There are hundreds of beautiful butts out there. Just watch any music video, attend any pilates class, or drop by any strip club flashing a stack of ones, and you'll see for yourself. In terms of economic value, a beautiful butt is just above a winning smile or a good work ethic in terms of having being worth basically zero. Yes, the market for butts these days is oversaturated. From Kim Kardashian's Paper Mag cover to Nicki Minaj's "Anaconda," in 2014 butts have become as common on the pop culture landscape as police procedurals and autotune. With all of these butts lined up begging for our attention (there's a visual for you), what makes someone like Jen Selter so special? She isn't a media mogul like Kim Kardashian. She doesn't have the lyrical gifts of Nicki Minaj. She doesn't have the acting chops of Christina Hendricks. Yet, when we think about the greatest butts in pop culture, Selter's has a way of ... butting into the conversation (had to, sorry). Let's take a look at the woman behind the butt and try to figure out what makes Jen Selter, and her Instagram award winning ass, so damn special. More importantly, let's think about what we can learn from Selter, even if you have no hope of attaining such a derrière, no matter how much time you spend on the squat rack.
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Put Your Butt in the Perfect Environment
Like Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Malala Youseafzai before her, Jen Selter was rewarded for all of her hard work with a New York Times profile. Don't worry: if the paper of record isn't quite your style, Selter also received coverage from Vanity Fair, Cosmopolitan, and has gotten about as much press in New York Post as the C.I.A. Torture Report. Early in the Times profile, we learn that Selter, like so many luminaries before her, began her work by putting herself in the right place at the right time. Selter was a typical collegiate, adrift in a sea of internships and job interviews, unsure where life would take her next. She decided to take a job at a gym while she figured it out. And the rest, whether you like it or not, is history.
It seems that Selter became an Instagram celebrity somewhat by accident. She simply began taking belfies and the world came to her. But, if you were going to court digital stardom, the gym wouldn't be a bad place to be employed. The gym has lots of mirrors, perfect for getting a belfie from every conceivable angle. Gym employees, as our readers well know, also don't do very much. Just as William Faulkner worked as a night watchman to give himself the time to watch The Sound and the Fury while paying rent, Selter got herself a job that would allow for maximum belfie time. Finally, if you work at a gym, your work attire is also perfect belfie attire. It is common knowledge that yoga pants provide a far better belfie canvas than, say, a pencil skirt or a sensible pants suit. This meant that Selter not only had ample time to snap belfies, but she also was always wearing belfie attire. Should the inspiration strike, the path from her brain to Instagram met the path of least resistance.
Oh yeah, working at the gym let her workout a lot too.
Know Your Limitations
Whether you're trying to become a fine artist, a concert pianist, or an Instagram star, it is important to play to your strengths. In the same Times profile, Ms. Selter spoke to this point. As Times reporter Marisa Meltzer put it, "Cleavage, Ms. Selter maintains, can be transformed only through surgery. A full, pert behind, she said, 'shows hard work.'" Selter's point here reminds me of a quote from the "Serenity Prayer," authored by Reinhold Neibur in the early 1900s:
"O God, give us the serenity to accept what cannot be changed,
The courage to change what can be changed,
and the wisdom to know the one from the other."
For Selter, that which can be changed is her posterior. Squats, lunges, elliptical machines, and all the rest can be used as effective tools for molding and shaping a solid set of glutes into a truly magnificent ass. Selter knew that she had a god-given gift, and the determination to get her butt where she needed it to be. She also knew that her butt should be her main focus, that she shouldn't make the mistake so many military masterminds have made in the throws of martial hubris and try to fight a battle on two fronts.
Early on, Selter heard a calling from her rear, and she listened.
One Woman's Vanity is Another Woman's Inspiration
Fitness models on Instagram differentiate themselves from other women who take alluring pictures of their body parts by insisting that their pictures are about "motivation." This is a clever position to take because it allows these women to not only benefit from the notoriously thirsty men of the Internet, but also be reblogged and reposted by women who one day wish to have a backside similar to Selter's. The matches up cleanly with an age-old vision of fame: "Men want to be him; women want to be with him." Of course, in this twenty-first century iteration, "Women want that butt; men want dat butt."
Selter is very careful to define herself as fitness-focused. She is careful to make sure that she puts wellness before finances and fame in her many interviews. In an interview with Elle, Selter said, "When I see someone advertising for 100 different companies, it’s like, okay, this person is just in it for making money. [For me] It’s more of a passion."
It's a fine but lucrative line that Selter is straddling here. She has to find a way to maintain the kind of branding that will continue to attract female fitness enthusiasts, and the sponsorships that come with them. At the same time, she has to produce photos that will appeal to the thirsty men that are a large portion of her fan base. This balance surely takes a lot of thought, but it seems that so far, Selter is doing just fine.
Leave Something to the Imagination
One way that Selter makes sure that her fans continue to view her as a fitness guru is to keep her pictures clean. It's hard to argue that yoga pants leave much to the imagination, but Selter sees a clear line between fitness wear and bikinis, lingerie, and other risqué outfits. She told the New Yokr Post, “I’ll never post a raunchy pic. There’s a difference between a porn-site picture and gym wear or bikini wear. Everything’s usually yoga pants ... Yes, it can be showy, but I’ve seen a lot worse. And if it motivates people to get their butts up and go to the gym, why not?”
The line between inspiration and objectification, apparently, is only as thick as colored spandex.
You're Nobody Unless You Have a #hashtag.
