Nota bene: If you buy through the links in this article, InsideHook may earn a small share of the profits.
Toilet paper is like so last year
We’ve urged you time and time again to ditch the toilet paper and adopt a new, cleaner lifestyle with a bidet. That’s because bidets are more effective in cleaning your behind, better for the environment and will save you considerable toilet paper cash in the long term. And right now you can shop a best-selling bidet from modern bidet brand TUSHY, and save $45 with code LUCKY.
The TUSHY Classic is marked down in two color variations: Bamboo and Platinum, so regardless of your bathroom’s look, you’ll have an ass-cleaner to match it. The bidet is easy to install (just 8 minutes) and features an adjustable nozzle that can seamlessly take you from a “gentle butt spritz” to a “power wash.” Best part is, whenever the next global crisis hits, you won’t have to worry about the toilet paper rush. Whoo!
If you've always dreamed of making a decent living for sitting on your a**e, pin your ears back for this job opportunity from bidet company Tushy.
Basically, they're in the market for someone to get paid $10,000 (£8,000) simply for sitting on their backside and pooping.
That's right, they're seeking out a toilet consultant for the summer, and the money is not to be sniffed at.
They've advertised the job under the title 'VP for Fecal Matters' - yes really - and it will essentially require the successful candidate to test out a load of products, interview folks about what they get up to in the bathroom, and share their experiences on social media.
There's the catch, if there is one.
Credit: Tushy
You've got to talk about the things that no-one else really wants to. If you're fine with that, you might just stand a chance of bagging the role, though.
If you are sat there right now - perhaps emptying your bowels for free - and you think you should be getting income for your leavings, why not send Tushy a video application.
The deadline for applicants is July 10, and it's a three-month consulting gig.
$10,000 for three months ain't so bad, is it?
Oh, you've got to be over the age of 21, which means that you've gained significant experience in the field of using the big toilet all by yourself.
So, you'll have to discover some way to stand out from the crowd, without being too disgusting or off-putting. This is a sales job, after all.
Credit: Tushy
In a pun laden job advert, the bespoke toilet product company wrote: "TUSHY is looking for our first VP of Fecal Matters to ASSist in the day to day op-poo-rations of our #Bidet2020 campaign.
"With guidance from our Chief Pooping Officer, Dr. Mark Hyman, our new VP of Fecal Matters will be testing and studying their own pooping habits and documenting it via TUSHY's social media.
"This will be a fart-time, (about the average time you spend on the toilet per week), $10,000 contract role.
"On day one, the new VP of Fecal Matters will have a one-on-one with Dr. Mark Hyman and TUSHY's founder Miki Agrawal to plan out their dooties.
"By week two, the VP of Fecal Matters will have assembled a butt-ton of data around their bowel movements based on their diet and research.
"By their final week, they will have converted more buttholes to the TUSHY movement through their research and content."
There weren’t many good things about the Great Toilet Paper Shortage of 2020, but to Miki Agrawal, there was one upside: Americans were embracing the bidet. Agrawal is the founder of Tushy, a bidet attachment company launched in 2014. Last year, the company did just under $10 million in sales…but this year, it’s on track to do five times that. “We sold out by the second weekend of March,” she says. “We had our first million-dollar day.”
But the spike in demand, coupled with production facilities in Asia, led to some lengthy delivery delays. “Our customers had to wait five weeks, and that sucked,” Agrawal says. Her strategy? “We were just extremely transparent.” Tushy explained and apologized for the delays, and also took the opportunity to share the benefits of bidets — and that toilet paper can cause hemorrhoids, UTIs, and anal fissures. That kept customers eager for their purchase to arrive. “We’ve been educating and educating, because it’s a real behavioral shift,” Agrawal says. “Finally, people took the leap.”
Leslie Voorhees Means, cofounder and CEO, Anomalie
2. Build trust with big gestures.
Leslie Voorhees Means’ customers kept asking the same thing: Can you get me my dress on time? It was an understandable concern. Her company, Anomalie, enables brides to create custom wedding dresses online and have them shipped straight to their homes, and her already anxious base was starting to panic as COVID-19 put weddings on pause. She was also seeing increased demand: As brick-and-mortar bridal salons shuttered, incoming inquiries to Anomalie spiked to 1,500 a day, and sign-ups soared 25 percent. But the question lingered: Could she really deliver, fast?
Voorhees Means knew she could. She’d spent years building a vertically integrated supply chain and nurturing relationships with small factories around the world, which made her less vulnerable to disruption. But brides don’t care about supply chains. “We started offering refunds of 1.5 times the cost of the dress if we didn’t deliver on time,” she says. “We knew we could produce, and wanted to give our brides that confidence.” It did the trick: “March was our best sales month ever.”
