Tuesday 15th July 2025
Blog Page 253

Oxford campus appears in Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal

Georgie Cutmore
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Oxford campus appears in Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal

Netflix’s Anatomy of a Scandal, which premiered on 15 April 2022, was partly filmed in Oxford. The six-part courtroom drama series, based on the novel of the same name by Sarah Vaughan, follows the life of Tory MP James Whitehouse (Rupert Friend) as he stands accused of sexual assault.

His wife and mother-of-two Sophie, played by Sienna Miller, fights to clear her husband and family from scandal. She meets her match in justice-hungry Kate Woodcroft QC (Michelle Dockery), the prosecution barrister for the case.

Both James and Sophie Whitehouse spent their undergraduate years at Oxford University.

Flashbacks to Oxford depict James’ time as a member of the elite, debauched society, the Libertines Club – itself inspired by the Bullingdon Club.

Filming occurred in Oxford between March 25 and 28, 2021. The show was shot in New College Lane, Brasenose Lane, Wadham, and Pembroke Square.

Similarly to the recent filming of Timothée Chalamet’s Wonka, Radcliffe Square was occupied by film trucks, equipment and production crews for the duration of the shoot.

Filming took place across the country. Some scenes meant to be based at Oxford University were filmed in Winchester College in Hampshire.

Image credit: Ray Harrington via unsplash.com

Calorific damage

Imee Marriott
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Calorific damage

CW: calories, eating disorders

Many will be aware of the public concern which erupted when the government passed legislation making it compulsory for eateries with over 250 employees to label menus in England with calories alongside the message that “adults need around 2000kcal a day”. Much of this reaction centred around the risk to those suffering from and vulnerable to eating disorders. 

But how significant is this risk, given the scale of the obesity ‘crisis’? After all, an estimated 63 percent of adults in England are classed as overweight or obese, and thus are at higher risk of cancer, diabetes, coronary heart disease, mental health issues and are prone to lower life expectancy. Around 14 percent of reception age children are obese; this rises to 25 percent for year six.

Surely a strategy designed to tackle what the Department of Health & Social Care calls “one of the greatest long-term health challenges this country faces”, (a challenge which disproportionately affects those of deprived groups) cannot be so problematic?

The experts — and the facts — suggest otherwise. 

Eating disorders (EDs) are mental health conditions, which, simplistically put, involve an unhealthy and obsessive relationship with food. The UK’s leading eating disorder charity, Beat, has repeatedly raised concerns regarding the government’s scheme. They have pointed to research which shows that faced with a hypothetical menu with calorie counts, people with anorexia and bulimia are more likely to make a choice with notably fewer calories, those with binge-eating disorder (which is linked to obesity): the opposite. Ask anyone with experience of one and they will tell you that EDs thrive off numbers: weight lost or gained, clothes sizes, amount of time spent exercising, amount of time spent fasting, number of calories burnt, number of calories consumed… and so on. Part of ED recovery is learning to stop measuring worth by these arbitrary digits, by widening focus from narrow Venn diagrams of food, weight and control towards a more holistic conception of health. 

Another component is learning to eat out again.

To eat out covers a wide range of situations: enjoying a birthday meal with friends or family, going to a restaurant for a date, grabbing something from Starbucks at a service station or the airport, sharing a plate of chips at a pub, queuing for a Najar’s on a Saturday evening. These situations can already be challenging: in Beat’s November 2020 survey of over 1000 people, 95% who had first or second hand experience of an ED flagged that calorie labelling would only increase the anxiety and distress eating out can induce. For many, without the recovery safety ropes provided by the familiar factors of meal time, content, and location, the ED voice suddenly sounds very loud. 

This is not to say that the government has completely ignored campaigners like Beat: following mounting pressure, they’ve dictated that eateries are allowed to offer a menu without calorie labelling on request. The key words here are “allowed” and “on request”. What if you don’t feel comfortable asking? What if they don’t have one? What’s to stop you glancing across at the menu of the person next to you? The very fact that there are labels is likely to catalyse an increased frequency of conversations regarding calories. Just as it doesn’t take a great stretch of the imagination to see how the proliferation on social media of diet pill adverts and body-tuned photos negatively impacts body image, these mealtime “diet talk” conversations are much more likely to generate mental distress than physical wellbeing. Although such sociocultural discourses do not solely cause EDs – which are incredibly complex illnesses – there is a widespread recognition that our cultural and social fixation of thinness and ‘clean’ eating are facilitating factors. For example, Orthorexia (fixation with righteous eating) is strongly associated with the social media ‘healthy eating movement’, more often than not propped up by pseudoscience and unqualified influencers. 

So, it’s not difficult to see how the calorie strategy will challenge ED sufferers, but – especially compared to the scale of the obesity crisis – why should we care? We could argue that only a minority of people in the UK suffer with an eating disorder: an estimated 1.25m, around 2 percent of the population. However, for comparison, alcohol dependency comes in at around 0.9 percent. Furthermore it’s widely believed that more people than officially diagnosed have eating issues, owing to a variety of factors ranging from antiquated diagnosis guidelines to ignorance on the part of medical practitioners (the number of hours spent on EDs at medical school is less than two on average) to stereotypes regarding ED sufferers. Contrary to the trope of the white female anorexic, EDs affect people of all ethnicities, classes, and gender identities (1/4 sufferers are male), and refer to more than anorexia: the majority of sufferers are diagnosed with “Other Specified Feeding or Eating Disorders” (OFSED, 47%) or Binge Eating Disorder (22%). Another misconception is that having an ED leads to weight loss. Actually, binge eating disorder is strongly linked to having an ‘overweight’ BMI. Given the documented links between obesity and ED behaviours (with the latter posited as a causal factor), the exacerbation of eating disorder cognitions may contribute to, not detract from, obesity – as BEAT’s hypothetical menu study suggests. To throw some more statistics into the mix, EDs have the highest mortality rates among psychiatric disorders and a September 2021 report found that they cost the UK a shocking 9.4 billion pounds a year. In comparison, the cost of obesity comes in at a lower count: £6.1 billion in 2014/15. This number is projected to increase to £9.7 billion in 2050, but – especially given the impact of the pandemic, which has seen hospital admissions and waiting list numbers increase by almost 50 percent – it is not wild speculation to say the financial cost of EDs will surpass this.

