freedom

Interview – This is what you bring to the table!
A photograph of a number of multicoloured rainbows against the background of a blue sky.
Interview – This is what you bring to the table!

In this write up, we’d like to share a sense of what emerges from a compilation of these responses. This is based on the thoughts and feelings that come through for those of us here at In Plainspeak who have had the joy of reading the original responses as they came in to us. (Some of the quotations that follow have been slightly edited for flow and to help connect themes.) We know that most things in the realm of art, information and ideas lend themselves to a wide range of inferences and insights depending on the individuals making the inferences.
By Shikha Aleya
March 1, 2022
Interview – This is what you bring to the table!
Negotiating Expression
An abstract painting of teal squares with splashes of orange, white, blue and yellow.
Negotiating Expression

I am still coming to terms with my own femininity, as with new learnings I find myself regaining many facets of my personality which were lost while trying to ‘act like a man’ and ‘act tough’.
By Ambica Naithani
March 1, 2022
Negotiating Expression
Between Fear and Freedom
एक चित्रण जिसमें एक लड़की को एक सड़क के बीच में खड़ा दर्शाया गया है। लड़की ने अपने दोनों कंधो पर एक बस्ता पहना हुआ है जिसमें से एक चाँद और एक तारा बाहर निकल रहे हैं।
Between Fear and Freedom

We are led to question what ‘safety’ really is: Will it be guaranteed by going gently, if at all, into that good night? Is it at all possible to freely and safely explore who we are and the world in which we live?
By Anjali
January 3, 2022
Between Fear and Freedom
Editorial: Fandom and Sexuality
A colourful pattern of distorted concentric circles
Editorial: Fandom and Sexuality

Members of a fandom are not just passive consumers but active co-creators who imagine and build new worlds around their objects of adoration. Fandom communities offer fans the freedom of being able to imagine, create and share all sorts of scenarios, including romantic, erotic and sexual ones.
By TARSHI
November 15, 2021
Editorial: Fandom and Sexuality
Interview: Kripa Joshi
On a peach coloured background, a woman of colour jumping. She is wearing purple ballet shoes and a purple one-piece swimsuit with white-grey patterns scattered on it. Her eyes are wide open and her hands are stretched open on both sides. Her hair is brown and open. She is throwing multi-coloured confetti. Beneath her is a blue circle. In a semicircle to her right is the typography, in purple: Throw kindness around like confetti!
Interview: Kripa Joshi

There have been several recent examples of actors, movies and events being called out because of their lack of representation, like for the Oscars. With social media it is easier to create and distribute diverse art and also to voice the need for diversity. So it needs engagements and awareness in society. Change will happen once enough people demand that change.
By Shikha Aleya
June 15, 2021
Interview: Kripa Joshi
The Struggle Of Beauty Workers In On-Demand Digital Platform
A screenshot of the Feminism in India illustration for the article. An illustration. On a green background which denotes a building, two women talking. One is wearing a yellow dress and has black hair tied in a bun. She is saying, depicted in a black bubble with white lettering, '10 MINUTES LATE BOOKING CANCEL' and on the other side is a woman in an olive top and a brown backpack. Her hair is in a ponytail and she is looking at the other woman with a white phone in her hand. Underneath, in white typography, 'The Struggle of Beauty Workers In On-Demand Digital Platforms'. On the top-left corner is Feminism in India's logo.
The Struggle Of Beauty Workers In On-Demand Digital Platform

If you live in an urban metropolitan city, you must have seen women dressed up in company uniform, carrying a heavy bag on their shoulders, their attire shouting a brand name with logos all over her. Their bodies become an advertising ground for a company’s marketing. Sometimes, the bag is a portable salon that they carry to their client’s (home), who book the beauty service using a mobile application. These ‘workers’ enroll themselves on the platform company that operates as an intermediary, to get bookings on-demand.
By Feminism in India
May 15, 2021
The Struggle Of Beauty Workers In On-Demand Digital Platform
There I sat down and wept
There I sat down and wept

“Be yourself, Sarah. Awkward smiles, empty silences, weird laughter, and all. It’s just a part of being human. Loving someone physically is never not awkward. Even if it’s a monogamous relationship. It’s only the comfort of familiarity that makes you think otherwise.”
By Anna Lynn
April 19, 2021
There I sat down and wept
The Last Local To Vashi
A photograph of differently coloured cloths hanging from poles in front of a train station in Mumbai, at night
The Last Local To Vashi

I gave myself the freedom to choose. And I chose to re-examine my assumptions. Maybe it was possible to ask strange men for directions without being afraid of seeming vulnerable. Maybe I could plan my outfit without bothering about the fact that I would be travelling on public transport.

By Tanvi Khemani
October 5, 2020
The Last Local To Vashi
Worlds Within Queer Worlds: Presence, Politics And Diversity
Worlds Within Queer Worlds: Presence, Politics And Diversity

Many among us are called names, are greeted with aggressive taunts and jeers on the very streets we boldly occupy at least once every year,so we go on living docilely until the next Pride, when performative reclamation of spaces becomes possible.
By Sohini Chatterjee
January 2, 2020
Worlds Within Queer Worlds: Presence, Politics And Diversity
बेटे का पत्र, पिता के नाम
By: Amateur Pic, Courtesy: PublicDomainPictures.net
बेटे का पत्र, पिता के नाम

आज वैश्विक और स्थानीय रूप से हम जहाँ भी हैं, मैं दिल से आपको धन्यवाद देना चाहता हूँ कि आपने मुझे हमेशा ही मजबूत और निर्भीक रहना सिखाया है।

By Sahil Sood
March 18, 2019
बेटे का पत्र, पिता के नाम
Editorial: Freedom and Sexuality
A ball made of delicate white threads is lightened up.
Editorial: Freedom and Sexuality

Freedom and sexuality – it sounds so liberating to some. But to some others, freedom is the spark that can…
By TARSHI
December 18, 2017
Editorial: Freedom and Sexuality
Interview: Shilpa Phadke
Back profile of two women walking on the street
Interview: Shilpa Phadke

‘Why would you want to loiter?’ is an excellent question to ask feminist researcher, parent, educator and activist Dr. Shilpa…
By Shikha Aleya
December 18, 2017
Interview: Shilpa Phadke
A Café of Our Own?: The Politics of Queer Spatiality in Urban India
A Café of Our Own?: The Politics of Queer Spatiality in Urban India

This essay is a brief rumination about queer café’s in urban India. Written as part reflection, part recollection, this essay…
By Swati Vijaya and Debanuj Dasgupta
December 18, 2017
A Café of Our Own?: The Politics of Queer Spatiality in Urban India
The Blindness to my Desire
A broken piece of copper-shaded lipstick on the right, with lipstick marks of copper and yellow lisptick smudged on the left.
The Blindness to my Desire

I won’t shy away from a kiss, In my head I have already devoured you. I don’t want you to…
By Kajol
December 4, 2017
The Blindness to my Desire
Freedom and an F Word
A hazy black-and-white picture of a branched tree swaying in a storm.
Freedom and an F Word

What do you think of when you put the words freedom and sexuality together? Orgies? Polyamory? Sex with no unwanted…
By Radhika Chandiramani
December 4, 2017
Freedom and an F Word
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