Performance and Sexuality Archives • In Plainspeak

Performance and Sexuality

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We are many selves. Or rather, like a series of Russian Matryoshka dolls nested one within the other, we perform…

By TARSHI

September 17, 2018

Editorial: Performance and Sexuality

Picture of a man and woman, in period costume, kissing.

Time and time again, Galbaldon asks us, through the character of Claire, to remember that we are travelers, we move and are moved by the interactions and environments around us.

By Dana Burton

September 17, 2018

Outlander: A Review

‘Don’t They Realise We are Human?’: The Uneasy Alliance Between Fashion and Feminism

Picture of author Manjima Bhattacharya. She has short white-and-grey hair and is wearing dark thick-rimmed glasses

“Historically, feminism and fashion have been pitted against one another,” writes Manjima Bhattacharjya in her book, Mannequin. It’s a dilemma the fashion industry has struggled with for decades – being perceived as flippant, or existing in a vacuum”

By Curated Content

September 17, 2018

‘Don’t They Realise We are Human?’: The Uneasy Alliance Between Fashion and Feminism

The Labor of Expressing Femininity as a Disabled Woman

A series of feminine body hair removal products - razors, epilators and so on - arranged on a pink coloured table

The nature of the labor that goes into performing femininity is that it’s invisible. Or at least it’s supposed to be. As a culture, we expect women to look glossy and shimmery and smooth. We don’t want to know about the time and money that goes into this presentation.

By Curated Content

September 17, 2018

The Labor of Expressing Femininity as a Disabled Woman

Picture of two trains, one already present on the platform, and another approaching the platform. They are both green in colour with off-white stripes on them

I could have called it transformation instead of transitioning. But it became clear to me that transitioning does not necessarily imply a caterpillar-butterfly story but that it means a gradual acceptance of the self (and the self is ever-transitioning); of being comfortable in your own skin (even if it means shedding skin); of perfecting your act (even if it means learning a few new things).

By Rishit Wishit

September 17, 2018

In Transit

Issue in Focus: Performance and Sexuality

Picture of a classical dance performer, face painted in yellow and black

To think of sexuality as performative disrupts the need for stable categories and identities, instead suggesting that we all reinforce and disrupt normative formations as we attempt to inhabit the world in messy ways.

By Sneha Krishnan

September 4, 2018

Issue in Focus: Performance and Sexuality

In a world of prescriptions of performance and perfection, there isn’t truly that much space built in to risk non-performance, not being perfect, or to risk not fitting the prescription.

By Shikha Aleya

September 4, 2018

Prescriptions of Proper

Screengrab from "Baby Steps", a gay couple sit together in front of a laptop in an intimate pose

In the short film, Baby Steps, a seemingly mundane Skype conversation between a mother and son turns into something more.

By Curated Content

September 4, 2018

Video Page: Baby Steps

The queer muslim experience, symbolised by a picture of three pieces of fennel, kept one beside each other. they have a light green bulbous body and dark green leaves emerging from the stem.

“I’m afraid because I bring to bed more than just one soul of a scared conflicted boy. I’m bringing to bed a whole army that not only runs the streets within me but also spills out over my body and the body of the boy next to me.”

By Abdullah Erikat

September 4, 2018

I’m a Fennel for Now

Bodies in Motion: Dance Therapy as Mode of Healing and Empowerment

silhuoette of a female figure in a dancing pose

The dance therapy project therefore squarely locates itself as a supplement to economic skill building and psychological counselling, in developing a holistic sense of self among the women beneficiaries of the project.

By Raili Roy

September 4, 2018

Bodies in Motion: Dance Therapy as Mode of Healing and Empowerment

Picture of a black lacy mask with a black string portruding from it

Just like sex can be happy, sad, awkward, angry and so many other emotions, rather than the mere act of pounding, so is BDSM.

By Asmi

September 4, 2018

BDSM Play – Performance and Beyond

Gender non-conforming poet Alok Vaid Menon. They are dressed in a vibrant sleeveless dress, jewellery and makeup.

In an e-mail conversation with TARSHI, Alok Vaid-Menon talks about both performativity and poetic performance.

By TARSHI Team

September 4, 2018

Interview – Alok Vaid-Menon

Against a yellow background, illustration of a silhouette of "Superman", with a red flowing cape

During my interaction with students as a part of sexuality education classes in schools, one frequently asked question by boys is,“How to charm a girl?”

By Ramya Anand

September 4, 2018

How to Have Good Sex?

Black and white picture of stand-up comic Hannah Gadsby. She has short hair and wears dark glasses.

In Nanette, Hannah Gadsby’s hour-long Netflix special that transcends the very notions of stand-up comedy, forces of reclamation, protest, and rage culminate to form a darkly hilarious but heartbreaking diatribe against patriarchy, heteronormativity, violence and marginalisation.

By Anonymous

September 4, 2018

Nanette: Of Universality and Difference

Illustration of a naked woman in a bathtub, her menstrual blood visible in the water she's taking a bath in

But what about the “moments we don’t Instagram”? What about the uglier parts of our physical lived realities? What about the parts of our body, our identities, our sexuality we don’t perform on social media, but are still an intrinsic part of who we are?

By Curated Content

September 4, 2018

Brushstrokes: #100DaysofLaundry