Tuesday 22nd July 2025
Blog Page 767

The Crocodile review – ‘a carefully considered yet hilariously nuts production’

Cesca Echlin
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The Crocodile review – ‘a carefully considered yet hilariously nuts production’

Wednesday of 7th week: term is trudging on unbearably close to the end, and Oxford has been hit by a freezing blizzard that has, apparently, drifted over from the depths of Siberia. What, you may ask, could ever make you leave the comforting confines of your room?

I think I might have just the play for you – a production that will bring you a shot of energy at this potentially dreary point in term. Tom Basden’s The Crocodile is based on a short story by Dostoyevsky, and was first put on in 2015 as part of the Manchester International Festival. Set in 19th century St. Petersburg, The Crocodile follows an Avant-Garde yet totally failing actor, Ivan, and his friends Zack and Anya, as Ivan somehow finds himself swallowed whole by a crocodile at the zoo. Whilst at first Ivan demands that that the zoo’s management cut open the croc, he soon finds that his new reptilian home could provide an alternative means for attention, and the route to success he has always sought.

As soon as I entered the Pilch on this icy Wednesday I knew I was in for a bit of fun – Nitrous Cow Productions created an instantly gratifying pre-show atmosphere. Members of the crew dished out different pairs of furry animal ears for audience members to wear. Sarah Spencer’s original score should also be credited for the part it plays in creating the mood: it was cheeky and circus-like, whilst at the same time grounding the play in its Russian setting.

The play unhesitatingly introduces the audience to its pretentious protagonist with full force. Ivan, played by Dominick Weatherby, erupts onto the stage, interrogating audience members and exclaiming with frustration: “What is this world coming to?” Weatherby delivers a very impressive performance from the outset. He commands the stage not only vocally but also physically, taking Ivan’s performative nature to the next level as he jumps, dips, and turns across the central space. Ivan’s fierce character is intelligently countered by his strait-laced friend, Zack, played by Luke Wintour. Wintour’s character responds to Ivan’s performativity with a slower and well-considered cynicism, creating a satisfying contrast that produces some of this production’s best comic moments. As Ivan declares to his friend proudly: “I’m a lion, and you’re a, you know, a cow.” Kate Weir delivers the role of Anya (Zack’s girlfriend and, complicatedly, Ivan’s former flame) with a hilarious level of shrieking energy, both complementing Ivan’s performativity and further emphasising Zack’s squareness. The audience cannot help but like and enjoy these three central characters and the ridiculousness that surrounds them.

This trio is supported by some other strong performances. Jon Berry is a particular highlight – his pedantic performance as bureaucrat Mr. Zlobin took the laughter to new levels. The play’s pedantic undertone is encapsulated in Julia Pilkington’s depiction of zookeeper Mr. Popov as she demarks a section of the stage with tinsel and demands seven roubles from Ivan and Zack who just happen to be inside it.

It is through attention to comic detail that this production succeeds, and it is therefore necessary to pay tribute to its director, Alex Rugman. From Jon Berry’s insanely camp table-setting during the dinner scene (which I must confess nearly brought me to tears, I was laughing so much), to Ivan’s crocodile-themed Lacoste sliders, a protestor’s ‘Wenger Out’ placards, and Mr. Zlobin’s stress-fruit, Rugman took great care over this production and scored comedic goals in the process. The production’s ability to straddle genres is impressive – it’s kookiness appeals to the Mighty Boosh fans among us whilst Peep Show enthusiasts are sure to love its pedantry.

One aspect of the play that felt less considered potentially was the role of politics in the script. It was difficult to ascertain the meaning behind Ivan’s great rhetorical ramblings. Russia’s politically divided atmosphere in the 19th and early 20th century was touched on somewhat, but I think it could have provided a more effective edge to the production’s comedic successes than it did. This might just be an issue with the script itself.

Overall, this production is a great night out with heaps of talent and, for me, its experimental nature is what student theatre should be about.

The film at the centre of India’s free speech debate

Sam Dalrymple
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The film at the centre of India’s free speech debate

On 25 January 2018, hundreds of thousands of booklovers made their annual pilgrimage to the Jaipur Literature Festival to listen to authors from around the world. Taking a break from the hectic bubble of Oxford, I was one such pilgrim, eager to hear Tom Stoppard, Shashi Tharoor, Anthony Horowitz and Hamid Karzai to name a few. Yet, as I arrived in the pink desert city, the air was tense. Only a few hours earlier the Delhi-Jaipur highway had been blocked by a series of burning school buses and by midday a mob of bikers carrying AK-47’s were marauding through the streets.

After a lengthy delay, the Bollywood film Padmaavat had finally opened in cinemas, and protests had turned violent. Although it has, for the most part, been ignored in Britain, the controversy surrounding Padmaavat (formerly Padmavati) is surprisingly relevant to many current debates in our country.

