Alok Vaid-Menon, a gender non-conforming and transfeminine activist is an icon for the LGBTQ+ community around the world.
Vai-Menon is also a performer who has expressed their ideas about social issues using spoken poetry. In this latest piece Daddy Issues which they performed for UnErase Poetry, they talk about their relationship with their father.
1. They begin by talking about the limited communication between the two, which is true for most father-children relationships across the world, but especially in India.
2. They then go on to explain how the term ‘father’ disallows a person any room for mistakes. ‘Father’ are not even a person, anymore, but a concept.
3. After a couple of lines about their complicated relationship with their father, they touch upon gender identity. Or non-confirmation to it.
4. And towards the end, they challenge the ideas of masculinity and gender with this haunting line.