Contractors employed to construct a new accommodation site for Jesus College have this week completed demolition of the row of shops which previously occupied the site of the new complex.
The lot originally housed a number of high street shops including Next, FatFace and River Island. The block, Northgate House, was originally constructed in the 1960s as part of an array of development works along Cornmarket Street which included Clarendon House, currently occupied by Wasabi.
The land was leased to the shops by Jesus College, who own the properties and the leasehold.
Works began in September 2018, however the new development will begin to take form from now onwards. Proposals put forward
by Jesus College and approved by the city council form part of Jesus College’s master plan for 2017-2021 to expand the college, with the new block due to provide additional accommodation for students at the college as well as a new set of teaching spaces.
The project was partly funded by a gift of £15 million to the college by Hong Kong entrepreneur Dr Henry Cheng.
Plans have been generally well received. The lower level of the building will continue to provide space for retail units which front onto Cornmarket Street, preserving the retail heritage of the road. The units will also include space for 38 new cycle spaces.
Architecturally the building isdefined by vertical elements, tallwindows and narrow shop fronts intended to tie in with the historic visage of the street, which would originally have been made up of narrow plots intended for use by merchants’ houses.
The only property on Cornmarket which retains its original historical form is lot 26-68, also owned by Jesus College. The lot, which currently houses Pret A Manger, was constructed in 1386 but restored by the college in 1983.
The clearance of the retail blockalso provides for the first time aclear line of sight from Cornmarket Street onto Jesus College’s Second Quad, although this will change once the project is completed in 2020.
The architectural significance of the quad’s Dutch gables have been noted by architectural historian Pevsner as well as author Simon Jenkins, who compared the windows to Welsh dragons’ teeth.
Oxford City Council has published its annual Workforce Equality Report, suggesting that, while there is stillprogress to be made in regards toworkplace diversity in the Council, there have been significant improve-ments in the last year.
In a Council meeting on November 13, the report’s recommendations on improving ethnic diversity and representation in the Council’s workforce were discussed.
Councillors noted that the propor-tion of Council employees from the BAME community had increasedfrom 1% to 13% over the last year,with the number of applications from the BAME community rising, along with the number of new starters.
Nonetheless, this 13% proportion is still short of the percentage of economically active BAME persons in the City, with the 2011 census putting that figure at 18%.
Questions were raised by councillors at the meeting regarding the viability of the census data, with the current percentage of economic active members of the BAME community being recognised as far higher than the 2011 level, meaning the gap the Council must close is much larger.
In other areas of diversity, thenumber of women employed in the Council workforce now stands at 59%, though they continue to be underrepresented at a higher management level; the number of BAMEemployees in senior positions alsoremains extremely small.
Nigel Chapman, cabinet memberfor safer communities and customer focused services, told the Oxford Mail: “These issues don’t get solve [sic] in a year or even ten years. The number of job applications from BAME communities has gone up.”
He added: “We have to watch we don’t lose very talented staff from these communities.”
“We have 91 staff members from BAME communities from the city; surely there must be 91 who could be trained over time to become leaders. We must make sure they are given every opportunity to do that.”
As a result of the recommendations of the Report, the Council has updated its Equalities Action Plan for 2018-21 in an attempt to improve workforce equality in the areas high-lighted in the report.
Six student-led campaigns joined together for an Intersectional Justice rally at Oxford University last Friday.
More than 50 students congregated outside the Clarendon Building presenting a list of demands to the university focusing on the need to adopt more socially and environmentally-just policies.
Acknowledging the connection between campaigns for both social and climate justice, the six campaigns organised the rally to demand an integrated set of practices related to social and environmental justice.
Intersectional justice refers to the advancement of equality and justice for all by combating in-tersecting forms of structural inequality and discrimination.
The six campaigns, which include Common Ground, the Oxford Climate Justice Campaign (OCJC) and the Student Union Disabilities Campaign, plan to organise similar rallies until they are “thoroughly considered or adopted by the University.”
The rally saw representativesfrom the campaigns taking turnsto present demands related to theirgroups’ specific missions.
Expressing solidarity with theother groups, Common Groundbegan the rally by presenting their
demands. A campaign that re-examines
Oxford’s colonial past, CommonGround called for “reparative justice and critical examination of Oxford’s physical iconography and curricula.”
