Stereotypes Archives • In Plainspeak

Stereotypes

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Close-up of a brick wall with heavy neon graffiti. The text, wherever present, is in French.

Humour makes us feel good, relaxes us, lubricates social interactions, and often allows us to see things in new ways. Who doesn’t love a good belly laugh? However, what tickles your funny bone may be very different from what tickles mine.

By TARSHI

May 17, 2023

Editorial – Humour and Sexuality

The Complexities and Necessities of Queer Humour

A red heart-shaped smiley ball kept on a pile of yellow smiley balls.

There’s a difference between ‘laughing with’ and ‘laughing at’. The above instance was obviously of the latter kind. Humour has a complex but integral relationship with queer genders and sexualities, and it has been evolving over time.

By Rupal Rupali

May 17, 2023

The Complexities and Necessities of Queer Humour

A row of brown eggs with faces and different expressions painted on them with a black marker.

Humour, either openly, or thinly camouflaged, is a combination of the intellectual, spiritual, emotional, physical nature of being. So quite often, anger, anxiety, aggression, wisdom, love, frustration, wickedness, cruelty, sarcasm and other feelings are a big part.

By Shikha Aleya

May 4, 2023

Issue in Focus

Video: Who Says Sports Aren’t for Women? | The Swaddle

Society finds a million different ways to tell us that sports are not for women but why? In popular culture, it is mostly men who are shown to be excelling at sports. Athletic women are shown as out-of-place ‘tomboys’ and outcasts.

By Curated Content

April 6, 2023

Video: Who Says Sports Aren’t for Women? | The Swaddle

The idealisation of motherhood is crucial to our culture; it is important that the mother is self-sacrificing. This sacrificial instinct isn’t limited to women’s behaviour. It goes on to encompass the entirety of her corporeality and the way she performs it.

By Vinky Mittal

March 17, 2023

The Motherhood Dilemma

An illustration of stage-curtains in bright color.

Wesley D’Souza recounts the time his school put up a production of The Pied Piper of Hamelin, his preparations for its audition, and how the process was intertwined with an exploration and acceptance of his sexuality.

By Wesley D'Souza

January 3, 2023

Acting Like Myself

A photograph of a person in a gym holding a barbell, his arm and leg visible in the frame.

I can recall my experiences in the washrooms of different gyms that I have been a member of. A men’s washroom is an interesting place in terms of how sexuality manifests itself in its various aspects. It was not unusual to see men of various kinds with strange energies in these washrooms.

By Shiva Chauhan

April 1, 2022

The Gendered Muscle in Gym Spaces

A photograph of two yellow flowers blooming amid grass. Dark green leaves are emerging from behind the flowers' petals.

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

Review: What Does Clothing Have to do with Sexuality in the Media?

A screenshot of an advertisement. It depicts a woman in a red saree with a dark blue blouse. She is wearing necklaces. She is squatting and seemingly washing clothes. Beside her, to the left, is a steel bucket.

Attire and sexuality in the common imagination and approach as represented (and also as received) by the mainstream media tell us a lot about prevailing attitudes to both. Advertisements bombard us with all kinds of representations, negative and positive, of human sexuality, sexual expression and desire. In the creation and marketing of attire and fashion, there is a great awareness of sexual buy-in or rejection by the market – that’s us.

By Shikha Aleya

June 15, 2021

Review: What Does Clothing Have to do with Sexuality in the Media?

An abstractly made illustration of a landscape with mountains depicted in yellow, and below, a blend of green-blue to depict oceans. The texture of the colours evokes waves as well as ice. On the left is a paper boat, yellow-white with blue-green hues, carrying a red rose-like flower in the middle.

Dalit women are primarily viewed as victims and survivors of various kinds of violence. Reification of the Dalit identity has led to the boxing of our existence whose dimensions are solely defined by the savarna (dominant caste) gaze. Our self-assertions of identity are commodified to create a warped limiting of our lives, creating an image that is voiceless in the minds of our potential suitors. We are not seen as being capable of desire, love or happiness; we don’t exist as individuals outside of violence.

By Curated Content

June 15, 2021

Swipe me left, I’m Dalit

Does Your Period Tracking App Ask You About Your Sexuality Or Your Contraceptive Pills?

A graphic design. A white iPhone on the right and a pink screen-like background on the left. On the iPhone display, a big red dot saying 'Day 5' in white text and a calendar at the top. On the left, there are three blue chat bubbles with white text. The first says, 'Track my cycle' and under it, 'Don't plan to get pregnant right now'. The second bubble says, 'Trying to conceive' and under it 'Favourable days are important to me' and the third says, 'I'm pregnant' and under it, 'Want to track my condition'.

Period tracking applications can also inform you about your general reproductive health and also caution you in case of an anomaly with respect to it. As menstruators in our undergraduate years, the primary reason I saw my friends using period trackers were to keep a track of when to carry menstrual products to college or avoid the risks of pregnancy.

By Curated Content

May 15, 2021

Does Your Period Tracking App Ask You About Your Sexuality Or Your Contraceptive Pills?

I felt naked in front of everyone when I first came out, and I can’t stress enough how much my male privilege has helped me out here. I don’t even know if people found it serious enough to consider it my identity instead of ‘a mere sexual preference’ or ‘a phase’ (always a classic dismissal).

By Gokul KP

April 5, 2021

Being Comfortable in My Skin

Video: What is internalised misogyny? | Feminism In India

Image of Feminism in India’s video on Internalised Misogyny. On the right side of the image is a drawing of two girls with sad faces. On the left side is an image of the narrator who explains what Internalised Misogyny means.

I am not like other girls”, “I don’t like hanging out with girls that much”, “She is being very irrational today, I think it’s that time of the month”, are some common statements that you may have heard or even made yourself.

By Curated Content

December 1, 2020

Video: What is internalised misogyny? | Feminism In India