An inside look, just for A+ members, from Autostraddle’s editors on the process, struggles, and surprises of working on what you’re reading on the site. We learn so much from this work before it ever even makes it to your eyes; now you can, too!

I was sitting at my little desk in my little living room, staring out my little window and thinking about this one girl’s extremely good ass: in blue cotton underwear; in a black swimsuit floating across a pool; in the kitchen while coffee is brewing; in my hands. And the thing about asses is that “good” is subjective and yet already true of all asses, so really the winner here and henceforth is whomsoever is perceiving or has perceived the ass or asses. That is a truth that’s true no matter what else is happening in this godforsaken world, this busy rotten place, this wonderful home to asses and kittens and peach jam and biscuits and books you’ll never read. It’s an always true truth. Asses are so good.

And it was with this energy and armed with this truth that I wandered into our editorial channel in Slack and said:

And because it came from such a pure and true place, the effect of it then sitting there, quite naked and without reply for several minutes, was similar to what I imagine grows in the protracted and unexpected silence after one says, “I love you!” in a moment that might later be described as heady or indeed even a bad idea, which is: panic. I felt self-conscious and began to doubt my own genius (how sad!), so I did what I always do when I need validation!

this has just been sitting there without reply for nearly 10 mins 😔 pic.twitter.com/jR6P5Vt3Um

— laneia (@grrreen) September 30, 2020

Once the people of Twitter had spoken out in support of my very good idea, I marched back into our little Slack office — this time taking it directly to the team — and set this thing in motion.

Working at Autostraddle means being just absolutely surrounded on all sides by brilliance and creativity, and this wild contagious energy that invites everyone to get involved, so that’s what happened. In less than an hour the entirety of Butt Week had been mapped out. As for the publishing schedule, I knew I wanted this out before the holidays took over our lives, and I wanted to kick it off with something from Archie — originally expecting a Grease Bats installment, which eventually transitioned to a post filled with coloring pages — because if you know Archie, you know how Archie feels about butt stuff. It was meant to be. It also worked out that Archie was able to do all of the original artwork for the entire week! The header graphic and all the feature images came from their peachy bum-loving heart. Bless!

Vanessa showed you how to take the best butt selfies, Malic made a playlist for you and your butt and even took the time to make the case for farting in front of your partner, Carolyn rounded up the best butt toys, Valerie Anne gathered a variety of television butts of note, Drew casually drummed up a devastating personal essay on poppers, and we republished our classic review of the Njoy Pure Plug, and we’re only getting started!

Is this the best idea I’ve had since these cashews? Honey, it might be. I hope you’ve enjoyed everything so far, and I hope you’re ready for even more, because wow there is so much coming your way this week!

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