The other groups followed with their demands, including the classification of students with unsettled status as home students, a more just and accessible campus for people with disabilities, fossil fuel divestment, and a consistent living wage for workers.
Organisers of the event releaseda statement summarising their mission. They said: “As one of the best-known and longest-standing academic institutions in the English speaking world, the Universityof Oxford often serves as a model for other universities.
“The University has a moral imperative to take this responsibility seriously and adopt just practices, including providing its workers with a living wage, divesting from fossil fuels, and protecting students placed in or threatened with detention and/or deportation, among others.
“We rally in solidarity with all campaigns that are working to promote a more just Oxford and en-courage the University to recognize our demands.”
The Demos-PWC Good Growth forCities report was created over tenyears ago as a way to measure the success of cities beyond GDP growth.
Oxford ranked as the top city inthe UK, improving on last year’s score.
However, Oxford received negativescores in house price to earnings, work-life balance and transport. The house price to earnings measure was the only one of these which worsened this year.
The report said: “Oxford’s exten sion of its lead at the top of this year’s index reflects continued improvement across a range of measures, including work-life balance, skills, income and transport. Oxford also performs strongly across jobs and health, scoring within the top five cities for both of these variables.”
Gordon Mitchell, Chief Executive of Oxford City Council welcomed the news, saying, “It is obviously great to see proof of what we all know: that Oxford is a wonderful place to live and work. But we must not rest on our laurels, and Oxford City Council is committed to tackling inequality in the city.
“Through its Oxford Strategic Partnership and in partnership withOxLEP, the City Council is bringing together a range of expert voices to look at how we can develop a more inclusive economy here in Oxford. We want to ensure that benefits of continued growth are spread more evenly.
“We are already playing a part in building a more inclusive economy through the Oxford Living Wage, our focus on apprenticeships, our work with social enterprises, and by using our procurement to support local small businesses.
“We are also committed to build-ing thousands of new genuinelyaffordable homes within and nearthe city to ensure that young people can afford to live close to their work-places, and their families.”
Oxford has increased its lead over its nearest competitors, Reading andSouthampton.
The report also compared enterprise partnerships, and Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership is again the highest scoring.
Nigel Tipple, Chief Executive ofthe Oxfordshire Local EnterprisePartnership, said: “This report fur-ther underlines the continued and sustained strength of the Oxfordeconomy – and indeed – the wider Oxfordshire economy too.
“As well as recognising our eco-nomic success, the report effectively highlights that we truly are a major asset to the UK economy. Not only are we currently one of just three net County areas that contribute to the exchequer with a GVA of £23bn a year – but we have genuineglobal assets that are growing fromstrength-to-strength.”
The report made some moregeneral observations about urban life across the UK: “Good Growth for Cities 2019 shows continued broadimprovements across cities in theUK, driven in particular by falling unemployment rates and increases in new businesses.”
“However, there are also signs that progress has plateaued, particularly among top performing cities in the index.”
“Overall, the ‘price of success’ is becoming more pronounced, and declining scores in owner occupation, transport and housing affordability highlight some of the ongoing challenges faced by UK cities.”
Dressed in a suit tailored so well that he, himself, could have measured it, Calvin Klein looked positively dapper ahead of his talk at the Oxford Union on November 11. Perhaps this is not surprising for the man that arguably established American haute couture. However, he delighted in revealing to me that moments ago he had been in a leather jacket and jeans. This seamless transition from the everyday to the extraordinary is at the heart of Calvin Klein’s success: bringing elegance to underwear and red-carpet gowns alike.
In our discussion, Mr. Klein employed his vast knowledge of the fashion industry past, present, and future to reflect on his own work and to forecast how the advent of technology and, more specifically, social media has and will continue to impact design and the global market. While styles and means of purchase may change, Mr. Klein maintains that the linchpin of success is personal confidence. Whether one is running a business, conceiving a fashion line, or even presenting their work in a tutorial, faith in one’s own vision makes others excited to view the world through their eyes. Mr. Klein lead by example; it was with the greatest self-assurance and grace that he presented himself at the Union.
