The Lipstick Politico

The Lipstick Politico is an online magazine and platform that amplifies the voices of women, lgbtq+, and non-binary people to shape the public discourse in India and abroad.  

Funds will be used for:

1. Informing and Awareness Raising : Each of our article delves into current political, social, or legal issues, while spotlighting the structural critiques, literature, and dialogue surrounding that issue within the intersectional feminist arena. 

2. Providing a Platform: to writers and artists of gender- and identity-diverse backgrounds. We publish articles, interviews, and artwork created by or informed directly by women, dalit men, members of the LGBTQI community, and other vulnerable groups. 

3. Creating a community: By raising the profile of those community-based issues and perspectives beyond the impacted community, we help members of different socio-identity groups recognize commonalities with other groups, develop alliances, and forge stronger more diverse concepts of community. 

4. Making Intersectional Feminism Approachable and fun:  using digital imaging mediums to produce comic-book styled graphics, illustrations and memes that poke fun and act as a catalyst for opening a dialogue on  at the patriarchal and racial ironies of life as a South Asian or the struggle of diaspora.

The Lipstick Politico is a digital publication dedicated to pushing the boundaries of mainstream social discourse. Our purpose is to catalogue underrepresented voices by portraying multiple sides of current critical issues and social evolution through the lens of South Asian art and expression. 

Vision: to modernizing the south asian narrative for a generation of south asian society underserved by the prescribed identities of the current media landscape

Mission : To provide a platform for women, lgbtq+, and non-binary people to shape the public discourse in India and abroad. TLP hopes to challenge the narratives of gender, ethnicity, and identity that mainstream media often publishes. 

Values 

• pan-equality (gender, race, caste) 

• portrayal of all sides of the discussion

• chronicle progress and struggle with equal vigor

• Community and Collaboration

South Asian Millennials and Gen Z are underserved in terms of good feminist content that speaks to them. Sensing this content gap, we want to create a platform that takes up the topics of gender, culture, pop-art, and current affairs in an engaging manner and through the lens of emerging South Asian art and expression. We are challenging the narratives of gender, ethnicity, and identity that mainstream media often publish by providing a platform to underrepresented voices to shape the public discourse in India and abroad.

We run online multimedia campaigns that include articles, artwork, community sessions and expert panetls  to challenge contemporary South Asian narratives of gender, ethnicity, and identity often portrayed by mainstream media. We work, in collaboration with writers and artists to create articles, art, poems and other multimedia formats exploring the narratives of  vulnerable communities (ex: LGBTQI, Backward and scheduled castes, lower-economic classes, VAW survivors, etc). 

The platform serves to: 1) improve awareness of social justice issues such as sexual harassment, colorism, violence against women, the effects of casteism; and vulnerable community experiences in South Asia; 2) improve exposure of mainstream South Asian society to the challenges experienced by such communities; and 3) foster an organic grassroots dialogue between majority and minority communities.

• A publication that breaks down psychological, intellectual, socio-cultural, and economic barriers to gender equality.

• Mass reach: We have an online community of 30 thousand active users 

• Critical reach: our work is followed by key influencers in media and film and society including bollywood filmmakers, actors, young politicians and social media influencers.

• A leadership team of 6 with vast experience and commitment to the work we do at TLP. We’ve worked tirelessly to produce three quarterly magazine in the last 9 months. .

• a volunteer-based community of 30+  writers, artists and editors working on feminist activism grounded in our beliefs in pan-equality (gender, race, caste), and our commitment to intersectional feminism.