bodily integrity
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.
Reclaiming Being Single Against Emma Watson’s Self Partnered
Emma Watson spoke to British Vogue about the incredible amounts of stress and anxiety that follows, “…if you have not built a home, if you do not have a husband, if you do not have a baby, and you are turning 30, and you’re not in some incredibly secure, stable place in your career, or you’re still figuring things out…”
By Feminism in India
February 15, 2021
Probing the Screen: Pleasure in the Virtual World
The virtual world allows me to challenge the hold of patriarchy on my ‘effeminate’ body; in a sense, it allows me to evade the policing of desire that my body shares with another, its flows and slippages, the messy and the unkempt. While virtual sex offers a window to revisit the sensual, it is also not immune to limitations and insecurities.
By Neel
June 15, 2021
Media and the Power of Responsible Representation
It is the winter of 2013, and my father and I are sitting at an awkward distance from each other…
By Rohini Banerjee
June 15, 2021
Maybe age is more than just a number? My discovery of my sexuality and sexual preferences over the years
Age is not just a number, like it is often said to be. It is a lot combined together. It is about grace, it is about exposure, it is about knowledge, it is about the ability to fight back. And yet, in endless other ways, age IS just a number.
By Asmi
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
Is Digital Colonisation Redefining the Understanding of Agency, Bodily Autonomy, and Being Human?
Apart from systematic exclusions faced by individuals, evidently the mandatory use of a biometric-based digital ID has also reshaped the understanding of an individual’s agency and right to bodily autonomy. Gender and sexuality seem to no longer be matters of an individual’s right to privacy. With digitisation, disclosure of one’s gender and sexuality has become a hindrance to accessing one’s rights.
By Brindaalakshmi K
Interview: Sharanya Manivannan
If you are true to yourself, and attuned to your emotions and needs, you’ll invariably find that even a core belief (such as: not believing in the institution of marriage) is complicated by what the lived experience of that means (not only discriminatory experiences, but also intimate ones).
By Shikha Aleya
February 1, 2021
Interview: Radhika Chandiramani on What Self-Care and Sexuality Have to Do With Each Other
Sexuality and self-care are related at many levels, right from the level of knowing what you want and what you don’t, how you feel about yourself, how you are able to communicate your desires and how you are able to enjoy your experiences.
By Anjora Sarangi
Interview – A reflective self-questioning
It is true though that ageing has brought home realities about my body that I ignored when I was younger. It has made me mindful of what I value, and what I choose to let go of, without too much of thought or unnecessary angst.
By Shikha Aleya
March 1, 2021
Interview – Srinidhi Raghavan
Disabled people might not have many spaces where they can speak openly about their sexual experiences or even sexual curiosity. There is a heavy monitoring of disabled young people especially, and this can mean that exploration, which is often how many of us discover sexuality, can be limited. Moreover, since the experiences of disabled people are not seen in popular media such as films, we can (and probably do) imagine we will have the same or similar experiences as non-disabled people – which is often not possible.
By Shikha Aleya
August 2, 2021
In Appreciation of Singlehood
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.
By Siddhi Pandey
February 1, 2021
HOW I LEARNED THAT I DESERVE TO LOVE MYSELF
“I feel comfortable with who I am,” he responded. “I’m at ease with myself. I don’t wake up and hate myself. I can’t tell you how amazing that feels.”
“I know how that feels,” I told him.
By Guest Writer
January 4, 2021
Editorial: Singlehood and Sexuality
In this issue of In Plainspeak our contributors reflect on and reveal the myriad facets of being single – is it a choice? A condition? A state of being? Lonely? Joyful? Not one or the other, but a glorious mix?
By TARSHI
February 15, 2021
Editorial: Disability and Sexuality
Both sexuality and disability are complex terrains, offering a realm of possibilities that are often made unnecessarily complicated and unattainable by the mental maps we draw of them and the artificial barriers we erect.
By TARSHI
August 16, 2021