Tuesday 1st July 2025
Blog Page 375

Finn Harries: changing the climate narrative

Amelia Horn
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Finn Harries: changing the climate narrative

Finn Harries has come a long way since the days of uploading videos with his identical twin on the YouTube channel JacksGap. An architecture graduate from Parson’s School of Design, a Ted Talk and UN speechmaker, and most recently a student at Cambridge, Harries has made a deserving name for himself in the world of climate activism.

YouTubers have often receive a bad reputation – mostly, but not always, undeservedly. Accusations of needing a ‘real job’ or lacking talent have been thrown at the YouTube space for years. I was a little guilty of falling into this trap myself, thinking of the site as the realm of the chubby bunny challenge and controversy, and forgetting its possibility to empower young people with the skills necessary to enact change in their adult lives.

Finn and Jack have arguably been some of the most successful in evolving away from this type of YouTube content. This is not to say that their time on the platform in this capacity was unimportant; in fact, the opposite is true. Speaking to Harries, it was easy to see how he had transferred the charisma and presence which made the JacksGap channel so warm and authentic into powerful discussions about the climate crisis. Likewise, both brothers have used their design and video editing skills across a number of years as a powerful activism tool.

It was obvious as soon as he began to talk that Harries has been and continues to be on a consistent mission to educate himself about the climate. He spoke to me about one of his earliest exposure to the subject as an adult, while studying as an undergraduate at Parson’s School of Design, part of the “New School” in New York.

“When I first arrived in New York to study architecture I had somehow managed to put climate change, like most of us, to the back of my mind. However, as soon as I got there, I was exposed through my first class to literature on climate change. And it became personal, and for me this is the key. In the class I took in literally my second week, we were asked to think about designing a flood barrier for a city with rising sea levels.

“That to me was totally daunting and terrifying. If before this, climate was something that was abstract, that had something to do with polar bears and glaciers, it suddenly became tangible and real.”

After four years in New York, Harries moved back to London to study a postgraduate degree at the Architectural Association. However, compared to in Parson’s, he found little commitment to sustainability-minded projects: “What I experienced at the AA, and what I have little interest in doing, is fighting against the institution you’re paying to study at.

“At the AA, I would have one on one meetings with the director where I would have to push the agenda of climate, and it would often be debated and argued about, and to me this is just – we don’t have time to do that. We shouldn’t have to, especially in institutions of higher learning.

“I would go as far as to say it’s like trying to debate gravity – its just a fact right now.”

Harries left the AA, and is now in his first year studying an MPhil at Cambridge. The course has allowed him freedom to choose his own research proposal, and although he focuses specifically on design, he moves seamlessly across disciplines in our conversation.

“It starts with the understanding that humans are really good at creating stories. Perhaps the first person that exposed me to this was Yuval Noah Harari, the Israeli historian who wrote Sapiens and Homo Deus. He argues that the success of humans to collaborate at such a large scale is the power of good stories. We can think of borders, nations, money, religion, time, even… all just stories that we tell ourselves which allow us to collaborate.

“If you start with Descartes, he says in his Methods on Discourse that humans are the masters and possessors of nature. He is one of the many people, Francis Bacon included, that started to think of humans as fundamentally separate from nature, intrinsically of a higher divinity than other natural beings.

“And in a way this is simplifying a very complex history, but if we bring it down to the foundational ideas that shaped our lives over the last couple of hundred years, then we can perhaps start to understand why we are at this point of severe crisis.

“The hypothesis is, in the research that I’m doing, if you can start to shift that story… because the other thing is, we can all agree in a way that it’s a false story – as in, we are nature, there is no reason or explanation to suggest that we are not nature, when we fundamentally are, and therefore we’re deeply interconnected in this web of natural ecosystems.”

Storytelling is central to Harries’ vision of climate activism, both in his research at Cambridge and in his latest digital project, Earthrise Studio. Finn acts as co-founder, along with brother Jack and his partner, Alice Aedy. Founded in July 2020, Finn tells me it wasn’t a lockdown project, however it seems it could not have come at a better time. Using seductive graphic design, something Jack and Finn have long been proficient at, Earthrise Studio’s Instagram aims to tackle in bitesize chunks some of the biggest questions our planet is faced with. Educational tools on social media, when we spend so much time indoors and online, have never had more of an impact on the kind of self-reflection and improvement that Earthrise encourages.

Image: Lily Betrand-Webb. Earthrise Studio founders: Jack Harries [left], Alice Aedy [centre], and Finn Harries [right].

The project places a large emphasis on tackling climate anxiety. When I asked Harries about dealing with climate anxiety, he described the issue as threefold. The first is acceptance: “We should absolutely have a sense of anxiety about the state of our future, because a. that shows we care, and b. it’s from that point that we can start to take action.”

His second point is one of self-care, and he emphasises that he can only speak from his personal experience: “These start to sound like clichés, but they’re not. Meditation and exercise and therapy are all three tools that I’ve actively used to allow me to work in this space without, you know, falling into a deep depression. I practice meditation every day and it’s the only reason I can, sort of, stay present and focus on what I’m doing. Self-care is 100% part of this work – you have to look after yourself.”

His final point about climate anxiety is much more conceptual: “It is a concept which I want to mention because it is the reason I applied for Cambridge, and it’s called the adaptive cycle, which is the name of my project currently. It’s an idea that’s really simple, but really profound, if you dwell on it.”

