Smashboard

Body Image

It’s Time to Ditch the Thin Ideal

The conventional female lead we get to see—no matter how quirky the character, no matter how different, intelligent, brave, strong, or “badass”—is almost always skinny.

by Vara Raturi

5 min read

Podcast

Therapy Tuesday - Reframing Resilience

How can we redefine resilience from an empathetic lens? Is it solely the ability to bounce back and be strong in the face of adversity? How can we move away from looking at pain and distress as something that needs to be ‘fixed’ and acknowledge what it needs to heal?

by Smashboard Admin

4 min read

Gender

Gender Neutral Pronouns: A Guide

A guide to using gender neutral pronouns.

by Smashboard Admin

3 min read

Culture

Bharatanatyam: The Choreography of a Brahmanical Past

How hereditary dancers’ communities were shamed and “rescued” by a Brahmanical morality that could not accommodate women whose sexuality transgressed the norms.

by Rituparna Pal

10 min read

LGBTQIA+

Why We Need to Centre Queer People for Whom Pride Is Neither a Celebration nor Rebellion

The casteism and cis privilege reflected in mainstream media are, sadly, very much a part of the Indian LGBTQ+ community itself—a space that is supposed to be for “everyone”.

by Saachi Gupta

5 min read

Opinion

Why Gandhi Is No Longer Relevant for Many Indians

Why is Gandhi, a leader who could mobilise millions so effectively once, becoming increasingly irrelevant for a majority of India’s population?

by Banavath Aravind

4 min read

Podcast

Therapy Tuesday

Therapy Tuesday is a fortnightly podcast for people looking to have conversations about mental health from a feminist perspective.

by Smashboard Admin

6 min read

Child Sexual Abuse

#MeToo in Chennai Schools: The Big Red Flag We Shouldn't Ignore

Sexual abuse robs children of their childhood and has a “devastating, irreversible impact” on their well-being. But the conversation around child rights has only gained momentum in India the past few decades.

by Vaishnavi C

5 min read

Trans Rights

The Body Positive Movement Has a Lot Left to Learn from Trans Folx

In a cis-normative world, dysphoria is often perceived as body negativity and trans persons’ desire to physically transition is often incorrectly viewed as a patriarchal aspiration.

by Ditilekha Sharma

6 min read

Sexuality

The Internalised Bias in the Bisexual Experience

I routinely traverse a minefield of reminders that I am living a double life. While I put on my best online activist hat and pontificate about queer rights being human rights, I deliberately omit doing so from the stance of a queer person. I am what you might term ‘partially closeted’.

by Usri Basistha

5 min read

Activism

Why We March (and You Should Too)

When we march, we collectively offer solidarity to the oppressed and a message to the oppressors and their allies that we all bear witness to their crimes and are no longer passive bystanders. When we march, we act—with purpose and deliberation.

by Sanjana Pegu

5 min read

Culture

Does “The Family Man” Season 2 Vilify a Largely Misunderstood Movement?

The Family Man (Season 2) is a series of missed opportunities to tell the story of power and pain of a community now displaced and isolated from their homeland.

by Hannah Stephen

6 min read

Podcast

Therapy Tuesday - Healthy Boundaries

What are healthy and unhealthy boundaries in a relationship? How do we recognize them? Why does every relationship need healthy boundaries? Setting boundaries can be uncomfortable and confusing, so, how do we go about establishing them? Ruchita answers these questions.

by Smashboard Admin

7 min read

Grief

Grief Is like an Ocean

When I lost my 59-year-old father to suicide in 2019, I was forced to join what I call the 'dead parents society' and came to be introduced to the gargantuan force that is grief.

by Nyla Saldanha

5 min read

Fatphobia

How I Transcended Internalized Fatphobia to Reconnect with My Body

For as long as I can remember, I have been fat—first, a chubby kid and then, an overweight adult. Somehow, it never bothered me. No one spoke about dieting or achieving a target weight in my family. I was happy the way I was, or so I thought.

by Khushi Mishra

4 min read

Podcast

Therapy Tuesday - Social Media & Mental Health

In this episode, we look at the relationship between social media and mental health. While social media can be valuable for networking and enhancing connections with loved ones, it can also worsen mental health issues. Ruchita gives us some techniques for managing social media behaviour.