Furthermore, there is little evidence to suggest that calorie labelling on menus will actually work. Much like the outdated and contested BMI scale (developed in the 1830s on a scientific basis which is wanting by today’s standards), calorie-tracking has many critics. Calorie counting is one method of judging what we eat, and one that doesn’t necessarily assist healthier choices. For example, a chocolate bar may have less calories than a regular meal, but sugary processed foods compare poorly in terms of nutritional content. Our bodies are not designed to use food in a simplistic in and out calculation, but work through processes of digestion, absorption, and excretion: you may ingest 100 calories but 100 calories is not necessarily what your body takes in. Additionally, the message that 2000kcal a day is optimal does not accord with NHS guidelines that “ideal daily intake of calories varies depending on age, metabolism and levels of physical activity, among other things”. In fact, many people will need a great deal more than this on a daily basis, including adolescents and those repairing their metabolisms and/or gaining weight in ED recovery: two risk groups for triggers exacerbating disordered behaviours.

But what about the non-ED sufferer aiming to lose weight? Well, the research doesn’t look particularly promising on that front either. The 2018 Cochane review found only a small body of low quality evidence to suggest calorie counts on menus lead to reduced calories consumed. This accords with a recent study in the US concerning calorie labelling in fast food restaurants: despite an initial 4 percent reduction in calories per order, this dried up during a one year follow up, suggesting calorie labelling doesn’t translate to sustainable impact. Moreover, is there much sense in putting calories on menus when, especially compared to European countries, the British don’t actually eat out that much? 40 percent only dine out once a month, and only 8.5 percent more than once a week. Given the rise in the cost of living, these percentages are certainly unlikely to increase. One group of people who may be disproportionately affected however, is ED sufferers, many of whom prefer the predictability of high street and chain eateries, finding comfort in a familiar menu. 

Stuart Flint, the head of Obesity UK, also views the scheme as misdirected: “The reality is that we’ve had 14 policies over the last 20 years related to obesity, and it hasn’t decreased, it’s increased. And the reason is that most of those are focused on individual changing.” He points out that, “Obesity is very complex. If it was as simple as eating less or more, people wouldn’t gain weight to the extent we have at the moment, and people would be able to lose weight more easily.” Experts echo Flint’s point: a simplistic approach to weight management ignores the socioeconomic factors contributing to rising obesity rates, namely the link between obesity and deprivation. For example, the prevalence of obesity in the most deprived 1/10th of children is twice that of the least deprived 1/10th. Low income families have limited food choices, budgets, access to physical activity, and time. Is it that outlandish to argue that we should be addressing these factors, and the fundamental wealth inequality which they stem from, coupled with promoting preventative healthcare and education? The latter is a point which food campaigners and experts stress: over half of children do not learn cooking basics at school, leaving them ill-equipped to cook healthy meals whilst balancing financial restrictions as adults. Giving children and adolescents these tools would not not only foster health benefits but hopefully ecological ones too, by promoting the use of seasonal ingredients and choice of climatarian-friendly foods. Acknowledging the webs of causality behind the obesity crisis, including the structural factors, is bound to be a more impactful strategy than shifting the blame onto individuals and responsibility onto the hospitality industry. 

Indeed, Kate Nicholls, chief executive of trade body UK Hospitality, has appealed to the government to delay their plans as the food hospitality industry continues to struggle in the pandemic aftermath. Co-founder of Wahaca, Mark Selby, summarised the sector’s concerns when he emphasised the increased logistical and financial challenges of creating a system whereby chefs were using the same amount of ingredient across branches every day. Sven-Hanson Britt, Masterchef winner, warned of the detriment to the creativity of the cooking industry, fearing that “Kids will grow up in restaurants, hotels and cafes only looking at that little number below a dish. Choices will be made based on a number alone. The love of flavour, ingredients, history, cooking, craft or nutrition will be lost and masked by a newly perceived focus.” Given the likelihood of quotidian human errors and swaps (anyone who has worked in a restaurant or somewhere similar will tell you that meal preparation is no exact science), how can restaurant-goers even be certain of the accuracy of these ‘little number[s]”? Additionally, the legislation does not apply to items on the menu for less than 30 days. Hence, any argument in favour of the health benefits of calorie labelling is redundant for anyone ordering a special, and we may see a proliferation of temporary menu items, as eateries work their way around this restrictive new plan. 

All this considered, the government may find neither safety nor strength in numbers given the limited evidence for the effectiveness of calorie labelling, the logistical and economic inconvenience falling on a floundering hospitality industry, and the complex socioeconomic causes of obesity. Those struggling with eating disordered thinking who are encountering this new case study in under-researched virtue signalling will be understandably anxious, but there are resources and strategies to cope. 

Beat UK has published guidance on eating out with calories on menus, which stresses that planning ahead can go a long way: this may mean discussing potential triggers and anxieties with a friend, treatment team, or family member. This sort of discussion is best limited to a single treatment session or conversation, and researching the menu, beyond familiarisation with options, should be kept to a minimum. Calling ahead or requesting a calorie free menu on the day, and asking the rest of the group to do so too – if comfortable with this – may constitute useful preparation. This approach may not be available for every situation, especially with lots of people- but a trusted person among the group will likely be happy to keep an eye out, for example by steering the conversation away from diet talk discussion. Alternatively, the propensity of email-checking, snapchatting, and Wordle-completing which comes (free of charge!) with most dining out experiences means that friends or family can easily be at the end of a message to provide support. In any situation, but particularly among strangers, relying on mental strategies and fact-checking ED thoughts is key. Remind yourself that the 2000kcal recommendation is not a law or a goal but an approximate, that calories themselves are a disputed method of determine the nutritional quality of foods, and that each person needs different amounts of food: any comparison to what another person is eating is necessarily based on an incomplete picture of their nutritional requirements, relationship with food, and past and present food intake. Calories on menus may seem like just another string to the bow of a culture which seems so counterproductive to ED recovery, but as countless people will be able to tell you, progress is possible. And there will come a day where you’ll be able to say “Pipe down Karen, no one cares that you’re having something called a sandwich despite the fact it has no bread and no butter and just looks like a suffocated fern just because it’s the lowest calorie option” whilst tucking into a chunky sarnie, those pesky little numbers as irrelevant as an English student’s opinion on quantum gravity*. 