“So the best way to explain it is, before I came across this concept, if you asked me what the future looked like, I imagined a line, we were somewhere along the line, and at the end it was a really bleak fiery ball of hell, and it was daunting, you know, to be heading towards this future. In the concept which is called the adaptive cycle, it tries to create a theory of all natural ecosystems and civilisation as a series of growth and collapses, and it’s an infinite loop.

“And this is not the exception, it’s a rule, and this is what we see throughout history, throughout antiquity, is cultures, ecosystems, establish themselves, they grow rapidly, they use their resources, they conserve (something) and then they crash, they collapse – it’s a little bit scary, but they collapse, and then they have this amazing opportunity where they reorganise themselves, and they reinvent the way they work – Romans, Greeks, pine forests after a forest fire, there are a multitude of different examples.”

Harries describes Earthrise as a way to change the story of climate change, a story which has been skewed by certain corporate interests which benefit from the production of fossil fuels, and who have “actively worked to decrease the understanding of scientific literature to destabilise the trust in scientific bodies and to lessen the perception of danger.” Harries says: “Jack and I had previously built JacksGap and so we had learnt the power of engaging people and building a platform on social media – we had learnt the ups and downs of that – and we were really hungry to create a new one that was dedicated to this topic that we were really interested in.”

“The simple question posed by Earthrise, and one we are asking ourselves everyday, is how we tell a new story on the climate crisis that creates a sense of optimism, because we need optimism, we need hope, and imagination – to tackle this crisis and to not fall into apathy and despair.

“It’s this ongoing experiment, and we fail often at our own mission, because we get so caught up still in the data that can be so bleak, and you’re trying to find a balance between communicating the reality, and giving people all the information they need to understand the severity of the issue, and giving people hope and optimism, but not too much hope where people think ‘oh, it’s fine, we dont’ need to worry about it!’ – so it’s this strange balance.”

Harries was keen to emphasise a strong commitment on behalf of Earthrise to representation and truth: “Earthrise is an ongoing experiment to tell a better story around climate, one that’s specifically led by young people, by a diverse group of young people. So although it’s run by three white, privilieged individuals, it’s critical to us that we’re platforming different backgrounds and cultures, and we strive our best to do that. We’re self-improving, and self-checking on that.

“It’s important to us that the information we’re putting out there is fact-checked and well-sourced, so we have a team of people helping us with that, we have a researcher who’s on the project, and I think in this world of misinformation and post-truth, it’s super important to try to validate the information you’re putting out, especially on the web.”

We also spoke about the problems facing climate activism, especially on social media. Climate activists are often held to a kind-of all-or-nothing standard, evidenced by the public outcry whenever Greta Thunberg is pictured within two metres of a piece of plastic. I asked Harries how Earthrise aims to change this discourse.

“One of the early ‘stories’ that we would tell is that we’re all hypocrites, and we should and must start by accepting that. We find ourselves in a system in which we are all complicit in the destruction of our natural environment – it’s just our reality – so when we come to terms with that, it’s from there that we can start to take action.”

“If we had to have a movement of perfect environmentalists, who never sinned, we’d have a very small movement.”

“It’s a tricky narrative – to what extent can we use the excuse of hypocrisy to get away with our actions – and so there also must be a constant holding each other to account and checking back on yourself – could I have done that differently, is that in line with what I am preaching, so again it’s this ongoing process.”

“But I fundamentally believe it’s okay to be a hypocrite, because this is a systemic issue.”

Harries never saw the discussion around climate change as a binary, and throughout our conversation it was clear that he is constantly engaged in a self-dialogue about how best to tackle the climate crisis. He sat somewhere in the middle on most of the questions I asked, but not as someone who was uninformed or unwilling to come to a conclusion, but as someone who is – as we all are when it comes to climate change – grappling with a topic that is far beyond the scope of one individual. His ability to recognise this and yet not become overwhelmed or despairing is a testament to the time and dedication he has put into working in the climate industry.

Promising Young Woman: what is female rage?

Reya Muller
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Promising Young Woman: what is female rage?

‘Promising Young Woman’ burst into the headlines a few weeks ago over the controversy surrounding the language of a ‘Variety’ reviewer who last year, following the film’s preview at Cannes, wrote a piece which has fallen under scrutiny for its misogynistic, ageist undertones. Dennis Harvey’s claims that whilst Carey Mulligan as the lead is a ‘fine actress’ he could more easily see producer Margot Robbie in the lead, and that Mulligan wears her ‘pickup-bait gear like bad drag’. His later claim in The Guardian that he was shocked to be labelled a misogynist – “I’m a 60-year-old gay man. I don’t actually go around dwelling on the comparative hotnesses of young actresses, let alone writing about that.” Harvey can claim innocence over his remarks, but they contribute to a wider commentary on the ways in which we perceive female narratives that no amount of pleading innocence or lack of interest can wash away.

Emerald Fennell’s directorial debut centres around the life of Mulligan’s Cassie who, in the wake of a traumatic event in her past, is apathetic concerning her future, despite the promise of her early medical career. This film sensitively and delicately portrays the ways in which an act of violence can uproot our existence, and Cassie’s isolation from those around her is indicative of her inability to truly move on from this seismic event in her life. She cannot let it go, partly because there has been no repercussions on the part of those who committed the crimes, and without going into too much spoiler ridden details, she takes it upon herself not only to remind those who did the harm of their actions, but wider than that, to try and make the predatory men she encounters understand the weight of their actions. This is a film centred around female revenge. But what does that even look like?