Created by fake news, perpetuated by cries of appropriation and bringing the debate around no-platforming to the Indian Supreme Court, the dispute encapsulates the conversations that have dominated our news in recent months.

The film narrates the story of Padmini, a fictional Hindu queen who burned herself on a pyre to avoid capture by Khilji – a ruthless Muslim king. Padmaavat is one of the most expensive Indian films ever made, with a production budget of around $30 million, yet almost from its inception the film has been mired in controversy.

Padmini holds a near sacred position for the Rajput caste and production has spurred riots and lynchings over her fictionalised portrayal. Million-dollar bounties have been placed on the heads of both director Sanjay Bhansali and lead actor Deepika Padukone.

Rajputs are a Hindu caste renowned across South Asia for their bravery, valour and striking architecture. During Muslim rule over north India, the Rajput kingdoms were some of the few areas to maintain Hindu sovereignty. Their pride is closely linked with the ideas of Hindu caste purity and independence from Muslim rule.

However, a constant smear on this pride lies in the fact that many Rajput princesses were married off to the Islamic nobility in order to maintain independence. Thus Padmini – a princess who chooses to burn herself on a pyre, rather than give herself up to a Muslim king – is central to the Rajput imagination.

The earliest protests against the film occurred in March 2017, and within weeks a mob of 20-30 people descended on the film crew armed with petrol bombs, stones and lathis (canes). They charged and ignited the set, injuring animals and destroying several costumes.

Much of this anger was directed towards an alleged dream sequence, depicting sensual contact between Padmini and Khilji. Bhansali swiftly assured audiences that there was no such sequence in the film, yet nonetheless the story went viral. There were soon mass protests against the film in many Indian cities decrying the hurtful depiction of Rajput history by Bhansali.

In November, resistance to the film became political. After a senior member of India’s ruling party called for the film to be banned, the Karni Sena – a caste organisation – threatened to violently assault and mutilate lead actor Padukone. Mumbai Police provided Padukone with security, yet no arrests were made. When the British Board of Film Classification gave the film a 12A rating and permitted its UK release, a Karni Sena leader threatened to burn down British theatres that screened it.

A $780,000 bounty was put on the heads of both Bhansali and Padukone by another organisation, followed soon after by a similar bounty of $1.6 million from Suraj Pal Amu, one of the media chiefs of the central government. Amu also threatened to break the legs of lead actor Ranveer Singh. The state of Rajasthan was named after the Rajputs, and as such its capital, Jaipur has been at the epicentre of the controversy. On 24 November 2017, a dead body was found hanging off the walls of a fort outside the city. Beside it, scrawled in hasty graffiti were the words “In opposition to Padmavati. We don’t just burn effigies, we hang them.” Calls to ban the film were eventually halted by the Indian Supreme Court, who ordered that it be released to protect the sacrosanct nature of freedom of speech. Protest died down somewhat and Amu, who had earlier placed a bounty of ₹10 crore on Padukone’s head, claimed to be a fan of Padukone, calling her “the nation’s daughter”. Yet when the film’s release date was announced, violent protests erupted across the country once more, again led by the Karni Sena. It is notable that even now, few people are quite sure what exactly the protests are about.

Despite the claims that the film “offends Rajput culture”, its reviews without exception rave about its majestic depiction of the Rajputs. The main quarrel with the film seems to be its misogyny and Islamophobia – not its treatment of Hindu characters. Such protests seem to be founded on fake news. What is perhaps more interesting than the origin of the protests, however, is the debate which has come to dominate the Indian media: who has the right to depict religious and cultural icons?

Padmaavat (2018)

Salman Rushdie’s The Satanic Verses brought this debate to the forefront of the Indian consciousness in 1988 after it was banned as hate speech. However, what is new here is that Padmaavat is neither an explicitly religious figure nor a historical one, but a virtuous legendary character, akin to King Arthur or Robin Hood. Salman Rushdie’s book was cited as mocking the Islamic faith, yet Padmaavat is a cultural figure.

Thus as states across India announced they would not abide by the Supreme Court’s ruling to show the film (usually citing safety issues), many Indian citizens expressed concerns about the stifling of freedom of speech. Although the Indian government continues to evade commenting on the situation, hundreds of Bollywood stars have come out in support of Padmavaat’s release. Actors such as Hrithik Roshan, Priyanka Chopra and Salman Khan have cited the attempted ban on the film as an assault on creative freedom. However, Union Minister Giriraj Singh claimed that the film was akin to making a movie on Prophet Mohammed and that “if a film is made on Gandhi ji, and he is shown doing kathak or bhangra [Indian dances], I will never forgive”.

