News (Proprietary)
Decoding The Disturbing And Dehumanizing Language Of The Incel Community
1+ week, 1+ hour ago (513+ words) TW: Mentions of sexual assault, rape, violence, misogynistic language Members of the incel community casually employ terms and phrases that are deeply disturbing. Their language is used to dehumanize women, perpetuate misogynistic stereotypes, and normalize violence, reflecting the community's underlying opinions on women, gender, sex, and sexuality. What underlies this violent behaviour is deep-rooted misogyny and an inflated sense of male superiority. These acts of violence reveal the extremism festering within such subcultures, but what is even more disturbing is the casual acceptance of intense hatred towards women. This deep-seated animosity is most evident in the language used within the incel community. Over the next few years, the project grew into a small online community, where women, and even men, shared their feelings of loneliness with each other and sought support. Gradually, Alana started distancing herself from this community as…...
Who Gets To Protest: Unlayering The Gendered Burden Of Activism
3+ week, 6+ day ago (165+ words) Yet, for women, resistance has come at a cost " their bodies turning into sites of conflict. Mass rapes and mutilations are very often the price women pay for resisting whenener a conflict arises whether it's Manipur or Kashmir." From Kashmir and Shaheen Bagh to the anti-farm bill protests and Manipur protests, women have been at the forefront of resistance, co-creating spaces of mobility, activism and better representation. Yet, the structural flaws that limit the chances to protest turn activism into a contentious space, where opportunity and privilege determine who gets to protest and become part of the change. Nausheen is currently an undergraduate student pursuing journalism at Lady Shri Ram College for Women, Delhi University. With a keen interest in feminism, geopolitics, and social issues, her passions lie in research, writing, and public speaking. In her free time, she enjoys…...
Why Instagram’s Sexuality Educators Are Tired: The Hidden Labour Behind Digital Care
2+ week, 5+ day ago (740+ words) Our world is one in which carelessness reigns," are the opening lines of The Care Manifesto by The Care Collective. Their words echo in today's digital world, where attention is currency and empathy often feels automated. Sociologist Beverley Skeggs once described care as the backbone of capitalist societies. It is essential to carry out the work, but it is undervalued." Content creation on sexuality education is highly gendered. Talking about pleasure, sexuality, orgasm gap, menstrual health, and gender identity, especially for women, is historically overlooked. Within the online public sphere, education on sexual health and women's pleasure reflects this age-old, undervalued labour that women do." This difference reveals how gendered norms of respectability and expertise shape the public legitimacy of sexuality educators. When women talk about sex, it violates the moral codes of modesty. Men talking about sex is not…...
The Emotional Politics Of Digital Masculinity
4+ day, 41+ min ago (1199+ words) Dharanesh Ramesh is a native of Coimbatore and a postgraduate student of Gender and Development Studies at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Hyderabad. Rooted in the belief that stories shape structures, his study and work explore the intersections of gender, caste, and public policy through an intersectional feminist lens. He is particularly drawn to understanding how power, privilege, and policy weave together to define inclusion and equity in everyday life. Inquisitive by nature, Dharanesh often turns to drawing, painting, photography, and writing as extensions of his reflective practice. His work seeks to bridge thought and experience, analysis and art, in the pursuit of justice and representation. The Emotional Politics Of Digital Masculinity "Power is not merely something that one possesses, but something that one enacts through repeated behaviour", Judith Butler's insight from Gender Trouble captures precisely how masculinity operates…...
Will Conservative Feminism Not Ruin Everything? And Is It The Latest Trick In The ‘Patriarchy Playbook’
4+ day, 1+ hour ago (352+ words) When we look past the backlash and outrage to dissect the core of what the opinion piece is targeting to achieve, it becomes evident that feminist thinkers today have to address the elephant in the room " can feminism and conservatism go hand in hand?" Meanwhile, feminism as a political ideology falls on the left of the political spectrum and advocates for political, social, and economic equality between genders. Feminism, through its various waves, has consistently advocated for equity and equal opportunity, adapting to the changing nature of the world around us." At first glance, conservatism and feminism seem to have very little in common. However, Conservative Feminism, as a response to Liberal Feminism, has existed since postfeminism. The core belief that conservative feminism holds is that men and women are different and thereby can never be equal. Further, it believes…...