What trend are you most excited about in fashion right now?
We had dinner with an old friend of mine, Jean Pressman, whose family – his grandfather – started Barneys, and they’re closed; I mean it’s finished. And so, we had dinner right before we came to Paris. The real question is going to be what happens next. Because people are buying clothes online, they’re not spending time in stores, and if they do, it’s maybe to pick something up after they’ve bought it. Stores are becoming not so necessary. Most of the major stores have so many branches. Everyone has the same merchandise, so the people who buy are buying less in the stores, and this is going to present a real challenge for designers, retailers, for everyone. And it’s going to be interesting to see what happens next. It’s going to be a big change.
One of your staple designs was the stylish pantsuit, which was an empowering fashion trend for women in the workplace in the 70s. How did you seek to distinguish your take on the suit from your predecessors i.e. Chanel and Saint Laurent?
Everyone has done it; I just thought it was a very American look. I tried to always keep the collections with a feeling of what does the American woman want and, therefore, there must be other women around the world that want the same thing.
You created staples of popular culture through revolutionary ad campaigns. How did you find the line between art and spectacle?
What I have done with media and all of that is not art, it’s commercial. Art hangs in a museum. It was to sell product. It was controversial as a result, but there’s that side of me. I always had fun. I worked on the commercials; I worked on everything. And chose every photo that you’ve ever seen. And it was great fun and it worked. So different companies that we partnered with were always supportive. You know there were a lot of people that were offended, but that wasn’t the intension.
In what direction do you see the Calvin Klein line going after Raf Simons’s departure?
Good question. I don’t have an answer. I don’t follow what the company does. I know what a disaster it’s been, and it’s just too bad that it’s a big disappointment since I spent most of my life working on that, but that’s the way it goes.
How do you feel the increase in sustainably conscious manufacturing has affected the retail market?
I think it’s affected designers. They’re more conscious of fabric and what goes into [manufacturing]. I don’t know what kind of an effect it’s had for retail and for the consumer. I’m just not up on it.
With the influence of style accounts on social media, it can often seem as though one or two trends will rise to prominence and dominate the fashion landscape. What do you think people can do to dress differently?
I wouldn’t want to just dress differently. I would want to dress in a way that I feel comfortable and that I feel like I look good. But, to be different? I think being true to yourself in everything in life is a lot better than just being different. My approach wasn’t one where you could see the way – wearing our clothes –you looked from afar. You know, I never used bright colors. So [my style] was more understated, my attitude about clothing. But it was sensual, and it was interesting. It wasn’t so different; it was our style. And it was consistent throughout my career.
You discussed the rise of online shopping. One of the services your line provided was custom tailoring. How do you think the internet will affect bespoke businesses?
I made some appointments to see people in Naples, tomorrow they’re going to China. The people who do bespoke, custom made clothes, there will always be a customer for it. Not a lot, but there’s an awful lot of money in the world. And now these tailors from years ago – you had to come to London or Naples – now they go to you. And they’re traveling all the time. And in the end, the person who wants that, doesn’t really care what’s on the internet. It’s a different world. But I’ve become addicted to shopping online. I must say, at 3 o’clock in the morning I start going online and seeing what I can buy. It’s the best thing in the world: you buy, they send you everything; what you don’t want, you send back.
Was there ever a time when you thought you had designed something that would really resonate with your clientele but, when you put it to market, it didn’t sell the way you hoped it would?
I didn’t look at the sales to decide what was right or wrong for our company. I don’t know how other people work, but I think the name brands that you know, they’re not thinking about what will sell. They’re just thinking about doing something really good and if you think that way, there are other people that would agree with you I’m sure. And having confidence is important too. I like to, whenever I speak at schools, I like to talk about the fact that you have to show confidence in what you’re doing – whether it’s fashion or anything else. There were times when I’d be terrified. I thought, oh my god, I’m going to be found out that I know nothing. But I would act as if I knew what I was talking about because to convince people – whether those are people working in my design studio or buyers or anyone – you have to be confident about what you’re doing and just pretend. If you’re not, so what? Just act like you are.
What factors led you to sell your company in 2003?
