patriarchy

Editorial: Vulnerability and Sexuality
A photograph of a brown coloured snail lying on green grass
Editorial: Vulnerability and Sexuality

Vulnerability – is it a condition we find ourselves in? A state of being we choose? Let’s keep it very simple: it depends on the approach we take to defining it. In the former approach, we are ‘done to’, while in the latter we are consciously ‘doing’.

By TARSHI
April 19, 2021
Editorial: Vulnerability and Sexuality
Feminism, Marriage, and the Dilemma
A bride and her mother holding hands face-to-face during the wedding celebration. Their faces are cut from the picture - we can see from their neck to their knees, dressed in a bride's lehnga, and a heavy Indian suit.
Feminism, Marriage, and the Dilemma

Before I was introduced to theatre and the arts in the 11th standard, the future I saw for myself was…
By Jyotsna Khatry
November 15, 2015
Feminism, Marriage, and the Dilemma
How I Dress Has to Do with My Relationship with Myself
A woman sitting on a bed in her room wearing shorts and a tank top, looking out the window.
How I Dress Has to Do with My Relationship with Myself

I did my schooling and higher studies in Delhi. Thanks to a compulsorily uniform attire at school, the differences in socio-economic backgrounds of students were successfully erased. But as one enters college, one’s attire gets significant attention, especially for a person from a weak socio-economic background. This transition period from school to college is also the age of sexual anxieties, experiments and experiences.
By Rashmi Gopi
August 16, 2016
How I Dress Has to Do with My Relationship with Myself
In Appreciation of Singlehood
A photograph of a woman facing a water body lined with blades of grass. The sky is tinged with orange and blue.
In Appreciation of Singlehood

Growing up, for me, has been about accepting that the loneliness and sadness woven into the fabric of my being do not go away with entering conventional arrangements like monogamous relationships or marriage.
By Siddhi Pandey
February 1, 2021
In Appreciation of Singlehood
In conversation with Sheema Kermani
Photo of performance artist and theatre personality Maya Krishna Rao. She is wearing black and her left hand raised in a dramatic pose. She has long white hair and there is a red bindi on her forehead.
In conversation with Sheema Kermani

Sheema Kermani is a cultural activist, theatre practitioner, theatre director and a known Pakistani exponent of Indian classical dance. She had studied Bharatanatyam…
By TARSHI
July 1, 2014
In conversation with Sheema Kermani
India’s Daughter: When Men Come Together, But Women Stand Divided
Poster of a documentary. On a black background is written, "India's Daughter - The Story of Jyoti Singh", with "Daughter" in red and everything else in white. The tittle of two i's in IndIa are flames, making the I's look like candles.
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
March 16, 2015
India’s Daughter: When Men Come Together, But Women Stand Divided
Interview – Madhu Mehra – Part 2
Interview – Madhu Mehra – Part 2

I think that the level of power that law makers, opinion builders and stakeholders wield over the more vulnerable and younger people in society is enormous. Yet, these actors have chosen to focus only on building a policy regime of sexual violence, even to the extent of allowing juvenile offenders to be treated as adult accused – without any corresponding effort to build a sex positive culture within which they may exercise agency.

By Shikha Aleya
July 16, 2018
Interview – Madhu Mehra – Part 2
Interview – Indu Harikumar
Interview – Indu Harikumar

I was watching something recently that said it was a bad thing to be vulnerable, but I don’t think it is a bad thing. I do see that there is a certain amount of power in vulnerability, it also needs courage, in my experience.
By Shikha Aleya
April 5, 2021
Interview – Indu Harikumar
Interview –  A reflective self-questioning
A graphic design image of phases of the moon in a semi-circular form against a black backdrop dotted with white specks as stars.
Interview –  A reflective self-questioning

It is true though that ageing has brought home realities about my body that I ignored when I was younger. It has made me mindful of what I value, and what I choose to let go of, without too much of thought or unnecessary angst.
By Shikha Aleya
March 1, 2021
Interview –  A reflective self-questioning
Interview: Madhu Mehra – Part 1
picture of lawyer and activist madhu mehra. she wears a pink saree with a beige blouse and sits at a desk before a microphone
Interview: Madhu Mehra – Part 1

In this issue of In Plainspeak, we interview Madhu Mehra, lawyer and feminist activist. She is a founding member and the Executive Director of Partners for Law in Development (PLD), a legal resource group on women’s rights.

By Shikha Aleya
July 2, 2018
Interview: Madhu Mehra – Part 1
Interview: Nandini Rao
Photo of activist Nandini Rao. She has white hair and is wearing a jacket and scarf.
Interview: Nandini Rao

Feminist, activist, writer, counsellor and trainer, Nandini Rao, focuses on issues of gender-based violence and discrimination, sexuality and disability and on incest and child sexual abuse.

By Shikha Aleya
May 1, 2018
Interview: Nandini Rao
Interview: Radhika Chandiramani on What Self-Care and Sexuality Have to Do With Each Other
A photograph of Radhika Chandiramani, a clinical psychologist, writer and editor, and founder of TARSHI.
Interview: Radhika Chandiramani on What Self-Care and Sexuality Have to Do With Each Other

Sexuality and self-care are related at many levels, right from the level of knowing what you want and what you don’t, how you feel about yourself, how you are able to communicate your desires and how you are able to enjoy your experiences.
By Anjora Sarangi
January 4, 2021
Interview: Radhika Chandiramani on What Self-Care and Sexuality Have to Do With Each Other
Interview: Sharanya Manivannan
A photograph of Sharanya Manivannan
Interview: Sharanya Manivannan

If you are true to yourself, and attuned to your emotions and needs, you’ll invariably find that even a core belief (such as: not believing in the institution of marriage) is complicated by what the lived experience of that means (not only discriminatory experiences, but also intimate ones).
By Shikha Aleya
February 1, 2021
Interview: Sharanya Manivannan
Issue in Focus: The Script of Love
the script of love: still of a crying 'tulsi' from 'kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi'
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
Issue in Focus: The Script of Love
Jasmine Stains
A pictures of the reddish-green leaves and branches of a plant, against a bright green background
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
Jasmine Stains
1 2 3 … 6