Miki Agrawal’s Tushy Party Was A Celebration Of Assholes
“I’m an asshole! Who are you?”
As I set foot in Miki Agrawal’s loft apartment on a cold Thursday night in Williamsburg, Brooklyn, my eyes adjust to the dim lighting as I’m greeted by a woman clad in a nude bodysuit. Her face peeks through what I soon realize is buttocks-shaped headgear. Agrawal is hosting something of a coming-out party for her company Tushy, which makes bidet attachments.
The event is perhaps also something of a comeback party for Agrawal, who seems to have laid relatively low in the press since harassment allegations in 2017 resulted in her resignation from Thinx, the “period underwear” company she founded in 2011. (She also had a baby last year.) Back at Thinx, Agrawal was accused of a litany of questionable behaviors, including taking video meetings on the toilet and grabbing an employee’s breast (part of a sexual harassment complaint that was “resolved” and “dismissed,” according to the plaintiff’s attorney).
Tushy’s flagship product is a $69 bidet attachment that you can install beneath your toilet seat. But right now, it’s moonlighting as a vodka dispenser, hooked up to a toilet–unused, I hope–that is on display in the kitchen, right next to some poop-shaped cookies freshly baked by a Tushy employee.
On one side of her apartment, a nude model is lounging on his stomach atop a red velvet blanket, posing for a painter. Arranged beside him are red roses and a pillow in the shape of the poop emoji. Tushy’s head of marketing, Carrie Yang, tells me in passing that she thinks the poop emoji helped people become more comfortable talking about poop.
In another room, a model strikes a similar pose. She’s surrounded by five mirrors, which Agrawal explains are meant to encourage people to stop and “pay attention to a body part that gets little attention.” She is referring, of course, to the human buttock. Some attendees opt for the free butt massages on offer from a professional masseuse, Yang tells me, in the bedroom upstairs. Others get in line for an “anus spirit animal reading”–essentially a sphincter-centric tarot spread.
Later, as you might expect from an event championing the asshole, an educator from a sex store called Pleasure Chest conducts a demonstration of safe anal play. (When I left, I was handed a goodie bag complete with lube, body oil, and gloves for that purpose.) It started with a call-and-response, which attendees participated in with gusto:
“When I say ‘butt,’ you say ‘sex’!”
“When I say ‘ass,’ you say ‘hole’!”
Before the night wraps, Agrawal takes the floor in front of her guests, who range from entrepreneurs to reporters, and makes the case for Tushy’s bidets. She cites environmental concerns: making a single toilet paper roll uses up 37 gallons of water, she says. Agrawal also points to health issues that may be related to the use of toilet paper, like hemorrhoids and anal fissures. As with Thinx, Tushy has partnered with a nonprofit organization–this time with India-based Samagra. Every Tushy sold helps fund clean sanitation facilities for communities on the subcontinent.
Agrawal is optimistic that people will adopt the bidet. She claims Tushy’s bidets recently launched on the Home Shopping Network and sold out in just 10 minutes. “[That] means America is absolutely ready for the bidet–middle America, not just New Yorkers,” she declares. Tushy is also releasing a travel bidet and baby bidet, which Agrawal teased when we spoke last year and touts as a superior alternative to wet wipes.
As Agrawal cues up a promotional Tushy video, her 6-month-old son starts crying. “I would just put him on the boob right now,” she gripes, “but that could end up as a headline.”
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