Thursday 10th July 2025
Blog Page 1340

University to update harassment policy following OUSU talks

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The University has confirmed that it will be updating its policy on harassment and bullying following talks with Sarah Pine, OUSU’s Vice-President for Women and the It Happens Here campaign.

The policy, expected to be finished by the end of Michaelmas, will include a number of suggestions made by OUSU. A draft policy has been amended to include sexual violence and stalking, online harassment and clarification of the university’s role when harassment and bullying cases are criminal.

Under the new policy, a support office will be set up in the Student Welfare and Support Services building, and specially-trained harassment advisors will offer support.

Sarah Pine told Cherwell, “The university are also really committed to the communication of the positive steps. Few plans on this have been finalised, but I will be lobbying for a system much like those used in the US, where there is a portal for all of this information online.

Pine continued, “We’ll also be including this information in the consent workshops, so JCRs and MCRs that have the workshops have the information highlighted again.

“The specialist training that harassment advisors will have is another big win for the VP for Women over the past couple of years. The training comes from an expert, Liz Jones, from Oxford City Council. It enables advisors to be aware of the issues and ways that they should support students through various different possible scenarios. Additionally, OUSU has pushed that this training is available to front-line staff, so those who might be first responders (like porters, chaplains etc) are also aware of what to do.”

Professor Sally Mapstone, the Pro-Vice Chancellor for Education at the University, said in a note to the It Happens Here committee, “The harassment procedure for students details the stages (informal, through to formal complaint) of the process, with a focus on ensuring support for students via the Director of Student Welfare and Support Services.

“This provides clarity for students as to where they should go for advice, both professional (via the Counselling service within SWSS) but also practical support. The procedure will also provide links to appropriate sources including harassment advisors, local welfare representatives and the OUSU Student Advice Service.”

Sarah Pine also clarified that this step will allay several of OUSU’s concerns about the University’s processes commenting, “This is a great move forward. OUSU has had concerns in the past about people speaking to harassment advisors and their responses harming students.

“This has been combined with me running sexual violence training sessions for students, so those in JCR and MCR committees know what to do. This was focused on JCR and MCR officers, but is open to anyone, and if anyone wants to come to one, they should email me at [email protected].

A University spokesman told Cherwell, “Harassment of any kind is unacceptable at Oxford, and when such incidents do occur, our culture is one of strong support for victims, including guidance and advice on making complaints. The University is continually considering how best to provide staff and students with relevant and sensitive advice and support. A review of the University’s harassment policy and procedures is nearing completion. The revised policy will make more explicit its inclusion of all forms of unacceptable behaviour, including sexual violence, assault and stalking. The revised procedure will give greater clarity about the sources of professional support available to victims. As is the case now, students will be encouraged to report allegations which are a criminal matter to the police.

“The University is working closely with Oxford University Student Union (OUSU), both on the development of the new policy and procedure and how best to communicate it to the wider student body once approved. We are grateful to OUSU for their work in researching student concerns about this issue.”

Hertford MCR and JCR Presidents living rent free

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Hertford JCR members have expressed concern that the free room given to the college’s JCR President was not publicised well enough.

This comes amidst a debate in the Hertford MCR concerning the future of the free room given to the President of that common room. 

Currently, both Presidents receive a room rent-free as a gesture of goodwill from the college. When contacted by Cherwell, both Presidents acknowledged that the arrangement was uniquely “generous”.

Many Hertford students approached by Cherwell were unaware of the policy. Speaking anonymously, a second-year Hertfordian commented, “I think a lot of people in college aren’t necessarily aware that they get the free room and it also means the President gets quite disproportionate benefits compared to the rest of the JCR Committee, who also work really hard.

“It is definitely a concern if most people are not aware of the free room, and there should certainly be some mechanism for informing the JCR about the benefits that committee members are granted.”

They added, “I think that the JCR Committee deserve rewards for the hard work that they do and that for many of the committee roles, having a room in college is really useful for doing their job properly; for instance, the JCR President has a set allowing them to easily meet with people.” 

