{"id":27675,"date":"2025-01-13T12:18:00","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T06:48:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/?p=27675"},"modified":"2025-01-16T14:06:42","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T08:36:42","slug":"editorial-january-2025-anthology-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/editorial-january-2025-anthology-issue\/","title":{"rendered":"Editorial: 2025 Anthology Issue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Happy New (another) Year! We hope it has begun well for you. Some of you might be of the opinion that another year brings no cause for gladness in times where so much is going wrong, but the fact is \u2013 we are still alive! And that itself gives occasion for celebration, and also for thinking out of the box. The \u2018same old, same old\u2019 has not made the world a kinder, gentler place where each of us is valued for who we are. It is time perhaps to go off the beaten path! So here we are with a selection of previously published In Plainspeak<\/em> articles that do just that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Let\u2019s jump right in! In this \u2018purpose\u2013driven\u2019 world (to what purpose, one wonders), Shweta Krishnan<\/strong> asks what happens when one takes away the reproductive functionality of sexuality and instead inserts play and playfulness. Drawing on orchids and their pollinators, Japanese anime movies and old Hindi movies, amongst other examples, Shweta takes us on a celebration of purposelessness, play and pleasure<\/a> to reveal just how revolutionary \u2018useless\u2019 fun can be. Maybe this could be our approach to 2025?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Radhika Vaz<\/strong>, stand up comedian and revolutionary, tells Shikha Aleya about her craft, about Suzy who #refusestowearpants<\/em><\/a> and about how humour shows up that which people often refuse to see<\/a>. Gitanjali<\/strong> talks to three women about how they wish to experience desire and they tell her that what\u2019s missing is \u201cthe experience of letting their guard down to feel a sense of adventure accompanied by a healthy dose of risk taking, uncertainty and butterflies in their stomachs<\/a>.\u201d That\u2019s perhaps what we all want, and is also part of the allure of kink. Contributor iwonderwhy<\/strong> shares observations and analyses about bodies seen through a kinky lens and how the space at the 2023 KinkCon made it possible for kinksters to come home to themselves<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jaya Sharma<\/strong> writes about how taboo is at the heart of desire<\/a>, how it drives our fantasies, and how seemingly politically incorrect fantasies may well challenge but ultimately strengthen feminist politics. Asmi<\/strong> reflects on the people and experiences that guided her navigating the online phase of her journey into BDSM<\/a> in the days before social media as we know it now, and the wisdom, care and love she found in her explorations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sheena D\u2019Lima<\/strong> writes evocatively about a garden she used to play in as a child and the garden she now takes her child to. A patch of grass to place one\u2019s feet on. Why? \u201cI give up my tired notions of productivity, of hustle culture. You don\u2019t have to produce constantly to be of value\u2026 You just have to come as you are<\/a> and that is enough.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Vani Viswanathan<\/strong> talks about filter coffee, marriage and mixed celebrations of sexuality<\/a> as she rides the crests and troughs of negotiating life with a partner and finds that in the maddening swirl of feminist idealism resisting societal expectations, being kind to oneself keeps one afloat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For pure joy, Manak Matiyani<\/strong> uncovers the delight and delicious ribaldry<\/a> in women\u2019s songs of celebration of marriage, and leaves us with an unexpected gift of a song collection. A note of apology here for our non-Hindi readers: too much was getting lost in translation, so forgive us if there are parts you do not understand!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And now for some books to further expand our horizons and turn things topsy-turvy. Rajeev Anand Kushwah<\/strong> recommends Jack Halberstam\u2019s book, The Queer Art of Failure<\/em>, for those of us looking for an alternative vision of life, love and labour<\/a>. Ishan<\/strong> reviews Amrita Pritam\u2019s Dilli ki Galiyaan<\/em> and finds it \u201coffers us a broader canvas for our desires<\/a>, than the one afforded by the clear cut binaries of our current debates.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Hindi, we have three translations for you: Smita Vanniyar<\/strong>\u2019s article about how queer women in India use the Internet to meet other women and redefine what community means<\/a>, Muskan Nagpal<\/strong>\u2019s article about what lipsticks and their stains offer<\/a>, and Neel<\/strong>\u2019s article about playing with the grammar of gender<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s it from us for now. Get off the beaten path and play more in 2025!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Cover Image: Federico S\u00e1ez<\/a> for ArtistsForClimate.org<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It is time perhaps to go off the beaten path!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":27681,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4643,65],"tags":[70,214,66,500,121,26,592,1001,48,3912,261,25,2310],"class_list":{"0":"post-27675","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-anthology-issue-jan-2025","8":"category-editorial","9":"tag-bdsm","10":"tag-cse","11":"tag-desire","12":"tag-editorial","13":"tag-feminism","14":"tag-gender","15":"tag-kink","16":"tag-lgbtqia","17":"tag-pleasure","18":"tag-queering","19":"tag-queerness","20":"tag-sexualities","21":"tag-sisa-spaces"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27675","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27675"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27675\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27722,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27675\/revisions\/27722"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27681"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27675"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27675"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27675"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}