*very irrelevant.

Image Credit: Mia Holte / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 via Flickr

Netflix’s Newest Sweetheart

Hetta Johnson
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Netflix’s Newest Sweetheart

Originally posted as a webcomic series on Tumblr in 2019, Alice Oseman’s Heartstopper became an instant hit. It has been adored internationally for its sweet portrayal of young, queer love and friendship. The series grew so popular that Oseman was able to source funding to self-publish a limited print edition of the first volume in just two hours. Publishing houses took note of her success and Hachette Group later bought the rights to publish all four volumes, with a fifth and final instalment set to release in February 2023.

This is not, however, Oseman’s first foray into the world of Young Adult literature. They secured their first publishing deal at the age of just 17, and their debut novel, Solitaire, features Charlie from Heartstopper‘s older sister, Tori, as the protagonist.

It was announced in January 2021 that Heartstopper was going to be adapted to live-action with Joe Locke and Kit Connor as Charlie and Nick. And, when the series finally landed on Netflix this spring, it quickly took the world by storm, racking up millions of views in its first week and obtaining a legion of new, adoring fans.

Having read the first volume around the time of the first casting announcement, I finally finished the series the day before the show’s debut, before proceeding to buy myself the series in print soon after – this is testament to just how much I enjoyed this story. Not only does Oseman’s exploration of first love amongst queer teens feel both nostalgic, sweet and resonant, but the graphic novels themselves are also compulsively readable, with me finishing all four in under two hours.

Charlie Spring is one of the only out gay boys in his school and he’s suffered for it at the hands of bullies in his last year. His story begins at the start of a new term where he is seated beside Year 11 ‘rugby king’ Nick Nelson, the subject of his seemingly unrequited crush. It’s a familiar setting that makes it all the more relatable for both teens and young adults reading the series, and the sweet friendship and love of the two main characters is hard not to be instantly and totally swept up in. What Oseman captures perfectly through both their art and characterisation, is the jolt of first attraction and the swift, insecure blossoming of first love. With Nick and Charlie, there is no drama or toxicity, and their wholesome relationship is the beating heart of the novels.

Entwined with the wholesome depiction of young, queer love are profound and honest explorations of what it looks like to be young and questioning your sexuality and your social circle which seems, at that age, to be everything that matters to you. Oseman writes Nick’s inner turmoil with real care, providing not just joy within the novels but a place of comfort and solace for young readers as well.

The show was praised for its heart-warming representation of queer joy and love, and the graphic novels, too, are suffused with this. However, as the novels progress, Oseman introduces harder-hitting themes: Charlie grapples with an eating disorder and mental health struggles, namely depression and OCD. I’d be lying if I said the later novels didn’t leave me sobbing as I read them during the early hours of the morning, but the honest exploration of such struggles are vital for young readers to have access to and I think Oseman handles them with deft tenderness.

Another standout aspect of the series is the superb cast of supporting characters. From Charlie’s wonderful friendship group, Elle, Tao, Isaac, Darcey and Tara, to Nick’s supportive mum (played by none other than Olivia Coleman in the TV show), the supporting cast help to round out the graphic novels and remind readers of the joy and importance of strong support networks – be they relatives or not. However, it’s not all sunshine and rainbows, the friends sometimes clash heads and aspects of both Nick and Charlie’s home lives aren’t easy for them to cope with, neatly blending the highs and lows of personal life that most people can relate to. But, regardless of the struggles Nick and Charlie face as a couple, what endures throughout the series is the strength of their love for one another and the enduring support of the friends they have around them. It’s a wonderful message to young readers picking up the series in a world littered with negative depictions of and attitudes towards queerness, that everyone is every bit worthy of joy and love, and that family, if not the ones you are given, can be found and made elsewhere.

To ask whether or not the graphic novels live up to the hype of the smash-hit Netflix series seems to miss the point. These books, adapted to screen by the author no less, are the blueprint for the show and provide every inch of much joy and warmth as its adaptation.

Image Credit: Hetta Johnson

Maxim Biller and Ukraine: The resignation of a German-Jewish author?

Paula Odenheimer
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Maxim Biller and Ukraine: The resignation of a German-Jewish author?

I am well aware that for the sake of switching off from university, or from the cruel news about Ukraine, it is better to read books that are unrelated to your studies. Still, over the vacation, I found myself in the rabbit hole of finishing the books by Maxim Biller that I had not read for my module in German-Jewish literature. His short stories fascinate me. Wenn ich einmal reich und tot bin (‘Someday when I’m rich and dead: Narratives’) and his novel Esra are probably the ones that stuck to me the most. Before Hilary term, I only knew Biller from a widely followed legal dispute about the latter novel. I have also seen him in-person as a poetics lecturer in Heidelberg. I knew he was a German writer, a columnist for the major newspaper Die Zeit, and a highly disputed figure because he never holds back his opinions.

Now I can say that I read most of his novels and short stories, listened to an eight-hour interview on a podcast and consumed a lot of his sharp newspaper columns. Closing the last page of Bernsteintage (‘Amber Days’), and opening the newspaper, I stumbled across a new article by Biller. The title (in translation) was “Everything was for nothing. Why I no longer want to be a writer.” After initially thinking that this was only another of his provoking statements, I realised that he was serious this time.

