gender roles

Interview – Daniel Mendonca
Photo of Daniel Mendonca
Interview – Daniel Mendonca

Shikha Aleya interviews Daniel Mendonca who identifies as an intersex person and is a gender rights activist who has engaged with diverse groups of people in India and other countries, to expand awareness, build empathy and foster an environment that is accepting of diversity.
By Shikha Aleya
October 15, 2019
Interview – Daniel Mendonca
Interview: Kripa Joshi
On a peach coloured background, a woman of colour jumping. She is wearing purple ballet shoes and a purple one-piece swimsuit with white-grey patterns scattered on it. Her eyes are wide open and her hands are stretched open on both sides. Her hair is brown and open. She is throwing multi-coloured confetti. Beneath her is a blue circle. In a semicircle to her right is the typography, in purple: Throw kindness around like confetti!
Interview: Kripa Joshi

There have been several recent examples of actors, movies and events being called out because of their lack of representation, like for the Oscars. With social media it is easier to create and distribute diverse art and also to voice the need for diversity. So it needs engagements and awareness in society. Change will happen once enough people demand that change.
By Shikha Aleya
June 15, 2021
Interview: Kripa Joshi
Issue in Focus: Performance and Sexuality
Picture of a classical dance performer, face painted in yellow and black
Issue in Focus: Performance and Sexuality

To think of sexuality as performative disrupts the need for stable categories and identities, instead suggesting that we all reinforce and disrupt normative formations as we attempt to inhabit the world in messy ways.
By Sneha Krishnan
September 4, 2018
Issue in Focus: Performance and Sexuality
My Fashion and Gender Journey: How I discovered they are both fluid
blue white and black abstract painting.
My Fashion and Gender Journey: How I discovered they are both fluid

How could I be trans if I didn’t tick off all the correct checkboxes demanded by politics, law, society and even the transgender community itself?
By Kirti
October 19, 2023
My Fashion and Gender Journey: How I discovered they are both fluid
My Sexuality is My DIY Project
volodymyr-hryshchenko-V5vqWC9gyEU-unsplash
My Sexuality is My DIY Project

I often imagine if I had been able to access friendly and empowering comprehensive sexuality education from my childhood, how different my life would have turned out to be.
By Surbhi Bhalla
August 25, 2023
My Sexuality is My DIY Project
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
A serving of filter coffee in brass tumbler on a wooden table.
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality

Marriage also feels complicated when one approaches it through the lens of feminism. Marriage throws in two people and often their families into a system designed to perpetuate patriarchy, subjugate women, and bind men and women (in heteronormative marriage) into strict roles in the marriage.
By Vani Viswanathan
January 13, 2025
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality

Marriage also feels complicated when one approaches it through the lens of feminism. Marriage throws in two people and often their families into a system designed to perpetuate patriarchy, subjugate women, and bind men and women (in heteronormative marriage) into strict roles in the marriage.
By Vani Viswanathan
March 1, 2022
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of Tinder, Sex And Colonial Hangovers – Is Desire Political?
Desire and Sexuality: Symbol of the Tinder app (shaped in the form of a white candle flame against a red background) and the words "no fats". "no asians", "no blacks", "no asians" written on it.
Of Tinder, Sex And Colonial Hangovers – Is Desire Political?

The point is not to lay the blame on women or assign them responsibility for patriarchy. It is to encourage a deeper introspection of our desires. My first boyfriend, whom I got to know in 2010, was in the habit of asking me (and other women he had previously dated) whether he could kiss me, before doing so. Every time any sexual activity was involved he would always ask beforehand and continuously check in if I was comfortable throughout.
By Feminism in India
August 14, 2018
Of Tinder, Sex And Colonial Hangovers – Is Desire Political?
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women
A photograph of a room with one window. The photo showcases the room as semicircular and has a black floor with a window reflected, and brown-white brick walls with a sunlit window.
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women

Pandemics have a profound psychological impact. They are known to disrupt one’s sense of safety, security, certainty, control, concordance, and…
By Ansha Patel
July 5, 2021
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women
Patriarchy Won’t Let Me Masturbate
An out-of-focus individual holds a shard of glass in front of them and a portion of their face is visible in it.
Patriarchy Won’t Let Me Masturbate

That’s all the big roles and ethics
All there to fulfil.
Another task,
Another box to tick
Another concrete path to rush
Quick, simple and straight.
By Shashwat
June 16, 2023
Patriarchy Won’t Let Me Masturbate
Playing ball
School kids going about their day, running, and having fun in groups on the big school playground as witnessed through a net.
Playing ball

The gendered assumption that girls are generally disinterested in sports, could be easily refuted by the fact that the principal’s office shelf was adorned with multiple trophies awarded to the girls’ hockey team for winning championships.”
By Bijayalaxmi Biswal and Karen Coelho
April 21, 2023
Playing ball
Prescriptions of Proper
Prescriptions of Proper

In a world of prescriptions of performance and perfection, there isn’t truly that much space built in to risk non-performance, not being perfect, or to risk not fitting the prescription.
By Shikha Aleya
September 4, 2018
Prescriptions of Proper
The Examined Life of Masculinities  
Two men with beards face each other
The Examined Life of Masculinities  

The inability to correctly identify, express and soothe (all three without exception, and in no particular order) inner vulnerabilities and imperfections is the weakest link between asserting masculinities and being able to properly live their full potential.
By Mona Mishra
October 15, 2019
The Examined Life of Masculinities  
The Gendered Muscle in Gym Spaces
A photograph of a person in a gym holding a barbell, his arm and leg visible in the frame.
The Gendered Muscle in Gym Spaces

I can recall my experiences in the washrooms of different gyms that I have been a member of. A men’s washroom is an interesting place in terms of how sexuality manifests itself in its various aspects. It was not unusual to see men of various kinds with strange energies in these washrooms.
By Shiva Chauhan
April 1, 2022
The Gendered Muscle in Gym Spaces
The Nun Within: Reflections on our self-care workshops with activists
A photograph of a woman sitting indoors. She has cropped white-grey hair and is looking upwards. She is wearing a black full-sleeved top and her palms are open outwards. She is wearing a black necklace and is smiling. In front of her, a person is half-visible, clad in black, holding out their palms. There are red chairs on the side, and at the back, a person with black short hair, wearing a white top and mask, using a phone, is sitting.
The Nun Within: Reflections on our self-care workshops with activists

I know that the lives of many human rights defenders are under continuous threat, that sometimes it is impossible to sleep or to enjoy a moment of peace because of the harassment coming from the outside. What I address in this text is our internal disposition as activists, and the ideas that stop us from taking care of and holding ourselves together.
By Rosa Posa Guinea
July 19, 2021
The Nun Within: Reflections on our self-care workshops with activists
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