A Ghazal on Gender Bias

Gender Stereotypes are the beliefs concerning the characteristics of women and men. This is a ghazal which if read/understood from a woman's perspective, throws light on various gender stereotypes.


हमे मैदान ए शतरंज का वज़ीर नही समझते।
हमे लोग ज़माने में मुक्तदिर नही समझते।

हमे साथी बहुत अच्छा समझते है लोग,
पर सफर में हमे कभी राहगीर नही समझते।

सदियों से हुक़ूमत है किसी और की जिन रास्तों पर,
लोग हमें उन रास्तों के मुसाफिर नही समझते।

हमारी आँखों मे मोहोब्बत दिखाई देती है सबको,
पर हमें आँख दिखाने में माहिर नही समझते।

मुक्तदिर - dominator

राहगीर - guide


- प्रसन्न

Deja Vu

Ever had this eerie feeling where you thought that the present was already experienced by you? That somehow you had lived in that exact moment before? Well, it certainly appears to look like a minuscule part of the past interfering with the present. But is that really what it is? 

This strange feeling of vague familiarity with completely novel experiences is known as Déjà vu. It is a French term, literally meaning “already seen”. Déjà vu is very commonplace. In fact, it is reported that 60 to 70 percent of people have had experienced Déjà vu at least once (Brown, 2003). Charles Dickens describes this feeling in his novel, David Copperfield. He recounts it as a feeling “that comes over us occasionally, of what we are saying and doing having been said and done before, in a remote time- of our having been surrounded, dim ages ago, by the same faces, objects, and circumstances- of our knowing perfectly what will be said next, as if we suddenly remember it.” It is a complex phenomenon, with no one universally accepted theory behind it. Surprisingly, even though Déjà vu is vastly common, the subject has received very poor scientific attention. And thus, it remains one of those out of the ordinary brain phenomena with no proper explanation. But from research that has been done on this subject, some prominent theories have thrown light on the possible explanations behind this baffling phenomenon. 

SPLIT PERCEPTION THEORY

This theory of Split Perception posits that Déjà vu sets in when we look at a scene subliminally, not giving it enough time to register consciously. But on an unconscious level, information gets registered.

In this case, a person processes the sensory input twice, one after the other.

According to this theory, when we are exposed to a particular scene and then are momentarily distracted by a voice or a sight, we lose our attention on the surrounding. But all the information regarding the scene that we briefly had looked at, gets registered into the brain unconsciously. Thus, when we regain our awareness after the distraction, we feel that we have somehow already experienced that moment, bringing in this strange feeling of familiarity. Here, the first sensory input is very brief and diminished. The second sensory input, however, seems oddly familiar because of the already processed first brief input.

DUAL PROCESSING THEORY

This theory is generally based on the idea of how new information is processed and how the sensory inputs travel to the processing centres of the brain. Essentially, Dual Processing theory suggests that human beings experience Déjà vu when two cognitive processes are out of sync. In 1963, Robert Efron tested his proffered idea that a delayed neurological response causes Déjà vu. This study was carried out at Veterans Administration Hospital in Boston. Today, this theory is one of the most widely accepted explanations behind Déjà Vu.

Efron found that the sorting of the incoming signals takes place in the temporal lobe of the brain's left hemisphere. He proposed that signals entered the temporal lobe twice, once directly in the left hemisphere and once travelling through the right hemisphere, thus causing a delay between the signals.

So, if the two signals were occasionally not synchronised accurately, then they would be registered as two different experiences, with the second seeming to be a re-living of the first. (Robert Efron, 1963)

One of the main reasons why the cause behind this phenomenon is still blurry is its inconsistent nature. Also, the difficult process of inducing the experience in a controlled environment for research studies accounts for the poor attention that this subject has received.

Vast number of theories have been put forth, many are supported by various studies and a few have the potential to uncloak this ambiguous phenomenon provided they are further more strongly supported by new research studies. In today’s world, where it is firmly believed that nothing is impossible and with all the significant development in science, we can surely hope that this baffling phenomenon will no longer be a mystery.

- Disha Pushilkar, SYBA

On the Other Side of the Rainbow

Mental Health Issues in the LGBT Community

Discrimination against LGBT people is commonplace. But, in the past two decades there has been a considerable rise of public and scientific awareness of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) lives and issues. The emergence of the “gay rights” movement in the 1970s and the emergence of HIV/AIDS in the 1980s influenced this awareness. The meaning of LGBT and the experiences of LGBT people varies with other salient personal, ethnic, cultural, and social identities.

Before the 1970s, the American Psychiatric Association’s (APA’s) Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM) listed homosexuality as a “sociopathic personality disturbance”. Pioneering studies on the prevalence of homosexuality and psychological comparisons between heterosexual and gay men fostered a change in attitudes of the psychological community and motivated the APA to remove homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 . Earlier, it was believed that homosexuality was intrinsically linked with poor mental health. Now, an effort is made to understand the social determinants of LGBT mental health.

The sexual minorities experience chronic stressors related to their stigmatized identities, including victimization, prejudice, and discrimination. These experiences, besides everyday or universal stressors, compromise the mental health and well-being of LGBT people. This community is 10 times more likely to experience discrimination based on sexual orientation as compared to heterosexual people. Mistreatment comes in many forms, from seemingly benign jokes, to verbal insults, unequal treatment and in the most extreme cases, physical violence. For many of them, the bias is everywhere and lasts for a lifetime.

