\n
\u201cThere is no sexuality without knowledge.\u201d<\/p>\n
-Slavoj \u017di\u017eek, Agitating the Frame<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n Philospher and cultural critic Slavoj \u017di\u017eek writes and talks extensively on desire, anxiety, and the boundless manifestations of sexuality, conscious all along that knowledge of sexuality is bound to a collective language, a collective code. What happens when the code is unspoken, stunted? Buried in anxiety, violence, and confusion?<\/p>\n \u201cSex is natural. You’ll know what to do,\u201d began the first draft of Shikha Aleya<\/a>\u2019s article for this month\u2019s Issue in Focus. What followed was a bitingly forthright piece on all the reasons why that statement does not in fact hold true in the world we inhabit. Shikha eventually turned her piece into a sophisticated argument talking about larger issues that root from not talking about sexuality<\/a>.<\/p>\n The theme of this month\u2019s In Plainspeak<\/a><\/em> issue is \u2018Let\u2019s Talk Sexuality\u2019. We have curated for you, our readers, some of our previously published content dealing with tough issues around talking openly about sexuality. We also feature content from TARSHI<\/a>\u2019s ongoing campaign with Youth Ki Awaaz<\/a>, #TalkSexuality on Comprehensive Sexuality Education.<\/p>\n The I Column features Nikzad Zangeneh<\/a>\u2019s critical take on sexual health education in Iran<\/a>. She points out that adults\u2019 fears that sexuality education will encourage adolescents to have sex is unfounded, and that it is having limited knowledge that increases adolescents\u2019 likelihood of experimenting with sex. In Is There Anything You Want To Ask Me?<\/a><\/em>, Padmini Iyer<\/a> deals with doing research on young people who want to learn more about sexuality. Shilpa Phadke<\/a>\u2019s open letter<\/a> on the Mumbai Police\u2019s morality crackdown on a young woman was very popular on social media this month, and she contributes another article to August\u2019s issue \u2013 an interesting piece on gender and public spaces<\/a>. The #TalkSexuality campaign contributes an anonymous but pertinent musing: Why is Menstruation \u2018A Woman\u2019s Worst Kept Secret\u2019?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n The discussion on adolescent sexuality is carried into the Interview section<\/a> with excerpts from some earlier conversations, where Vidya Reddy, one of the co-founders of TULIR – Centre for Prevention and Healing of Child Sexual Abuse<\/a> talks about what sexual consent means among older teens, Dr Shanti Auluck, Founder President of Muskaan<\/a> is interviewed on the role of sexuality education for young adults with intellectual disability, and queer feminist activist Rituparna Borah talks about her experiences of working on sexuality education and advocacy.<\/p>\n Amongst our Voices is a republished article by psychologist Ankita Khanna<\/a> who shares her ideas to Bridge The Gap<\/a><\/em> with a more disabled-inclusive sexuality education programme. And in light of the recent U.S. legalization of same-sex marriage, Debanuj DasGupta<\/a> unpacks assumptions and implications of \u2018same-sex\u2019, marriage and \u2018sexuality\u2019<\/a> in the eyes of the liberal legal framework. An article by Juhi Sidharth<\/a> examines how school conditions children into gender-appropriate behaviour<\/a>\u00a0and the #TalkSexuality campaign contributes a video of young people talking about sex education<\/a>.<\/p>\n The Review section showcases an overview by Nirantar<\/a> of sexuality in Moral Science and Adolescent Education Textbooks across India<\/a>, which studies how discipline is shaped in adolescent bodies to manifest in sexuality.<\/p>\n TARSHI\u2019s Sexuality Fundas<\/em><\/a> in Brushstrokes aim to bust myths and spread awareness about sexuality, and Words Worth<\/a> explains common but not commonly understood terminology. Youtube star Superwoman<\/a> a.k.a. Lily Singh has her parents hilariously squirm and wriggle through her not-so-innocent probing in our Video Page on: \u201cWhere do babies come from?\u201d<\/a>, and in another video made by Indian diaspora, a ma<\/em>-next-door pleasantly surprises and warms hearts<\/a>.<\/p>\n Our Hindi articles are translations by Dipika Srivastava<\/a>, one of a true story featured as part of #TalkSexuality<\/a> about sexual abuse within the family<\/a>, as the other tackles the crucial issue of sexual consent<\/a>.<\/p>\n This month\u2019s issue also features TARSHI\u2019s books on sexuality education<\/a> for diverse audiences, and ARROW\u2019s safety app, \u2018SAFE<\/a>\u2019, a mobile app on comprehensive sexuality education mainly for Malaysian youth. Our Blog-roll contains this compelling personal narrative on the consequences of female genital mutilation<\/a> on relationships.<\/p>\n Yes, mainly a compilation of articles curated from earlier issues \u2013 but ones that together make a very important point that is well worth reiterating: Let\u2019s talk sexuality! We must, if we want to be free to live, love and lust as we all do. And to be free from shame, fear and violence against us for doing so. Independence Day in India has come and gone. 68 years of independence, but where is our freedom?<\/p>\n We’ll be back next month with another issue on sexuality.<\/p>\n Until then, happy reading!<\/p>\n The TARSHI team<\/p>\n \u00a0Picture: tumblr.com<\/em><\/p>\n <\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u201cThere is no sexuality without knowledge.\u201d -Slavoj \u017di\u017eek, Agitating the Frame Philospher and cultural critic Slavoj \u017di\u017eek writes and talks…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14653,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1,65,464],"tags":[469,505],"class_list":{"0":"post-6524","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-categories","8":"category-editorial","9":"category-lets-talk-sexuality","10":"tag-talksexuality","11":"tag-lets-talk-sexuality"},"menu_order":0,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524","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=6524"}],"version-history":[{"count":22,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15169,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6524\/revisions\/15169"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6524"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6524"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tarshi.net\/inplainspeak\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6524"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}