It was in this environment that Jaipur Literature Festival inaugurated its 11th year with a speech by Pico Iyer on the sanctity of freedom of speech and the value of religious and cultural plurality . The Economic Times of India reported that “while Padmaavat dominated JLF, with almost every panel backing the film’s release, loud voices on the streets called for the opposite”. Given the number of Bollywood films that depict Indian historical and cultural figures, the outcome of the Padmaavat debate will have enormous consequences for the world’s largest film industry. On the opening day of the Jaipur Literature Festival, Padmini, The Spirited Queen of Chittor, an English translation of a decades-old book on Padmini was released. Crowds flocked to buy it, despite cinemas across Jaipur refusing to screen the Padmaavat film. The outpouring of grief over Padmavaat’s release, while an identical book became one of the festival’s bestsellers, serves to highlight the irrationality of the growing intolerance we are witnessing not just in India but the world.

 

St. Hugh’s restricts smoking on college site

Jeremiah O'Mahony
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St. Hugh’s restricts smoking on college site

St. Hugh’s College has announced a new smoking policy for Trinity term, which will restrict smoking to certain designated areas at the edge of the college site.

The new policy will limit smoking areas to five spots around campus, mainly behind student accommodation away from commonly used areas. The college’s Governing Body agreed to the changes on a trial basis.

The move has been criticised by some students as “ridiculous” and “parental.”

Previously, St. Hugh’s only restricted smoking inside college buildings and balconies, in line with legal restrictions.

A spokesperson for St. Hugh’s told Cherwell: “This pilot policy has come after two years of warnings to students that the smoking policy could be changed, if the litter and nuisance from smoke problems persisted.”

“One of the reasons for the new trial policy was smoke drifting in through windows.”

Under the new policy, smokers will be required to stay two metres away from buildings to prevent smoke getting inside buildings. Only on Bop nights will JCR members be able to smoke on the outside decking area outside the JCR and college bar.

A first-year graduate student at the college told Cherwell: “This new policy is really ridiculous, smokers pose few problems for the college and smoking does not impact on college life.

“It’s sad that the college felt the need to take such a parental step: we’re adults, and I feel the current policy has been used responsibly.

“We don’t need to be pushed to small areas at the edge of the grounds.

“I for one want to challenge college authorities on this when term starts again, it was announced right at the death of last term and I don’t feel students were properly given a chance to speak their minds.”

A map displaying the areas where smoking will now be permitted was sent to students on the last day of term.

The college noted that the JCR and MCR are represented on the Governing Body, who took the decision.

The St. Hugh’s spokesperson said: “There will be opportunities during Trinity term for staff and students to offer feedback.”

St. Hugh’s JCR President, Alex Yeandle, told Cherwell: “The smoking policy was indeed raised in 8th week Governing Body, however discussion of it focused mainly on the implementation of, rather than principle behind the change (of which there was quite quickly a broad agreement).

“I have been personally assured by the College Bursar…that the new policy is under trial for Trinity term with a review scheduled.

“During Trinity, I plan to open a student consultation to see what students think of the new policy and I will then communicate the results of this to college, via Governing Body or otherwise.

“I have been led to believe that the proposed new smoking policy is in line with that of many other Oxford colleges and that it will impact both students and staff equally.

“Again, though, if over the course of next term it becomes apparent that the ban is having a substantially negative impact on the majority of JCR members, I will not hesitate to lobby college accordingly.”

The announcement, which was sent to students on the final day of Hilary term, noted that “it is not the college’s intention to provide further smoking ‘shelters’” for the new areas.

Student members who infringe on the policy will “be dealt with by the decanal team.”

In October, Cherwell revealed Exeter College’s plan to ban smoking on its Turl Street site. However, after an angry response from students, the policy was never implemented.

Seven colleges currently have blanket bans on smoking on-site, including St Edmund Hall and Mansfield College.

Teddy Hall introduced their ban in 2011, and came under fire from students for their failure to consult students first. Then-JCR president Joshua Coulson said: “some of you will be furious, and I can see why.”

In 2014, Mansfield’s Home Bursar cited smoke entering non-smoking areas within the college, the “unpleasant smell of smoke for those around”, and the mess created by cigarette butts in college as reasons for a ban.

Oxford remembers Stephen Hawking

Daniel Hall
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Oxford remembers Stephen Hawking

Oxford is today paying tribute to the world-renowned physicist and former student, Professor Stephen Hawking.

The 76 year-old died peacefully at his home in Cambridge in the early hours of
Wednesday morning, his family said.

Hawking arrived at Oxford aged 17, where he studied natural sciences at University College. After completing his undergraduate degree in 1962, he went on to gain a Masters and a PhD at Cambridge.

Prof Hawking became one of the world’s leading scientists, whose most notable work led to
significant scientific developments in the understanding of black holes and relativity. He also wrote several popular science books, including the bestselling A Brief History of Time, which has sold over 10 million copies since first being published in 1988.

Hawking achieved all this despite being diagnosed with motor neurone disease while a student, eventually meaning he had to use a wheelchair and communicate using a computerised voice.