Katie Mitchell when discussing the importance of female led narratives stated: “I think some part of one’s self is eroded if you’re always watching work made by men about male experiences” highlighting the frequency in which female narratives are often written by men. Films like Tarantino’s ‘Kill Bill’ present a wronged woman intent on pursuing a violent course of action in order to bring justice to those who have wronged her. When discussing her reasoning behind the film, Fennell describes how she felt that many so called female vengeance plots felt unnatural and distinctly male – “Women just wouldn’t act like that” she argues, foregrounding how often female narratives are told still from a distinctly male point of view, even if they seem to be at first foregrounding a feminine perspective. And that is what ‘Promising Young Woman’ does so well, it presents a uniquely relatable narrative in terms which seem, for the most part, realistic. Cassie is not some male fantasy sex-kitten clad in lycra and wielding a sword, she is a broken woman brimming with frustration over a system which silences and smothers the voices of those who are abused by it. Her solitary quest to make a difference one sleazy male at a time is not centred around violence, or brutality, but an effort to make these men understand the weight of their actions, in a manner which foregrounds her own agency.

The film deliberately embraces a femininity which is refreshing, there is a celebration of bright colours, it leaves you with a sense of bubblegum pink that none of the darkest moments in the film can shift; the exuberant soundtrack featuring the likes of Charlie XCX, Paris Hilton and a spine-chilling instrumental of ‘Toxic’ foregrounds the feminine, celebrating girlishness in a way which is never belittling. Incidentally, I had no idea that Paris Hilton could be so catchy – be warned, her song ‘Stars Are Blind’ will be in your head for days after watching, it’s something that truly stays with you.

The performances in this film are so strong, Mulligan is phenomenal, truly doing justice to every side of this multi-faceted character, and she deserves every credit – without her strength of performance the film may have struggled to maintain believability in every aspect, but she is so watchable that the film comes together within her. In addition, Bo Burnham’s charismatic Ryan is so much fun to watch, and their chemistry is the emotional heart of the film, as we see Cassie struggle to allow herself to be vulnerable in the midst of her pain. This is a film which manages to elude categorisation, containing elements of so many genres that it leaves you with an overwhelming sense of having experienced Cassie’s struggles, in all their complexities, with the highs and lows of her quest for closure, proving that trauma narratives are not one thing, but contain multitudes.

The recent controversy surrounding the Golden Globes nominations, in particular the snubbing of Michaela Coel’s groundbreaking ‘I May Destroy You’ proves that we are a long way from equality, and that as a society we are still struggling to accept a variety of narratives that differ from the status quo. However films like ‘Promising Young Woman’ are proving that there is a ferocity to upcoming filmmakers who refuse to be boxed in by pre-existing labels and tropes which seek to reduce their creative capacity to a footnote in the demographic of cinema at large. How Hollywood responds to such unique and important narratives will dictate their ability to modernise; we need more films like this.

Art by Rachel Jung

City Council donates laptops to schools

Anvee Bhutani
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City Council donates laptops to schools

Amidst the pandemic, trying to attend school from home has proven to be quite the challenge. In light of this, the Oxford City Council has donated 50 laptops to a local project, Educate 200.

Educate 200 works with local IT provider Planet IT and The Oxford Academy to provide students with refurbished laptops. The City Council are hoping to donate over 200 laptops in total and are initially trying to check that these laptops are able to be refurbished and repurposed before distributing them to other schools in the city.

Planet IT have additionally committed to donating a Chromebook for every two laptops contributed in order to expand access and ease of online learning. The coronavirus pandemic has meant many students are having to share devices with multiple siblings or even with working parents. As a result, students’ education often suffers and they sometimes have to resort to using a phone for their schoolwork.

Since the start of the lockdown, laptop donation has been taking place across the country as a way to help pupils keep up with their education at home. The BBC’s Make a Difference Give a Laptop campaign has been leading the way, while locally initiatives such as Witney ALBS (Access to Learning Beyond School) and companies such as OX IT Solutions have also helped to tackle the issue in Oxfordshire.

Parts of Oxford are significantly disadvantaged with 10 out of the 83 total neighbourhoods forming part of the 20% most deprived areas in England. These problems are further exacerbated by the lack of technology and internet access, so laptops and tablets can help to tackle some of these structural barriers to education.

The Co-Founder and Managing Director of PlanetIT Sean Smith said: “We’re really grateful we’re able to help and utilise our client base.  Hopefully this can be a sustainable solution for our local schools, the Council and Planet IT.” 

Councillor Marie Tidball, the Cabinet Member for Supporting Local Communities, also added: “Too many children have already missed out on education in this pandemic because the government support has been too slow to reach those in need. We are fortunate to have a local business with the skills and local knowledge to help tackle the issue, but it shouldn’t be down to them. Our support for their Education 200 project means together we can fast-track laptops to those that need them, helping hundreds of students. In only a month since the government changed its schools policy to remote teaching, the Council, Planet IT and The Oxford Academy have worked quickly to address the technology gap. There is a lot more to be done, but we’re making progress and will continue to work with schools and young people to find new ways to  support those students who have been the worst affected by the pandemic.”

