Astead Herndon

All of those ingredients that you want in

big sporting events.

That's what the hope is.

So, late last year, the internet asked an important question.

Are boyfriends embarrassing now?

And turns out, just about everybody had an opinion.

Coming up on Today Explained from Vox, an investigation into one of last year's biggest topics.

Are straight people okay?

This is Today Explained.

Shante Joseph writes about relationships, culture, lifestyle, friendships, and loneliness.

And she wrote a piece in 2025 for Vogue that went viral, probably because it was titled, Is Having a Boyfriend Embarrassing Now?

And you're noticing something that has really become clear on the timeline.

I remember like boyfriend reveals or things like that, but it's gone to...

outright hiding.

So what did your piece find and kind of what did you even mean by the question of embarrassing?

Yeah, I was going to ask specifically about how we should think about this alongside rising trends like Tradwife and others.

You mentioned it.

I mean, are these things that are happening at the same time?

Are these just different communities?

Weston Caleb.