Voices
Being of Queer Age
The conversion of the noun (adult) into the verb form (adulting) implies that ‘adulting’ is more performance than inevitability. Which is to say, there is no intrinsic understanding of ‘adulting’; it is something that can be learnt over time.
By Roshan Roy
March 15, 2021
Age no bar
While the idea of older adults and sex is a taboo in itself, the idea of older adults exploring their sexuality, by engaging in same-sex relationships, or by experimenting with the way the look, or by becoming more sexually active, causes even greater discomfort.
By Aamena
March 1, 2021
Kun Faya Kun: Embodying Non-Conformity
For a queer person, or for someone who remains single by choice, everyday existence requires strength and will. That is the embodiment of kun faya kun as a personal philosophy: to manifest the person you want to be through sheer will.
By Ghausia Rashid Salam
February 1, 2021
Navigating love, loneliness and singlehood
I believe that queer friendships and intimacies are sheer resistance, which not only swallow the despair and pain that might be perpetrated on gender-nonconforming people by their families, but also recognise all the lies about love that have been sold to us.
By Anonymous
February 1, 2021
A Manifesto for Single Women
Singleness represents eschewing all that patriarchy imposes on us in the name of emotional and financial protection. Women who decide not to marry defy age-old ‘wisdom’ mixed with terrible psychological and biologically-backed explanations.
By Sonia Soans
February 1, 2021
Single, Singlism, and the Norm of Coupling
Viewed from the ‘sexual-moral high ground’ of couples (especially married couples), long-term singlehood is generally labelled as a deficit, a lack,or an inability to be emotionally involved in a relationship rather than being seen as a lifestyle choice.
By Swati Bakshi
February 1, 2021
Poem: ‘The thing about crushes’
The thing about crushes, is that eventually they stop being that. I’m not saying love dies or anything, I’m just saying, that Love never was and sometimes it takes a few months of tumbling across perfumed bedsheets
By Breton Lalama
February 1, 2021
Poem: ‘A debauchee’s ode to self-love’
All I have known of loving men is emotional labour, And by that, I mean back-breaking, soul-sucking toil, Oh, the relief of carrying nothing but yourself, Oh, the relief of taking nothing but pleasure from their sex
By Malini Gopalakrishnan
February 1, 2021
A GARDEN OF ONE’S OWN
Therapy gives us tools and time, but the actual work of dismantling the forest is ours as we are the only persons with access to that forest. So queer affirmative therapy validates our beliefs and helps us identify the poison, cut it down, dissect it, unroot it.
By Poorva Parashar
January 4, 2021
WHAT I LEARNED ABOUT SELF-CARE AND WELLBEING AS A SEXUALITY RIGHTS ACTIVIST
Wellbeing and sexuality for me therefore entailed thinking through and dealing with violence, understanding and acknowledging it as not the entirety of one’s experience, and going through a process of healing.
By Arpita Das
SELF-CARE AND MASTURBATION – LET’S GIVE IT THE FEMALE PERSPECTIVE IT DESERVES
Our body is home. We exercise, we eat right. We adorn it with jewels and tattoos. We live well and breathe easier if our home (our body) is clean, fed and rested. Come home to yourself. Masturbation is one of the easiest ways home.
All the World’s a Stage
The ways I look at femininity have evolved as I have. Growing up in a space driven by dance and…
By Neel
December 15, 2020
That monster. That witch. That woman.
This article will not quench an inquisitive person’s thirst for answers to questions around gender, femininity, sexuality, horror, monsters, witches,…
By Anannya Chatterjee
December 15, 2020
Biscuit tin
I keep on hold the colours and prints to wrap you in gentle delicate flowers or little cartoon lions and boys with fists that say Bam and Super / until I know what lies between your legs the cigar or the smile of consolation if you’re the first
By Shikha Aleya
December 1, 2020
Sweet Sixteen
At sixteen, the senior boy I loved, touched me down there and said, this is what boyfriends do, this is what love feels like – uncomfortable.
By Tapaswinee
December 1, 2020