The revolutionary empathy of Sound of Metal

Charlie Hancock
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The revolutionary empathy of Sound of Metal

The legendary critic Roger Ebert described film as a machine for building empathy. No other medium has the power to allow the viewer to walk in somebody else’s shoes or see the world through someone’s eyes with such totality. Every decision about where to direct the camera, when to cut a sequence, and how to dress a scene in both pre and post production can act as a vehicle to generate a deeper understanding of the lives of marginalised people.

Except, this potential is rarely used. Most mainstream films or television series are made from the same perspective, with the same gaze. Since most films are written and made by straight, white men who are not Disabled, they are written with a similar audience in mind.

This assumption of a default gaze extends to how Disabled people or those with chronic illnesses are viewed on screen. All too often, we exist not as people in our own right but as objects of inspiration for the non-Disabled viewer or other characters. We are held up as brave or admirable for simply living our lives while being Disabled. The audience is implicitly told to be grateful that they are ‘lucky’ enough to not be like us, and should live their life to the fullest out of gratitude that they are not limited by their bodies or minds.

This ‘inspiration porn’ does not come from a place of malice. Often it is a consequence of an attempt to show a positive portrayal of Disabled people. But ‘inspiration porn’ does nothing to help Disabled people, and can actually embed unhelpful ideas about our lives.

I agree with Roger Ebert’s characterisation of film as a machine for empathy. But empathy is too often conflated with sympathy. Pitying Disabled people doesn’t help us. Understanding how we experience the world, recognising that we cannot overcome it through force of will or a positive attitude, and reflecting that in your treatment of us, does.

Sound of Metal is a rare film which uses both the visual and audio aspects of cinema to force the viewer to empathise with its Disabled protagonist.

The film tells the story of Ruben (Riz Ahmed), a recovering addict and drummer in the soundcore band Blackgammon who is touring America with his bandmate and girlfriend of four years Lou (Olivia Cooke). Repeated exposure to crashing symbols and the eerie distorted soundscapes has taken its toll on Ruben’s hearing, which abruptly fails him.

It is a premise which could easily make for another maudlin addition to the annals of awards-bait disability dramas. However, the narrative and directorial decisions made by first-time narrative filmmaker Darius Marder subvert the conventional tropes associated with the genre to make a film which is not only genuinely empathetic towards its Disabled protagonist, but takes an approach to depicting disability which is rarely seen on screen.

It would be impossible to talk about Sound of Metal without mentioning its innovative sound design, which forces the viewer to experience Ruben’s hearing loss with him. The result is striking, capturing Ruben’s disorientation as the world around him dulls until it sounds like he is underwater, to an almost complete silence as Ruben’s perception alters. Sound designer Nicolas Becker used microphones 200 times as sensitive as the human ear to record the roar of Ahmed’s blood in his veins or the creak of tendons in his jaw, recreating the increased sensitivity some people have to the sounds of their own body when they begin to lose their hearing.

This effect is not used throughout the entirety of the film. Marder uses mid to wide shots to signal when we are witnessing an omniscient hearing perspective, and intimate over-the-shoulder angles and close ups when the film switches to Ruben’s perspective. This empathetic approach makes Sound of Metal less voyeuristic than films such as The Theory of Everything where disability is turned into a spectacle for the audience, and the Disabled person presented as something to be pitied and not understood.

Marder’s decision to depict disability as an identity and culture as valid as any other is especially poignant. In order to prevent him from falling back into self-destructive habits, Lou enrols Ruben into a sober house for Deaf addicts. The community is run by Joe (Paul Raci) according to the belief that it is not their hearing which needs to be cured but their attitude. The numerous scenes of Deaf people supporting each other and living fulfilled lives acts as a direct rebuttal of Ruben’s internalised belief that he needs to be able to hear to be happy, and thus the audiences preconceptions about how we Disabled people feel about our lives.

As a hearing person, it is not my place to criticise the precise presentation of Deafness and Deaf culture Sound of Metal depicts. The film wades the divisive debate within the Deaf community surrounding cochlear implants, which some Deaf people embrace and others view as an unwanted attempt to ‘cure’ them. The casting of hearing actors in the film’s two most prominent Deaf roles, especially Paul Raci, even drew criticism from other members of the cast. However, they were won over by the deep understanding of Deaf culture Raci had from growing up as the child of two Deaf adults.

The Deaf and Disabled communities are not monoliths. Deaf drummer Dame Evelyn Glennie commented that the film “doesn’t try to tell a story that every deaf person, or every person who is losing their hearing, will instantly relate to.” One film cannot depict every facet of a community’s identity or experience, the few films which tell the stories of Disable people despite this, are automatically held to a higher standard.

Watching Sound of Metal, I found myself feeling hopeful about what the future of disability on film could look like. I am sick of seeing films where disability is presented as an obstacle to get over. I am sick of seeing films where the viewer is supposed to pity the Disabled character because they are Disabled. I am sick of films where our very existence is presented as inspirational. Sound of Metal not only shows its audience that a Disabled life is still worth living, but allows them to develop a deep empathy with members of a community they may never have been exposed to. That should not be revolutionary, but it is.

BREAKING: Oxford SU President-Elect resigns following controversy

Issy Kenney-Herbert
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BREAKING: Oxford SU President-Elect resigns following controversy

CW: racism, transphobia, antisemitism.

