Transgender individuals occupy the traffic signals and junctions largely in urban areas. Yet, invisible visibility continues to haunt them. When met with non-conforming gender identities the immediate reaction of any community is that of panic. Non-conformist sexual orientation is mocked and transgender people often find themselves at the receiving end of disproportionate ridicule from the…
Distract and Punish
This piece depicts child sexual abuse questioning whether the death sentence would really curb the crime, or it’s an easy way to distract from the actual problem? The work is on canvas with use bold acrylic brush strokes. This artwork was contributed by Divyanshi Singh. Divyanshi is an LLM graduate who loves to express through…
Review: ‘The Combahee River Collective Statement’, A Manifesto by Black Feminist Lesbians
Authored by a collective of self-proclaimed black feminist lesbians, ‘The Combahee River Collective Statement’ is a manifesto that addresses the issues of those at the bottom of the hierarchical power structure in a society, homosexual black woman. They are subject to simultaneous and interlocking oppression due to their membership in several oppressed social groups such…
If I Was The “Other”
If I was the “other” is a piece I am supposed to write. But what is the other, what is it that makes them the “other”, why is there a need for there to be an “us versus the other”? Why can’t we all be just us, just humans? This world is a place where…
Foreword: Volume 1: Issue 1
Maya is a name affectionately selected for the ease through which it conveys complexity. ‘Love’ in Nepali, ‘illusion’ in Sanskrit, and many more meanings that it holds within its two syllables. What do we attempt to do, here, with this queer magazine? What does Maya mean for us? Maya as it is, provokes us to…
Invisible Sexual Repression: Destabilising Foundational Norms [Book Review]
I write this short paper as a comment on Sara Mills and Michel Foucault’s works. Sara Mills analyses Foucault’s observations on sexuality from his book titled, ‘The History of Sexuality Volume 1’. This paper reacts to some of the critical observations and analysis by Mills as well in her book titled ‘Michel Foucault’. It is…
The L Word – A Ghazal
Such epistemic murk around the L word. Aren’t all trying to work around the L word? No Shireen for me, no Heer, I’m no Qais, Other desires too lurk around the L word. Jehangir’s City, Shalimar, Anarkali, Left my heart there to bark around the L word. Tigresses may take all in Sundarbans, A male,…
Seeta Aur Geeta
[This artwork has been contributed by Mishika Chowdhary, law student, Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. She is also the Creative Editor of Maya.] This is an adaptation of Kira Blake Schnitzler’s art work.
Section 377 and the Colonization of the Mind
Indeed, while it is popular today to condemn the period of the Muslim rule in India as regressive and narrow minded, attitudes towards homosexuality were far more progressive among Muslim rulers than the British who replaced them. There is a vibrant debate taking place in India over decriminalization of homosexuality. While the Supreme Court did…
Muana
(Muana has specific meaning in the context. Muana refers to the ‘place of origin’. In this poem, Muana is trying to locate herself in the society after accepting that she was a lesbian. It is where she finds her real self and tries to endure the pain of being sabotaged by the societal stigma and…
A Curious Case of Men’s Rights Activism – A Note on the #metoo Incident in JGU
The code of conduct of an ideal ‘bro’ includes celebrating the entitlement heterosexual men commonly share in talking about their girlfriends, hook ups and dates not in a manner that celebrates the agency of the women’s sexuality, but how she got fucked, and how he “wrecked” her pussy. That this problematic language does not invoke…
Hindu Marriage Act, 1955: A Queer Interpretation
Not just the narratives from the scriptures but also various priests hold a view in support of same-sex marriages. Like Shakuntala Devi in her work, “The world of Homosexuals” interviewed a priest from a Vaishnava temple, Srinivasa Raghavachariar, who married two same-sex individuals. The priest justified the wedding by arguing that under the Hindu belief…
Sydney: Same Sex Marriage Plebiscite Yes Campaign
These pictures have been contributed by Meenakshi Ramkumar, law student at Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. She is also the Editor of Maya. Meenakshi participated in Sydney’s “Yes” campaign for marriage equality plebiscite during her exchange semester at the University of New South Wales in the year 2017.
Call Me ‘They’: What It’s Like To Live Without A Gender
I needed to reflect the ‘agendered individual’, not as someone who was starkly different from the way the men characterize themselves in appearance, but someone who looks just like them. I wanted to take everything that they, and I, had used to create power for us and fear for the rest, and turn it on…
Emancipation
[This artwork has been contributed by an anonymous student at O.P. Jindal Global University, Sonipat.]
Pride Parade: Gurgaon
[These pictures have been contributed by Mishika Chowdhary, law student, Jindal Global Law School, Sonipat. She is also the Editor of Maya.]
The Ugly Grizzly Bear
I genuinely wanted to know if boys hated their body hair like most women do or are conditioned to do. I asked most of my male friends. All of them replied in a very careless manner. Some of the replies were “ Oh! I don’t know. Never thought about it.” “Yes, body hair looks bad…
You Never Come Out When I Ask You To
You make it look like you’re in all the way You never refuse when I ask you to stay It’s more than just a bond; it’s a connection so deep I know that when we’re together I can peacefully sleep Yet you become so different when we’re out of our room I don’t like bringing…