Tuesday, April 29, 2025
Blog Page 432

Reality TV: harmless fun or mental health disaster?

Jaya Rana
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Reality TV: harmless fun or mental health disaster?

I’d be lying if I said I didn’t watch reality television. In fact, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t love reality television. Growing up in Essex, I was exposed to the superficial reality show culture from a very young age – frequently bumping into ‘stars’ from the likes of TOWIE and Love Island in cafes, gyms, and shops around town. Now, there are a plethora of issues I could raise even surrounding these two shows alone; from a lack of body diversity, to their eurocentrism, to the lack of LGBTQ+ representation, but for the sake of this article I’m going to consider primarily their impact on self-esteem and the unattainable beauty ideals they perpetuate.

For those of you who haven’t yet experienced the Love Island craze which has swept the nation, the premise is this: a group of ‘sexy singles’ are sent to a Majorca villa with the supposed goal of seeking love (though often a lot of raunchy contact and melodrama ensue in the process). Audience votes determine the length of their stay in the villa, and the winning couple return home with a £50,000 cash prize. It’s unsurprising that being inundated daily with images of this uniform body type (which we already find all over social media) impacts mental health. The lack of body diversity, plus the prevalence of surgical enhancement in this show, and others similar, leave many young people – myself certainly included – feeling insecure. Consuming this type of media for the duration the show requires can make it difficult to remember that self-worth is derived from more than just one’s exterior. There have been countless occasions where I’ve watched reality TV from the seat of an exercise bike, desperately attempting to emulate what I’m seeing on the screen.

However, while we can all agree there are innumerable issues which arise from participating in and watching reality TV, there is clearly something which draws us in; last year almost 5.9 million people were tuning into Love Island daily. Perhaps we’re overthinking it; reality TV can be considered a welcome escape from the mundanity of normal life. Investing oneself in the glamourous drama of these preened-to-perfection stars is addictive and engrossing. Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with appreciating beautiful people. Many contestants on such shows are ‘scouted’ from modelling agencies or social media platforms, and their entire lives centre around conforming to beauty standards. If someone has worked hard to achieve washboard abs or invested hours in getting perfectly polished nails and flouncy bouncy hair who are we to criticise? Especially when we’re the ones choosing to tune in after all. 

Maybe watching reality TV isn’t intrinsically problematic, rather the way in which we watch it needs careful consideration. Anyone who has seen an episode of Made in Chelsea will recognise that the participants are filmed with a perpetual ‘soft light’ filter over their lives; all colours are muted and all flaws diluted. If we can watch these shows with an awareness that aesthetic value is their central goal, much like we see plastered on Instagram, we can come away from the experience unscathed. It’s only when we’re fooled into conflating reality TV with actual reality that we begin to lose sight of what’s real, versus what’s actually an unachievable aesthetic. My issue, however – and I imagine this is an issue for many of us – is that I simply don’t think I can fully disassociate the two. I always come away from watching reality TV feeling somewhat inadequate; whether it’s because I feel uglier, or fatter, or simply less put together than those I’m watching, it simply does not benefit me to consume this type of entertainment. That’s why I’m making a conscious effort to cut down on my reality TV consumption, with the eventual aim of stopping entirely. And, in the mean time, I’m going out of my way to rewrite the narrative that I play in my mind while watching people who are characters, and remind myself that comparing my daily life to someone else’s highlight reel simply is not fair.

Channel 4 has suggested that reality TV has the capacity to do good – priding itself on examples such as The Undateables which centralise around those who are often neuro-atypical. But does it glorify its participants or ridicule them? (the title would suggest the latter…) Perhaps a better example is Naked Beach, which actively chooses to feature participants of all shapes and sizes – normalising bodies with cellulite, and stretch marks and body hair. While this may be true, these types of reality TV shows are few and far between, and almost never attract the same viewership as the likes of Ex on the Beach and Love Island.

Research points to the existence of a sort of ‘media contagion’ which has an awful impact on adolescents in particular, from promoting exploitative advertising (we’re talking weight loss pills, teeth whitening strips that don’t work and the dreaded ‘waist trainers’). In fact, it has even been affecting primary school children, who have been found emulating contestants. Despite the Love Island producers’ attempts to minimise damage to children by airing the show after the watershed, it’s impossible for a show which is such a pop culture phenomenon not to trickle down into even the youngest of demographics.A survey commissioned by the Mental Health Foundation revealed that heartbreaking 24% of 18-24 year olds feel severely worried about their body image specifically due to reality TV; the number of adolescents with body image issues stemming from social media pressures and reality TV combined is much higher. Perhaps it is time that we take a long hard look at our watching habits, perhaps even our digital consumption habits in all their forms, and question whether they are beneficial or might well be dangerous. We ought to take a critical look at reality TV and consider whether its advantages are significant enough to make up for the intense damage it has caused, and still is causing, to a large proportion of the population.

Confessions of an (un)qualified Au Pair

Alice Peat
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Confessions of an (un)qualified Au Pair

“Don’t you dare cry. Don’t let them see a chink in your armour,” I told myself. Commands, negotiations and bribes had failed miserably, simply falling on deaf ears. Under the glaring midday sun, my nerves in tatters, I decided to bring out the big guns. I could already feel a smug smile tugging at the corners of my mouth. I prepared myself for the inevitable moment of victory.

“If you don’t get out of the pool in 10 seconds, I’ll tell Mama that you can’t have any gelato today.”

My opponent, already two steps ahead, surfaced and told me equally smugly that she’d already had a cornetto for breakfast. And with that bombshell, she dove straight back into the pool. 

Child – 1; Alice – 0.

***

As every ab initio language student knows, 90% of first year is spend nodding along without a clue what’s going on. Fed up with sitting through Italian listening classes and not understanding what the woman in the video was on about, I made the somewhat rash decision to spend my summer in Italy. Being far too stubborn to take the easy option and spend time strolling around Florence eating overpriced pizza, I took the plunge and signed up to be an au pair. I uploaded my profile onto the AuPair World agency and asked myself what could possibly go wrong, reasoning that Italians were basically British people with better food and less social awkwardness.

As the well-known phrase goes, the road to a perfect host family never runs smooth. With every ‘like’ my profile received, the brief endorphin rush was cut short by the realisation that the family in question just seemed weird. There was the woman who confessed to loving her six rottweilers more than her two daughters and asked that I’d ‘care for the dogs like my own’; then there was the creepy dad who said my main role would be ‘taking care of all our needs’ (euphemism, anyone??). Call me fussy, but I wanted to spend time brushing up on my Italian rather than grooming overexcited canines.

Finally, though, I found myself signing a contract with a family from Emilia-Romagna, who thought I’d be suitable to look after their precious offspring. As soon as I stepped off the plane, blinking confusedly, the famous Italian hospitality craftily lulled me into a false sense of security. From the youngest cousins to the nonni at the head of the family, I was treated as some new and interesting specimen who could bring strange tales from foreign lands. The youngest asked me if it was true that we ate frogs’ legs in England; the cousins interrogated me relentlessly on British drinking and drug habits. (fyi, the rest of Europe thinks we’re alcoholics.).

The fact that I’d signed up to be a glorified babysitter for a 7- and a 10-year-old only really hit me when I found myself faced with the challenge of doing our daily hour of English speaking. Each attempt at fun, educational games, where I’d try to make them pick up English words and phrases, was like gesticulating desperately at a brick wall. I sought the girls’ validation much like one seeks the approval of a tutor who seems thoroughly uninterested by this week’s cobbled-together, incoherent excuse of an essay. It didn’t help that they were far tougher than even the strictest tutors. Rather than listening to my fascinating explanations of the present perfect continuous tense, the girls chose to drown me out with unusually chirpy Italians who voiced over never-ending episodes of iCarly.