I’d been doing it a long time. Ralph Lauren continues to do it. I felt I had had enough, and I worked twenty-four seven. I mean that’s all I did, was work. I mean I studied for fashion and then I worked at it and then I did it. And at a certain point, I would have assistants in each design room for each collection we were doing. And the assistants would be showing me things – I would tell them to sketch various things – and they’d show me things and I would say, well we did that before. And that seemed to have happened over and over again. And they would say, ‘well, it doesn’t matter that you did it before because now there are people that didn’t have it [then]’ and I would say, ‘yeah, I know, but it’s boring for me.’ Because if I’m repeating myself just because my assistants think that’s a good idea, maybe I need a new challenge. Because I certainly have done everything I wanted to do, and I’m as busy now as I ever was. But I must say, happier. It’s not so easy running a company that is global. I never thought when I started – when I was in school – that I would be running a global company. I was thrilled if I had a job. So, I had enough of that. Now I like talking. I like speaking to people who want to do it, that’s more interesting to me – to meet people who want to do something. Because I was taught by my family that you can do anything you want. You just need a little talent; you need to study. But anything is possible in this world.
Anyone who has ever watched a mid-noughties rom-com, is
familiar with the idea that you are what you wear. We might have moved on from Geeks v Jocks but
how you dress still sends a message. It tells the world everything from your
age, to your occupation, to your interests, to whether your mum still buys your
PJs.
The cultural, and individual, importance of clothing has
never been so clear to me as when I came to live in Amman. The city is a
melting pot of tradition and modernity; of western super-brands with local
flair. Here you can see Balenciagas flash out from under a stylish thawb and
keffiyeh combo, or a woman wearing a Burberry scarf as her hijab.
Disappointingly, one thing many people asked me before I
came was whether I would have to wear a burqa. No, Aunty Barbara, of course I
don’t. I mostly wear a t-shirt and jeans. I also normally choose to cover my
legs and shoulders in public for three reasons: to avoid sunburn (I’m extremely
pale), as a futile attempt to avoid the omnipresent Jordanian male gaze (I have
great legs), and out of cultural respect (I study Arabic <3 xoxo).
In some places today, women’s clothing is controlled. The
abaya is obligatory in Saudi Arabia, women in Iran must cover their hair, and
in France women can’t wear what they want on the beach. All state control of female clothing is a
symptom of a wider system of international female oppression. Sexism is not
only a Middle Eastern problem, we just sensationalise it when it manifests in
different ways.
Aunty Barbara was also conflating a set of varied traditions
of cultural and religious dress into a scary and homogenous Other. Recently, one
of my Tunisian classmates forbade her daughter from wearing a black niqab. She
told her that if she wanted to fully veil, she could wear the traditional
Tunisian sefseri from her own culture.
This is a cream-coloured silk robe that covers the whole body and is held
with one hand. It’s a full body veil worn by Muslim women, and yet it doesn’t
carry the same stigma of oppression and terror that the people who are scared
of the burqa reinforce.
Generally in Jordan, dressing modestly is encouraged for
everyone. The only run in with the fashion police that I’ve heard of is when a
male classmate was stopped and asked very nicely to button his shirt all the
way up. Most adult Muslim women here do wear the hijab, and according to our
teachers, this is cultural as well as religious. Some women wear it with an
abaya and some wear it with skinny jeans.
Personally, the biggest clothing issue that I had was practical.
I had been warned by many previous students that Amman can get bitterly,
bitterly, cold in the winter, so I pretty much exclusively packed winter
clothing. I arrived in early September and immediately had a (very foreseeable)
35-degree problem. So, I had to go shopping. At first it was a struggle to find
good clothes. In the malls, imported clothes from European high street brands
are expensive and I personally can’t stand the live-laugh-love vibe of many
local boutiques.
The answer wasn’t to buy locally woven linen kaftans and
beaded sandals; the solution came in the form of a very Oxford look. In the
Friday clothing market (souk al-juma3) I found a treasure trove of funky
shirts, varsity sweaters and early-noughties beaded bodices. It’s a cross
between a kilo sale and your nan’s attic with everything from rugby spikes to Persian
carpets. 2000 miles away, I’ve never been more at home. For less than three
pounds you can dress like your parents did in the 80s, and isn’t that the
Oxford dream?
