menstruation

Dancing around each other: Conversations with a Tween
A green pin badge with a rainbow on top and right below it is a text that reads: “Let me be queer” in white font colour.

As a generation X-er I grew up in a world that was challenging sexuality but only encountered the instability of gender as an adult in radical new academic texts which were not then yet part of our everyday narratives. My daughter born between Gen Z and Gen Alpha is growing up in a world of gender fluidity and multiple pronouns.

By Shilpa Phadke
March 15, 2022
Dancing around each other: Conversations with a Tween
Refusing the weight in waiting
Multicoloured psychedelic circles of varying sizes with tiny bubbles inside

As a girl, I was made to believe that pleasure was something that existed outside my body, something that I had to seek out, something that was necessarily a product of a partnered experience. I don’t think I was even allowed to want pleasure, especially in its sexual forms.

By Aathira Gopi
March 15, 2022
Refusing the weight in waiting
Does Your Period Tracking App Ask You About Your Sexuality Or Your Contraceptive Pills?
A graphic design. A white iPhone on the right and a pink screen-like background on the left. On the iPhone display, a big red dot saying 'Day 5' in white text and a calendar at the top. On the left, there are three blue chat bubbles with white text. The first says, 'Track my cycle' and under it, 'Don't plan to get pregnant right now'. The second bubble says, 'Trying to conceive' and under it 'Favourable days are important to me' and the third says, 'I'm pregnant' and under it, 'Want to track my condition'.

Period tracking applications can also inform you about your general reproductive health and also caution you in case of an anomaly with respect to it. As menstruators in our undergraduate years, the primary reason I saw my friends using period trackers were to keep a track of when to carry menstrual products to college or avoid the risks of pregnancy.

By Curated Content
May 15, 2021
Does Your Period Tracking App Ask You About Your Sexuality Or Your Contraceptive Pills?
Please Touch: Tactile Art as a Medium of Exploration

Most of us, during childhood, internalised the lesson that sex or pleasure is ‘dirty’ and ‘bad’. Artists around the world are increasingly using ‘tactile art’ to challenge the shame and embarrassment that people feel when they look at their bodies.

By Isha Vajpeyi
August 14, 2020
Please Touch: Tactile Art as a Medium of Exploration
Brushstrokes: #100DaysofLaundry
Illustration of a naked woman in a bathtub, her menstrual blood visible in the water she's taking a bath in

But what about the “moments we don’t Instagram”? What about the uglier parts of our physical lived realities? What about the parts of our body, our identities, our sexuality we don’t perform on social media, but are still an intrinsic part of who we are?

By Curated Content
September 4, 2018
Brushstrokes: #100DaysofLaundry
The contest of gendered spaces at home
Sanitary napkins made of cloth. (Image credit: The Kachra Project)

So, even though “home” is supposed to be a place of comfort – a personal space which should allow us to express our gender, sexuality and bodies freely – this notion of home stands defeated in reality, where there are certain unsaid rules which govern the distribution and use of space.

By Zeba Siddiqui
March 5, 2018
The contest of gendered spaces at home
“Your Next Cycle Seems to Be Late”: The Period (Tracking) Drama
Sceenshot of a smartphone screen at stand-by mode. A pop-up notification reads: "Clue - PMS is coming up."

Just this morning, I got an alert on my phone from an app with a grey icon that brims with seriousness; in a no-nonsense way, it announced: PMS is coming up.

By Vani Viswanathan
December 5, 2016
“Your Next Cycle Seems to Be Late”: The Period (Tracking) Drama
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व
An illustration of what makes a family using stick figures. Several different scenarios is sepearate circles. One shows two men and a child; another - a man, a woman, and a child; two women and a child; a man and a child; a woman and a child; two men; a man and a woman; two women; a man, a cat, and a dog; and last - a woman, a cat, and a dog.

इस बात के अनेकों कारण हो सकते हैं कि महिलाएँ बच्चे क्यों नहीं चाहती हैं, ठीक वैसे ही जैसे इस बात के अनेकों कारण है कि वे बच्चे क्यों चाहती हैं। बच्चे होने के कारणों को सामान्य करार दिया जाना जबकि बच्चे ना होने की इच्छा को ‘सामान्य से अलग’ माना जाना, शर्मिंदा किया जाना और संदिग्ध की तरह करार दिया जाना, सभी के लिए नारीत्व का ‘एक ही अर्थ’ बनाने वाले है।

By Sheba Remy Kharbanda
October 17, 2016
नारीत्व ≠ मातृत्व
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood
An illustration of what makes a family using stick figures. Several different scenarios is sepearate circles. One shows two men and a child; another - a man, a woman, and a child; two women and a child; a man and a child; a woman and a child; two men; a man and a woman; two women; a man, a cat, and a dog; and last - a woman, a cat, and a dog.

I love children and have at various times in my life flirted with the idea of adoption. But I have known since I was a child that I did not want to birth children. I have never been vague or ambivalent about this decision. I have been consistently clear and concise that this is not my calling.

By Sheba Remy Kharbanda
October 3, 2016
Womanhood ≠ Motherhood
Video Page: Arunachalam Muruganantham: India’s Menstruation Man
Arunachalam Muruganantham smiling at the camera. He has a moustache, and wearing a checked black and white shirt.

A short documentary on India’s menstruation man, Arunachalam Muruganantham, who wore an artificial uterus, was left by his wife for five years, and was called a pervert by the neighbours – all in his pursuit to create cheap yet effective sanitary napkins for women who cannot afford safe menstrual hygiene products.

By Curated Content
July 1, 2016
Video Page: Arunachalam Muruganantham: India’s Menstruation Man
Of Shame, Silence and Technological Innovations
A brown girl is holding the Flo toolkit that supports girls living in poverty to wash, dry and carry reusable sanitary pads. It has a ball-type shape in the middle, and a string on both ends. The girl is stretching the string as if to give the central part a spin.

A movement back to reusable cloth pads or even towards the use of menstrual cups aims not only to create ways of dealing with menstruation that are healthier for the body and the environment, but also to open up a dialogue regarding the taboos and inhibitions regarding menstrual blood that stem from culture as well as paid media.

By Oshin Siao Bhatt
July 1, 2016
Of Shame, Silence and Technological Innovations
Why Is Menstruation A Woman’s ‘Worst Kept Secret’?
In Plainspeak English Audit In Plainspeak English Audit 100% 10 Two girls in school uniforms with pleated hair. One says something to another in her ear, giggling. Screen reader support enabled. Two girls in school uniforms with pleated hair. One says something to another in her ear, giggling.

This post is part of TARSHI’s #TalkSexuality campaign on Comprehensive Sexuality Education in collaboration with Youth Ki Awaaz. The author chose to remain anonymous. Menstruation was…

By Curated Content
August 1, 2015
Why Is Menstruation A Woman’s ‘Worst Kept Secret’?
If the Internet Didn’t Exist
Photo of a young Indian woman. She is wearing black top, has curly hair, and is wearing glasses.

  If the Internet didn’t exist, I believe I would be a highly insecure person. Don’t read that the wrong…

By Ragamalika Karthikeyan
July 1, 2015
If the Internet Didn’t Exist
Blood On Our Skirts
Picture of white fabric stained with red paint

[slideshow_deploy id=’6158′] I remember the first time I learnt of menstruation as a ten year old. One of our friends…

By Shambhawi Vikram
June 17, 2015
Blood On Our Skirts