Bringing the Intersectionality to Marketing
While I found solace in writing from authoring books on Wattpad in the seventh grade, in September 2019, as a senior in college, I shared a post on my Instagram story by Durex India talking about dental dams. From responses to this story, I quickly learned this was something not many people knew about, so I made a brief post about it on my Instagram page. Part of this post was picked up by @lgbtmumbai and was one of their most liked and viewed posts at the time with over 2,000 likes and 10,000 views. It was shared 710 times and saved by 326 users on Instagram.
Creating a Safe Space
In hindsight, the language on that post could have been more welcoming, which helped me further develop the skill to write from different perspectives — even ones I may not always agree with — that help tell the whole story and not just tell one that benefits my opinion. I also learned through this post that I enjoy creating content that educates people about the queer community, body positivity, mental and sexual health, consent and communication, and easy-to-make food recipes. This resulted in a 4-month series called “Wednesdays with Anisha” on my Instagram page talking about shows like Indian Matchmaking, consent, and a mini-series called “Queeriosity” which focused on educating people about the queer community. The response I received on the concise 8–10 slide posts was positive. This was my way of creating a safe space for people to learn and feel comfortable enough to talk about these topics. It aided me to learn more, as well. The mini-series resulted in me being invited to an Instagram Live to talk about the same. Despite Wednesdays with Anisha ending, my passion for writing and educating did not and it is something I continue to do on my social media.
“…talking about taboo subjects helps normalize them.”
I enjoy writing but I tend to prefer editing content. While your first thought may be “she likes to correct people’s grammar”, that’s not the reason why. I prefer to edit content solely because it helps me read about different perspectives and learn more about topics I would have not thought to explore.
A Little About Me
Moving from one city that never sleeps to another at 23 was a smooth transition because the move itself wasn’t the tough part. The process, however, was a whole different story; from reaching out to 50 people to be my roommates to looking at a good number of apartments to finally finding an apartment I like, the time difference of 10 and a half hours did not aid this process. The move taught me patience, persistence, resilience, and above all how to build Ikea furniture correctly.
As an undergraduate student I was Editor and then Editor-in-Chief of the e-magazine Economics Declassified, authored articles like The Economic Cost of Homophobia, Rainbow Capitalism, and Date-onomics, and started and managed the Instagram page for a year. Additionally, I co-authored a research paper for the Sociology and Anthropology Seminar about the intersection between queer identity and body positivity titled “Through the Looking Glass”. Prior to this, I was a content writer for Gaysi Family. I worked for a Big 4 Consulting company for a year and a half before moving to New York to pursue my graduate degree in Marketing from New York University.
I received my undergraduate degree in economics, but my interests have always lied in behavioral economics. These interests tie back to marketing, which is part of the reason why I chose to pursue my graduate degree in this field. Studying sociology also taught me to be more inclusive and intersectional in my thinking. I believe that talking about taboo subjects helps normalize them.
What To Expect
While inclusivity is now heavily spoken about in mainstream media, a lot of it comes from a need to be inclusive and not a want or a knowledge of what it truly encompasses. In the next 12 weeks through this blog I hope to bring in this inclusivity and intersectionality from a marketer’s perspective. I also hope to learn more about marketing though the course of these next four months from perspectives I had not previously considered or had ignored. On a more personal note, I do like to blog and would like to start creating consistent content and I hope writing this blog helps me do that.
