Narratives and Sexuality
Editorial – Narratives and Sexuality
Stories hold power. They shape how we understand the world, and if they are stories of distorted facts and falsehoods, they spread unease, discord and hatred. But stories also allow us to imagine other possibilities; they give us hope that we can overcome oppression and injustice.
By TARSHI
March 17, 2023
Interview – Kiran Bhat
So I am realising now that for me the space of borderlessness applies to everything. It applies to the physical and topographical border as it does to the borders we create between gender and their expressions. I think I would like to argue for a truly borderless understanding of the world.
By Shikha Aleya
March 17, 2023
More than Striking a Pose
“Something about this pose brought about a sense of owning my body, my persona, my expression, my sensuality, my whole being. The drop of the hip made the bottom vertebrae curve, and appear out of alignment from the rest of my spine. A deviance, defiance of the normal straight stance. A resistance, a revolt of sorts.”
By Robin
March 17, 2023
Shifting the Gaze: How women wish to experience desire
This awareness of the status ascribed to women – the status of being the objects of men’s desires – affects every aspect of a woman’s life. Desire then, in particular, becomes an aspect of a woman’s life where navigation becomes tricky.
By Gitanjali
March 17, 2023
March 17, 2023
What we don’t talk about when we don’t talk about kink
I realise that a lot of men want (and need) to dominate women not because it is mutually pleasurable but because it reinforces patriarchal hierarchies. The taboo around kink, as a larger space of exploration, and BDSM, as a part of it, only furthers the violence, intensifying the apparent mystery of these subjects.
By Trijita
March 17, 2023
The Motherhood Dilemma
The idealisation of motherhood is crucial to our culture; it is important that the mother is self-sacrificing. This sacrificial instinct isn’t limited to women’s behaviour. It goes on to encompass the entirety of her corporeality and the way she performs it.
By Vinky Mittal
March 17, 2023
किसी ने मुझसे सेक्स के बारे में बात नहीं की
हमें ख़ुद को यह याद दिलाना ज़रूरी है कि हराम और आएब को पितृसत्ता की वैश्विक प्रकोप से बढ़ावा मिलता है। वे एक ऐसी क़ैदी संस्था, बाध्यकारी बुनियादी ढाँचे और प्रतिबंधक प्रणाली का हिस्सा हैं जो अपनी प्रजा की स्वतंत्र पहचान और खुली अभिव्यक्ति को नियंत्रण मैं रखते हुए अपनी व्यापकता को बनाए रखता है।
By Abdullah Erikat
March 17, 2023
Issue in Focus
There are different narratives where lie hidden worlds of codified feelings, justifications, a reason to buy or not buy into injustice, or othering.
By Shikha Aleya
March 1, 2023
Drag As Mapping Culture, Fun, And Resistance Onto Our Bodies
Drag is more than a form of entertainment or art form or a form of comedic release, it’s the realization of the fun of being queer or having a queer perspective.
By Rajeev Anand Kushwah
What is your verb
Khusro to Bullah. Ada to Parveen
यह, वह, वो
He, she, they
Lover or Beloved? Woman or Man?
By Carol D'Souza
March 1, 2023
Love belongs to me too
I see people and places,
Couples and crushes
I hear giggles and whispers.
These are the secrets untold to me.
By Gayathri
March 1, 2023
Did you see?
They’ punch him
with the pejorative
‘sissy’
and blame him for his smooth skin
and pink lips
for all ‘their’
disoriented gazes.
March 1, 2023
Sex Question Mark
Looking back, it seems strange, almost sad that he couldn’t contain his anxiety, couldn’t bear the shame of what he did wrong. He must have skimmed over so much turmoil, that he couldn’t accept the reality of harming someone.
By Megha
March 1, 2023
Breaking new ground: Maja Ma’s portrayal of queerness in a traditional Indian family
This reconciliation between Pallavi’s public (seemingly) heterosexual and closeted lesbian identities points to a distinctly Indian way of avoiding polarities through a new social arrangement where both identities are allowed the space to flourish.
By Juhi Sidharth and Chaitanya Ravi