Sexual Violence

Editorial – Spaces and Sexuality
A wall completely covered with multicoloured, abstract graffiti

A space can make us feel constricted or liberated, and sometimes even both at the same and at varying times. The combination of spaces that we may be occupying in the moment, as well as those we have in the past, predisposes us to act, feel and experience our sexuality in different ways.

By TARSHI
April 18, 2022
Editorial – Spaces and Sexuality
Violation of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR): Where are the Women With Disabilities?
A graphic illustration of a pattern. The dominant colours are yellow, orange, grey, blue, and black. Blocks of colour emerge from a cluttered centre and emanate upwards.

What vindicates the argument that women with disabilities (WWDs) should be deprived of sexual and reproductive healthcare and rights is scary. Harmful stereotypes of WWDs include the belief that they are hypersexual, incapable, irrational and lacking control. These narratives are then often used to build other perceptions such as that WWDs are inherently vulnerable and should be ‘protected from sexual attack’.

By Smruti
August 2, 2021
Violation of Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights (SRHR): Where are the Women With Disabilities?
Media and the Power of Responsible Representation
Abstract art, coloured in shades of olive green, black, peach, pink, yellow, orange, and purple. It appears to show two silhouettes, to the left are distinct parts of a woman's face and to the right a darker silhouette looking at these parts.

It is the winter of 2013, and my father and I are sitting at an awkward distance from each other…

By Rohini Banerjee
June 15, 2021
Media and the Power of Responsible Representation
Video: Kalki Koechlin: The Printing Machine | Unblushed
A screenshot of Kalki Koechlin's rendition of 'The Printing Machine'. The background has a fade-effect of newspaper headlines. To the left is Kalki's face till the beginning of her shoulders. She is looking directly at the camera. Her hair is tied with strands across her face. To the left, in big red lettering: KALKI an underneath it, in black and strikethrough: UNBLUSHED. 'BLUSH' is bold.

Sharp and evocative, Kalki Koechlin’s spoken-word poem The Printing Machine lays bare the cycle of ceaseless and desensitised consumption engendered by the media. Kalki’s short and hard-hitting sentences, keys tap-tap-tapping, and the chrrs and grrs of printing machines bring out the urgency and sensationalism media narratives embody, turning incidents of violence into a stream of headlines that make us gasp and forget, gasp and forget.

By TARSHI
June 15, 2021
Video: Kalki Koechlin: The Printing Machine | Unblushed
On Sexuality, Representation, and Being a Lonely Brown Girl
The cover image of the article with the typography, in white, 'On Sexuality, Representation, and Being a Lonely Brown Girl' and under it in smaller font: September 12, 2017 / Nisha Eswaran' The background is a fade-effect illustration of a brown woman wearing a white-lilac top with black hair open. She is standing in a field of sunflowers, yellow and brown with green leaves and brown-black mountains far back. The woman's face has been made without any features.

I long for much more than a greater representation of brown women. I long for a complete overhaul of the racial, gendered, and economic systems that structure our suffering.

But I also long for representation of all people, including brown women, who are in love, who are loveable, and who are — in the absence of love — lonely.

By Curated Content
June 15, 2021
On Sexuality, Representation, and Being a Lonely Brown Girl
CATAMITE
On a pick background, a photograph of a drop of water splashing.

On the other hand, in Abhay’s newly discovered wonderland, everything seemed to be awfully right. Soon, he began receiving proposals for sex-dates. Initially such proposals shocked him; for it took him a few months to get used to the fact that sex with men was only a click away.

By Kaustav Bakshi
October 5, 2020
CATAMITE
Interview – Amba Salelkar
A photograph of disability rights advocate and activist Amba Salelkar

But not every issue of discrimination and conflict can go to a court.Say for example, affording privacy to a young adult with disability to understand their body and sexual responses, or enabling them to access accessible sex toys or assistive devices related to sexual pleasure.

By Shikha Aleya
September 1, 2020
Interview – Amba Salelkar
Title: Movie Review: Seeing Allred – The fight for equality goes on
A poster of Netflix’s documentary film ‘Seeing Allred’

Allred’s story is important because it shows us how an individual used her knowledge, power, and position to challenge the legal system in demanding rights and equality, especially for women and LGBTQ+ people.

By ElsaMarie D'Silva
September 1, 2020
Title: Movie Review: Seeing Allred – The fight for equality goes on
How Not To Talk About ‘Women’s Safety’ In Public Spaces
Image of a woman being "watched" by eyes that symbolise societal moral policing

The only thing this language achieves (and maybe it is also the goal), is to create enough panic so that women themselves police and restrict their own mobility and whereabouts, and keep themselves away from public spaces whenever possible.

By Curated Content
April 15, 2020
How Not To Talk About ‘Women’s Safety’ In Public Spaces
Why We Still Need Campaigns Like The 16 Days of Activism
poster for the 16 days of activism campaign

Every year we participate in an international campaign known as “The 16 Days Campaign” which runs from 25 November (International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women) to 10 December (Human Rights Day). It is an organising strategy by individuals and organisations around the world to call for the prevention and elimination of violence against women and girls.

By ElsaMarie D'Silva
December 2, 2019
Why We Still Need Campaigns Like The 16 Days of Activism
Review: Unbelievable
a still from unbelievable

I believe that such mini-series as “Unbelievable” will help people have a better understanding of what women go through when they experience a horrific incident like rape or sexual assault.

By ElsaMarie D'Silva
October 15, 2019
Review: Unbelievable
Brushstrokes: Risky Date
Against a grey background, little thought bubbles that talk about poential risks one can encounter on a blind date

First dates can be a source of both excitement and anxiety – the possibility of finding a connection someone new is endlessly exhilarating, but the uncertainty around what to expect can be unnerving

By Curated Content
March 5, 2019
Brushstrokes: Risky Date
Why We Don’t Get Consent
Illustration of a woman dressed in black, holding her hand up in a gesture of protest

But here is the thing. In heterosexual relationships, how are women and men going to learn to see women’s desires if the world does not see them? If the world is shaped to conform to a certain type of man’s desires only? Where is consent without a diversity of desires and a galaxy of desirability?

By Curated Content
November 15, 2018
Why We Don’t Get Consent
What History And Fiction Teach Us About Women And Power
women and power

This article was originally published in the NPR. January 8, 2018; TANIA LOMBROZO Two recent books, one a manifesto by British…

By Curated Content
July 16, 2018
What History And Fiction Teach Us About Women And Power
How #MeToo Revealed the Central Rift Within Feminism Today
a collage of black and white photos of women smeared in red paint who seem to be screaming metoo

In the media and in private life, conversations about consent, hostile environments and power began, and there was a growing acknowledgment that a man’s unwanted sexual overtures were a symptom of broader social and political forces.

By Curated Content
July 16, 2018
How #MeToo Revealed the Central Rift Within Feminism Today
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