masculinity

Masculinity, queer representation, and the motifs of movement in ‘Dedh Ishqiya’
A shot from the film featuring the two female leads, one is preparing a paan with the other’s face resting on her shoulder. Both the women are smiling.

The film has all the makings and trimmings of a commercial thriller – a dynamic story, song and dance, an action-packed climax – and at the same time, it is a cinephile’s film.

By Srishti Gupta
May 3, 2022
Masculinity, queer representation, and the motifs of movement in ‘Dedh Ishqiya’
Editorial – Celebrating Sexuality
A colourful background with “100 % sexuality” written in blue with pink shadow around the text.

100 issues, 8 years! Thank you, dear readers and contributors! As we planned for this issue to put on our…

By TARSHI
March 15, 2022
Editorial – Celebrating Sexuality
Negotiating Expression
An abstract painting of teal squares with splashes of orange, white, blue and yellow.

I am still coming to terms with my own femininity, as with new learnings I find myself regaining many facets of my personality which were lost while trying to ‘act like a man’ and ‘act tough’.

By Ambica Naithani
March 1, 2022
Negotiating Expression
Editorial: Femininities and Sexuality
A close-up photograph of a dandelion with dew. The dewdrops are differently coloured in the light.

Are certain forms of femininities denigrated more than others? Not just by misogynists but also by feminists? Is there a particular way of manifesting an ‘appropriate’ femininity, one that is just right, and is not ‘too girly’ or ‘too tomboyish’?

By TARSHI
December 15, 2020
Editorial: Femininities and Sexuality
Tomboy Femininity
A photograph of the author, Di Sands

When I finally came out to myself at age 16 and made it to a free queer youth space, I couldn’t wait to be accepted among folks who didn’t play by society’s heterosexist rules of masculine and feminine as polar opposites.

By Di Sands
December 1, 2020
Tomboy Femininity
मर्दानगी के सामाजिक आधार

मर्दानगी के निर्माण में शर्मिंदगी की भूमिका, और नायक के खुद के विकास के लिए आत्मविश्वास और क्षमता पर इसका प्रभाव, विशेष रूप से उनके प्रारंभिक वर्षों में, खूबसूरती से सामने लाया गया है।

By Abhiruchi Chatterjee
March 2, 2020
मर्दानगी के सामाजिक आधार
My Experiences In BDSM As Well As Vanilla Interactions With Men
wallpaper pattern showing fishes where one fish is highlighted

My interaction with men started once I finished school and most men in my life have been decent to me, to say the least. However, there are different sides of maleness or manhood that I have come to experience.

By Asmi
October 1, 2019
My Experiences In BDSM As Well As Vanilla Interactions With Men
The Union of Our Inner Masculine and Inner Feminine
The yin and yang, showing the balance of the inner feminine and inner masculine

Feminine energy is supposed to be yin, receptive, gentle, intuitive,and fulfilling. Masculine energy is supposed to be yang, active, fast, fierce, emptying, goal-oriented and focused.

By Pallavi Barnwal
May 1, 2019
The Union of Our Inner Masculine and Inner Feminine
Brushstrokes: Body
image from the photoseries 'Body' by Veer Mishra

“Every type of body is beautiful, and more importantly every type of body is different,” says artist Veer Mishra while describing Body, his series of illustrations. This ‘difference’ is the essence of what he tries to portray through his art.

By Curated Content
May 1, 2019
Brushstrokes: Body
Outlander: A Review
Picture of a man and woman, in period costume, kissing.

Time and time again, Galbaldon asks us, through the character of Claire, to remember that we are travelers, we move and are moved by the interactions and environments around us.

By Dana Burton
September 17, 2018
Outlander: A Review
Video Page: Mardistan (Macholand): Reflections on Indian Manhood
poster for the film 'mardistan', showing a man on a bike.

In a culture where masculinity is often considered to be synonymous with power, how are the daily lives, experiences and ideologies of men influenced by this norm?

By Curated Content
July 2, 2018
Video Page: Mardistan (Macholand): Reflections on Indian Manhood
Editorial: Friendship and Sexuality

The statement “We are just friends”, does it make you wonder? Just friends? As in – merely friends? As in…

By TARSHI
February 15, 2018
Editorial: Friendship and Sexuality
What the Sikh Turban Means to Masculinity in These Transnational Times
A close-up of the face of sikh man in a purple turban or dastar. Another person's hand pointing at his truban with a toothpick. Behind him are two other men in turban who are blurred out.

If the turban-tying ceremony represents the official rite of passage from Punjabi/Sikh boyhood into Punjabi/Sikh manhood, the practice of cutting unshorn hair upon arriving in Chandigarh signifies yet another (albeit unofficial) rite of passage from Punjabi/Sikh manhood into migrant manhood.

By Harjant Gill
September 15, 2016
What the Sikh Turban Means to Masculinity in These Transnational Times
What Happened to the Women Who Graduated from IITs in the ’90s?
Photo of a front of a light yellow-painted college building. At the top of the building are the words, "Indian Institute of Technology".

Several hundreds of women have presumably enrolled at India’s other IITs in the past 20 years, although none of these schools keep records of the gender of their students. Where did all these women go ‒ and why aren’t they leaders in Indian industry today?

By Curated Content
June 17, 2016
What Happened to the Women Who Graduated from IITs in the ’90s?
Story of an Odd Couple
A brunette child with curly hair looks in anger. Over the photo written in bold and caps in white colour, "All the problems in the world today, and you're mad 'cause my parents don't match?"

True were his words that people will always talk, but why? What was so wrong with us? Was it because he was shorter and I was taller? Or was it because that when we hugged he was more in my embrace than me in his? Or was it that I had to bend a bit to kiss him? Strange how perceptions work about couples – no matter which identity one conforms to.

By Shivani Gupta
May 16, 2016
Story of an Odd Couple
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