Rashmi Samant has announced her resignation from President-elect following controversy regarding her captioning an image of herself in Malaysia with “Ching Chang”, punning on the Holocaust in another Instagram caption, comparing Cecil Rhodes to Hitler in a Student Union presidential debate hosted by the Oxford Blue, and separating “women” and “transwomen” in an Instagram caption.

On Facebook, she stated: “In light of the recent events surrounding my election to the Presidency of the Oxford SU, I believe it is best for me to step down from the role. It has been an honour to be your President-elect”.

Her resignation follows an earlier apology she released addressing the controversies that emerged after she was elected in the highest student turnout of an SU election. 

The apology circulated to numerous groups earlier today told students: “I sincerely apologise to every student who has been hurt by my actions or words and seek a chance to gain your trust in me again.”

“I will personally reach out to each community over the next few days and make the utmost efforts to unlearn and relearn nuances of every diverse community so that when it is my time to assume the role of President, I will be the person this community deserves.”

However, this apology was met with criticism. Speaking to Cherwell, Oxford University Chinese Society stated in response to the apology: “Regrettably, we have not yet heard anything directly from Rashimi Samant. Her long-overdue public apology does not seem sincere to the OUCS. In her apology letter, Rashimi seems to be avoiding addressing her mistakes directly, and it does not show her taking responsibility for her insensitivity to race or ignorance towards the trans community. We cannot see Rashimi as the SU president we “rightfully deserve” or trust.”

OUCS further stated their belief that “people can learn from their mistakes and change for the better, so we would like to hear Rashimi’s direct apology before commenting further.”

The Oxford SU Sabbatical Officers have released a statement, saying that “as your elected representatives and in recognition of the Office we hold, we sincerely apologise for the hurt and discomfort caused by the actions of the President-elect.

Oxford SU has a no tolerance policy towards discrimination. Racism, transphobia, and antisemitism have no place in our organisation. 

For members wishing to hold their Officers or Officer-elects to account on any and all matters, we would encourage you to make your voice heard through submitting motions to Student Council, or speaking to our Advice Service at: [email protected], who can outline more options available.”

University reports 5 cases this week while cases in the University remain low

Sasha Mills
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University reports 5 cases this week while cases in the University remain low

The University has confirmed 5 cases of Covid-19 amongst staff and students from Early Alert Service tests for the 6th of February to the 12th of February with a positivity rate of 6.2% and 81 tests administered in total. The number of cases reported remains at the same level as last week, with a slight increase in tests taken through the Early Alert Service. In the 7 days up to the 15th of February, 153 positive cases were recorded in Oxford, with a rate per 100k of 117.4 cases according to the UK government’s data.  

Despite higher cases in 0th week, both the number of positive tests and the positivity rate of tests conducted has remained low throughout term, with a slight spike in 2nd week. The number of tests conducted through the University’s Early Alert Service also appears to be slowly falling. The University’s status and response website notes that these figures do not include tests conducted outside of the Early Alert Service. 

Colleges face flooding

Angela Eichhorst
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Colleges face flooding

Several colleges face flooding as part of the ongoing weather affecting Oxfordshire this month. Lady Margaret Hall and Magdalen grounds were particularly affected, with pictures of flooded outdoor grounds shared across Twitter and Instagram by students. “We have experienced it before,” says LMH’s men’s welfare officer, Spike Hagan. “Being on the river, LMH is prone to flooding,” says Hagan, who saw the flooding begin on the 25th going into the 26th of January. Hagan says the issue has never been addressed by LMH’s administrative team, but “it hasn’t really affected me, except for being able to visit an LMH institution – the Shack,” where students hang out at night to play scrabble or have a drink.

The water meadow in Magdalen college has also flooded, “but that is basically designed to flood and does very frequently to no one’s detriment” says third year student Lizzie Craig. Flooding hasn’t affected mobility much as “the paths are mostly okay because they’re raised,” says Craig. The picture above shows the flooding at Magdalen College.

There are currently zero severe flood warnings and four flood alerts across Oxfordshire county. Current alerts are River Cherwell from Lower Heyford down to and including Oxford, River Thame and Chalgrove Brook, River Thames and tributaries from Buscot Wick down to Kings Lock, and River Thames and tributaries in the Oxford area. See flood-warning-information.service.gov.uk for more details.

Image Credit: Ellie Redpath

JCRs and societies respond to SU President-Elect controversy

Charlie Hancock
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JCRs and societies respond to SU President-Elect controversy

CW: racism, transphobia, antisemitism.

Numerous college JCRs have voted to support a Motion of No Confidence in the Student Union (SU) President-Elect Rashmi Samant following a series of social media posts which have sparked controversy while student-led groups, including the SU LGBTQ+ Campaign and the Oxford International Society, have called on her to resign and apologise.

Cherwell has seen motions approved by Hertford, Magdalen Colleges’ JCRs, and Wadham College’s SU to support a Motion of No Confidence at an SU Council Meeting. 70% of those present at Magdalen’s general meeting voted for the College to use their three representative votes to back the motion. Oriel College will debate whether to support a Motion of No Confidence on February 15th.

Section 28.4 of the SU Bye-Laws says that a Motion of No Confidence requires two thirds of the Student Council to vote in favour during two consecutive Meetings of Council. A referendum of SU members will then be called, where a No Confidence motion can be passed by a simple majority.

