heteronormativity

The Complexities and Necessities of Queer Humour
A red heart-shaped smiley ball kept on a pile of yellow smiley balls.

There’s a difference between ‘laughing with’ and ‘laughing at’. The above instance was obviously of the latter kind. Humour has a complex but integral relationship with queer genders and sexualities, and it has been evolving over time.

By Rupal Rupali
May 17, 2023
The Complexities and Necessities of Queer Humour
Drag As Mapping Culture, Fun, And Resistance Onto Our Bodies
urvi-kotasthane-gl-KSnRyhE0-unsplash

Drag is more than a form of entertainment or art form or a form of comedic release, it’s the realization of the fun of being queer or having a queer perspective.

By Rajeev Anand Kushwah
March 1, 2023
Drag As Mapping Culture, Fun, And Resistance Onto Our Bodies
Breaking new ground: Maja Ma’s portrayal of queerness in a traditional Indian family
MV5BNTY5NTk4NTUtZjg4MC00MDdkLWI3YzctZjU5MGJlMzkzOTZkXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyMTI1NDEyNTM5._V1_FMjpg_UX1000_

This reconciliation between Pallavi’s public (seemingly) heterosexual and closeted lesbian identities points to a distinctly Indian way of avoiding polarities through a new social arrangement where both identities are allowed the space to flourish.

By Juhi Sidharth and Chaitanya Ravi
March 1, 2023
Breaking new ground: Maja Ma’s portrayal of queerness in a traditional Indian family
Editorial – Queering Sexuality
hundreds of jellyfish of diverse colours - orange, blue, pink, white, green, and more.

Queering transcends the confines of symmetry and is a way of looking, of breaking established meaning, of making new meaning, and of being and becoming that offers us the promise of fluidity, flux and freedom. 

By TARSHI
December 12, 2022
Editorial – Queering Sexuality
The Promise of Queer Failure as a Way of Life
A copy of the book The Queer Art of Failure being held up against a colourful backdrop that has the words 'Resistance and Resilience'. The book is being held up and the image shows the hand of the person holding it. The thumb is painted purple.

In a world where queerness is looked at as failure, The Queer Art of Failure allows for many possibilities to make sense of these failures.

By Rajeev Anand Kushwah
December 12, 2022
The Promise of Queer Failure as a Way of Life
With Love: A Special Issue on Sexuality, Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Self-care
An illustration of the title of the article with a beige background. There are oblong-shaped blobs in peach and sap green on the upper left corner and the lower right corner. At the centre is the logo of TARSHI followed by three verticle rows of squiggly lines and the text that reads "In Plainspeak: Sexuality, mental health, wellbeing and self-care"
Any conversation on sexuality cannot exclude engagement with the myriad ways in which taboos around sexuality, the privileging of heteronormative ideals, the violence and marginalisation faced by people deviating from norms of sexuality and gender affect our mental health and well-being.
By TARSHI
June 15, 2022
With Love: A Special Issue on Sexuality, Mental Health, Wellbeing, and Self-care
The Time Machine – 5 In Plainspeak Articles that Celebrate Sexuality in its Diverse Forms!
Artificial golden stars against a blue background

The In Plainspeak team decided to time travel and re-discover previously published articles that explore the multiple ways in which people find joy and pleasure in their sexualities.

By TARSHI
March 15, 2022
The Time Machine – 5 In Plainspeak Articles that Celebrate Sexuality in its Diverse Forms!
How We Reimagine and Redefine Freedoms
Silhouette of a woman against an abstract, colourful background

Every part of life, the world too, is storied. Stories are the thread that hold histories and truths together. Stories are at the core of myth-making. Everything that we know is part of multiple crisscrossing relational storylines that we raise and those that we have no power in raising.

By Curated Content
March 15, 2022
How We Reimagine and Redefine Freedoms
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
Editorial – Sexuality and Coupledom
A colourful mosaic of human limbs and random geometric shapes

If we are to reimagine coupledom and sexuality, we need to expand and challenge our ideas about togetherness, romance, love, intimacy, desire, sex, attachment, and so on.

By TARSHI
February 15, 2022
Editorial – Sexuality and Coupledom
On Looking for Love
An illustration which depicts three heart-shaped pieces of wood suspended from wires, one of them clearly in the foreground, the other two a little smaller and in the background

I wanted to be one of those people who decide to never date again and actually follow through. Indeed, I decided that a lot. A resolution that was broken so many times that it became a running joke in my head.

By Wesley D'Souza
February 1, 2022
On Looking for Love
Editorial – Sexuality and SISA Spaces
Close-up of a sunflower field and the sun rising over hills in the background.

We envision SISA spaces as non-judgmental, inclusive, rights-based and affirming spaces wherein people’s sexuality, their identities, wellbeing, choices, desires and pleasure are respected.

By TARSHI
January 3, 2022
Editorial – Sexuality and SISA Spaces
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
The Queerness of Fandom in Bollywood
Poster of Bollywood movie ‘Ek Ladki ko Dekha toh aisa laga..’ Two women in traditional Indian attire are hugging a man in a white suit. The women are facing the front, while only the back of the man can be seen. The title of the movie “Ek Ladki ko Dekha toh aisa laga” is written in the bottom center, followed by text that reads “Directed by Shelly Chopra Dhar.”

People looking for queer plots in Bollywood are sometimes disappointed, as the focus on marriage in many films seems to suggest that Bollywood is a conservative genre invested in sanctifying reproductive heteronormativity.

By Ulka Anjaria
November 1, 2021
The Queerness of Fandom in Bollywood
The Legend Of The Invisible Lesbians
An illustration of three women against a blue background with bubbles in white. The three women are looking in different directions and close together. The front-most woman has long purple hair and is wearing a black top. Her face is turned towards the left. The woman behind her has short yellow-blonde hair and her eyes are not visible. She is wearing a black top too. The woman behind both is staring into the camera and has purple eyeshadow. She has short copper hair. On the right-most corner, in white letters, is written "(gaysi)"

Of course, one needs to acknowledge that this word did not magically turn up in the vocabularies of the ‘good girls from good families’ that came to a convent school to learn ‘good things’ everyday. The extensively gendered environment which promised to manufacture highly-marriageable ‘young ladies’, aided by the insistence of middle-aged spiteful teachers to absolutely destroy any kind of existence that does not constantly bow it’s pretty, two-plaited head to the heteronormative male gaze, created a suffocatingly toxic atmosphere.

By Curated Content
June 15, 2021
The Legend Of The Invisible Lesbians
1 2