Still suspicious of this strange pale girl who was trying to corrupt their brains with frankly useless information, it was only the girls’ realisation that I was the owner of a shiny smartphone which finally won them over. This opened up a whole new realm of possibilities: daily (or even hourly) games of Candy Crush, endless photo filters and YouTube videos were all at touch of a button. On one fateful afternoon, however, when I was mopping up their attempt at making slime, I was brought running by their screams. They’d stumbled across a stream of questionable bop photos, many where I seemed to be clutching a drink for dear life. From then on, they looked at me with a new aura of respect, as if this random girl brought in to look after them had finally turned into an actual adult who did actual adult things and was therefore qualified to tell them what to do. This didn’t stop them telling each family member with glee that “Aliche ama l’alcool”.

The closest I got to the sweet, sweet relief of an alcoholic beverage was the compulsory evening ‘passeggiata’, where we’d don our glad rags to go and spend a few hours doing what the Italians do best: socialising. We’d parade around local towns, the girls acting like angels and the parents showing me off as the ultimate middle class status symbol. Each time, we’d make it a couple of metres before we bumped into another colleague’s son’s girlfriend’s sister, to whom I’d be labelled as a figure of ‘cultural exchange’ and ‘cross-country friendship’. The girls, with noticeable glints in their eyes, would suddenly idolise me, clinging on to me as if I was their sole reason for existence. This was a far cry from the journey there, which would be spent crammed into the back of a small car between two screaming girls, tearing around Italian country roads, to the soundtrack of Mahmood’s Soldi on repeat (if you know, you know). As time went on, I grew to love this tradition of doing a PG carpool karaoke; there’s something infinitely wholesome about singing along at the top of your voice when you’re not caged in by those sweaty velvet walls.

In Oxford, we’re often so busy running from one thing to the next to reflect on why we’re doing it. Being thrust into such a different, slower pace of life was a much-needed opportunity to re-evaluate my priorities. Equally, I was thrown into situations (notably the swimming pool incident) that tested abilities which, ironically, my languages degree never touched upon: the very essence of communication. Indeed, by the end of my stay, my sorry excuse for Italian had been transformed so much that I actually understood the girls’ whisperings. In a shocking turn of events, they admitted to one another that they’d miss me because (and I quote) “she’s funnier than Mama when she’s cross”. Of course, they’d never have given me the satisfaction of telling me that to my face. Perhaps most important, however, was the daily reminder of why we use contraception. Until you’re ready to deal with a child who’s defecated on a slide in 35 degree heat, do you what need to do. And until then, enjoy every ounce of freedom you’ve got.  

In Conversation with Sir Mo Farah

Lucas Jones
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In Conversation with Sir Mo Farah

It’s not easy to cover hundreds of miles when you’re stuck inside. With global sporting events cancelled or postponed for the foreseeable future and many types of training prohibited or significantly altered, international athletics and, by extension, international athletes have been hit hard by the lockdown. Sir Mo Farah has, however, managed to take it in his stride.

Farah, winner of four Olympic Gold Medals and a plethora of other titles, is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history. He has competed and won at every distance from 5000 metres to marathon and had announced a return to the track for Tokyo 2020 last November to try and retain his 1st place position for the third time in a row. An Achilles injury may have slowed him down, but Farah was making good progress towards that goal before the coronavirus shut down races across the planet.

“At the time, in March, I was in a training camp in Ethiopia,” Mo smiles, “I pulled out of the London Big Half early on because of an Achilles problem, but once that settled down and got better I did four weeks of training.” However, as the pandemic became more prevalent this training regime was cut short. “It was just kicking off, I had to change my flight to come back home and make sure that when lockdown happened I was with my family, so that’s what I did. Since then it’s been nothing.”

Farah is committed to his family, constantly referencing them as we discuss staying motivated amidst so much confusion. They occasionally appear in the background of our Zoom call, having clearly inherited some extremely speedy genes. They also feature prominently in Sir Mo’s YouTube channel, which boasts an impressive 139,000 subscribers. The content of the videos has shifted recently, with more family challenges and less training videos. That’s not to say, however, that his training has dropped off.

“I normally do between 100-150 miles a week and a lot of the time I’m in the gym three times a week” smiles Mo as he describes his average training regime, “most of my running’s been on the treadmill, I’ve even done hill sessions on the treadmill.” He rattles off this regime as if it were easy, maintaining a positive tone as he describes the most gruelling elements of his training. If there is one word to describe Sir Mo, it has to be motivated. He seems to have sprinted through circumstances that have robbed many of us of all our motivation. The secret, he says, is setting your eyes on the finish line.

“You always have to have a goal and have ambition and look beyond this. I’m one of the lucky people in the way that I still have a treadmill here, I have a bit more space than everyone else. You always have to try to think positive and that’s what I try to do with my kids. We try not to go into too much detail and always be negative so, in a way, it’s like, ‘let’s go and have a laugh, kids! What can we do?’ Go in the pool, go in the garden, go and do challenges. Just keep your mind active.” He tries to get the kids to run at least a mile every day if they aren’t out on their bikes, making sure that there is always something to focus on to get through the day.

Keeping your mind active is one thing, but looking beyond the pandemic is quite another. Social distancing will likely last for months, leaving athletes whose training depends on upcoming events in a difficult position. I put this to Farah, asking if he has any specific event in mind with regard to his training. “My aim has always been the Tokyo Olympics,” he replies, “that’s what really drives me to stay on my feet, stay motivated, stay hungry. That’s what my goal is, ultimately.” Although his goal has stayed concrete, the circumstances will have changed drastically by the time his shoes touch the track.

The travel industry is set for massive losses, and recent developments in the UK’s quarantine plans mean that going abroad won’t be an option for the foreseeable future. This is an issue for athletes who rely on travel for everything from altitude training to World Championships. “It’s definitely going to have a knock-on effect, no matter what,” says Mo. “I’m trying to stay positive.”

Another huge problem for organisers is that it is extremely difficult to have socially-distant spectators in stadiums. Korean football has got past this by staging games with no crowds at all, or even filling the seats with poorly-chosen humanoid dolls. An eerie silence has replaced the cheering and chanting in these stadiums, which poses a problem for athletes who thrive off the crowd’s energy. “There’s no question about. The crowd is everything. It drives you, it puts you on your toes, it puts you on edge. Without the crowd, I think it’s going to be totally different.” The roaring crowd which has accompanied all of Sir Mo’s signature sprint finishes will probably be absent the next time he runs. It’s a bitter pill to swallow, but Farah manages to keep sight of what is most important.

“Without the crowd it’s going to be boring but, at the same time, it’s what we need to do to make it as safe as possible.” Speaking as “a massive Arsenal fan”, it’s clear that even if he agrees that having football without spectators is odd, “If it means we can have football back and this is how it’s got to be for a little while then we just have to stick at it because it’s the safety of the players. But as an Arsenal fan, I’m thinking ‘man, I don’t like the look of that!’ Imagine seeing the whole stadium empty…”

These concerns are still firmly in the future, for now it’s a question of adapting his training in the present. His commitment to the treadmill means that he can still cover the distance, but training has lost a key social element. “It can be lonely at times. It depends who you have and how much you enjoy it. Whatever you put into it is what you get out of it, whereas in football if you can have a bad day but there are ten more players who can help you recover.” Reliance on a team dynamic is something that Sir Mo doesn’t have to worry about as much as team players. “I think it will have a really big effect,” he notes, acknowledging that each player training as an individual could cause serious issues when football starts back up.

