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Buttocks

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Note: This article is about a part of the human body. For meanings, see bottom.

Female human buttocks.

Male human buttocks.

A woman wiping a child's bare buttocks. Detail from The King drinks by Jacob Jordaens (1640).

Example of men's posing briefs specificially designed to display the glutes.

The buttocks are the two masses of muscle (the gluteus maximus, gluteus medius and gluteus minimus) and fat covering the posterior aspect of the human pelvis. The anatomical Latin name for the buttocks is nates (pronounced /'neɪti:z/ in English).

The buttocks allow humans to stand and walk on their legs. They also make sitting without resting weight on one's legs comfortable.

Although gluteus maximus is one of the biggest and strongest muscles in the human body, between a third (in children and men) and half (in women) of the buttocks mass is actually fat. The two hemisphere-shaped masses of the buttocks are called cheeks. The crack between the cheeks is properly called gluteal cleft or natal cleft.

1 Connotations
2 Clothing
3 Spanking on the buttocks
4 Synonyms
5 Gallery
6 See also
7 Links

[edit] Connotations

Due to their proximity to the anus and the genitals, the buttocks are an erogenous zone and belong to the intimate parts, albeit not as intimate as the genitals themselves.

The exposed or naked buttocks is known as a bare bottom.

Viewing a nice pair of buttocks of the desired gender is sexually arousing for many, but not all. The sexual aesthetics of the buttocks vary greatly from culture to culture, with some finding leaner buttocks attractive while some find extremely fatty buttocks (steatopygia) desirable.

A particularly rounded (usually female) buttocks is called a bubble butt.

[edit] Clothing

The layer of clothing directly worn on the buttocks is called underwear, such as briefs or panties.

Some clothing is designed specifically to show off the buttocks, like thong underwear, or to expose them (for punishment in BDSM), or has a butt flap to allow baring only the bottom with a simple gesture (as for hygiene).

[edit] Spanking on the buttocks

F/f spanking drawing by Jim Black (Luc Lafnet).

In many cultures, corporal punishment is traditionally delivered on the buttocks (it is then called spanking, though in British English this is generally said only when applied by hand, not with an implement such as a strap, birch or cane).

This is especially true for lighter punishment and domestic discipline on children (and in some cultures, on wives). Different reasons have been put forward to explain the preference for this anatomical target:

While there are many nerve endings in the area (ensuring sufficient pain), there is relatively little risk of the spankee sustaining long-term injury since internal and other vulnerable organs are are unlikely to be affected.
The buttocks are considered shameful, and having them bared or being made to disrobe them for punishment is added humiliation.

Spankophiles call the lower inner portion of the buttocks the "sweet spot", because getting spanked there feels especially good. The suspected reason for this is probably because this region is fed by the same nerve group that is shared by the genitals.

[edit] Synonyms

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

butt, backside, behind and its derivates (as hiney, hind-quarter, or hind), bottom (and bottie), derriere, posterior, rear or rear-end - all strictly positional descriptions, as is 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; tail (even as there is a tail-bone) and tail-end
arse or ass, and (butt-)hole - a pars pro toto (strictly only the actual anal region)
bum - of uncertain origin
buns - a shape-metaphor
cheeks, a shape-metaphor within human anatomy, but also used in the singular: left cheek and right cheek
seat (of the trousers; or metaphorically)
the bare (referring to the bare buttocks)
glutes (the group of the three large muscles of each buttock - common term in bodybuilding)
tush, tushy (from Yiddish/Hebrew "tuchis" or "tochis" meaning "under" or "beneath")
fanny
booty (female only)
bundas (derived from Portuguese)
badonkadonk (referring to big but firm female buttocks)
hindquarter(s) (metaphorically)