She and I are both in the midst of a reckoning. We once saw romance as a narrative tool of oppression, a construct designed by the patriarchy to make women accept subjugation. But now we’re beginning to believe that it’s real and reconciling those two truths is proving more complicated than we expected. People today approach love like online comparison shopping, scrolling through options on apps. Instead of courtship, we have the “talking stage,” something that is noncommittal by design. But romance can’t be casual; it requires conviction and presence. It demands vulnerability and a kind of giving spirit that feels almost alien in a culture that prizes detachment and transactional connection. Romance isn’t dead—it’s just antithetical to the way we’ve been conditioned to interact.
Feb 18, 2025

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I’ve been talking with a friend about this recently as well — as someone who has been trying (and failing) to date for the past three years, it’s rough out there and I think it’s because we’ve lost the point of romance entirely. romance inherently requires sacrifice and giving up part of yourself to another person, but we are consistently told we should never do that. No one wants to be inconvenienced, but relationships are inherently inconvenient that’s the whole point
Feb 19, 2025
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camila-santana yes i definitely think a lot of it has to do with the therapized view of interpersonal interaction and ”you don’t owe anything to anybody” culture skewing our expectations!!!!! Very individualistic but in a toxic way rather than in a way that actually seeks to improve upon the self
Feb 19, 2025
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I feel ya. It can be really hard to keep trying to engage with, or like, continually give up that vulnerability that love requires. I mean, yeah, especially while living In A Society™️ with implicit and explicit gendered expectations and pressures of conformity of what love *is*, or how it’s even allowed to be expressed depending on who you are. It’s a huge loss of control and that always feels *unsafe*, a huge hurdle to climb, fall flat on your face at times, but keep having to climb. Love isn’t just a feeling, but an active choice. Love can’t be shallow or self protective, for love to flourish, you need to be courageous and vulnerable. Sometimes it's not easy, it's fucking daunting actually, especially if you've been hurt real bad before, but we've got to keep showing up and facing human connection with trust in ourselves and other people. To love is to open ourselves up, expose our weaknesses, and risk harm in the pursuit of connection, yet choosing to do so anyway. I still struggle with it personally, even platonically, but I wouldn't trade the love I've found now for never having being hurt in the past y'know
Feb 19, 2025
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softshelled yes it has to be brave and it can be really scary but it has to be moved beyond just being felt 🙏
Feb 19, 2025
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this is SPOT ON
Feb 18, 2025
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my sentiments exactly
Feb 18, 2025
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Incredible take. Strange how in some circles (gladly not here) to share that revelation would lead to people accusing you of buying into traditionalism or the “old way” of doing things etc etc. I think the sad reality is that instead of letting things like courtship evolve into a modern day version of itself, the general agreement was that it would be better to scrap the concept entirely. And now we look back at it and go “oh maybe there was something there that was good (in the midst of some bad)” and have to face that fact that the alternative solution is so much worse in so many other ways.
Feb 18, 2025

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i’m rlly interested in culture writing abt the current state of dating. last week i read “why don’t people date their friends anymore?” by serena smith for dazed and “death by situationship” by magdelene j taylor for her personal substack. highly recommend both! 
Mar 25, 2024
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A reminder that much of the coupling impulse (within romantic/sexual relationships, friendships, political groupings etc) is in a large part a reaction to the fear of loss/abandonment/loneliness, rather than a pure desire to exist in a relationship with someone. That so much of this requires a control and limiting of the actions and thoughts and desires of others, which prevents us from living as our actualised selves. even if u want to exist in close coupledom, worth a read and a think, it’s got some great ideas about the purpose of relationships and how generative/life-giving they have the potential to be 🤔
Oct 15, 2024
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@mothersuperior post on latex and the yearndemic reminded me of this essay that I read a few years ago about the commodification and fetishization of the body and how it’s been paralleled with a lack of chemistry and sexuality that we used to see on screen. The title is your tldr: everyone is hot and no one is horny. The sterilization of sexuality and sex is everywhere, past even film. It’s a response to the acceleration of capitalism, war and colonial extraction of the earth. It has crept into the ways we view ourselves, our experience and our bodies. One thing I took away from this essay is that to align yourself with traditional beauty standards will make you too tired to fuck. Similarly, the whole « working on yourself » grind that I heard on first dates all the time is this strange, individualistic perspective that makes you too exhausted and distracted for the holistic chemistry we desire. We flatten our lives to marketable lines that make us appear attractive - I’m working on myself, I’ve been going to therapy, I have a nice job and apartment. And while people are obviously horny, they don’t know for what - forming our bodies to be  better, our minds fixed and correct, we can’t pinpoint what the purpose is cause we’re too fucking exhausted to investigate further than that. Love, desire, and chemistry feel more and more elusive. For us to morph ourselves into the image of sexiness according to western beauty standards, there is sacrifice (nutrients, your current corporeal form, the ability to be perceived as more than an object, working long hours for your grind) that doesn’t align with sensuality (unless you’re into that). There is no room for the spectrum of sensations you body is capable of feeling. There is no room for desire when we’ve given it all up the capitalist war machine. :p

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My dad teases me about how when I was a little kid, my favorite thing to do when I was on the landline phone with somebody—be it a relative or one of my best friends—was to breathlessly describe the things that were in my bedroom so that they could have a mental picture of everything I loved and chose to surround myself with, and where I sat at that moment in time. Perfectly Imperfect reminds me of that so thanks for always listening and for sharing with me too 💌
Feb 23, 2025
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I’ve been thinking about how much of social media is centered around curating our self-image. When selfies first became popular, they were dismissed as vain and vapid—a critique often rooted in misogyny—but now, the way we craft our online selves feels more like creating monuments. We try to signal our individuality, hoping to be seen and understood, but ironically, I think this widens the gap between how others perceive us and who we really are. Instead of fostering connection, it can invite projection and misinterpretation—preconceived notions, prefab labels, and stereotypes. Worse, individuality has become branded and commodified, reducing our identities to products for others to consume. On most platforms, validation often comes from how well you can curate and present your image—selfies, aesthetic branding, and lifestyle content tend to dominate. High engagement is tied to visibility, not necessarily depth or substance. But I think spaces like PI.FYI show that there’s another way: where connection is built on shared ideas, tastes, and interests rather than surface-level content. It’s refreshing to be part of a community that values thoughts over optics. By sharing so few images of myself, I’ve found that it gives others room to focus on my ideas and voice. When I do share an image, it feels intentional—something that contributes to the story I want to tell rather than defining it. Sharing less allows me to express who I am beyond appearance. For women, especially, sharing less can be a radical act in a world where the default is to objectify ourselves. It resists the pressure to center appearance, focusing instead on what truly matters: our thoughts, voices, and authenticity. I’ve posted a handful of pictures of myself in 2,500 posts because I care more about showing who I am than how I look. In trying to be seen, are we making it harder for others to truly know us? It’s a question worth considering.
Dec 27, 2024