While I devoured Maxim Biller’s books, Russia had simultaneously started a war against Ukraine. Around a month of deadly attacks on people, their homes, and former lives  lies in between the beginning of this war and Biller’s proclamation that he wished to stop being a writer. This leaves us with the existential question on whether and how one ought to be an author in the current time of war.

I am not speaking of Ukrainian authors who are and will be willing to write about their immediate experiences, but of authors like Biller who live in another European country. There seem to be two quite radical answers: protest or resignation. Where many famous writers, like Margaret Atwood or Salman Rushdie, are publicly standing up for Ukraine and condemning Russia’s invasion, Biller goes down another path. He announces the end of his career as an author, arguably by putting the spotlight on himself. This career, although definitely considered controversial, is quite a substantial one. The winner of numerous prizes, Biller has been an integral part of  the German literary scene for over the last 30 years. He is one of the biggest contemporary names, next to authors like Daniel Kehlmann or Christian Kracht.

It seems astonishing that he proclaims to end his career so abruptly, especially due to a war that isn’t even taking place in his own country. To find answers that make sense of Biller’s statement beyond allegations of self-centredness, Biller’s background has to be considered. Being a Jew who migrated from Prague to Germany at the age of ten, Biller belongs to the so-called second-generation of German-Jewish writers after 1945. He might not have yet been born when his people and ancestors were callously killed in Nazi concentration and extinction camps, but these gaping wounds still accompany his life and writing. He recently explained that in his stories, he tries to render post-war reality into fiction. However, facing how people kill and denounce each other once again, these fictions turn back into cruel reality. Something quite unthinkable happens again in real life.

Maybe the difference between Jewish and non-Jewish writers becomes quite evident in such a delicate question as the one Biller raises with stepping down from writing fiction. If we wanted to zoom out a little further, we could ask if there is a moment in time when producing art is inappropriate? For sure, what can be said is that art has always been something productive, even in the darkest times. However, I do not want to go as far as to imply that Biller addresses this existential question, but rather that he gives a personal answer to the dilemma of whether he should continue to write. The absence of sympathy in a time of war, when he values sympathy as one of the most important traits of an author, leads him to his decision.

Biller has always been a German writer who stressed his German-Jewish background, and so it seems reasonable that he is not only speaking for himself, but a bigger group of German-Jewish authors. From the terrible history of Jews in Germany, this literature has always been more receptive, more conscious, more human. Who could have grasped the nature of the world in fewer words than Franz Kafka did – merely a coincidence that he was born in Prague, like Biller. We will have to see if others react similarly, and if Biller takes up a pen again at some point. For now, I am glad that I have read his books because they give me a way to think about this war’s reality and the most profound questions of human nature itself.

Artwork credit: Ben Beechener.

The things we’ve scene- A satirical review on Oxford’s social schleppings

Anna Davidson and Nia Large
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The things we’ve scene- A satirical review on Oxford’s social schleppings

Image Description: A high heel stepping on a disco ball

Hello and welcome to Nia and Anna’s bid for next year’s top 40 BNOC list. This week was tough. We agonised over what to name this, our weekly round of nonsense (tragically rejecting ‘Two Girls, One Column’). We sent networking emails to people who would spit at us in the street. We launched ourselves into gonzo journalism, a genre we are well suited to as we are ourselves cunts. Having worked ourselves to the point of minor bother, we are now happy to present our intensive investigations into various Oxford scenes. 

Our week started off as all good weeks do: working at the Mansfield Ball, which included being accused of stealing people’s silent disco headphones (yes, you caught me, I was jealous of how cool you looked singing Maroon 5’s Payphone to no music) and being stared at in utter dismayed disgust at having the audacity to check someone’s ticket. A short shift and a couple of failed collections later, we were ready to spend our weekend socialising – or at least, hiding in the corner with our feet turned inwards and our fringes over our eyes.

We started our research on Oxford’s political scene at the great, iconic bastion of Oxford debate; one often criticised for its saturation with the nation’s elites, the OULC (Oxford University Labour Club). The room was decked out in Ed Balls decor; a man who, given the time he spent at Oxford setting up his own elite dining society, was a natural choice for the Labour club’s favourite man of the people. Upon entry, the speakers in the welcome drinks were blasting ‘Common People’ – a song which is meaningful to many members, who could relate to it because they too study sculpture. As we ourselves spend our time studying the linguistic turn and Plato’s Republic, we can always respect anything without direct practical use. After having a bit of fun the Labour club way – dancing and drinking Stella with the label facing outwards – we make the oft-travelled journey from Labour Club to the Union (and quickly realise that the Labour club wasn’t so bad). To be fair to the Labour club, at least they have a basic respect for human rights and dignity – tune in next week for our encounter at the Conservative Association’s weekly Port and Policy, if we aren’t too scared of lawyer fathers. 

Upon entering the Union, we realise that we missed the message in the group chat telling everyone to come in beige chinos. Still, the night isn’t lost – they reassure us with the message that drinks only cost £2.50, which is a relief for an audience who just barely scraped together £300 to attend this great institution. We are told about this term’s lineup; you can alternate your celebrations of Indian and Pakistani independence with an appearance by Capital FM’s Roman Kemp. We are also told that the monarchy will be debated, exciting news for royal correspondents, who might actually find something to do with their time aside from the important business of discussing whether Kate inherited her tights from Diana. They also tell us about their upcoming ‘how to get involved in the Union’ event, which we are sure will include helpful advice on how to be born wealthy and make attending private school on a bursary sound like a burden. 

” A short shift and a couple of failed collections later, we were ready to spend our weekend socialising – or at least, hiding in the corner with our feet turned inwards and our fringes over our eyes.”

