Wednesday 30th July 2025
Blog Page 626

Thinking Through The Flesh

Grace Tomlinson
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Thinking Through The Flesh

I had high hopes for Lidia Yuknavitch’s memoir, The Chronology of Water, only recently released in the UK, mostly because it begins with this:

The day my daughter was still-born, after I held the future pink and rose-lipped in my shivering arms, lifeless tender, covering her face in tears and kisses, after they handed my dead girl to my sister who kissed her, then to my first husband who kissed her, then to my mother who could not bear to hold her, then out of the hospital room door, tiny lifeless swaddled thing, the nurse gave me tranquilizers and a soap and sponge.

The force of this paragraph continues throughout the memoir, along with its painful beauty. Yuknavitch carries you on a dizzying tour through a childhood under an abusive father and an alcoholic, suicidal mother, a college swimming career punctuated by addiction and self-destruction, a writing career that sets her on the path towards healing. Her style is overtly experimental, with the narrative eddying around her most significant memories. It is, at times, confusing, with events alluded to but never properly explained, people named that we haven’t yet met. It will not be to everyone’s taste; the prose is at its best only when you surrender to it. The narrative is disparate and circular, rather like memory itself – something that seems deliberate. 

The Chronology of Wateris aware of itself; it is a coherent narrative imposed over events that don’t have one. Yuknavitch often draws attention to her writing as an act of embellishment, blurring the line between truth and invention. She writes of her students, asking if the things in her short stories ‘really happened’ to her. After a short deliberation, there is no answer; “when we bring language to the body, isn’t it always already an act of fiction?” And yet, the body is the “only witness” we can call to the stand, the truth of the body the only truth Yuknavitch is able to give us. 

Paradoxically, Yuknavitch’s memoir always feels honest, sometimes uncomfortably so. Yuknavitch seems so truthful because she allows her “only witness” to speak for her. There can be no unfounded half-truths because the evidence of Yuknavitch’s life is in her body, in her sweat, tears, orgasms, births, injuries, and addictions. Her body stands as a metaphor, for the act of creation and of writing, for her sexual and intellectual self, and as a physical manifestation of her identity as a swimmer, a mother, a woman, an addict. It is only when she moves away from this firm root in the bodily truth of her story that Yuknavitch’s writing becomes weak. The reader doesn’t need her connection with art and writing spelled out to them, as her body, and by extension her body of work, are a testament to that very fact. Yuknavitch is strongest when she thinks and writes through her body. Without the sense of physicality that runs through her work, her writing is airy and anchorless, verging on pretentious. The passage where she instructs the woman reader to collect rocks, although much shared in certain corners of Twitter, seems to revel in its own mysticism. It comes too early in the work for anyone to be convinced of Yuknavitch’s authority on the female experience. When she moves on to her own experience collecting rocks to cope with the grief of the still-birth of her first child, the prose becomes, once again, something concrete and moving.

And yet, even the insubstantial, not-quite-convincing passages of The Chronology of Water wrap you up and carry you with them. I read the whole thing in one frenzied sitting, and couldn’t stop myself from returning to it the next day, re-reading whole chapters. There are no attempts at politeness, no allowances made for the squeamish. Yuknavitch tells us, this is what it is to live as I have done. Overwhelmingly, The Chronology of Water is about healing, messily and humanly, through art, through literature, through connection. However far away your life feels from Yuknavitch’s, reading her work feels like being truly seen.

The Consolation of ‘Constellations’

Erin Minogue
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The Consolation of ‘Constellations’

In Constellations: Reflections on a Life, Sinéad Gleeson navigates her own relationship with and the intersections between illness, the body and motherhood, in a series of essays that combine the personal anecdotal style of memoir with cultural criticism. From the pain she experiences as a teenager, which is eventually diagnosed as monoarticular arthritis, to pregnancies and a diagnosis of aggressive leukaemia, Constellations charts the intimate relationship Gleeson has with her own body. But Gleeson moves outwards from her own experience to explore far-ranging topics, from the political implications of hair to the history of blood transfusions and the narratives of adventure stories. 

Gleeson’s concern with the way that illness and the body shape the narrative of our lives is manifested throughout the book in her interest in the relationship between life and storytelling. Upon telling her mother that she had been diagnosed with leukaemia, Gleeson recalls that she said: “I’m not going to die, I’m going to write a book.” The act of writing becomes, for Gleeson, a tangible evidence of living. The hybrid essay-memoir form allows her to contain a representation of life and illness. In one essay, Gleeson quotes Virginia Woolf’s ‘On Being Ill’ in which Woolf remarks on the “poverty of language” that occurs in the depths of illness. Vocalising pain and attempting to advocate for ourselves to doctors requires from us language that we might not be able to produce. Another barrier to understanding is that we are sometimes not listened to; we fight to find the words to use, only to be disbelieved by the medical professionals we rely on. In Constellations, Gleeson draws from her own experience of illness and pain to exhibit the insufficiency of language in articulating suffering. At one point, Gleeson creates poems from the language of the McGill pain index, a scale used by doctors to assess pain, in an attempt to provide a fuller vocabulary for suffering. These poems act as an articulation of various moments of intense pain for Gleeson, from ‘Heartburn (in pregnancy)’ to ‘Unlistened-to Pain’, and also point towards the limitations of finding words to convey the exact shape of pain meaningfully. 

