There was a time when having a boyfriend felt like an achievement. His name went in your bio, your camera roll filled with soft-launch photos, and his face became an unofficial extension of yourself. But lately, there’s been a shift. Women are admitting that being publicly “taken” doesn’t feel as flattering as it once did. It feels, well, kind of embarrassing.

The idea took off after writer Chanté Joseph published a piece in British Vogue about women posting their partners less than ever before. She noted that we’ve gone from an era of carousels filled with romantic photos to a time when a boyfriend’s elbow might briefly appear in a 24-hour story before disappearing. “It feels like the result of women wanting to straddle two worlds,” she wrote, “one where they can receive the social benef

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