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
अनीता जो महाराष्ट्र में एक देवदासी हैं, के इस आत्म कथ्य से पता चलता है कि सहमति और हिंसा के मुद्दे हमेशा स्पष्ट और सीधे रूप में सामने नहीं आते। अनीता का कथ्य बताता है कि जीवन की कई परिस्थितियों में वो अपना रास्ता खुद मर्ज़ी अनुसार चुन पाई हैं ।
पारंपरिक जेन्डर भूमिकाओं ने हमेशा ही खेलों के स्वरूप को प्रभावित किया है। यह सच है कि एक ऐसी जगह में, जो विशेष रूप से पुरुषों के लिए ही बनी थी, धीरे धीरे महिलाओं के लिए स्वीकार्यता आई है, लेकिन इस स्वीकार्यता ने औरतों को स्वतंत्र रूप से ख़ुद को स्थापित करने के लिए बहुत कम जगह दी है।
Growing up, for me, has been about accepting that the loneliness and sadness woven into the fabric of my being do not go away with entering conventional arrangements like monogamous relationships or marriage.
Both of us, have recently, decided to get married and will be in a marriage that I like to call a subversive marriage. Subversive marriages are based on an uncompromising equality and negotiations that serve for the betterment of both the partners.
मेरे जेंडर के बारे में उनकी प्रतिकारिता हमारी बातचीत में हर जगह होती है, लेकिन वह मुझे यह भरोसा देने में भी देर नहीं लगातीं कि मेरी ग़ैर-विषमलैंगिकतावादी यौनिकता ने उन्हें कभी परेशान नहीं किया।
In this month’s issue of Play and Sexuality, Wesley D’Souza recounts the time his school put up a production of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, his preparations for its audition, and how the process was intertwined with an exploration and acceptance of his sexuality.
What I am proposing here is to look at being in a relationship and being single together because what is important here is the idea of ‘be-ing’ as opposed to the stereotypes and perceptions attached to our relationship with ‘the One’ or to singlehood.
I love children and have at various times in my life flirted with the idea of adoption. But I have known since I was a child that I did not want to birth children. I have never been vague or ambivalent about this decision. I have been consistently clear and concise that this is not my calling.
All these works have made me acutely aware of how gender, sexuality, and religion, are so deeply intertwined in the social fabric. Also, how conditioning can significantly influence one’s understanding of literature, or the lack of it.
I personally feel that any cause, specially one like kink that is in its nascent stages, needs its own space to grow, to affect enough people, before it merges with the larger cause of queerness, or sexuality, or even humanity.