In an essay entitled ‘A Wound Gives Off Its Own Light’ (named after a line in an Anne Carson poem), Gleeson turns to depictions of life and illness in art, charting her own relationship with the works of three female artists: Frida Kahlo, Jo Spence and Lucy Grealy. From each of these women, all of whom have made illness their subject, using art as a means of representing a diagnosis, Gleeson reflects on the lessons they taught her, namely that “it was possible to live a parallel creative life, one that overshadows the patient life, nudging it off centre stage… That in taking all the pieces of the self, fractured by surgery, there is rearrangement: making wounds the source of inspiration, not the end of it.” The expression of illness and life in art becomes then a collaborative process, one that Gleeson participates in. 

The flexibility of the essay form allows Gleeson space to track the intricacies of illness, of the forcible transgressions between the personal and political spheres that illness demands. As an Irish woman writing about the body, Gleeson makes explicit the politicisation of the female body in Ireland. “Until 2018,” she writes, “it was impossible to talk about the body in Ireland and not discuss abortion,” in the opening of the essay ‘Twelve Stories of Bodily Autonomy (for the twelve women a day who leave)’. Writing on the referendum to repeal the 8th amendment of the Irish constitution, Gleeson draws together stories of the women who fought and died for reproductive rights in Ireland, alongside her own experience of canvassing for the ‘Yes’ campaign and going to the polling station with her daughter. Out of a painful, and deeply divisive struggle, Gleeson weaves a tale of hope and optimism – a story in which “things are changing. The crowd has swelled; the voices are louder.” 

Constellations is pulled together by a reverence for language and storytelling. From the interweaving of a wide range of subject matters, what I was left with at the end of the book was profound faith in the transformative power of writing to lead us through pain.

Mooncups are the future

Amelia Horn
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Mooncups are the future

Last month, the Newcastle University Student Union proposed the provision of free tampons for their students. This would make the university the first in England to provide free sanitary products.

It appears part of a wider societal movement – from this summer, for example, NHS England will be providing female patients with free tampons.

The move is an admirable one both in terms of reducing the financial impact on menstruation and at increasing awareness of something still seen as an uncomfortable topic by many. But it approaches only one element of the huge problem generated by the widespread use of tampons; their contribution to the destruction of our planet.

In condemning the endeavour, I am not denying the struggle faced by women with respect to purchasing sanitary products. Period poverty is real. Just three weeks ago, BBC News reported that girls in Wales were using socks and kitchen paper instead of pads to reduce costs. In a study compiled by The Huffington Post UK, it was estimated that women spend as much as £18,450 on periods in their lifetime.

Something must be done, yet the institutional support of tampon use through their free provision is not the answer. In fact, this may even produce a negative effect; if students are given access to free disposable sanitary products, their incentive to try more environmentally friendly options will be diminished.

The facts are these: depending on the data source, women use between 10,000 and 20,000 tampons in their lifetime. The same Huffington Post article reported that in 2015 only 6% of British women used menstrual cups.

Yet, I am firmly convinced that these cups are one of the most revolutionary inventions in our fight against global warming. And this is why – rather than providing free single-use sanitary products – schools, universities, NGOs, and governments should be handing out a menstrual cup to every woman and girl under their administration.

Currently, buying a Mooncup, one of the leading brands in the UK, costs £21.99. For a student, a pretty intimidating up-front cost (although the same amount might easily be spent in Park End on a Wednesday night). But the idea of paying this much for such an unknown and unfamiliar contraption is understandably scary.

I myself felt the same. The idea of using a weird silicone egg-with-stalk-shaped cup to catch menstrual blood, and then washing it out and reinserting seemed terrifying. It produces visions of monthly discomfort, discolouring, and disgusting bathroom experiences. I only decided to take the plunge because I am lucky enough that my college’s welfare team offers reimbursement for Mooncups. I could try it, hate it, never use it again, and I wouldn’t have spent a penny.

I did not expect that it would become one of the best lifestyle changes I have ever made. And because I’ve heard that stories work better than statistics, I am going to publicly share my experience in the name of environmentalism.

Firstly, it is easy to insert and remove: no mess, no pain, no faffing around. Each one comes with easy to follow instructions and troubleshooting, plus a little bag for storage.

They are really comfortable, and you no longer have to worry about having enough tampons or pads for the day. No more rationing of your last remaining few; no more stealing them from your mum when you get back for the holiday!

