How Trolls Forced the NCERT to Withdraw Its Transgender Inclusive Teaching Manual
When teachers bring in their biases into the classroom, they risk affecting an entire generation.
Mus doesn’t remember much from their childhood or school days, but one memory remains palpably alive. “I’ve always had this thing about body hair. I reached puberty a bit earlier than other boys my age and I was very uncomfortable with the hair on my legs, it always made me feel weird and I hated wearing my school shorts,” they told Re:Set. Mus, a non-binary writer and mental health advocate base...
Keeping up With Activism: How to Be Hollywood’s Next Big Reality TV Star
In 2021, reading the news is an extreme sport. In the latest installment of news-that-makes-you-think-we’re-living-in-a-simulation-controlled-by-lizard-people, there will now be a woke version of the Hunger Games where people fighting to end structural inequalities will have the chance to try their hands at reality TV. CBS announced a new five-week reality series called “The Activist” where six inspiring activists will team up with three “high-profile public figures” to bring meaningful chang...
How to Deal With the Grief of Losing Someone to COVID-19 When the World Seems to Be Moving On
Unlike what people’s Instagram would have us believe, the trauma of the second wave has left an indelible mark.
ith the easing of lockdown and travel restrictions across the world, it seemingly appears that the worst of the second wave of COVID-19 is over. Reports of tourists thronging hill stations and the reemergence of vacation posts on social media are a reminder of how terribly short public memory can be. But unlike what people’s Instagram stories would have us believe, the trauma of the...
This New Invention to Fight the ‘Obesity Epidemic’ Only Perpetuates Food Shaming
It continues the centuries-long tradition that moralizes food and shames people for finding joy in it.
Recently, researchers in New Zealand and the U.K. have come up with a terrifying solution to the “obesity epidemic” — a magnetic contraption installed in the mouth that locks people’s jaws shut and restricts them to a liquid-only diet. Experts studying nutrition and eating disorders have expressed their horror at this “barbaric” device but the researchers from University of Otago, New Zealan...
Netflix’s “Feel Good” Will Make You Question What You Know About Addiction, Trauma and Love
Mae Martin’s dark comedy offers a nuanced depiction of serious issues, all the while making its viewers LOL.
Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for Netflix’s “Feel Good.”
The second and final season of Netflix’s “Feel Good” will leave you feeling a lot more than just that. The semi-autobiographical dramedy created by comedian Mae Martin and writer Joe Hampson packs in a punch despite, or perhaps, because of its brevity. The protagonist, played by Martin herself, is a recovering addi...
This New Invention to Fight the ‘Obesity Epidemic’ Only Perpetuates Food Shaming
It continues the centuries-long tradition that moralizes food and shames people for finding joy in it.
Recently, researchers in New Zealand and the U.K. have come up with a terrifying solution to the “obesity epidemic” — a magnetic contraption installed in the mouth that locks people’s jaws shut and restricts them to a liquid-only diet. Experts studying nutrition and eating disorders have expressed their horror at this “barbaric” device but the researchers from University of Otago, New Zealan...
Netflix’s “Feel Good” Will Make You Question What You Know About Addiction, Trauma and Love
Mae Martin’s dark comedy offers a nuanced depiction of serious issues, all the while making its viewers LOL.
Editor’s note: This article contains spoilers for Netflix’s “Feel Good.”
he second and final season of Netflix’s “Feel Good” will leave you feeling a lot more than just that. The semi-autobiographical dramedy created by comedian Mae Martin and writer Joe Hampson packs in a punch despite, or perhaps, because of its brevity. The protagonist, played by Martin herself, is a recovering addi...
Moral Education Classes in Indian Schools Are Steeped in Patriarchy and Need to Change
ecently, the Madras High Court, while granting anticipatory bail to a man arrested for viewing child pornography, suggested that it can be tackled only through moral education. Justice GR Swaminathan, in his verdict, said, “…It is only through moral education, there can be a way out. It is only the Bharatiya (Indian) culture that can act as a bulwark.”
If “traditional” Indian values are to go by, everything related to sex is considered taboo. How do we even begin to address sexual deviancy if...
Society Still Won’t Stop Policing Women: No One Knows This Better Than Billie Eilish
Billie Eilish has broken the internet once again — this time with her interview and photoshoot for British Vogue’s June 2021 cover issue. Her Instagram post featuring it has broken the record for reaching one million likes the fastest — a feat that the singer achieved in under six minutes. Another photo from the same shoot that Eilish posted is among the top five most-liked photos on Instagram.
And the reason the singer is breaking all records is not hard to find — ditching the iconic baggy, ...
We Need To Start Talking About Diversity Among Sex Workers
Sarah has wanted to do sex work, specifically porn, for a very long time now. It is only recently, in her forties, that she decided to just go for it and began creating content on OnlyFans.
“I’m a very sexual person. I didn’t always have the confidence to explore that side of me. I’ve thought about doing porn since I was a teen,” Sarah told me. But when Covid hit, she found some free time for herself as her job as a veterinary nurse required her to work every other week for shifts. “Then some...
How Does One Talk About Periods in Conservative Spaces?
Whenever the volunteers at Rangeen Khidki Foundation (RKF) begin with their capacity building workshops in the slums and outskirts of Kolkata, questions about the female reproductive system are mostly met with giggles and blank stares. Sometimes there are aghast expressions and embarrassed smiles.
But by the end of a two-and-a-half hour session, girls can be seen animatedly discussing the age at which they began menstruating and how many days their periods last for.
The War On Pornhub Is Jeopardizing The Careers of Sex Workers
Most of us tend to have a very narrow idea of what sex work really entails, but like any other profession, it requires plenty of hard work, planning, and effort. But by treating sex work and sex trafficking as one and the same thing, we're alienating sex workers and denying them safe working conditions. I spoke to Trip Richards, a sex worker and educator, who told me about the problems faced by sex workers and why the removal of Mastercard and Visa's services from Pornhub has done little to end online sex abuse on the platform.
Gendering Genius: How Our Inherent Bias Protects Problematic But ‘Brilliant’ Men
Posted by Sanjukta Bose
When I think of the word ‘genius’, the first image that comes to my mind is that of Albert Einstein; specifically those black and white posters with the photo where he’s sticking out his tongue, and with an inspirational quote underneath it. I’ve come across such posters in my school, a doctor’s chamber, and on the cover of a notebook someone once gifted me, among others.
When I think a little harder, I think of all the literary geniuses I’ve had the opportunity of rea...
Lessons on Sustainable Living From My Foremothers
One of my favourite T-shirts during my undergrad years was a pink one with tiny printed stick figure dolls in different yoga poses. I often wore it to college, and once it started wearing out, promoted it to the nightwear section of my wardrobe. It made a brief stint in public once again during a particularly messy Holi, after which the stick figures faded behind the stubborn blue-green battle scars of water balloons.
My favourite pink tee was granted a new lease of life when my mother found ...
To Love or Not To Love: The Moral Dilemma of Love Jihad
CRRSS CURRENT AFFAIRS
Picture Courtesy: Indian Express
The Madhya Pradesh cabinet, last week, approved the draft of the controversial and regressive Freedom of Religion Bill 2020, under which forced conversion of a minor, woman or a person from Scheduled Caste or Scheduled Tribe would draw a minimum jail term of 2-10 years with a minimum penalty of Rs. 50,000. With this law in place, Madhya Pradesh will become the second Indian state after Uttar Pradesh to pass legislation that is aimed to ta...