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Are love and lust interchangeable? Is intimacy the same as sex? What is it that you seek? Is it love or is it intimacy?
What is love and what is lust?
What is sex and what is intimacy?
I do not know the difference
From sharing nudes on Grindr to sleeping with strangers,
From talking dirty to leaving hotel rooms in the middle of the night,
I ask myself: “Why do you feel guilty after indulging in pleasure?”
Why do you feel lonely after having sex?
Why do you repeat this cycle day after day, month after month, year after year?
I am convinced that what I seek is intimacy, but what I get is sex
What I seek is love, but what I get is lust
But what I am unclear about is how to escape this maddening cycle
The constant buzz on my phone, asking me for my “tastes and likes”
The constant demand for my nudes and the constant enquiry about my fetishes
The constant pressure to look good and to look “hot”
The notifications, the messages, the questions- I can’t take it anymore
There are moments when I see myself from his gaze- Less of a human and more of an object,
An object of desire, lust and sex
Mixed with this desire is hope for love
A hope that maybe he will be “the one”
Thus, I rarely complain
Yet, I feel so confused, lost and trapped
My body wants sex, but my soul yearns for love
My body wants his body, but my soul wants his mind
My body wants his lips, but my soul wants his thoughts
This is a battle- between the body and the mind, and I am unable to make sense of it
I still cannot tell the difference
Picture Credits: Pexels
Kanav is, as of June 2021, pursuing his Master's in Development from Azim Premji University, Bangalore. He identifies as queer for personal and political reasons and can be contacted via https://www.linkedin.com/ read more...
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UP Boards Topper Prachi Nigam was trolled on social media for her facial hair; our obsession with appearance is harsh on young minds.
Prachi Nigam’s photo has been doing the rounds on social media for the right reasons. Well, scratch that- I wish the above statement were true. This 15-year-old girl should ideally be revelling in her spectacular achievement of scoring a whopping 98.05% and topping her tenth-grade boards. But oddly enough, along with her marks, it’s something else that garners more attention – her facial hair.
While the trolls are driving themselves giddy by mocking this girl who hasn’t even completed her school yet, the ones who are taking her side are going one step ahead – they are sharing her photoshopped pictures, sans the facial hair, looking nothing less than a celebrity with captions saying – “Prachi Nigam, ten years later”.
Doctors have already diagnosed her with PCOD in their comments, based on photographic evidence. While we have names for people shamed for their weight – body shaming, for their skin colour- racism, for their age- age shaming, for being a female- sexism, this category of shaming where one faces criticism for their appearance has no name. With that, it also has zero shame attached to it.
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