Another first-year Hertford student remarked, “I wonder why we aren’t made more aware that the JCR president gets a free room. Of course, they perform an important task, but important enough to elevate them above the whole JCR and have their rent waived? I’m not too sure.”

Hertford JCR President Josh Platt told Cherwell, “If JCR members believe it should be publicised more widely, as your investigation suggests, then I would be happy to discuss it at a general meeting or on any other occasion, in order to hear the full range of views.”

A number of MCR students have likewise questioned the policy. Hertford graduate student Miodrag Stamboldziev remarked, “I believe the policy is unethical on three moral grounds; first, towards the fellow colleges’ MCR Presidents, who do not receive pecuniary incentives; second, towards other MCR members who hold a leadership position and invest significant amount of time – for example, the Boat Club captains among the others – yet do not receive monetary compensation; and third, towards every fellow MCR member, as the monies could be used to fund a graduate scholarship.”

He also pointed out that given Hertford’s comparatively small endowment, it was unjustifiable to gift the Presidents with a free room when richer colleges did not operate the same policy.

Despite this, Stamboldziev clarified, “I would like to state that I am content and grateful with the work of MCR Committee, especially the President, and my views are not to be interpreted in no way other way except as a constructive feedback to the college.”

Some students are concerned that the money the college invested in providing the free rooms to the Presidents would be better invested in bursaries or welfare supplies. 

While many colleges offer allocated rooms for JCR Presidents, or allow them to move to the top of the housing ballot, Cherwell is not aware of any other colleges which allow their common room Presidents to live rent free. 

JCR President Josh Platt acknowledged, “The College’s policy of allowing the JCR and the MCR President to go rent free is generous. While almost all common room Presidents receive perks from their College, Hertford’s policy is probably one of the kindest in the University.”

He continued, “I think it’s important for the JCR and the MCR to debate how College spends its money, and it’s totally right that we, as elected representatives, are held to account. If any member of the JCR wished me to lobby College on this issue, or to discuss it with them, I would be more than happy to do so, but nobody in the past two terms has approached me to talk about this. I must admit, however, that it has not been a priority for me during my term in office.

“I think it is important to remember that this is not money college simply gives to the JCR for us to spend as we choose. If the rent arrangement was removed, I would be keen to make sure that the money did not simply go back into College coffers, but rather became available for use by the JCR for another purpose.”

Likewise, Hertford MCR President Robert Carlsson remarked, “The fact is that the money does not come from the MCR budget but rather the college budget; I am certain that if the college was to change the policy the money would not make it into the MCR budget. In one way or another this could be viewed as less money going towards supporting MCR students.”

He continued, “I am fully supportive of the MCR debating this matter. Even though it is not for us to decide on this matter, as it lies with college, it does affect us in one way or another and it is therefore potentially relevant to discuss.”

Hertford College was unavailable for comment.

Petting zoo for Pembroke and Christ Church students

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Pembroke and Christ Church JCRs organised a joint petting zoo this Thursday in a bid to provide some relief to stressed students undergoing exams.

The petting zoo, which included at least ten different types of animals, including meerkats, a giant rabbit and owls, took place in the Christ Church JCR. The event also featured less conventional petting zoo animals, including snakes, scorpions and a tarantula.

Pembroke Entz Rep Meltem Kamalvand told Cherwell that the aim of the event was to “provide some relief for stressed finalists whilst simultaneously bonding with our frenemies at Christ Church over the sweet joys of a petting zoo. It’s something a bit different and fun, and everyone loves animals.”

Pembroke finalist Nick Hilton remarked, “I think it’s a great idea, although it does appear to pair conventional petting zoo animals with their natural predators.”

Likewise, Jane Cahill, who promised a petting zoo for students during 5th week in her OUSU Presidential manifesto last Michaelmas, remarked, “I’m a big fan of petting zoos. I was totally lambasted for that policy but I stand by it to the end! I guess I wouldn’t have had a scorpion in an OUSU petting zoo though. Not very fluffy or relaxing, in fact quite stressful.”

Unfortunately the event was only open to students at Pembroke and Christ Church. The Pembroke Entz team stated on the Facebook event page stated that “cute animals don’t come for free we’re afraid and we have programmed the snakes to kill anyone from other colleges”.

