Misogyny
India’s Daughter: When Men Come Together, But Women Stand Divided
Two weeks before India’s Daughter made it to the headlines, I came across this new pledge for Delhi school kids,…
By Shweta Krishnan
A World Away: HIV in Central Asia
In the spring of 2005, working with a medical NGO, I and five colleagues (two critical care flight paramedics, a…
By Curated Content
December 15, 2015
The contest of gendered spaces at home
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.
March 5, 2018
Jasmine Stains
My hair smells like jasmine / From the wedding I went to last night / When I tethered my untameable hair with flowers,
By Malini Gopalakrishnan
August 1, 2018
Sex in the Times of Menopause
I am single and successful in the city. My general health is under control. I can still pull off an all-nighter maybe once a quarter. My sexuality and desire have evolved and matured with my age. Heck, in my eyes, I am Mrs. Robinson. But the eye candy at the bar sees me as Miss Havisham.
By Sashwati Banerjee
August 1, 2018
Why We Don’t Get Consent
But here is the thing. In heterosexual relationships, how are women and men going to learn to see women’s desires if the world does not see them? If the world is shaped to conform to a certain type of man’s desires only? Where is consent without a diversity of desires and a galaxy of desirability?
By Curated Content
November 15, 2018
Issue in Focus: The Script of Love
The discursive power vested in audio-visual media can prove to be emancipatory if it seeks to re-write the scripts of love, to expand it to include various subjectivities, disturb the patriarchal gendered dynamics that it is based on by introducing a story that allows the audience to imagine it in various different ways.
By Anannya Chatterjee
December 3, 2018
Editorial: Popular Culture and Sexuality
And so, in the mid-month issue we have Shweta Krishnan examining the place of political incorrectness in stand-up comedy, Rohini Banerjee talking about how fanfiction allowed her to delve into alternative worlds, and…
By TARSHI
December 15, 2018
Jasmine Stains
Desire is a man’s turf, right up there with moustaches and Adam’s apples / I’m the apple, I am the snake, I am Eve / I am the vibrator nestled between flimsy, cheap lace underwear / I am the shame, of saying I came
By Malini Gopalakrishnan
January 2, 2019
Qandeel: The Story Of A Small Town Girl With Big Dreams
Fouzia Azeem, more popularly known as Qandeel Baloch,was called Pakistan’s Kim Kardashian. Madiha Tahir, a journalist and filmmaker who is interviewed in the documentary,questions this comparison. To quote her: “She (Qandeel) is not Kim Kardashian at all. She is not famous for being rich. An upper-class woman would have her class protection and it’s unlikely that an upper-class woman would be supporting her family from these social media videos.”
By Zulfiya Hamzaki
Walk Away If He Calls The Mechanic
This malignancy of toxic masculinity is a mutant inheritance that is hard to eradicate. However, initiating discussions about it and spreading awareness is essential to minimise the cost to its victims.
By Abdullah Erikat
October 1, 2019
For I Am A Woman
For I was a woman / Taught to chain herself gracefully / In an invisible cage.
By Khushi Pahuja
February 3, 2020
Brushstrokes:The Lurid Covers of 20th-Century Pulp Fiction
Considering how sexuality was a running (and selling) theme in pulp fiction stories, and female sexuality was employed as a means to titillate and attract readers, the covers often reflected this.
By Curated Content
Brushstrokes: 5 Fantastic Ways to Engage in Feminist Hookup Culture
While navigating hook-up culture, we may exercise our agency to express our sexuality but at the same time, may face risks to our safety and bodily integrity as well as obstacles engendered by misogyny, rape culture, heteronormativity, and double standards.
By Curated Content
Sweet Sixteen
At sixteen, the senior boy I loved, touched me down there and said, this is what boyfriends do, this is what love feels like – uncomfortable.
By Tapaswinee
December 1, 2020