A digital magazine on sexuality, based in the Global South: We are working towards cultivating safe, inclusive, and self-affirming spaces in which all individuals can express themselves without fear, judgement or shame
If a community is suffering such severe challenges that are impacting them mentally over generations, over hundreds of years; if the ways of mentally exploiting them are so easy and accessible to all, this means that it is not they who are experiencing mental imbalance but society that is attacking their mental justice and stability.
Years of control and suppression made their presence felt emotionally, mentally, and even physically. I would walk hunched up and was extremely conscious of how I should present myself physically, so as not to displease others. Those were very stressful days.
Someone like me, who was always vocal about sexuality, would feel invalidated speaking frankly about sex. Most doctors themselves weren’t comfortable discussing anything remotely pertaining to be a challenge in the sexual wellness area.
Several outcomes of minority stress were observed in this study – feelings of guilt and shame, internalised homophobia, experiencing queerphobia, lack of acceptance, and family-related stress.
No matter how much I wanted to be a part of the rainbow, it felt like the rainbow wanted no part of me. It was an elite space for the exuberant über cool gays, with access, privilege and a vocabulary filled with jargon. I couldn’t even decide if I was ‘gay enough’, let alone deconstruct my experiences, having being brought up in a heteronormative culture.
Conversations about stress, burnout and mental health have gained prominence, especially during and since the COVID-19 pandemic. But, what is stress and burnout?
Any conversation on sexuality cannot exclude engagement with the myriad ways in which taboos around sexuality, the privileging of heteronormative ideals, the violence and marginalisation faced by people deviating from norms of sexuality and gender affect our mental health and well-being.
This issue of In Plainspeak while inviting us to embrace the joys and pleasure in movement, also questions the ways in which movements are facilitated or obstructed, visibilised or invisibilised, and the spaces that we must envision to find freedom in/to movement.
मैं भली भांति जानती हूँ कि यात्राएं करने से आपका जीवन ‘बदल’ जाने और ‘सबको करनी चाहिए’ के विचारों के बारे में अनेक कथाएँ और कहानियाँ प्रचलन में हैं। मैं यह भी जानती हूँ कि यात्रा कर पाना एक विशेष तरह की सुविधा, एक विशेषाधिकार है और हर कोई जीवन में यात्राएं नहीं कर पाता।
डांस मूवमेंट थेरेपी वर्कशाप के उन तीन दिनों में मुझे पता चला कि मेरे मन, मस्तिष्क और शरीर के बीच जैसे कोई सामंजस्य था ही नहीं, और कैसे आमतौर पर पारंपरिक मौखिक कार्यशालाओं में शरीर और मन के बीच के इस संबंध को नज़रअंदाज़ कर दिया जाता है।