Desire Archives • Page 19 of 19 • In Plainspeak

Desire

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A man and a woman perform Kathakali on stage, wearing typical Kathakali costumes of red and white and elaborate headgear. A lamp is lit on the stage. Their makeup and dresses show beautifully in contrast to the darkened stage.

Dances of Desire: From Devadasis to Modern Storytellers

It is not entirely impossible to imagine that classical Indian dance is timeless or that the stories narrated in these…

By Shweta Krishnan

January 1, 2015

Dances of Desire: From Devadasis to Modern Storytellers

Desire Against Desire

Post the historic Naz Foundation judgment of the Delhi High Court in July 2009, a prominent English news magazine carried…

By Oishik Sircar

June 1, 2014

Desire Against Desire

The Impossible Collective: A Review of Rituparno Ghosh’s Dahan (1997)

June 1, 2014

The Impossible Collective: A Review of Rituparno Ghosh’s Dahan (1997)

Photo of a group of transgender women celebrating someone's birthday

Bodies Beyond Rights

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

Reel Review: Of Sex and Desire: What Mark O’Brien Taught Me

December 1, 2013

Reel Review: Of Sex and Desire: What Mark O’Brien Taught Me

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Themes

In Plainspeak publishes one issue every month, with a single theme running across two months. Our aim is to expand safe, inclusive self-affirming spaces.

CURRENT ISSUE:Anthology Issue Jan 2026

SISA – Safe, Inclusive, Self-Affirming – these words seem utopian, almost nonsensical, in a world greedy for power and consumption. But they are not; they are our only hope. To remind us of what spaces that are safe, inclusive and self-affirming for each person could look like, we have curated a selection of articles from the last five years of In Plainspeak for this anthology – our gift to wish you a wonderful 2026.

UPCOMING ISSUE:

February-March 2026: Digital Intimacies and Sexuality

With ever-increasing (for most of us) access to and reliance on digital modes of connecting, we are no strangers to digital intimacies – erotic, sexual, platonic, emotional – on social media, gaming platforms, dating apps, and so on. While digital spaces afford possibilities of sexual freedom and pleasure, they also hold the threat of surveillance, exposure, and abuse. So what do we do to optimise our experience? Do we use different modes of self-representation, visibility/anonymity and self-censorship on different platforms? How do factors like queerness, ethnicity, caste, a/sexuality, and disability play out in the creation and sustenance of digital intimacies? Are the sexual intimacies that digital spaces afford congruent with those in our offline lives? Must they be, or is there a particular thrill in their not being so? What is ‘authenticity’ when it comes to our online persona/e and our sexual lives? These are some of the questions that this issue of In Plainspeak engages with.

फरवरी – मार्च २०२६: डिजिटल अंतरंगता और यौनिकता

हम में से अधिकांश लोगों के लिए डिजिटल माध्यमों तक पहुंच और उन पर निर्भरता लगातार बढ़ती जा रही है, और सोशल मीडिया, गेमिंग प्लेटफॉर्म, डेटिंग ऐप्स आदि पर डिजिटल अंतरंगता – कामुक, यौनिक, गैर-यौनिक, भावनात्मक – हमारे लिए कोई नई बात नहीं है। डिजिटल स्थान यौन स्वतंत्रता और आनंद की संभावनाएं तो प्रदान करते हैं, लेकिन साथ ही निगरानी, पर्दाफाश और हिंसा का ख़तरा भी पैदा करते हैं। तो हम अपने अनुभव को बेहतर बनाने के लिए क्या कर सकते हैं? हम विभिन्न प्लेटफॉर्मों पर आत्म-प्रतिनिधित्व, दृश्यता, गुमनामी और आत्म-नियंत्रितता को कैसे अलग-अलग तरीक़ों से इस्तेमाल करते हैं? क्वीयर होना, अयौनिक होना, यौनिकता, जातीयता, जाति, और विकलांगता जैसे कारक डिजिटल अंतरंगता के निर्माण और उसे बनाए रखने में क्या भूमिका निभाते हैं? क्या डिजिटल मंचों द्वारा प्रदान की जाने वाली यौनिक अंतरंगता हमारे ऑफलाइन जीवन की अंतरंगता के अनुरूप है? क्या ऐसा होना ज़रूरी है, या फिर ऐसा न होने में एक ख़ास रोमांच है? हमारी ऑनलाइन पहचान और हमारे यौन जीवन के संदर्भ में प्रामाणिकता (ऑथेंटिसिटी) क्या है? इन प्लेनस्पीक का यह अंक कुछ ऐसे प्रष्नों पर विचार-विमर्श करता है।

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TARSHI CORNER

These English and Hindi infographics from TARSHI outline what organisations are doing, and can do, to make workspaces safe, inclusive and self-affirming.

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We curate content from other portals to amplify discussion around sexuality and rights. All rights remain with the original sources. Corners and Videos are embedded links and Brushstrokes and Blogrolls are republished from open sources with a link back to the original source. Older links may no longer be available.

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