Illustrations

Women of Colour. Stand Together.

There's a Nip in the air

Free the Nipple

Not for grabs

The way you look at me says a lot about you.

Pussy Power

Free the Nipple

D I S T O R T

Ever since I was little there was one thing that really really bugged me, initially just because of the things that people said about it and later it all just came together, piled up and formed this insane insecurity that started to feed off of me. These are my calves that I speak of. I know how strange it sounds, but we've all got something that we're just really conscious about. And that's about it, it sucks. Period. It sucks to have to think twice before wearing your favourite skirt just because maybe it's too much skin than bone, That you're not the stick figure you're taught to draw, that the boy you like may want less and not more.
"I hold a bucket in my hand.
Of legs tossed in batter and oil and secret spices.
I wasn't curious, it solved my hunger crisis.
The curves of the chicken meet my lips.
Succulent and crispy
Biting chunks of meat, strip by strip.
Till I reach the bone.
My legs look the same.
And I wish I looked at them with the same lust and admiration.
With better adjectives to describe them. Show them some love, tender.
Not caring how they looked on tinder.
But I look at them with regret, hoping they looked more slender.
So with my eyes and my silence, I stripped my 'chicken' legs.
Down to the bone.
Roasted myself till I burnt.
Told myself that we were all bone at the core.
Didn't tell myself, it wasn't wrong to be more, to show more, to feel more."
-PRIYANKA PAUL

More than flesh and bones

You're a 13 year old girl and your visual diet consists of magazines that promote unrealistic body standards and show the latter in a bad light, but as a young naive girl you start to give up things you love for the sake of a glossy front cover. And that when it begins, it only grows unless recognised which is hardly the case ever. Which brings me to the Indian context where even though eating disorders are prevalent , the statistics say nothing. It is one thing to know that there is a problem and then going onto solving it but it is another to not know that it even exists, which is the case here. The first step to recovery is always recognition. A topic so taboo that it wont see light of day till we change the way we portray and present the body as it really is.

We live in a society which is suffering from the effects of many a years of deep rooted patriarchy, which has created, cultivated and enforced an idea of the 'ideal' woman. A woman who appears, behaves and carries herself in a certain acceptable manner. We are also a culture that celebrates and worships our Goddesses, so then why is there a disparity in the way we treat our women. If we don't alter our Goddesses why do we do it to our women, and construct a certain acceptable image for them to fit. All women are Goddesses, lets start treating them the way they deserve.

Unveiling

Consume, but don't let it consume you.

Acceptance of what is natural: Women have been conditioned to believe that their bodily hair is unattractive and unappealing. For years we put ourselves through burns of sticky hot wax and stinging razor cuts, but not once have we asked. For what?