Menstrual cups can hold up to three times more than your average tampon – something I’m sure lots of us would have found helpful on our Bronze Duke of Edinburgh expedition! You can also empty them whenever, unlike tampons, where it feels a waste to take them out until you absolutely need to.

These kinds of things are the smaller but still crucial effects of period poverty – the monthly stress experienced by all girls, trying to manage their period while using as few products as possible so they don’t have to buy more. Another of the many reasons why institutions such as the Newcastle Student Union should be proposing free menstrual cups and not disposable sanitary products. The latter will only make women and girls more liberal with their use of tampons and pads, rather than reducing both the financial burden of menstruation but also the waste produced.

I have bigger dreams for the menstrual cup than free provision for university students, though. Imagine the impact, both in terms of female agency and mobility, but also in an environmental capacity, if menstrual cups were provided in deprived areas across the United Kingdom but also throughout the developing world. Not only would this enable women to vastly reduce the money and stress that comes with disposable sanitary products, but we would achieve – on a global level – a vast reduction in waste.

This is the mission of the charity The Cup Effect. Women in the world’s poorest communities are less able to participate in society due to lack of access to and/or funds for sanitary products. For school-age girls in these areas, they may miss up to 20% of their time in school because they cannot manage their period on such limited resources.

Raising awareness about the menstrual cup as a sustainable alternative that bestows upon women in developing areas an autonomy previously unavailable.

We should all be welcoming the idea of menstrual cups as an international female movement that is both sustainable and empowering. Tackling period poverty is necessary. However, the direction we are moving in to solve it is merely a quick fix which will have devastating long-term repercussions.

As such, while Newcastle University’s intention is good, they are looking at period poverty solely from a feminist angle. But modern-day ‘feminism’ should include looking at green solutions to issues of gender inequality, and such a limited approach puts our beautiful planet at an even greater risk.

So, join me in calling for world organisations to support the provision of sustainable sanitary products for a long-term resolution to period poverty. At the very least, buy a Mooncup, and tell your friends – make my decision to share my menstruation habits worth it!

Emails, you’re breaking my heart

Thomas Laver
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Emails, you’re breaking my heart

For too long our email inboxes have treated us poorly, and it must end now.

If they’re on again off again, if they abandon you during the holidays and then bother you endlessly during term time and if they leave you stressed, sad, and ultimately broken – they’re not your romantic partner, they’re your Outlook inbox.

Throughout term, they deluge us with information: tutorial work, society newsletters, library fines, all when we’re too stressed and overrun to deal with the flood of communications.

Much like Sisyphus, the task of email maintenance is unrelenting and punishment beyond all imagining.

Yet when it comes to the vac – a time when we’re generally at a loose end looking for something to do or read – they desert us.

Which of us has not felt the cold sense of abandonment upon checking their normally bursting inbox during the vacation to find that nothing has been received in over a week? Just when we need them most to give us some direction or activity in the vast stretches of emptiness between the ever over-burdened 8 weeks, the emails dry up. With the remaining names, subject lines, and icons etching themselves repeatedly into our irises.

We are left barren.

Bereft.

Lonely.

It’s the hoping that kills you.

Each log-on a hope for attention cruelly crushed… if it were merely an issue of finding alternative occupation during the holidays, then perhaps I could forgive my inbox for having some time off, but as we all know, inboxes have a further unacceptable vice we have for too long accepted. They’re just so damn needy. When they’re not mind-numbingly empty, they swing to the opposite end of the spectrum during term, constantly pinging notifications at you.

Just when you’re two hours off an essay deadline and desperately trying to write a conclusion, your email inbox will decide to start buzzing every two seconds, throwing out those obstructive visual prompts and annoying bell sounds to get your attention. And should you decide to – as a perfectly normal person would – temporarily mute this panoply of irritation, you’ll discover upon your return a notification in bold: “57 unread items”. It’s absolutely torturous.

What an obvious trick by our emails to get us to spend more time with them, forcing us to read each piece of digital detritus to end the glaring warnings. DO NOT be fooled by such duplicity: email inboxes are attention whores who will keep demanding your attention, however much you try to soothe them. It’s time to end this toxic relationship: email inboxes are simply capricious on again-off-again lovers who will always treat us poorly.

We’re as mad as hell and we’re not gonna take it for one second more. It’s time to rise up and say no!

Maybe this breakup can be the catalyst to make them change their ways and learn how to treat us well, but I’m not holding out hope.

If anyone needs to send me a message please call, text, send a messenger boy, or a carrier pigeon, but for the love of God not an email.

BREAKING: Climate activist glues himself to Darwin statue in Natural History Museum

Ben van der Merwe
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BREAKING: Climate activist glues himself to Darwin statue in Natural History Museum

An activist associated with Extinction Rebellion has glued himself to a statue of Charles Darwin in the Natural History Museum.

The protester, who is yet to be identified, gave a speech about climate change to the large crowd that gathered around him.

