Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Blog Page 671

Oxbridge degrees less advantageous for women than men, study finds

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Oxbridge degrees less advantageous for women than men, study finds

A recent report from Thomas International shows that Oxbridge degrees have less of an effect on career attainment for women than for men and that women pursuing a career are instead judged more on personality.

The study demonstrated that a man’s age and education are 150% more likely to predict his employment in a senior role than are those same characteristics for a woman. These factors account for 25% of the reason a man may be employed in a senior position and 10% of why a woman may be.

Head of Psychology at Thomas International, Jayson Darby, wrote that this means “mediocre men are getting ahead of better women.”

The analysis comes from data collected from over 100 director-level female leaders compared against their male counterparts.

Darby further stated that Oxbridge “can be an old boys’ club,” telling The Independent that “things are so much about who you know rather what you know.”

He said: “A man with an Oxbridge degree will be offered a huge advantage in their career efforts compared to a woman with an equivalent qualification, even if she has better leadership traits.

“The end result will be lots of average men getting ahead of more talented women.”

The Thomas study also found that men and women share similar levels of emotional intelligence and have comparable personality traits, finding far greater discrepancies in emotional perceptions of each gender.

Darby stated that “there is an inherent bias in the way people describe female success, and it’s holding women back.”

He told The Global Recruiter: “Our research has shown that women are as likely as men to have the traits of a good business leader, but women face additional hurdles to their success; the very traits that are proven predictors of leadership potential are judged negatively when they are shown by women.

“You have got the unconscious bias at the recruitment stage, such as an older man being seen as more advantageous in business, but older women not being seen like this.”

These findings come in light of the University admitting more women than men in this year’s intake.

Earlier this year, Cherwell reported that this year’s intake of freshers was made up of 1,070 18-year-old women, compared to 1,025 men of the same age.

Women not only gained a greater numbers of offers, but also applied in record numbers.

At the time, Catherine Canning, VP for Access and Academic Affairs at Oxford SU said: “It is important to recognise that Oxfordhas finally reached gender parity in its admissions for the first time in its 1,000-year history.

“However, there are still significant disparities in admissionsparticularly around race and class. It is also important to recognise that access is more than an offer letter and Oxford University should be making sure all students feel welcome here.”

Uni bids to trademark ‘Oxford’ on 126 products

Eve Webster
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Uni bids to trademark ‘Oxford’ on 126 products

A bid for exclusive use of the city’s name has been submitted by Oxford University Press (OUP), a department of the University, as a “precautionary measure” in response to “ongoing uncertainty around Brexit”.

A successful application would mean that OUP would be the only institution or business to be able to use the name free of charge. If approved, the University would have the sole right to use the city’s name on any product, including stationary, DVD, maps, bibles, newspapers, tickets or journals.

However, the trademark would not limit the word being used in print and, in potential legal disputes, decisions would be based on a “reasonable view” of whether there could be any confusion between the University and those using its trademark.

With the trademark, OUP will also be able to take legal action against anyone using the city’s name without previously gaining permission from them to do so. OUP would also be able to sell and license use of the name.

Unless formal opposition is created, OUP’s bid – which cost £270 to launch – is set to become active within the next three months.

In response, Oxford City Councillor Roz Smith expressed concern for the city’s other major institutions. Smith said: “Oxford is not just ‘gown’, it’s town and, in our case, city, and I don’t want to see a divide. What will this do for the Oxford Mail? For Oxford Brookes University?”

Arun Prasad, manager of a shop on Cornmarket Street which sells Oxford University hoodies, phone covers, and mugs, told The Oxford Times: “I sell a lot of official Oxford University merchandise – I don’t think that would be affected.

“I do also sell one or two souvenir items which just display the word ‘Oxford’ but if there was a problem with these then I would simply return them to my supplier. I’m not too worried at the moment – we will wait and see what happens.”

OUP initially filed the application to have the exclusive right to produce 122 products with the name “Oxford” in March, but due to technical changes in the process it was resubmitted on Monday.

