When the authors we read are predominantly white, we risk being othered, alienated, and bored even by the book in our hands.
"It’s not surprising that what we want to see in our porn, in the thing we turn to for pleasure, is sex that is consensual; sex in which pleasure runs both ways. And there are many people trying to create just this."
Hundreds of Indian women report being watched and recorded without consent every year. Hundreds more tolerate being stared at without saying a word. Where does India's obsession with voyeurism come from? And, more scarily, where does it lead?
Here's a list of some of the stereotypical (and nonsensical) arguments upper castes put forth, and how you can counter them.
As Kathua has dominated news cycles, I've been in a psychological blackhole, getting reacquainted with memories I've repressed since I was a little girl with no words for what was being done to her.
In a post-Brexit cultural crisis, Britain is using cinema to glorify its past, even when that means glorifying a racist, evil man who let millions of Indians die.
I had been trained to know what good looks are (Brahmin) and what good queerness is (English-speaking).
There is so much about mental illness that is not just unseen, but hopelessly misunderstood by the law, people, and Indian society.
I was diagnosed with a life-altering autoimmune disease at 18. Every single day has been a struggle since. But whenever Selena drops a catchy new single, looking like the million bucks that she does, I find hope.
JNU students are protesting against mandatory attendance. Here’s why you should too.
Indian women are told a lot of things about sex – when to have it, how much of it to have, who to have it with. We're just never told that it's supposed to feel good.
Everyone should be protesting the film – except the Karni Sena.
They speak English as a first language, they're highly-educated, affluent, and urban. The Indo-Anglians are both India’s most visible and yet invisible caste.
Family WhatsApp groups are now inseparable from the notion of the modern Indian family itself. But some Indians say they're also an insufferable obligation.
Some will probably label me a “non-meritorious” Dalit from the “reserved category”. But I am not ashamed of my identity and you shouldn't be either.
The power tussle between the Chief Justice and his fellow judges has exposed the casteist core of India's judiciary.
Kumar despised Muslims before he could count to ten. Now, having graduated from college with no job prospects, he divides his time between the offices of ABVP, BJP, and VHP. "Two hours here, three hours there. It’s how my days go."
Interested in writing personal essays or cultural criticism for BuzzFeed India? Here's everything you need to know.
It’s been three months since I started a firestorm of sexual harassment allegations against High Spirits. Here’s what I’ve learned about how toxic spaces keep young women quiet – and coming back.
As a poet, an academic, and a Dalit, this is the story of finding myself in English and forgetting my way home.
Through his films, M.G. Ramachandran built a popular persona as a friend of the poor – just like Rajinikanth. He enjoyed political support on the strength of his personal popularity, and as chief minister, he remained above scrutiny despite creating a brutally repressive anti-poor state.
It would be unfair to place the entire blame for alcoholism in India at Bollywood’s door. But there appears to be an undeniable complicity.
There are much more pressing issues facing the queer community besides an archaic law that criminalises anal sex, and this is particularly true for women and trans people.
Young Indians are hooked to Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube. But for older Indians, WhatsApp is the ultimate social network.
The drugs transported me to a world where stigma, stereotyping, abuse, shame, and bullying didn’t exist. But eventually they left me shameful, depressed, and terrified of disease.
From a penniless Dalit with no prospects to the maker of India's constitution and the saviour of his people.
Since the state began its battle to harness and control its water, increasingly and unforgivingly, the water has started to fight back.
Conversations about the end of the world from the centre of the world.
A month after Raya Sarkar's list of alleged sexual predators polarised Indian academia, an attempt at understanding its origin and impact.
A fictional queen has taken precedence over unbreathable air, a dysfunctional parliament, Aadhaar deaths and many other pressing matters.
Fascinating, validating, hilarious, and sometimes scary.
A BuzzFeed News analysis found that the popularity of at least 10 political hashtags that trended on Twitter in India during the last two months was influenced by organised campaigns.
The 70-year-old skyscraper we live in has deep-rooted structural flaws which are preventing real change.
Making sense of how Narendra Modi sold a disastrous economic policy to a spellbound nation.
While the world, and I, have grown up, Shah Rukh remains stuck in the regressive '90s. With more freedom than he's ever had, he continues to promote sexism, racism and toxic beauty standards with his work.
We have benefited immensely from a system that is skewed in our favour. If we stay silent as it crushes others, we become enablers of injustice.
An interview with Raya Sarkar whose crowdsourced 'cautionary list' has sparked a polarising ideological debate among Indian feminists.
Analysing data for nearly 600 movie theatres across 8 Indian cities to figure out the answer to one of the burning questions of our times.
An open letter from a senior academic to some of the men in her life who abused, assaulted, or harassed her and the women who enabled them.
A spate of unexplained attacks on women, police and government inaction, and vigilante justice have come together to create a perfect storm of fear and unrest in Kashmir.
Sometimes science reveals things you were better of not knowing.
Protectionist measures that restrict women's freedom in order to protect them are just benevolent versions of the same misogyny they seek to counter.
An erection is the same hydraulic event in political economists as it is in jackasses.
The prime minister has gone from an infallible knight who could do no wrong to a leader under siege in a little over three years.
Amit Masurkar's Oscar-bound film reinvents a tired old trope by grounding it in the reality of the Dalit struggle.
Glorifying selflessness in women is a way to make us do all the work.
Why I, a female Dalit meme-maker, got an abusive message from the patriarch of Bollywood's largest dynasty.
In a time when it’s decreasingly cool to be sexist, some men are retreating to the privacy of all-male WhatsApp groups to validate their misogyny.
What does it take to go from elite athlete to mother and back again?
Kangana Ranaut's unapologetically progressive choices have us ready to applaud her every move. So it's disappointing that we're mostly being made to applaud the messy end of a messy affair.