Dave Hunt, founder and CEO, Crossrope
3. Expand access, even if it hurts.
Crossrope was hoping for a big year. It’s a cross-training jump rope brand, and it had some big marketing promotions in store for 2020. “So we ramped up production,” founder Dave Hunt says. “And that was really fortuitous.” After a respectable January and February, sales started spiking the week of March 9 — because as more Americans were trapped at home, they were looking for new ways to stay fit. Soon Crossrope was setting sales records daily: For nearly four weeks in April, every single day broke its 2019 Black Friday record.
This was exciting but also scary: Crossrope was on pace to run out of inventory. To cope with that, it started limiting the number of items each customer can order. “It’s not the ideal economic setup, but it’s keeping us stocked and helping us get products to people who really want them,” Hunt says. He figures it’s better to get his brand into the hands of more people, even if it slows down sales. “We’re grateful we can make it work.”
Andy Hunter, founder and CEO, Bookshop.org
4. Pick up the big competitors’ slack.
Andy Hunter wanted to help independent bookstores drive sales, and he did…modestly, at first. He launched Bookshop.org in January; it’s an online platform and affiliate network that helps fill the gap for indie stores that don’t have robust e-commerce offerings. After a few weeks, the platform sold about $5,000 worth of books a day. Not bad, he thought.
When COVID-19 hit, indie bookstores struggled to stay open — but then Amazon, their usual competitor, de-prioritized book shipments. Bookshop.org was suddenly perfectly positioned, and daily sales, driven by the small shops utilizing the platform, skyrocketed to $150,000. “We experienced two and a half years’ worth of growth in three weeks,” he says. He quickly staffed up, hiring newly laid-off booksellers. Now he’s exploring opportunities to keep the momentum going. To start, he’s fielding requests from European and Canadian shoppers and improving his infrastructure to handle higher demand. “We’re taking this opportunity to achieve a kind of stickiness and try to become essential,” says Hunter.
Brian smith, cofounder and COO, Winc
5. Become the center of a community.
What’s getting quarantined adults through this crisis? Booze. And the wine-delivery startup Winc knows that better than most. In 2019, it added an average of 200 new members a day — and now it’s averaging 2,000. In March and April, Winc brought on more than 96,000 new customers, achieving its highest revenue months to date. It was exciting…but also an organizational challenge. “Tripling or quadrupling output in a warehouse, while implementing additional safety protocol, was very challenging,” says Brian Smith, Winc’s cofounder and COO.
To keep up with the demand, Winc’s in-house winemaking team moved quickly to blend and bottle the previous harvest. But when it became clear that Winc could serve a unique role for the small wine producers it works with around the globe, it launched new collaborations and placed larger orders to meet demand. “The dislocation of the restaurant industry is a blow to the wine business, not just culturally, but from a point of distribution,” Smith says. “Having the ability to sell at scale through our website has allowed us to be an even better partner to winemakers.”
Image Credit: Photos Courtesy of Tushy; Anomalie; Crossrope; Bookshop.org; Winc
Welcome to Butt-Con. Hollis Johson/Business Insider
On Wednesday, August 21, I headed to Manhattan’s Flatiron neighborhood to check out Butt-Con, a first-of-its-kind convention to celebrate and educate people about all things backside-related.
The convention featured panels with butt experts including a rectal surgeon, a porn star, a celebrity fitness trainer, and a butt-lift surgeon.
There were also interactive exhibits like a history of butt cleaning and product booths for bidets and anal douches, all meant to destigmatize anal health.
There aren’t many places where you can hear a crowd of over 450 near-strangers shouting “anal” in unison, but on one balmy evening in late August, that’s exactly what happened in response to the emcee’s call.
Everyone had gathered for Butt-Con, a convention created by bidet attachment brand Tushy to celebrate and educate the masses about all things butt-related.
When I first recieved a publicity email about Butt-Con, I knew I had to check it out. As both a person with a decently ample backside and a journalist who writes about sexual health regularly, I knew learning more about butts in every way possible could be an invaluable way to destigmatize conversations about them and what they do, from pooping to creating sexual pleasure.
Plus, the idea of a convention dedicated to butts sounded pretty ridiculous, and I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to see it for myself.
Here’s what it was like inside the first-ever Butt-Con.
Butt-Con’s inaugural event was hosted in a nondescript building in Manhattan’s Flatiron district.
You wouldn’t know Butt-Con was going on inside this building, but it was. Google Maps
The building where Butt-Con took place was covered in scaffolding and also housed the entrance to a popular restaurant called The Ainsworth.
I was thankful for the scaffolding, which protected me from a massive downpour that started a minute after I arrived at the venue.
Under the scaffolding, I was greeted by a Butt-Con host wearing an apt t-shirt. He led me, along with my photographer colleague, in the right direction.