The motions have been prompted by a series of controversial posts made by Samant on Instagram, which emerged after she was elected to the Presidency with 53% of the vote share. Samant’s manifesto emphasised her commitment to “tackle institutional homophobia and transphobia”, and to decolonise the curriculum.

Samant faced controversy for an Instagram post from December 2019, taken in Malaysia, which was captioned “Ching Chang”. The motion presented at the Hertford JCR described this as a “sinophobic hallmark”. When questioned on the appropriateness of the caption, Samant explained that it was a reference to a joke a South East Asian friend had made about her vegetarianism: “Apparently in Mandarin the phrase literally translates to “eat that plant”… that was the “joke” apparently and the group played on my need to have the perfect rhyming captions to sell it to me. I should have known better”. This translation has been called into question by Mandarin speakers on social media, who noted the word “ching” cannot be spelled in pinyin, the system which romanises Mandarin characters.

In a statement to Cherwell, the Oxford University Chinese Society said: “We condemn any act of racism in any form at any time. Racism is completely inconsistent with the values of the Oxford University Chinese Society. We urge Rashmi to stop making excuses and formally apologise for her insensitivity. She should face the consequences of her actions, and we will not accept a SU president who discriminates against any group of people”.

Samant has also been criticised for an Instagram post captioned with the phrase “women, transwomen [sic] and men”, which has been as criticised for being transphobic for “inappropriately distinguishing” between cis women and trans women. In a statement on Facebook, the SU LGBTQ+ Campaign said they were “alarmed by the recent revelations about the Oxford SU President-Elect. Although we understand that her remarks on the trans community may have come from a place of ignorance, we find her repeated insensitivity to race and her unwillingness to apologise when called out for this far more concerning. The LGBTQ+ Campaign stands in complete solidarity with CRAE, and with all students of colour on this issue, and affirms the need for her to step down and make an immediate, formal apology.”

An Instagram post from June 5th 2017 seen by Cherwell shows Samant at the Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe in Berlin, and was captioned with a pun on the word ‘Holocaust’: “The memorial *CASTS* a *HOLLOW* dream of the past atrocities and deeds. Reflecting on it gives us the power to live with the past vouching for a better future. #holocaustMemorial #uniqueArchitecture”. When questioned on Instagram, Samant said she “wouldn’t even dare to be insensitive about something like that” and that while she believed it was “upto [sic] the interpreter”, her caption was not insensitive. Samant told the student she “completely condemn[s] the Holocaust”. When approached by Cherwell, Samant apologised for “the insensitivity this language shows” and noted “I have since had personal experiences, conversations, and learning opportunities that have allowed me to see how this language is not appropriate, and I fully accept my error in not appropriately researching topics before posting about them. In the almost five years since this post, I have changed as a person, scholar, and activist; I am sure many other people have experienced drastic change in themselves and their personal lives in a five-year period. I reaffirm my commitment outlined in my campaign manifesto to continually learning, changing, and bettering myself to serve in this position as well as possible.”

In a hustings event hosted by the Oxford Blue, Samant also compared Cecil Rhodes to Hitler, asking “if an organisation would come up to you and give you a heap of money to set up a scholarship and say ‘I want to name this the Hitler fund or the Hitler scholarship’, would you do it?”. When questioned further, Samant elaborated on her point, saying that “nobody erected him [Hitler] statues or wrote wonderful things about him or established anything about him, that’s why we still remember him for what he did, but by doing things like that we stopped remembering people for what they did and we start developing this psychology that maybe what they did was not so bad”.

Responding to these events, the President and Vice-President of the Oxford University Jewish Society told Cherwell they were “extremely concerned by SU President-Elect Rashmi Samant’s past social media posts, which she has alarmingly failed to apologise for. Her caption of a photo at the Berlin Holocaust Memorial exhibited severe insensitivity and ignorance, as did her ill-thought-out parallel between Cecil Rhodes and Adolf Hitler. Furthermore, we stand in full solidarity with the trans community and East and South East Asians, who have been hurt and distressed by other offensive comments made by Samant.”

The SU Campaign for Racial Awareness and Equality issued a lengthy statement on Facebook making a “firm recommendation that the President-Elect should stand down from her position”. They continued that “the repetitive and sustained nature of Ms. Samant’s actions suggest considerable ignorance at best, but active discrimination at worst… the President-Elect has demonstrated unwillingness to take accountability for her actions, which we believe to be a crucial aspect of self-education and making amends…. [and] although CRAE believes that individuals can make mistakes, learn, and move on, Ms. Samant is not currently fit to represent the student body of this university. Our community is diverse but various groups continue to be marginalised and we do not believe that she can represent them effectively.” Elaborating further, they stated: “although we cannot assume the intentions of Ms. Samant, we believe that it is ultimately the impact of her actions that are important here: she has hurt the East-Asian, Jewish, and trans communities. Not only did she post racially insensitive captions on social media, but she has also proceeded to deny the harm caused by her actions when questioned.” They further noted that “the President-Elect made a distinction between trans women and women, thereby implying that trans women are not women and perpetuating trans-exclusionary ideology. CRAE stands in solidarity with the Oxford LGBTQ+ community and unequivocally condemns this… She has disappointed all those who put faith in her with their votes.” The statement concluded: “If Ms. Samant truly intends to grow, self-educate, and better herself, she must show remorse and recognise that she is not currently capable of representing the groups to whom she has caused offence. As such, we expect her immediate letter of resignation and a formal apology to the East-Asian, Jewish, and trans communities.”

