Family
How much support is enough?
In the middle of this pandemic, can one seek sexual support in the form of a hook up with one’s best friend, ‘just because’? Is it redefining boundaries, is it sympathy sex, is it simple indulgence, or is it something that one or both might later resent?
By Asmi
November 2, 2020
Brushstrokes: Fiction Comic: Unwrinkled Saris And Just Another Evening
In a society ruled by heteronormative patriarchal structures, expressing one’s gender or sexuality outside the trimmings of what is socially acceptable is an act of resistance.
By Curated Content
Video: It’s OK Pammi!
The film begins with the mother’s dilemma around her daughter’s refusal to be ‘normal’ and marry a ‘decent boy’. As the story unfolds, we see the mother invite a ‘suitable boy’ for dinner on the same evening as the daughter’s partner is coming home to meet the family.
By Curated Content
November 2, 2020
The Risks and Gains of Coming In
I had risked so much already, not just by loving another woman, but by acting on my desires. By allowing myself to feel intimacy and connection with another queer person. Despite feeling guilt and shame, this risk had become increasingly vital to take.
By Sweta
October 15, 2020
From ‘I wish I knew!’ to ‘Is it right to tell them this?’
I wish my elders had told me about more than just bleeding when they talked about menstruation. I wish they…
By Asmi
Interview: Jeeja Ghosh
Jeeja Ghosh is a disability rights researcher and activist, feminist, parent, writer, scholar and trainer. Her lived experience of disability, and of standing up against discrimination and injustice, is at the core of her work and insights. Shikha Aleya interviews Jeeja about mobility across divides other than the physical.
By Shikha Aleya
August 1, 2019
Kabhi Class Kabhie Gender: Watching K3G in a North American Anthropology Classroom
Watching K3G with my students brings forward new ways of understanding how concepts like socioeconomic class, gender, sexuality, and diasporic imaginaries are embedded with subtle messages of morality and longing and how these messages are ingrained in our Bollywood viewing experiences.
By Jessica Chandras
Multiple Generations, Same-Sex Couples, Many In-Laws: The Indian Family is Changing
The Indian family is changing. There’s no ‘ideal family’ defined by children or lineage. It comes in different shapes and sizes.
By Curated Content
Reproductive Technologies: Families of Choice?
While we moved one step forward towards sexual rights by striking down Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) and decriminalising homosexuality, we still have a long way to go in changing and challenging the popular psyche and the political and legal narratives around homosexuality and queer families.
By Anindita Sengupta
March 5, 2019
(In)Convenient Choices and Queer Affective Lives: The Story of My Mother and Me
My mother and I have both made certain choices, sometimes inconvenient for me, sometimes difficult for her, but those choices have revealed to me the strength of our relationship and alternative possibilities that she and I can imagine together.
By Sohini Chatterjee
Video Page: Baby Steps
In the short film, Baby Steps, a seemingly mundane Skype conversation between a mother and son turns into something more.
By Curated Content
September 4, 2018
Video Page: A Satirical Sitcom on Marital Rape
In times of trouble, when all members of the family come together, there’s nothing that cannot be solved by an Indian family, including marital rape. Take a look at this satirical sitcom.
By Curated Content
March 15, 2017
Kink and Friendship
My sexual desires may not be what certain people called ‘normal’ and I could not share this with my so called friends as I thought they would consider me weird. Surprisingly a woman in my hometown introduced me to the world of Kink. She was a regular housewife and with her for the first time I got to know what I actually needed and wanted and it went on for a good amount of time till I moved out of that place for many reasons.
By Sig
May 16, 2016
Reframing Family History
Often when we speak of families and family history, we talk genetics, traditions and inheritance of all kinds. Somehow our relationship by blood or otherwise to a clan is supposed to help us identify our place in the universe. So there’s family medical history, family culture, family traditions of food and career. But sexuality? A family history that focuses on sexuality? What would that even mean?
By Shikha Aleya
May 1, 2016
January 4, 2016