Call it whatever you want - ass, arse, butt, behind, booty, even tush - to many a queer guy, the posterior is a fleshy field of dreams.

The butt is, of course, intimately connected to what was once quaintly called "sodomy." Yes, between those lovely twin mounds of flesh lurks a gateway to paradise. But you don't have to be a top to love a nice piece of ass.

"I'm a big ol' bottom," one ass fancier says, "and sure, I can see there's something exciting about a penis, especially when it's hard and ready to go. But it's much less beautiful to me than a guy's butt."

There is something about a nice ass, whether lean and trim or generously fleshy, that's like a fine piece of sculpture. And when a man walks, it can be poetry in motion. As one butt maniac puts it, "I love following a man down the street and watching how his cheeks move. Most of the time, a guy's basket isn't easily sussed out beneath his clothes, but the shape of someone's butt is another story. That's why I hate the trend for oversized pants - they pretty well hide everything south of the waist. And those baggy swimsuits? Give me a tight pair of Speedos every time."

A man's ass is an odd combination of hard and soft, a structure of muscle covered with a layer of fat. It's firm yet yielding, and kind of naughty and forbidden to boot. Unlike the dick, that odd-looking contraption we've learned to love, a nice ass is a simple thing of booty beauty, its curves and planes as lovely as a day in spring.

"My very favorite thing about going to the gym," another connoisseur of the butt says, "is watching from behind when a man bends over to put on his underwear, or to soap up in the shower. If I can see the hair in his crack, or even glimpse his hole, I just get really hot."

Every sort of ass has its own appeal, whether it's a perfectly toned bubble-butt or a big, grabbable bear bottom. And though many gay men prefer a rear that's more or less smooth, those of us who like hairy asses like them a lot. Like all of sexuality, asses are a matter of taste.

Tan lines can be a potent aphrodisiac; when a well-bronzed white guy strips down and reveals a snowy ass, it's like a delicious secret being revealed. There are other things, too, that can spruce up the butt. Diet, shaving, doing those damn squats at the gym - they can all alter the butts we were born with. And underwear, too - a jockstrap or a supportive pair of briefs - can emphasize what lies beneath the jeans. (There's even a well-worn rumor that a very famous movie star with a flat-as-a-board wears butt pads for the camera...)

And so, though the worth of a sex object often is measured in inches, let's not forget the lowly-but-lovely buttocks. There's so much you can do with someone's posterior: fucking, of course, but licking, stroking, massaging, too. And the kinkier among us find few sights or sensations more delectable than a just-spanked ass.

Yes, there are, many a queer man knows, few things nicer than a beautiful butt. And remember, an arse is delightfully versatile; when you're done pla ying with yours, you can always sit on it.

Simon Sheppard is the author of Kinkorama: Dispatches from the Front Lines of Perversion