University College are flying their flag at half-mast today, in memory of their former student. In a statement posted on their website, the College said: “It is with great sadness that College notes the passing of Professor Stephen Hawking – Univ OM (1959, Physics) and Honorary Fellow … our thoughts are with his loved ones at this time.”

Univ’s JCR President, Maninder Singh Sachdeva told Cherwell: “We are deeply saddened by the loss of Prof Stephen Hawking, and as members of Univ, I think we all feel a great sense of pride to think that Hawking started his academic career here.”

Sachdeva also noted how the legacy of Prof Hawking remains important to Univ students today. He said: “[Univ students] have been and will continue to be inspired by the work, determination and passion he displayed during his lifetime. I do not think that Hawking will ever be gone in our eyes, whether we study his scientific discoveries in our degrees, use his words as motivation in our lives, or relive his journey, we have all been touched by his life in one way or another.”

The University have also paid tributes to Prof Hawking. In a tweet, they said: “We’re very proud to call Stephen Hawking an alumnus of Oxford, and enormously saddened by his passing. Our thoughts are with his family. He reminded us all to “be curious”, for there is “always something you can do and succeed at”.”

Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web and professor of Computer Science at Oxford, said: “We have lost a colossal mind and a wonderful spirit. Rest in peace, Stephen Hawking.”

A condolences book will be opened at Gonville and Caius College, Cambridge, where Prof Hawking worked.

Cabinets of Curiosities

Cherwell Fashion
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Cabinets of Curiosities

Where it might seem like a newfound fad with the advent of depop and mass thrift fairs, vintage clothing has a long genesis in fashion. A sartorial fascination with the past has run cyclically throughout the past century; the fifties saw a fluorescence in the popularity of 1920s racoonskin coats in America, the sixties saw the masses descend on the past in hoards to gank victorian and edwardian lacey and velveteen dresses. The seventies harkened back to the 1930s with their fascination with florals and chiffons, and despite a brief blip in the 1980s where futurism took hold (shoulder pads are the future), the 90s and ever succeeding decade has borrowed heavily from those preceding it.

This week, Cherwell Fashion takes to a unique venue to explore vintage fashion in practice. Where better to investigate the curation of the old than a place specially dedicated to it? The Natural History Museum (and adjoining Pitt Rivers Museum) provide a perfect locale for such a venture.

The pursuit of thrifting and the wearing of vintage clothing was seen in the 1960s as a refutation of mass market consumerism, a refection of en-masse capatalism, a way of keeping one’s self away from succumbing to becoming a cog in the proverbial machine. There are still echoes of these thoughts in the ways in which we in our modern culture employ vintage clothes in our stylistic pursuits. Buying vintage and secondhand is certainly a means by which we can curb our energy expenditure – it can be positioned as a sort of unconscious boycott of sweatshop production and all the labour exploitation that that entails.

However, in a climate where vintage clothing can be procured and bought so readily and so easily, one has to wonder if these aforementioned values still ring true. Vintage Clothing comes with the caveat that despite their ready accessibility, they are something of a prestige piece. They can be expensive, and the curation of a style that comes off as more bohemian and capital E ‘edgy’ than hand me down and ‘whoa, that dude is sure wearing some shoulder pads’ is a matter of having a lot of time and cash on your hands. Moreover, it can be argued that there is something somewhat slightly in poor taste from a privilege standpoint, to pillage charity shops and thrift stores, notable for their lower prices as a choice, especially when having ‘hand me downs’ and second hand clothes are sometimes the point of ridicule for people from lower income backgrounds. From this perspective, vintage clothing as a style and privilege seem to be heavily interlinked, and that is something that must be examined carefully.

Nonetheless, vintage clothing allows us to remove the restriction from our personal styles. With vintage clothing we are not bounded by the time limits of our own generation, and allows us leverage to experiment and create looks that are, to quote an obsever to our shoot, ‘funky and flavourful.’ Ironically enough, the incorporation of vintage clothes removes the wearer from time and takes them to a place of individuality.

 

The Lady Downstairs

Chloe Dootson-Graube
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The Lady Downstairs

Allow me to take you back to a simpler time. It was the summer of 2017; I am lying on my friend’s bed, dolled up to at least the eights, if not to the nines, as I was told this was what a night out in Manchester (Bolton) necessitated. My friend, who shall remain nameless, emerges from the shower with a coy look on her face. ‘Lads,’ she said. ‘I had an accident.’ Pray tell, pray tell, we asked. She began to recount a story of miscommunication; a story of farce, of accident, and of hot wax. Her beautician had not been paying attention to her instructions and had become a tad overzealous with a large supply of hot wax. ‘Now,’ she said, raising an eyebrow, ‘I am a bald eagle.’

This was an incident that has since become inscribed upon my person and my mind. Body hair, the subject of this ambiguous tale, has become something of a commodity. We live in a post-vajazzle, post-landing strip, post-glitter pubes, post-Vivienne Westwood ‘Eve’ suit world. This is not a surprise considering the mass-market, capitalist, ‘dolla dolla dolla’ climate in which we live.

