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Buttocks

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African female (upper left), Chinese female (lower left), European male (upper right), Indian male (lower right).

The buttocks (often called butt in colloquial American speech and arse in British speech) are rounded portions of the anatomy located on the posterior of the pelvic region of the great apes and humans. The buttocks are formed by the masses of the two gluteal muscles; the gluteus maximus and the gluteus medius, (a.k.a. 'the glutes'), superimposed by a layer of fat. The superior aspect of the buttock ends at the iliac crest and the lower aspect is outlined by the horizontal gluteal crease. The gluteus maximus has two insertion points: 1/3 superior portion of the linea aspera of the femur, and the superior portion of the iliotibial tractus. The masses of the gluteus maximus muscle are separated by an intermediate gluteal cleft or "crack" in which the anus is situated. They allow primates to sit upright comfortably without needing to rest their weight on their feet, as (for example) cats and dogs must do when they sit upright.

Connotations

Attraction to the buttocks dates back to when we first started to walk upright, or earlier, and is not limited to our species. Dogs, for example, are attracted to the scent of the rear as it reveals to them much information, including the health of whoever's rear it is.

Some consider well-formed buttocks to be very sexy, an important part of one's physical attractiveness. However, the definition of "well-formed" is up for debate, as sexual aesthetics of the buttocks vary considerably from culture to culture, and from person to person.

Exposure of the buttocks in non-intimate situations may cause feelings of shame, embarrassment, or humiliation — which may, however, excite exhibitionists and voyeurs.

Exposing ones own bare buttocks as a protest, a provocation or for fun (as a "kick") is called mooning. Mooning someone is generally considered an act of and for the young, but some adults — especially intoxicated — have been known to practice mooning as well.

Having one's bare buttocks exposed by another unexpectedly and in public is usually a source of humiliation and is sometimes called a "depantsing" or (an illogical shortening) "pantsing". A wedgie is pulling someone's undergarments or swimming trunks up through their 'crack' to be hauled over the top of the victim's pants, sometimes partially baring the victim's buttocks.

An adult forced to expose or take punishment on their buttocks may seem reduced to the status of a child in cultures where public nudity below the waist and/or spanking is only common for children.

Many comedians, writers, and others rely on the buttocks in these ways as a source of amusement, camaraderie, and fun.

It is quite common to hear phrases that make use of the buttocks as metonym for a whole person, but generally with a negative connotation. For example, terminating an employee may be described as "firing his ass". One might say "move your ass" as an exhortation to greater haste or urgency. Expressed as a function of buttock punishment, defeat or assault becomes "kicking one's ass". Such phrases also may be suggestive of a person's characteristics. For example, difficult people are termed "hard asses". People deemed excessively puritanical or frugal may be termed "tight asses".

Synonyms

Look up buttocks in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

The anatomical Latin name for the buttocks is nates (pronounced /'neɪti:z/ in English), which is plural; the singular, natis, is rarely used.

As buttocks are an object of both shame and fascination, it is not surprising that there are rather a lot of colloquial terms, euphemistic, ironic or other, to refer to them. These include the following:

