privilege

Interview – Raj Mariwala
A photograph of MHI director Raj Mariwala; she is playing with a grey-brown dog, squatting in grass.
Interview – Raj Mariwala

Self-care is influenced by the environment we inhabit, the way we relate to others, the way we negotiate with other living beings or structures. Self-care is also interlinked with other types of care – whether that is in community resources, psychosocial support, engagement with medical and health care institutions, and of course in collective agency and solidarity.
By Shikha Aleya
July 5, 2021
Interview – Raj Mariwala
Interview – Tishani Doshi
Photograph of a woman with long hair in red sari, sitting with a brown dog against a background of bushes with vines and pink azaleas. The woman is resting her chin on one hand and petting the dog with the other.
Interview – Tishani Doshi

I’ve essentially thought of movement as a kind of freedom, but one that has the capacity to destabilise you in some way. My most creative moments are when I’m not moving, when I am in fact rooted and still.

By Shikha Aleya
May 3, 2022
Interview – Tishani Doshi
Invisible Women
A poster of the film 'North Country'. On the poster: in the middle, Charlize Theron's face and shoulders. She is wearing a yellow bandana and a grey-beige t-shirt. She is looking at the camera, wide-eyed. Behind her is a crowd of men, a bit transparent. The lettering under her is in white, saying NORTH COUNTRY. Above her, the lettering says, 'ALL SHE WANTED WAS TO MAKE A LIVING, INSTEAD SHE MADE HISTORY' and underneath the title of the film are details about its cast and production.
Invisible Women

I recently watched North Country on Netflix, a movie based on a true story of a woman’s fight for equality at the workplace. It is based on the case, Jenson vs Eveleth Mines, in the United States in which Lois Jenson, fought for the right to work as a miner, and the right to work free of sexual harassment. She won the landmark 1984 lawsuit, which was the first class-action lawsuit on sexual harassment at the workplace in the United States and resulted in companies/organisations having to introduce sexual harassment policies at the workplace.
By ElsaMarie D'Silva
May 15, 2021
Invisible Women
It’s not ‘just’ play!
An illustration of handcuffs in dull shades.
It’s not ‘just’ play!

Play is not only about cocks, balls, vaginas, paddles, or anything that happens between two consenting adults in the bedroom. It’s also about what goes on in a masochist’s mind before they submit to a cane, or a whip, and before they orgasm from the pain.

By Asmi
December 1, 2021
It’s not ‘just’ play!
MY VAGINA IS DUKHA?
A graphic illustration with a black, inky tree with branches outlined by a silhouette of a face.
MY VAGINA IS DUKHA?

Ageing vaginas in ageing female bodies are joked about. But a vagina shouldn’t have the task of pleasing anybody but itself first. To begin with, we’ll have to love and respect our vaginas in order to pleasure them. Love them just as they are. If they feel a little dry, don’t despair. Use a lubricant or a little coconut oil. If my labia are unshapely, they’re still my labia and respond very nicely to gentleness and tenderness. If I don’t love and respect my ageing body, in need of gentle, loving, patient care, then who will, for God’s sake?
By Nighat Gandhi
July 5, 2021
MY VAGINA IS DUKHA?
Negotiating Expression
An abstract painting of teal squares with splashes of orange, white, blue and yellow.
Negotiating Expression

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
Of “unapologetically flawed” women and feminism-lite: A review of Four More Shots Please!
The poster of Four More Shots Please, featuring four women in Western clothing, posing, laughing, dancing and having fun.
Of “unapologetically flawed” women and feminism-lite: A review of Four More Shots Please!

Four More Shots Please! moves in the right direction when it comes to women (of a particular social stratum), their lives, and feminism at large – even if it takes small, stumbling, baby steps towards it.
By Srishti Gupta
December 1, 2021
Of “unapologetically flawed” women and feminism-lite: A review of Four More Shots Please!
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
A serving of filter coffee in brass tumbler on a wooden table.
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality

Marriage also feels complicated when one approaches it through the lens of feminism. Marriage throws in two people and often their families into a system designed to perpetuate patriarchy, subjugate women, and bind men and women (in heteronormative marriage) into strict roles in the marriage.
By Vani Viswanathan
January 13, 2025
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality

Marriage also feels complicated when one approaches it through the lens of feminism. Marriage throws in two people and often their families into a system designed to perpetuate patriarchy, subjugate women, and bind men and women (in heteronormative marriage) into strict roles in the marriage.
By Vani Viswanathan
March 1, 2022
Of filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality
Of Identity and Belongings: The Gatekeeping within Queer Spaces
A close-up of chainmesh fencing.
Of Identity and Belongings: The Gatekeeping within Queer Spaces
No matter how much I wanted to be a part of the rainbow, it felt like the rainbow wanted no part of me. It was an elite space for the exuberant über cool gays, with access, privilege and a vocabulary filled with jargon. I couldn’t even decide if I was ‘gay enough’, let alone deconstruct my experiences, having being brought up in a heteronormative culture.
By Shubhangi
September 1, 2022
Of Identity and Belongings: The Gatekeeping within Queer Spaces
Of Mothers and Playgrounds
A close-up of a field of daisies, small white flowers with thin petals arranged radially around yellow centres.
Of Mothers and Playgrounds

“City-living gave me talons and claws, but now I want to put those away. I want something else. I want softness. I want grass under my feet. I want the fist in my stomach to slowly unclench. I want the garden of my childhood to get lost in play while letting sunlit hours pass over to rosy dusk.”
By Sheena D'Lima
January 13, 2025
Of Mothers and Playgrounds
Of Mothers and Playgrounds
A close-up of a field of daisies, small white flowers with thin petals arranged radially around yellow centres.
Of Mothers and Playgrounds

“City-living gave me talons and claws, but now I want to put those away. I want something else. I want softness. I want grass under my feet. I want the fist in my stomach to slowly unclench. I want the garden of my childhood to get lost in play while letting sunlit hours pass over to rosy dusk.”
By Sheena D'Lima
February 2, 2023
Of Mothers and Playgrounds
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women
A photograph of a room with one window. The photo showcases the room as semicircular and has a black floor with a window reflected, and brown-white brick walls with a sunlit window.
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women

Pandemics have a profound psychological impact. They are known to disrupt one’s sense of safety, security, certainty, control, concordance, and…
By Ansha Patel
July 5, 2021
On Confinements & Coexistence: Perspectives on the Impact of Covid-19 on the Mental Health of Women
Public Sex and the Police in Urban Spaces
A photo of heterosexual couple sitting cross-legged on a rampart beside the sea. The man is wearing a blue shirt and there are shopping bags beside him. Beside him, only the mid-length hair of the woman can be seen. In the horizon is the city skyline of Mumbai with skyscrapers and other buildings at golden hour.
Public Sex and the Police in Urban Spaces

While sex workers face repeated harassment by the police, many young couples face threats in a one-off incident if the police finds them with their partner/lover. They may face police surveillance of expressions of intimacy and affection in public.
By Shruti Arora
April 1, 2022
Public Sex and the Police in Urban Spaces
Queering the Paradigm: Dismantling Politics, Power, and Privilege
colorful bubbles floating on a black background - Drops of a glycerine/water mixture working like magnifying glasses, on glass, above an abstract artwork.
Queering the Paradigm: Dismantling Politics, Power, and Privilege

Queering, as a theoretical and practical approach, has emerged as a powerful means of challenging and dismantling established politics, power…
By Lipun Kumar Sanbad
July 22, 2024
Queering the Paradigm: Dismantling Politics, Power, and Privilege
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