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Today I continue to have an extremely boring dress sense, largely consisting of chinos and black jumpers, which means that no one can accuse me of clinging onto a youthful aesthetic. But if I wasn’t a twink, I was at least twink-adjacent, and I can relate now to the feeling of ageing out of a specific type of attractiveness (slim, pretty, very slightly androgynous). I wouldn’t classify myself as an ageing twink, because I’m not sure if I was ever a twink in the first place: while I was thin and possessed a stark, preternatural beauty, I also dressed like the bassist in a Sonic Youth tribute band. “But look at me now! Would you think it possible that I was once considered to be – attractive?" Recently I was shocked to discover that Blanche – this icon of decline, dissolution and lost youth – is just 30 years old.
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“ Oh, in my youth I excited some admiration,” she tells a potential suitor, batting her eyelids and making sure to avoid harsh lighting. In my view, the literary ageing twink par excellence is actually a woman: Blanche DuBois, the brittle, fading southern Belle in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire (1947). “He was silly but he was so lonely anyway, I understand now that the contempt I felt for him involved my self-contempt.” Perhaps the contempt some gay men feel for ageing twinks always involves a degree of contempt for themselves, too. Take Jacques, the middle-aged gay man in James Baldwin’s Giovanni’s Room (1956): “In some ways I liked him,” reflects the narrator. This idea that there’s something pitiful about being an ageing gay man has a long legacy. The ageing twink is mocked in front-facing comedy TikToks: “one day, you’ll lose your charm, you’ll be a husk just like me” hisses one 29-year-old character, while another bemoans that “23 is 40 in twink years”. There are countless Reddit threads where people discuss his unfortunate fate and how one might escape it: these conversations are staggeringly bleak, with some approaching the idea with vindictive relish and others, clearly anxious twinks themselves, engaging in something approaching digital self-harm anticipating their own bodily decay and permanent banishment from the world of desire. He is an object of pity and scorn tragi-comic and embittered, desperately clinging on to something, occasionally drug-ravaged or otherwise scarred by excess. Hold on tight, and hopefully, all will be back to normal soon.There is a spectre haunting the gay community: the ‘ageing twink’. This means that restaurants, bars and nightclubs remain closed until the next consideration (January 14, 2022, for the record).
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The COVID-19 pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the planet, and regulations remain in place in the Netherlands. These are some of the best clubs in a city famous for its nightlife, after all. Don’t be surprised if you’re joined at some of these spots by groups of open-minded straight people looking for a night out to remember. The best gay bars and clubs in Amsterdam stretch far and wide across the whole place. This means that the entire city is one big gay scene. The Dutch do things properly, so it is no great shock to learn that Amsterdam’s track record on gay rights is as good as it gets. There are a lot of reasons to love Amsterdam (a cursory glance at the best things to do here give you plenty of options), but the Dutch capital’s reputation as a haven for liberalism and open-mindedness is right at the top.