Body and Sexuality Archives • In Plainspeak

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What History And Fiction Teach Us About Women And Power

·July 16, 2018
·Curated Content

This article was originally published in the NPR. January 8, 2018; TANIA LOMBROZO Two recent books, one a manifesto by British classicist and Cambridge professor Mary Beard, the other a work of fiction by novelist and game designer Naomi Alderman, address — in different ways — the difficult relationship between women and power. When are women's…

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Abstract drawng of a distorted face painted in blue and yellow

The Editorial: Body and Sexuality

·June 17, 2015
·tarshiadmin

In one sense, the body is what I immediately am. In another sense, I am separated from it by the infinite density of the world. Jean-Paul Sartre, Being and Nothingness. The body has never had one meaning throughout human history. In ways that we choose to examine it, classify it, embellish it, play with it…

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Illustration of a naked woman with paint smeared across her body throwing her arms up in the air in joy and abandon

Run for your body, Run No Way!

·June 17, 2015
·Abdullah Erikat

It’s sad that we think we own our bodies: the bodies we love, the bodies we hate, the bodies we carry, the bodies that carry us. We saunter into this body believing it’s ours; that it has always been our vessel, pregnant with our gender identity, our sexuality, our ‘being’, ready to change ever and…

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A amn lying in a hospital bed, while a nurse stands near him and says 'I don't need informed consent to give you a sponge bath.'

Bodies Intercepted: Inside Medical Wards

·June 17, 2015
·Shweta Krishnan

The medical ward is often continuous with the world around it. One would like to think of it as an insulated space, because of the role it plays in keeping disease out. But social prejudices and apprehensions we carry do not stop at the threshold. Neither can they be wiped clean with an antiseptic. They…

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A pair of hands with wrinkles on them holding each other. One of the hands is wearing a gold band on their ring finger

Beauty

·June 17, 2015
·Almas Shamim

And all my life I’ve lived alone. What it means to be beautiful, I’ve never known. I’ve had partners but I pushed them all away, My sense of ugliness was like a fort to keep love at bay. Now, at fifty three, I take marriage vows again. Love can kiss wrinkles, scars and sagging breasts.…

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Picture of white fabric stained with red paint

Blood On Our Skirts

·June 17, 2015
·Shambhawi Vikram

I remember the first time I learnt of menstruation as a ten year old. One of our friends had been initiated into the secret club of ‘women’, and her frequent visits to the washroom (though I hadn’t noticed it) became a matter of intense curiosity for a bunch of my classmates. I remember one of…

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A fogged glass window with the word 'Delhi' outlined in it

Sex, the City and Hypocrisy

·June 17, 2015
·Guest Writer

India is home to a whopping 17.5% of the total world population. Half of this population is its women. No, correction, less than half, courtesy the disproportionate sex ratio. There are many factors that bring so many different people together but it is shameful that of all these things, it is hypocrisy and generalised misogyny that…

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Book cover for 'Trans Bodies, Trans Selves', showing a collage of bright colours with the name of book and author written on it

‘Trans Bodies, Trans Selves’: A Modern Manual By And For Trans People

·June 17, 2015
·Curated Content

This article was originally published at NPR.org The growing number of people who identify as transgender is raising a lot of interesting and complicated questions about gender identity. The new book Trans Bodies, Trans Selves is a collection of essays describing the varied experiences of transgender people — and the social, political and medical issues…

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