The Union’s debate of the week was ‘This house believes Stormzy is more relevant than Boris’. For now, let’s set aside the worries we had going in, like ‘how do you define relevance?’, and ‘houses don’t believe they’re inanimate objects’?! The Union affectionately refers to the PM as ‘Boris’, as if he were their port-filled uncle they see every other Christmas, gifting them a shotgun and the fruitless promise to take them out on a hunting trip, much like the experience of his own children. The speeches were largely thoughtful, thought-provoking, and thought-based. There were, however, a few ‘points of interest’. The first speaker argued that Stormzy was relevant to more people than Johnson, stating eloquently that Stormzy had appeal in marginalised communities. She went on to claim that her mum writes fan mail to Dave. Her mum put her head in her hands, hiding her grin. She had successfully convinced her 20 year old daughter that the Dave that keeps popping up on her phone is ‘Dave’, not just a Dave. Things took a turn for the worse when she tried to end her case that Stormzy was managing to tackle elitism in politics on a triumphant note – by using a Winston Churchill quote, whom we can’t imagine is Stormzy’s idea of a voice for the disenfranchised.

Though the Union’s choice to invite a criminality professor and gang expert to criticise grime was an interesting choice, to say the least, both made compelling cases, and are worth watching when they’re uploaded. 

Another speaker outlines the sheer extent of Stormzy’s influence and praises his success. A boy stands up hand raised, ready to launch into a stream of prissy piss. The speaker turns: ‘You’re not Kanye West, sit down’. He blushingly lowers himself, like he’d received a stern talking to from his nanny after misjudging what should have been one of his safer danger wanks given the many many flights of stairs between him and her. The debate was then opened to speakers from the floor – the floodgates opened and the raw sewage gushed out. A claim is thrown into the room that ‘we can all name works by Rembrandt- can’t we? A game of Tory never have I ever had commenced; instead of hiding that we hadn’t taken coke or had anal sex, we tried to hide our poor knowledge of art history. With a Union term card in hand and a weakened sense of self-confidence, we headed home. 

“…they reassure us with the message that drinks only cost £2.50, which is a relief for an audience who just barely scraped together £300 to attend this great institution.”

Still to come was Wadstock, which was like its namesake but with less drugs, less sex and less rock n’ roll. If you remember it, you probably were there, but you also probably had a nice time. People took strategic wee breaks as the bands alternated between originals and covers. As midnight approached we were reminded this was not supposed to be fun, but instead a Bear Grylls-esque challenge, only instead of drinking your own piss you’re expected to consume caffeine, coke, or both dissolved in the sweat that drops into your mouth from the Plush ceiling. This was the pres for the great Oxford tradition when every 1st of May the whole of Oxford reduces themselves to the thirteen year old at a sleepover who asks into the darkness every ten minutes if anyone else is asleep yet. For those who don’t know, May Day consists of being awake for longer than usual. It’s as good as it sounds. 

If you’re wondering why we celebrate May Day, for the Romans it was to honour the Roman goddess of flowers, for Christians it was the Virgin Mary, and for modern Oxford students, if Cherwell had their way, it’s to crowd outside Magdalen hoping for a glimpse of University sweetheart Daniel Dipper. We were flagging and the plush ceiling called so that was our next destination while we waited for 6am. We left Plush with blistered feet and soggy hair and made our way to the bridge. Struck by delirium we listened to the voice of god echoing from Magdalen tower. 

Thus ends our tales. See you next week readers, we hope you both have a good one. 

Image Credit: cottonbro via Pexels

Music for the end of the world: a Plastic Beach retrospective

Ben Holden
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Music for the end of the world: a Plastic Beach retrospective

It’s summer. Exams are done, there are no deadlines to worry about. You have all the time in the world. You jet off to a secluded tropical island, and life is good. Between the afternoon cocktails and the dodgy-sounding nightclub you’re visiting tonight, you find a few hours to relax on the beach. The sand is warm, the water cool, and the gentle soothing sounds of drums fill the air. Suddenly, UK grime artists Bashy and Kano appear from nowhere and start aggressively rapping about environmentalism. Welcome to the world of Plastic Beach.

Plastic Beach is brought to us by Gorillaz, a UK virtual band created by Blur frontman Damon Albarn and artist Jamie Hewlett. For those unfamiliar with the concept of virtual bands, this means that the ‘band’ is fictitious, consisting of animated characters given voices by real life performers. Each member – Murdoc, 2-D, Noodle and Russel – has their own elaborate backstory that would take me more time than I have left in my degree to explain, but it’s a wild story if you’re interested in reading up on it.

After rising to fame with their first two albums, Gorillaz and Demon Days, the band blessed us with the album Plastic Beach. This third outing would release March 3rd, 2010, to commercial success and justified critical acclaim. It’s one I really missed the boat on (I didn’t listen to anything particularly good when I was 9, other than Number 1 by Tinchy Stryder) and only heard recently, but oh my god you guys this album slaps. So, I’m going to put off revision for my rapidly approaching finals to talk about a 12-year-old album. Now that sounds like a great plan. 

Gorillaz albums often have a huge number of collaborators, with Humanz and Song Machine: Season 1 featuring a guest artist on almost every track – the most impressive of which probably being Sir Elton John. Plastic Beach is no different, boasting one of the most eclectic casts I have ever seen. Put the album on shuffle, and you won’t know whether you’re going to be hearing Snoop Dogg, Lou Reed or the Syrian National Orchestra for Arabic Music. With such a massive range of artists and genres on display, you’d be forgiven for expecting the album to be a hodge-podge of half-baked ideas, but the final product is as cohesive as you can hope. The rarer, slower tracks like the beautiful Empire Ants certainly stick out from the more upbeat like Rhinestone Eyes, but this isn’t to say they sound out of place. Balancing so many styles, tempos, and moods is no easy feat, but Albarn and co. have pulled it off spectacularly. 