Matt McGonagle, Pembroke JCR Vice President, said, “We pride ourselves on being natural at Pembroke, and we certainly have a wild side! A petting zoo has animals – who are both natural and wild – so suits us perfectly.”

Rebecca Howe, Pembroke JCR president, told Cherwell, “I think it will help calm nerves during the exam period. I took a stressed finalist to the petting zoo a couple of hours before his exam. He seems calmer now. This is a good thing.”

She added, “When the Entz Reps and I mused over proposing this last Michaelmas, I never in my WILDest dreams thought this would actually come to life. Now it has, it is like Friday of 8th, Oxmas, and LOVE all rolled up into one.

“If ChCh are up for doing it again, then we are. Even if they aren’t, I’m sure I speak for Pembrokians across the kingdom when I say yes – we would like this to happen again. Perhaps annually.”

Equalities Officer criticises Stuart Hall omission

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The University been criticised by its Equality and Diversity Officer after failing to mention the death of Merton alumni Stuart Hall, the Jamaican-born cultural theorist and sociologist, in one of its media bulletins.

In an interview, Shakina Chinedu, the Equality and Diversity Officer, told a reporter from the campaign group Voice4Change that the University refused her request to report Hall’s death in the
media bulletin because “[Hall’s] academic
career wasn’t spent long enough at Oxford
University”.

When approached by Cherwell, Chinedu declined to comment on the issue.

Stuart Hall, who died in Feburary, was one of the founding figures of British Cultural Studies. He won a Rhodes Scholarship to study at Merton, and went on to study for an MA and a DPhil at the University.

Speaking on behalf of Oxford University Africa Society, Brian Kwoba told Cherwell, “The University’s failure to mention Stuart Hall is symptomatic of a larger problem; the white blindspot generated by Oxford’s Eurocentrism. There are a number of Black scholars who are not mentioned, featured in painted portraits on the walls of their respective colleges, or given recognition for coming to Oxford.”

He added, “Besides Stuart Hall, for example, there is also Tajudeen Abdul-Raheem who was the was the general secretary of the Pan-African Movement, director of Justice Africa, Deputy Director of United Nations Millennium Campaign for Africa, as well as a writer for newspapers and journals across Africa.”

Exeter College Equalities Officer-elect Charanpreet Khaira pointed out the implications that the ommission might have for access efforts. Khaira told Cherwell, “It’s a bit of a shame that the University wouldn’t take any opportunity it has to present itself as more racially diverse. Oxford has enough of a stereotypical reputation as it is, and we should be trying to change that to encourage diversity, rather than putting people off from applying.”

However, a University spokesperson pointed out that Stuart Hall’s legacy has been recognised in other ways. In the week of his death, TORCH (The Oxford Research Centre in the Humanities) held a seminar which paid tribute to his life and academic career, and the influence that he has had on political and cultural thought.

The spokesperson also highlighted obituaries that were published on the websites of the Rhodes Trust, Merton College and Oxford Today, the University’s alumni magazine.

Brian Kwoba, who is also a member of the OUSU Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality (CRAE) remarked, “I’m not sure that these omissions put off any non-white applicants from applying, because most people – including people of colour – apply to Oxford for the prestige of the ‘brand’ it has created.”

“Rather, not mentioning or acknowledging the contributions of Black Oxonian alumni like Stuart Hall is certainly a missed opportunity to make a special appeal to BME prospective applicants, and an inspiring story for current BME students.”

As of 2013, black and minority ethnic (BME) students were less likely to be given an offer from the University than white students, as BME students had a success rate of 17.1% compared to 25.4% for white students. The number of BME students applying to the University has increased, however, from 1,965 in 2012, to 2,101 in 2013.

Kwoba has suggested that in order to improve access efforts, the University should attempt to “diversify the academic staff and tutors so that more BME professors can teach about History, English and Philosophy as recorded and understood by scholars from Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Muslim world.”

He also suggested that the humanities broaden their reading lists so that they move beyond Western canon.