It must be conceded that the body hair, in particular the proverbial bush, has long been a venue of expression, for woman in particular. The ‘to shave, or not to shave’ debate has vacillated back and forth between answers in the positive or negative since the beginning of written history; women in Ancient Egypt and Ancient Greece favoured the Hollywood, whereas women in Medieval Europe preferred to wear body hair au naturelle. The Late Medieval period proved to be a particularly fruitful period for depictions of Mary Magdalene and her famed ‘feather tights;’ as a result of her penitence in the desert, she is often represented as having grown hair from her toes to her neck. Prostitutes occupy an interestingly functionalist niche, in the sense that they would shave to avoid unwanted visitors (lice, that is to say, are bad for business.) The modern pre-occupation with a hairless cooch and pits can be traced back to the transformations in 1920s fashion that demanded the nether regions be bare. Gilette launched its first razor aimed solely at women in 1915. This phenomenon was only intensified by porn revolution of the 1960s and ‘70s; whether this has spiralled out of control or not is a matter of personal opinion. The vajazzle exists with only God to judge it.

If, then, there is a historical precedence for the modification (or indeed, lack of modification) to body hair, why is it such a controversial topic? One might argue that it is these processes of restriction that make it so. Yet, the picture is exponentially more complicated in our modern world of self-expression, fluid gender-identities and sexualities. Hair has been inherently commodified; a cursory google search will yield thousands of results regarding the Right Way to shave for cis-women, trans-women, trans-men, cis-men, gay men, lesbians, straight women, bi-woman – the whole spectrum. However, it is worth noting that there is something of a discrepancy in the search results for men and pretty much everyone else. The male (more specifically, the cis-male) results were characterised by articles with titles such as the ‘Lazy Man’s Guide to Body Hair Grooming,’ (Esquire) or various Top Ten Tips articles for Easy Manscaping. The other results, on the other hand, tended to focus on queries of adhering to social norms and debates surrounding the morality of shaving. This is not to say that men do not face stigma for hair, or a lack thereof. Would a man bearing a brawny chest full of follicles be accepted onto the sleek, oiled up cast of Geordie Shore? I think not, but there is significant difference in tone in the way that cis-male hair is treated. It is, in short, normalised as opposed to restricted.

With this in mind, I took to the streets. I undertook interviews (asked my friends) with a diverse (diverse-ish, Oxford has access issues) range of people, across a census of ten individuals from different economic and racial backgrounds and gender identities. While the overarching trends appeared to be in favour of people ‘doing whatever,’ the male results tended to reinforce a preference for the shaving of body hair in women, and a lack of ‘manscaping.’ White participants also tended to be more laissez-fair, whereas the people of colour surveyed noted a significant pressure to shave. However, there was a notable unison in the negative reception of various types of ‘body hair art.’ Repulsion was a reccuring word. Perhaps the Vajazzle has more to answer to than just God.

Despite this, from these results it became inherently clear to me that body hair is viewed as something that is intrinsically modifiable, even if there are notable social pressures to do so. While it is certainly commodified, there are expectations underlying the commodification. Therefore, it would be pertinent to move the debate away from discussion of the various kitschy things people are doing to their body hair. Body hair in general, and the bush in particular, is a viable cultural medium, and must be treated as such.

García Marquez makes magical realism realistic

Barney Pite
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García Marquez makes magical realism realistic

Gabriel García Márquez’s News of a Kidnapping is a book about a series of kidnappings made by Pablo Escobar in the early 1990s. Not as well-known or widely read as Love in the Time of Cholera or A Hundred Years of Solitude, News of a Kidnapping evokes a Colombia of drug gangs and violence, chaos, war, and terror. The basic historical context is this: the American Government is seeking to force Colombia to extradite a handful of Colombian drug barons, including Escobar. Escobar kidnaps several high profile figures in an attempt to strong-arm the government into ensuring his safety, and García Márquez tells their story.

What García Márquez is known for is his dense, lyrical, ‘magical realist’ style, which incorporates the structures of fables, fairy tales and allegory whilst telling fundamentally realistic stories. In A Hundred Years of Solitude, for example, a whole town suddenly finds itself unable to sleep. While literally impossible, this image says something powerful about the way communities operate, and this represents the style of microcosm; the conventions of fairy tales are used to convey a broader message.

Magical Realism is also a deeply Latin American style – Borges came from Argentina and Allende from Chile – and García Márquez can be fairly seen as one of the style’s progenitors. But News of a Kidnapping is different. It would be hard to guess from One Hundred Years of Solitude that García Márquez was a reporter for El Espectador for much of his early career – but News of a Kidnapping has a journalist’s eye for what’s true and what isn’t.

