When faced with indecency issues back in the 1930s, W.G. Cassidy explained in an essay titled Private Parts: A Judicial View that it may come under "other private parts" in described by the Australian Law, though indecency generally covers the genital area.[1]

Social scientist Ariel Levy described the culture of low cut jeans that revealed butt cleavage, along with miniature tops that revealed breast implants and navel piercing, as examples of the rise of the "raunch culture" among women in her book Female Chauvinist Pigs: Women and the Rise of Raunch Culture.[2]

In the early 2000s it became fashionable for young women and men to expose their buttocks in this way, often in tandem with low rise jeans.[3][4] The Cincinnati Enquirer called it the "new cleavage", and expressed views that "It's virtually impossible to find jeans to cover your hipbone".[5] In August 2001, The Sun celebrated a bum cleavage week claiming that "bums are the new tits".[6] In reaction to this trend, Saturday Night Live aired a parody advertisement for a product called Neutrogena Coin Slot Cream.[7]

British designer Alexander McQueen was particularly mentioned as the originator of buttock cleavage revealing jeans, known as the "bumster", in cultural critique Sheila Jeffreys' Beauty and Misogyny: Harmful Cultural Practices in the West.[8] United States Patent 6473908 registers a design for buttock cleavage revealing trouser designs.[9] In the mid-2000s, Good Morning America reported on a rise of popularity of the buttock cleavage among celebrities.[10]