“But the strangest part of the formal isn’t what’s there, but what’s missing: self-consciousness. It pervades all kinds of teenage social interactions, but particularly the lives of queer kids, who tend to feel as though their very being is something to be ashamed of. The Adelaide formal is a stark reminder that the social awkwardness often accompanying teenage queerness is entirely contextual – that when you put those kids in a room where they have nothing to be ashamed of, they stop being ashamed. That’s it.”
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