Curated Content
Video Page: My First Time
“First times” can be awkward, exhilarating, and everything in between. They come with the tentativeness of sexual exploration – of figuring out what one wants and of nervously (and excitedly) seeking it out
By Curated Content
November 1, 2018
Bleached Girls: India and its Love for Light Skin
Bleaching syndrome is not a superficial fashion, it’s a strategy of assimilating a superior identity that reflects a deep-set belief that fair skin is better, more powerful, prettier. And it’s not limited to India; skin bleaching is also common in the rest of Asia and in Africa.
By Curated Content
October 15, 2018
Brushstrokes – Miss Moti Comics
“Moti” is often used as a slur, a denigrating epithet translating as “Fatty”, that is used to shame and to degrade; but when the “t” sound is pronounced differently, it becomes “moti”, a pearl – shining, precious, priceless.
By Curated Content
October 15, 2018
Shamed and Sidelined For Too Long, Plus-Size Women in Pakistan Are Now Speaking Up
“I realised plus-size acceptance is neither a movement to eat whatever you want nor is it about placing restrictions,” Amina said. “It’s about being kind to your body and realising you are not defined by the size of your waist.”
By Curated Content
Video Page: Naked Feelings
In a world where the body and its desires often become a site for personal insecurities and external policing, confronting the same body in its raw, physical nakedness, and feeling utterly, irrevocably comfortable with it is almost a revolutionary act
By Curated Content
October 1, 2018
Brushstrokes: Strange Like Me
When you feel “strange”, alienated, divergent from the reigning patriarchal standards of beauty, and are persecuted for it, sometimes all you need is a kindred spirit.
By Curated Content
October 1, 2018
‘Don’t They Realise We are Human?’: The Uneasy Alliance Between Fashion and Feminism
“Historically, feminism and fashion have been pitted against one another,” writes Manjima Bhattacharjya in her book, Mannequin. It’s a dilemma the fashion industry has struggled with for decades – being perceived as flippant, or existing in a vacuum”
By Curated Content
The Labor of Expressing Femininity as a Disabled Woman
The nature of the labor that goes into performing femininity is that it’s invisible. Or at least it’s supposed to be. As a culture, we expect women to look glossy and shimmery and smooth. We don’t want to know about the time and money that goes into this presentation.
By Curated Content
September 17, 2018
Video Page: Baby Steps
In the short film, Baby Steps, a seemingly mundane Skype conversation between a mother and son turns into something more.
By Curated Content
September 4, 2018
Brushstrokes: #100DaysofLaundry
But what about the “moments we don’t Instagram”? What about the uglier parts of our physical lived realities? What about the parts of our body, our identities, our sexuality we don’t perform on social media, but are still an intrinsic part of who we are?
By Curated Content
September 4, 2018
Love, Desire and Disability: The Heart Knows No Handicap
“Disabled people are treated like children,” says Nidhi Goyal, founder director of the NGO Rising Flame, a disability rights activist and comedian. This identification makes the non-disabled — a term Goyal prefers using — feel entitled to decide for them.
By Curated Content
August 14, 2018
Interview: ‘Desire is Never Straightforward. In Fact, there is Nothing Straight about Desire at All’
Desire is never straightforward, and it cannot be straitjacketed – in fact, there is nothing straight about desire at all. Any issue dealing with desire, therefore, is wasted if viewed through a monochromatic lens.
By Curated Content
How Popular Culture is Changing to Bring Women’s Desires to the Forefront
Female sexuality isn’t in the closet any more. If you look at the spate of films that have been released in the past couple of years, they seem to tell us that women mouth expletives, watch porn and don’t mind talking about orgasms—things taken for granted when it comes to men.
By Curated Content
Video Page: #PuranaPyaar
The short film, “#Purana Pyaar”, by Gorilla Shorts, starring veteran actors Mohan Agashe and Lillette Dubey, evocatively highlights how age is no bar when it comes to love and desire.
By Curated Content
August 1, 2018
Brushstrokes: Sexual Fantasies
Have you ever had a “dirty thought”, or rather, a sexual fantasy, at a random hour of a random day?
By Curated Content
August 1, 2018