Referring to the move, a spokesperson from OUP said: “Oxford University Press is over 500 years old, and we have had ‘Oxford’ registered as a trade mark for our products since 1994, and across Europe since 2000.

“We have filed an additional trade mark application in the UK for the same products and services where we use the word ‘Oxford’.”

They added: “[Trade marking the name] will help us protect the work we do to achieve our mission – furthering the University’s objectives of excellent in research, scholarship and
education.”

If the University’s trademark is approved, the trademark will be in effect for the next decade.

Brasenose JCR apologise for ‘problematic’ ceilidh

Christopher Sinnott
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Brasenose JCR apologise for ‘problematic’ ceilidh

A Freshers’ Week ceilidh at Brasenose College has come under fire for being “inauthentic” and using music “not at all recognisable to the Scots in the room.”

One Brasenose fresher complained of “the misuse of the Scottish term ‘ceilidh'”, which “confused some of us who were expecting something that reminded us of home”.

Another told Cherwell: “The dances we all know and love were nowhere to be seen. The fact that the band was entirely English, while not necessarily an issue if they give an authentic ceilidh, did then seem as if the event had little interest in recreating an authentic ceilidh.”

One student complained to the Brasenose JCR committee, calling the event “a bit problematic” and saying that “if they didn’t want a proper ceilidh they shouldn’t have called it that, and if they did they should have done more research”.

Speaking on behalf of the Brasenose JCR, JCR President Manish Binukrishnan told Cherwell: “I’d like to apologise on behalf of Brasenose JCR to any in our community who felt that the Fresher’s Week Ceilidh was an inappropriate representation of Scottish culture.

“Our intention was to represent a variety of cultures, so there were also Welsh and Irish Ceilidh dances. However, we’re committed to coordinating with our Scottish students to make sure the next Fresher’s Week Ceilidh is appropriately advertised, and that our Burn’s Night Ceilidh in February is as authentic as possible.

“We had run this even both in Fresher’s Week and after Burn’s Night successfully for many years, but we’re always willing to improve and make Brasenose as representative as possible so we can celebrate and promote cultures in a respectful manner.”

