vulnerability and sexuality

Editorial: Vulnerability and Sexuality
A photograph of a brown coloured snail lying on green grass

Vulnerability – is it a condition we find ourselves in? A state of being we choose? Let’s keep it very simple: it depends on the approach we take to defining it. In the former approach, we are ‘done to’, while in the latter we are consciously ‘doing’.

By TARSHI
April 19, 2021
Editorial: Vulnerability and Sexuality
Issue in Focus: The Heart of Being
An abstractly painted image with magenta and blue and splashes of red, yellow, and black colour. In the background, two brown-black silhouettes.

To chase down our own vulnerabilities around sexuality is a short run around the corner, five minutes ago, last night sleeping alone, with a lover, a partner who lost interest, the Insta post that leaves you feeling you’re not good enough for the hug, the kiss, the cuddle and are you perhaps the A of LGBTQIA+?

By Shikha Aleya
April 19, 2021
Issue in Focus: The Heart of Being
Should I Say I Love You?
A photograph, against a dark background, of a zoomed-in fence with a square lock hanging. The lock is painted red, left un-coloured in a heart shape in the middle.

Being vulnerable helps boost our self-esteem and self-worth by pushing us out of our comfort-zone. It provides us with an opportunity to overcome obstacles and reach deep down within ourselves to find strength and confidence to keep going even when the odds are against us.

By Shubham Ranjan
April 19, 2021
Should I Say I Love You?
Vulnerability and Romantic Relationships: My Struggles Navigating These Spaces
A zoomed-in photograph of a wall with differently coloured flanks.

It took me some time to realise how important being vulnerable or, for that matter, being vulnerable during sexual engagement was for me to have great sex and how empowering it is for my sexuality. After much thought, I decided to open up to my partner about my past experiences and other things I never used to openly talk about.

By Grishma Trivedi
April 19, 2021
Vulnerability and Romantic Relationships: My Struggles Navigating These Spaces
There I sat down and wept

“Be yourself, Sarah. Awkward smiles, empty silences, weird laughter, and all. It’s just a part of being human. Loving someone physically is never not awkward. Even if it’s a monogamous relationship. It’s only the comfort of familiarity that makes you think otherwise.”

By Anna Lynn
April 19, 2021
There I sat down and wept
Reclining Vulnerability

Through multiple maquettes, I finally came across (since I myself did not know what the result of the form or figure would be) the Reclining Lady. She represents confident femininity and vulnerability. The feeling one has after taking a bath and sitting in the nude, drying oneself in unabashed nakedness.

By Noella Fernandes
April 19, 2021
Reclining Vulnerability
Brushstrokes: Vulnerability and Sexuality
Sketch of two persons sitting with their heads, hands, and legs touching each other

Her artworks illustrate discoveries, intimacies, and vulnerabilities during a time when identities are coalescing that may affect how we eventually come to become.

By Prachee Batra
April 19, 2021
Brushstrokes: Vulnerability and Sexuality
Tinderization of Feeling
Image of two dolls swaying their legs and arms. The doll on the left has long hair and is wearing a red coloured head scarf on its head and a white sweater and black pants. The doll also has makeup on its face. The doll on the rights has short hair and is wearing a white sweater with grey pants. The doll has a black woolen scarf around its neck

To be without intricacies is to be without emotional boundaries, to disregard whoever whenever. Besties save you from your shit. They are your heart, and they transcend any efficiency that the Tinderization Bestie Robot attempts to offer you in its binary fantasy.

By Curated Content
April 19, 2021
Tinderization of Feeling
QUEERNESS AND PRIVACY[1]: BABY I LOVE IT WHEN YOU NEVER HOLD BACK FROM ME

For so long, private has meant a place that I was forced to create, claim and carve out to hide away from the public violence. And if I’ve been allowed to further wallow in it then I don’t want to – thank you very much.

By Curated Content
April 19, 2021
QUEERNESS AND PRIVACY[1]: BABY I LOVE IT WHEN YOU NEVER HOLD BACK FROM ME
Why Don’t Indian Families Say “I Love You”?
A drawing of four people in a red background. Behind them are drawings of buildings and clouds. The four faces have different expressions on them- two can be seen smiling, the third person has a neutral expression and the fourth person has a sad expression. Three hearts are also drawn on the first, second and the fourth person.

Indian families rarely say “I love you” to each other. Maybe it is an extension of the fact that parents are awkward while displaying any sign of affection to each other around their kids or elders.

By Curated Content
April 19, 2021
Why Don’t Indian Families Say “I Love You”?
Interview – Indu Harikumar

I was watching something recently that said it was a bad thing to be vulnerable, but I don’t think it is a bad thing. I do see that there is a certain amount of power in vulnerability, it also needs courage, in my experience.

By Shikha Aleya
April 5, 2021
Interview – Indu Harikumar
Unboxing Our Darkness: Vulnerability and Transformative Justice
An image of a starry purple sky and a person flashing a white light towards the sky.

When we are in tune with our authentic thoughts and feelings, vulnerability can be a guide-post in traversing through life, allowing us to forge deep and meaningful connections where we can hold space to mess up and get back on our feet again.

By Anjali
April 5, 2021
Unboxing Our Darkness: Vulnerability and Transformative Justice
Being Comfortable in My Skin

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
Communication: A Path to Vulnerability
A black and white photograph of two children walking on an empty road. One child’s hand is on the shoulders of the other child

We must all care for ourselves and be discerning about when and where and with whom we show our cards…but those who can hold our emotional and sexual vulnerability are out there, and we can find them and be all of who we are.

By Shilpa Sachdeva
April 5, 2021
Communication: A Path to Vulnerability
STAY SINGLE. STAY SAFE.
Image of mannequins with orange and pink ductapes. On one of the mannequins ‘Your body belongs to you’ is written

The largest contingent of voiceless, lonely women with limited agency in the subcontinent must be its married women. If they’re fortunate enough to be born and reach adulthood, a woman’s parents and society make sure she becomes an adult brainwashed into self-alienation and self-loathing.

By Nighat Gandhi
April 5, 2021
STAY SINGLE. STAY SAFE.
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