Hammering out 10-mile sets in isolation is no mean feat, but Farah says that Team GB has “handled it in a positive way by trying to put athletes first.” The period of uncertainty leading up to the Olympics’ postponement was a particular cause for anxiety, but “once that settled down we got the comfort of thinking ‘I have a date’… The goal is to always have something to aim for. That’s what you thrive off, and that’s what gives you that boost, that energy and motivation.” Recovering from his aforementioned Achilles injury, Farah had set his sights on the Olympics knowing that he faced an uphill battle. The weeks leading up to the announcement that the Olympics would be held in 2021 were particularly stressful because, as other races in the UK were called off, Farah had no way of testing himself. “If I hadn’t run other competitions it would have been crazy to run in the Olympics,” says Mo, emphasising that he’s glad that the focus has been on the safety of athletes first and foremost.

Even if their safety is put first, the consequences of the lockdown on mental health still weigh on athletes. “To be honest at this point they haven’t spoken that much about mental health,” Mo states, “They had a target, their target’s been cancelled. I’ve been there and done it so many years that I can overcome that but for some younger athletes I think they will have that in their minds. It’s important to support them in general, not even just in sports.” I suggest that public figures like Sir Mo have an important role to play in keeping up morale across the country, to which he beams: “I think that’s always the key for me. As a general thing, I love to be able to help others. A five-minute phone call is just five minutes for me, but that could make that kid’s day. When I was younger I loved football and if one of the Arsenal players said ‘hi’ to me that would have made my day. We used to collect stickers, I remember that we used to get excited about stickers, so imagine one of the players in real life saying ‘hi’ or saying something to you.”

Farah’s reach has been massively increased by social media. He uses Twitter, Instagram and YouTube to engage with viewers and fans, retweeting letters from children and entertaining on Instagram live streams. He has also participated in the 5K challenge which, in classic Mo style, he did as part of a 10-mile training session from home. Asked his time, he replies “oh, was it 18 or 19 minutes?”  He smiles the most when he talks about how much he enjoys helping others out in a time of crisis and is in the middle of telling me how much easier it is to stay connected by social media when our call cuts out. “It’s an easy way to stay connected…” are the last words I catch.

We manage to reconnect, and the focus shifts beyond running. It’s hard to face the distant future when the next few months hold so much uncertainty, but Farah’s plan seems clear. “When I finish running completely, I’d love to be able to give back to the younger kids and get involved more with coaching. I’ve actually just got my coach’s license so I’m actually qualified, which is a good thing to have. Particularly young kids in Britain, there are a lot of kids with potential who are good enough, but it’s always hard to make that transition from juniors to seniors. For me I just see myself as a coach. I’m also not bad with kids, having four kids myself.”

Sir Mo retains a lightness throughout the interview that makes it hard not to smile along with him. He’s also positive about the future of running as a leisure activity in Britain, saying: “back in the day we saw running as something that you had to do in PE, or as a warm-up. Most people, if you tell them ‘you must do this’, they’re most likely not going to do it. Running’s a great way of getting everything out. It clears your mind and you’re in a different zone.”

Farah is very clearly still going for gold. We haven’t seen the last of the ‘Mobot’ yet, but until then he has to bear with lockdown and continue to train. With questions about the feasibility of the 2021 Olympics continuing and lockdowns relaxing across the world, it is extremely difficult to stay motivated. Sir Mo is an example of the positive, goal-oriented attitude we need to make it to the finish line. “We’re all human at the end of the day,” he remarks as the interview ends, “we just have to try to be positive in every way that we can.”

Somerville students raise over £30 000 to support George Floyd protesters

Imogen Duke
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Somerville students raise over £30 000 to support George Floyd protesters

A Facebook fundraising page started by Somerville students to provide legal support to protesters in the USA has raised over £30,000 since Saturday.

The donations go to the National Laws Guild Inc, a non-profit in the US which provides legal support to advance human and civil rights. They are working with other charities including the Minnesota Freedom Fund to provide essential support to those protesting after the killing of George Floyd by a police officer in Minneapolis last week.

The fundraiser initially aimed to raise £2,000 to help “mitigate the harmful and deathly impacts of the criminal justice system against black people and those that stand up to oppressive structures.”

It raised over £1,000 in less than an hour and raised over £10,000 in less than 24 hours. It is still rapidly growing at over £30,000. The team plans to encourage donations to the fundraiser for two weeks.

The fundraiser page explains: “The American criminal justice system disproportionately affects black people in America, as institutional racism often puts them in closer proximity to poverty. Some cannot afford bail, or private attorneys. They are placed in jails before their trials where they face the risk of death every day. Given the COVID-19 situation, and the difficulty of social distancing in jails, protesters being jailed could be even more life-threatening than it usually is. (See the stories of Kalief Browder and Sandra Bland).”

“The ten-minute-long video of George Floyd’s murder was proliferated on many social media websites; he could be heard clearly shouting that he couldn’t breathe. This followed the racist shooting of Ahmaud Arbery, murder of Breonna Taylor by police and the attempt by Amy Cooper to call the police on Christian Cooper; she told him she would call the police and tell them that an African American man was threatening her life. For many the sequence of events was pertinent; Christian Cooper’s encounter could have been fatal, George Floyd’s encounter was fatal.”

The Fundraising Team told Cherwell: “What we witnessed in the wake of George Floyd’s murder and the publicity of the #BlackLivesMatter movement were many public declarations of solidarity using social media. We are firm believers that activism requires action and wanted to create a means for people to do that; this was the main motivation for creating the fundraiser.

“Statements on social media are an important thing for black people to see because for so long many have felt that issues of racism are often ignored, but we felt that there is more to solidarity than words alone.

“Danielle first approached Nadia, Ibti, and Cara with the idea of putting forward one of these charities to our JCR because there was an opportunity for an extra-ordinary charity ballot. After asking around and making some enquires it was clear that the bureaucracy involved would stop charities getting the funds in a timely fashion; it was then we moved to the idea of a fundraiser. Emma then heard that we were thinking about putting forward a charity motion and offered her help.

“We worked together to write the description for the fundraiser and spoke to the Minnesota Freedom Fund to find out if they were happy for us to use Facebook. They pointed us in the direction of other charities they were working with (Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, Legal Rights Center), as they had been inundated with funds. After a brief Twitter search we found out that the National Lawyers Guild were being suggested as the main point of contact for protestors and we decided to go with this charity.

“We did not expect the fundraiser to gain so much traction and even began with the meagre goal of £2000, but after raising over half the amount in one hour we began steadily upping our goal. We can only thank the Oxford Black community and everyone else who shared the fundraiser.

“It is amazing to see how much has been raised and the support from students all over the UK and the World, but this is by no means the end. We hope that people don’t just donate to this fundraiser and move on, but rather take it as a step to becoming actively anti-racist. Black people don’t get to forget about things and move on because the systemic and structural nature of racism and white supremacy permeates every aspect of their lives.”

Read Melanie Onovo, Imogen Taylor, and Nigel Yau’s Silence is complicit, but so is inaction: Why JCRs and British institutions must act now here. Read Reem Sultan’s The Open Casket of George Floyd here. Read Ti Balanta’s Anti-blackness: a performative business here.

Image credit to Leonhard Lenz / Wikimedia Commons.

Students review their favourite audiobooks

Cherwell Books
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Students review their favourite audiobooks

‘Good Omens’ by Terry Pratchet and Neil Gaiman, read by Martin Jarvis
I love the idea of audiobooks but often struggle to find one I like enough to finish. Good Omens was the first audiobook that I had no trouble sticking to. Neil Gailman and Terry Pratchet’s modern fantasy is comedy gold, thanks to both their witticisms and the sheer absurdity of the plot — the antichrist has been born, the four bikers of apocalypse have arrived, and the angel Aziraphale and the demon Cowley team up to prevent Armageddon. At the same time, the book opens up interesting questions about our perception of religion, with its portrayal of both Hell and Heaven riddled with middle management. Martin Jarvis’ voice acting is stellar, with a bizarre combination of gravitas and fantastic comic timing that really works. If you watched the Good Omens TV series on Amazon Prime last year and loved it, then I would definitely recommend picking up the audiobook and giving it a go.
Grace Horder, Third Year English, St. Anne’s College.

