Gender Norms
High Heels and Loose-fitting Clothes: Movement Unfettered
How should I walk, what should my gait be like, what kind of clothes can I wear that will sort of cover me up…? This indecisiveness and the burden of, “What will others think?” are some of the worries, that I carried for a long time while making decisions like: “Is this going to expose too much skin?”, “Is this going to look a certain way that I may not like to present myself as?”
By Taniya Mondal
Editorial – Fashion and Sexuality
In tailoring the way we present ourselves to the world – be it as fashionista, frump or an artful fusion of the two – we think we are the ones making a choice about how we express our gender and sexuality along with other markers of our identity.
By TARSHI
October 19, 2023
Editorial – Gender and Sexuality
Gender and sexuality are like constituent parts of a jigsaw puzzle that keeps morphing in such a way that nothing ever ‘fits’ for long, and the game begins anew each time.
By TARSHI
November 19, 2024
Desire, Appetite and Sexuality: Indian Cinema’s Evolving Taste Buds
Indian films have for long fed into as well as mirrored social and cultural practices. Many of them depict a woman as being restricted to the kitchen and serving delicacies during festivities.
By Sourav
Coming out as small
They lay eyes on him, they see a body out of the gym. A black, thick beard, in a need…
By Abdullah Erikat
August 10, 2023
Brushstrokes: An Artist Captures Patriarchal Nosiness in its Most Everyday Avataar
The potential for art to connect people and to challenge thinking is continuously widening. Aarushi Jain, a 21-year-old artist from India, perfectly captures the societal expectations placed on women in her representation of the English alphabet.
By Curated Content
Body Talk
Social norms don’t expect women to look muscular, but if men are muscular, it is considered sexy. Just by choosing to pursue a largely male-dominated sport that glorifies what is accepted as “masculine”, Karuna and Sibalika are pushing the boundaries of these labels.
By Zulfiya Hamzaki
October 1, 2019
Bend the ball like Beckham, but where?
Such open spaces to play sports are mainly occupied by men, while women are mostly excluded on account of various gender norms. This also applies to many underprivileged girls coming from the margins of caste and class who lack access to safe and inclusive open public spaces to play, such as public parks or maidans.
By Anchal Kumari and Vinayak
April 21, 2023