Staff members hosting Butt-Con wore these T-shirts to distinguish themselves from guests. I did not take them up on the prompt. INSIDER
The guide directed us to the elevator in the lobby of the corporate-looking building and told us to head to the fourth floor where all of the action was taking place.
INSIDER
The second we stepped off the elevator, we were greeted with a giant bright pink blow-up butt.
It really set the scene for the rest of the evening. INSIDER
With one quick glance, I could tell we were in the right place.
Beyond the blow-up butt, booty-themed decor, like this giant pair of briefs, covered the walls of the venue.
INSIDER
The evening was hosted by Tushy, a bidet attachment brand created by Thinx founder Miki Agrawal.
The Tushy bidet attachment. INSIDER
Attendees could give the bidet attachments a test run since each bathroom stall had one installed.
Bidets work by spraying a small stream of water, the same water that comes out of your faucet for brushing your teeth, onto your butthole, rinsing off any leftover fecal matter.
Although I had no plans to try the bidet attachment out when I first arrived at Butt-Con, I became intrigued after my talks with butt experts and decided to give the device a spin.
Before trying it on my own butt, I turned the bidet to its “on” setting, which proved to be a huge mistake because the water sprayed all over the bathroom. I tried again, positioning myself over the toilet this time and bracing my backside for a harsh stream of water.
I was pleasantly surprised to find the stream gentle, and kind of refreshing.
Agrawal told me Butt-Con provides an outlet for destigmatizing conversations about the human butt, from how we wipe it to its ability to offer sexual pleasure.
Miki Agrawal. INSIDER
Agrawal, who also founded Thinx, a line of underwear designed for people menstruating, said she sees Tushy, her bidet brand, as an extension of her mission to talk abut feminine hygiene taboos.
“The toilet category hasn’t changed since the late 1800s because of the taboo around it,” and genitals in general, Agrawal told me. “That area creates pleasure and babies and yet we choose to ignore it because of a weird societal stigma.”
As soon as the doors opened, people began snatching up seats in front of the main stage, eager to learn about all things butt-related.
Arriving at 5:30 pm, 30 minutes after the event officially started, was too late for a front-row view. INSIDER
Butt-Con goers appeared to come from all walks of life. There were people of varying ages, genders, and backgrounds at the convention, but the majority seemed to be in their twenties and thirties.
Folks attending Butt-Con seemed to be there for the novelty and to learn more about sexual health and hygiene. The same people I saw participating in a twerking competition were also found listening attentively to expert panelists later.
The “Belfie” booth was just one of many interactive exhibits guests could enjoy throughout the evening.
Butt + selfie = belfie. INSIDER
You could choose to take a still shot, a GIF, or a reel of four pictures of your butt.
I wasn’t quite prepared for my belfie, but you get the idea.
Julia Naftulin/Insider
When I exited the booth, another guest asked me whether you were supposed to take a belfie of your naked behind. I shrugged and quickly walked away before having to witness her belfie style.
My personal favorite exhibit was the “Ass Kissing Booth,” where a woman dressed as a naked butt offered up free kisses.
She was the life of Butt-Con. INSIDER
I didn’t try to kiss her, nor did I see anyone else giving the booth a try, but it was fun to see nonetheless.
One wall doubled as decor and an educational experience, as it displayed a variety of butt-related accessories like anal douches, anal beads, and butt plugs.
Don’t worry, they were all clean. INSIDER
Anal beads and butt plugs are sex toys that are inserted into a person’s rectum to create sexual pleasure.
Anal douching also involves the rectum, but it isn’t a sex toy. Rather, an anal douche is used before anal sex as a way to clear any fecal matter from the area and prevent messes.
Throughout the evening, all types of butt experts offered their insights into how we eat, exercise, have sex, and even wipe our butts affects our health.
Stripper Jacqueline Frances (left) and cam girl Lindsay Dye (right) sit on toilet-seat thrones while hosting a panel. INSIDER
Stripper Jacqueline Frances hosted the second panel of the evening, where she chatted with cam girl Lindsay Dye about the allure and business of butts. (Cam girls are video performers who perform erotic acts on the internet.)
Although I missed this panel, I did hear lots of laughs coming from the main stage while it was going on.
Next, celebrity fitness trainer Jorge Cruise led a butt-toning workout on the main stage.
Agrawal joined in on the exercise while wearing a backless skirt that showed off her butt cheeks. INSIDER
The entire audience joined in for the 15-minute sweat session and everyone was squatting and pulsing in front of their seats.
The human butt even left her post at the ass kissing booth to join the workout.
INSIDER
Later, I had an intimate moment with 83-year-old Hattie Wiener, a self-proclaimed cougar and sexpert who insisted we chat in the bathroom.
