connections

It’s not ‘just’ play!
An illustration of handcuffs in dull shades.

Play is not only about cocks, balls, vaginas, paddles, or anything that happens between two consenting adults in the bedroom. It’s also about what goes on in a masochist’s mind before they submit to a cane, or a whip, and before they orgasm from the pain.

By Asmi
December 1, 2021
It’s not ‘just’ play!
Of “unapologetically flawed” women and feminism-lite: A review of Four More Shots Please!
The poster of Four More Shots Please, featuring four women in Western clothing, posing, laughing, dancing and having fun.

Four More Shots Please! moves in the right direction when it comes to women (of a particular social stratum), their lives, and feminism at large – even if it takes small, stumbling, baby steps towards it.

By Srishti Gupta
December 1, 2021
Of “unapologetically flawed” women and feminism-lite: A review of Four More Shots Please!
Editorial – Play and Sexuality
An image of vibrant and colourful watercolour cakes with a palette attached.

Coupled with the tendency to approach sexuality with seriousness, play often remains absent in discussions of sexuality. Sexuality shares the elements of fun, pleasure and spontaneity that are found in play.

By TARSHI
December 15, 2021
Editorial – Play and Sexuality
Two Poems: ‘Only sometimes’ & ‘No filter’
Photo of a trees in a forest. There is little distance between the trees. At the centre is a singular tree with twisting and gnarly branches.
Sometimes my love is as expansive as the earth itself Patient None of the restlessness of a filly
By Carol D'Souza
May 3, 2022
Two Poems: ‘Only sometimes’ & ‘No filter’
Editorial – Movement and Sexuality
An abstract photo of blurred blue and white vertical lines that are spanning outwards

This issue of In Plainspeak while inviting us to embrace the joys and pleasure in movement, also questions the ways in which movements are facilitated or obstructed, visibilised or invisibilised, and the spaces that we must envision to find freedom in/to movement.

By TARSHI
May 19, 2022
Editorial – Movement and Sexuality
This is how we do it
An abstract illustration of multi-coloured swirling patterns

We need to recognise that mental health stressors that queer people face are not because something is inherently wrong with them.

By Shruti Chakravarty
September 1, 2022
This is how we do it
The many hues of connections
A photograph of a mosaic pattern in hues of red and one streak of green. At the centre of the pattern is a circle surrounded by a semi circle.

Connection, to my mind, is one of those profoundly entrenched concepts manifesting itself throughout our lives. It is difficult to let go of.

By Adsa Fatima
October 17, 2022
The many hues of connections
Walks, Braids, Miranda, and Memories
grey concrete surface with patterns of swirls

This was the time we were growing up, learning new things, reading new books and discovering something new almost every day, and this all-women space provided an opportunity to do that without requiring any pretence or catering to the male gaze.

By Ambica Naithani
November 15, 2022
Walks, Braids, Miranda, and Memories
Building Safe Spaces In Threatening Places
A white window on a grey wall opening up to a cobblestone street

If sharing was a proverbial coin at the rehabilitation facility, connections were one side of it, and sexuality was the other. Men and women were not allowed to touch one another – no handshakes or hugs or an eager slap on the back.

By Trijita
November 15, 2022
Building Safe Spaces In Threatening Places
Interview – Prakash
Photo of a young smiling man taken from an upper angle. He has side-swept black hair and a bear. He is wearing a white shirt, black leather jacket and square spectacles.

“I feel that connection is the survival language of the LGBTQIA+ community. The sense of a common struggle makes way for developing quick yet lasting connections among the community…”

By Shikha Aleya
November 15, 2022
Interview – Prakash
Issue in focus
Black polka dots of different sizes against a yellow background.

Companions take many forms. Using the word very loosely here, a companion is anyone the self is connected to, anywhere, at any point in time, from a family member, to a stranger on a train. 

By Shikha Aleya
November 15, 2022
Issue in focus
Editorial – Connections and Sexuality
Webbed pattern in cobalt blue.

Questions, questions and inevitably more questions! That seems to be the human condition when it comes to connections, especially our connections with other people. It’s complicated, right?

By TARSHI
November 15, 2022
Editorial – Connections and Sexuality
Issue in Focus: The Heart of Being
An abstractly painted image with magenta and blue and splashes of red, yellow, and black colour. In the background, two brown-black silhouettes.

To chase down our own vulnerabilities around sexuality is a short run around the corner, five minutes ago, last night sleeping alone, with a lover, a partner who lost interest, the Insta post that leaves you feeling you’re not good enough for the hug, the kiss, the cuddle and are you perhaps the A of LGBTQIA+?

By Shikha Aleya
January 3, 2023
Issue in Focus: The Heart of Being
Interview – Kiran Bhat
author pic 10

So I am realising now that for me the space of borderlessness applies to everything. It applies to the physical and topographical border as it does to the borders we create between gender and their expressions. I think I would like to argue for a truly borderless understanding of the world.

By Shikha Aleya
March 17, 2023
Interview – Kiran Bhat