The Future of Butt Stuff

The anal-play industry is continuing to grow in popularity, which means new tools to experiment with.




Prior to opening his own medical practice in 2010, Dr. Evan Goldstein realized an overlooked area in healthcare: the ass. Of course, proctologists had long treated hemorrhoids and advised patients on the healthy way to p*o, but medical professionals, he noticed, seldom provided education on safe anal play practices or performed cosmetic surgeries focusing on the aesthetics of the anus. Bespoke Surgical, his Manhattan and Los Angeles-based practice, he says, fills that void.



“Most proctologists are looking at how do I make defecating better for people, they’re never looking at it from the aesthetics of it,” Goldstein says. “They’re not saying, What do you enjoy sexually and what would you want to do aesthetically?”


Goldstein isn’t alone in moving cultural the needle of butt stuff. Because more people than ever are engaging in anal play—a 2017 study found 30 percent of women and 35 percent of men had heterosexual anal intercourse within the last year; Skyn Condoms’ 2017 millennial sex survey found 36 percent of millennials had female anal sex and 15 percent had male anal sex at least some of the time—society is slowly encouraging an open conversation surrounding a formerly ultra-stigmatized aspect of pleasure. Now, innovators in sex toy design, sexual education, and medicine are changing the narrative around anal health and play and are helping to educate and empower those with butts. (Which, as it turns out, is all of us.)


One generation, in particular, is driving the anal trend. According to a survey by dating app OkCupid, Gen Z—those born between 1997 and 2012—is most into anal play, followed by Gen X, Millennials, then Baby Boomers. “As each generation becomes a little bit more progressive than the one that precedes it, the perception around anal play is following suit,” says Michael Kaye, global communications manager at OkCupid. “Though negative stereotypes and taboos continue, Gen Z, is creating and shaping the culture around us towards a more stigma-free future.”


But because of the shortcomings in America’s sex-ed curriculums, the impetus remains on teens and adults to seek out information on safe, pleasurable anal play. Dispelling harmful myths—like the fallacy that any form of anal play will encompass a penetrative act or that a receiver with a vulva won’t find pleasure in anal play—will help usher society toward a more sex-positive space, says sex educator Jamie LeClaire.


However, normalizing anal play comes with responsible education. In the future, LeClaire sees social media, webinars, and digital platforms playing a larger role in how sex educators share information with audiences. “It’s going to be a while until we get pleasure-focused sex education in schools,” they say. “It really is going to be up to sex educators online—all the sex professionals who have found Instagram or Twitter as great places to spread accurate sex education and make it accessible to teens and adults.”


As each generation becomes a little bit more progressive than the one that precedes it, the perception around anal play is following suit.


Digital educational materials from trusted sources have already begun to proliferate online. In June, Goldstein launched a new sex-care platform called Future Method, which provides educational blog posts (and also sells anal douches) in order to bring anal sexual awareness to a wider audience. Toy companies like B-Vibe have created guides to anal play.


Another company, Je Joue, is in the process of writing their own educational guide to butt stuff, soon available for free on their website. The heightened cultural interest in anal play is good for business: Due to the positive response of their vibrating butt plug, Je Joue is currently developing their fourth anal toy. “The main thing that we’re learning is that this part of the industry is growing massively,” says Dan Jackson, the head of sales and marketing at Je Joue. “When that part of the industry grows, that means more beginners are getting involved. In the future, we’re 100 percent looking at how we can get more people into that safely and un-intimidatingly and try to access those first-time users.”


Though sextech is currently driving innovation in the pleasure toy industry, Jackson says Je Joue will continue to focus on functional products catering toward the beginner market.


Similarly, Stuart Nugent, brand manager at sex toy company LELO, sees certain aspects of sextech—such as app-controlled devices— s inhibiting. Instead, Nugent predicts innovative materials like graphene, a superthin material made out of a single layer of carbon atoms, and carbon nanotubes, cylinders of rolled sheets of graphene, could be used in the production of butt plugs and anal massagers, though the materials are currently too expensive to use in mass production.


Within the next few years, LELO will launch a butt plug producing not vibrations but sonic waves, Nugent says. The technology is currently used in the brand’s clitoral massager, Sona. “The great advantage of this kind of technology is it transmits through the skin,” Nugent says. “And the anus has a lot of nerve endings in it. If we generate a sonic wave inside a butt plug and you insert the butt plug, those sonic waves will be transmitted immediately throughout the entire area.”


As far as toy function, Steve Callow, CEO and founder of adult toy company Perfect Fit Brand, predicts products will do more than just anally penetrate: “I think we will see more toys focus on stimulating the nerve endings with vibrations or movement, gentle dilating devices to insert and expand without needing to swap toys, plugs that are synchronized or connected with vaginal or penis stimulation devices, and more deep anal play designs for the connoisseurs.”


Borne from a normalized cultural view on anal play is a focus on anal health. For the last decade, Goldstein has performed anal pap smears in order to screen for anal cancers in men who have sex with men. By physically examining the anus, he’s able to detect and diagnose other issues, like bleeding or skin tags. “If a physician is doing an anal pap smear, you’re taking a look at the ass,” he says. “You see if the muscles function the right way. I think regardless of the result, just the act of doing a pap smear brings the physician into the appropriate area.”


It’s going to be a while until we get pleasure-focused sex education in schools.


Bespoke Surgical performs preventative measures—including anal pap smears—and restorative surgeries to treat hemorrhoids and anal fissures, as well as reconstructive procedures like anal tightening and removal of skin tags. Goldstein takes an individualistic approach to anal treatment, considering each patient’s sexual history, preferences, and aesthetic goals.


Goldstein most frequently treats anal fissures, or tears, which result from introducing too large an object or body part into the anus. “People think you can go from nothing to the biggest cock in the world … without preparing,” he says. “Most people need four-to-six weeks of slowly starting to stretch and using the appropriate lubrication and having the education to slowly start the process.”


Conversely, for patients who wish to tighten the muscles in the anus, Goldstein recently purchased the BTL Emsella, a machine originally designed to strengthen the muscles in the pelvic floor in women with incontinence using electromagnetic energy to contract the muscles. The instrument, a large chair in which the patient sits for a 28-minute session, is also effective at building muscle around the anus. “You are literally sitting on a chair and this chair is stimulating your anal region in a way that truly starts to build really great muscle — and it’s non-invasive,” Goldstein says.


People are still opting to go under the knife to achieve their dream booty, says Alan D. Vojtech, the chief marketing officer for Innovations Medical, a cosmetic surgery practice with multiple locations in Texas. Vojtech says about 80 percent of the practice’s business comes from butt enhancement procedures where surgeons harvest fat from another area of the body and transplant it to the butt cheeks. “Most people come in with a Kardashian size buttock and they want to go bigger,” Vojtech says. Over the last decade, butt enhancement procedures have gained favor, with a huge spike in the last two years (especially among men), he continues, though Vojtech suspects interest in surgically enhanced asses will wane within the next five years.


Cosmetic trends aside, butt stuff is far from ceding the spotlight. As society continues to move toward open sex-positive conversations, common stereotypes and taboos will fall away. In short, the future of butt stuff is that it’s here to stay.


“For the next generation, third base might be anal, even though that might be fifth base for us now,” Nugent says. “The trend is toward a much more articulate and profound understanding of the kind of pleasure it can provide people.”