García Márquez is definitionally Colombian; all of his novels, without exception, are set in countries which either are or could be Colombia and A Hundred Years of Solitude particularly is a novel steeped in Colombian landscape and traditions. But News of a Kidnapping depicts Colombia at its tragic, ruined worst, and García Márquez doesn’t flinch from the visceral details of the chaos which consumed his home country. Even today, when we think of Colombia, we think of drug cartels and violence, anarchy and Escobar. As an ex-journalist, García Márquez values the historical truth about what happened in his country, and so he doesn’t shy away from describing the brutality and chaos it experienced. It’s powerful, and sad – two of the hostages taken die, one executed in cold blood by Escobar, and it’s one of the saddest scenes I’ve ever read.

TV shows like Narcos can glamorise the drug trade, but the world García Márquez depicts is uncertain and tragic, brutal and cruel, mostly because it’s real. News of a Kidnapping is a real-life thriller, and it’s different from most of García Márquez’s other work. It depicts with realistic clarity García Márquez’s own Colombia with all it’s manic brutality and chaos. It’s a testament to a terrifying time.

Life Divided: Living In or Living Out?

Daanial Issaq Chaudhry and Fin Kavanagh
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Life Divided: Living In or Living Out?

Living In: Daanial Issaq Chaudhry

‘Those who are not out by 10am will be charged for an extra night.’ An email with a similar tone to this may have graced your inbox just before the vac. It might have left you wondering whether Oxford is worth the hassle of moving out every eight weeks, or rather desperately wishing that you could live out.

But, remember this: if your light flickers, if your window rattles, or if the toilet is even slightly stained by the previous user’s skid mark, you can send a formal email to maintenance, requesting that someone sort out these heinous problems immediately. Send the same email to a landlord, and they will laugh at you from sunrise to sundown. Somehow, I don’t think they’re that scared of an exposé in Cherwell…

If you decide you want to work at three in the morning (or if, like me, you have no choice but to work at 3am, having spent the night in Bridge), trekking from Cowley to your college library is an unnecessary hassle. If you live in college, you can strategically place your laptop in the library prior to your night out. You can then return early the next morning, with a helping of Hassan’s (or Solomon’s), safe in the knowledge that books on democratic peace theory, or whatever shit you’re reading about that week, are just a short stumble away.

Food is not just necessary after a night out. While college food can be at best edible, and at worse less flavoursome than tissue paper, you can be certain about its consistency. Come rain or shine, college kitchens are there, and they are willing to provide predictably dry and underseasoned meat, and equally, if not drier, potatoes to accompany said meat. They’ll even cook you a meal if you’re vegetarian (heaven forbid). The same cannot be said for your housemates. They’ll ridicule your attempts at vegetarianism, they’ll steal your food, and they won’t wash your dishes after they use them. But fear not. When they do this, your college’s hall will be there – shame it’s a 20-minute cycle away.

Scouts are also an underappreciated part of living in college, and I think I might have rusticated were it not for my scout, Mara. Not only does she clean my bins, and hoover my room, but Mara doesn’t pass judgement on the pile of unwashed plates in my room, or the new life forms that are gradually appearing on them. Whereas annoying housemates would comment on them, Mara politely mentions that I should probably wash them up. And when I’ve slept through all my alarms, Mara’s gentle knock to collect my bins (and to check if I’m alive) ensures that I never miss a tute.

The walls may be paper thin, and my neighbour’s sex may be annoyingly loud, but at least I have some home comforts. In a home away from home, the ease of having three-square meals a day provided for me, and the convenience of having my friends (and their notes) nearby, means that I can deal with the loud sex.

Living Out: Fin Kavanagh

People often say that the collegiate system is a continuation of school or sixth form. It’s a close-knit, though often cliquey community, where you are forced to eat, shit, and shag together – rarely without the boat being rocked a few times each term. Living out provides a partial escape from this. Instead of living in a human pressure cooker, often filled with conflicting personalities, you know that when you’re living out, you can escape at any time. There’ll also be no one judging you for still being in your pyjamas at midday. Better still, no one knocks on your door asking for last minute notes and there’s no trying to drown out the sounds of your neighbours’ sex through paper-thin prefab walls.

The reality is that living in college mollycoddles us – it’s okay to enjoy it, so long as we are aware of it.  Living out teaches you in a way that no book can. There’s nothing on WebLearn about how to apply for council tax exemption or manage utility payments (trust me, I’ve checked). There are no JSTOR articles reminding you that recycling goes out on a Thursday and general waste on a Friday. Living out takes away some of the niceties of college accommodation and prepares us for independent, adult living – an education Oxford doesn’t offer.

The time spent adjusting to this new-level domesticity is made up for with the opportunities living out offers. When I lived in college, I felt like I never really unpacked. At the back of my mind I always knew that soon everything in my room would have to be boxed up and crammed into the back of a Ford Focus. Living out lets you put your personal stamp on your little bit of living space, and what’s more, you can appreciate it for longer than eight weeks at a time.