‘A Little History of Philosophy’ by Nigel Warburton, read by Kris Dyer
Always accessible, yet never patronising, Nigel Warburton’s A Little History of Philosophy achieves something I thought impossible from a lay-man’s philosophy book. Warburton summarises the most compelling arguments of all the great Western philosophers, from antiquity to the modern day, without evoking the boredom or confusion typically associated with entry-level philosophy. Each chapter is dedicated to one philosopher, with 40 chapters spanning from Socrates to Kierkegaard to Peter Singer. If I’d seen this contents page in a printed edition, I may have felt too intimidated to continue reading. But as an audiobook, this concise and punchy overview really triumphs. Averaging at 10 minutes each, the chapters are more approachable than they immediately appear, and contain just the right amount of humour and amusing biographical details about these famously idiosyncratic thinkers. The audiobook’s narrator, Kris Dyer, masterfully projects Warburton’s cheerful and relaxed approach to even the most complex of ideas. If, like me, you’ve taken up jogging for the first time, this offers a great alternative to a podcast for accompanying your pavement-pounding. But it works equally well for lazy afternoons, when lockdown has you pondering the BIG questions.
Fliss Miles, Masters in English (650-1550), Balliol College

‘Just William’ by Richmal Crompton, read by Martin Jarvis
The inevitable lockdown induced room-tidy upon which I embarked recently saw the rediscovery of a treasured childhood possession – my CD collection of Martin Jarvis reading Richmal Crompton’s Just William stories. The tales of 11-year-old schoolboy William’s ridiculous antics, are, I think, a welcome escape from the current climate. To dive back into mid-20th century Kent and hear about a band of boys entertaining themselves by playing in woods, putting on plays and generally getting into all sorts of trouble is an appreciated release from an increasingly online and dull existence.  Martin Jarvis’ unabridged narration is phenomenal – his distinctive voices for each character are at once exceedingly impressive and consistently hilarious. The lisping-whining voice of entitled child Violet-Elizabeth Bott was a personal highlight. Oh, to live in William’s world, where the most pressing concern is learning how to make the perfect whistle or the latest scheme to source half a crown.
Rachael Moule, Second Year English, Trinity College.

‘Mythos: The Greek Myths Retold’ by Stephen Fry, read by Stephen Fry
A delightfully bizarre blend of the old and the new, with a hint of Fry’s whit and endearing charm thrown in for good measure. If mysterious stories, heroic battles, and fearful creatures get your heart racing that little bit faster (and let’s face it, how wouldn’t they) then this audiobook will be music to your ears. Spoken word is Fry’s great strength, and his witty personality shines through his retelling of these Greek classics, bringing Greek Gods and Goddesses into dialogue with modern day readers all around the globe. He pulls no punches (at one point telling of how the Greek God of War Ares was “monumentally dense”) and this gives his work a brutal, but utterly charming edge. Fry’s moving mission, to keep the beauty of the ancient Greeks alive in the modern day, is an admirable one, and I would urge anyone intrigued by this culture of mystery and wonder to take up his invitation. He will not disappoint.
Harry Twohig, First Year History, Mansfield College

‘A Perfect Sound Whatever’ by James Acaster, read by James Acaster
Basically, James Acaster being as witty and loveable as ever for 6 hours. He talks about 2017, which was an objectively sh*t year for the comic, what with a break-up, his agent quitting and struggles with mental health. His coping strategy was to download as much music as he could from the previous year of 2016, which in his own words was “a mild distraction [which] gradually grew into an obsession that ultimately changed my life”. In total he bought 366 albums from 2016, ranging from mainstream Beyonce’s Lemonade to obscure Ethiopian folk-rock. The breadth of knowledge and insight with which he describes each artist and their album is truly fascinating. The book is emotionally honest, really interesting, but also full of hilarious anecdotes so the narrative never gets too heavy. In my opinion, the book is enhanced in audio format, as James’ reading of his own story is much more funny and real.
Bridget Stuart, Second Year Psychology, St. John’s College

‘The Iliad’ translated by Ian Johnston, read by Anton Lesser
Alright, you caught me – I’m a classics student. But what’s not to love about the tense, vaguely upper-class breathiness of an Anton Lesser narration to one of the greatest works of literature (that no one actually has time to read)? Ian Johnston’s 2000 translation is clean and direct; though it’s not quite as sharp as Stephen Mitchell’s recent abridged version, it’s a perfect way to get into the meat of the story and all its quirks without trying to drag yourself through impenetrable 20th-century prose. Highlights include any time there’s a dramatic speech, the spicy Homeric insults, and Anton Lesser’s emotional delivery of all the sad parts (money back if you don’t get misty-eyed at the end). I’d recommend this one to anyone wanting to break into the classics, who (like me) lacks the actual motivation to sit down and read them. In quarantine, it’s been ideal for dramatic solitary walks in the countryside or for some proper escapism while enjoying the pseudo-Mediterranean sunshine.
Jemima Sinclair, Second Year Classics, New College

‘Call Me by Your Name’ by Andre Aciman, read by Armie Hammer
If any readers have ever done a stint as a retail worker over winter holidays, they will be familiar with the utter lack of festive cheer I experienced on my early commute, alone with my thoughts that ran to the effect of; god this is grim. I wish I was anywhere but on this bus in the West of Scotland. Christmas is cancelled. And so on. But it must be said that, having downloaded my first audiobook to counter-act this, the exquisite summer romance of Aciman’s Call Me by Your Name did a pretty good job of transporting me to the sun-soaked cobbles of Northern Italy instead. I’d always held a vaguelly snobbish prejudice that audiobooks were a soft-touch substitute for the ‘proper’ way to read; on the contrary, oral story-telling proved a gorgeously immersive way to put forward a narrative. Especially for a novel like this which consists of a stream of consciousness of the protagonist, the already powerful depiction of bright and brief first love becomes more immediate and overwhelming. And although certain moments – you know which – were just a bit indecent for public transport, I cannot overstate the restorative properties that come with the experience of Armie Hammer whispering sweet nothings into your ear at the end of a high-stress day.
Jess Curry, Second Year Classics, St. Hugh’s College

‘No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference’ by Greta Thunburg, read by Greta Thunburg
“Our lives are in your hands”.  Greta Thunberg sends a bold and unflinching message in her book No One Is Too Small to Make a Difference. Read by the Swedish activist herself, it collates her most poignant speeches from the last two years and is proof that dystopian writing in the 21st century is often non-fiction. Throughout the concise hour-long runtime Thunberg paints a bleak picture of our planet’s future without immediate and all-encompassing measures to counter climate change. With eloquent but angry calls for greater awareness and accountability, you are forced to reflect on your personal role in the impending environmental crisis and what you can do to stop it. Short, powerful and pleading, No One Is Too Small shows the uncomfortable truth about our short-sighted policies and unsustainable lifestyle. Whether climate change denier or Extinction Rebellion member, it is impossible not to be affected by a child’s voice begging for their future.
Lizzie Harvey, History and French, Hertford College

Review: The 1975’s ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’

Pauline Gümpel
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Review: The 1975’s ‘Notes on a Conditional Form’

Notes on a Conditional Form, the fourth studio album by The 1975, has created its own chaotic history even before its release. The band’s latest record is the second part of a release cycle of two albums along with the title Music for Cars and has seen its release date pushed back two times. It was leaked online three days before the intended release and has seen a change of name, having been previously announced under the title Drive Like I Do, one of the many names of the band before their rise to prominence. Its cover art was changed twice before they finally settled on one version for digital and another one for physical releases. Seven of the twenty-two tracks have been released as singles over a period of nine months prior to the album’s release, excluding the record’s first track ‘The 1975’, released in July 2019 as a teaser. The Music for Cars title given to this “era” of the band, as they call it, has also been the name of an EP released in 2013 ahead of their self-titled debut album, thus prompting expectations of some sort of connection to The 1975’s earlier work.

