real talk, I was ready to not only settle for the first cishet man who showed any attraction to me but was even convinced I deserved to be with someone obviously shitty because I cannit be inflicted upon other people. years of bullying does shit to one's psyche.

this is very tangential to lrb, but still related

I don't remember if this was a story told just to me or my mom's adult friend(s) was/were also there, but she knew a gynecologist whose son was sexually active at 12 and would sometimes ask her to check in case he did anything bad to his girlfriend. I think that last part is kinda weird, but like. at 14 that sounded to me like a boy you can trust and that hasn't changed. it's also why I just cannot accept the narrative that it's abnormal to have sexual desires or to participate in sex before the age of 18.