but in the arabesque of the spine.” -John Updike, Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories

In the paper titled "Lumbar curvature: a previously undiscovered standard of attractiveness" by Dr. David Lewis and others, performed two distinct studies.

The first consisted of 102 men from Texas A&M to view images to assess how lumbar curvature influences perceived attractiveness.

The second utilized 202 men from Texas A&M to view photographic arrays to gauge preference for vertebral wedging or overall mass of the buttocks.

The results of the studies showed that men have an underlying preference for lumbar curvature (45.5°) and that attractiveness is associated with vertebral wedging and not buttock mass i.e. fat and muscle.

Perhaps the reasoning as to why men subconsciously prefer perfect lumber curvature is from the challenges of bipedal fetal load. Due to our bipedal nature, abdominal mass is increased while pregnant. The mass is shifted over the hips during pregnancy creating an 800% reduction in hip torque. Selection for that trait is preferred due to a reduction in nutritional stress.

"Men who think they like big bottoms may actually be more into spines" -Dr. Lewis
Link to the article https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1090513815000185