Oxford International Society also posted a statement on Facebook, writing that: “For a candidate who campaigned for inclusivity, it is crushing to understand this was insincere in nature. Her Anti-Semitic, transphobic and racist social media posts were horrific, and the refusal to take accountability for hurting students highlights that she should not take up the SU Presidency… If she really cares for the student population, she would recognise that her actions are unacceptable and will resign immediately. We urge the President-Elect to resign and apologise.”

Rashmi Samant and the Student Union have been approached for comment.

Image: Matthew Waring via unsplash.com

JCRs respond to St Peter’s College event with Ken Loach

Sasha Mills
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JCRs respond to St Peter’s College event with Ken Loach

CW: Antisemitism.

JCRs across the University have released motions and statements condemning the invitation of speaker Ken Loach to St. Peter’s College, and the UJS (Union of Jewish Students) are offering free antisemitism training to all JCRs and MCRs through Oxford JSoc. This follows initial statements from Oxford Jsoc and St Peter’s College JCR, amongst others. 

St. Hugh’s College JCR has released a statement condemning the invitation of Ken Loach, also stating that they believe “the regrettable response of St. Peter’s college has encouraged the pile-on of antisemetic abuse on the Oxford Jewish Society’s (JSoc) social media pages, with students having to read and moderate these comments.” The motion for this statement was passed on Tuesday, with 66 votes in favour and 6 against. 

Hertford College have also released a statement, condemning the event alongside stating a commitment “to improving our understanding of anti-Semitism and Jewish identity and working to provide adequate welfare resources and support for Jewish students affected by anti-Semitism.” Mansfield College has released a statement including a list of welfare resources for Jewish students at the college. 

Wadham College SU have also passed a motion condemning the invitation of Ken Loach and expressing solidarity with Jewish students, which passed on Wednesday with 150 votes for, 14 against, and 4 abstinations. Keble college has passed a similar motion, which further condemns the Master’s response: “By downplaying the severity of Loach’s comments, and putting the burden of labour on the students, the Master handled the issue insensitively and ignorantly.”

St John’s College held a meeting on Thursday evening to discuss their motion, which includes a mandate for the “JCR Equality and Diversity Officer to arrange Antisemitism Awareness Training for JCR members, provided by the Union of Jewish Students,” and they have since released a statement condemning the invitation of Loach. Members of Christ Church’s JCR committee have sent a letter to students expressing solidarity with the Jewish community and stating that they “have been in contact with the Union of Jewish Students about their antisemitism awareness workshop and would like to invite and encourage the rest of the JCR to join us in attending this session to increase our awareness of the history and evolution of antisemitism.” 

LMH held a meeting on Thursday evening, which included two motions: one condemning St. Peter’s College and one mandating their JCR president to sign the PresCom letter in support of Jewish students. Both motions at LMH passed with an overwhelming majority.

Image Credit: Andrew Shiva / Wikipedia / CC BY-SA 4.0.

Growing Pains: The Development of YA

Katie Kirkpatrick
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Growing Pains: The Development of YA

May the odds be ever in your favour. Maybe okay will be our always. If people were rain, I was drizzle and she was a hurricane. 

If you recognised where more than one of those quotes came from, chances are you also spent 2012-2014 engrossed in books by the likes of John Green, Rainbow Rowell and Veronica Roth. Although it really does feel like another era, it’s easy to conjure up memories of a time when the internet was filled with photos of Shailene Woodley in yet another book-to-film adaptation and rumours about what the next John Green book would be about. The YA fiction boom really was its own mini cultural era. Gone are the days of passing a tattered copy of The Fault in Our Stars around your entire friendship group, but how does YA lit hold up today? And how did that cultural era affect the ‘young adults’ at its centre?

As a former die-hard Hunger Games fan (yes, I own the pin), the release of the prequel, ‘A Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes’ convinced me to delve back into the world of YA. I was somewhat surprised to find I really enjoyed the book – sure, not quite as much as my obsessive past-self might have done, but nonetheless, I found it miles more entertaining than most of the ‘adult’ fiction I’d been trying to force myself to love. Intrigued, I picked up some more of my past favourites, eager to see whether they would stand the test of time.

What I found was that I enjoyed these books miles more than the more ‘literary’ novels I had been trying to convince myself to like. This left me thinking – why do I enjoy YA so much? Other than the age of its characters, what differentiates it from other genres?  In my opinion, it boils down to this: YA fiction is written for two key purposes. To entertain, and, in the least pretentious terms possible, to soften the pain of growing up. This applies to both of the main YA sub-genres: Contemporary (think The Fault in Our Stars, If I Stay, Simon vs the Homosapiens’ Agenda), and Dystopia (think The Hunger Games, Divergent, The Maze Runner). In both cases, seeing 16-year-olds facing seemingly insurmountable challenges makes normal life seem less awful, whether those challenges are car crashes, illnesses, or toppling a fascist regime. YA author Holly Bourne also explained the popularity of the genre by saying it ‘treated its target audience with a respect they hadn’t previously been afforded’ – YA authors don’t shy away from the political or the gritty, with The Hunger Games being an obvious example. They present the difficulties of life as they are, without simplifying things or taking on a condescending tone. At the same time, there is also something to be said for the fun of YA fic – not concerned with being ‘literary’, it embraces wit, drama, and, of course, the good old-fashioned love triangle. 

