At In Plainspeak, we’re always brainstorming about ways to engage with the great diversity you represent as readers, and to connect you to each other! This year, we’ve added a short, almost micro feature, to our regular crop of articles. We call it, quite simply: Quick Bytes
Quick Bytes is based on short responses to cue questions that we ask those who agree to participate in this micro feature.
Abhishek Desai gives us Quick Bytes on The Pandemic and Sexuality.
Abhishek says:
One line to describe me: I’m a journalist turned storytelling & communications specialist.
The word Sexuality brings to mind: Often we confuse sexuality for sexual orientation, but it is more than just about who I’m attracted to. It’s about
- my gender and how I understand and present myself
- my emotions
- my physical, social and erotic feelings
I connect the Pandemic and Sexuality in these ways:
- The lack of access to sexual and reproductive health services like gynaecologists, ART and HRT had a severe impact on one’s sexuality.
- The pandemic and lockdown isolation made recovery harder for people with sex or porn addiction because of a lack of support systems that enabled their recovery.
- On the other hand, the limited access to intimacy with others, made one discover true intimacy with oneself – as I did.
Self-affirming in this context for me: It meant truly exploring and understanding how gender functions, and my relationship with it, and then engaging in performing gender in new and hot self-pleasuring ways.
Something to think about as a last word: What would discovering personhood mean beyond one’s gender and sexuality?
Put together by Radhika Chandiramani and Shikha Aleya.
Cover Image: Photo courtesy of Abhishek Desai.
