The Anatomy of Thinking

- Anchita Thiagarajan Yes, I am actually talking out about this. Even though we have just started talking about consent and forms of rapes, we often tend to miss this subset of acquaintance rape - date rape.  Let's dissect the word itself first. What is date? DATE IS NOT CONSENT TO SEX OR ANY FORM OF SEXUAL RELATIONSHIP. date is a social meeting planned between two people who wants to get to know each other better and check their compatability. Dating may or may not lead to a romantic relationship later. What is rape ? Rape is any form of non consensual sexual realtionship between two people, here the sexual intercourse is non consensual and the perpetrator carries out the sexual intercourse against the will of the victim. The sexual intercourse does not only mean penetration, even non consensual kiss, oral or anal is also considered to be rape. And when the consent once given is withdrawn by either of the partner and if the other person does not stop, that is also rape. Now that w...

  - Granthika Manirao  “Sit like a Lady, don’t cross your legs;   Show some skin, what a slut;   Put on some makeup, you look fake;   Get skinny, don’t you ever eat?   You’re so fat, stop eating   Why does your hair look like that?   Why do you have body hair?   Why don’t you do something about your skin?   Why aren’t you married yet?   Having a child is what defines your life as a woman”   These kinds of questions and opinions sound annoying, don’t they? Imagine having to face these and even more on a daily basis, oh wait, you don’t have to imagine, this is reality, in lives of women on a daily basis. The worst part about it is that people who ask these questions justify it by simply saying “I was just trying to help because I care”.   The “I just wanted to help”, is one of the most commonly used phrases, as an excuse for acting like a jerk to a person. Let’s take the basic example of a girl, who j...

- Anchita Thiagarajan Chunmithra CV In a village 200 km away from Delhi, a 19-year-old girl was raped and injured badly, she was admitted in the village hospital. On 28 September she was taken to the Safdarjung hospital in Delhi, on the following day she died. This stirred the media a while.  A lot of other cases such as Badhoi, Blamapur, and jiyanpur cases also came front. People demanded capital punishment of the rapists, there were protests, debates held on the incompetence of the government officials, and then all went silent. And yes, the police and the law enforcement system is ineffective; I do not contradict that, but we also have to acknowledge the same cycle that is being continued whenever any such case is brought forward. Now I am not here telling that this should not be done, she is a warrior and we have to respect her soul in any way possible and make sure the convicted gets punished.  But among all the anger, and rage we forget to notice how the government's mai...

-G ranthika Manirao, Nishika Chowdhary, Siddharth Shankar Singh  Teenage, wonderful and stress-free phase of life, said no one ever ! (Except our parents, they’re so darn optimistic). This stage of life is incredibly messy and confusing for teens as well as for the people around those teens. To cite an example, almost every teen’s favourite phrase is “No one understands me”,  but when someone tries to have a conversation, the favourite phrase changes to “I need my SPACE”. This behaviour is acknowledged in the name of hormones or mood swings, but the real reason behind it is ignored. It is in our nature to express what we feel but sometimes people don’t listen to us and don’t pay attention. This pent-up need for self-expression takes the form of outbursts like the aforementioned. People like our elders always feel that they’ve also been in this stage and not faced any of this, so to them, it always seems like we are overreacting. They never understand that that was their time a...

- Anchita Thiagrajan and Chunmithra CV I write about a lot of things, from gender discrimination, mental health awareness to the discrimination based on sexual orientation. And on a daily basis I do get threats, harassed and even some extremely graphic rape threats. But the one topic which made me receive the most threats was when I talked about sexual harassment in school. I also was a part of that community for a long time. I also liked to think that school was a safe space for the kids. But I realised sooner than others that it was just a mere facade. In the name of protecting the kids from the “exposure” of the sexual urges. From teachers checking the skirt hem length in class 4 to being slut-shamed by the same teacher in 8th class for being friends with guys. Casual sexism has permeated into our education institution so deeply that no one seems to care. We have been constantly told to hide the fact that we have boobs, wear the tightest bras that by the time the school finishes the...