Body

Dissociation
A long-exposure shot of moving strings of light giving a beautiful pattern. Most prominent colours are yellow, blue, and green.

Who is this that works my hand?
Who is this that moves my pen?
Touch is a beetle creeping on this foreign thing
That wears my body like an evening.

By Jhelum Mukherjee
February 2, 2023
Dissociation
Clicking Nudes: Documenting The Journey Of Self-Love For My Body
a series of nude paintings of women

As shocking as his request for a nude was, what confused me even more was why would he want nudes from me, a woman who hated her body? Would he appreciate these saggy breasts with their stretch marks? My ever growing thighs and my belly which has body hair on it, wouldn’t he think I’m ugly?

By Curated Content
February 17, 2020
Clicking Nudes: Documenting The Journey Of Self-Love For My Body
Brushstrokes: Seeing Through The Bold Strokes of Amrita Sher-Gil
Painting of women sitting on the ground cross legged. One is rubbing the back of another. They are all looking solemn.

[slideshow_deploy id=’5490′] To some Amrita Sher-Gil is the ‘Indian Frida Kahlo’. This month we feature five of her paintings which show women…

By Curated Content
March 1, 2015
Brushstrokes: Seeing Through The Bold Strokes of Amrita Sher-Gil
Brushstrokes: Body
image from the photoseries 'Body' by Veer Mishra

“Every type of body is beautiful, and more importantly every type of body is different,” says artist Veer Mishra while describing Body, his series of illustrations. This ‘difference’ is the essence of what he tries to portray through his art.

By Curated Content
May 1, 2019
Brushstrokes: Body
Brushstrokes: 11 Assumptions About Being Butch – And Why They Need to Stop
A poster of the comic ‘11 Assumptions about being a butch (and why they need to stop)’ A person can be seen on the left side of the poster. There is a speech bubble next to the person with the text “People make many assumptions about me because of the way I dress.

The misconceptions associated with the varied manifestations of femininity can be exceedingly deleterious and reinforce gender roles, traditional patriarchal ideas, and stereotypes related to bodies, expressions and the way we experience our sexual and romantic relationships.

By Curated Content
December 1, 2020
Brushstrokes: 11 Assumptions About Being Butch – And Why They Need to Stop
Brushstrokes: #100DaysofLaundry
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
Brushstrokes – Celebrating Sexuality
Celebrating Sexuality

Taboos in relation to female desire, sexuality and the body are often addressed in my work. My recent artistic interest focuses on rituals that are primarily centred on agricultural communities in Bengal that involve the veneration of fertility symbols and celebration of feminine sexuality.

By Mitali Das
March 1, 2022
Brushstrokes – Celebrating Sexuality
Brushstrokes
Picture of three women standing in line, dressed in various bright clothing.

[slideshow_deploy id=’6065′] The following photographs question our notions of beauty and an ‘ideal’ body. Rahul Saharan shot a series of…

By Curated Content
June 1, 2015
Brushstrokes
Book Review: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Book cover for Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows by Balli Kaur Jaswal. The cover depicts two women dressed in traditional salwar kameez standing on either side of a series of magenta buildings, enveloped by a silhouetted dome shape of a gurudwara with a deep bluish-purple backdrop. The margins are a dense criss-cross pattern in golden. Two short review extracts are aligned to the top left and top right corners

The story is so well told and is written with such a light, deft hand that it is almost easy to miss what makes it so quietly radical. To review it within the scope of exploring the coming together of literature and sexuality we must begin with its central cast of characters – the widows.

By Sheena D'Lima
January 3, 2022
Book Review: Erotic Stories for Punjabi Widows
Book Review: Come As You Are
Book cover with white background. Line drawing of a woman from waist to thighs, naked. On top is written the author's name in black "Emily Nayoski". Below it in red in cursive is written, "COME as you are".

You should venture to read Emily Nagoski’s book, Come As You Are in public. Not because you want to make…

By Shweta Krishnan
November 15, 2015
Book Review: Come As You Are
Bodies Intercepted: Inside Medical Wards
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.'

The medical ward is often continuous with the world around it. One would like to think of it as an…

By Shweta Krishnan
June 17, 2015
Bodies Intercepted: Inside Medical Wards
Bodies Beyond Rights
Photo of a group of transgender women celebrating someone's birthday

This piece attempts to think about how bodies are produced and circulate in moving registers and discourses, chiefly around the question of representation.

By Vikramaditya Sahai
May 1, 2014
Bodies Beyond Rights
Blood On Our Skirts
Picture of white fabric stained with red paint

[slideshow_deploy id=’6158′] I remember the first time I learnt of menstruation as a ten year old. One of our friends…

By Shambhawi Vikram
June 17, 2015
Blood On Our Skirts
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।

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
A Story of the Body: Understanding Memories and Sexuality
A blue and a red silhouette of the heads of two figures leaning against each other.

“I was not a wanted child. Of course I am a girl, and that explains it. It’s like no one really cares if I exist. My brothers are useless, but they are everything to them(her parents). It’s not like he (her lover) needs me either; I still take food for him everyday.”

By Rashi Kapoor
April 16, 2018
A Story of the Body: Understanding Memories and Sexuality
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