inclusivity

Editorial: Disability and Sexuality
A photograph of a purple-coloured board on grass. The board, in white, has a symbol for a person using a wheelchair and underneath it, the typography: Step free Route. Below it is an arrow pointing to the right.

Both sexuality and disability are complex terrains, offering a realm of possibilities that are often made unnecessarily complicated and unattainable by the mental maps we draw of them and the artificial barriers we erect.

By TARSHI
August 16, 2021
Editorial: Disability and Sexuality
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
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
Developing an Ethics of Care
A design of two arms outstretched, one holding out the Earth in its palm and the other reaching towards it.

Ethics of Care offers a normative paradigm that goes beyond the neat distinctions of morally guided ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ actions to incorporate social responsibility, wherein we learn how to shape our responses on the basis of the needs of a community’s members.

By Swarna Jain
November 16, 2020
Developing an Ethics of Care
Despite all odds
A poster of the Netflix film 'Rising Phoenix'.

In the spirit of the Games, I watched the Netflix film Rising Phoenix which documents the history of the Paralympics and its impact on the world in making visible the topic of disability. It also tracks the personal and professional journey of some of the top Paralympic athletes who share their challenges, frustrations and motivations.

By Elsa Marie D'Silva
August 2, 2021
Despite all odds
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
A photograph of a person's arm and hand. The background of a couch with a blue duvet is blurred, and the focus is on the person's hands, with brown nail-paint, and a blue pen in their hands. They are writing in a spiral bound notebook. Beside them is a black cup.

My journal has many entries that are speculative and fantastic. Writing about the mundane leads me to question the way the world operates and from there I frog-leap into a world of ideas where I imagine a radically different way of being. In my journal, I imagine a politics of care, community, and compassion. I become grand, valuable, and unstoppable, even in a world where I am sometimes made to feel small.

By Sheena D'Lima
July 5, 2021
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
Caring and care-giving
A photograph of a book-shelf, brown-black, with differently coloured books.

Just as capitalism has learned how to co-opt feminism into its model, it has done the same to ‘wellness’, so much so it has become an industry of its own. Mental wellbeing, no matter how necessary and important it is, remains a luxury with more than half of our country either unaware of available mental health resources or not in a position to even afford therapy.

By Deepa Ranganathan
July 5, 2021
Caring and care-giving
Camouflage
An illustration of a blue flower. The tips of its petals are dark blue and lighten as they meet at the yellow-brown centre. A long spindly green stem supports the flower and has three dark and light green round leaves and a dark green bud.. Behind it, on a grey-blue background is a cityscape dotted with buildings and palm trees with muted colour and grey overtones.

I cannot let anyone see the stretch marks, the cellulite, the saggy breasts. I cannot reveal my hideous body. I feel anxiety well up inside me even as I visualise this eventuality. I read about ten ways for a fat person to have meaningful sex. I learn that throwing a cloth over the bedside lamp will help hide my flaws.

By Sharada Vinod
August 2, 2021
Camouflage
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue
A set of two photographs, on the left a coloured photograph of a woman hanging from a tree with orange flowers, on the right a black and white photograph of a woman looking at her left eye in a hand-held mirror and applying make-up.

Inspired to collect photographs of women spending time by themselves and for themselves after a conversation with her mother’s friend, Surabhi Yadav began the project, Women at Leisure.

By Feminism in India
July 5, 2021
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue
Brushstrokes: Who We’re Leaving Out of Sex Positivity – And How to Make It More Inclusive
On a white background, various black outlined chat bubbles from a range of people coloured in pink.

Everyday Feminism’s comic illustrates the complexity and diversity of sexuality, revealing how sex can sometimes be pleasure-affirming and sometimes not, and asks us to talk about ALL KINDS of sex – the good, the bad, and the hilarious.

By Curated Content
August 2, 2021
Brushstrokes: Who We’re Leaving Out of Sex Positivity – And How to Make It More Inclusive
Are they people or just a number?
A photograph of a smartphone on a wooden surface. The sides of the phone are black, and the display has a white background with a kissing-face emoticon in the centre and two red heart emoticons on either side.

You see, numbers are tricky, data is tricky. More importantly, data is dehumanising. Add sexuality and intimacy to this and the waters get even murkier. Maybe it’s good to leave a few things unaffected by too much data. Maybe we do not want to talk about data and sexuality. Maybe we instead want to talk about why data around gender and sexuality must not be recorded, and instead, maybe focus on why we should honour every kind of sexual preference which is within the purview of the safe and consensual.

By Asmi
May 15, 2021
Are they people or just a number?
A ‘Room’ of One’s Own – Sexuality, Self-expression, and Safe Spaces on Clubhouse
Photo of a smartphone screen displaying the logos of Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Clubhouse.

In theory, the concept of the app is a great one – it provides women, queer people, and people belonging to oppressed castes the tea-stall, cigarette-shop type of public spaces for conversation that are available to upper-caste cis het men. The relative anonymity acts like a safe cover, and the app affords a certain autonomy and agency to marginalised people to regulate the kind of conversation that goes on in rooms moderated by them.

By Srishti Gupta
April 1, 2022
A ‘Room’ of One’s Own – Sexuality, Self-expression, and Safe Spaces on Clubhouse
A ‘Peoples Self-Care’ In-the-Making: Perspectives on the Multiple Possibilities of Existence and Care
A green-bue gradient photograph of a field of grass and white flowers.

But self-care is not a clean and happy procedure, it is not definitively achievable when systematically explored. To understand the scope of self-care we need to see the ‘dark side’ of the landscape, and destroy the versions of self-care that denounce our plurality. In this fight, the only outcome can be a recognition of experiences beyond the wellness narrative structured around the neoliberal agenda. This article is an attempt at foregrounding some aspects of self-care that decentralise the prevalent commodification of it.

By Rukmini Banerjee
July 5, 2021
A ‘Peoples Self-Care’ In-the-Making: Perspectives on the Multiple Possibilities of Existence and Care
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