Your room is not the only thing you can enjoy for longer. Oxford itself is a very different place outside of term time. Removing 10% of the city’s population certainly thins the place out over the vac – though admittedly Cornmarket does still feel like a warzone. Elsewhere though, Tesco is quieter, it’s easier to get a seat in Nando’s and after Michaelmas ends the Christmas market is actually open (it’s not just a cycling inconvenience). True, there are no Fuzzyducks or Bridge Thursdays, but this gives you a chance to expand your clubbing repertoire beyond the same two student nights. Purple Turtle and Plush have given me some of my best nights out long after term finishes.

You can’t escape the fact that living out is invariably more expensive. A 12-month lease, utility bills and estate agent fees leave the experience at several thousand pounds more than college accommodation. For many students in their 2nd and 3rd year however, living out is not a choice. Yet, in my opinion, the experiences, independence and chance for escape are well worth the extra cost. You are still very far from being a local, though you can at least say you know Oxford a little bit better than most.

Exeter undergrads threatened with ‘serious consequences’ after bop mayhem

Oscar Baker
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2
Exeter undergrads threatened with ‘serious consequences’ after bop mayhem

Exeter College undergraduates have been told there will be “serious consequences” following their behaviour at Friday night’s bop.

Sub-rector Barnaby Taylor said in an email to all undergraduates, seen by Cherwell, that attendees’ conduct was “wholly unacceptable”.

Cherwell understands that for the second year in a row, a fire alarm on a back quad staircase in Exeter’s main Turl Street site was set off soon after the bop concluded, just after midnight.

One of the college’s junior deans then entered the chapel – the college’s fire assembly point – brandishing a can of deodorant, presumed to have been left by the relevant fire alarm.

At the time of release of the bop’s theme – ‘anything but clothes’ – the Exeter College Entz Facebook page told students: “Use bin bags, toilet paper, news paper, boxes, bags and even that shite essay you don’t have the heart to give to your tutor. But please no nakedness though.”

But by the time they had reached the chapel, most of the attendees were only partially dressed, and chants of Frankie Valli’s ‘Can’t Take My Eyes Off You’ and Robbie Williams’ ‘Angels’ were in full swing.

#Oxlove18619to all the girls with their boobs out at the Exeter bop (and fire alarm afters in the chapel), you are all ANGELS.

Posted by Oxlove on Saturday, March 10, 2018


The junior dean and the college bar’s manager proceeded to shout furiously at students, condemning their conduct.

Footage seen by Cherwell shows one of the junior deans addressing students in the chapel. In the video, the dean says: “The other issue I have is not with the person who set the fire alarm off: it’s with all of you.”

Predictably, the response was not overwhelmingly positive: the rest of the video shows furious booing and shouting from students.

The news comes just days after St Peter’s College JCR was fined £594, after drunken students damaged the JCR’s ceiling.

In his email, Taylor told undergraduates: “Those who were at the JCR bop on Friday night will not need me to tell them that the behaviour of many attendees was wholly unacceptable.

“I was saddened to learn of Exeter students acting with such disregard for the good order of our community,” he said, “and with such disrespect towards those members of College staff whose job it is to help you and to keep you safe.

“Naturally these events will have serious consequences, both for the students responsible and for the future of JCR social events at Exeter. Any students who have since come to regret their behaviour are invited to contact me in order to discuss it.”

#Oxlove18554Exeter Final BopFuck me what an evening. So much love. So much skin.

Posted by Oxlove on Friday, March 9, 2018


It is not the first time that Taylor, who is in his first year as sub-rector, has faced difficulties regarding undergraduates’ behaviour.

In February, Cherwell reported on an email he sent to undergraduates after a bottle of vodka had been discovered in the college library.

“Drinking alcohol in the library is not allowed. I am astonished that I should have to point this out,” he wrote.

Neither Taylor nor the college’s junior deans responded to Cherwell’s requests for comment.

Following Friday’s bop, one second-year student told Cherwell: “Despite there being some slight causes for concern over safety and security, the manner in which the junior deans handled the situation was awful.

“How on earth can you be so short-sighted to believe you could argue and order about a group of drunken students with such a condescending tone?

“They took it all far too personally when in reality no-one was causing any damage and no one was in danger. They should have told us all to fuck off rather than give a personal diatribe about their disgust in our behaviour.”

#Oxlove18602Exeter entz for throwing an absolutely unreal finalist bop. By far the best ex has ever hadExon love xoxo

Posted by Oxlove on Saturday, March 10, 2018


A fresher at St. John’s College, who attended the event, told Cherwell: “That bop, unlike many, including most of those at my college, was truly fun.

“The room was packed the whole night, people had put serious effort into their costumes, and there was a real sense that people were getting on.

“Almost every college prospectus goes on about being tight-knit and sociable, but that night, Exeter proved that it actually was.”

Exeter’s Entz officers declined to comment.

Exeter has developed something of a rowdy reputation for itself over the past year.