If someone told me they were going to write a song that starts and ends with the aforementioned Saudi Orchestra, but features Bashy and Kano shouting at each other over instrumentals that occasionally resemble a chain-smoking duck, I’d assume I had awoken in Alice’s Wonderland. And yet, the track White Flag does just that and somehow manages to sound really rather good. And then there’s the wacky Superfast Jellyfish, a hip-hop bop spliced with samples from a breakfast pastry commercial or something? When I close my eyes, I can see the worried looks Albarn almost certainly received from his collaborators when he came up with that one, and yet it just works in the most bizarre possible way.

This makes the songs, for the most part, incredibly versatile, able to induce a wide range of emotions. For me, this is perfectly encapsulated in the marvellous On Melancholy Hill. With a simultaneously cheery and serene electro-beat overlaid with restrained but beautiful vocals and lyrics of loneliness, it’s able to invoke everything from joy, to gloom, to existential dread. It has quickly become one of my all-time favourite songs, and yet I truly lack the words to properly describe the feeling it gives me; whether that’s up to the song itself or my failings as a writer I’ll let you decide. Just know that it’s snuck its way onto almost all of my playlists for one reason or another. 

So, the album sounds outstanding and is musically innovative, but what makes it so pertinent to this day is its environmental message. Plastic Beach discusses issues of pollution and climate change, but (surprisingly, given its name), isn’t quite so preachy as some other recent albums have been (Solar Power by Lorde, I’m looking at you). Starting with more orchestral influences in the introductory Welcome to the World of the Plastic Beach, the album quickly gives way to synth-pop and distorted, occasionally glitchy, vocals on tracks like Stylo and the addictive Some Kind of Nature – another personal favourite. All this tells the story of a world that is becoming more plastic and artificial, reminding us that we really do need to change our habits on a global scale. Of course, if you aren’t in the mood for a crisis, you can largely ignore these themes and just enjoy some bloody good music, but the message is there if you’re willing to look for it. Albarn once likened albums to a “snapshot”, showing “only one moment in time”. Sadly, he seems to have been wrong on this one, because Plastic Beach is still just as relevant now as it was in 2010.

Perfectly demonstrating this is the fact that Albarn stated in 2020 that he has “loads and loads of songs” for a direct sequel. On the one hand, that’s great because if it’s anything like the original then a sequel will sound fantastic. On the other (and much more depressing) hand, it’s a worrying reflection that things haven’t gotten any better. As Albarn said in a 2020 interview with Radio.com: “I’d like to just have an album called Clean Beach, but at the moment it’s still Plastic Beach“. The change that the world so desperately needed even back in 2010 hasn’t come yet, and as a result, the album’s message is, unfortunately, still very relevant. For now though, Plastic Beach serves as a poetic, wonderfully produced and musically brilliant reminder that the world is slowly ending, everything is artificial and no one seems to be doing very much about it at all.

But at least we have a sequel album to look forward to. Every cloud has a silver lining, right?

Image credit: Drew de F Fawkes / CC BY 2.0 via Wikimedia Commons

Bad language: the value of non-standard English

Lily Berrell
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Bad language: the value of non-standard English

In many classrooms, slang is something forbidden, a recent example being  a London secondary school’s decision to ban words such as ‘bare’, and fillers including ‘basically’ and ‘like’. The idea behind this is that pupils should always use and speak Standard English, as would be expected in formal situations such as interviews. Concerns about slang appearing in pupils’ work, however, cannot be solved by a ban on ‘bad’ English – arguably,  a person’s decision to only use Standard English must be a conscious choice. ‘Code-switching’ is the ability to alternate between language varieties and could be positively encouraged in schools, as suggested by Michael Rosen, the author and professor of children’s literature, who believes that teachers should study the use of everyday language with pupils whenever possible, and questions why different words are used in different situations.

He gives the example of discussing Shakespeare’s use of the slang word ‘coz’ in Romeo and Juliet, a contemporary contraction of “cousin,” to initiate an interesting discussion about how dramatists use language. Rosen also states that we are all capable of being ‘bidialectal’, i.e., speaking more than one kind of language, and there is no evidence that speaking one dialect prevents you from speaking another. It is therefore far-fetched to assume that young people are incapable of communicating differently in different situations. As with our behaviour, we adapt our language according to the situation and the way a person speaks outside of formal settings is not substandard simply because it is nonstandard: for instance, it is considered perfectly normal to speak to your boss in a different way than you would speak to a fellow employee. 

Slang usually refers to spoken rather than written language and is considered informal. Anything that falls outside of Standard English can be interpreted as slang, and it comes in many different forms: street slang; slang associated with different dialects; internet slang to form a unique online culture of communication; political catchphrases such as ‘Brexit’, a type of slang, have even become sensationalised. Standard English also suggests that that there is a superior culture that needs to be defended against incursions from non-white and lower-class speakers, which stands in opposition to ideas of diversity. It is therefore worth questioning if slang should be seen as ‘bad English’, or whether we are simply experiencing a shift in our mode of communication to shape everyday language. 

Teaching slang as part of standard language teaching is controversial. Whilst it may be considered to be an inferior use of language, it can also be seen as an essential part of everyday communication and therefore necessary to learn. As a modern languages student studying German, I would appreciate a greater emphasis on the importance and usage of everyday language: Denglisch (Deutsch and Englisch, i.e. Germans using English in everyday speech) is a lot trendier than I thought! Of course, language-learning requires standardisation and regulation, but grammar and vocabulary learnt in a classroom are often very different to the way people communicate on the streets (someone once told me I sounded like their grandmother because the language I had learnt was stilted and outdated). In the same way that it can be useful to learn the slang of other languages, it is also beneficial to acknowledge pupils’ use of slang in the classroom and to discuss how language evolves and can be used appropriately, instead of dismissing it as bad communication. 

