Thread by @monaeltahawy

What does desire look like liberated from the pressure of heteronormativity and enforced monogamy? What desire is a cis woman who is child free by choice “allowed” to have at 54 years of age? What does desire look like liberated from the pressure to have children?

https://twitter.com/monaeltahawy/status/1421819028734160902

When I write about desire as a 54yo woman, I understand that the reckoning now is with taboos around age and the expectations that suffocate it.

I am claiming my desire by claiming my age.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-my-des…

For too long, I had been told I “didn’t look” whatever age that I was. It was said to me as if it were a compliment. It was not. It was instead the loathing of aging that we are socialized into. #ThisIs54

How was I to stand in the power of my age when I was being “praised” for looking younger than I was. Not for all the money in the world would I go back to being younger. My 20s without exception and at least half of my 30s were miserable because I felt I had no power.

And now here I am, with more power, being told I “didn’t look” this age I feel I’ve finally earned.

I have walked towards my desire by claiming my age.

feministgiant.com/p/essay-my-des… #ThisIs54

To desire and to be desired is political. How we fuck and who we fuck is political. Always the goal: to be free.

I could not say I stand in the power of my age, until I insisted I be seen in my age, as I was. #ThisIs54
📷 @rerutled (and the one above in the blue)

Read and share my essay:

The most subversive thing a woman can do is to talk about her life as if it matters. Because it does. Her desire, especially when she is not supposed to desire or to be desired, is especially disruptive. feministgiant.com/p/essay-my-des… #ThisIs54

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feministgiant.com