Necessary Behavior

Growing up, there was a time in which I had a strong aversion to the color pink. Self-conscious about the impending arrival of “womanhood” in my then-near future, I began avoiding anything I associated with femininity—I was painfully aware of how many classmates were beginning to wear makeup, dresses gave me a particularly high level of discomfort, and I hated having long hair so much that I begged my way into getting a (badly styled) pixie cut (Reader, it did not end up making me look as cool as any fourteen-year-old would have hoped). But as specific as it may sound, I know my experience is far from unique. Around the world, girls grow up hearing warnings about what awaits them in womanhood, and many, like I did, grow up resenting their designated “place” in a patriarchal society. What’s worse, the discouragement or denigration doesn’t always come from men—some women are unfortunately also guilty of upholding and enforcing the gender roles and misogynistic talking points that further divide us. And the worst part? Some of them enjoy it.

Amazon is now doing healthcare and prescriptions. This totally isn’t how a medical horror movie starts, right? Amazon dipping its fingers into the medical sector has been a long time coming. Amazon bought PillPack to leverage its way into the pharmaceutical side of the healthcare sector in 2018. It bought One Medical in 2022, getting access to over 800,000 patients, not to mention doctor’s offices and another tech platform. In 2024, it announced its collaboration with Cleveland Clinic. Recently, in January of this year, Amazon acquired the support of Teladoc, with over 1 million users, their connected devices, and personalized data and care plans. With this partnership also came the announcement Amazon was integrating these new healthcare options into their Prime subscription, probably explaining the major hike in price in the past few years. This has been a plan for a while, with Amazon playing the long game. And I don’t think they plan to stop here.

One of the promises of the recently-inaugurated Trump Administration was to prioritize America, championing a shift to strengthen the country’s petroleum production and mining opportunities—even at the expense of measures that would ensure its environmental preservation and structural integrity. The newly-instituted Department of Government Efficiency, is moving quickly to dismantle long-standing legislative protections, and among the victims are national environmental and climate actions meant to protect our environment. These environmental actions had survived plenty of previous government interference and cut funding. What’s so different this time, and what can we expect regarding the future of government-led environmental initiatives?

On January 21, 2025, Donald Trump took down many government sites; reproductiverights.gov was among them. This is part of Project 2025, a project made by a conservative think tank, to remove access to reproductive care. We decided it was on our shoulders, Necessary Behavior’s shoulders—to make something to fill the void left by the Trump administration’s need to control what information the public has access to. So many of us here at Necessary Behavior are women, trans, or queer, so we understand how important reproductive care is. https://lnkd.in/gPNkQ4xx We decided it was on our shoulders, Necessary Behavior’s shoulders—to make something to fill the void left by the Trump administration’s need to control what information the public has access to. So many of us here at Necessary Behavior are women, trans, or queer, so we understand how important reproductive care is.

It seems that researchers and political figureheads are still trying to decipher the Gen Z playbook. Now that it’s been several months since the 2024 presidential election, the low voter turnout for younger Americans aged 18-29 is concerning not only to electoral stakeholders, but to the functioning of democratic processes in America. So what exactly is motivating these Gen Z voter patterns and political sentiments?

On January 18th, millions of TikTok users—influencers and mindless scrollers alike—mourned the loss of the social media app, TikTok, across the United States. For a few hours, anyway. Distributing, maintaining, and providing internet service for TikTok is now technically illegal in the U.S., but the app was up and running again within the day, with a cheerful popup telling users, “Thanks for your patience and support. As a result of President Trump’s efforts, TikTok is back in the U.S.!” So, what’s going on with the TikTok ban? And did Donald Trump really rescue TikTok from oblivion?

“It takes a village” is an expression you have heard at least once—maybe some offhand remark from your teacher or something your parents said when grandma came over to help with the dishes. It simply means that it takes a community to grow and thrive in our lives. Yes, we give free labor, but if we need help we will find it in return.

I have always thought, ever since I was a kid, that Valentine's Day is a day to spread love. Whether you loved inwardly, towards yourself, or outwardly, towards others, I believed you didn't need a romantic partner in order to have a wonderful Valentine's Day. Why is Valentine’s Day, a holiday about love, only about couples, and not about the individual going solo and showing love to themselves? All around the world, right at this very moment, people are taking time out of their lives to love those around them—to appreciate each other. Why do those interactions only have to be romantic?

Trump is becoming President. Now what? I know I’m not the only one who freaked out a smidge. So, instead of continuing to freak out over the what-ifs, let’s discuss the actionable things we can do to face the new presidency, shall we? A lot of how people feel about Trump taking office can be boiled down to uncertainty of what his presidency will look like, how it will affect marginalized communities, and feeling like we as a people have no control over what happens next.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s become cliché to say life as we knew it is gone. Now, I know you’re likely asking, “Really? A COVID article in 2025?”—but I mean “since” and not “during” or “back when” (because, in case you didn’t know, that infamous coronavirus is still around). Unlike our old lifestyles, however, pandemics aren’t a thing of the past, not for the immunocompromised or anyone seeking better public health measures. And COVID is not the first or the only highly infectious disease we have or will encounter (public health crises like the 2009 influenza outbreak and the 2014 spread of the ebola virus come to mind). As we navigate through the next few years with continually lowered public health and safety measures, it’s important to keep in mind that our “health” and any able-bodied or corporeal capacities we have are only temporary, and we should do what we can to prolong these as much as possible.