relationships

Camouflage
An illustration of a blue flower. The tips of its petals are dark blue and lighten as they meet at the yellow-brown centre. A long spindly green stem supports the flower and has three dark and light green round leaves and a dark green bud.. Behind it, on a grey-blue background is a cityscape dotted with buildings and palm trees with muted colour and grey overtones.
Camouflage

I cannot let anyone see the stretch marks, the cellulite, the saggy breasts. I cannot reveal my hideous body. I feel anxiety well up inside me even as I visualise this eventuality. I read about ten ways for a fat person to have meaningful sex. I learn that throwing a cloth over the bedside lamp will help hide my flaws.
By Sharada Vinod
August 2, 2021
Camouflage
Burnout, Boundaries, and Better Self-Care
A photograph of a water body. The sky is tinged with pink-mauve-yellow and is reflecting yellow on the different shades of blue of the waves.
Burnout, Boundaries, and Better Self-Care

My self-care journey has only just begun and I have a long way to go. I do have bouts of self-doubt, anxiety, and panic, and I still go through periods of feeling overwhelmed. However, more than anything, I have learnt that self-care, for me, is a subversive act, and caring for myself gives me the strength to challenge the status quo and play my part in social justice movements.
By Devika
July 19, 2021
Burnout, Boundaries, and Better Self-Care
Brushtrokes: Amanda Oleander’s Art
two women sit on a bed in casual nightclothes, one of them concentrating on a laptop and the other inspecting a boil on her leg
Brushtrokes: Amanda Oleander’s Art

Artist Amanda Oleander’s paintings chronicles the everyday lives of couples and the various mundane things they do together that are simultaneously deeply intimate and poignant.
By Curated Content
February 1, 2019
Brushtrokes: Amanda Oleander’s Art
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue
A set of two photographs, on the left a coloured photograph of a woman hanging from a tree with orange flowers, on the right a black and white photograph of a woman looking at her left eye in a hand-held mirror and applying make-up.
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue

Inspired to collect photographs of women spending time by themselves and for themselves after a conversation with her mother’s friend, Surabhi Yadav began the project, Women at Leisure.
By Feminism in India
July 5, 2021
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue
Brushstrokes: Who We’re Leaving Out of Sex Positivity – And How to Make It More Inclusive
On a white background, various black outlined chat bubbles from a range of people coloured in pink.
Brushstrokes: Who We’re Leaving Out of Sex Positivity – And How to Make It More Inclusive

Everyday Feminism’s comic illustrates the complexity and diversity of sexuality, revealing how sex can sometimes be pleasure-affirming and sometimes not, and asks us to talk about ALL KINDS of sex – the good, the bad, and the hilarious.
By Curated Content
August 2, 2021
Brushstrokes: Who We’re Leaving Out of Sex Positivity – And How to Make It More Inclusive
Brushstrokes: Vulnerability and Sexuality
Sketch of two persons sitting with their heads, hands, and legs touching each other
Brushstrokes: Vulnerability and Sexuality

Her artworks illustrate discoveries, intimacies, and vulnerabilities during a time when identities are coalescing that may affect how we eventually come to become.
By Prachee Batra
April 19, 2021
Brushstrokes: Vulnerability and Sexuality
Brushstrokes: Healthy Relationships
Brushstrokes: Healthy Relationships

Just as there are diverse ways of expressing and experiencing one’s sexuality, pleasure, too, is experienced in multiple forms and through multiple practices in each relationship.
By Curated Content
February 3, 2020
Brushstrokes: Healthy Relationships
BRUSHSTROKES: HAPPY DOODLES
A screenshot of an illustration by Buddha Doodles
BRUSHSTROKES: HAPPY DOODLES

We found these heart-warming doodles that are dedicated to staying conscious of things that matter for our personal well-being and our relationships with others but that we tend to lose touch with from time to time.
By Curated Content
January 4, 2021
BRUSHSTROKES: HAPPY DOODLES
Brushstrokes: Digital security guide: How to protect yourself on dating apps
An illustration of a ruled sheet. The lines are orange in colour. In the middle is a smartphone with a woman's face and torso on the display. She has curly brown hair and is wearing a blue turtleneck. Underneath is written, Lu, 28, and the symbols of Swipe Yes or No and two other buttons as on a dating app interface. On either side of the smartphone are flowers with stems and leaves. The flowers are red, and two in each bouquet. Above, in big letters, outlined in black and coloured in bright green: How to Date Online Safely. And underneath the smartphone illustration, in black, "Online dating can be fun. But there are some risks. Malicious actors can use your profile to blackmail, hurt, or harass you. This guide contains helpful tips and resources to protect you'
Brushstrokes: Digital security guide: How to protect yourself on dating apps

Online dating can be great fun but it comes with some risks. This quirky and in-depth Digital Security Guide by Access Now on How to Date Online Safely tells us how we can engage with fellow dating-app users while making sure we are safe from harm.
By Curated Content
May 15, 2021
Brushstrokes: Digital security guide: How to protect yourself on dating apps
Brushstrokes: 5 Fantastic Ways to Engage in Feminist Hookup Culture
Film poster of ‘Someone Great’
Brushstrokes: 5 Fantastic Ways to Engage in Feminist Hookup Culture

While navigating hook-up culture, we may exercise our agency to express our sexuality but at the same time, may face risks to our safety and bodily integrity as well as obstacles engendered by misogyny, rape culture, heteronormativity, and double standards.
By Curated Content
October 5, 2020
Brushstrokes: 5 Fantastic Ways to Engage in Feminist Hookup Culture
Bridging ‘inside’ and ‘outside’
a pile of little stones are stacked vertically on a rock. in the background are green trees and snowy mountains
Bridging ‘inside’ and ‘outside’

We cannot build safe spaces for ‘communities’ we work with, without having those safe spaces built for those who work within the organisation.
By Meenu Vadera
August 20, 2024
Bridging ‘inside’ and ‘outside’
Breaking new ground: Maja Ma’s portrayal of queerness in a traditional Indian family
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Breaking new ground: Maja Ma’s portrayal of queerness in a traditional Indian family

This reconciliation between Pallavi’s public (seemingly) heterosexual and closeted lesbian identities points to a distinctly Indian way of avoiding polarities through a new social arrangement where both identities are allowed the space to flourish.
By Juhi Sidharth and Chaitanya Ravi
March 1, 2023
Breaking new ground: Maja Ma’s portrayal of queerness in a traditional Indian family
BLOSSOMING INTO A GARDEN: SPIRITUALITY, SEXUALITY AND ALL-CONSUMING QUEER LOVE IN ‘PUU’
‘Puu’ webcomic
BLOSSOMING INTO A GARDEN: SPIRITUALITY, SEXUALITY AND ALL-CONSUMING QUEER LOVE IN ‘PUU’

Puu, an episodic comic (consisting of 92 serialised episodes) created in 2016 by Nabigal-Nayagam Haider Ali – going by Nabi online – is woven together with vast, expansive threads of similar intense spiritual moments and reflections on devotion, faith, and love.
By Rohini Banerjee
January 4, 2021
BLOSSOMING INTO A GARDEN: SPIRITUALITY, SEXUALITY AND ALL-CONSUMING QUEER LOVE IN ‘PUU’
Between Fear and Freedom
An illustration of a woman walking on an empty street at night, with a backpack from which a crescent moon and stars are emerging.
Between Fear and Freedom

While highlighting safety from, media narratives often dismiss safety to: express oneself, be it through the way we identify and communicate, or through the body. Not only the spaces we access and the time of day we do so but also the way we perform our self-hood.
By Anjali
October 15, 2020
Between Fear and Freedom
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
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