The sound a dog makes when a playful park tussle turns violent; the paparazzi shots of Charles Saatchi with his hands around Nigella Lawson’s neck at an elegant London restaurant; the phrase “intimate terrorism”; the phrase “a playful tiff”; the paparazzo responsible for the shots telling an interviewer: “I thought Charles was demonstrating something”; Michelle Obama explaining to a roomful of British students that “good relationships feel good. They don’t hurt. They’re not painful”; 90% of love songs; Adele; the lyrics “Come on girl now it’s you/Sink your teeth right through my bones, baby/Let’s see what we can do”; the lyrics “I like it, but it hurts”; flossing; pinching yourself to stay awake; that humans sometimes cry when they laugh; crying because you’re angry; punching a hole in a wall; being touched too gently; not being touched at all; Beyoncé (reportedly) being bitten by an unnamed actress at a party in LA; Sanaa Lathan writing on Twitter, » Y’all are funny. Under no circumstances did I bite Beyoncé and if I did it would’ve been a love bite»; love bites; Jim Acosta mic grab intern; the who-touched- who-first debate; doctored videos; deep fakes; mistakes and misunderstandings; consent; every time a man uses the “rough sex” defence against rape allegations; when play fighting gets out of hand; 30% of those who survive CPR waking up with a cracked sternum and/or broken rib; putting your entire hand in a turkey; Return of the Serial Killer: How Psychosexual Male Panic is Infecting Pop Culture; violence; affection; violent affection; playground crushes; sibling abuse; the fact that so many classical paintings look like the scenes just before or just after an orgy; squeezing your lover’s ear lobes between your thumb and forefinger; the difference between good touch and bad touch; how many times touching someone for a millisecond too long has revealed an affair.

Chloe Stead