The new album itself has stayed true to the band’s unique and personal sound and yet shows a development, instrumentally and vocally. Like their previous albums, its sounds range from guitar-dominated to electronic, to atmospheric orchestral songs. The album has more experimental vocals than their earlier work, and seems to continue the eagerness to try new things that came across in A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships. After releasing a song that entirely limits its vocals to a story read out by an automated voice (‘The Man Who Married A Robot / Love Theme’) on their 2018 album, on NOACF they continue to surprise listeners; the opening track, for example, features a snippet from a speech by Greta Thunberg as its only vocal element.

Many songs on NOACF build on the band’s previous style and success. Listeners who liked The 1975 for upbeat pop-rock songs like ‘Chocolate’ and ‘Girls’ will definitely find some new favourites on this album, like ‘Me & You Together Song’ and ‘If You’re Too Shy (Let Me Know)’. ‘Frail State of Mind’ will resonate with fans who enjoyed the electronic, rhythmic, deconstructed sounds in ‘TOOTIMETOOTIMETOOTIME’ or ‘M.O.N.E.Y’. Anyone who felt the vibe from tracks like ‘A Change of Heart’ and ‘Nana’ from the band’s 2016 album was missing in the first part of Music for Cars will be excited by ‘Jesus Christ 2005 God Bless America’. Rather plain and mostly based on acoustic guitar, this ballad is beautifully vulnerable and emotional. It also stands out as one of the few collaborative songs, featuring guest vocals from American indie rock singer Phoebe Bridgers. Apart from these vocal collaborations, fans are also treated to two songs in a slightly different style to that we’ve come to expect from The 1975. More laidback, mid-tempo and – thanks to a banjo – almost with a country feel to it, ‘The Birthday Party’ and ‘Roadkill’ bring new stylistic features to the band’s development; I personally felt reminded of ‘Superman’ by Lazlo Bane when listening to the two songs. In my opinion, this style suits the band very well and represents a positive surprise for their listeners.

NOACF is a varied record with many strong songs that allow The 1975 to show their full range of musical expression and potential as a band. Many songs from Notes on a Conditional Form deserve to be among the top songs of 2020 and to be remembered beyond this year. However, it must be said that the band have not succeeded in rendering their idea for a release cycle of two albums into a coherent project. The chaotic release history of the cycle’s second album particularly supports the impression that this endeavour was a little too ambitious for The 1975. What might have been intended as a close link with the fan community resulted in a cluster of misinformation and insecurity surrounding the process of compiling an album of the magnitude of NOACF. Both albums from the Music for Cars cycle could have profited from being released as deluxe versions. A standard version excluding many of the electronic instrumentals would have allowed NOACF to feel more pertinent and made it easier to listen to. To the majority of their mainstream listeners, the seven singles which preceded the album release have already carried the core of The 1975’s sound for 2020 and do not leave much else to discover. To anyone who is not a fan and/or particularly interested in the evolution of the band, the album itself holds no appeal and might even be off-putting simply because of its intimidating 22 songs, of which many feel like filling material. Nevertheless, with an improved album structure and approach to PR The 1975 might well reach the sorts of new heights their single releases have so often promised.

Historical Opera: A Primer

Cecilia Wang
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Historical Opera: A Primer

The ancient Greeks were so moved by music that in their mythological conception, the father of songs, Orpheus, could move even the rocks. In less fanciful terms, the New Scientist has informed its readers that a loss of endorphin-generation from physical intimacies can be addressed with more music and dancing in the Covid-19 lockdown. Opera may seem intimidating upon first encounter, but the demands of singing and the need to stay in tune with the flow of the music have actually meant that words are uttered at a much slower pace than in other mediums, such as theatre or movies. The music creates a more immersive environment in which to be moved and to understand, and together with the singing it represents the perfect channel for the expression and entertainment of epic historical dramas.

Gaetano Donizetti’s ‘Three Tudor Queens’

Amongst the gifts bequeathed by Italians to the world are an imperial empire, a traditional society dominated by the everlasting feuds between its ruling families, hearty cuisine, and sensual indulgences, to name just a few. Donizetti can take credit for another. Though his more often performed pieces nowadays may include ‘L’elisir d’amore’ with its cheesy libretto, the prolific composer successfully shifted the cultural balance away from primarily comedic operas to significant historical dramas, starting with 1830’s Anna Bolena (Anne Boleyn).

Anna Bolena

The energetic, heir-obsessed Henry VIII may have contributed more than any other to the grapevine of English chatter. Donizetti is never one to economise with his storyline, a trick later Italian composers such as Verdi studiously adopted to make their operas less hard work on the audience. The bel canto style, known for its exact control of the intensity of vocal tone, demand for vocal agility, and clear articulation of notes, enables the soprano role of Anne Boleyn to dominate the stage. Donizetti further glorifies his Tudor Queen by juxtaposing her with the low bass voices of Henry VIII. The erstwhile ambitious and successful Anne Boleyn now loses the King’s favour, whilst her lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour, ascends. The rich texture of Boleyn’s inner world twisted by ambition and disappointment is given ethereal expression in her singing.

Maria Stuarda

Anne Boleyn was by no means the only Queen to face the gallows in their period of violent upheavals. Mary, Queen of Scots, would later follow her footsteps. Donizetti made the Catholic Queen less a creature of politics, and one more of love and devotion. The juicy triangle is between Queen Elizabeth I, her long-time suitor, Robert Dudley, the Earl of Leicester, and Leicester’s former marital prospect, Mary Stuart. Donizetti embodies the continental view that saw Queen Elizabeth as an illegitimate heretic, and Mary instead a martyr. Elizabeth is turned unrestrainedly jealous, willful and easily over-wrought, whereas Mary rises in regality with her serene devotion to the true faith and as the object of Leicester’s true love. The famed librettist Felice Romani found Tudor history the perfect canvas upon which to paint his strong and powerful colours, imagining the fictionalised confrontation between the two queens. The two sopranos battle out. The outrageous text of the confrontation is heard in shocking relief, with the dialogue being one of the most original and powerful passages of Donizetti’s composition. The climactic moment is masterfully given theatrical immediacy.

Robert Devereux

Elizabeth I’s long reign could not have gone by without further romantic dalliances. The last decade of her life saw the influence of Robert Devereux, the Earl of Essex, (who, incidentally, was also Leicester’s step-son through his second marriage). Here, the Queen is in the twilight of her life, and her much younger lover increasingly prefers her lady-in-waiting, the Duchess of Essex. The finale in Donizetti’s Tudor drama takes most artistic license with its plot, but nonetheless presents a convincing dramatic narrative of its own. Infrequently performed today, it contains some of Donizetti’s best vocal writing, such as the superb duet at the end of Act 1. The preparation of the opera was overshadowed by a serious crisis in Donizetti’s life, as he endured the loss of both of his parents and the death of two babies (one stillborn), perhaps giving rise to the raw emotional fabric of the music, a powerful vehicle for the soprano. The final scene is one of the most dramatic and difficult in bel canto opera. Elizabeth is mad with grief for the lover that she has ordered executed, and ‘Quel sangue versato’ (‘That spilled blood/rises to heaven’) achieves the most extraordinary effect as it pushes romantic opera to the limits of melodic expression.