A University spokesperson told Cherwell, “Given the vast amount of attention Oxford receives worldwide, the media bulletin cannot hope to be comprehensive and, in order to make it manageable, some types of coverage such as obituaries of alumni are not included, however notable the individual. Tony Benn and Derek Cooper are among recent examples
of alumni whose obituaries were not carried in the round-up.”

University’s harassment policy reforms can only be good news

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After 7 years of negotiations, OUSU have finally managed to push through reforms of the university harassment policy which offer a far larger base of protection to victims of harassment. One of the main achievements has been the provisions for sexual violence, including sexual assault and stalking, which are now included as part of the policy.

The NUS’s 2010 report, Hidden Marks, highlights the endemic nature of sexual violence towards women at university. One in four students had experienced serious physical or sexual assault during their time as a student, and over two thirds had experienced some kind of verbal or non-verbal harassment in and around their institution, leading to such occurrences being considered ‘everyday’ for some. The study also highlights the now widely known fact that perpetrators of sexual violence are usually known to the victims, and the majority of perpetrators were fellow students.

Due to the prevalence of this behaviour, NUS recommends a ‘zero-tolerance’ approach to non-verbal and verbal sexual harassment. Hidden Marks stresses that their research shows an acceptance of ‘low level’ intimidating or aggressive behaviour has normalising effects on ‘high level’ violence, and these cases are thus less likely to be dealt with effectively. Such an approach would “send out a strong signal to both staff and students that such behaviour is unacceptable both within and outside of the learning environment” and “create an environment in which women students are able to participate with dignity and confidence”.

It is therefore incredibly heartening that the university has broken its previous blanket silence on sexual violence as a form of harassment. As anyone who is a member of ‘Everyday Sexism’ can attest, occurrences of sexual violence at university are rife, and certain elements of higher education culture appear to encourage it. These changes to the University’s policy show a step towards creating the much needed zero-tolerance culture towards sexual violence.

Other improvements to the policy are the inclusion of online harassment, clarity on the university involvement in criminal cases, and a new support office, the Student Welfare and Support Services, where specially trained officers can help with informal and formal complaints. The policy also clearly states the 6 week timescale within which students can expect their complaints to be dealt with.

A significant change has been to focus on supporting the survivor, rather than adopting an attitude of disbelief. Previous harassment college policies included intimidating language and seemed more focused on weaselling out liars than protecting those that had suffered sexual violence. As the March 2013 Crown Prosecution Report states very clearly, the public perception of the frequency of false rape allegations is far greater than police data shows to be true. During 2011-2012, there were 5,651 prosecutions for rape and 111,891 for domestic violence. During the same period there were 35 prosecutions for making false allegations of rape, 6 for making false allegation of domestic violence and 3 for making false allegations of both rape and domestic violence.

The bulk of those people making false allegations, which amount to less than one percent of all rape charges, were “often vulnerable people” and some had “mental health difficulties”. The report goes on to state that, “Prosecutors need to look critically at the behaviour and credibility of all those involved, not just the person making the complaint.” That the report would have to stipulate examining the “credibility” of others instead of just “the person making the complaint” is a striking example of the ingrained dismissive attitude towards survivors of sexual violence, stemming from misogynistic views that teach us to distrust women. This culture of automatically distrusting the survivor is a key factor in ensuring the perpetuation of rape culture, as it teaches people that the account of the victim will be met with distrust and scepticism.

The report goes on to state that, “The events of the last year have demonstrated that there is an urgent need for an informed national debate about the proper approach to the investigation and prosecution of sexual offences. That debate needs to extend well beyond the CPS and the police.” It is thus incredibly heartening that the University has responded to the pressure applied by Sarah Pine, OUSU VP for Women, and the ‘It Happens Here’ campaign, and has subsequently updated the harassment policy. Although this is any a small step on the road towards ensuring that women feel safe in the university, and any (hopefully) rare cases of sexual violence are dealt with efficiently and sensitively, it should be not be overlooked.

Yet these bureaucratic changes can only go so far. Without initiatives from diverse groups across the student body, sexual violence may remain endemic. Such initiatives are especially crucial from groups which wield greater amounts of institutional power.

