Viral 2022 Buttocks Study Draws 33 Million Views as Critics Cite 5% Women's Health Funding
Updated
Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Sep 21
Viral 2022 Buttocks Study Draws 33 Million Views as Critics Cite 5% Women's Health Funding
1 articles · Updated · Yahoo! Voices · Sep 21
Summary
A 2022 paper on the "ideal buttocks" exploded on X with more than 33 million views in two days, triggering broad ridicule and anger over why such work was published.
The backlash quickly widened into a funding critique: users said only 5% of global R&D goes to women's health and just 1% to non-cancer women's conditions, while illnesses such as endometriosis remain under-researched.
Some commenters questioned whether the study was needed at all, though others defended it as plastic-surgery research appearing in a journal tied to aesthetic surgery.
The dispute revived a longer-running argument that medicine undervalues women's conditions—from historic male-centered research to recent scrutiny of postpartum mental health care and endometriosis studies.