Alexander Borodin’s Prince Igor

Many of the elements of Orientalism in music that so bewitched Western audiences for generations can be found in this Russian historical epic, which recounts the campaign of Rus’ prince Igor Svyatoslavich’ against the invading Cuman tribes in 1185. The opera is a powerful mixture of Russian folklore and ancient Slavic epic poems. Borodin incorporates elements of Russian folk music to distinguish his compatriots from the invading ‘heathens’, as characterised through techniques such as chromaticism and melisma. A recent Met Opera production employed 12,000 poppies to create a transporting experience into ancient Russia.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Nabucco

Verdi’s success has been closely tied to his potent calls to Italian nationalism. Indeed, the opera that propelled him to stardom recounts the Biblical story of the repressed Jewish people exiled by the heretical Babylonians. The opera appealed to the Italians struggling to unite so as to release themselves from the dominance of ruling Austrians. The score features the famous hymn by Hebrew slaves sung by the chorus, nowadays often heard in its English version around Christmas season.

Giuseppe Verdi’s Aida

Described by the Met Opera as “the grandest opera on the grandest stage”, Aida has enjoyed enduring success. The opera was commissioned by Isma’il Pasha, Khedive of Egypt for the Khedivial Opera House in Cairo. Set in the Old Kingdom, this opera is always an unrivalled visual feast with its stage setting and costumes. Notable instrumentation includes the use of flutes, military bands, harps and Egyptian trumpets, to name just a few standouts.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Idomeneo

The opera that propelled the young Mozart into stardom masterfully incorporates the French style of choruses, marches, and ballets. Mozart’s virtuoso baroque composition tells the dramatic story of the Trojan War. The film of the Met Opera production featuring Pavarotti in the titular role is one of the most widely watched versions to date.

Silence is complicit, but so is inaction: Why JCRs and British institutions must act now

Melanie Onovo, Imogen Taylor, and Nigel Yau
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Silence is complicit, but so is inaction: Why JCRs and British institutions must act now

On Sunday 31st May, we brought a motion to Christ Church JCR to donate £720 to the Black Visions Collective, Reclaim the Block, and the Minnesota Freedom Fund. 

The motion was considered at an Extraordinary General Meeting, called through petition, for the specific purpose of debating this motion. Our thanks goes to the 150+ members of Christ Church JCR who responded to our appeal for signatures. The motion passed unanimously without debate. 

The funds were collected through the JCR appeals levy. £320 was donated to the Black Visions Collective and Reclaim the Block respectively, while the Minnesota Freedom Fund received £80. 

Other JCRs have raised similar proposals, including Wadham SU’s initiative to donate £500 to the Minnesota Freedom Fund. As the Minnesota Freedom Fund has received immense support, they are also encouraging people to donate to other organisations on their website. Here’s why you should do this and call for institutions to do the same. 

It is upsetting that it took a 10 minute video of the brutal murder of George Floyd by police to open the eyes of the world to the pervasiveness of racial injustice in our society. While there has been a lot of support from white allies, taking a public anti-racist position, there has been a harrowing silence from our public figures and politicians in denouncing America and the events of the past week. 

George Floyd’s death is not the first instance of police brutality. He joins a long list of black people whose lives were cut short by a system of violent oppression and degradation. This event is yet another reminder that those in power hold such evil contempt and disregard towards the black existence. 

If not now, then when will we finally see real efforts towards change – when will we finally be free to live without fear of unjust arrest, police brutality, and extrajudicial killings? Six years ago the words “I CANNOT BREATHE” were on our posters and painted on our walls. Six years later we are here again. We are still angry and a new generation of disillusioned black children have joined the streets to protest against the same injustice we have been fighting for countless years.

Let us not allow our concern for the fight against racism to burn out when American cities stop burning, when George Floyd is no longer the number one news story, and take real action now.

The silence of the UK Government on the events occurring in the United States is unacceptable and unforgivable. Our institutions must come together to denounce the racial injustice occurring in America because no one else is. Our own leaders are failing to voice our outrage and have chosen a position of neutrality. 

The Foreign Secretary, Dominic Raab, when asked about President Trump’s threatening and racially charged comments in relation to the riots, chose not to comment. By choosing to remain silent, he has signalled to others in privileged positions that it is okay to keep their heads down and hide from the blatant inequality faced by black people. By choosing to remain silent, he has chosen to support the world as it stands, including its biased and racist systems. 

Without action from our leaders, the impetus falls on us to respond. In the past couple of days, much inspiring and notable work has been done to help African American people and the family of George Floyd heal from this unbelievable tragedy. Danielle Welbeck was able to raise over £12,000 in one day for the National Lawyers Guild Inc. Every JCR should join her and take initiative, to contribute and do their part to help the African American community who are currently in a state of anguish as they are beaten, shot and maced when exercising their right to protest. 

Proposing and voting for donations to black freedom causes through JCRs is a direct and proactive way to help and make an immediate impact on the condition of protesters fighting for a better future. JCRs coming together to discuss racism and donate funds to the battle against racism helps to make up for the failures of our national and international leadership to address racial injustice. We have all witnessed students take to social media to show their support for the Black Lives Matter movement, the protesters and George Floyd. Whilst voicing your anger and concern on social media helps to build awareness, it is not enough to effect real change. We are in danger of forgetting the significance of racial inequality and once again seeing more black lives lost. People must not become complacent, and remember their social media activism is an insufficient contribution to the movement. 

Donations to black freedom movements are a significant way to help this fight against racial inequality and injustice, going towards rebuilding communities and healing social divisions. They also, in the long term, go towards building the political capital of the black community so that concerns about institutional racism in the police force, and state sponsored racialised violence, do not go unheard. Reclaim the Block, the Black Visions Collective, Campaign Zero, Unicorn Riot and several other grassroots organisations would welcome donations from your JCR which would go towards creating the safe and inclusive America that the black community deserves, paving the way for an end to racial injustice everywhere. Please, to all JCRs, do your part.

Indeed, on racial discrimination, the University of Oxford is far from immune and has been complicit in its perpetuation. From controversies surrounding Cecil Rhodes, to the confrontational interactions with Oxford custodians, black and minority students today still face the consequences of racial bias and inequality. 

Beyond Oxford’s duty to contribute to correcting racial bias due to its own shortcomings, the University is a powerful and influential platform which should be used to effect change. Though a few hundred pounds from the purses of JCRs may do some good in helping overcome this issue at present, if we truly want to benefit the black students that will continue our Oxford legacies far into the future, a far greater shift in both mindset and policy is required. 

A donation by Oxford University in the fight against racism will not only immediately help the African American community currently suffering, but also sends a strong and clear message that Oxford is actively anti-racism and does not take a position of neutrality in situations of injustice. It will also signal to other powerful institutions to follow suit and actively fight against racial injustice.

The black community has been rioting and protesting the same issues for generations and to no avail. The same institutions that were complicit in the perpetuation of these pernicious norms must now act to break them and reform the status quo; they must be the ones to push the change onto those who have not yet joined the fight. We are not asking for white saviours, but we are asking for white allies to say that enough is enough, to say that they no longer wish to benefit from a system rigged in their favour at the expense of other human beings. 

Oxford has the power and influence to affect real change, and silence on the issue of racial discrimination can only be interpreted as an act of violence against the black community, and therefore against all black students at Oxford University. As an institution with international influence and a history of complicity, Oxford must act now and do their part in ending the oppression of the black community.

What is unique about the circumstances of this situation is that the world is suffering racial inequality together with the outbreak of COVID-19. Strikingly, we have watched how COVID-19 deaths have disproportionately affected Black and Ethnic Minority communities. This is not because of any inherent biological difference within BME communities, but because of the entrenched nature of racial inequality, even in the UK. 

Racism is a global issue, not a virus infecting the United States alone. Global support for George Floyd and all the victims of police brutality and the defunct justice system is crucial for progress against racial inequality. The international community and the UK government’s failure to address this deep rooted problem in our community is an act of violence. It is a direct contribution to the circumstances that makes the world a dangerous and uninhabitable place for black people. 