Living in a material world

Tony Wilkes
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Living in a material world
What year is it? We don our denim skirts, dungarees and skirts, pull on ‘Mom jeans’ and wide-leggedpants, bucket hats and fanny packs. We sport ‘Hilfiger’, ‘Fila’, and the off-white sneaker. We dance in showers of purple rain, sing of Africa, Eileen and making dreams. ‘The ‘80s Are Here’ screams theNew York Times, but there are ‘‘90s Trends You Need To Try’. It’s 2018, but as Vulture explains, ‘we feel culturally connected to these decades.’ Why? Revivals run on cycles of twenty years. The ‘70s were fascinated by the ‘50s. Think Grease, ‘The Rock ‘n Roll Revival’, and chart-topping Chuck Berry. The ‘60s revived in the ‘80s, with songs like ‘Summer of ‘69’, classic rock, and Dirty Dancing. And we had That ‘70s Show, disco beats, and Boogie Nights in the ‘90s. Twenty years were close enough to be accessed. Relics survived: the records and photos and outdated wardrobes. You could look to your parents. The average mother gave birth in her twenties, so would be the same age as yourself, a person you could be, but never knew. My mum describes wearing her own mother’s clothes – her button-up shirts and knife-pleated skirts. Those decades revived as they were found. You could be given the past, and it fit.
We’ve adhered to that twenty-year rule. The Eighties relaunched in the Noughties: That ‘80s Show and I Love the ‘80s aired in the early 2000s. And by 2010, nostalgia was shifting. ‘For more than a year’, read a 2010 issue of Vogue, ‘people have been saying we’re going back to the ‘90s.’ And true to form, the ‘90s revival’ was, and remains, the ‘Obsession of The Day’. Though as we moved through the Noughties, we are less confined to a past we can access. Generations will always be drawn to the time they were born. We have seen and heard it before. But our revivals are refusing to leave. ‘[T]he ‘80s revival is already old news’, read the same article in Vogue. ‘Time to move on’. But we haven’t, and we’ve noticed. The journalist Simon Reynolds, author of Retromania, Pop Culture’s Addiction to Its Own Past (2011) – told Inverse.com: ‘the duration of ‘80s nostalgia feels unprecedented, historically speaking. The ‘80s revival has gone on longer than the actual ‘80s did.’
Technology has given access to the past on anunprecedented scale. According to Spotify, in 2016 the streaming of ‘80s songs tripled over three years. And the second-highest demographic of listeners were aged 18 to 24 – us. We have greater access to clothes, with greater choice and convenience. Depop, the mobile flea-market, was founded in 2011 and has ten million users. The first Netflix episode of Stranger Things, set in 1983, was watched by 16 million in the first three days. The past is more easily seen, with images and print now taken online. And with social media, trends can spread like wild-fire. Instagram’s trend page #80s contains 8 million videos and posts. But whether it’s thirty years or twenty, we revive decades eluding our memory. And though I was born in the Nineties, in late ’99, those last few months passed me by. A revival needs that amnesia. The film director Fenton Bailey has defined ‘nostalgia’ as a ‘sufficient amount of time [that] has passed’, so you forget the reality […] and romanticise it’. The past is rid of adversity, and attracts a false sense of purity. Free to interpret, we create what we need. We fashion a decade from present desires, and current beliefs. So the times are not just revived, we reinvented. We create a past that was ‘happy’, ‘simple’ and ‘safe’.
The award-winning Black Mirror episode ‘San Junipero’ (2016) – now a revival-think-piece-cliché – shows how we replace the past with sugared idealism. Set in a future replacement of heaven, the episode follows a love affair between two women – Kelly and Yorkie – in a 1980’s virtual reality. They are integrated as naturally as the carefully cultivated ‘80s soundtrack. As is Kelly’s race. In the Eighties of ‘San Junipero’, being black or gay is not just accepted, but celebrated. The episode acknowledges that this is a ‘Land of Make Believe’ (1982), a song featured alongside ‘Fake’ (1987) and ‘Wishing Well’ (1987). Only seven years before Rhythm Nation, black artists were barred from MTV. Race riots swept through Britain in 1981, and Miami would burn in 1980 – and ‘89. In 1988, the British government introduced Section 28, banning the discussion of homosexuality by local authorities and schools. Local libraries were forbidden to stock material with gay or lesbian themes. The Chief Constable of Manchester told the country in 1986: ‘I see evidence of people swirling around in the cesspool of their own making.’ Heaven was
not a place on earth.
But we identify with the Eighties as the era that tried. Opposition to Section 28 amounted to war. Lesbian protestors scaled the gallery of the House of Lords. Activists stormed the BBC, handcuffed themselves to the broadcasting cameras, and disrupted The Six O’Clock News. ‘By getting on the news’, one protestor said, ‘we would be the news.’ We look to resurrect that spirit. We produce films like Milk (2008) and Pride (2014) – documenting the effort and achievement of activists. The books of the time that were once under ban are now taught and discussed in our schools. So we don’t just replace the mistakes, we romanticise to help ourselves heal. ‘San Junipero’, the name, stems from Juniper, the plant – a soother of sickness and pain. We revive the past, perhaps, to heal prevalent wounds. Eighties fashion soothes us, creating a sense of freedom. Isabel Marant explained that the ‘joy of the ‘80s was the freedom to dabble in many’, the ‘reckless abandon’. Variety was encouraged by a number of fashion magazines like The Face, I-D, and Blitz. This ‘triumvirate of style bibles’, according to Metro, ‘defined what was fashionable at the time.’ Ian R Webb was fashion director of Blitz from 1982 to 1987. ‘A huge variety of looks collided and coexisted’, he told Metro in 2013. ‘A lot of things featured came from charity shops or we knocked them up on a sewing machine. [….] The magazine gave us a stage […] to present […] an alternative way of looking at fashion.’