An Extinction Rebellion Oxford spokesperson told Cherwell: “A group of Oxford XR members had planned to stage a protest at the Natural History Museum today, but postponed it in order to join in with our outreach work today across Oxford.”

The group denied direct involvement with the protest, telling Cherwell: “The individual inside the Natural History Museum today acted on his own and we didn’t know about the action until after it had happened.

“XR is a decentralised movement, so anyone is entitled to take action following our principles”

The activist was allegedly able to recite a poem for the onlookers before being removed from the statue by security guards, and detained by police outside the museum.

Photo: Ross Moncrieff

Speaking to Cherwell, eyewitness Ross Moncrieff said: “I was in the Pitt Rivers museum with my friends when we heard shouting coming from the main hall.

“We went to see what was going on and we saw that a man had covered himself in fake blood and was shouting at the top of his lungs.

“There was quite a large crowd around him and he said that he had glued himself to the statue of Darwin he was next to. He first gave a short speech about the dangers of climate change, saying that he was protesting in the Natural History Museum because he thought climate change posed a real threat to both culture and the natural world.

“He then read a poem which he seemed to have written himself about the “apocalypse”. When he finished the security guards at the museum removed him and he was arrested outside by the police.”

Photo: Ross Moncrieff

Extinction Rebellion, Thames Valley Police and the Oxford Museum of Natural History have been contacted for comment.

The Rise and Fall of Artistic Movements

Emma Ball
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The Rise and Fall of Artistic Movements

The mutability of movements is an inevitability. It’s the constantly self-renewing process within art that ensures it can continue to fulfil its purpose of appealing to an audience. As people and societies change, art must change with them. To remain static and without innovation is to go against the basic principles of art as we view them today.

Whilst in the medieval era our strong conservative outlook tended to lead to stability and consistency within artistic trends, by the late Renaissance artists defined their worth within their profession by their difference and unique flair. The decline of the classical Renaissance style led to the rise of Mannerism, where the perfect proportions that we have all seen in Da Vinci’s Vitruvian Man were thrown out of the window in favour of painting a Madonna with an outrageously long neck. To be different meant that you stood apart from the crowd. When the height of perfection had already been perceived to have been reached, there was little option but to break new ground if an artist was to make their own mark. Entire movements can therefore be born out of the desire for renown.

The Cubist movement, for example, prioritised different visual clues that all act in conflict with each other in order to prevent the formation of a coherent image of reality. It was therefore not just an experiment in a new style of art but a different way of seeing and approaching the world. In a world of confusion and change in the immediate run-up to the First World War the Cubists sought to encourage individuals to find their own patterns and meanings in what they saw before them, and to not take everything at face value.

Yet it should not be believed that artistic movements arise only as a passive response to their surroundings; many have been a vehicle of the desires of individuals for change to occur. The Italian Futurist Movement of the early twentieth century actively sought to change the mentality of their society, as they believed that it was outdated. By emphasising the power and thrill of modern technology, they aimed to change people’s outlook on life in a radical way, from reminiscing about the past to pushing for the new and improved. In the Renaissance, art looked to the ancients for guidance and as a standard to be reached. Now, the Futurists were pushing us to look at modern humanity and how it has the power to change. An artistic voice alone could cause ripples, but when combined with many others in a movement it has the power to send shockwaves. The Realist movement of the mid-nineteenth century grew from this desire of the artists to voice their political opinions through the medium of painting, if they were not able to do it in reality.

But the political power of such movements is not always well received by broader society. Backlash can be triggered which threatens the breadth of the audience that artists can appeal to. When artists aren’t given access to an audience, their very ability to survive as part of a coherent movement is called into question. The Realist work of Manet on pieces such as the Execution of the Emperor Maximilian allows the horror of the event to speak for itself and passes no moral judgement on the actions which are unfolding. Yet the work was still censored by the police. The identity of a movement can therefore continuously evolve. From a simple objective statement to an act of rebellion, the reaction to movements can define them almost as much as the works within them.

Artistic movements therefore possess the power to develop in order to appeal to a basic belief or concept of a society and can become a symbol and a rallying point around which identities and aims can be formed. The artistic movement in the Netherlands in the seventeenth century, which focused on the depiction of landscapes, often in a way analogous to historical or biblical events, helped in creating one of the things which humanity longs for the most: a sense of home and a sense of belonging. References to ancient Israel and the ‘chosen people’ celebrated the Dutch landscape and the courage of its people, leading to a sense of pride in the heritage and identity of their people. In response to threat and fear of persecution, an artistic movement arose to alleviate fears and to strengthen a community into a nation. In this way, movements have responded to their context and have aimed to resolve an issue in a way that only art can.

