“Hey! You have a nice butt!”

I was walking to the store on a Friday afternoon, not really paying attention to the people around me.

“You in the purple shirt!  Nice butt!”

That caught my attention.  I was wearing a purple shirt.  I turned towards the voice, expecting some guy to be standing there and was shocked to see a boy.  A boy that couldn’t have been more than 12 maybe 13 or 14 if we’re pushing it.  He was surrounded by 3 or 4 of his friends and they were all snickering as he gave me a thumbs up and then raced off to do something else.

I didn’t think much of it because sadly, this isn’t the first time that someone, usually a male, has felt the need to audibly comment on some part of my body.  But as I walked on I started thinking, “Why is a boy that young talking about my butt?”

Probably a million reasons.  His friends were egging him on, he sees it in the media all the time, he’s watched other boys/men do it in real life, he really like butts, he has no filter from his brain to his mouth… The list could go on and on.  And it’s a sad list.  It’s sad that this is what both women and men have been reduced to.

Body parts.

Think about it.  Everything is aimed at certain aspects of a person but never the whole person.  Magazines tout the latest workout for sexy abs or the newest diet for lean thighs or what you need to do to get bulging biceps.  We look at celebrities and covet certain body parts.  I wish I had Jennifer Lopez’s butt or Taylor Swifts abs or Heidi Klum’s legs.  If I was as ripped as Chris Evans or Ryan Reynolds, all the ladies would want me.

We, me included, always pick and nag at our “worst” attributes.  I want my stomach to be flatter.  Everything I do needs to be working towards getting a flatter stomach.  We never take the time to look at a body as a whole machine.  Something that works together with all the parts to be one awesome mechanism.  It’s always about the one part that doesn’t work or look the way we want it to.

Enough.

I am not my butt.  I am not my abs.  I am not my arms, thighs, or chin.  I am Katie, a human person that is so much more than any one part of me.  And so are you.  Everyone is more than just a body part and all of us need to start seeing that.  To look at people as a whole.  To drop the nitpicking over our one flaw.

That woman walking down the street is not a giant pair of legs.

That man sitting next to you isn’t a huge abdominal.

They are whole humans and they deserve to be treated that way.  So start by treating your own body as a whole being and then spread that idea to the other people you meet.  Maybe, we can start making a difference.