The absence of light: American TV in its post-Golden Age

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In the late nineties American television began to accept realism. Gone were the mansions, cocktail hours, private helicopters and family-owned sheriffs that had littered the sagas of Dallas and Dynasty. Grit made its seedy way onto the small screen in the same way that it made its imprint in eighties Scorsese movies. Main characters would carry on their backs the brunt of repercussions of a potentially destructive foreign policy (The West Wing), or find themselves responsible for turning human matter into mangled flesh (The Sopranos and The Wire). Alternately they treated mangled flesh to stop it from expiring (ER), or, should the victim suffer no such luck, hover by their dead bodies whilst they munched on their ham sandwiches (the Law and Order franchise). That was if their daily tasks did not include its grooming and embalming (Six Feet Under).

This kind of television overturned the artificial glamour which the public had been weaned on for too many years. Through means of some mysterious paradox, this was the funniest time in television’s history.

In the dozen years between the mid-nineties and late 2000’s, an era now known as the modern ‘golden age’, no law decreed that characters would have to be completely clueless to be humorous. Even the average network sitcom – a genre now riddled with characters so unbelievable in their idiocy that any ‘real’ version of them remains totally alien to most human beings – had people to whose living functions we could actually relate. But what was ‘golden’ when it came to golden drama was the sleek unbroken way in which it could poke fun at its own plots and protagonists. This wasn’t rooted in a lazily staged moment where a character trips up on a dead body before later misplacing it. The funny moments wove patches of guesswork, endeared to us the major players, or relieved a moment heavy with dramatic tension of its burden. They had the buttons for igniting lightness.

Characters in these beloved series were in full recognition of the risks they took, the brevity of their existence and the countless childhood tragedies they or their friend or wives or husbands had endured. Yet they traipsed round their lives with all the casualness, self-mockery and sometimes nonchalance to which we would attribute long-shore fishermen described in Arthur Miller plays. It was the job, and that was life. There would still be a home at the end of the day. Or the night. Or seventy-two hours if it was that kind of shift.

Infallibility was absent; flaws were not. Tony Soprano, for instance, once left two ‘made men’ of his Mafia dynasty, Paulie and Christopher, in charge of killing and disposing of the body of a Russian mobster. The act itself falls short of triggering a laugh. What is funny is the outcome that this gruelling cruelty has when aforementioned Paulie and Christopher are not only uncertain about the Russian’s existential status, but lose him (either as an active human being or as a corpse), in the midst of the snow-laden Pine Barrens, a huge woods in New Jersey. That, however, is not Paulie’s major concern. In the process, he has lost his shoe. Outraged, Tony screams down the phone at him, in some crooked attempt at cryptic language: “Is the ‘package’ still alive?!” His fifteen-year-old son, Anthony Junior, sits on the couch nonchalantly eating ice-cream. He watches. He says nothing. The paradox between the horrifying subject that’s at hand, Tony’s ‘inventive’ way of questioning, and his son’s habitualness to such a situation recalls the Theatre of the Absurd. It is the spark that pierced the dark.

In ER, a hospital drama where patients die daily from an inoperable stage five cancer, a gunshot wound or horrible bad luck, one never gets the feeling there’s a messy clutter of untarnishable blackness. Intern John Carter gleefully listens to The Ride of the Valkyries as he joyously performs an appendectomy on Dr. Benton, a resident and Carter’s dictatorial teacher. The nurses, whose daily tasks include directing screaming patients to the Psych unit and intubating suicidal cases, chat briskly with the simple attitude of shopkeepers or office workers who have never seen a corpse. A typical conversation has one nurse request leave for a honeymoon, insisting that “You don’t get married every day,” only for her colleague to respond with a correction: “No, in your case, only every year.” To this the first nurse then replies: “Yeah – but I worked extra hard for this one.”

It’s not only the killers and the doctors at their victims’ helm who brand a sticky daily situation with a stamp of light trivialisation. Police procedurals such as Law and Order, back in the days when Times Square was not clustered with the flashing images from multimedia presentations, tended to discuss a body slashed, mangled or maimed as easily as they might do a daytime soap opera. When one detective, fresh from the sighting of the body of a murdered councilman, finds out that there’s a rumour that his partner hasn’t told him yet, he retorts in his indignation: “Well, Max. This really freezes my cookies.”