Artistic movements therefore rise, they evolve, and they fall. Their lifecycle is not only a passive reflection of the context in which they are present but can be viewed as a conscious and active response to aspects of society. Even if the coherence of a movement fails and it shatters, the legacy which it has left on our outlook and perceptions remains and will continue to shape future artistic development


Mass surveillance could save us from extinction, claims Professor

Ana Gheorghe
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Mass surveillance could save us from extinction, claims Professor

Oxford Philosopher Nick Bostrom put forward a case for mass government surveillance in a TEDTalk last week.

Speaking in Vancouver on 17th April, Bostrom argued in favour of mass surveillance, claiming that it may be a necessary step in preventing the destruction of humanity.

Sharing some insights from his latest publication The Vulnerable World Hypothesis, Bostrom argued that humanity’s demise is likely to be at the hands of a technology of our own design.

To counter this, he argued, we may require a more effective global government that could quickly outlaw any potential civilization-destroying ideas or technologies.

To demonstrate this idea, Bostrom employed the metaphor of humans standing in front of a giant urn filled with balls, each ball representing a different idea.

Based on their effect on humanity, the balls are of different colours: white for beneficial ideas, grey for moderately or possibly harmful, and black for civilization-destroying.

According to Bostrom we haven’t selected a black ball yet because we’ve been “lucky”. However, if “scientific and technological research continues, we will eventually reach it and pull it out”, he writes.

Speaking to Cherwell, Bostrom elaborated on his theory, saying, “this paper doesn’t exactly argue for mass surveillance; rather it observes that there are two structural features of the current world order that would make it vulnerable to the extraction of a technological black ball, and that to have a general capacity to stabilize civilization against this kind of vulnerability would require a capacity for extremely effective preventive policing, supported by mass surveillance, and sufficiently effective ways of resolving the worst global coordination problems.”

In conversation with Chris Anderson, the head of TED, he suggested that we implement a system of mass government surveillance in which each person is fitted with necklace-like “freedom tags” with multi-directional cameras.

Information gathered by these “freedom tags” would be sent to “freedom centers”, where artificial intelligence monitor the data, alerting human officers if they detect signs of a possible “black ball” idea.

“Obviously there are huge downsides and indeed massive risks to mass surveillance and global governance”, Bostrom said, conceding criticisms of the notion.

“I’m just pointing out that if we are lucky, the world could be such that these would be the only ways you could survive a black ball.”

This is not the first time Nick Bostrom has made controversial predictions. In 2010, his paper Are You Living In A Computer Simulation? argued for the statistical likelihood of human existence being a technological simulacrum.

Since then, his theory has mainly focused on artificial intelligence, with his co-authoring of a letter with Stephen Hawking to establish “23 principles of AI safety”.

He is the founder of the Oxford Martin Programme on the Impacts of Future Technology, and is the founding director of the Future of Humanity Institute.

Union suspends member for Nazi salute

Angus Brown
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Union suspends member for Nazi salute

The Oxford Union has found a member guilty of attempting to perform a Nazi salute at last term’s “Into the Wardrobe” ball.

The member has been suspended for two terms and fined £40 in line with Union policy forbidding conduct “liable to distress [or] offend.” The member (who is not named in the re- port in line with Union rules) is also alleged to have “engaged in goose-stepping.”

The report, by a Union Intermediate Disciplinary Committee, explains that the allegations were corroborated by an un- named member of the Union’s committee who stated “that they saw the Defendant with their arm raised at an angle 45 degrees above the horizontal.”

The initial complainant at one point referred to these gestures as being “entirely reminiscent of a Nazi salute”, although the report found that this was not fully corroborated by the evidence presented.

In addition to these allegations, the defendant also stood accused of having goose-stepped in the society’s bar prior to their alleged conduct in the marquee. However, upon examination of CCTV footage from the bar the panel found no evidence that this had taken place.

As the Defendant entered no plea the disciplinary panel “proceeded as if a ‘not guilty’ plea had been entered”. In the course of the defence, the Defendant’s representative presented evidence that the goose-stepping had taken place alongside another unnamed member after “discussing the military traditions” of the unnamed member’s country in whose military they had served.

The defendant then noted that in this unnamed country “goose-stepping continues to take place, before deciding to start goose- stepping while mimicking the tradition”.

The unnamed member claimed that he had not engaged in Nazi salutes, but had “moved his arm to five degrees above horizontal reminiscent of the [national] military’s practice of raising one’s sword while goose- stepping, and that the defendant may have done the same.”

The defendant admitted to having engaged in goose-stepping at the ball which they referred to as “juvenile”, and admitted to having been heavily intoxicated at the time, but did not admit to having engaged in conduct reminiscent of a Nazi salute.

The complainant’s representative argued that the claim that these actions were taken in the spirit of “cultural exploration” were “wildly improbable”, and argued that “there was very little evidence of remorse besides the admittance of drunken conduct.”

The panel nevertheless found that the defendant had engaged in goose-stepping whilst raising their arm at an angle of at least forty-five degrees and laughing on at least one occasion.