Alongside the development of internet jargon, political buzzwords are equally used to talk about important issues quickly and easily, which become ingrained into daily language. Slang is one of the ways through which languages develop new vocabularies and acquire new meanings to define and embody important world events. In Germany, a Word and ‘Un-word’ of the Year (Unwort des Jahres) are selected annually by linguists, taking words suggested by the public to encapsulate significant events. Language is constantly evolving to reflect reality and an analysis of it reveals how people think, interact with each other, and how words – regardless of whether they appear in official dictionaries – reflect and define contemporary history. 

Modern Standard English, or the Queen’s English, is considered to be a prestige dialect and is therefore associated with power and class. The Queen’s English Society defines itself as ‘a guardian of proper English’ to defend against a linguistic decline, suggesting that knowledge of a language and its grammar is associated with reason and intelligence. But is a ‘linguistic decline’ possible, and is it reasonable to assume that one particular form of English is superior? Such a vast number of different dialects did not exist until recently, given the rise of social media and the fact that people often write online in the same way that they speak. But concerns about a crisis of language seem far-fetched given the lack of evidence that we will one day, according to John Humphrys, ‘communicate with a series of grunts’.

English is constantly evolving, perhaps more so in recent years, and older generations can see these changes taking place, but slang does not reduce a person’s expressive capacity, and can be seen as an opportunity for diversity. Some forms of language are valued more than others in certain contexts, an example being at university, where a student from a working class background may feel compelled to adopt a certain tone, possibly contrasting with how they would usually talk. Thus, (classist) assumptions are often made about a student’s ability depending on their dialect. English has also become an international language, used both online and in politics, which suggests the opposite of a decline. 

In many ways, a limitation on people’s choice of expression through speech seems illogical and rash. The UK is increasingly divided by class and cultural differences, and rather than reinforcing assumptions that anything other than Standard English is inferior, awareness and discussion around different forms of dialect are an opportunity for unity and to seek to understand the value of different language forms.

Artwork by Wang Sum Luk

P.S. I still love writing letters

Martha Wells
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P.S. I still love writing letters

Apart from the formulaic thank-you letters following primary school birthday parties, the first ten years of my life did not feature much letter writing. My initiation to this world was not especially out of choice. It was in writing letters home to my family to be posted across the Channel in the summer of 2014 that I first properly engaged with this rather formal mode of correspondence.

Perhaps part of what appealed to me was the time for consideration that you get with writing. For someone who has always struggled with social anxiety, the idea that I could take as much time as I wanted to carefully contemplate what I wanted to say was incredibly appealing. I think the therapeutic nature of the activity was something I appreciated back then, even if I didn’t acknowledge that explicitly. Reflecting on what has happened in the recent past and laying out thoughts and opinions is undoubtedly one of the biggest perks of the process. 

After letter writing stopped being a necessity, my writing pads and envelopes were discarded in the bottom drawer of a dresser for a few years. However, in searching for an activity to keep away the boredom, or rather an excuse to hide from my siblings, it was during lockdown that my love for letter writing was reignited. Being older, the contents of my letters had evolved to become ever so slightly more sophisticated. 

Of course this was also related to the context of lockdown. When you haven’t done anything of interest all week, you have to find something to fill the pages with, and you find yourself getting profound faster than ever with the backdrop of a global pandemic and nothing much else to distract you. My letters at that time weren’t just comparisons of my experiences of COVID with those of my friends. Lockdown also stretched over quite a few significant life events: I entered adulthood, finished school, and started making decisions about what to do next with my life. There’s definitely a parallel between journalling and letter writing, with each having its own set of different advantages. I think what letters provide are a more obvious objective, even though this becomes sort of superficial once you start writing. Journalling can be more authentic and raw, but equally doesn’t have the appeal of external validation… 

The other long-form version of communication that seemed to take off during lockdown and since is voice messages. These are probably the closest thing to letters, of course with a little 21st century twist. Don’t get me wrong, I love receiving a twenty-minute-long personal podcast (even if I have to switch to 1.5x speed during double deadline weeks), but the ping of a WhatsApp notification isn’t quite the same thing as an envelope arriving on your doorstep or peeking out of your pidge.

Of course, something must also be said for the aesthetic value of writing itself. The freshness of the paper and the comfort of writing with a lovely pen are unquestionably part of the attraction. Although naturally the materials you use don’t really matter, and the value of the letters you write aren’t impacted by whether you’re using posh writing paper or the back of an old worksheet. Funnily enough, I can’t remember a single instance where I’ve bought my own writing materials – they seem to sort of appear in my life when necessary and float out again after they’ve served their time. In a time when almost the entirety of school or university work is online, the physicality of letter writing can’t be overlooked. Having a material piece of evidence for productivity is something I’ve missed since work shifted into the virtual realm. Plus, the childlike joy you get from posting a letter is a pretty satisfying feeling.

For some time during the first lockdown in 2020, there were postal processing issues in Hong Kong and the letters I was writing to my friends there were arriving as late as two months after posting. With one particular friend, we resorted to writing out letters with pen and paper and then scanning and sending them over WhatsApp. I’m not sure exactly what this demonstrates, apart from perhaps the fact that we’d forgotten how to communicate with anyone outside of our immediate families… but I feel like there should be some deeper message about technology hidden within that anecdote.

Maybe it’s not just the medium that creates a contrast between communicating via social media compared to pen and ink. With the rise of so-called ‘casual Instagram’ social media seems to be concerned with the idea that coolness should be effortless. The necessity of curation in your online presences seems as dominant as ever but this performance is now supposed to result in a casual appearance. With this context, what I love perhaps the most about letter writing is the amount of effort that the process requires. Hear me out, I promise I’m not saying that I usually have the time to write pages upon pages every day! It’s just that there’s something rewarding and refreshing about unabashedly putting a significant amount of time and energy into something for someone else. Who knows how long we’ll be around for, why not be unapologetic about your affections?

So, when you find the time, why not try penning a few messages – I promise it’s worth it. Besides, on top of all these many positives, the greatest bit about writing letters is that sometimes people write them back!