It could be interpreted as either disturbing or funny. But by all measures – it was realistic. One would hope that real detectives don’t spend all day frowning and issuing speech in flat tones of an empty hopelessness the way their representatives in Law and Order: SVU, Person of Interest, NCIS and other shows do. After all, unlike most citizens they have pursued this lifestyle as a full-time job. There’s a time in the day when they have to go out and get lunch; another when they have to go and buy their kids some socks. If they were genuinely traumatised by every corpse they witnessed being gnawed at by a swarm of flies, they would be spending half their salaries on therapy.

The trend in television was not just offsetting the extreme dark with a small dosage of comedy. The West Wing, a series which featured no glimpse of an expired matter, relied on its characters mess-ups to render them loveable. In the current climate of political dramas such as Scandal and House of Cards, every plot line rests on an epic scale. It’s do or die, or save a life or kill, or some advent of a dramatic leitmotif on strings which signifies an eerie omen. The West Wing was unique in telling viewers that White House policies, which sometimes end up on the front page of The New York Times, could be cemented when two aides sit down for a Jack Daniels. They could be sparked by a whirlwind of meaningless banter spiced with a subtle flirtation. Or they could happen by accident. When Josh Lyman accidentally tells the White House Press Corps there’s a ‘secret plan to fight inflation’ intending it as nothing but a superficial joke, it is perceived as policy. Sometimes even the gravest mishaps are the funniest ones.

Desperate Housewives, which ran eight seasons largely on the fuel of its narration of a young wife who committed suicide, had the facility to splinter gloom. A mother’s insistence that the big bad wolf who ate the grandma of Red Riding Hood had simply ‘suffered a bad childhood and deserved forgiveness’ lightened-up an episode laden with tension. Even one of HBO’s most miserable endeavours, 2008’s In Treatment, consisting wholly of traumatic psychotherapeutic sessions, made viewers laugh when the psychiatrist saw his own shrink. Responding to the doctor’s grievances about the wife who left him, little familiarity with his own daughter, and broken communication with his son, Dianne Wiest’s character remarked: “Well, at least you didn’t have a dog; or else you would have screwed that up.”

The years passed by. Cable and broadcast networks sought a continuation of the golden age and picked on what made most hits differ from a typical Hollywood blockbuster; what had ensured that train passengers and people waiting at the bus-stop talked much more about them than they did about the latest ‘epic’ movie starring Arnold Schwarzenegger. Their answer? Darkness.

In the medium of TV, the commonly used adjective ‘dark’ often purports to translate into one message: ‘He is deep’. Tony Soprano killed people for a living, then didn’t feel too good about it. He was complex, he was complicated, and he spent one hour a week at a psychiatrist’s office. Networks picked on up this theme: if a character was part-time evil or ambiguous, if something in them was the crux of something dangerous or irremediable – as with Don Draper and more recently with Walter White – it gathered reams of watchers and the viewing figures mounted. Producers hunted for their own piece of the hype and snapped it up. It’s possible they went too far.

Whilst television quality reached new artistic heights, Hollywood spent those years sticking to showing viewers more about computers and the different moulds that make one virtual figure jump and fly than something recognisable or neighbourly. The room left for the actual human beings, unsimulated dialogue, two people brushing past each other as they walk down through a corridor, has mostly muted its main characters into sharp wooden figurines who wear a frown most gallantly and transport in their oratory only the gravest, allegedly most life-changing, supposedly ‘meaningful’ speech.

Has Hollywood now hijacked television? Looking around the drama series both on cable and network channels, the staples that we know so well from modern cinema – layer upon layer of flash imagery, eyebrows narrowed to signify impending disaster, not to mention the quickest strokes of bowing on the strings – has swallowed up this genre that we’ve come to call ‘elite’.  

