Bishakha Datta

Reel Review: Blue Is The Warmest Color
poster for the film 'blue is the warmest colour', which shows two young girls facing each other intimately
March 1, 2014
Reel Review: Blue Is The Warmest Color
Issue In Focus: Body Image is a Mind Thing
Two photos of veteran actor Robert Redford - one of his youth and one of him at present day - beside each other

This is not a cautionary fable about censorship and its excesses, but an exploratory essay on body image, using breasts as a starting point.

By Bishakha Datta
May 1, 2014
Issue In Focus: Body Image is a Mind Thing
Art and Activism: Strange bedfellows?
A hand holds up the cover of a book which reads, 'I, Kusama, am the modern Alice in Wonderland.'
July 15, 2014
Art and Activism: Strange bedfellows?
Never Mind The Nipples: Sex, Gender and Social Media
A cartoon illustration of a clitoris with a face drawn on it, the caption below it reads, 'making masturbation female friendly'

Five snippets from three months. In August, Indian actress Poonam Pandey dons a bikini for the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge…

By Bishakha Datta
October 1, 2014
Never Mind The Nipples: Sex, Gender and Social Media
Reel Review: Blue Is The Warmest Color
poster for the film 'blue is the warmest colour', which shows two young girls facing each other intimately

There are many ways of looking at Blue is the Warmest Colour, last year’s French release about a love story…

By Bishakha Datta
December 1, 2014
Reel Review: Blue Is The Warmest Color
Illegally Adult: The Strange Case of Alisha Major
Black-and-white photo of Indian bharatnatyma dancer Rukmini Devi holding a mudra. She is wearing traditional dance clothing with flowers in her head, and jewellery on the forehead, ears, and neck. The image is from the chest up.

She was 17 when she was rescued from a dance bar. Now she’s 18 and she wants to go back. As an adult. And dance again. That’s what Alisha wrote in a letter to the Child Welfare Committee.
Alisha’s letter may be one of a kind. It doesn’t matter. It may even be a scam of sorts, in that she was pushed to write it. Doesn’t matter. What’s interesting is the jumble that it throws up, if you look at her choices through eyes that are not hers.

By Bishakha Datta
June 17, 2016
Illegally Adult: The Strange Case of Alisha Major
ILLEGALLY ADULT: THE STRANGE CASE OF ALISHA MAJOR

She was 17 when she was rescued from a dance bar. Now she’s 18 and she wants to go back. As an adult. And…

By Bishakha Datta
January 2, 2018
ILLEGALLY ADULT: THE STRANGE CASE OF ALISHA MAJOR
Loitering towards desire
Lines of code on a computer screen

We had gathered to [discuss] digital self-determination for people with disabilities… focusing on its core component: the self. How can I be myself in digital spaces? What gives me more of a sense of self in these spaces? How can design, technology and policy contribute to helping me determine myself in digital spaces?

By Bishakha Datta
February 16, 2023
Loitering towards desire