Voices
There I sat down and wept
“Be yourself, Sarah. Awkward smiles, empty silences, weird laughter, and all. It’s just a part of being human. Loving someone physically is never not awkward. Even if it’s a monogamous relationship. It’s only the comfort of familiarity that makes you think otherwise.”
By Anna Lynn
April 19, 2021
Theatrics of Consent
The sheer ignorance of the intricacies of consent, or its performance, serves only to strengthen the enduring patriarchal framework that holds sway in a society where the bodies, desires, and even voices of women have been, and, tragically, continue to be, defined and controlled by men.
Consequently, a “yes” – whether verbal or gestural – cannot be shallowly inferred as an authentic, unambiguous, and static agreement to a “contract” proposed by men.
By Saurabh Suman
February 18, 2025
The ‘Missing Woman Fan’: Ideas about Sports Fandom and Sexuality
As soon as we think of sports, we also think of fans. But the nature of fans has most often…
By Ritwika Patgiri and Rituparna Patgiri
November 15, 2021
The Wind Will Carry Us
What changes if we shift our gaze from what is slipping away to what is taking root?
By anvita walia
September 18, 2025
The Villainised Other: Understanding Portrayals of Female Masculinity in Bollywood
Apart from the masculinity portrayed in commercial films with heterosexual tropes, Bollywood has produced movies portraying distorted female masculinity.
By Soumili Paul and Tiyasha Purohit
The Various Hues and Hemlines of African Women’s Attire
Sub-Saharan Africa itself is very diverse. There are Muslims, Christians and people whose cosmological beliefs and practices hark back to the thousands of years before the arrival of the monotheistic faiths. South Asia has also had some cultural impact, particularly in Eastern, Central and Southern Africa. Against this general background, it is not surprising that notions of feminine modesty, which influences the regulation of dress, vary across regions and religious traditions.
By Edward Kannyo
August 2, 2016
The Unqueer Classroom
I remember realising that ‘gender’ was a construct when I was 9 or so, that it wasn’t real. I was…
By Aradhana Phadke Sardesai
July 22, 2024
The United States of Indian-Americans
It is very easy to fall into the trap of believing that the survival of the larger group is more important than the rights of an individual. This is especially true in diasporic communities, where people are constantly struggling to keep their cultural identities intact while simultaneously assimilating to the majority culture just enough to survive.
By Sonia Dhawan
July 15, 2017
The Union of Our Inner Masculine and Inner Feminine
Feminine energy is supposed to be yin, receptive, gentle, intuitive,and fulfilling. Masculine energy is supposed to be yang, active, fast, fierce, emptying, goal-oriented and focused.
By Pallavi Barnwal
The Unbearability Of Desire
Intimacy can never thrive in an environment of rigid certainty. Intimacy requires surrender – not in the sense of submission – but in the willingness to be with another person without detachment or defences.
By Shaifila Ladhani
March 17, 2025
The Time Machine – 5 In Plainspeak Articles that Celebrate Sexuality in its Diverse Forms!
The In Plainspeak team decided to time travel and re-discover previously published articles that explore the multiple ways in which people find joy and pleasure in their sexualities.
By TARSHI
The Taste of Purple
Stop everything! I have a condition that you must follow before you read any further, before you consume what I’ve…
By Hanish Srinivasan
July 17, 2023
February 17, 2026
The Sociolinguistics of Sexting
Typos are speed breakers, and autocorrect has kinky preferences
By Rajashree Gandhi
May 1, 2018