Wiener pretty much made a bathroom stall her office for the evening, pulling in anyone who wanted to chat. INSIDER
Wiener told me she started having sex with younger men when she was 55 and now that she’s been doing it for 28 years, she would never go back to older men.
“I have nothing against older guys, except they don’t turn me on,” Weiner said.
Later that night I saw her cozying up with a 20-something man during one of the experts panels.
Wiener also told me she’s having the best sex of her life now, and it all stems from confidence.
INSIDER
“The secret is not to buy into b — — — t about aging,” like the perception you lose your sex drive. Wiener said that sex is all about “capturing the pleasure of physical exchange and play,” rather than about appearances.
She also said she wishes women would judge their own bodies less.
After my conversation with Wiener, I stopped by Cheeks Dive Bar for a refreshment.
At one point, the bartenders ran out of tequila and had to go buy more, a sign the night was going to be fun — or that participants needed some liquid courage to take in all the stimulation. INSIDER
I ordered the “Vlad Pootin,” Butt-Con’s take on a Moscow Mule, and was pleasantly surprised at how tasty it was.
There were also veggie tacos and non-alcoholic drinks available.
The head-turning Dragon Sisters taught Butt-Con guests how to pop their backsides during a “Twerking 101” seminar.
The Dragon Sisters are a duo of New York City-based drag queens. INSIDER
Guests weren’t shy about unleashing their dance moves alongside the two queens.
The Dragon Sisters teach guests how to twerk. Butt-Con/TUSHY
Although I didn’t get to chat with The Dragon Sisters, one of them, who goes by Odessah Mann, told New York Post “the key to twerking is understanding your pelvis and hips. Spend a lot of time in front of the mirror, practicing.”
Butt-centric products were on display, like this anal douche from The Future Method.
INSIDER
The Future Method is a brand started by NYC-based rectal surgeon Dr. Evan Goldstein. The product comes with a fragrance-free solution and small syringe that gay mean can use to flush out their anals canal and prepare for butt sex.
The small size of the syringe prevents people from over-douching, which can lead to intestinal problems, one of Goldstein’s representatives who was hosting a demonstration told me.
Guests could also give this special chair, which vibrates and makes you more aware of your anal muscles, a spin.
I decided to pass on this opportunity. INSIDER
The chair forces the body to do 20,000 kegels in a 28-minute session, according to one of Goldstein’s reps.
Dr. Rita Linkner, a cosmetic dermatologist, demonstrated a butt facial.
INSIDER
Linkner said a butt facial can brighten and smooth the skin, according to an interview she did with the New York Post. She recommended using products that contain salicylic acid, glycolic acid, or benzoyl peroxide because they help to exfoliate dead skin off your rear.
One woman stripped down to her thong and was transformed into a walking Butt-Con billboard.
A woman getting painted at Butt-Con. INSIDER
I have no idea why she opted for the body paint, but would have loved to been on her subway ride home.
I also learned about the history of butt wiping with this art-like exhibit.
It all started with these “chugi,” or flat sticks the Japanese wiped from left to right over their buttholes to clear away feces. INSIDER
Long after their use, archaeologists found these chugi in toilet stops along the Silk Road.
Native Americans once used oyster shells as toilet paper.
INSIDER
Folks in rural areas used to use dried corn on the cob to wipes their butts.
INSIDER
The Romans would use this sponge on a stick, called a tersorium, to wipe their butts after soaking it in vinegar or salt water. To my dismay, I learned they shared and reused these sponges.
Probably not the most sanitary wiping method. INSIDER
In 1857, toilet paper was invented by a New York entrepreneur named Joseph Gayetty.
INSIDER
Gayetty’s toilet paper was more of a linen-like material, derived from hemp, according to Mental Floss. It came in a box much like today’s tissues and would dispense one sheet at a time.
In 1890, brothers Clarence and E. Irvin Scott created the first toilet paper roll.
There was also a bidet on display, of course.
INSIDER
Since Butt-Con was hosted by Tushy, a bidet brand, there were lots of opportunities to chat about the somewhat controversial butt-cleaning method. Although experts at the event were all for bidets, there’s not a lot of research on their supposed health benefits.
Research suggests bidets could be a good option for people with arthritis, and they could help with conditions such as hemorrhoids, anal fissures, and pruritus ani (an itchy butt).
Other research has found that a type of anal fissure may actually improve when you stop using a bidet, Berkeley Wellness reported, and another study found that women who use bidets all the time may alter the normal bacteria in their vaginas.
The event wrapped up around 10 p.m. I found Butt-Con to be as fun as it was informative.
INSIDER
As the night went on, I realized every aspect of the evening allowed butt-related taboos to be front and center, destigmatizing them as a result.
