‘Can You Really Be a Queer Muslim?’: Intersectionality and the Complexity of Identity
‘How Women Are Heard in Society is Fundamental’: Listening Our Way Out of Gender Inequality
How do we want to be heard? Not as a nag or a hag or a witch, not as a prude or stubborn or spoilt, not as a demanding know-it-all or dumb bimbo. We simply want to be heard as fellow human beings – sometime soon would be nice…
Why is Antisemitism Still Being Minimised on the Left?
Most of the antisemitism that I and many of my Jewish friends have faced has been from the left or from people who uphold ‘progressive values’. The right tends to utilise more obvious clout. However, the exact same tropes are championed on the left – they just vary semantically…
‘That Pure Enjoyment is Not There’: Losing Your Inner Little Girl
Nowadays, the focus is on earning enough so that the bills get paid. There is no semblance of that little girl anymore. If she ever does appear, it’s only for a fleeting moment. A flash, gone before I even get a proper glimpse. I miss her. I do things that people consider fun, but that pure enjoyment is not there for anything. That thing that would make you squeal with glee as a child is missing…
The Self and the Significance of Intersectionality as a Queer POC
People often talk of self-love like it’s all happy thoughts, bubble baths, and sex toys. However, the conversation seems to be lacking an acknowledgement of the painful journey along the route to self-love for LGBTQIA+ POC, whose intersectional identities often require specifically tailored responses to mental health issues…
The Harmful Nature of Queerphobic Microaggressions
I would describe my mother as conditionally accepting. She loves her gay friends, but she doesn’t really understand the “other letters in that acronym”. She often votes Conservative, and she is a woman who is very set in her ways. These are all reasons that I couldn’t come out to her sooner. I slowly realised that it was also the reason that I had never come out to anyone – the memories of microaggressions in the scared, closeted person’s mind are persistent…
Sexual Harassment, Assault, and Hypersexualisation: My Story
While I am deeply traumatised by what happened to me and do hold anger towards the man for what he did, I don’t know if I can completely blame him for it. There should’ve been more communication by both of us to make it a better experience. That didn’t happen, however, so now I’m left to heal from it and address how I handle sexual relationships going forward…
Gaysian: What it’s Like Being Queer in the Asian Community
In many Asian languages, including Vietnamese and Tagalog, there are no words to describe homosexuality or transgender people. Pride parades are almost unheard of and can quickly turn into examples of police brutality…
My Experience of Homelessness
They say the first rule of homelessness is doing everything that you can to pretend that you’re not homeless. I’d not had hot water for the first three or so weeks. I was lucky to have it now, even though it was just a shower and not a washing machine. […] I felt self-conscious every time I left the shelter, knowing that I smelt and knowing that it was becoming more and more obvious that I was homeless…
‘Independent, Liberated, and Happy for the First Time in Years’: Coming Out as a Lesbian
The doubts, the guilt, and the confusion were constant for two whole years. I spent a lot of time in my bed, crying. Constantly battling my thoughts was exhausting. My boyfriend at the time was understanding, but I could tell that he was growing more and more concerned. Sexually, I felt nothing. I felt uncomfortable and repulsed, even after two years. But I always fantasised about women…
‘Young Lady, You’re Distracting the Boys’: How Women Are Losing Their Bodily Autonomy
For me, the selecting of clothes for school always happened subconsciously. I never batted an eye at the fact that I had to measure how short my skirt was just so that the guy next to me (who was more invested in his Nintendo anyway) would not get ‘distracted’ by me. Rules like this are what we’re used to. No one had ever shone a light on how much these rules take away our autonomy. Why is that?
Misogyny is Co-Morbid with Capitalism, and it Harms Us All: My Thoughts on the Plymouth Shooter
The ‘lone mad shooter’ narrative seems to sate a collective cognitive dissonance; it’s easier to individualise the issue than see patterns in behaviour and ideology. The incel ‘movement’, of which the Plymouth shooter was a member, plays on that very concept…
The Bi-Conundrum: Queer Identity in a Heterosexual Relationship
I’ve always found women beautiful. But, growing up in the Middle East, I never assumed it had anything to do with my sexuality. I never even met a queer person until I was sixteen. I did not understand what it meant to be queer. When I eventually made this discovery, I started questioning everything I thought I knew about myself…
‘Leave Those Terms for People Who Need Them to Heal’: The Problematic Misuse of the Word Gaslighting
I have been gaslit; I have been in toxic and abusive friendships and relationships. I am a sexual assault survivor and the survivor of childhood trauma. […] For every person saved someone has abused, that’s just maths. But for every hundred or thousand people saved, there is someone who is going to abuse the terminology that saved them. That doesn’t sit right with me…
‘The Problem Starts When Children Are Three Years Old’: Sexual Abuse, The Education System, and Me
I work as a teacher for a pre-school where there are already signs of hegemonic social normalities. A teacher asks a little boy to be a ‘big strong helper’. They suggest to a little girl, ‘shall we get the sparkly pens out?’. The truth is, this is where the problem starts. Recently, I came to the realisation that I’m in the position to change it, for a certain few…
Male, Female, Lesbian? The Quest to Find a Label That Fits When Womanhood Is a Spectrum
Lesbian noun: A woman who is sexually attracted to other women. (Oxford Dictionary) By definition, a lesbian is a woman. Therefore I, a lesbian, am a woman – I must be. The problem is, I didn’t want to be...
Knowing Yourself on a Deeper Level: Astrology and How the Stars Align for You
Why am I this way? Obviously, the way I was raised and the environment in which I was raised are factors in why I am the way I am. But why was I raised the way I was? And why in the environment I was in? There’s always a bigger why. The way the stars and the planets aligned when I was born answer the bigger question. Sounds crazy, I know, but bear with me…
The Relationship Between ‘Pop Feminism’ and Modern Anti-Feminist Rhetoric
We began to recognise that the movement needs to focus on being more intersectional and inclusive of groups often overshadowed by the voices of white women. Yet as a result of feminism becoming more and more part of everyday conversation, an anti-feminist counterculture spawned…
‘Your Hope is the Cornerstone of Your Healing’: My Sexual Assault Story
My entire life, I have been obsessed with being in control. Then in one night, all my control was ripped from me. While I cannot bear to relive the details, I will say that it was my first Friday night at college. My roommate invited me to go to a bar. I was apprehensive because my experience with drinking was minimal, but I accepted her invitation…
‘A Cultural Battleground’: Balancing My British and South Indian Identities and Embracing Duality
Being born in Kerala, India, and then living in Mumbai for a year as a baby with my parents are two years of my childhood that I cannot recall. But it inevitably cemented for my family the idea that I am a true Malayali. Even when we migrated to the United Kingdom in 2002, this belief was passed on to me as I grew up among a different population…
What Are You? The Ambiguous Life of a Genderfluid Person
What are you? First off, I am not a what. I am a who. Who am I is the appropriate question. […] Society makes us believe that there are only two genders and that anything outside their defined binary is considered abnormal and incorrect. But genders are not what you are assigned at birth. Genders are labels that describe your identity…