In learning the history of the “afterlives” of public women, I have come to fear my own death. I fear the manipulation of my corpse as a means to end Womanhood. I fear that people will champion their desires and use my body to achieve them after my death, and fear that they do it now, while I am still breathing.
We eventually found ourselves back in Echo Park—broke, lonely, and gay. As these codependent friendships go, we were destined for an end, or a pause. Night after night of drinking and feeling like losers started to wear on us.
It was a day of peaceful but powerful protest and people power. In this author and protest attendee’s opinion, police escalation of hostility was what sparked the violent clashes as the sun went down.
I wouldn’t say that my love for Emily was romantic, but it was not entirely platonic either. I loved her like you can only love your childhood best friends. Some combination of sisterhood and friendship with a dash of romantic love tossed in to confuse things.
Hinge in 2020 brought about a new degree of hysteria within me. And I was not alone. Our all-girls group chat has been alight with a near-constant stream of screenshots. Everything from poorly disguised ‘negging’ to full-blown sonnets. It has been a circus of delights and disasters.