LGBTQIA
I soon realised how central language is to our understanding of the world, and how language constitutes the limits and possibilities of our experiences and identities.
It is not a word you expected in this poem,
Or in any poem at all.
… practicing a life rooted in love and a shared sense of oneness with the living world.
क्या आपने अपनी माँ के साथ ऐसी बातें की हैं, उनके प्यार, चाहत, इच्छा के बारे में कभी बात हुई है? कैसा था आपका अनुभव? मुझे लगता है कि परंपरा, संस्कृति, इज़्ज़त ने मेरे अंदर एक डर बैठा दिया है और मैं अपनी इच्छा के बारे में बात करने के लिए शब्द और जगह दोनों ही ढूंढती रहती हूँ।
हम भाषा पर निर्भर करते हैं। “हाँ” का मतलब इजाज़त देना, और “ना” का मतलब मुकरना। आसान और सरल शब्दों में हमें बताया जाए तो सहमति का मतलब इन्हीं दो अल्फ़ाज़ों से आता है। आसान है, है न?
What gets silenced today isn’t just what’s obscene – it’s what’s inconvenient. What doesn’t sell. What asks us to take sex seriously or differently.
Because we also understand and acknowledge the power of a single step forward, we decided to deep dive into working with sign languages for people who are deaf or hard of hearing and including them in the safe abortion rights dialogues.
Language itself is being plugged as a resource, to be shared with those who share similar politics, or if not, at least to move them along in that direction. And people who speak, think, love and live differently are targeted as “the other”.
These are their words, their vision,
a blade that left a cut in my veins
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।
जब मैं इस बात पर विचार करता हूं कि मैंने क्या सक्रिय रूप से दबा दिया था और लगातार भूलने की कोशिश की थी, तो मुझे एहसास हुआ कि मैं अपने बारे में क्या सोचता हूं, इसे परिभाषित करने में भाषा कितनी ज़रूरी थी। मौखिक दुर्व्यवहार और धौंसियाना बर्ताव ने गैर-मानक व्यवहार, समलैंगिकता और क्वियरनेस के साथ मेरी पहचान बना ली।
It’s time to scrape off the thick dark crusts of carelessly slapped-on murky hues of toxic masculinities and to bring out the brushes and the paints to paint masculinities in their true and glorious colours of life, freedom and love.
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?
My assertion of my gender was not because of masculinity, it was because of the feminism which I practised – and that gave me this chance to come back to what I was. To assert what I was and to assert what I am.
…we must also address men’s relationships with their spouses, other men, women and children in the community, and importantly, their own emotional selves to transform fatherhood. Therefore, engaging with men as fathers must involve a holistic understanding of their socialisation, emotional world, and position within patriarchal structures.