They concluded that: “It is more likely than not that an ordinary member would, when looking at a raised arm coupled with goose-stepping, see an allusion to the Third Reich” which the defendant himself admitted was “the most likely explanation” for such behaviour.

They also stated: “Any symbolism of Nazism, reasonably interpreted, is liable to distress and offend a right-minded member” and that “Goose-stepping in itself a symbol of Nazism, is liable to distress and offend a rational, right-minded member and is serious and improper conduct” regardless of the intention of the defendant when raising their arm.

In its concluding remarks, the panel noted: “During our hearing it became apparent that although the original complaint had been submitted against a single member, the alleged actions were of two members.

“The panel was dissatisfied with this situation.”

However, they found that the rules of the society did not enable them to extend the scope of their investigation beyond that of the original complaint, and as a result no punishment was brought against the second goose-stepping member.

The report did not rule out the possibility of a second investigation. Noting that this was the second time within a year that a case had been brought regarding conduct by an intoxicated member liable to distress or offend other members, the panel “urge[d] all members to enjoy themselves responsibly at Society events.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Union President Genevieve Athis said: “I can confirm that an Intermediate Displinary Committee did decide to fine and suspend a member that behaved extremely inappropriately at our Hilary Term Ball.

“After the incident, the member was removed from the premises by a member of the Union’s security staff.

“The complaint was brought by an ex- President on behalf of a member of the Union’s staff.

“The goose-stepping itself constitutes a breach of Rule 71 (a) (i) (1) and was deemed by the investigatory panel to be serious and improper conduct.

“It is very important that all members feel safe when they are on our premises and I think the seriousness of the punishment administered to the member in question illustrates our commitment to this.”

Protest planned against University’s animal testing

Amelia Horn
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Protest planned against University’s animal testing

A protest against Oxford University’s use of animal testing will be held today, coinciding with the 40th World Day for Animals in Laboratories (WDAIL). The protest intends to highlight the plight of animals who “suffer in the name of research and profit.”

The event is co-organised by WDAIL and Speak – the Voice for the Rights of Animals, which has previously campaigned against the building of a new animal laboratory by the University. It regularly holds demonstrations and information stalls in Oxford.

The organisation’s founder Mel Broughton, stated: “Millions of animals are still being experimented on in the name of medical research.

“In the twenty-first century we now have the means and the ability to carry out cutting edge medical research without recourse to animal experimentation.

“Those who think that science is ethically neutral confuse the findings of science, which are, with the activity of science, which is not.”

There will be speakers at the event, including the first person to rescue an animal from a laboratory in the UK Mike Huskisson, campaigns manager at Animal Aid Jessamy Korotoga, and the founder of AJP Claire Palmer.

The day begins with a rally at Oxpens Park at noon. The march begins at 1.00pm and will follow a route through Cornmarket and to the University’s laboratory on Mansfield Road. There is set to be speeches both at Oxpens Park and outside the laboratory.

British universities have been condemned by the anti-vivisection campaign group, Animal Justice Project (AJP), who alleged that some of the rabbits “had been infected with cholera, others given fatal injections, and some had their eyes sewn shut.”

In 2018, Oxford “neglected” to release the number of rabbits they had used in testing. This was the first time in four years that the University had not provided the information. In 2017, they carried out 236,429 tests on animals.

British universities have been acused of “growing more secretive” about their use of animal testing, with AJP alleging that Edinburgh, Cambridge, UCL and 15 others also declined to give details.

An Oxford University spokesperson said they refuse Freedom of Information requests only on data already due for release.

They stated: “The university also releases all animal testing data, by species and sever- ity, every single year. This is usually in the autumn.”

However, the Animal Justice Project called for greater transparency about “out-of-date and futile” tests on rabbits.

Other universities, such as Liverpool, UCL, and Sheffield, have also been criticised by the campaign group. The AJP alleged last year that Nottingham University “infected sixty baby rabbits with cholera, causing diarrhoea, vomiting and dehydration.

“They were believed to have suffered extreme thirst, low blood pressure and irregular heartbeat causing death if “humane termination” was not carried out.”

According to data obtained by the AJP, the UK is one of the largest users of laboratory animals in the world. According to the latest Home Office statistics, over half of the 3.87 million experiments conducted in the UK in 2017 were in universities.

This figure corresponds to around 26 animal experiments per day in the United Kingdom.

Interview: Cindy Gallop

Fin Kavanagh
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Interview: Cindy Gallop

Saying “cum on my face” six times during your TEDTalk is a novel way of launching a business, though apparently a very successful one. Enter Cindy Gallop – the social sex revolutionary. Cindy used to work for the international advertising firm Bartle Bogle Hegarty, though she is better known for her own business venture: MakeLoveNotPorn. 

“We are kind of what Facebook would be if [it] allowed you to socially and sexually self-express and identify.” 

Cindy calls me from her New York apartment, formerly the backdrop to The Notorious B.I.G’s music video ‘Nasty Girl’. 