It is an alternative we’re embracing today. Vintage blogger Jasmin Rodriguez told the Huffington Post: ‘With so many companies […] creating mass-produced clothing, it is hard to keep your originality[….] Buying vintage supports individuality.’ And Richard Wainwright, co-founder of a vintage pop-up in L.A., told the Post: ‘so many […] have embraced vintage as a way to develop a signature style.’ Research has shown that 16-18% of Americans use vintage shops in one given year, compared to 21% who shop in a major department store. Its share of the market is growing, and the companies have noticed.‘It’s such a great era to look back on’, the Global Design Director of Topshop told Grazia last year, ‘as it championed individualism […] and expression.’ The Nineties championed rebellion. ‘Grunge’ fashion emerged as ‘opposition to the materialistic excess and glamour of the decade’, and reached itspeak in the Nineties. It’s a style we’re reviving. In 2018, Vogue predicted, everyone will be having to ‘grunge it’. And we are. Trend Spotter characterised the look as heaving layering, Doc Martens, oversized silhouettes, and slouchy sweaters – most of which I wear daily. Our return to rebellious styles may be attempts to reclaim authenticity through fashion. The defining feature of ‘90s fashion was authenticity. Beauty was redefined as less constructed. Designs were grittier. It was an ‘antidote’, The New York Times explains, to ‘blown-up body parts airbrushed to car-paint’. In 2018, we still need that antidote. Jameela Jamil, in a Channel 4 podcast last August, said: ‘The face-tuning, the
photo-shopping, the fillers, […] it’s definitely gotten worse. […] Women are way more under attack than men’. Is it a coincidence that the revival of grittier fashion and grunge is especially marked among women? Clothes are worn for transparency. Women wear nets, and tops made of mesh. Outfits are strapless and backless. These may be attempts to reject distorted versions of appearance, and embrace the genuine ‘you.’
But the most obvious display of Eighties revival is music. We are drawn to the sound. As W Magazine wrote in 2016, ‘popular music is as synth-heavy as it’s ever been since that decade’. Synth first hit the main-stream in the mid to late Eighties, with an impact comparable to Mersey beat. And it’s back in the mainstream. In 2015, Slate attributed the success of ‘Can’t Feel My Face’ to how well The Weeknd simulated ‘the synth burble and serotonin flush of 1980s Michael Jackson.’ It’s not just The Weeknd. The biggest singles of the year – singles from Dua Lipa, Calvin Harris, Ariana, and Drake – all feature synth. In 2018, if you have Eighties sound, you’re a hit. But why? The sound, in fact, had never gone away. The kind of music we listen to now is the same as they listened to then. In the Eighties, synth was quickly absorbed into dance music, creating genres like ‘synth-pop’ and ‘dance-pop’. This produced some of the most recognisable songs of the decade, like ‘Tainted Love’ (1981) and ‘Into the Groove’ (1984). As the genres blurred, a music was created that sounds ‘electronic’ but also like ‘pop’ – a sound of up-tempo, synthesised beats you could get up and dance to. Which is, in effect, our own music. Artists from Rihanna to David Guetta, Britney Spears to Beyoncé, are all considered artists of the genre. And just listen to hits like ‘Solo’ and ‘One Kiss’. Nothing much has changed.
Neither has our worship for their stars. The last few years has seen a surge of interest in artists like David Bowie, George Michael and Michael Jackson. It can be seen in the industry. Record producer Max Martin – ‘the Swedish imperial chart conqueror’ – spoke to Slate about their influence in 2015. ‘These kids […] don’t have a Michael Jackson,’ he explained. ‘They don’t have a Prince. They don’t have a Whitney. Who else is there? Who else can really do it at this point?’ It is a lack we are very aware of. Many of these artists have died in our lifetimes: MJ in 2009, Whitney in 2012, and in 2016, Prince, George Michael, and Bowie. With each loss, we have felt the weight of a presence we never experienced. But we try to understand – buying records, and posters, and downloading singles. But to argue we lack the same talent is misguided. We may not have a Whitney, but we have a Beyoncé. We have the calibre of Drake, Rihanna, and Adele. So it’s not just a question of quality: we are drawn to these stars for their stories. Margo Jefferson published On Michael Jackson last May asking: ‘How to account for Michael Jackson’s rise and fall?’ And the tragedy of Whitney Houston’s life continues to fascinate with documentaries like Can I Be Me (2017) and Whitney, released last July. Their lives reflect questions that we are now able to discuss more openly, or even at all: questions of race, sexuality, addiction, and mental health. Whitney encompasses all of these: the recent film exposes claims of abuse. So their lives are important – the interest helps us understand our own times and ourselves.
Above all, though, we just like the songs. Slate’s music critic Carl Wilson has written the best analysis I’ve read. Eighties music, he writes, ‘connotes its fancied innocence. […] The music’s very shallowness becomes a kind of helpless depth.’ The shallow profundity is intrinsic. In 1989, an academic wrote a paper examining the top fifty songs of September 1987. It proves, he admits, what we already knew. We make songs fit our own lives. The analysis shows that, for the music of 1987, 94% of the songs had an unspecified ‘I’. 86% had unspecified ‘you’. 62% had unspecified genders. The songs are so vague we ‘appropriate the words.’ And, importantly, 94% are not grounded in time, and 80% are not given a place. They are, in other words, timeless. Which is why, on every other Wednesday, Cellar is packed for ‘Burning Down the House’. And it’s why I pass a builder who, laying a drive, joins in with his speaker, and looks me in the eye: ‘Don’t you want me, baby? Don’ you want me, oh!’ So, really, above all the cycles, the clothes, and the music, we feel a greater pull. It may be sentimental, inaccurate, or shallow, but deep down, no matter who we are, or where we may be, you remember don’t you. You wanna dance with somebody.

