In a 2014 article titled “Why We Can’t Stop the Depression Epidemic” for Psychology Today, Jonathan Rottenberg sets out to address the difficulties with combating the rise of depression in the United States. Rottenberg argues that a national “reckoning” with depression never happened in the wake of Robin Williams’ suicide…

Unwinding the ribbon that conceals my own attractions and intimate desires is a daunting task. Expressing my identity as an aro ace, a human with low or absent sexual and romantic attraction, seems to always come with the silent assumption that I am unable to be attracted to others and…

I still remember the first time I dressed in clothing not socially marked as acceptable for a “boy” to wear. In the body of a seven-year-old, although my appearance in “feminine” attire strayed from social acceptability for a “male-bodied” individual, the threat my gender expression posed was merely excused. I…

Coming of age, I knew I was gay. But, something always felt… different. At the age of sixteen, you could probably find me adoringly gazing at a male classmate in my Physical Education class. It was every weekday at third period. I knew that I couldn’t be seen looking fondly…

How entwined must sex be with masculinity that if a man never has sex he is shamed? There is a social expectation that everyone, but especially men, should not only desire to have sex, but have copious amounts of sex. And it is nothing new. Sexual desire was established as…

Asexuality is frequently conflated with being attracted to no one. Yet, what does it actually mean to be attracted to someone? What are the, often ignored, complexities of attraction? And how does asexuality open these conversations up for exploration? While expressing my own identity as an asexual person in social…

“But if you haven’t had sex, how do you know you’re asexual?” As an asexual, this is a common response I have received after revealing my status openly. …

I have been engaged in a continual ongoing exploration of appropriate identity labels to categorize my existence. At one moment I used to define myself as “gay,” then as a “gay asexual,” then as a “homoromantic asexual,” then as a “androromantic asexual,” followed by an “asexual attracted to men,” and…

I am very aware of the fact that I am perceived as male in society, regardless of my existence as an demiguy. I guess you could say that I’m “read” as a man. Therefore, when I say that I’m attracted to men, I’m instantly perceived to be gay, no questions…