  • backside, posterior, behind and its derivates (hind-quarters or the childish "hiney"), rear or rear-end, derrière (French for "behind") - all strictly positional descriptions, as the inaccurate use of rump (as in 'rump roast', after a 'hot' spanking), thighs, upper legs; analogous are :
    • aft, stern and poop, naval in origin
    • caboose, originally a ship's galley in wooden cabin on deck; also the "rear end" car of a freight train; considered a cute, G-rated synonym
    • bottom (and the shortening "bot" as well as childish diminutives "bottie" or "botty"), but the use of near-homophone booty (black slang for the female body since the 1920s) as famously by K.C. and the Sunshine Band's Shake Your Booty, is an 'artistic liberty'
    • tail (even as there is a tail-bone; but also used for the even more sensual phallus) and tail-end
    • tush or tushy (from the Yiddish / Hebrew "tuchis" or "tochis" meaning "under" or "beneath")
    • trunk, in American English, particularly when describing a large buttocks "junk in the trunk"
  • arse or ass, and (butt-)hole - a pars pro toto (strictly only the actual anal region); also a term of abuse for a person
  • bum - of uncertain origin; also a term of abuse for a person
  • buns, mounds and orbs - shape-metaphors, usually in the plural
  • cheeks, a shape-metaphor within human anatomy, but also used in the singular : left cheek and right cheek; sounds particularly naughty because of the homonym and the adjective cheeky, lending themselves to word puns
  • fanny - a socially acceptable term in print, in the United States at least, for many years before some of the bolder terms came along; and a subject of jokes, since "Fannie" can be a woman's name, diminutive of "Frances". However, in British English fanny refers to the female genitals and is considered vulgar.
  • fundament (literally "foundation", not common in this general sense in English, but for the butt since 1297)
  • breech, a metaphorical sense derived from on older form of the garment breeches (as the French culotte meaning pantoloons, via cul from Latin culus 'butt'), so 'bare breech' means without breeches, i.e. trouserless butt
  • seat (of the trousers; or metaphorically) another long-standing socially acceptable term, referring to the use for sitting - but compare the sarcastic use of seat of wisdom and similar expressions, such as 'seat of learning', referring to use as target for an 'educational' spanking.
  • prat (British English, origin unknown; as in pratfall, a vaudeville term; also a term of abuse for a person)
For more slang terms for the buttocks, see WikiSaurus:buttocks — the WikiSaurus list of synonyms and slang words for buttocks in many languages.
  • The word "callipygian" is sometimes used to describe someone with notably attractive buns. The term comes the Greek kallipygos, which literally means "beautiful buttocks". The prefix is also a root of "calligraphy" ("beautiful writing") and "calliope" ("beautiful voice")
  • Both the English (in) tails and the Dutch billentikker ('tapping the buttocks') are ironic terms for very formal coats with a significantly longer tail end as part of festive (especially wedding party) dress

Fashion

Clothing can be used to hide or accentuate the buttocks. Some articles are designed specifically to show off the buttocks or to expose them. Wearing only thong underwear or a black vinyl dress with a large hole cut out of the back might be examples. Wearing thong underwear with pants is done to hide "panty lines", creases in the pant caused by certain underwear that breaks the smooth line of the body. Both of these choices are under taken for style. However, some articles merely have utilitarian features. The butt flap in long underwear, used to allow baring only the bottom with a simple gesture (as for hygiene), is a good example. That flap was so ubiquitous that it was used in cartoons and comics for generations.

File:Sundayafternoon.JPG
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte

Emphasis on one part or another of the body, especially the female body, tends to shift with generations. The "Gay 90s" (1890s) were well-known for the fashion trend called the bustle, which provided even the skinniest woman with seemingly huge buttocks. Like long underwear with its flap, this clothing style was acknowledged in popular media for generations afterward. The popularity of this fashion is glaringly obvious in the famous Georges Seurat painting shown here.

There are endless references, even during the days of the Hays Office. The rules seemed to be that the buttocks could be referenced, but only in a presumably non-sexual context, like spanking of a child and/or in a humorous situation.

Early in the 1939 movie The Wizard of Oz, Uncle Henry is holding the gate open for Miss Gulch, and at a seemingly appropriate time he lets it go, and it swats the disagreeable old lady in the rear... emphasized by a musical "thunk" on the soundtrack's underscore.

The actress Edna May Oliver was known for being "bottom heavy". In a 1940 Warner Brothers cartoon called The Hardship of Miles Standish, a caricature of Ms. Oliver (as Priscilla) is seen fighting off Indians. Although many arrows come her direction, she yells, "You never even touched me!" Then she looks back and sees several arrows embedded in her ample rear end, and begins jumping around and yelping in pain. (In a cruel irony that "hit close to home" in the sense of this topic, Ms. Oliver died from an intestinal ailment).

There is a scene in the 1942 movie Yankee Doodle Dandy in which Cohan's father wishes to punish his disobedient son. He can't hit him anywhere that would show, or that would otherwise impact the family's vaudeville act. The frustrated father finally says, "Here's one place with no talent!" He turns young George over his knee and begins spanking, as flour (left over from a stunt in the preceding stage show) flies up and emphasizes the apparent impact of the blows.