Trinity building proposal approved despite Bodleian opposition

Daniel Hall
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Trinity building proposal approved despite Bodleian opposition

A proposed building development by Trinity College has been approved by the Council, despite opposition from the Bodleian Library.

The extension will include a lecture theatre, five new teaching rooms, an additional library and 46 accessible student study bedrooms. Currently two floors of Trinity’s library, as well as most communal spaces are inaccessible by wheelchair.

However, in a submission to the council’s planning committee, Bodleian librarian Richard Ovenden noted the adverse effect the new building would have on the Weston Library’s reading rooms.

Ovenden told the Oxford Times: “The proposed development would be just 35 feet away from this reading room and would be as high as the north range of the Weston Library and run almost the full extent of the reading room’s length.

“The view, so cohesive to quiet study, would be completely lost, blocked by student accommodation that is, in our view, too big and too close.

“The reduction in light and the increase in noise would cause harm to one of the world’s great research spaces.”

President of Trinity College, Dame Hilary Boulding, noted that Trinity has made an effort to work with and satisfy different interest groups during the consultation process.

Boulding said: “This is a heavily constrained site. We’ve taken time to understand these constraints and to explore and model opinions and have worked collaboratively with council officers and many interest groups.”

The new building, which will be the first to be built on Trinity’s main site in 50 years, will aim to provide accommodation to all 50 first-year graduate students. The College are presently only able to house 17 out of 150 graduate students on the main site.

Boulding added that the extension would help to “foster a graduate academic community”. She also noted that the new accommodation would alleviate problems in Oxford’s housing market.

The proposal was put on hold for five months earlier this year, to allow Historic England to review any impact the development would have on Weston Library. They concluded that any potential impact would be modest.

This follows the news in June that New College was granted permission to go ahead with a controversial redevelopment that will see a 21.8-metre tower be built on a new site on Savile Road.

The proposal was met with opposition from nearby Mansfield College, whose Principal at the time, Baroness Helena Kennedy, filed an official complaint to the council.

The Threepenny Opera Review – ‘both unsettling and wildly entertaining’

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The Threepenny Opera Review – ‘both unsettling and wildly entertaining’

Even at the dress rehearsal, it was clear that SLAM Theatre’s The Threepenny Opera is not to be missed. As the first production of Simon Stephens’s adaptation since the National’s in 2016, SLAM makes the most of this exciting opportunity with their exhilarating and hilariously vibrant revival.