Image credit: Darkmoon_Art / Pixabay License via Pixabay

Living an exam-‘free’ Trinity

Hannah Lund
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Living an exam-‘free’ Trinity

The Biology faculty decided finals in first week made sense, so now I am a free bird without many fellow free finalists to fly with. Big sad. While I am still catching up on hugely needed and well-deserved sleep from finals, there are many times where I wonder how to fill my days when so many of my friends are locked in the dungeon that is Pembroke library. For everyone else in my situation, here are a few ways I’ve realised I can fill my days and (most importantly) thrive in my exam-free Trinity. Enjoy!

An obvious way to survive an exam-free Trinity is helping out your exam-riddled friends who are undoubtedly stressed and need some serious TLC. Bake brownies, cook them dinner, or make some kind of pidge-love, and and you will feel like the kindest, loveliest, best friend ever.

I have found that my finalist friends are reluctant to do anything that takes up a lot of time or requires getting over a hangover, but even they will be likely to spare an hour or so for coffee. A coffee break is a great way to break free from the Rad Cam and talk about something other than your subject, and you still get to see and check in on your friends. Everyone is a winner!

However, if your existing friends are library-locked, this does not mean you have to be stranded. Shockingly, there are many more people in Oxford that are not in your immediate friendship group! Go find them! Now is a great time to invest into friendships with other people who you may not see very often or to meet new people all together. For those of you who may be terrified of the thought of chatting to new people, I have found Jericho Coffee Traders (loved by all) to be one of the friendliest places in Oxford, and I can guarantee you will find at least one new person to chat to there. Also, if your friends have replaced you with exam revision (the audacity!), then why not replace them with a cheeky link and a date or two? Oxford is massive and filled with so many interesting, diverse, (potentially sexy) people, so stop wasting time waiting for your friends to leave the library and go meet people.

When so many people are investing massively in exams, it can easily feel like you are wasting your Oxford time and falling behind on some imaginary time scale because of how much other people are working. While you have no massive deadlines to work towards, it is a great opportunity to set yourself smaller, personal goals to work towards throughout term. My main goal this term is to do as many things to get myself out of my comfort zone as possible, and to recognise how I feel in this situation and learn more about what I enjoy and dislike. For example, I have learnt I can feel super confident when I ask a man out on a date (we love active feminism) but going on a run around the city centre during rush hour is a big fat no from me. Setting yourself new goals doesn’t have to be completely random or drastic.

I think there is too much of a focus on always having to be doing super interesting things with groups of people to be perceived as having fun and enjoying Oxford. You very much deserve to indulge in your own company and there is no shame in spending selfish, solo time. Take yourself on a picnic with your favourite foods (which obviously you don’t have to share with friends because they are in the library wishing they were you), go get yourself a coffee, spend time writing a new article (like me), or go exercise. There are so many opportunities for self-love and self-investment.

The aim is not only to survive an exam-free Trinity but to thrive! Reframe the idea. This is not “oh no, all my friends are stuck in gross Pembroke library and I have nothing to do”. This is “wow, I have so much time to do whatever I want with, so I will happily use this time to be so selfish, and invest in myself, and love myself, and live my best life!” Go enjoy Oxford in your own exam-free way, and if anyone needs a coffee friend then heeeyyyyyy.

Image credit: Jessica Ticozzelli.

The World According to Rusty… Week 3

Rusty Kate
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The World According to Rusty… Week 3

This mildly comedic column has been written by a drag queen agony aunt. It is not for the faint hearted and contains sensitive topics which may cause distress to some readers. Be prepared for themes of carefully orchestrated murder, porn addiction, and pimping out twinks for a bit of spare cash.


Are you waking up in the middle of the night, dripping in sweat from night terrors about your father? Are you having repeated visions of him on all fours, with the limbs of a horse and the cock of a marginally smaller horse? Are you longing for the sweet release of top-tier Australian ketamine to forget about these nightmares? If so, get some help – I’m not a clinical psychologist and you sound like you might be a bit fucked up.

Rusty Kate is Oxford’s premier cum-filled crossdresser, known for delivering incredible shows all across the city (even if she doesn’t remember them the next day). She’s taken time out of her busy schedule being the country’s leading expert on intrusive prostate examination in men over 70 and wanking over the bullying scenes in Heartstopper to write this column. Seriously, she’s running out of ideas for this.

Remember to submit your questions through linktr.ee/rustykatedrag – there you can also buy mugs with her face on. It’s the closest you’ll ever get to having your lips around her.

My boyfriend snores and it makes it really hard to sleep at night. It frustrates me to no end, but every time I bring it up with him, he (rightly) says he can’t help it – what can I do to sort it out? I need some sleep!


This will require some carefully considered, level-headed actions which benefit the both of you. Smother him. Not in kisses, not in love, not in the affection your mother never provided (which is why you’re with him in the first place), but with the cold, sweet release of asphyxiation. He won’t even feel it – especially with the amount of ketamine you’ll have pumped through his system.
Yes, funerals are always hard and emotionally draining, but start dropping hints to his close friends and family that he has a bit of a drinking problem. Play the part of the remarkably well-adjusted mourning widow – it’s your only choice. The sweet, night-time melodies of your traumatised sub-conscious, begging for forgiveness for this heinous act, will be much easier to cope with once the snoring has finally ceased.


I think my partner is addicted to porn. They’ve told me before that they watch it on a daily basis, and they consistently struggle to climax when we’re getting intimate – how do I address this with them without making them feel even worse?


You don’t. It’s a dog-eat-dog world, and my OnlyFans can’t take the hit right now. It’s the only thing standing between me and the bailiffs. Don’t make me start filming the videos myself – it’s much more convenient to drug twinks in G-A-Y Late, pump them with speed and make them shag until dawn than it is to try and film yourself topping. It’s remarkably expensive to start a GHB-based twink drugging scheme, especially post-Brexit (my imports are down 30%). Support queer business, and use discount code LUSTY KATE to receive 5 videos for the price of 6.

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