When I was first asked to be involved with the discussion of Me Too and music, my first thought was that I wasn’t qualified to talk about it. Nothing too bad had happened to me. I’d only been groped by strangers in clubs or once walking home along Cornmarket street with a friend: that’s barely anything right? It was horrible, but after a few weeks it ceased to be something that bothered me too much. And that’s when it hit me just how badly we need this movement. Because we all know a woman who’s had something much, much worse happen to her, and it’s so common that that I feel like I’m luckybecause I’ve only been felt up by predatory men.
This playlist is not enough. You can’t slap a couple of songs over a sexual assault and make it all better. But music can be a source of strength to a lot of people – regardless of gender (and let’s not forget that sexual coercion and assault can happen to anyone), and an important way for victims to process their emotions and reclaim their identity and strength. The musicians who are using their voices to promote the Me Too movement speak (and sing) up for people across the world, and although it’s only a small part of a huge and horrible issue, it’s still something that should be celebrated.
We’ve created a playlist called Me Too on the Cherwell Spotify account, and these songs, as well as many others, are included on it.
LADY GAGA – ‘TIL IT HAPPENS TO YOU
Whatever you think of Lady Gaga, it’s impossible not to admire the artist for how candidly and bravely she addresses sexual assault and the rape that happened to her when she was nineteen. ‘Til it happens to you is a powerful and honest soundtrack to Gaga’s 2016 short film highlighting the horrifyingly widespread nature of campus rape, The Hunting Ground. I would recommend you all watch it: it’s one of the bravest pieces of cinema I’ve seen. She performed the song at the Academy Awards that year, surrounded by sexual assault survivors, and delivered a message of hope to people across the world. It’s impossible not to respect the bravery of every person on that stage, which is nothing less than they deserve.
THE MAN – TAYLOR SWIFT
Taylor Swift does not have the best track record when it comes to singing about women. Most controversially her lyric in ‘Better Than Revenge’, her 2010 dig at ex Joe Jonas’s girlfriend announces: “she’s better known for the things that she does on the mattress”. However, in the ten years since that track was released, Swift has matured and grown, and her new hit ‘The Man’, whilst not directly addressing Me Too, calls out the disparities between the treatment of men and women in the music industry and beyond. Asking pertinent questions like “when everyone believes you, what’s that like?” and pointing out that if she was male “what I was wearing, if I was rude, could all be separated from my good ideas and power moves”, Swift makes a direct attack on the very societal standards that make Me Too necessary.
A SCARY TIME (FOR BOYS) – Lynzy Lab
Lynzy Lab shot to fame after releasing ‘A Scary Time (For Boys)’ on YouTube, an ironic tune directed at the men who complain about the Me Too movement. She details the myriad of considerations that women have to deal with on a daily basis: “can’t jog around the city with headphones in my ears/can’t speak out against my rapist after 35 years”, and compares them to the complaints of male opponents of Me Too “Cause it sure is a scary time for dudes/ can’t text a girl repeatedly asking for nudes / can’t make a girl have sex when she’s not in the mood”. This is all presented in a sing-song way, accompanied by ukulele, which only serves to emphasize the situations she’s presenting: a song that many women will relate to.
NIGHTMARE – HALSEY
On 20thJanuary 2018 at the Women’s March in New York, Halsey read out a poem she’d written. It was raw, and vulnerable, and hard to listen to, and it spoke frankly about rape, sexual assault, and life as a woman. You can find it online, and I urge you to look it up. In Nightmare, released in April 2019, she acknowledges these horrors, and refuses to let them drag her down: “I’m no sweet dream, but I’m a hell of a night”.
As I said before, a playlist is only a small thing. However, in order to really change society, each of us needs to do as many of these kind of small things as we can. Call out your friends (again, regardless of gender) when they’re treating people badly, or creating a climate in which these kind of abhorrent actions are justifiable. The songs I’ve spoken about are sung by women, but these things don’t only happen to them, and the fact that everyone can be a victim and should be believed is fundamental. I wish we didn’t need #metoo – but we do, and it’s up to all of us to use its principals to change society for the better.
One word I’ve been called far too
often is “feisty”. Feisty for having an opinion, bossy for taking charge. I’ve
had enough.
