stand-up comedy

A still from Sumukhi Suresh's 'I Run When My Mom Calls'

Video: Run When Mom Calls | Sumukhi Suresh | Don’t Tell Amma

·July 1, 2020
·Curated Content
·0 Comments

Stand-up comedian Sumukhi Suresh’s video I Run When my Mom Calls, part of her performance Don’t Tell Amma, is a boldly humorous reminder of lines drawn around us by tradition. She uses the figure of Amma (mother) to symbolise socio-cultural attitudes towards sex, particularly outside of marriage. With an air of resigned amusement, Sumukhi recounts…

picture of comedian hannah gadsby with the text 'hannah gadsby, nanette' written beside her

The Politics of Politically Incorrect Jokes

·December 15, 2018
·Shweta Krishnan
·0 Comments

Somewhere in the middle of Nanette, as I was crying and laughing, I thought about how political incorrectness is the soul of stand-up comedy.

Picture of feminist activist Pramada Menon. She has short hair and glasses, and is wearing a black kurta and green dupatta

Interview: Throwback to Pramada Menon’s ‘Fat, Feminist and Free’

·January 18, 2016
·TARSHI Team

An excerpt from our 2014 interview with queer feminist activist and stand-up comic Pramada Menon.

Abish Matthew in a white shirt and black coat speaking into ear mike on a stage.

Casually Sexist Humour and the Reasonable Limits of Feministing

·January 4, 2016
·Noopur Raval

In March 2015, a popular Indian comic, Abish Mathew, performed at a college festival at the National Law University (NLU) in Delhi where he made, according to a FirstPost article (more on that soon), a bunch of “average” and “sexist” jokes (as if the first compounds the gravity of the other) on politician Mayawati’s looks,…

Comedian Aditi Mittal speaking into a mike.

Review: The Absurdities of Sexy and Funny Women

·January 4, 2016
·Kristin Francoeur

At the now infamous All India Bakchod Knockout roast last year, comedian Aditi Mittal told this joke about her fellow panellist Abish Mathew: “Abish, if a girl has sex with you she becomes a virgin again. You are literally a hymen repairman.” Though hardly the most vulgar joke of the evening, suddenly Mittal was fielding…

In Plainspeak publishes two issues with a theme every month.
A cross-cutting theme across all forthcoming issues in 2021 is how we can expand safe, inclusive sexuality-affirming spaces.

THIS ISSUE:

September – Intersectionality and Sexuality – II Issue – Sept 15, 2021
Distinct and overlapping aspects of our actual and perceived identity, such as gender, age, class, caste, dis/ability, and sexual orientation, to name a few, affect how we are received in the world. In other words, our privileges and oppressions are an intricate network woven on the basis of where we are seen to be located on different dimensions. And so, whether we can assert agency in our sexual lives, access healthcare services, safely express our gender identity and sexual orientation, and in other ways enjoy our sexual and reproductive rights, depends on the interplay of multiple factors. Intersectionality emphasises the interconnections of the freedoms and opportunities we access, and our privileges and marginalisations. The September issue of In Plainspeak considers intersectionality as an evolving and dynamic concept, and explores its potential in not only cultivating safe, inclusive and sexuality-affirming spaces but also in imagining a world organised around shared values of feminist social justice.

October – Labour and Sexuality
What we are expected to do and how, and the compensation and recognition we receive for our labour are influenced by socio-cultural attitudes around gender, disability, caste, class, and so on. And because our parameters to assess labour and to reward it, such as productivity or recompense, do not take into account the infinite permutations and combinations of our unique location in our context and therefore whether or not we can exercise agency, enjoy choice and freedoms, and have access to opportunities, not all aspects of our labour – be it sitting at a desk for eight hours or being in the fields at the crack of dawn, or cooking and cleaning, or even lending a patient ear – are considered ‘useful’, ‘productive’, or ‘work’ at all. The October issue of In Plainspeakattempts to tie together physical, domestic, reproductive, emotional, creative, and other forms of labour with sexuality, and explore its interplay with leisure, bodily autonomy and integrity, interpersonal relationships, and sexual and reproductive health and rights.

November – Fandom and Sexuality
Fandom is a community forged around shared enthusiasm for a particular aspect of popular culture, be it literature, film/television, music, art, sport, and what have you! Fandom is a space of belongingness, of unrestrained expression, of subverting conventions, of exploring the taboo, and of resisting hetero-patriarchy and imagining, in its place, a world vibrant with an array of gender identities, sexual orientations, and expressions. Scaffolded by an interest of its members in the canon, i.e., the original/source material, fandom brims with creative avenues of engagement in fanfiction, fanart, videos, songs, cosplay, and so on, where anything and everything is possible – from the romantic and the erotic, to the spiritual and the magical. In the November issue of In Plainspeak, we explore the potential of fandom as a safe, inclusive, and self-affirming space in the context of gender and sexuality

For future issue themes, click here.

Would you like to contribute? Send an email to blogeditor@tarshi.net with your idea. Do take a look at our submission guidelines!

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In Plainspeak English Audit In Plainspeak English Audit 100% 10 A photo of queer feminist activist Rudrani Chhetri. Her hair is tied up in a bun, and she is wearing a simple patterned top and jacket. She is also wearing gold earrings and a golden locket. Screen reader support enabled. A photo of queer feminist activist Rudrani Chhetri. Her hair is tied up in a bun, and she is wearing a simple patterned top and jacket. She is also wearing gold earrings and a golden locket.

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Published on January 1, 2014

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A person with short dark hair and silver earrings holds a sign that says "Sexual Rights To Me Means Control Over My Own Body". The photo is in black and white.

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Published on December 1, 2013