Without the collaboration of the international community to hold the United States to account for its treatment of the African American community, we will never see the dismantling of the structures that oppress black people in America and around the globe and the violence, hatred and suffering will continue. In response, the UK Government must take a stand, call out discrimination where it exists, and commit to never allowing this to happen again.

Generation after generation have protested against the exact same issues because nothing has changed. We cannot allow this to go on any longer. It is not enough to not be racist, you must actively fight against racism or your inaction perpetuates a system that subjugates and brutalises the black community. It is sad that it took the death of George Floyd on camera, in broad daylight, to highlight a problem that has existed for hundreds of years, but this must mark a crucial shift in society to prioritising race issues. 

We urge individuals to donate, take action, and protest. We urge other student bodies, if you have not done so already, to raise motions to donate to this cause. We urge institutions from the University of Oxford to the Government to take a stand, and take the first step towards reversing centuries of discrimination. People of privilege should take this time to educate themselves, reflect and do everything they can to make sure that the status quo no longer persists and the next generation lives in a better tomorrow. 

Illustration by Daria Koukoleva

In Conversation with Caroline Calloway

William Foxton
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In Conversation with Caroline Calloway

‘Why not get actual human blood involved? I mean if I haven’t been cancelled at this point, I think it’s safe to say I’m uncancellable. Let’s get some ISIS vibes up in this bitch’, Calloway’s voice rings provocatively at my suggestion she shave my head live on her Instagram story. I wonder if there’s a lag in the call and she’s misheard me or if she’s just  misinterpreted my proposal. Either way, I’m worried what she’ll say next. 

I had wondered which Caroline Calloway I would be interviewing: the bright-eyed Cambridge student, obsessed with black-tie dinner and boys? The ambitious scammer willing to do whatever it takes to get her name on the cover of a book? Perhaps the fame-hungry, self-obsessed mess, as portrayed by a particularly damning Vice article? 

I was not expecting this. 

The thing about Caroline Calloway is you either know her or you don’t. You either know obscure facts about her life – the incident with the Yale plates, the rumours circulating about her kneecaps, the fate of all 1200 mason jars she once ordered to her Brooklyn apartment in a chaotic haze, or you get her confused with Kellyanne Conway. 

Calloway’s rise to fame has been a slow-burner, dating back to 2013 when she gained popularity on Instagram for her ‘memoir in real-time’ captions, documenting the adventures of an American Girl in England, which subsequently earned her an alleged half a million dollar book deal. A book she never wrote.

Her next foray into the public eye came in the shape of her infamous ‘creativity workshops’, which cost attendees $165 and lead to her being publicly labelled as a scammer by various journalists, most notably Kayleigh Donaldson in a scathing Twitter thread.

The most recent addition to the saga is an essay published by her former best-friend and supposed ghost writer Natalie Beach for The Cut, a tell-all about the two’s friendship and working relationship, which took the Internet by storm when it was published back in September, inspiring countless think pieces and Calloway’s own response essay, I am Caroline Calloway.

She has 705,000 followers on Instagram and Reddit communities dedicated to trolling her. 

She is in the top 0.37% of creators on OnlyFans and regularly receives death threats. Even Jameela Jamil has weighed in, stating a desire to ‘kick her arse’. Praised by some for her ‘no fucks attitude’, criticised by others for her lack of self-awareness, Calloway is a polarising figure. I, for one, don’t quite know how I feel about her. But I do know that I feel it very strongly. 

In what feels like a typically Caroline Calloway move, she’s seven minutes late to our interview, apologising profusely that her therapy session overran and complimenting the British-ness of my name. We make polite small talk while she pets the cat lying at her feet.

‘Everyone told me that I would kill these cats,’ she says. 

Calloway is a self-proclaimed artist, but trying to pinpoint exactly what her art consists of is something even she struggles with. ‘I myself am trying to advocate for the legitimising of an art form that even I don’t have a complete enough command of language to verbalise’, she admits.

Her ‘Internet art’ does not refer to the individual posts or stories she uploads, but rather her curated online presence. When I finally grasp this, she gives me a relieved, but exasperated ‘Yes!’ With my arms flailing and a look of manic excitement on my face, she likens me to the Pepe Silva conspiracy theory meme. ‘You look like you are actually, personally the guy in the meme solving the Caroline Calloway mystery,’ she adds. 

Her incessant, seemingly compulsive, social media updates give the impression of a woman on the verge of a very public break-down. This is far from the truth. ‘The stuff that I put online and the way I build my persona and the way I capture and keep people’s interest with me is very intentional,’ she assures me. 

Browsing her timeline, I wonder how much of her is a persona, her creative voice seeming to flitter between the ironic (see her ‘POSH DICK ONLY’ tweet) and the intimate, such as her moving reaction to her father’s suicide in her most recent essay. I ask her about this and she teases me playfully, saying ‘What if I was just like, no, I was being serious when I tweeted POSH DICK ONLY? No, of course a lot of what I say is satirical.’

This juxtaposition of the serious and the satirical is a facet of her art, she tells me, a way of engaging with and mocking the ‘astonishingly tone-deaf, classist person’ her critics make her out to be. 

The Internet’s shared fascination with Calloway is a testament to the success of her art. Though I question whether some fans have crossed the line between enthusiasm and obsession, whether there’s a difference between taking an interest in her online presence and learning the intricate details of her life. ‘When [building an online persona] is done well,’ she explains, ‘you build a parasocial relationship with that online creator, and you end up not only knowing all these random details, but caring.’

She views her art as an escape for her ‘parasocial friends’ and part of this escape is The Mystery of Caroline Calloway, the desire to crack her. This a recent phenomenon that she’s ‘leaned into way more’, claiming ‘it would just be silly to ignore that strength.’ It’s certainly something she benefits from, with people paying $2 a month to access her ‘close friends’ story on Instagram and $500 for a one-to-one skype call with the woman herself. A section of her website reads: ‘I am mysterious and hard to reach.’ Like much of what she says, it’s laced with irony, but it is indicative of the role she plays in perpetuating her own myth. 

For every fan referring to Calloway as their ‘problematic fave’, there are five tweets ridiculing her. This ‘snark’ ranges from criticism of her apparent self-obsession to cruel remarks about the shape of her face, which prompts my next question, why do people hate her with such vitriol?

She thinks it has something to do with the change in her online content. A cursory glance at her original Instagram posts will show this – captions narrating her grand adventures at Cambridge, exploring the safe, well-trodden themes of love and heartbreak, set against a backdrop of castles and balls, with impossibly beautiful men serving as the supporting characters in her bildungsroman. Her comments section is filled with admiration, young women longing to live vicariously through her. It was, by her own admission, a ‘fairy tale.’ 

Her most recent essay, however, is a frank account of addiction and mental illness, both hers and her father’s, who committed suicide in early September, accompanied by images of the house he killed himself in. They’re difficult to look at. In her own words, her father was ‘a hoarder who loved cleaning supplies’.

Many influencers choose to portray a sanitised depiction of mental health. But not Calloway. 

‘What is still quite a grey area of online ridicule is when you talk about the actual nitty gritty, day-to-day texture of experiencing mental illness, and especially mistakes that can’t be fixed and regrets that you may have as a consequence of being mentally ill’, she says. She cites this as a reason for being ‘easy to hate’, an expression she readily brandishes throughout our conversation. 

Though it would be untrue to say that all her criticism is a result of toxic Internet culture and snarling trolls. Calloway has come under fire recently for posting an anti-semitic cartoon, which references her relationship with her ghost-writer Natalie Beach. When I bring this up, I’m expecting her to be elusive, perhaps skirt around the issue. Instead she offers a sincere apology: ‘My own privilege led to blind spots that made me post this cartoon which was actually anti-semitic. I take full responsibility for those blind spots caused by my privilege. And I’m sorry.’

