Auto Anon, Reverse Tomboy I

Posted: Wed, Feb 18, 2026

Today

• Feedback on shorties [15 min]
• t4t [20 min]
  • Eros? Alliance?
  • Desirable? Possible?
  • “The novel’s depiction of t4t in the apocalyptic timeline risks collapsing love into resource exchange: hormones, shelter, protection”? (Momo vs. Sitian)
• In-class activity [20 min]: Femininity/masculinity, womanhood/manhood
  • Have you ever been called too feminine/masculine, or not feminine/masculine enough? Under what circumstances and against what benchmark? Do you think it was fair?
  • Do you want to be feminine/masculine? What does that mean for you?
  • “There are moments that are inherently feminine in their intimacy, for example, lying topless in Calvin Klein Jeans, but there exists a femininity in Naomi’s discomfort as well. When Naomi wears a dress for the first time at home, she says she will return to her jeans the next day [33].” (Micaella)
  • Naomi & Claudine’s argument (pp. 18–21)
    • (Hetero)sexuality’s inseparability from (normative) gender: “[F]emininity is not strictly about identity, but rather a feeling activated through heterosexual interaction. . . . I wonder what would happen to femininity if men were no longer the audience.” (Leah)
  • Shower scene (pp. 21–23)
    • Affirming the consequent in “if I’m a girl then I like boys”?
    • Retroactive meaning-giving to make sense of early experience?
    • The malleability of desires?
• “Love, Gender, and Sex” [20 min]
  • Gender → love → sexuality?
  • Love → sexuality → gender??
    • “My sexuality, as it were, served as an impediment to my gender.” (Shai)
    • What makes dating a transiting partner feel so different? Are there different kinds of love for different kinds of sexualities and genders? [Were Aristophanes & Socrates’ Diotima right after all?]