Becky Fromm

The world likes pain it can see and justify. Broken bones, hospital beds, death of loved ones... If you say you’re in so much pain and there’s something visible to point to, it makes sense to people. They believe you. But when the pain is internal, when it’s relational, emotional, invisible, it’s can be dismissed all to easily. By others, but even by ourselves. As if pain only counts when it leaves bruises. There’s a quiet hierarchy we absorb. Physical pain sits at the top. But the slow,...

I recently watched K-Pop Demon Hunters. On the surface, it’s a stylish, catchy, fun animated film about pop stars and literal demons. I liked it. And then there’s the movie beneath it. I lovvved that one. It was the one saying: “We’re doing to you right now exactly what we do in the real world.” In the story, a boy band isn’t discovered. It’s “engineered”, every member chosen, every trait optimized, every emotional hook designed to appeal to the widest possible audience. Manufactured...

At 38, I returned to school for a master’s in psychological research. I planned to study oxytocin, the ever-so-fascinating neurochemical involved in bonding, trust, and connection. And released by touch! Touch! I was so  excited. And then it was 2020. No labs. No contact. No touching. Fucking COVID. On a personal level, it was miserable. On a research level, it forced a pivot. If I couldn’t study oxytocin directly, I had to choose the next most important question to dedicate two years of my...