It’s safe to say that there are some YA books that stand the test of time. I’d encourage anyone to re-read dystopian classics like The Hunger Games – I’d hazard a guess that they’ve taken on a chilling new resonance in light of events like the pandemic (Maze Runner, anyone?) and America’s recent coup. But not every story holds up quite as well. As evidenced by the quotes at the start of this article, the melodramatic style of some YA authors can feel exhaustingly cliché, as an older reader, and some YA prose definitely feels like its main purpose is to be quotable. In addition to this, books like Rainbow Rowell’s Eleanor and Park have faced backlash for their treatment of race and culture; the eponymous Park of Rowell’s novel is Korean, and last year a viral tweet called attention to the ways in which the book perpetuates Asian stereotypes. Similarly, there have been numerous think-pieces about the ethics of the ‘sick lit’ sub-genre, stories like The Fault in Our Stars that deal with terminal illness and, some argue, fetishise it. Certain authors like YA ‘final boss’ John Green have also come under fire for sexism in their writing, especially in terms of embracing the ‘manic pixie dream girl’ trope. For example, in Paper Towns the character of Margot becomes more of an idea than a person – while this is definitely conscious, and a lesson the book teaches, when taken in context with the rest of Green’s novels, a pattern certainly emerges with his female characters. Following the manic pixie dream girl definition, their main function in his stories is to provide growth for the main character: Green’s heroines are unattainable, swooping into the boys’ lives and leading them on to some revelation about themselves and their lives before promptly all but disappearing in a cloud of smoke. 

On the flip side, diversity is perhaps one of the most positive lasting consequences of the YA boom. As a genre, it has always been ahead of the curve in terms of representation. For example, Becky Abertalli’s Simon vs the Homosapiens Agenda and its film adaptation broke into the mainstream, making a story centering a gay teenager something people of a variety of ages and sexualities wanted to go to the cinema and see – even if it came under fire for being ‘a gay story for a straight audience’, it’s hard to deny that it had much more of a positive impact than a negative one. Other, perhaps less sanitised, LGBT YA classics include Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sanchez, a story about a Mexican-American boy discovering his feelings for his best friend, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post, a historical fiction book about a lesbian teenager in the 90s being sent to a conversion therapy camp. It’s important to note, however, that this diversity came almost exclusively in the contemporary side of the YA genre: dystopian novels were often far more white and straight, with some of those that did feature LGBT representation falling into the ‘bury your gays’ trope. Additionally, a feature of the contemporary YA genre is that often characters become their marginalised identity: stories become ‘what it’s like to be an [insert identity here]’ rather than that identity simply being an aspect of the person.

At the end of the day, however, YA’s literary reign in 2012-14 was in many ways ahead of its time – at least as far as diversity and representation are concerned. In fact, I would go as far as to say it may be a reason why so many people in our generation are more interested and aware of LGBT identities, cultural differences, and mental health issues; it’s interesting to think about how the sudden popularity of the genre has consequences that stretch on to today. The YA boom also birthed a particular brand of fan culture, or ‘fandom’ that lives on today, even if it has migrated from Tumblr to Twitter and TikTok. At the same time, it was very much an era with a beginning and an end. For example, due to the way the film industry works, many of these books had to wait until 2018 or later for their films to be released, leaving them to flop as their army of fans had moved on. Think about how the Divergent trilogy films gradually faded into oblivion – in fact, the final instalment is yet to be released and likely never will be, in part due to the poor box office and critical performance of the previous film.

With that said, YA does live on here in the 2020s. Book publications are becoming more and more diverse, with recent stories including Full Disclosure by Camryn Garrett, a novel about a Black HIV-positive girl struggling to tell her love interest about her status. There are also, increasingly, adult or ‘New Adult’ (NA) books that bridge the gap and make fiction fun. A great example of this is Casey McQuiston’s Red, White, and Royal Blue, an NA rom-com about the Prince of England falling in love with the biracial, bisexual first-son of the US. In terms of adaptation, Netflix has learnt the tricks of the trade and taken over: the TV adaptation of ‘13 Reasons Why’ was, while hugely controversial, very popular, and franchises like To All the Boys continue to thrive. Thanks to their predecessors, Netflix’s adaptations find an audience outside of the original bookish crowd – one consequence of the YA boom is that films that technically would be considered within the genre now do well with far, far wider audiences. 

When it comes down to it, it’s safe to say the full cultural era of 2012-14 won’t be coming back any time soon; we’re unlikely to see many more pre-teens donning mockingjay pins or taking selfies in t-shirts with John Green quotes on them. But, for better or worse, the impact of YA fiction remains embedded in the adolescent experience of our generation – not only did it encourage us to be more socially and politically aware of the world around us, but it gave us a whole host of other skills too. For example, it led many tweens to become more tech savvy, via platforms for fans like Tumblr, and got many people into creative writing via fanfiction. In fact, it could be argued the impact of fanfiction on literature in general massively increased with the rise of YA – as well as YA novels themselves, like Fangirl by Rainbow Rowell, the 50 Shades franchise famously originated from Twilight fanfiction. YA books are clearly not just relics of their time, but stories that continue to be relevant – and not only to young people. Sure, they aren’t Great Novels, but they’re not trying to be. They never were. They occupy their own niche which continues to grow and transform with the times and, frankly,  literature needs them. 

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