Performing Care: Women And Digital Solidarity
5+ day, 1+ hour ago (313+ words) On the 18th of November 2025, UN Women published a piece on growing digital violence against women and girls, and the pressing need for protection against such abuse. They have dedicated this year's '16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence' campaign'to raise voices against online harm. While acknowledging such experiences of targeted violence, it is also important to reveal a small but persistent source of hope " the opposing end of the spectrum, where technology is being used for empowerment, not vehemence.' It is within this broader continuum of care that some observations began to take shape. Working closely with women who perform this labour in digital spaces can make one realise how emotional work is unfolding over phones and screens. All the counsellors are women " a deliberate choice rooted in the belief that majority of clients seeking SRH support may feel safer opening…...
From Rishta To Risk: Scams And AI Morphing Fueling Gendered Violence On Indian Matrimonial Sites
1+ hour, 11+ min ago (666+ words) In India, matrimonial apps " for caste or region specific " have now become interwoven in the very fabric of the marriage marketplace. From Rishta To Risk: Scams And AI Morphing Fueling Gendered Violence On Indian Matrimonial Sites Online romance scams have evolved into a pervasive and damaging type of cybercrime, exploiting the emotional and social vulnerabilities of single women seeking connections online. These scams highlight the disturbing influence of patriarchal systems and misogynistic behaviours in the digital space, further entrenching harmful gender norms and stereotypes. In India, matrimonial apps " for caste or region specific " have now become interwoven in the very fabric of the marriage marketplace. Yet, at the heart of these potential profiles lies a darker reality. Fake profiles, morphed or AI-generated images, and identity theft are some of the growing tools of technology-facilitated gender-based violence, hampering women's digital and…...
What Kiran Desai Puts In Her Box: Reading 'The Loneliness Of Sonia And Sunny"
2+ week, 3+ day ago (601+ words) In what appears to be the dedication of Steinbeck's East of Eden, the author writes, You came upon me carving some kind of little figure out of wood and you said, "Why don't you make something for me?" I asked you what you wanted, and you said, "A box." "To put things in." "What kind of things?" "Whatever you have," you said. Well, here's your box. Nearly everything I have is in it, and it is not full. Pain and excitement are in it, and feeling good or bad and evil thoughts and good thoughts- the pleasure of design and some despair and the indescribable joy of creation. And on top of these are all the gratitude and love I have for you. And still the box is not full." The words are tender and audacious'an artist admitting that their…...
Of Political Neglect And Feminist Failure: Why Every Humanitarian Crisis Is A Feminist Emergency
2+ week, 6+ day ago (433+ words) To call a crisis feminist, then, is to shift the moral lens. It is to ask whose suffering do we normalise, whose resistance do we overlook, and whose humanity do we forget first? Recognising the leadership and resilience of women redefines what it means to wage and survive war. Recognising the leadership and resilience of women redefines what it means to wage and survive war. The experiences of women in war and conflict areas must be taken from the periphery to the centre if we are to adequately address the human cost of conflict. The civil war in Sudan is one of the world's most urgent yet most ignored humanitarian crises. Since April 2023, the war fought amongst the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the UAE-backed Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has displaced millions, consequentially pushing Sudan at the face of famine…...
When Caste Entered My Counselling Room: Confrontations Of A Savarna Practitioner
4+ week, 1+ hour ago (716+ words) For the purposes of clarity, I will say my journey as a Savarna mental health practitioner began a little over 2 years ago in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, as a counsellor to survivors of sexual abuse and gender-based violence. I was a fresh TISS graduate " full of idealism and eager to step into the field of social justice. However, I'd learn much later that my practice, especially the role my Savarna privilege played in it, had already been shaped by years of internalisation of an elite liberal-left politics and the intellectual conditioning of institutions like'TISS. It was my very first day of taking an independent counselling session. I had already spent a few weeks observing, sitting in sessions, making intensive field visits and shadowing my much experienced field counsellors (FCs). I was both excited and nervous.' The irony is painful: the people…...