Greentext

Regardless of what is the best path for you, making major life choices because "it is expected" or "it is the default thing to do" is not a good choice.

I think there's a particular brand of person I've seen a few times in real life and in media who gives off strong incel energy despite regularly having sex, and I think many of these people are the same as you describe. I think the toxicity that gives them the incel vibes are a product of "I have been conditioned to chase after sex and to measure my worth in how easily I can acquire sex, and now that I have achieved that, I feel hollow because it doesn't give me fulfillment"

I spoke to a guy friend about this and he said that his own experience of losing his virginity in his mid 20s gave him a sense of discomfort that he later recognised as a sort of gender dysphoria (as a cis man), because suddenly he was "winning" at being a man (according to how society tends to frame it), but he was less happy than before.

Romance has also been skewed by media to this constant thing that's also become a bit of an expectation. In my experience those romantic moments are just that, moments. They're created from feelings and random interactions. It can be effort and planned of course but not as a non-stop fairytale style of life which seems to be increasingly desired/expected.

Media really only shows the good and intense parts, similar to the porn problem, that people end up forgetting that it's a small portion of the actual time together. Instagram lives are a good example of this. Cute times while cooking dinner happen, but not every meal, not every day. It becomes special when it's not all the time, when your partner notices something and acts on it. Otherwise it's exhausting and draining.