sex
To remind us of what spaces that are safe, inclusive and self-affirming for each person could look like, we have curated a selection of articles from the last five years of In Plainspeak for this anthology – our gift to wish you a wonderful 2026.
We become women before we become a woman. Of course, we don’t need to try hard to do so…We learn the sides and folds of the gendered box we are in before we gain the perspective to decide we don’t fit in and build a customised box or choose to have no box at all.
Gender has perplexed me throughout life. I never quite understood femininity or masculinity much – I mostly lived in what other people thought I was. One thing I did know always is that I never, ever, want to be seen as a man. But can I still hold masculinity?
Growing up is a tedious task in our society because of the institutionalised practices, societal constructs and boxed identities and expressions that we are expected to adhere to. Anything beyond these implies harm, danger, and deviance.
CSE’s ‘natural habitat’ is often considered to be the classroom, but as our contributors show us, CSE also lives, breathes and thrives in habitats as disparate as neighbourhood parks, jobs-training centres, playgrounds and sports fields, law schools, family discussions, and digital spaces.
CSE survives in information as well as in the values that carry it forward.
डिजिटल मीडिया ने भारत में CSE को नई दिशा दी है। इंस्टाग्राम रील्स, यूट्यूब चैनल और आधुनिक कहानी-आधारित सामग्री ने न केवल जानकारी का लोकतंत्रीकरण किया है बल्कि युवाओं में आत्मविश्वास, समझ और संवेदनशीलता भी बढ़ाई है।
Friendship – a place where we can be ourselves as we truly are, with no artifice. A place of peace,…
That’s what books do, they open up the world to new possibilities, let you live a life bigger than your own.
In those moments of doubt, when we wonder whether we can really make a difference in the world, it is often our work friends who remind us why we began.
But we always, always know that when it’s the two of us, a label or a word isn’t needed or necessary. We both get each other.
My birthday is in May, a peak time of summer heat in the Awadh region of Uttar Pradesh. We knew that it was going to be hot, but did not have any idea of how bad it could get.
The glorious heights of self-actualisation to which some words beckon us, the promises lying within others, it’s all language.
Language is one of the most intimate things we share with one another, more than bodies, more than time.
… that feels so personal to me as a teenage girl, because it is indeed, “so confusing sometimes to be a girl.”