The Self is what we may think of as the beingness and the whatness of a person \u2013 an amalgamation of body, mind, heart, spirit, and experience. This amalgam is not made once and for all; we are, all the time, making and unmaking ourselves and being made and unmade by people, events, circumstances, and the conditions of our lives. Through it all there is a sense of \u201cThis is me\u201d that runs deep. What does the Self bring to Sexuality and what does Sexuality bring to the Self?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Shikha Aleya<\/strong> offers us the idea of the Self being not a single portrait but rather a collage of portraits<\/a>, a Self made up of many selves. After all, we are more than just a composite of our gender, caste, class, sexual identity, etc. We live in a world made up of structures and systems that affect us in particular ways and, up to a point, we can choose how to engage with them, hopefully in ways that affirm our sexuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n What if we can\u2019t choose? What if we are dispossessed of choice, of freedom, of joy? In a government mental hospital, in a slum, in a village, in a family, told how to walk, what to feel, how to be? Ratnaboli Ray<\/strong> takes an unflinching look at the frames of reference that put people in shrinking boxes and then expect them to expand: \u201cSelf doesn\u2019t solo-emerge<\/a>. It ignites, or fizzles, in worlds we craft.\u201d As Ratna succinctly puts it, \u201c Change those worlds\u2026\u201d One of the structures that has immense power to change worlds is the law. Unfortunately it seems to do that sometimes, with chilling immediate effect, for the bad. Kanika Batra<\/strong> in the first part of a two-part article focuses on Indian writing about self and sexuality within the broad context of recent legislation<\/a>. Part Two, coming next month, will be on South Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Lives change for many reasons and change may bring in its wake often unexpected consequences for the Self. We have two accounts from presentations at The Naz Foundation (India) Trust\u2019s Queer Mental Health Academic Conclave held on January 24, 2026, that were later developed as articles for In Plainspeak<\/em>. Vihaan <\/strong>needed to go back to live with his family. Staying was not a \u2018choice\u2019<\/a>. In a first-person account, Vihaan reframes queer freedom, family and survival in India, drawing attention to the fact that the relation between self and sexuality is contingent on how care, resources and collective support are organised. Imaan Hegde<\/strong> played professional football. After transitioning, he could no longer do so, not for want of desire or ability, but for the lack of safety, acceptance and inclusion for transpeople in professional sports. Imaan made a tough choice between the sport he loved and the self he needed to express. He knew it would hurt, but did not know it would hurt so very much<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Life sometimes, as they say, sucks. Fiction and poetry offer us a fresh lens to look at the self and sexuality. Taarina Therese Chandiramani<\/strong> intriguingly uncovers, after years of careful looking away<\/a>, a realisation of great importance. Abdullah Erikat<\/strong> after much questioning finally understands the source of his attraction and the underlying truth<\/a> of his being.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Hindi, Imran Khan<\/strong> writes about sexuality being a core part<\/a> of identity and self-understanding, and how it is only when there is societal acceptance that we can live authentically and freely. And we re-publish Wesley D\u2019Souza<\/strong>\u2019s article translated into Hindi by Eesha on how through playing different roles in theatre he came to acting like himself<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Jiggle the frame. Be well, stay safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cover image by In The Making Studio<\/a> on Unsplash<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Jiggle the frame.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":552,"featured_media":29329,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[65,5351],"tags":[469,66,26,5364,5217,5393,4986,2251,5353,3062,25,5050,5394,5365,436,5359],"class_list":{"0":"post-29325","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-editorial","8":"category-the-self-and-sexuality","9":"tag-talksexuality","10":"tag-desire","11":"tag-gender","12":"tag-identity-and-family","13":"tag-identity-construction","14":"tag-indentity-formation","15":"tag-queer-experience","16":"tag-queer-lives","17":"tag-self-and-sexuality","18":"tag-selfhood","19":"tag-sexualities","20":"tag-sexuality-and-identity","21":"tag-sexuality-in-india","22":"tag-trans-athletes","23":"tag-trans-bodies","24":"tag-trans-rights-india"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29325","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\/552"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29325"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29325\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":29355,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29325\/revisions\/29355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/29329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29325"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29325"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29325"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}