“The lady doth protest too much.”
Descriptors like “gutsy” and “feisty” are infantilising, cheap putdowns because
women aren’t behaving the way we’re supposed to. They’re disembodied marketing
terms used to trick us into buying products that only serve to further make
women seem silly or self-obsessed. Words like “bossy” tell women one thing:
don’t speak up or make your voice heard.
And it shows. The Office for
National Statistics (ONS) have recently released the workplace equality
statistics for 2019, which show that despite efforts by women’s rights groups
to close the pay gap, the gap has widened in favour of men this year.
Seventy-eight percent of Britain’s biggest employers reported a gap in favour
of men. And we know why. Women are less likely to negotiate their starting
salaries, less likely to go for promotions or ask for pay rises, and more
likely to go part-time to raise their family.
Office culture is such that women
are discouraged from speaking out, from raising their voices, from voicing
their discomfort at toxic office behaviours. Our problems are marginalised and
trivialised, we’re “bossy” and “difficult to work with”. Why? Because it’s
easier than acknowledging there’s a problem with the way men treat women.
This week, Prince Andrew has
spoken out for the first time in an interview about his friendship with
convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein, and has since “taken a step back from
his royal duties” after pressure from companies and charities he supports. Also
among the complainants are the supporters of a victim who says the convicted
child sex offender Epstein trafficked her to London to engage in sexual
relations with the royal.
Jeffrey Epstein represents all
that is abhorrent about celebrities and the power dynamics they create. Earlier
this year in a packed New York City courtroom, 23 women spoke out about the
sexual abuse they faced as young girls at his hands. An anonymous victim said
he had “stolen her dreams and her childhood”.
Prince Andrew shows no remorse
over his friendship with Epstein, and spent most of the interview fabricating a
story about a Pizza Express in Woking and his non-functioning sweat glands.
Quite frankly I don’t care about Prince Andrew. In the media storm that
followed, the memes about the restaurant chain have smothered the cries of the
victims. Did we forget the terrible reality of the abuse in the furore?
I’m disgusted that the public are
more obsessed with a minor royal than in uproar about the reality for the
victims, whose lives have been irreversibly changed by their experiences with
these men. The marginalisation of female and minority voices is a terrifying
reality, but we are fighting back.
The Me Too movement has had a
profound impact on raising women’s issues and enacting real change. The federal
BE HEARD Act, introduced by Congress earlier this year, will overhaul workplace
harassment laws; the Time’s Up Legal Defence Fund has helped over 3,600 people
seek justice over sexual harassment and abuse.
Most importantly, survivors knew
they weren’t alone. People who had never had to think about sexual harassment
before suddenly saw how much it affected their family and friends, neighbours
and co-workers. Me Too has changed the way we think about power; according to a
December 2018 poll, the Brett Kavanaugh hearings made 50 percent of American
voters think about the male monopoly on power within the government.
Organisations within Oxford
University such as SpeakOut and It Happens Here, the SU Campaign against sexual
violence, are making a difference at a local level and attempting to bring
light to the epidemic of sexual violence across university campuses by
providing advice for victims on the process of reporting as well as support and
a community which stands behind victims. Even one voice has an impact – together
with other individual voices the murmur becomes a noise which becomes a storm,
raging through the institutions which perpetuate toxic culture.
This week, the Oxford Union
President resigned from office after 55,000 people signed a petition for
justice for Ebenezer Azamati, who was dragged out of the Union’s debating
chamber in a horrific display. But it’s not enough to remove the poster figure.
Many will step in to fill his place. The Union is more than its President. On
that night that a blind person was dragged from his seat at a debate, hundreds
of educated students sat and watched it happen.
Nobody had the courage to speak
up in his defence.
Organisations like these need to
be rebuilt from the ground up, the prejudices that created them burned to ash
and dust. But if we can’t burn down the Oxford Union or, indeed, any
institution which has prejudices (which is to say, all institutions), we can
rock their foundations. We must not stay silent.
For women and marginalised
groups, to speak out is not an option but a compulsion, as we face prejudice
every day, from the smallest microaggressions to systematic suppression of
sexual violence complaints.
