parenting and sexuality

The Editorial: Parenting and Sexuality
Painting of a bird teaching alphabet to its young ones.
The Editorial: Parenting and Sexuality

How much do our parents teach us about ourselves? If science and psychology have proved that sexuality and sexual development grow and bloom in the course of our lives along with our other faculties, what role do our parents have in what we learn about sexuality? And, as parents, surely there’s so much we learn about sexuality, ourselves, and everything else from essaying the role? To parent is to learn how to teach what we already know, and to be able to receive more than a few surprise lessons ourselves.
By TARSHI
October 17, 2016
The Editorial: Parenting and Sexuality
Learning to Be an Honest Parent
A side shot of a woman with hair flowing.
Learning to Be an Honest Parent

One of the very first stories my daughter wanted to be told was how she was born. It was easy for me because I had a caesarean section but I knew that at some point I had to share with her that children come out of the vagina.
By Venu Arora
October 17, 2016
Learning to Be an Honest Parent
What Came of a Conversation about Queering Mothering
A black and white furry cat with its kitten.
What Came of a Conversation about Queering Mothering

There is something incommensurable about the phrase ‘queering mothering’ – the two words put together, ‘queer’ and ‘mother’. We think of motherhood as a relationship between a ‘woman’ (the biological mother) and her child. Nevertheless, there are a number of people who form bonds with a growing child.
By Tanya Singh
October 17, 2016
What Came of a Conversation about Queering Mothering
How Do We Deal With All the Mixed Messages Kids are Getting?
Still from film 'Sairat' (2016). A teenage girl sitting behind a teen boy on a two-wheeler. She has her arms on his shoulders, and is caressing his head with one hand. He is wearing a black shirt, and she is wearing a red ruit, green bangles, and a bindi on her forehead.
How Do We Deal With All the Mixed Messages Kids are Getting?

Youngsters are bombarded every day with messages related to sexuality, sex and relationships from various sources. And we also know that not all the information they encounter prepares them well to make choices.
By Ramya Anand
October 17, 2016
How Do We Deal With All the Mixed Messages Kids are Getting?
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व
An illustration of what makes a family using stick figures. Several different scenarios is sepearate circles. One shows two men and a child; another - a man, a woman, and a child; two women and a child; a man and a child; a woman and a child; two men; a man and a woman; two women; a man, a cat, and a dog; and last - a woman, a cat, and a dog.
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व

इस बात के अनेकों कारण हो सकते हैं कि महिलाएँ बच्चे क्यों नहीं चाहती हैं, ठीक वैसे ही जैसे इस बात के अनेकों कारण है कि वे बच्चे क्यों चाहती हैं। बच्चे होने के कारणों को सामान्य करार दिया जाना जबकि बच्चे ना होने की इच्छा को ‘सामान्य से अलग’ माना जाना, शर्मिंदा किया जाना और संदिग्ध की तरह करार दिया जाना, सभी के लिए नारीत्व का ‘एक ही अर्थ’ बनाने वाले है।
By Sheba Remy Kharbanda
October 17, 2016
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व
एक नारीवादी माँ के रूप में जेंडर और यौनिकता पर बात करना : मामले को और भी पेचीदा कर देता है
A woman walking, holding hands with her preschooler son in a garden.
एक नारीवादी माँ के रूप में जेंडर और यौनिकता पर बात करना : मामले को और भी पेचीदा कर देता है

सामान्य तौर पर एक नारीवादी माँ का काम, जो रोज़मर्रा की चर्चा में यौनिकता के बारे में बात करने के लिए दृढ संकल्पी हो, अनिश्चितता से भरा है। अन्य नारीवादी दोस्तों के साथ बातचीत और संसाधनों जैसे तारशी की अभिभावकों के लिए लिखी गई उत्कृष्ठ किताब द यलो बुक से उत्पन्न मेरी रणनीति है कि सवालों का ठीक-ठीक जवाब देना, जब भी वे पूछे जाएँ। हालाँकि, मुझे उम्र के हिसाब से जानकारी देना सीखने में समय लगा।
By Shilpa Phadke
October 17, 2016
एक नारीवादी माँ के रूप में जेंडर और यौनिकता पर बात करना : मामले को और भी पेचीदा कर देता है
Coming Up For Air: What Would It Be Like to Grow Up Queer?
A drawing of three kids jumping from one side to the other of a wire from a telephone tower.
Coming Up For Air: What Would It Be Like to Grow Up Queer?