She’s less apologetic about another tweet I raise, one in which she questions whether she is the only person on OnlyFans with a degree from Cambridge. She immediately faced backlash from her followers, being accused of classism. However, she argues that it was a genuine question, and didn’t phrase it as such because she doesn’t ‘ask for feedback from the Internet anymore’. 

‘If people can have compassion for sex workers who receive so much hate from the world, I would hold them to the standard of being able to feel compassion for what I’ve been through with my cancellations and have enough compassion to see why, with the trauma of public shaming that I’ve been through, I wouldn’t phrase that as a question,’ she says. 

I’m sceptical of her justification, but can’t help but sympathise when she asks me, ‘can you imagine if you just got feedback on every micro decision you made, that was mainly negative, because you are a very safe person to hate on the Internet?’

‘Even without asking people to respond to me, I get violent messages about how I should kill myself, about what’s wrong with my personality, about how awful I am, every minute of every day, and I will for the foreseeable future.’ 

After the immense criticism she faced, ranging from sensitive and thought-provoking discussions of celebrity privilege to abusive comments, I wonder if her critics, and perhaps her fans too, have placed Calloway in a position wherein she can only fail, if they’re rooting for her downfall. ‘I know when I post something anti-semitic, it’s a lot more damning than when someone else does,’ she says, claiming that intense scrutiny follows after being cancelled because ‘you lose the benefit of the doubt.’ 

Just as Calloway’s followers were sucked into the romantic tales of her ‘#adventuregrams’, it’s easy to be consumed by the media’s portrayal of her. There is something eminently clickable about the story of a narcissistic New York scammer, captivating her followers through flower crowns and fraud. ‘We’re all part of the problem,’ she tells me, ‘if I saw an article about a scammer influencer I would have clicked on that too. Anyone who likes a sensationalised story feeds into it.’

Despite being many people’s go-to punch bag, Calloway continues to live her carefully filtered “no-filter” existence. When I ask her how she wants the world to see her, her response is simple. 

‘I think for the people who follow me, I absolutely want to be seen as Caroline Calloway, the real person.’

And the rest?

‘Fuck what other people that don’t know you think about you.’

This is an attitude she’s developed from ‘the politics of BNOC-ery at Cambridge’, an environment she claims has served her well for real life.

‘There’s perhaps no more environment bitchy enough to prepare a person for that sort of judgement than the bubble that is Oxbridge.’ 

I ask her what she thinks lies ahead for those same Oxbridge students in the current climate and her response sounds exactly like one of her Instagram captions. ‘It’s one thing to like castles, it’s another to assume that you can actually predict the future in a global pandemic. Boy do I love a good castle, but I have no idea what comes next.’ 

We talk about her cancellation and she prides herself on being one of a handful of people to survive social cancellation, twice. Her advice is characteristically tactical, ‘even your cancellation can become material for why people should buy your stuff’; her creativity tour was later renamed The Scam, the title of her new memoir is Scammer.

I appreciate the plucky sentiment but there’s one comment that jars with me: ‘I’ve been dealt this hand of being a controversial figure and I would be remiss to try and avoid it or not lean into it.’

There’s a fine line between embracing scandal and seeking it out, between wearing your controversy on your chest and using it to sell t-shirts. Recalling her previous comment about ISIS, I wonder which side Calloway is on; to what extent her chaotic charm relies upon her audience’s hunger to see which scandal she’ll embroil herself in next. Controversy for the sake of controversy? You’ll have to read her book to find out. 

Calloway has built her Internet empire so meticulously, I can’t help but wonder how she would react if it was suddenly taken away from her. As we finish our conversation, I ask her how she would feel if she wakes up tomorrow, goes online and discovers that both fans and critics have no idea who she is.

‘I’m feeling…,’ she says, reflecting for a moment, ‘like it’s time to start an Instagram account.’ 

OPINION: Another BBC Controversy, Maitlis Under the Spotlight

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OPINION: Another BBC Controversy, Maitlis Under the Spotlight

If you thought a steadily rising death toll, a crisis in our care homes, and growing calls for the PM to sack his chief aide might finally give us a break from the age-old debate about BBC impartiality, you were wrong. It’s back – and this time it’s Newsnight presenter Emily Maitlis who has taken the hit.

Following complaints that last Tuesday night’s show had featured ‘biased’ views, the BBC made a statement saying that the programme had not met their standards of impartiality. Despite showcasing “fair, reasonable and rigorous journalism,” they said, the team should have done more to “make clear the introduction was a summary of the questions [they] would examine, with all the accompanying evidence, in the rest of the programme.”

Watchers of Newsnight might well wonder: when is this not the case on the programme? Lead presenter Emily Maitlis is one of the BBC’s most prominent journalists, and has been widely praised for rigorous interviews such as last year’s Prince Andrew Newsnight appearance, when she tore apart the prince’s description of Jeffrey Epstein’s behaviour as “unbecoming” – “unbecoming? He was a sex offender.”

Around a month into lockdown, she made headlines again with a powerful opening in which she dispelled the infuriating claim that ‘we are all in this together’ – “they tell us coronavirus is the great leveller. It’s not. It’s much, much harder if you’re poor.” Not only is this indisputably true, but, at the time, it felt like something that needed to be said; something the government was not taking into account. The clip went viral, and Maitlis was hailed as a voice of reason, a perfect example of what responsible journalism can look like.

When she opened last Tuesday night’s show, however, which was dedicated to an in-depth analysis of the Dominic Cummings debacle, she was accused of going too far. What changed? She said of Cummings’s breach of lockdown, to which he had pretty much admitted without apology in that already-infamous press conference the day before, that: “he made those who struggled to keep to the rules feel like fools, and has allowed many more to assume they can now flout them. The Prime Minister knows all this and has chosen to ignore it.” Lack of nuance there may be here, but can it really be described as biased?

A J.L. Partners poll for the Daily Mail published on Wednesday shows that 80% of people believe Cummings broke lockdown rules; 66% believe he should resign. James Johnson, co-founder of J.L. Partners, called it: “the most consistently one-sided political topic I have ever run a poll on. I expected nuance, there was no nuance.” Impossibly for the UK public, he called them: “completely united in their views.”

Whether or not you agree with the decision to reprimand Maitlis for her introduction, it does raise the question of what we expect from our journalists, not just in times of crisis, but always. It is particularly interesting when you consider that Maitlis presents a current-affairs programme, not the headlines. This is a significant distinction. Newsnight is not the news, it does not broadcast the headlines, it probes them and tries to make sense of them for the public. Those defending Maitlis would argue that her introductions are the whole point of journalism – like her dismissal of the “great leveller” claim, which we all know to be false, she cuts into the news and buzz-words of the moment with a commitment towards revealing what they really mean. One tweet about the whole thing stuck with me the most, shared by the Chief Political Correspondent of the FT: ‘Apocryphal quote about journalism: “If someone says it’s raining & another person says it’s dry, it’s not your job to quote them both. Your job is to look out of the window and find out which is true.”’

The question of BBC bias will probably never really go away, and, in part, it is a justified debate to have about a corporation funded by license fees. It is, truly, important that they broadcast content that is: “impartial, high-quality and distinctive,” as their website states, because that is what the public pays for. But to criticise a current-affairs anchor for potentially missing the mark on her perception of the public mood, despite the fact that the polls say otherwise, when Cummings himself has faced no such consequences for a provable breach of lockdown rules? That feels less justified. Would Jeremy Paxman or Andrew Neil have been treated the way Maitlis has? Again, questionable.

What it comes down to is what we expect from news anchors like Maitlis. Do we want them to quote two conflicting weather reports, or just look outside and see if it is raining? Of course, this is easier said than done, and not every single viewer will always have the same opinion. But when the polls show it, and newspapers with opposing ideological stances have almost identical headlines, I think you can be fairly certain of the public mood, and gauging it shouldn’t make you biased, it should make us value your journalism even more.

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