Inside the Viral Search Phenomenon: How Pop Culture and Online Parody Created an Unlikely Phenomenon

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While behavioral scientists quantified adipose biochemistry, contemporary theater took the aesthetic head-on. In May 2017, *American Theatre Magazine* profiled playwright and composer Kirsten Childs for her ambitious stage production, Bella: An American Tall Tale. Childs created Bella, a 19th-century Black woman possessing an outsized posterior, forcing audiences to confront long-standing racial and physical stereotypes.

Instead of presenting Bella's proportions as a punchline or tragic affliction, Childs rooted her narrative inside classic Western tall tales alongside figures like Paul Bunyan and Pecos Bill. Bella's curves served as an almost supernatural shield, deflecting bullets, enchanting suitors, and propelling her across the Western frontier. Childs effectively reclaimed the silhouette that European colonial institutions historically pathologized in figures like Saartjie Baartman.

Through Bella, Childs elevated the silhouette into high-spirited myth. She bypassed the standard tropes of contemporary media, presenting a self-possessed figure who commanded her own destiny.