So, change your language. Tarana
Burke and Alyssa Mirano who started the #MeToo movement aren’t “badass”. Kesha
isn’t a “boss bitch” or your “unproblematic fave”. They’re brave. They’re
survivors. They’re powerful individuals who spoke out against sexual violence,
against injustice and prejudice when the whole world was trying to keep them
silent.
But more importantly, change your
attitude and your actions. Victims all over the world don’t want your Instagram
captions, your slogans and your solidarity, your empty words. We want you to
stand with us.
‘Abigail, I pray you feel the weight of truth upon you.’
The Crucible is a play for our times. Nearly seventy years have passed since its first performance, and over three centuries stand between the spectator and the 1692 Salem witchcraft trials depicted in the play; yet Arthur Miller’s masterpiece still hits home. A meditation on the exploitation of fear and the distortion of truth to further one’s personal aims, The Crucible remains profoundly relevant in our world of post-truth politics.
Much like in our current political world, there’s a lot of shouting involved in director Cesca Echlin’s take on Miller’s play. It was a risky move done successfully. The dichotomy created between the frantic dialogue and the austere aesthetics of the setting and the character’s clothes brings out the sense of hysteria of the situation. The intimate environment of the Pilch ties the spectator into the violence and distress of the characters’ situation, which proves to be a claustrophobic, yet ultimately moving experience.
The acting was startingly good with many cast members convincingly played multiple roles. The performances successfully capture the personal nature of the drama, set in an isolated community where every character seems to be at odds with his fellow man. Gavin Fleming’s interpretation of Reverend Parris was genius. He inhabits the character down to the very raptor-like movement of his fingers and the hunch of his back. His frantic outbursts perfectly brought out the pathetic nature of a man whose sole concern is his own reputation. Reverend Parris was as detestable as he should have been.
A special mention must also be given to Maddy Page, whose performance as Elizabeth Proctor beautifully captured how below the character’s stern and seemingly unforgiving attitude lies a woman profoundly hurt by the husband whom she loves. Alex Mark’s interpretation of John Proctor too brought out the character’s duality: Proctor was at once a man of his time, occasionally abusive and almost always sexist, as well as a rare promise of moral integrity in a world crippled by mass-hysteria. Through the two actors’ compelling performance, the Proctor’s own domestic tragedy emerges as a deeply-moving instance of pathos in the midst of a provincial world gone mad.
However, I am not sure I was entirely convinced by the use of music at the end of scenes. It seemed to interrupt the tension created by the silence of a finished scene, only to introduce an element of almost clichéd melodrama.
The fact that my only criticism lies in the pedantic discussion of sound technicalities should be a testament to how much I did in fact adore the rendition of the play. It was an intimate, though-provoking and at times even surprisingly funny performance, that convincingly brought to life a play gone stale, for many of us, after tedious analysis during our school days.
Rowing is not always fun. In my two-and-a-bit years of college rowing, I have had blisters on my hands so bad it hurt just to move, collected hundreds of shin bruises that I don’t even remember getting, and am writing this with some rather fetching cow-print kinesiology tape across my aching back. Sometimes it is so cold that your hands burn, or you end up rowing in rain so heavy that you can barely see the person in front of you. Despite all this, choosing to join Oriel Boat Club (although as a 5’10 sporty girl I’m not sure I ever actually had a choice) is the best thing I’ve done in my entire degree.
I read a lot of negative stuff about rowing, and honestly I can see why from an outsider’s perspective we look kind of ridiculous. Two days a week the Oriel Senior women drag themselves out of bed at 4.50am to go to Wallingford and row up and down in the freezing cold for a bit, before (at least me personally) we spend the rest of the day complaining about being tired, and then head to weights in the evening to exhaust ourselves even more.
Yet even the most ardent anti-rowers have to admit that physically, rowing is almost always good for you. I liked exercise even before Oriel, but I’m stronger, fitter, and have significantly more mental endurance than I did when I first started. But that’s arguably not the main reason that rowing is so beneficial. Physical health is one thing, but mental health, particularly at Oxford, is something that people often neglect, and the effects that rowing has on this can be hugely beneficial.