Adolescence is a critical period for mental health as many mental disorders show onset during and following this developmental period. Data illustrates overwhelming evidence that LGBT persons are at greater risk for poor mental health across developmental stages. Studies indicate elevated rates of depression and mood disorders, anxiety disorders, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) , alcohol use and abuse, and suicide ideation and attempts, as well as psychiatric co-morbidity. Studies of adolescents trace the origins of these adult sexual orientation mental health disparities to the adolescent years: Multiple studies demonstrate that disproportionate rates of distress, symptoms, and behaviors related to these disorders are present among LGBT youth prior to adulthood. The sexual minority youth are almost three times as likely to report suicidality; also there is a moderate difference in depressive symptoms compared to heterosexual youth.

The lack of support from many institutions that guide the lives of LGBT youth (e.g., their schools, families, faith communities) limits their rights and protections and leaves them more vulnerable to experiences that may compromise their mental health. Positive parental and familial relationships are crucial for youth well-being. But, many LGBT youth fear coming out and may experience rejection from parents because of these identities. Those who do experience family rejection are at greater risk for depressive symptoms, anxiety, and suicide attempts .

Clear and consistent evidence indicates that global mental health problems are elevated among LGBT youth. Among them, there are consistent indications that bisexual youth are among those at higher risk for mental health problems. The shortage of research on gender and racial/ethnic differences in mental health status among LGBT youth, indicates the need for more research. There is a need to understand diversity in the experiences of LGBT youth better and their potentials for risk in regard to mental health and well-being.

On the bright side, In a historic verdict, the Supreme Court of India on 6 September 2018 decriminalised the Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code and allowed gay sex among consenting adults in private . The SC ruled that consensual adult gay sex is not a crime saying sexual orientation is natural and people have no control over it. This is one step in the right direction but we still have a long way to go.

The prejudice held against the LGBT community is one of the major reasons for their poor mental health. All they need from us is our support- to live a peaceful life. The maltreatment against the community has to stop. We pride ourselves in being "progressive" but the reality reflects something else. It's about time we open up our minds and think about this community. They deserve to live without having to worry about their safety. Extend your support to the LGBT community, that's the least we could do. Be kind to one another. As rightly said by Daniel Radcliffe, "You don't have to be gay to be a supporter. You just have to be human."


Sources:
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4887282

- Anushka Prabhu, TYBA Psychology

Memes: Sweetening the Bitter Pill

I have been extremely lucky when it comes to the company I’ve had over the years. Any new stage of life I get to, I always initially make friends with people who are wildly incompatible with me. Its objectively hilarious how scared I used to be about approaching the people who actually stand out to me in a room, and stand out for the right reasons. Eventually though, I can say I’ve ended up with the right people. We all have different sets of friends, and we talk about different kinds of things with all of them. With some, we’re just constantly making jokes about each other, with others we talk about really deep and meaningful stuff, while with others it’s a little bit of everything.

I was with the “little bit of everything” group not too long back. One of my friends in that group, said something profound and stirring. He said that the (written or spoken) art isn’t just about love and heartbreak and pain, and I think he’s right. What is the written art supposed to be like, after all? If art is meant to be a reflection, a representation of life, it must depict more than what mainstream art reflects. But then again, being mainstream in itself has a host of dynamics associated with it, which are too complex to get into in a short post such as this.

However, I do want to talk about something more than just love and heartbreak and pain. I want to talk about the human condition. We’re flooded with write-ups and articles and movies and poetry and songs about how we’re all flawed, how everyone has their fears, anxieties, secrets, desires, insecurities and emotional drives, and a lot more about human shortcomings. Much of the art of this kind is truly beautiful, refreshing, and most importantly, human. Some of it isn’t.

I look at social media sometimes and feel a complete lack of stigma around mental health. You know why I’m not happy about that? Because we’ve replaced the stigma with a romanticisation of mental illness. Its embodied by all the memes we share, all the videos we like and all the lines we throw around in casual conversation, sometimes followed by, “We shouldn’t joke about that.”

Mental illness is not cool, it’s not edgy, and mental illness and the pain caused by it is certainly not an “aesthetic”. We feel that by breaking the stigma and talking about it we’re actually creating more awareness, but to do that one first needs to learn the fact from fiction, or as is many times the case, the fact from misinformed/under-informed opinion. There’s a reason why textbooks aren’t written in meme format. What’s factual, is usually also boring.

It began with people attempting to include those suffering from mental health issues into mainstream social media, by creating content that they relate to, and inducing humour from it. Today, that has translated into a culture of us sharing stuff that to a mental health professional would be a red flag, and feeling that just because we’re all sharing it, its okay. However, when you trivialize suffering through humour, no matter how much of a well-intention there might be, you’re not addressing the problem. Humour is still a form of distraction. In Hannah Gadsby’s words, humour is the honey that sweetens the bitter pill, but you still have to take the bitter pill.

I’m not against Tumblr – greatly responsible for creating and promoting meme communities. While I don’t oppose memes or any platform or individual using them – I use memes almost every single day – I do oppose certain ways of using memes. I know better now.

According to that friend of mine, as someone who can create what loosely resembles art, and as someone with the means of sharing it with other people, I have the responsibility to create art that is meaningful, relevant, and truthful. If I didn’t exercise that responsibility, I would just be existing, and not adding anything meaningful.

This is me attempting to add something meaningful.

- Jai Vyas