In the future, all of us might end up famous for fifteen minutes. But, the true celebrities among us will be able to document their fame with a personalized hashtag. In the grand tradition of planking and Tebowing, Selter has given birth to #seltering. As you may guess, #seltering is shorthand for a fitness belfie, particularly if the butt selfie is being executed in hard to reach place. If you're in yoga pants straddling a subway stop or lifting yourself above a hallway so passersby can get a better view of your ass, you are #seltering. Not only does having her own hashtag mean that Jen's name will spread even when she isn't posting, but the #seltering hashtag bolsters her claim that she seeks to be an inspiration. If dozens of young ladies are seltering on a daily basis, you have to admit that Ms. Selter and her yoga pants selfies have had an impact.
Give the People What They Want
Despite, Selter's high-minded ideals, she has no illusions about exactly what it is that she's selling. Predictably, her interview with the chauvinists over at the New York Post took a more salacious turn. The first paragraphs of Dana Schuster's piece on Selter describes New York City men, from police officers to Hasidic Jews, ogling her as she posed for some very public photos around Manhattan subway stops. Schuster writes:
“'Is that real?' one guy panted. Another asked for her hand in marriage. Three Hasidic Jews looked on in awe. The police came. And then stood there and enjoyed the show. Selter didn’t even flinch."
Later in the piece, Selter admits, "I mainly do body selfies. Not that I care what people think, but they don’t care. They don’t want to see my face.”
Say what you will, but the girl keeps it real.
Be More Than Just Another Pretty Butt
All jokes aside, there are a lot of butts out there on Instagram, and Jen Selter's is the one you've heard of. This didn't all happen by chance. Throughout her career, Selter has made savvy business decisions in order to make sure that she profits off of her posterior, even when others come for a piece of the pie (or, cake, as it were.) Selter outlined a few business practices when speaking to Elle that could help anyone trying to carve out an online presence for themselves. Selter told Elle's Claire Howorth that early in her time tumbling and graming, "More established fitness accounts began reblogging her photos without credit, so she reached out to each person and site to ask that they link back to her, and the magic began to happen." She could have protested their thievery of her photos. She could have simply been grateful to be noticed. Instead, she saw the possibility of leveraging her content on more established blogs. The price of admission she charged these blogs was exposure, which cost her nothing, but for Selter, this turned out to be everything.
Once she hit over 300,000 followers, Selter started to field offers from interested brands. Sponsorship and product placement were suddenly on the table. This is a very important in any fitness gurus shelf-life. Just like a musician or a writer, a fitness star's fan base can easily feel that their role model has sold out once they see Under Armor and Nike plastered all over their assets. Fellow Instagram star Caitlin Turner (@gypsetgoddess) put it this way:
“Sponsorships and paid shout-outs are great, as long as the influencer is conscious about whether sharing these brands is beneficial to their followers as well. Popular fitness gurus and yogis become role models for their followers. ... the brands will sell product and profit from the influencer sharing their brand, so it's fair that the influencer is compensated as well.”
Successful gramers like Selter and Turner understand that their sponsorships are only valuable insofar as their brand has integrity. If your followers turn on you, the house your body built can turn to ash over night.
Get Out In Front of Your "Haters"
Though it is hard not to admire Selter's business savvy, it is equally easy to critique her lack of credentials. Selter has parlayed her Instagram hearts into a job writing fitness column for the New York Post, not to mention her many guest spots all across the Internet. A number of legit fitness publications responded to the news of her burgeoning career as a "fitness expert" by asking a fair question: what authority to Selter have to be writing fitness columns?
Men's Health columnist Jen Sinkler wrote that as a result of Selter's fame, "... a curious phenomenon occurred, one made possible on such a large scale only because of social media—the assumption that because Selter looks fit, she is a fitness expert." The piece goes on to critique some of Selter's advice, calling it "often out-dated," calling out her misunderstanding of squat form and her misperceptions about muscle cells vs. fat cells. As is the case with many of Selter's critics, Sinkler stops short of going for the jugular, writing, "I’m not a hater. I’m a hoper. And I hope what Selter reveals next is a growing passion for fitness education, so that she uses her massive momentum for maximum good."
Why stop short when you had a solid case? Why walk back from incendiary statements like, "Her photo captions can feel, well, half-assed. She lets the photos of her body do most of the talking?" Savvy Internet stars, whether they be Taylor Swifts or Grumpy Cats, know that the best way to deflect criticism is blanket complaints about "haters." Selter is sure to mention as often as possible how foul and cruel her commenters can be. This allows her to dismiss any legitimate criticism in the wave of positivity that comes with banishing haters.
Take a careful look at any Internet star and you'll find that this anti-hater-ism is a common thread.
The Only Path To That Butt Is Hard Work
If after all of this, you believe that you have what it takes to become the next great Insta-butt, you should know that Selter has shared her secret. The secret, of course, is that there is no secret. Getting a Selter butt takes the focus and discipline of a Jedi. You have to prioritize achieving that butt, and go after it with laser-sharp focus. Here is what Selter told the Huffington Post when asked how to attain a Instagram-worthy rear-end:
"Anyone can acquire anything they set their hearts and minds to! It takes dedication, perseverance, hard work and consistency. There is no secret pill, no special diet. What it comes down to is how hard you push yourself and how you overcome the mental challenge of getting yourself to the gym even when you really don't want to. Consistency leads to results. Diet is also important. I eat every few hours to keep my metabolism running and I try to stay away from overly processed foods. Lots of lean meat, vegetables and fresh fruit. Fitness is a lifestyle. You must be mentally prepared to commit to it and be consistent with your health and fitness lifestyle in order to see results and as we know results don't happen overnight."
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