When Polly Peachum elopes in the middle of the night with the notorious criminal Macheath (“Mack the Knife”), her parents instigate a dizzying manhunt for the East End crime lord. The King’s Coronation gets closer, and blackmail and bribery collide with moments of shock patriotism to reveal every aspect of this amoral criminal network.

As a familiar Victorian character, the master criminal led astray by his sexual voracity, Macheath is kept from feeling two-dimensional by Eoghan McNelis’s more haunting lines: “we can’t have ethics that we can’t afford”. The Peachum parents, played by Marcus Knight-Adams and Ella Tournes, form a thrilling double-act, engaging in ridiculous insult battles to see who can shout “you bastard” the loudest. Knight-Adams’s performance is at once hilarious and faintly disturbing, providing many of the play’s most memorable gags, and yet willing to break a girl’s fingers for information. The performance, then, offers plenty of laughs, but it is not afraid to dramatise the more crude sides of this tumbledown district. Macheath, though accused of dismembering two people (“while still alive!”, Polly reminds us), repeatedly avoids capture. He keeps plates spinning until the very end, relying on the help of his beret-wearing criminal gang.

If at times the play borders on the absurd, it is prevented from ever becoming too chaotic by tight direction and well-rehearsed timings. Indeed, the performance was skilfully balanced, combining crude scenes of poverty and prostitution with hilarious slapstick comedy. “I stabbed him in the bum”, Macheath reminds us, as spools of red wool spill out from the prison guard’s trousers. This heady combination of euphemism and destitution culminates in the final scene, which boasts a scaffold and noose, alongside party hats and a baby’s buggy.

The set, too, is simple but deeply effective. The ramshackle brick buildings, complete with shattered windows and broken shutters, establish the sordid tone of the play, evoking the terrible poverty that Macheath tells us to overlook: morality, we are reminded, is “not a simple matter”. Props come and go, such as a noose and prison bars, but the basic arrangement is kept the same and creates a space that doubles as prison and whore house.

Part of the charm of this dark musical, then, is its unexpectedness and impressive flexibility. But the power of this production also owes much to Matthew Jackson’s musical direction, which uses a seven-piece band to do full justice to the play’s musical history. The lighting also proves wonderfully jarring as ominous flashes of red light offset the largely monochrome costumes, reminding us of the brothel to which Macheath cannot help but return.

After the National Theatre’s 2016 debut, Michael Billington suggested that Stephens’s adaptation makes one or two odd choices in its handling of Brecht, transforming Mr Peachum from a threatening embodiment of bourgeois criminality into a lewd figure with a checkered waistcoat. But even if Stephens exaggerates the sexuality, implying that Macheath has compromising information on “our important friend in Windsor”, and alluding to a past liaison between Macheath and the chief police inspector Tiger Brown, his lyrics ensure this is never overplayed. The musical numbers offer a stark contrast with the play’s self-conscious theatricality, insisting that there is no place for morality amongst the “desperate folk” of London’s East End, that “a vice is not a vice when there is no food”.

The joy of this production is that it offers a vigorous new take on Brecht’s musical with sharply defined performances and a vibrant on-stage band. Though the play is prefaced with a warning that “there will be no moralising tonight”, SLAM’s revival of The Threepenny Opera speaks to social problems of abuse and poverty, offering a compelling performance that is both unsettling and wonderfully entertaining.

First CofE vicar to be in same-sex marriage becomes LMH chaplain

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First CofE vicar to be in same-sex marriage becomes LMH chaplain

The first Church of England vicar to be in a same-sex marriage has temporarily been made chaplain for Lady Margaret Hall.

Andrew Foreshew-Cain was appointed to the role for this term, covering for the sabbatical of LMH’s permanent chaplain.

In April 2017, Foreshew-Cain attracted national headlines when he resigned as a priest and left his London parish, citing the “institutional homophobia of the church” which he believes has put him on a “blacklist” with the Anglican church.

Foreshew-Cain’s new role is not a Church of England appointment. LMH is an independent institution outside the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Oxford, meaning the chaplain does not require a licence from the Diocese of Oxford.

