reclamation

Probing the Screen: Pleasure in the Virtual World
Wall-art of a face till the bridge of the nose. The face is coloured in peach, grey, and shades of blue. The eyes, green, are lined in black and have spots of yellow, brown, and blue colour around them. Under the left eye, there are yellow dots. The hair is streaked with purple and blue.

The virtual world allows me to challenge the hold of patriarchy on my ‘effeminate’ body; in a sense, it allows me to evade the policing of desire that my body shares with another, its flows and slippages, the messy and the unkempt. While virtual sex offers a window to revisit the sensual, it is also not immune to limitations and insecurities.

By Neel
June 15, 2021
Probing the Screen: Pleasure in the Virtual World
Editorial: Risk and Sexuality
On a black background, yellow tulips are blooming.

In our mid-month issue, we add context to our perceptions of and dealings with risk in our day-to-day lives. Collating and interpreting responses we received on a survey taken by small group of random individuals, Shikha Aleya looks at the transactions around risk foregrounded on the interplay of our location on the axes of gender and sexual identity, disability status, belief systems, and availability of support, amongst others.

By TARSHI
October 15, 2020
Editorial: Risk and Sexuality
Public Interview on Risk and Sexuality
A photograph of an open, empty road in the countryside, leading to mountains.

Risk by itself is not a stigmatised subject, but sexuality is, and has been for generations. This has led to closeting, to shutting the door, on many necessary conversations about the risks to rights that millions of vulnerable individuals and many vulnerable communities live with, across the globe.

By Shikha Aleya
October 15, 2020
Public Interview on Risk and Sexuality
Between Fear and Freedom
An illustration of a woman walking on an empty street at night, with a backpack from which a crescent moon and stars are emerging.

While highlighting safety from, media narratives often dismiss safety to: express oneself, be it through the way we identify and communicate, or through the body. Not only the spaces we access and the time of day we do so but also the way we perform our self-hood.

By Anjali
October 15, 2020
Between Fear and Freedom
The Risks and Gains of Coming In
An illustration of a woman walking on an empty street at night, with a backpack from which a crescent moon and stars are emerging.

I had risked so much already, not just by loving another woman, but by acting on my desires. By allowing myself to feel intimacy and connection with another queer person. Despite feeling guilt and shame, this risk had become increasingly vital to take.

By Sweta
October 15, 2020
The Risks and Gains of Coming In
The Last Local To Vashi
A photograph of differently coloured cloths hanging from poles in front of a train station in Mumbai, at night

I gave myself the freedom to choose. And I chose to re-examine my assumptions. Maybe it was possible to ask strange men for directions without being afraid of seeming vulnerable. Maybe I could plan my outfit without bothering about the fact that I would be travelling on public transport.

By Tanvi Khemani
October 5, 2020
The Last Local To Vashi