“We’re celebrating real world sex as a counterpoint. We’re socialising sex and making it easier for everyone in the world to talk about in order to promote consent, good sexual values, and good sexual behaviour.” 

“My reason for setting it up is entirely accidental,” she says, now ten years on from when she launched the site. 

“It came out of my direct personal experience dating younger men. I realised I was encountering what happened when two things converge: today’s total freedom of access to porn online and our society’s equally total reluctance to talk openly and honestly about sex. This means porn inevitably becomes sex education by default, and not in a good way. I basically en- countered a whole bunch of sexual behavioural memes in bed. I thought, gosh, if I’m experiencing this, other people must be as well.” 

I’m not taken aback by these intimate revelations about her own sex life. Everything about Cindy screams outrage from her not-so-coy Twitter bio, “I am the Michael Bay of business. I like to blow shit up”, to her 59th birthday invitation – six topless blokes with “Property of Cindy Gallop” tattooed on their backs. She later tells me the RSVP was in keeping with the theme of the party: come as your ultimate fantasy. 

Our interview could not come at a more apt time, as the UK government prepares to introduce its controversial porn ban. The legislation will require users to have to verify their age through new software, in a bid to restrict the access young people have to adult websites. 

“Ten years ago, no one was talking about this issue, which is why that talk was gobsmacking. No one had spoken out publicly about the issue of porn.” 

She refers to her renowned TEDTalk, in which she launched MakeLoveNotPorn, back then just a clunky website that at- tempted to expose the truths and realities behind the camera. 

“Both that TEDTalk, and [the site] were a manifestation of me. They were both totally honest, truthful, straightforward, down-to-earth, utterly non-judgemental, and delivered with a sense of humour. We never get to have conversations about sex in those parameters, and the moment we do the floodgates open. It wasn’t just what I was talking about, but the way I was talking about it. 

“I got this avalanche of emails immediately following it. One man wrote to me, in his thirties, saying: ‘a measure of how fucked up we are about sex is that I’m writing all this to a woman I have never met, a complete stranger, simply because she is the only person I’ve heard talk openly and honestly about all of this’.” 

As we talk more it becomes apparent that she is not just talking about Britain. 

“It’s the same in America, the UK, across Europe, China, India: this issue applies in every single country in the world. You may ostensibly have a more open culture about sex, but when it comes to what actually happens when people are in bed with each other we don’t want to talk about it openly in society. It’s an area of huge insecurity.” 

She is quick also to address the myth that young men are the only victims of porn. 

“Porn is skewing us just as much in the case of young women as it is men. My site is entirely gender equal. People make the mistake of thinking only boys and men watch porn – fuck that shit. Girls enjoy watching porn just as much as boys do, but they may not enjoy watching porn entirely through the male lens. 

“This is the only area of universal human experience where every single thing about it in society is completely fucked up. Yes, upbringing has a lot to do with it, because most people’s parents find themselves totally incapable of talking to children about sex. But also it’s because everything around us socially conditions us to think that sex is an area of guilt, shame, and embarrassment. It lives in the shadows, it must never be talked about in polite society or in polite conversation, it’s not just the way you are brought up in your family – it’s every single thing around you culturally. Obviously, that’s a huge issue today, when the average age of a child when they are first exposed to porn online is eight years old.” 

A quick google reveals that this age has actually dropped to six since that first study was released. 

“It’s not because eight or six year olds go looking for porn – they don’t. It’s a function of what is inevitable in the visual world we live in today, and it cannot be prevented, no matter how much we would like it to be, they will stumble across it. 

It’s the function of what somebody shows their friend on a cell phone in the playground. It’s what happened when your child goes around to a neighbours’ house. It doesn’t matter what parental controls you have at home, your kids go other places. Maybe your child learns a new naughty word and innocently they google it, and then there’s something they never expect to find. 

“A mother told me her eight-year-old daughter innocently googled ‘black tights’, and misspelt it ‘tits’ – you can imagine what came up. A father wrote to me and said: ‘Me and my wife have a ten-year-old son, and we decided it was time to have the sex talk, so I sat down with him, and he said to me ‘daddy, why do men wear masks when they’re having sex?’”. 

Even with parental controls, Cindy points out the ease with which children can access porn online, something only made worse when coupled with the widespread ignorance of their parents. 

“I’m always torn, when I talk to parents, especially the mothers, who often have no fucking idea what their kids are seeing. They are many parents who have good relations with their kids, but will never talk to them about this.” 

She quotes another email she received from a supporter: “My daughter just showed me the latest video clip which is doing the rounds, which shows a woman having a glass jar shoved up her anus until it breaks. I’m 51, and I’m terrified about the world my daughter is growing up in. I showed her your TEDTalk and she just felt so empowered by that.” 

“Too many parents, often the mothers, because they are not watching porn the same way the fathers are make the mistake when they hear the word ‘porn’, they think it’s just people making love. No it bloody isn’t! 