If television’s current need for darkness shaped only the moral values of its major characters, then its creative side and structure would remain unhurt. But this compulsion for TV to have a ‘dark side’ has begun to tamper with the stitches of its fabric. It’s mandated that seriousness preside over each drama, that protagonists be so irreparably damaged that they unlearn animation in the eyes, and that all inner darkness be externalised. The flexible and malleable fabric of lightness has been stuffed behind a locked door. Modern hype-spurring hits, such as True Detective, House of Cards, and within broadcast television, NBC’s The Blacklist, are not privy to human beings who have capacity for laughing at themselves. Their storylines are hardly sterile to these humoristic touches; we have learnt in TV’s recent history that very few are. Perhaps for flash effect, perhaps for seediness, perhaps to construct a barometer of ‘grit’ – ‘lightness’ is something they forego.

So popular is this component ‘darkness’ that it spreads not only to the script, but even more so to aesthetics. True Detective is its crowning example. A series about two detectives searching for a serial killer over the course of seventeen years is not inviting humour along for the ride. Neither its themes nor plot is to be held responsible. A great deal of screen time is devoted to shots which in no way supplant the viewers with a story thread or leave behind red herrings. Long shots of wide expanses of the Louisiana desert consume the series’ minutes in a manner that’s unduly. As though extensive close-ups of a corpse are insufficient, in the corpse’s background can be seen a dark grey, clouded sky. The camera shifts its focus from the bound and litigated corpse to the grey sky, then to the corpse and back again; it’s tiring on the viewer’s eyes. But more importantly, it misses out on any chance to spell outsomething, acting only as a keener emphasis on knowledge that we have. Even the phrase “You gotta come to dinner” is delivered like a dark presage. As though a tortured, murdered prostitute and the fact that one of the detectives had his daughter killed isn’t enough, it has to be conveyed to us: “Look, viewers – the material is dark.”

Sometimes a show can go beyond all reasonable lengths to toot the sound of its own horn. The breakout broadcast drama of last season, NBC’s The Blacklist, is a beaming example. It follows James Spader as ‘Red’ Reddington, an FBI assistant who himself is guilty of, shall we say, more than a hundred crimes.

Typical plots include death threats, the odd bomb, hijacking, kidnapping, hostage, murder-suicide, and the main character Elizabeth Keen’s arduous attempt to find out how she and ‘Red’ have a connection. These events can rival the series’ own gaudiness, but nonetheless don’t quite win out. The camera lens flicks from one face, one location or one object to another; desiring first and foremost to inform us of impending danger. We see half-faces, then a quarter of a face, then three-quarter faces – all of them freeze shots like photos. Although having the luxury of being entirely filmed in New York City, the colour palette is, as though by some formal decree, restricted to a dismal murky grey and brown. The interiors, mostly situated in Keen’s home or FBI headquarters, resemble army barracks or the inside of a prison cell. This isn’t helped by the delivery of lines from secondary characters; thrown off in the frozen declamatory nature of a student group preparing for the read-through of their summer play.

Although Breaking Bad made ample use of humour, not even grazing this cliché, other more recent cable dramas stick to the ‘look at us: we’re serious’ trope. This is one of the reasons why last year’s debut The Americans fell short of millions among viewers. Not only is it ill-informed about its subject – a pair of Soviet spies posing as US travel agents in the midst of Cold War Washington – it boasts too much of the high stakes involved. We understand that its protagonists risk being martyrs for their country. We understand their children, ignorant of who they really are, may also die. It seems that this alone is not enough. Relying on some slow strokes of the strings in film music to tell us of impending action, The Americans is built on a somnolent tone which, paradoxically to all intents and purposes, transports its viewers into a calm lull. So frequently are we expected to anticipate something horrific – such as being led falsely to believe that its main character, clad in black leather gloves, would kill a priest for taking a donation from his teenage daughter – that the show no longer toots its horn; the horn has ceased to function.

