Ifs and butts: the long history of the derrière

Heather Radke's Butts: A Backstory’ is a witty look at the historical progress of society's relationship with the butt

- Jen Thomas

I remember the exact moment my butt came into view, so to speak. I was 15, standing in my parent's kitchen, and my brother and I were arguing. Scrambling to find an insult big enough to hurt my feelings, he yelled, "You have a pumpkin butt!"

Until that moment, my butt had given me no second thoughts, only a mere hinge on my body, something so unremarkable it wasn't worth commenting on-until someone did. I looked at my mother-she also had a butt that resembled a pumpkin. So did my aunts. The women in my family all had them, but I could tell you one thing: None liked their butts. And thrust into the open, my bottom now the subject of its first insult, I realised I not only didn't like mine I simply couldn't. After all, it was the shape of a pumpkin!

In the years to come, I sported a very complicated relationship with my butt, this thing attached to my back. And no matter its shape or form, it was destined to follow me everywhere. I realised my discomfort was not only because I had limited control over its size and shape; it was because I had very little control over how it was viewed, judged or objectified.