by Smashboard Admin

9 min read

Culture

Five Films and Series That Portray the Reality of Mental Health Challenges

The entertainment industry has a long way to go when it comes to depicting mental illnesses in a manner that doesn’t perpetuate stigma. However, a recent spurt of shows and films seem to have kick-started some nuanced and healthy conversations.

by Soumya Mishra

4 min read

Opinion

Re-Reading Ambedkar’s Insistence on Inter-Caste Marriages

Inter-caste marriages reinforce casteist principles in insidious ways when lower caste spouses are forced to curate their lifestyle, food habits, and demeanour to match those of the dominant caste culture.

by Banavath Aravind

4 min read

Opinion

Arranged Marriages Uphold the Same Tradition That Promoted Sati

Caste endogamy is the defining feature of the hierarchical concept of caste and has stayed immutable through time immemorial. This perpetuation of caste supremacy via the concept of purity is primarily preserved today through the institution of marriage—especially arranged marriages.

by Yashi Verma

4 min read

Vaccination

Vaccine Apartheid: What It Is and Why We Should Vigorously Oppose It

The politics of intellectual property around life-saving pharmaceutical drugs has been marked by Big Pharma's brazen disregard for human lives, a cavalier attitude to laws, and a cult-like devotion to ever burgeoning profits.

by Sanjana Pegu

5 min read

Trans Rights

The Intertwined Realities of India’s Transgender Act 2019, Digitisation, and the COVID Vaccination Drive

The disproportionate dependency on technology continues to further curb the access to COVID-19 vaccination for those on the wrong side of the digital divide in India. What does the trend towards digitizing identity mean for transgender persons, a historically marginalised population group?

by Brindaalakshmi K

5 min read

Health

The Curious Case of Cervical Cancer

Cervical cancer is the fourth most commonly occurring cancer. In India, it is one of the leading cancers affecting women. The irony is that it is also one of the two types of serious cancers that can be prevented with a vaccine—so why don't people know about this?

by Anika Eliz Baby

4 min read

Social Media

The Other Side of Cancel Culture

The dependence of social media activism on virality creates a hierarchy of outrage. In this hierarchy, each cause is given weightage based on its value as a viral commodity. So who gets saved?

by Sreemoyee Mukherjee

5 min read

Borderline Personality Disorder

Borderline Personality Disorder: What Women’s Narratives Can Tell Us

Popular media has played a significant role in projecting women with borderline traits as manipulative, controlling, or socially inept.

by Rathi R

4 min read

COVID-19

Break The Chain: What You Can Do to Stop the Virus from Spreading Even More

Slowing down the COVID-19 contagion requires physical distancing and masks. There is no other way to do this at any stage of the spread anywhere. The virus is deadly and it's hell-bent on spreading—it's designed to, as all viruses are.

by Smashboard Admin

4 min read

Podcast

Therapy Tuesday- Men and Depression

In this episode, we discuss men's depression- what the symptoms can look like, and how men need to develop safer spaces for themselves and unlearn the violence they have internalized towards themselves and the people around them.

by Smashboard Admin

5 min read

Opinion

Can Indian Communists Really Even Dream of a Revolution?

Organizing the working class without addressing the caste issue is a shrewd way of the privileged caste Communists to pave a way to maintain their grasp over power in the name of proletariats while the marginalized and underprivileged continue to languish in the prison of caste.

by Abhijeet

4 min read

Award

Smashboard Has Won the UNESCO-Netexplo Grand Prix. What Is It All About?

We won the UNESCO-Netexplo Grand Prix. Many of you voted for us! So what's the prize all about?

by Smashboard Admin

1 min read

Trans Rights

How India's Brutal Lockdown Was a Calamity for Trans-Communities

Plunged into crisis during the lockdown, deprived of the basic needs for survival, many trans people battled with mental health issues and deepened dysphoria.

by Vihaan Vee

4 min read

Podcast

Therapy Tuesday - Your Post-Covid Health

We look at the psychological health concerns among people who have recovered from mild, asymptomatic, or severe COVID and how best we can cope with what we know or don't know.

by Smashboard Admin

5 min read

Trans Rights

Cultural Narratives Are Botching Up Trans Portrayals and Hurting Trans Communities

To maintain cis-heteronormativity, popular cultural narratives, especially in the entertainment and sports industry, harm the trans community by ridiculing and appropriating transness.

by Sweta

6 min read