I showed up to Oriel College characteristically a bit too early on 1st October 2017 with zero friends and somehow even less self-confidence. Most of that first day of freshers is a blur, but what was maybe the most important moment though seemed very inconspicuous at the time. One of the second years helped me drag all my bags up to my room, on the top floor as per usual, and on the way we had the classic polite chat. At one point, both of us trying to play down how much we were gasping for breath, she asked me in a perfectly polite way, “You’re tall, have you ever considered rowing?”. What I didn’t know was that she was the current Boat Club Captain (and an incredibly lovely person who is now my ‘rowing mum’). Without knowing what I was signing myself up for, I was suddenly sucked into the boat club.
I think about that moment quite a lot. It was, in fact, running through my head on the bung-line of summer VIIIs last year as I took deep breaths from the 4 seat of W1 in an attempt to distract myself from how incredibly terrified I was. There have been times where I have very seriously wondered how my life would be if I hadn’t taken up a whole new sport, and done something more normal for a state school girl from Scunthorpe, such as stuck to my roots and become a swimmer, or just kept things simple and descended into mild alcoholism.
What I have to say though is I don’t think I’d be as confident, self-assured, or honestly, happy, if I hadn’t chucked myself into a boat at 6am one morning and hoped for the best. The thing is, there’s so much more to being part of OCBC than just what weights you’re lifting or how many watts you’re generating.
I’ve never known a group of girls who speak about their bodies as healthily as the people I’ve rowed with. We definitely all have our own struggles and worries, but being part of a team is about looking after each other, and supporting each other just as much as it is rowing perfectly in time. More than that, I have found that learning to care about what my body can do, rather than how it looks has been incredibly beneficial. In our society, there is incredible pressure on girls to look a certain way (there is incredible pressure on everyone, don’t get me wrong, but I’ve experienced the female aspect first hand).
Although I tried my best not to care about how thin/pretty/everything we’re told to look like I was growing up, it’s really hard to reject these things when they’ve been pushed at you your entire life. It is incredibly empowering to be around a team of women, particularly as a fresher, who aren’t concerned with getting sweaty or red or windswept, they’re concerned with what their bodies can do. I definitely can’t speak for all clubs and rowers, but my time in the boat club has had a phenomenally positive impact on how I view myself and my body.
This isn’t limited to just me. As one friend and teammate of mine who has also struggled with mental health put it: “rowing is sometimes the only thing that makes me drag myself out of bed in the morning.’’ If you don’t show up you let at least nine other people down, which is really motivating and almost always means you do go, and you end up glad you did, turning up to a 9am lecture having already achieved something with your morning.
There’s something about going through the dark, cold mornings, and the exhausting ergs together that form an incredibly close bond between people who may be very different in other ways. Having frank conversations with the people in my club about mental health, be that panicking on an erg, or how to deal with the general rubbish that life can throw at you is really helpful, and having fantastic friends and role models in the form of the women I’ve trained with has been invaluable. From speaking to countless other people about this, I know I’m not the only one.
Rowing is not a solution to mental health issues. Although it has helped me a lot when it comes to managing stress and anxiety and improving body image, what helped me the most was booking an appointment with the counselling service and going through CBT and therapy. Although my advocacy here for rowing is hopefully valid, and I would encourage everyone to try rowing, for some people committing to something this big and time- consuming just isn’t realistic, and sometimes the help of medical professionals is the most important step to take.
So ultimately, maybe I am just living up to a huge rower stereotype, but I would encourage even just trying getting in a boat and seeing if it helps you if you’re struggling, or just brings some new joy to your life if you’re already feeling pretty good about everything. On a scientific level, exercise in general releases endorphins that help your mood (this is about as much as I know, I am a historian after all, but trust me on this part). But more than that, feeling part of a community that really supports you, which for me is Oriel College Boat Club, can have an incredibly positive impact on your life, and give you a sense of belonging which can really help at a university like Oxford.
Self-care for me maybe setting an alarm for 4.50 to go and pull on an oar for a bit, but even if that doesn’t help you, try and find something that makes you feel productive, and accepted, and good about yourself too. If you’re struggling with the same sort of stuff I did, or any other mental health issue, speak to someone about it and figure out what combination of things can help. You all deserve to be happy, and it’s important to prioritise that.
