This past Saturday, New York resident Eva-Lynn Powers sat alone in her bed eating Cheez-Its and wondering to herself, “Will I ever have sex again?” – but this time, it’s during a pandemic.
“With social distancing extended for a month, I’m starting to doubt that I will ever feel the sensual touch of another human,” said Eva-Lynn. “Especially given that I didn’t feel the sensual touch of another human for the eight months before social distancing, and also those two weird years after college, that six months in 2015.”
While Eva-Lynn has often doubted whether she will ever have sex again, due to factors historically ranging from lack of opportunity, lack of will, or the one time she claimed to have gone “post-desire,” this time she is asking if sexual intercourse is in her future, and also a global pandemic is happening.
“When Eva-Lynn wonders aloud about if sex will ever be part of her life again, people probably assume she means because quarantine is literally stopping her from having sex with people,” said a close friend, Annabel Lee. “But this line of questioning is nothing new. That girl hasn’t boned in years.”
“I guess now at least we’re all in it together,” added Annabel. “But actually not me because I live with my partner,”
For Eva-Lynn, the lack of access to sexual partners was usually only half the problem rather than the entire problem.
“When I’m contemplating a dry spell, I think about how my libido fluctuates wildly, and what if I meet some random person for sex and then I’m not horny that day, and when I’m really horny no one is there, and I don’t want to date because everyone disappoints me, and I’m maybe still kind of heartbroken from my ex,” says Eva-Lynn. “Anyway, this quarantine is really hard on me, sexually.”
“Now that the option is off the table completely, it obviously makes me want it way more,” she adds. “But now I’m like, damn, it’s like, will I ever see another naked body ever again? I used to ask that all the time, but now it really means something.”
