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Showing posts with the label mental health

What and why sex education ?

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- Anchita Thiagarajan and Chunmithra C.V With the increase in discussion about sex among the youth, we often see that the only and primary form of sex knowledge that they receive is through the adult film industry - porn. And the major issue with this is that porn does not show the nuances of the sex and the psychological, social and physiological long term effects of sexual intercourse of any form. It does not show consent of any form nor does it show how it actually happens. Porn is basically an Alice in wonderland version of sex and life. You know you can't pay for taxis via sex, but still, it’s on the internet. We do understand that proper and correct information of sex, sexuality, conception and contraception is needed, where we lack is to bridge the differences between our generation and the older generation and make them understand the importance of sex ed.  What is sex education? Sex education is defined as a broad program that aims to build a strong foundation for lifelong...

You aren't actually helping!

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  - 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...

How is rape related to caste dominance ?

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- 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...

Teenage Limbo

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-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...

Brief history of bisexuality: from ancient greece, to kinsey scale to kristen stewart.

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  “You are not confused if you are bisexual” - told Kristen Stewart in an interview to the guardian, and it basically encompasses the whole meaning. Bisexuality is wrongly misinterpreted to being something modern and new. Rather bisexuality is present from the date we know. From Greeks to Japanese, all have had bisexuality as an important part of their history. To be frank, folks back then were actually way more liberal and open while talking about sex and sexuality than we are today.  On bisexual awareness week, it is imperative to all in the fam and even those who aren't, to understand the history of bisexuality and how it was viewed in various period of times. So starting up with the culture which has openly viewed sexuality in the most naked and steamy way possible…… THE ANCIENT GREECE: Greece not only has the most beautiful architecture but also has the most heartwarming stories of gay and bisexual love throughout history. from the story of apollo and hyacinth, they have ...

Why did Tik-Tok feel like a queer space?

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Tik - Tok initially wasn't my thing, or probably it just wasn't there for long enough for me to discover in it. Being conditioned that Tik-Tok basically is a place to find cringe content, I made a pact with my brother to never download it ever.  Probably I just didn't see it with a different lens perhaps. Even though I never downloaded Tik- Tok I found the majority of its content on Instagram. The more of these videos that I watched, the more it made sense to me, the subject of these videos were not random or unnecessary (though a few were). The stealth of Tik-Tok creators have managed to capitalise on the open fields of love and desire. Being in India, talking openly about love and desire did pave a way for its downfall, but it also represented the queer and LGBTQ+ community largely. From men being disguised as women, wearing makeup and women wearing football shorts and oversized T-shirts, what these content creators did for fun actually, in fact, represented the normal da...