Pleasure, ‘Education’, and Erotism: An Intersectional Reading of Gender, Sex, and Sexuality In Agents of Ishq Zines

Abstract

Situated at the crossroads of scholarly inquiry in gender studies and counter-cultural studies, this paper analyses how the two zines by the multimodal platform Agents of Ishq viz. What is normal? AKA Heteronormativity Kya Hai? and The Political Power of Pleasure, ‘perform’ as a space for sexuality-studies sensitisation and create a platform for inclusive and intersectional sex education. The use of handmade illustrations, intermingled languages, ‘cut-and-paste’ collage style aesthetic, nonlinear narrative, and nonconformist content pose compelling questions related to erotic subcultures, cultural taboos, heteronormativity, and discrimination. The analysis focuses on how the visual-verbal format of zines contribute to the need for narratives that focus on differences in experiences, instead of imposing single-axis ideas and representations, to explore how these texts represent the voices that lie at intersections by opposing homogenisation of identities and cultures. It highlights the need to acknowledge the intersectionality of sexual identities to practice a more inclusive and sensitised social activism. © 2024 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.