Review
Mid-Air Between Heaven and Earth
The concluding chapter reiterates the aims of the book, i.e., “to start critical conversations within the disciplines of psychology, social work, childhood studies, and family studies in India and to think about exclusions inherent in these disciplines.
By Madhu Kewalramani
August 14, 2018
The Good Boy with ‘Unspeakable’ Desires: The Queer Testimonio of ‘Nacher Chhele’
In Nacher Chhele, a 38 year old Avijit stands outside himself, takes a long look at his past, and writes an intense testimonio, which would resonate with many middle class Bengali queer men who grew up in the pre-global, pre-Internet city of Calcutta in the 80s and 90s.
By Kaustav Bakshi
Review: Offers You Can’t Refuse
It was a million dollar question. Literally. The Hollywood film Indecent Proposal (1993) had actors Demi Moore and Woody Harrelson…
By Manjima Bhattacharjya
July 16, 2018
Mental Wellbeing and LGBT*QIA Identities
To us, these sessions illustrated a few of the ways in which wellbeing is tied to sexuality; experiencing or being a part of queer/LGBT*QIA+ spaces by itself leads to reflection, healing, catharsis, and empathy.
By Nazariya QFRG
June 1, 2018
Rekhti: The Language of Women as Spoken by Men
It’s an entire genre of poetry known as rekhti, which was characterised by a female speaker and preoccupation with women’s everyday lives.It is counter posed to rekhta, the “literature narrated in the masculine voice”.
By Syed Saad Ahmad
May 15, 2018
Review: Risk-averse Bollywood Tackles Taboo Issues
Several recent mainstream Hindi films have dealt with issues of sexuality and gender not usually discussed in the intended audience’s drawing rooms.
By Shaifali Agrawal
Paromitar Ek Din: Recalling Memories of Sexual Solidarity
Paromitar Ek Din is a study in female subjectivity – it is essentially a woman telling the story (or rather, recollecting the story) of another woman, and reflecting upon themes of sexuality, oppression, and gender-based discrimination.
By Rohini Banerjee
Aruvi: Questioning home and ‘innocence’
Over time, I realised that ‘home’ meant not just the physical and emotional space occupied by my parents, but also a set of practices or strictures, mostly dictated by parents, related to gender roles, religion, sex, marriage, friendships and ‘appropriate’ behaviour.
By Vani Viswanathan
March 5, 2018
Being a friend does not make him better than a stalker: Glorification of men who can’t take no for an answer in Hindi cinema
The very last lines of a film are the voice-over by the hero, “Someday I will convince her to… marry me”….
By Shaifali Agrawal
REVIEW: WHAT SEX WORK TAUGHT FEMINISM: TALES OF THE NIGHT FAIRIES
Five sex workers – four women and one man – along with the filmmaker/narrator embark on a journey of storytelling….
By Moulshri Mohan
Men hijack women’s happiness and sexuality even in their freest moments: Review of five films released in 2015-17
The women in Parched (2015) are sitting and chatting, seemingly free from their daily oppression for once, when a cell…
By Shaifali Agrawal
FILMS OF DESIRE/BODIES OF DESIRE
The Church says: the body is a sin Science says: the body is a machine Advertising says: the body is…
By Geetanjali Misra
November 15, 2017
The Casteist Charsobeesi[1] of Chachi 420
Kamal Hassan has come to be quite a literal poster boy of all anti-caste memes lately. To reminisce about the…
By Swati Vijaya
October 3, 2017
John Norman’s series of Gorean fiction and his representation of sexual slavery
My formative years in BDSM[1]were heavily influenced by a series of books called Chronicles of Gor written by an author…
By Asmi
Making women out of men: Mystifying queer desires, staging queerness in Siraj’s Māyā Mridanga
Māyā Mridanga infinitely problematises the nature vs. nurture debate that is central to sexuality studies. The novel seems to suggest that a certain kind of male body – feminine, smooth, shapely – is the ideal raw material for making a chhokra out of a biological man. Ustaad Jhaksa, whose life the novel documents[2], repeatedly emphasises on this act of nurturing, moulding and pruning of a feminine male body for which he has fatherly affection as well as a lover’s lust.
By Kaustav Bakshi