1. Sexual Their objection to your irregularity caused you to abolish your body entirely. So you never knew what it was like to be naked without feeling like the air against your skin was a blanket of needles—a reminder that your very casing should never be exposed. For the protection of others, for the protection of you. You also never gave yourself permission to have sex casually, frequently, to feed your body experimentation, play, intimacy. Instead, you quietly envied what it must be like to feel that desirable, to feel that free. How come, you wondered, your gay friends were seemingly able to transcend the hostility enough to take their shirts off at midnight at the bar, to fuck a stranger in the park? (Is being white that unbreakable?) You learned to call yourself a “never nude” as a form of deflection, reclamation, but the title only bound you further. #igivemyselfafuture *** The installation of my new photo series I GIVE MYSELF A FUTURE, I GIVE MYSELF A PAST—where I embody who I might be and might have been in the absence of homophobia, misogyny and racism—has begun at @mitchellartgallery!! Join us for the launch (including a conversation with photographer Zachary Ayotte + @glassbookshop pop up) this FRIDAY at 6pm! Link to register in bio. *** Creative direction: Vivek Shraya Photography: Zachary Ayotte SPFX makeup and hair: @megfraser SPFX makeup: @alissa.gee Styling: Vivek Shraya Set assistant: @spadinosaur