Foreshew-Cain says he has devoted LMH’s chapel theme to “living with difference” and emphasised a message of “acceptance and equality”. He told Cherwell: “In the world today, it’s really important to learn how we live with each other in peace and understanding.”

A spokesperson for LMH said: “Andrew Foreshew-Cain was recommended to us and his
appointment was approved by our Governing Body. We are delighted that Andrew is here and making such a positive contribution to the college.”

A spokesperson for the Diocese of Oxford said: “We wish Andrew well for his term of ministry at Lady Margaret Hall.”

Last month the College of Bishops met in Oxford to discuss how the church could improve its relations with LGBT Christians.

Plush faces imminent venue closure

Eve Webster
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Plush faces imminent venue closure

The Plush Lounge is set to be evicted from their current location on Park End Street, Cherwell can reveal, with staff in a battle to find a new home for the nightclub.

A spokesperson for the nightclub told Cherwell: “For some time, we have been in discussion with Nuffield College who own the building concerning the redevelopment of the site.

“Nuffield College and their agents have been extremely supportive in sourcing an alternative central Oxford location. Plush are completely committed to providing an ongoing safe space for the LGBTQ+ community within central Oxford.

“Discussions are currently ongoing, and we are very confident that we will be able to release some exciting news in the next few weeks.”

Privately owned and operated, Plush has been occupying their current site at 27 Park End Street, widely known as the Jam Factory, since 2010.

The LGBTQ+ venue is open Tuesdays, Fridays and Saturdays.

Plush added: “The club was founded to provide a safe atmosphere predominantly for the LGBTQ+ community, whilst welcoming all patrons who share our values and respect our culture.

“The club has established itself as a leader in the provision of high quality entertainment at
affordable prices in Oxford, and is recognised as a destination of choice.”
Nuffield College also owns the property occupied by The Bridge and – until its closure in July 2016 – by Wahoo nightclub.

The latter closed after a multi-million pound deal between Nuffield and Christ Church led to the site being renovated to become what is now the Oxford Foundry.

Former Somerville entz rep and Plush superfan, Mo Iman, told Cherwell: “Plush, as Oxford’s premier LGBT+ nightclub, provided a safe space for a community that is generally mistreated at traditional venues.

“It is sad news to hear that it will not be at the Jam Factory but hopefully it will return with the same friendly staff and inclusivity that both town and gown have enjoyed.”

Nuffield College have not responded to a request for comment.

SU welcomes students responding to Gender Recognition Act consultation

Amelia Horn
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SU welcomes students responding to Gender Recognition Act consultation

Oxford University Student Union opened its offices on Monday to enable students to submit responses to the Reform of the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) 2018 consultation.

The consultation, commissioned by the Government Equalities Office, aims to gage the public’s views on how to reform the Gender Recognition Act 2004.

A spokesperson for the SU told Cherwell: “Oxford SU hosted around about 30 students throughout the day, we provided a space to work, snacks and information on our views on the consultation.

“We then let the students fill out the consultation unhindered and provide whatever answers they would like for us. Oxford SU firmly believes in equality for all and this is one way of helping to achieve that.”

Oxford SU VP Women Katt Walton was present throughout the day to advocate for the importance of the consultation. The University’s LGBTQ+ society also provided a set of template answers to assist those answering the consultation.

Walton told Cherwell: “The SU strongly supports the reformation of the GRA so that it can better support the trans community. We are very proud to unequivocally support the trans community and we urge everyone to fill out the GRA consultation.

“We have decided to have an office open day because many people will have questions about the GRA, we want to be able to provide that information in an easily accessible way, so they then can fill in the form whilst they are here.

“We hopefully want to get as many voices calling for equality and respect submitted because we know that opposing voices will be loud and myths and misinformation will be spread.”

In a SU blog post, Walton wrote: “Currently, trans folk have to endure a long and dehumanising process to ‘prove’ their gender identity. It’s very stressful, complex, expensive, and largely inaccessible to trans people.”

The SU also made its own submission to the consultation, which incorporated contributions from members present on Monday and is publically available on their website.

In their submission, the SU stated: “This consultation widely misses the mark and has squandered the opportunity to hear, first hand, the experiences of trans people.

