Why Is Butt Cleavage Still a Thing?

Earlier this summer, we went to Sasquatch Music Festival and were taken aback by a new-ish trend among the women of our generation: underbutt. Why has bottom cleavage replaced breast cleavage for the current generation of 'indie hot girls'?

In most cases, butt cleavage is aided and abetted by another, more longstanding trend: jorts. And, for that, we have to thank a few pop culture icons from the last five decades who've kept the denim cut-off trend alive for every new generation.

'70s
A conversation about modern-day jorts obviously begins with Daisy Duke. Southern -- but no belle -- Daisy's impossibly small pair of cutoff jorts were sex personified.

'80s
In the 80's, we were gifted another jorts icon by way of the early '60s: Baby, the nice Daddy's girl from Dirty Dancing. Sporting a pair of high-waisted skimmer jorts as she crawled across the dance floor toward Patrick Swayze's Johnny, her wardrobe choice was a defining moment in bridging the gap between her high-end world of summer vacations and college prep work with Johnny's working class roots. That scene reminds us of when Sandra Dee stepped out in her impossibly tight black leather pants and untamed mess of curls in Grease as a way to announce her sexiness, availability and, most importantly, cool vibes.

'90s
In the '90s our silver screens welcomed Christina Applegate as the trashy but lovable jorts-wearing Kelly Bundy in Married With Children. The young Bundy daughter exposed her shoulders and midriff, bounced between boyfriends, and barely graduated from high school. Her jorts became a stylistic representation of her wild -- and carefree -- behavior.

'00s
In the new millennium, we tipped our Von Dutch trucker hats to Miss Britney Jean Spears, who ushered in a new 'jorts era' by pairing her cut-offs with belly button rings, Ugg boots and those aformentioned baseball caps. It wasn't long before Britney was walking into gas station bathrooms shoeless, eating Cheetos by the pound and marrying wifebeater-wearing Kevin Federline. It was a slippery slope indeed.

2010s
The jorts icon of our current decade is none other than Ms. Party In the USA herself, Miley Cyrus, who, finally, brings us back to the butt. When not donning bear leotards and gyrating on married men, this former Disney star can be regularly spotted rocking '90s combat boots and crop tops, '70s oversized sunglasses and a pair of ass-flashing shorts. Her cut-offs, it seems, have come to symbolize her emancipation from... well, clothing, but also her wholesome Hannah Montana image.

And now everyone from Rihanna to that girl you ran into at Coachella that you used to babysit for have been jumping on the bottom-baring bandwagon. Are these girls taking a page from the pop stars and using butt cleavage as a way to declare their womanhood? (Which, depressingly, reminds us that our mothers burned their bras to announce their liberation and we're...showing our ass cheeks?) Or is it just a harmless fashion trend á la super low rise jeans or tube tops?

We can't speak for the thousands flocking to this fad but we're ready for the butt to be safely tucked away. And we have a hunch that any fashionplate worth her Miu Miu wedges would probably agree with us that cheek isn't chic. In an interview with New York Magazine the always impeccably dressed Chloë Sevigny (who also goes for denim shorts from time to time) commented on the jorts she witnessed last year at Coachella: "I kept calling them 'denim underwear,' because all the girls wear the denim underwear and it's, like, a little obscene! I don't want to say that, but you know, sometimes I think that they're just too short!"