“This is why I’m doing what I’m doing. I want to make parents understand the importance of talking to their kids about sex, and feel comfortable about doing so. The advice I give them is that you cannot begin talking to your children about sex too early. When I say talk about sex, what I mean is the very first time a child asks where babies come from, or touches their own genitals, the most important thing is not what you say. It’s how much you say it.” 

“Do not look flustered or visibly embarrassed. Do not shut them up or close the conversation down, don’t leave the room or try to evade the conversation. The most important thing is to answer them openly, honestly, and truthfully. If you do that you open up a channel of communication for them that will always be there in the future and they will really welcome and value it. When you have that conversation about sex, you must simultaneously have one about porn.” 

She explains mothers often hesitate when she tells them this. 

“I tell them it’s a lot easier than they think, all they have to do is a version of this. They just need to talk to their child about sex and make them aware it’s a great area of pleasure and enjoyment. There is no need to make it all mechanistic: ‘Now, darling. You know how we watch movies and cartoons, where things happen that aren’t real? There are also movies and videos about sex – and they aren’t real either. They can be confusing, so we would rather you didn’t watch them…if you come across them, on your phone or on the iPad, come to talk to us about it, and we can explain it.’ 

“By doing that you’ve set up a channel of communication and encouraged them to actively come to you and talk about it. All a parent wants is for their child to be happy, this area will impact your child’s happiness more than anything growing up, so it’s really important.” 

Cindy’s attitude towards porn surprises me. From the off I expected her to be completely against it. However, a different attitude is revealed by her website’s tagline: “Pro sex. Pro porn. Pro knowing the difference”. 

“The issue isn’t porn; the issue is we don’t talk about sex in the real world. I set out to solve that issue. I knew if I wanted to combat ‘porn as default sex’, I was going to have to do it in a way that was going to have the potential to be just as mass, just as mainstream, and just as pervasive as porn is in our society. That’s why I had to put something out there that can be as integrated in our lives as porn is today.” 

I can’t help but feel a bit shocked by the size of the task she has set herself. With the major porn sites hosting more monthly global traffic than Netflix, Amazon and Twitter combined, I question the boldness of Cindy’s claims. 

She tells me she aimed to pioneer a new category of online sexual content that has not previously existed: social sex. She admits her vision has not been without hiccups. 

“Setting out to build the world’s first social sex platform is a fucking enormous battle every single day. That’s why no one else has ever done it.” 

This brings us onto her student viewership. I ask her whether she thinks her model can really compete with the amount of porn students watch, especially given the subscription fee. 

“Our core target audience is you, it’s millennials everywhere in the world. The reason for that is because first of all, you get us. You’re the generation that’s grown up with porn, and you know you need us. Secondly, you’re the most digitally savvy generation; you get what older people don’t understand. We aren’t just something you watch, we’re a community. 

“We would love to have the money to put in place a campus programme for everywhere in the world, to be able to have stu- dent street teams, ambassadors, to go into campuses, Oxford included, but we just don’t have the funds. Investors aren’t falling over to fund us like they are for other forms of social network.” 

She admits that she has high ambitions and her commitment to her project is unwavering. 

“I had to design a business model that enabled us to make money to keep us going. I’ve poured all my savings into this. I designed MakeLoveNotPorn around my value that everyone should make money off something they create. My background is theatre and advertising, two areas where ideas are undervalued, even by the creators themselves. I believe when you create something that gives other people pleasure, you should see a return on it. 

“If we were completely free it would be very easy to think ‘ew, not very good amateur porn’, and then leave. When you pay to rent our videos, you watch them beginning to end, because you want to get the value of what you paid for and that is how you experience how different social sex is from anything else out there.” 

As for the fee, even she can’t resist a light-hearted pop at millennials: 

“The price of a monthly subscription is the same as a couple of lattes from Starbucks.” 

MakeLoveNotPorn appears more than just a means for Cindy to make a quick buck off some randy middle-class couples looking to spice up their sex life. She seems genuinely keen to change our attitudes towards sex, both inside and outside the bedroom: 

“Everything in life starts with values. So I regularly ask people: ‘What are your sexual values?’, and no one can ever answer me, because we are not taught to think like that. Our parents bring us up to have good manners, a work ethic, a 

sense of responsibility and accountability, but no one bring us up to behave well in bed. They should, because their empathy, sensitivity, generosity, kindness, honesty, are as important as they are in every other area of our lives and work, where we are actively taught to exercise those values.

“We could not be more timely in the era of #MeToo, which has surfaced on college campuses around the world because of the dialogue around consent. So everyone is talking and writing about consent. But here’s the problem, no one knows what consent actually looks like in bed. The only way that you educate people about great, consensual, and communicative sex, and about what constitutes good sexual values and behaviour in bed, is by watching people have that kind of sex. MakeLoveNotPorn is the only place on the internet where you can do that.” 

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