“Rather than focus on how policy is implemented and the real life impact of these arduous, outdated, overly-medicalised policies on the lives of a marginalised group, this survey demands time and labour from said marginalised group in order to answer questions that require both an in depth knowledge of the GRA 2004 and the EA 2010.

“Not all trans people are politicians. Not all trans people are lawyers. Trans people are simply trying to live their lives in a way that is safe and as free from dysphoria and discrimination as possible.

“Many of the questions in this survey are a matter of fact, not opinion: They should not be up for debate.”

Anyone can participate in the consultation, but a few questions on the form are reserved specifically for people who identify as (binary or non-binary) transgender.

Since the GRA was first implemented in 2004, 4,910 people have used it to legally change their gender. The government estimates that there are 200,000 to 500,000 trans people living in the UK.

Currently, it costs £140 to go through the process of legally changing gender. The process also requires, among other documents, a medical report that proves the applicant has gender dysphoria and proof that they have lived as their new gender for at least two years.

The current GRA doesn’t legally recognise the existence of non-binary people. In their submission, the SU added: “Society has moved on from outdated concepts of binary sex and gender and now the legislation must catch up.

“EDM660 (2015) called for the gender marker X to be added to passports, that we are still debating this three years later is baffling. It is time to move on.”

The submission closes on 19th October 2018 at 11pm.

Anti-racist groups to protest AfD leader’s visit to the Union

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Anti-racist groups to protest AfD leader’s visit to the Union

Stand Up to Racism Oxford and Unite Against Fascism have come together to organise a protest coinciding with Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) party leader Alice Weidel’s visit to the Oxford Union.

The AfD is the third largest party in the German Bundestag, but Stand Up to Racism Oxford’s Ian McKendrick argues that the party “built up its following by stoking up racism against migrants, Muslims, and refugees.”

As a member of parliament for the Baden-Württemberg region since 2017, Weidel has been outspoken on such issues, however claims that her own motivation for joining the party came from their anti-Euro stance.

Speaking on behalf of the Union, Union President Stephen Horvath defended its decision to invite Weidel.

He reiterated the organisation’s commitment to political neutrality and free speech, and also emphasised the fact that Union members would be afforded the opportunity to challenge Weidel and ask her questions once her initial speech was over.

Horvath told Cherwell: “The Oxford Union remains committed to the principles of political neutrality and free speech, and we invite a variety of political leaders from different countries and competing ideological camps.

“In recent years, those perspectives featured and questioned at the Union have ranged from Julius Malema, leader of the radically leftist Economic Freedom Fighters in South Africa, to Marine Le Pen.

“Alice Weidel is the leader of the largest opposition party in the German Parliament. After Dr Weidel’s speech in the Union’s debating Chamber, members will be welcome to ask her questions, and challenge her views if they wish.”

Concern about the AfD has risen in recent months following claims of its links to neo-Nazi groups in Germany. In September, their Thuringian leader, Björn Höcke, was one of several key party members who marched alongside far-right protest group Pegida in Chemnitz.

The ‘silent march’, as it was advertised, was called for by the party to honour the death of a local man, who was allegedly stabbed by an immigrant to Germany.

Expressing surprise at the idea that Weidel’s speakership invitation was controversial enough to merit protest, an AfD spokesperson told Cherwell: “The AfD is a constitutional state party.

“In the AfD, there are no members who are or were members of a far-right party. I think the protesters do not know what fascism and what racism is.”

Labour MP for Oxford East, Anneliese Dodds, expressed her disapproval at the invitation, saying: “It is very concerning to hear that the Oxford Union has gone out of its way to court a far-right politician in this way.”

Oxford City Councillor John Tanner described the planned visit as “an insult to the University, to Oxford’s minority communities and to all of us who believe in an open and multi-racial society.”

This is not the first time that the Union has been criticised for allegedly giving racism a platform in Oxford, past speakers include Tommy Robinson and Marine Le Pen.

Weidel’s speech is scheduled to begin at the Union at 8pm on 7th November. Protestors will gather from 6pm on St Michael’s Street.

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