One could argue that this immersion of serialised drama into a bleak solidity, either aesthetically or plot-wise, is limited to series which lack critical acclaim or Emmy nominations. But even when it comes to Homeland, meticulously acted, polished with the finest sense of art direction, the drama seems to be so irrevocably plunged into gloom that there is nothing left which can be funny. Understandably one can’t expect self-mockery from anti-hero Nicholas Brody; a US marine who has spent six years in torture in the hands of al-Qaeda terrorists. Nor can we anticipate much easiness from Carrie Mathison; the female lead and an unstable, bipolar CIA Case Officer. But Homeland went all out to tell us that not even something banal or routine, nothing with semblance to the average life could ever happen on this show. Brody’s wife Jessica is endlessly depressed – and not because her husband has been brainwashed by Iraqi terrorists and missed out on his children’s lives. She hates lacking the time for trysts with her ex-lover. Her daughter Dana is a disturbed rebel whose idea of frivolity involves making her boyfriend drive them recklessly through traffic and red lights. The ‘act of daring’ ends when they collide with an old lady, ending her life. For a series with a prisoner of war, Islamic fundamentalists and a mostly ruthless band of undercover CIA agents at its centre, the surrounding melodrama is unnecessaary.

Perhaps it’s grounded in the need of television to ingratiate itself with Hollywood movie producers, becoming a copycat in its usage of flash imagery, collectives of flashbacks, or the brand of ‘dark acting’ that customarily imposes incessant frowning, ‘concerned’ looks and a stoicism unseen since its origins in Hellenistic Greece. Or maybe network television wants to originate its own brand of ‘dark characters’, disciplining and carrying their series so much into a murky colour palette that its leads appear infallible and if perchance they err, it is an unimaginable tragedy.

Wherever the reasons begin, ‘lightness’ is not a word one could associate with television drama nowadays. Both its textual and visual fabrics lack the humour, habits and the regular routine most Westerners experience in their daily lives. It lacks moments relatable. In its own thirst for seriousness, it has become a brand of anti-theatre; skipping the opportunity for spontaneity, easy mistakes that plague all human beings, the odd mispronunciation or a miscommunication that either makes our day or makes us blameworthy. Reality has gradually been suctioned out. And there’s no longer anyone to laugh about it.

5th Week in Fashion

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‘Coming Soon To a Woman Near You’

The Most Newsworthy in Fashion and Trends

Continuing Cannes – Cannes Film Festival is quickly becoming the festival of motion pictures that, like the San Diego Comic Con, has become as much about the celebrities as the work. Whatever you make of it, the stars have been rolling out in their best day, formal and evening wear in order to impress us before we even know what their film’s about (or why they’re there at all). See a favourite look of mine below and Google ‘Cannes 2014’ to see more.

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Little Armani – after her spine-chilling turn in 2012’s Beasts of the Southern Wild, Quvenzhané Wallis has just been announced as the new face of Armani Junior. She says ‘I’m so happy to be chosen by Mr. Armani to be his ambassador for Armani Junior. I felt the same excitement when I got cast for a major film. Me? Wow! I was honored to wear his custom gown to the Oscars. It made me feel like a princess.’

The Campaigns of Dreams – you know how most people love puppies and good looking guys? Well, Stuart Weitzman has put the two highly lethal combinations together in his new advert for his clothing and shoe line. The face of the brand, Zoe Saldana, is placed front and center amongst the poolside houses, gorgeous people and animals. Quite fittingly, the advert is titled: ‘Feels so Good’.

Egypt Rising – Forget about Blue Ivy, the Jolie-Pitt brood and Brooklyn Beckham; the son of Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz (aka Kasseem Dean), Egypt, made his catwalk debut at the age of just three this week. Ralph Lauren managed to snap up the little one to model his autumn/winter ’14 collection, which hit the runway at the New York Public Library. 

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Altuzarra for Target – Hot off its recent sell-out designer collaborations – ahem, Peter Pilotto – Target has just unveiled young designer Jason Altuzarra as the next hand to create a limited edition collection for the store. We expect it to arrive on September 14th, 2014 (a date for your diaries, girls), and is described as being a mix of iconic Altuzarra silhouettes with designs created exclusively for Target. The 50-piece collection ranges in price from $17.99 to $89.99 for apparel and lingerie, and $29.99 to $79.99 for shoes and accessories. No news yet on when it will hit this side of the pond.

 

Into the Wild

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