When Oxygen, the women's fitness magazine, published "Glutes," a special issue devoted entirely to the care and feeding of the buttocks, it was appealing primarily to three groups of readers:

1. Women who want to learn new ways to improve their butts.

2. Dirty old men who like to look at pictures of scantily clad women doing butt exercises.

3. Linguists and other students of the English language, who are amazed at just how many different ways Oxygen's editors can come up with to refer to butts and butt exercises.

Of course, as a media watcher, I am in group 3. And I was not disappointed.

The cover alone is a cornucopia of butt-centric linguistics: "Build Your Best Butt Ever!" and "10 Surefire Moves to Sculpt Your Rear End" and "3 Ways to Boost Your Bottom Line" and "Get Your Own Dimple-free Derriere" and "advice for rock-hard buns!" and the cheery "Look Great From Behind!"

After a cover like that, you figure the folks at Oxygen have run out of steam. Wrong! They're just warming up.

Inside, the publisher's column is titled "Let's get cheeky!" and the editor's column is called "Perfecting your rear view." After that come articles titled "The Bottom Line," "Why Hot Buns Make Life Better" and "Refine Your Rear" as well as "Walk Your Way to a Tighter Butt," which was written by Tosca Reno, author of "The Butt Book."

If you follow the instructions in these articles, you, too, can have a "toned tush" as well as a "noteworthy booty" and a "to-die-for derriere" plus a "bulletproof back end."

The mag also contains a photo gallery of celebrity butts (Madonna, Marilyn Monroe), plus a list of songs to listen to while doing butt exercises, including "Bootylicious" by Destiny's Child and "Shake Your Booty" by KC and the Sunshine Band.

Why all the attention for this much-mocked part of the human anatomy?

"We are in the midst of a glutes culture, where a shapely derriere is celebrated," Reno writes. "It's time to shift gears and shape rears."