Desire Is an Obligation

Celebrating three years of Many Such Cases, plus 50 percent off (forever)

Dec 3 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

162

21

10

November 2025

We're Not Supposed to Be Thinking About Ourselves This Much

Desire Digest 0011: more notes on vulnerability and embarrassment, that one "The Chair Company" scene and the merits of "may I meet you?" as a pickup…

Nov 20 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

67

3

9

Is Avoiding Embarrassment the Only Goal?

Dating is now structured around avoiding humiliation above all else. Meanwhile, the price of love is often embarrassment.

Nov 12 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

214

21

39

What Is "Cuffing Season" Asking of You?

Thoughts on the annual push to couple up for the cold winter holidays, Feeld and listening to the fluctuations in our own desires.

Nov 7 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

46

1

7

October 2025

The Disney-Adultification of Halloween

Desire Digest 0010: why Halloween (and maybe every holiday) feels different now

Oct 31 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

82

8

7

You're Already a Sexual Cyborg

Notes on the relationship between the mainstreaming of gooning, your phone as a reproductive organ and the Skims merkin.

Oct 29 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

133

5

22

We Have to Try to Be Nice to Each Other

Revisiting the idea of whether men and women even like each other anymore, and what it's going to take to make romance work again amid the gender war.

Oct 15 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

84

34

11

September 2025

Filling in the Dating Gaps

New dating apps continuously promise to solve the problems of modern dating. Can they get to the core of the issue?

Sep 18 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

38

6

3

The Last Chopper Out of Nam

What our continued political division means for the future of women, men and our ability to relate to one another.

Sep 11 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

141

2

18

August 2025

The Moral Panic In Your Hands

Most of us are probably in agreement about the role phones are having in our lives. Why has that become so divisive?

Aug 27 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

118

6

17

Who Is Allowed to "Perform" Gender and Identity?

thoughts on the "Performative Male," and the abundance of women dressing as literal clowns on dating apps

Aug 21 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

49

2

4

July 2025

Gender Relations Have Made Dating a Hostile Act

notes on the Tea app, "The Problem with Wanting Men" and the Coldplay kisscam

Jul 24 • 

Magdalene J. Taylor

283

4

40