Or - How do I Define my Gender if Nobody is Watching Me? https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/02/opinion/transgender-nonbinary-pandemic-transition-.html (Hint - you don’t need to!! Even if everyone is watching you!) This article is so close to being satire but it’s not. So much navel gazing and narcissism. Seriously.

God that deserves one of those twitter “they’re so close to getting it” comments. This part made me see red - your rigid view that dress and boobs equals woman, boots and trousers equals man has led to this. I don’t have any such view so as a cis, as you call me, I’ve not had any input into all this - rather you have foisted it all on me When Minnesota issued shelter-in-place orders, the extended pause gave Mx. Slarii time to question, and explore the complexity of, gender — and come out again, this time as nonbinary. “My body isn’t a tool for marketing my transition anymore,” Mx. Slarii told me. “I don’t think cis people understand how much their input weighs down on trans people, especially when it comes to transitioning.”

I don’t know how to edit titles but that’s obv meant to say If not Of. For some more navel gazing (TLDR: bi woman’s male partner gives her a short haircut) ‘ One of the many things this pandemic has robbed us of is the opportunity to present ourselves as complex, evolving individuals. Through Zoom screens and absence, we are collapsed. But this haircut was rejuvenating, dimensionalizing. It made me feel multifaceted and animated, pulling me out of my planar state as a flat form glued to the floor and giving me depth and permission to take up space—a prismatic affirmation of my bisexuality. It was empowering to reclaim agency when our lives are otherwise out of our control. It felt dramatic and bold when every day is Blursday. Liberating when I’d felt trapped. When I looked in the mirror of my tiny apartment bathroom, I saw the haircut I was always meant to have.’ https://xtramagazine.com/love-sex/queer-haircut-straight-boyfriend-197564 Got the article off this twitter thread - comments are heartening.

While itis indeed silly naval gazing, I have some sympathy, just because I think long covid lockdowns have really messed with the heads of people who like to be seen.

Yeah, as much as i found people in my space 24-7 hard, i was really glad im not someone who NEEDS social events and busy-ness. For once my personality was a protective factor!

The internet has created an unhealthy and heightened need for positive feedback and attention for some people ,IMO,that leaks into all facets of life. Many more than pre-internet because there just wasn’t any practical way to achieve it.

If a Tree falls in the forest...