Gender
We humans are sometimes able to squeeze kindness out of a stone. And love out of nowhere.
Sex robots never have a headache or expect you to contribute to the housekeeping.
People are becoming lonelier, and their desire for connection, stronger.
…something truer than thought starts to climb upwards.
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.
I’ve essentially thought of movement as a kind of freedom, but one that has the capacity to destabilise you in some way. My most creative moments are when I’m not moving, when I am in fact rooted and still.
We become women before we become a woman. Of course, we don’t need to try hard to do so…We learn the sides and folds of the gendered box we are in before we gain the perspective to decide we don’t fit in and build a customised box or choose to have no box at all.
Gender has perplexed me throughout life. I never quite understood femininity or masculinity much – I mostly lived in what other people thought I was. One thing I did know always is that I never, ever, want to be seen as a man. But can I still hold masculinity?
Growing up is a tedious task in our society because of the institutionalised practices, societal constructs and boxed identities and expressions that we are expected to adhere to. Anything beyond these implies harm, danger, and deviance.
He didn’t wear his identity on his sleeve, and therefore he seemed more real than most people who did.
भाषा सिर्फ अभिव्यक्ति का माध्यम नहीं है, यह पहचान, संबंध और संघर्ष का भी ज़रिया है। भाषा सामाजिक संरचना, पहचान और सत्ता-संबंधों को दर्शाने का भी औज़ार है।
CSE’s ‘natural habitat’ is often considered to be the classroom, but as our contributors show us, CSE also lives, breathes and thrives in habitats as disparate as neighbourhood parks, jobs-training centres, playgrounds and sports fields, law schools, family discussions, and digital spaces.