In the month of February 2020, to celebrate Valentine's Day, we launched a campaign which were a series of essays on love, intimacy, relationships and disability in collaboration with mainstream publications like The Quint and Love Matters. The six essays were personal stories about dating, crushes, expectations from partners or of partners; building their own worlds of romance and pleasures, all authored by young women with disabilities. The campaign titled Dil Vil Pyaar Vyaar was an effort to amplify voices of disabled women as their narratives on love seldom are seen in mainstream discussions on romance.
The writers ranged from Rising Flame’s I Can Lead Fellows to well-known women with disabilities who have infused their stories with vulnerability, feelings and humour. Questioning through their individual lens, whose love is celebrated or even what this month of love reminds them of. Links to all the amazing stories follow-
I Can Lead Fellow: https://fit.thequint.com/fit-connect/person-with-disabilities-valentines-day-2020
Anonymous: https://lovematters.in/en/sexual-diversity/i-thought-he-loved-me-but
I Can Lead Fellow, Kavya Mukhija : https://lovematters.in/en/dil-vil-pyaar-vyaar-kavya-mukhija-love-and-disability-story
Sweta Mantri: https://fit.thequint.com/her-health/love-and-dating-while-disabled
Shivangi Agrawal
https://lovematters.in/en/sexual-diversity/we-connected-in-the-most-magical-way
I Can Lead Fellow, Srishti Pandey: https://lovematters.in/en/sexual-diversity/love-and-disability-srishti-pandey-story-rising-flame
We built the campaign around women with disabilities who wrote for us as well as take the public conversation on love forward. So, we organised a live conversation with Love Matters with many disabled women participating in diversifying our collective understanding of love, romance and desire. Read our Tweet Chat here.