Last June, a Cherwell investigation revealed that its students go clubbing more often – 1.7 times per week – than students at any other college.

The month before, undergraduates were warned by a junior dean not to post about drug use online, after alluding to ketamine use on public Facebook groups.

Uni to introduce undergrad paper in feminist philosophy

Libby Cherry
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1
Uni to introduce undergrad paper in feminist philosophy

Oxford University’s Philosophy Faculty is to introduce an undergraduate paper on feminist philosophy.

Two new professors in the subject have recently been appointed by the faculty to help teach the new part of the course.

Chair of the Philosophy Faculty Board and Fellow at Keble College, Dr Edward Harcourt told Cherwell: “Some of the most interesting new work in philosophy in recent years – in epistemology, in social and political philosophy, in metaphysics, ethics, moral psychology, in the philosophy of language, in aesthetics, and in other areas besides – has been done by philosophers who are also feminists.”

In reference to the new paper, he added: “We want to do this partly just because it’s interesting, and partly to raise the profile and status of feminist philosophy at Oxford and send the message to our female students that philosophy is for you. We expect the paper to be very popular – and of course you won’t have to be female in order to do it! – and you can’t introduce a new undergraduate paper with just one staff member.”

Harcourt stressed that feminist philosophy had been studied at Oxford before and had composed part of the interdisciplinary Women’s Studies Masters programme.

The first university post in feminist philosophy was appointed last year to Professor Mari Mikkola of Somerville College. Following on from these two new appointments, the Faculty also intends to hire at least one more feminist philosopher by the end of next year.

Professor Mikkola told Cherwell: “Feminist philosophy is a rather new sub-discipline in philosophy, but has gone from being a niche topic to being in the mainstream over the past 20 years. It is certainly no longer neglected in English-speaking Anglo-American philosophy as a whole, though it has not been prominent in Oxford and has only recently been promoted here.

“It seems to me that students have been rather unaware of feminist contributions to philosophy. I suspect that this will change hugely once feminist philosophy becomes more prominent in Oxford and once feminist topics are more widely available and better integrated in the undergraduate curriculum.

“Many Oxford philosophy students are likely to go into work that drafts policy and shapes politics. Understanding better what socially engaged philosophy, like anti-racist and feminist philosophy, are about will hopefully enable people to change the world in a way that fosters social justice.

“Theory-internally, I hope that philosophers will come to understand how political sensitivities can helpfully shape our philosophical theorising. There is a traditional tendency to think of philosophy as being value-free, objective inquiry about the way the world is. I think that this view of philosophy is mistaken and that all philosophising starts from some or other perspective undergirded by normative commitments. This does not make philosophy subjective or anything goes discipline, where “everything is relative”. Rather, I think that viewing the world through certain lenses can give us a clearer idea about what the facts of the matter are.”

She added: “There is clearly a student demand for feminist philosophy. Before the new paper is up and running, I am doing a specialist subject on feminist philosophy in MT18, which has filled up and was hugely oversubscribed within hours of being advertised to our undergraduate students.”

Fellow in Philosophy at Mansfield College and contributor to the Women’s Studies Master’s Programme, Professor Katherine Morris said: “Some would argue that rather than having a specific paper on ‘feminist philosophy’, all thematic papers ought to include feminist perspectives, so ‘feminist philosophy’ no longer looks like a strange and specialist subject. I have some sympathy for that argument, but maybe having a Feminist Philosophy paper is a first step towards that.”

Speaking to Cherwell, Professor Morris also explained how the Faculty has attempted to “diversify” the reading-lists for their other undergraduate papers. The Faculty have revised reading lists for each topic by ensuring that 40% of the recommended articles are written by women and by changing the form of author listing so that first names are given rather than initials.

A representative of the UK national Society for Women in Philosophy, Jennifer Saul, told Cherwell: “There are many reasons that feminist philosophy has been neglected. One is, of course, that things have to do with women are traditionally neglected.  But there are also quite a lot of other reasons, such as the (false) belief that philosophy is about timeless truths has led many to think that engaged work like feminist or anti-racist philosophy aren’t really philosophy. There are even somewhat mundane reasons certain institutions have been slower: In a system like Oxford’s, you can’t just add modules in staff members’ research areas whenever you like.

“The reason, I think, that feminist philosophy is so popular, is that it’s so important: philosophy that engages with real world issue is philosophy that matters to people’s lives.

“The idea that philosophy shouldn’t be like this is utterly misguided. I’m very pleased to see a rise in engaged philosophy around the world, and the increasing investment in feminist philosophy is a key part of this.”

The Oxford University Philosophy Society told Cherwell: “We’re very pleased that the paper is being introduced; it’s absolutely right that undergraduates should be able to explore the extensive and sophisticated work that’s been done in the field over many years.

“Our understanding is that the ten places in the class that will run next year were all filled within little more than 24 hours of it being advertised, so the subject definitely seems set to be popular!”

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