self-acceptance

Brushstrokes: Closets
A part of the webcomic ‘Closets’
Brushstrokes: Closets

Robot Hugs, in their insightful comic, take on closets as inherently oppressive structures built to uphold what is acceptable and…
By Curated Content
July 1, 2020
Brushstrokes: Closets
Poems by Nhylar
A watercolour image of a woman
Poems by Nhylar

1. A Certain Type of Life  since the age of 16 I idealised a certain type of life involving certain…
By Nhylar
July 1, 2020
Poems by Nhylar
Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish: A platonic togetherness
A poster of the film ‘Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Barish’. In the poster, an image of a woman glancing sideways is shown and on the right is an image of a young boy in a wheelchair and a man behind him enjoying rain.
Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish: A platonic togetherness

The movie was criticised for its stereotypical portrayal of Debu as a gay man. But, the beauty is that it also highlights the reversal of gender roles. The smiles, and the laughter sounding throughout the house, create a cheery note in the movie.
By Dr Swarupa N Kshirsagar
November 2, 2020
Do Paise Ki Dhoop, Chaar Aane Ki Baarish: A platonic togetherness
BLOSSOMING INTO A GARDEN: SPIRITUALITY, SEXUALITY AND ALL-CONSUMING QUEER LOVE IN ‘PUU’
‘Puu’ webcomic
BLOSSOMING INTO A GARDEN: SPIRITUALITY, SEXUALITY AND ALL-CONSUMING QUEER LOVE IN ‘PUU’

Puu, an episodic comic (consisting of 92 serialised episodes) created in 2016 by Nabigal-Nayagam Haider Ali – going by Nabi online – is woven together with vast, expansive threads of similar intense spiritual moments and reflections on devotion, faith, and love.
By Rohini Banerjee
January 4, 2021
BLOSSOMING INTO A GARDEN: SPIRITUALITY, SEXUALITY AND ALL-CONSUMING QUEER LOVE IN ‘PUU’
HOW I LEARNED THAT I DESERVE TO LOVE MYSELF
A pattern of many illustrated flowers interwoven together
HOW I LEARNED THAT I DESERVE TO LOVE MYSELF

“I feel comfortable with who I am,” he responded. “I’m at ease with myself. I don’t wake up and hate myself. I can’t tell you how amazing that feels.”

“I know how that feels,” I told him.
By Guest Writer
January 4, 2021
HOW I LEARNED THAT I DESERVE TO LOVE MYSELF
A GARDEN OF ONE’S OWN
A photograph of a stone structure and archway on a rocky terrain
A GARDEN OF ONE’S OWN

Therapy gives us tools and time, but the actual work of dismantling the forest is ours as we are the only persons with access to that forest. So queer affirmative therapy validates our beliefs and helps us identify the poison, cut it down, dissect it, unroot it.
By Poorva Parashar
January 4, 2021
A GARDEN OF ONE’S OWN
Brushstrokes: Dear Sex-Ed Textbook
A screenshot from Robot Hugs' comic. The background is purple and has a figure wearing a darker purple shirt and grey pants. Their hair is green and they are looking curiously and confusedly at the illustration of the female reproductive system to their left. The figure of the reproductive system is coloured in light and dark shades of pink and has a black question mark in the middle. The text, to the right of the figure, says "But I am already whole and complete, and I am not full of empty spaces."
Brushstrokes: Dear Sex-Ed Textbook

Robot Hugs gives us a glimpse into the doubts and confusions they grappled with while growing up, and unravels the tightly wound preconceptions in culture influenced by, and at the same time, influencing scientific and medical imagination.
By Curated Content
June 15, 2021
Brushstrokes: Dear Sex-Ed Textbook
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.
Probing the Screen: Pleasure in the Virtual World

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
Interview: Kripa Joshi
On a peach coloured background, a woman of colour jumping. She is wearing purple ballet shoes and a purple one-piece swimsuit with white-grey patterns scattered on it. Her eyes are wide open and her hands are stretched open on both sides. Her hair is brown and open. She is throwing multi-coloured confetti. Beneath her is a blue circle. In a semicircle to her right is the typography, in purple: Throw kindness around like confetti!
Interview: Kripa Joshi

There have been several recent examples of actors, movies and events being called out because of their lack of representation, like for the Oscars. With social media it is easier to create and distribute diverse art and also to voice the need for diversity. So it needs engagements and awareness in society. Change will happen once enough people demand that change.
By Shikha Aleya
June 15, 2021
Interview: Kripa Joshi
Editorial: Representation and Sexuality
A photograph of two yellow flowers blooming amid grass. Dark green leaves are emerging from behind the flowers' petals.
Editorial: Representation and Sexuality

We are, all of us, trying to hold steady, and to hold space for each other and for ourselves. And so, instead of trying to put together a collection of ‘all new’ articles, this time we are republishing some ‘ever fresh’ ones on the theme of Sexuality and Representation.
By TARSHI
June 15, 2021
Editorial: Representation and Sexuality
Video: How to be a Friend to Yourself
An illustration of a woman looking in the mirror, with adornments. She is wearing a pink hat with a feather, and blue long hair.
Video: How to be a Friend to Yourself

This thought-provoking, luminously illustrated The School of Life video reminds us of self-compassion being essential to building our own selves up, and being a safe space where we can extend the same love and imagination to our vulnerabilities, insecurities, fears, and doubts as we do to our friends.
By Curated Content
July 5, 2021
Video: How to be a Friend to Yourself
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue
A set of two photographs, on the left a coloured photograph of a woman hanging from a tree with orange flowers, on the right a black and white photograph of a woman looking at her left eye in a hand-held mirror and applying make-up.
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue

Inspired to collect photographs of women spending time by themselves and for themselves after a conversation with her mother’s friend, Surabhi Yadav began the project, Women at Leisure.
By Feminism in India
July 5, 2021
Brushstrokes: Women At Leisure: Photo Essay On Pastime As A Feminist Issue
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
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
A photograph of a person's arm and hand. The background of a couch with a blue duvet is blurred, and the focus is on the person's hands, with brown nail-paint, and a blue pen in their hands. They are writing in a spiral bound notebook. Beside them is a black cup.
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about

My journal has many entries that are speculative and fantastic. Writing about the mundane leads me to question the way the world operates and from there I frog-leap into a world of ideas where I imagine a radically different way of being. In my journal, I imagine a politics of care, community, and compassion. I become grand, valuable, and unstoppable, even in a world where I am sometimes made to feel small.
By Sheena D'Lima
July 5, 2021
Dear Diary: The radically feminist creative journalling practice that nobody talks about
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?
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