The comic character Ado Annie in the 1955 movie musical Oklahoma finds herself on the receiving end of this subject at least twice. First, she mentions something (not quite getting the point) about having been compared to a Persian cat, because they both "have soft, round tails". Then, during the song The Farmer and the Cowman, she makes a funny comment, and Aunt Eller swats her on the bottom.

Template:Spoiler The 1956 horror film The Bad Seed has a fairly silly postscript ending in which the mother spanks her naughty child, for having murdered several people during the course of the film's plot.

In 1966 Yoko Ono made a roughly 90 minutes long experimental film No. 4, colloquially known as Bottoms which consists of nothing more than footage of human buttocks, in motion while the person walks on a turntable.

At one point in the 1971 James Bond adventure Diamonds Are Forever, Jill St. John has a square transmitter stashed into the round part of her bikini bottom, not very subtly. The villain (Charles Gray) notices this object and says, "We're showing a bit more cheek than usual, aren't we, Miss Case?" before roughing her up for her treachery.

In the 1977 movie Smokey and the Bandit, Frog (Sally Field) tells the Bandit (Burt Reynolds) that a previous boyfriend had rejected her because, "My cheeks are too big". After a pregnant pause, she pinches her own face and says: "These cheeks!"

By the 1970s, television was also becoming more liberal. There was an episode of The Bob Newhart Show in which it came out that Bob's secretary, Carol, had once gotten a tattoo on her behind, which she was now looking to have removed. Bob seemed to sympathize, and then commented with a slight smirk, "We don't want you to be the 'butt' of any jokes!"

In an episode of One Day at a Time, Annie (Bonnie Franklin) was having a dialogue with herself in the mirror, and sighed, "Nanny Annie with the great big fanny!"

In an infamous episode of The Newlywed Game from 1977, host Bob Eubanks asked the husbands, "What's the most unusual place you've made love?" In the next segment, the first wife who was asked that question came back with, "In the ass!" The line was bleeped, and whether it ever actually aired seems to be a matter of debate... in fact the incident itself was long thought to be an urban legend... but it actually did happen, as revealed on a "Game Show Bloopers" TV special in 2002.

In a nighttime talk show, Lee Marvin happened to mention that he had received a purple heart during World War II, and the host made the mistake (?) of asking him where he was shot: "In the ass!" It being late at night, and merely truthful and not lascivious, the line was not bleeped.

In the 1985 movie Pee Wee's Big Adventure, star Paul Reubens ("Pee Wee Herman") responds to someone who says, "Yes, but..." with the comment "Everyone I know has a big 'but'!"

In the 1994 movie Forrest Gump, the title character has just received a medal from President Lyndon Johnson, who makes the mistake of asking Forrest where he was shot: "In the but-tocks, sir!" He then turns around and drops his pants to show LBJ exactly where his wound is.

Rolling Stone magazine deemed the 1990s the "Decade of the Butt" because numerous songs, mostly in the hip-hop and R'n'B genres, were made gloriying this body part. Examples include "Da Butt," "Rump Shaker," "Da Dip", and of course "Baby Got Back." In fact, a compilation called Monster Booty was released encompassing many of these tunes.

Well before the hip-hop era, there was the disco era, with the controversial (at the time) number called "Shake Your Booty", by K.C. and the Sunshine Band. Going back to the early Rock 'n Roll era, there was "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On", made famous by Jerry Lee Lewis, which was not so explicit, it just assumed the listener had the right mental picture. The last step of the 1996 dance craze called the Macarena involved putting hands on hips and swaying emphatically.

In the last part of the 20th century, this body part has really "come out of the closet" and become a frequent popular culture topic, as with the famous entertainer Jennifer Lopez, whose shapely rear is as often-discussed as Dolly Parton's "bosoms" were at the height of her career.

Miami rapper, Trina became well known for her ample and curvaceous buttocks within the first years of the 21st century. The entertainer is featured in the May/June 2004 issue of King Magazine. In an interview with the publication, she states "People say the first thing they wanna see is my ass."

See also

Sources and References

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