Alaina Love Kalbfell
Spaced Out, 2022
Acrylic on Canvas
I think an under-discussed component of "Twink Death" is that whatever allowance we are awarded to express femininity and androgyny is tied to youth. It can be charming in a "boyish" way, but it's a phase we're supposed to grow out of when we reach a certain age and revert to the generic category of men. Are many afraid to age because we live in a youth-obsessed culture and want to remain fuckable? Well yes, but I see a real fear that suddenly our gender expression will be seen as embarrassing or perverted. It's also of course fucked up that gender expression should be tied to body type to begin with!
Anyway let's talk solutions. Obsessing over the word "Twink" is a symptom of people's only exposure to gay culture being porn and Grindr. Offline, the word you're looking for is QUEEN. The term doesn't depend on age, body type or race. It's sometimes honorific, sometimes bitchy, always from the heart. We all need to get offline and meet role models who prove we have long, flamboyant gay lives ahead of us. Queens with robust social and sex lives, fat queens, balding queens, queens with thick regional accents, Black queens and fems to whom we owe the world, all of them. Feminine gays who are afraid to age: your femininity will not wither away but ferment and flourish into something powerful and inspiring. Live in defiance of a culture that says femininity has an expiration date. Who cares about being a twink? Be a queen.
headless bird found outside my door that i got very paranoid was intentionally placed by a person as a bewitching attempt. but it was probably cats
