Nicki Minaj is the latest celeb to have people practically mesmerised with her butt. "How could one's butt be so huge?", they asked. Minaj joins the line of butt gossip fodder. How many of us have wondered aloud or were baffled at the butts of the likes of Alison Hinds, Beyonce (when she puts on a few pounds), Jennifer Lopez (when she puts on some pounds too!) and of course, Kim Kardashian?

There seems to be an obsession these days with women wanting huge derrieres. Don't deny it because the most heterosexual of women take pleasure in admiring aniother woman's big butt.. Why, I am asking myself, are women so gung-ho about having a fat/phat rump?

Did you ever realise how many synonyms there are for the word 'buttocks', whether they be scientific or slangs? They include the well-known rear, behind, ass, rear-end, backside, hindquarters but then there are the others such as posterior, breech, fundament, gluteus maximus, prat, can, duff, keister or keester, hinie, tokus, tochis, derriere, fanny and haunches.

The list doesn't end there. Did you ever hear about the badonkadonk (reference was used in one of Missy Elliott's songs), batty (Jamaican slang), boem (pronounced as "boom"), booty (1920s, black slang), caboose, fanny, hurdies (British slang), jacksie (British slang), kont, patootie, poep (like "poop"), tush and whoopee cakes.

Soca artiste, Machel Montano, states in one of his latest offerings, that this particular woman's bumper is like an "apartment…every man want to move een". In my defense, he didn't say 'in', it was 'een'. I guess it was about the rhyming. Many other soca artistes have several songs which refer to a woman's bumper.

Dancehall artistes cannot seem to have a music video without cameras zooming in on their ample butts. You hardly ever see the woman's face, it's all about her butt and how well it vibrates or jiggles or bounces! As for rap artistes, they always want the video vixen to 'make that booty clap'.

Is it that women have been so inundated with such images that subconsciously they started thinking it was necessary? I've come to three conclusions: they think it'll make their clothes look better on them; they believe that it will not only garner more male attention but also their adoration (this could be true because I've witnessed men stopping mid-sentence just to focus on a passing female's butt); and dare I say, it'll makes them, the women, more 'smack-worthy'. Yes? No?

In a period where image is key, it is fair to think that subliminally women have absorbed the thought that a bigger butt means being better in some way. A big butt is today what being blonde was in years gone by.

Think about it, a car commercial…a shot of a butt. Sneakers commercials…shot of a butt. Exercise equipment for ARMS…shot of a butt (Look how far the arm is from the butt though!). Shoe commercials…shot of a butt. It's everywhere! So surrendering to societal pressures and expectations, many women get almost desperate. So it's butt implants, butt injections and butt exercises.

Butt injections are the new rave. Did you ever wonder about the procedure? According to some reports, even cement has been used to achieve bigger derrieres! As for implants, fat is the most common substance injected for implants among certified plastic surgeons, which is typically transferred from another part of the body.

One woman, known as Vanity Wonder, didn't even know with what she was being injected at first. She said that someone, who was referred to as a 'shot girl', gave her the injections at a hotel room as she lay on a massage table. The girl was not certified. Wonder claimed that she was patched up at her injection site with cotton balls and super glue to keep from leaking, she chronicled in her book. She has chronicled her experiences in her book, Shot Girls. Highlighted in the book is also the 'fact' that people have also been injected with tyre rubber!

Wonder has also said, "Many girls refuse to get butt implants because they are not trendy and cool. Injections are seen as the better alternative because they provide a more firm and natural look."

Research data obtained from the American Society of Plastic Surgeons, has shown that about 12.2 million minimally invasive cosmetic procedures were performed in 2011, a six per cent increase from 2010. We can only guess how many were done by 'underground' persons!

Like anything else, there are clear dangers with butt injections, either with the injected substances or the person performing the procedure – or both.

Padge Victoria Windslowe, 42, now faces a third-degree murder charge for administering the lethal butt injections that killed Claudia Seye Aderotimi, a 20-year-old tourist from London. Windslowe, who goes by the stage name Black Madam for her music, performed the fatal butt injections at a hotel near Philadelphia International Airport. Authorities knew that Windslowe injected Aderotimi but waited for test results from the Food and Drug Administration before concluding the cause of death, reports The Associated Press.

I love the fact that with time certain things have gotten easier or easier to acquire, but I really do think that we take too many risks with our bodies. Why couldn't women just twitch their noses, blink their eyes or click their heels to an ample butt?

Bell Biv DeVoe, in their song, "Poison", warned, "Never trust a big butt and a smile!" If they only knew that in the new millennium not trusting a big butt might be because it was, well, fake!

After hearing so many horror stories, I really, really should thank my maternal grandfather because his side of the family had really huge bums and I have acquired that 'gene' so no injections are necessary, thankfully. Score! But seriously, that is special!

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