My parents have been accepting of different types of sexualities, but what scares me is that I don’t know how accepting they’d be if one day my brother or I told them we were interested in people of the same gender, or even more taboo: that we were having difficulty identifying with the gender we were raised as.
By Zoya Achanta
October 17, 2016
Coming Up For Air: What Would It Be Like to Grow Up Queer?
The Government Must Rethink the Surrogacy Bill
Photo of three Indian pregnant women from neck to knee with each resting their right hands on their protruding belly. One is wearin suit, and two are wearing night gown.
The Government Must Rethink the Surrogacy Bill

The draft Bill appears to have been framed without addressing the actual concerns of the surrogacy arrangements in India, and could do more harm than good by leading to the exploitation of women.
By Curated Content
October 17, 2016
The Government Must Rethink the Surrogacy Bill
South Korea Plans Lifelong Parenting Education
A family of a man, a child, and a woman sit on a window sill, facing mountains. They are holding the baby in between them - each parent holding his one hand.
South Korea Plans Lifelong Parenting Education

South Korea is planning to provide people with lifelong parenting education in the hope that it will prevent child abuse, it’s reported.
By Curated Content
October 17, 2016
South Korea Plans Lifelong Parenting Education
Issue In Focus: What, Exactly, Is the Child Innocent Of?
Black-and-white photo of three little children of about 5-7 years of age sitting on a branch of a tree. One girl is wearing knee-length shorts and tucked-in teeshirt; a boy wears a black knee-length shorts and and is naked above the waist; another girl resting her head on the boy's shoulder is wearing a thigh-length jumpsuit.
Issue In Focus: What, Exactly, Is the Child Innocent Of?

Shohini Ghosh uses examples from art history and photography as an interesting analytical tool to examine both the historical context as well as contemporary shifts in the way childhood is viewed.
By Shohini Ghosh
October 3, 2016
Issue In Focus: What, Exactly, Is the Child Innocent Of?
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood
An illustration of what makes a family using stick figures. Several different scenarios is sepearate circles. One shows two men and a child; another - a man, a woman, and a child; two women and a child; a man and a child; a woman and a child; two men; a man and a woman; two women; a man, a cat, and a dog; and last - a woman, a cat, and a dog.
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood

I love children and have at various times in my life flirted with the idea of adoption. But I have known since I was a child that I did not want to birth children. I have never been vague or ambivalent about this decision. I have been consistently clear and concise that this is not my calling.
By Sheba Remy Kharbanda
October 3, 2016
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood
Consent? Leave Sex Aside, What About It In Families?
A bollywood meme. Still from a Hindi film where a woman makes a weird crying face, and her mother does a haww gesture. On top of the photo is written "when your out with your mom and your friend of the opposite sex says hi to you."
Consent? Leave Sex Aside, What About It In Families?

How have we reached a point where non-consensual behaviours in romantic and sexual relationships are criminalised, but parental domination is still legitimised, or trivialised in the name of “Oh, but I know my parent is a good person and wants what is best for me”?
By Meghna Bohidar
October 3, 2016
Consent? Leave Sex Aside, What About It In Families?
Making Sex-Ed for Parents Accessible: Let’s Start With Our Bookstores
A father with his little daughter on a hammock, reading together from a book.
Making Sex-Ed for Parents Accessible: Let’s Start With Our Bookstores

Looking for birthday gifts for nieces and nephews in a favourite, well-curated bookshop in Delhi, we were dismayed that we couldn’t find any books that told the kinds of stories that we would like for kids today to read and hear.
By Kristin Francoeur and Surabhi Srivastava
October 3, 2016
Making Sex-Ed for Parents Accessible: Let’s Start With Our Bookstores
Video Page: This Web Series Gave Sex Chat a Whole New Meaning
Video Page: This Web Series Gave Sex Chat a Whole New Meaning

Little Pappu asks his father innocuous questions about all kinds of things to do with sexuality, and while his papa tries reluctantly at first to address his curiosity, he soon finds light-hearted and honest ways to explain concepts to his son.
By Curated Content
October 3, 2016
Video Page: This Web Series Gave Sex Chat a Whole New Meaning
Brushstrokes: Dolls Turn Into Real Role Models In the Hands of This Parent
Collage of three photos showing a stereotypically-beautiful woman; a doll that looks like the woman in the previous photo; and another doll.
Brushstrokes: Dolls Turn Into Real Role Models In the Hands of This Parent

Canadian parent Wendy Tsao took her child’s over-sexualised dolls, removed their makeup and changed their overly done-up hair to turn them into role models from real life. By creating from commonly available dolls lookalikes of real-life women of renown, Tsao explores the idea of playthings having an influential impact on the formation of one’s own identity.
By Curated Content
October 3, 2016
Brushstrokes: Dolls Turn Into Real Role Models In the Hands of This Parent
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