Forge Press #141

LGBT+ History Month Special Edition

THE UNIVERSITY OF SHEFFIELD’S INDEPENDENT STUDENT NEWSPAPER

ISSUE 141 | WEDNESDAY 12TH FEBRUARY 2020 | FREE

Student groups “shocked”

by ISO’s pro-China posts James Cottis News Contributor

“We never take students’ support for granted”: UoS UCU president Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief

Ahead of another 14 days of strike action, the President of the local University and College Union branch at the University of Sheffield has told Forge Press how important the support of students is.

For the second time this academic year, lecturers, researchers and support staff are set to go on strike in two separate disputes, beginning on Thursday 20 February.

PRESTIGE

student living

Sam Marsh, who teaches in the School of Maths and is the President of Sheffield UCU, said there is still time to stop the strikes going ahead, but Universities UK (UUK), who represent the employers in the negotiations, need to return to the negotiating table with a good enough offer to make the strikes unnecessary.

He also thanked students for their support in the previous round of strike action last semester, and said it was important for the morale of

striking staff to see the support from students at the University.

Negotiations are still ongoing between the UCU and UUK, with the aim of reaching an agreement before the strikes begin. Marsh is also one of the five elected national UCU negotiators on the pensions dispute, and he called on UUK to make a fair offer.

“If they don’t make some kind of move to try and resolve the dispute before we go to strike action then I really despair... (cont. on p6)

Student Accommodation

Crown House

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Taiwanese and Hong Kong students were left feeling “shocked”, “angry”, and “disappointed” after a series of posts made by the SU International Students’ Officer (ISO) over the Chinese social media platform WeChat, which potentially led to worsening tensions on campus.

Shared with Forge Press in late November 2019, we understand that the posts had been circulating online since August 2019. The screenshotted posts from Sissi Li’s personal account found their way into a Taiwanese group chat of more than 300 students, and were soon picked up by Hong Kong and Chinese student communities in Sheffield.

Sissi Li admitted that the WeChat posts were her own, and she has since apologised for any distress caused by her posts, recognising that the comments she made as an elected official of the Students’ Union were inappropriate.

Taiwanese and Hong Kong representatives argue that Sissi was defending the contentious ‘one China’ principle - and have expressed concerns that their community is not being faithfully represented by the ISO. In independent translations provided to Forge Press, one post expressed annoyance over the ‘fake reports by the foreign media’

that have been critical of Beijing’s influence in Taiwan and Hong Kong over the past year, adding that: ‘foreign citizens of some regions are able to post nonsense that call[s] ‘white’ ‘black’ on some influential social media platforms.”

Hong Kong student representatives argue that the posts potentially reinforce Beijing’s framing of the Hong Kong protests as a seperatist movement opposed to Chinese sovereignty - despite protesters calling for the protection of the ‘One Country, Two Systems’ principle.

Another post criticised the way in which university registration documents for foundation, undergraduate, and language courses list ‘China’, ‘Hong Kong’, and ‘Taiwan’ as separate nationalities.

Referencing the University language classes, the posts encourage Chinese nationals to ‘actively report’ this ‘situation to officials’, adding that: ‘I hope you could contact me when you find such a low-level mistake and need any help. We can help him/her correct it together.’

Hong Kong and Taiwanese student representatives have been alarmed by the posts, alleging that the ISO was encouraging the University to adopt the ‘one China’ principle in registration forms, leading China, Taiwan and Hong Kong being grouped... (cont. on p7)

forgetoday.com

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Editorial

Editorial Team Editor-in-Chief Ben Warner Managing Editor Becky Sliwa Webb Deputy Editor Bethan Davis Deputy Editor Patrick Burke News Coordinator Tevy Kuch Sport Coordinator Michael Ekman LOF Coordinator Jack Mattless Entertainments Coordinator Ella Craig Entertainments Coordinator Ash Williams News Editor Lucas Mentken News Editor Georgie Marple News Editor Niall O’Callaghan Features Editor Anastasia Koutsounia Features Editor Bernadette Hsiao Opinion Editor Jack Mattless Opinion Editor Jack Redfern Arts Editor Kate Procter Arts Editor Rosie Davenport Lifestyle Editor Em Evans Lifestyle Editor Taylor Ogle Music Editor Ella Craig Music Editor Dana Raer Screen Editor Dan Cross Screen Editor Josh Teggert Games Editor Catherine Lewis Games Editor Ash Williams Science and Tech Editor George Tuli Science and Tech Editor VACANT Break Editor Luke Baldwin Break Editor Alicia Hannah Sport Editor Alex Brotherton Sport Editor Harry Harrison

Twelve months ago I was gearing up to run in the Students’ Union Officer elections, vying to be our next Education Officer. As you can probably tell by the fact I’m writing this editorial, I didn’t win. But running for Officer was one of the many uniquely satisfying things about being involved in our SU, and even though I didn’t win I’m extremely glad I did as I made some great friends and had a lot of fun going out and talking to students about the issues that matter to them.

As you’ll see in News, nominations to run in this year’s elections are now open, with the added bonus that this year societies are allowed to endorse candidates. If you’re reading this, pondering whether to run or not, then I’d genuinely encourage you to go for it. You have nothing to lose, and it’s the best thing you’ll do during your time at university (unless, like me, you write for Forge Press, of course).

It’s been an absolute pleasure to edit this paper for the last nine months, and going into a new decade we’ve got a big semester ahead of us

with the Elections and Varsity both on the calendar. We’re delighted to kick off 2020 with a special edition of the paper, celebrating LGBT+ History Month with a huge range of content from every section.

Make sure you check out Joe Warner’s article on gender representation in video games, as well as our secretary Tom Buckland appearing with features on LGBT+ issues in Music and Arts – as well as his review of The Vivienne’s appearance at Grapefruit in December.

Features have a number of pieces on sex therapy, Brexit and more, while Science & Tech have been looking forward to Valentine’s Day and gifts you could get for your significant other.

Months like this are when the Students’ Union – and particularly its student leaders – come into their own, and writing for this paper has allowed me to meet so many wonderful people, but a particular pleasure was interviewing Drag Society for Society Spotlight. I won’t claim to be a drag expert, but what I

PIC OF THE PRESS

will tell you is that they’re fantastic performers and people, and if you get a chance to go to one of their shows, grasp it with both hands.

There’s only a few issues left of this year, sadly, which means there won’t be too many more of these editorials by me. But, of course, Forge Press carries on and this semester is a great chance for you to get involved in writing for the paper. Make sure you’re in our Facebook group, ‘Forge Press Contributors’, and don’t hesitate to drop us a message if you want to get involved in our SU Officer Elections or Varsity coverage.

The people are what make the Students’ Union what it is, shaping its values, its campaigns and its committees, and we’d love to see some more of you making Forge Press the best it can be.

My Pride Photography Project completed in June 2019 with dear LGBT+ friends.

Head of Design Claire Gelhaus Secretary and Social Secretary Tom Buckland Inclusions and Welfare Officer Chloe Dervey Head of Marketing and Publicity Giulia Carleton Head of Photography Chelsea Burrell Head of Online Aimee Cooper

Get involved Want to join the team? Get involved! This year’s committee want to have as many people writing for the paper as possible. No prior experience is necessary, just join the Facebook group Forge Press Contributors and come along to the regular members’ meetings, starting with the Intro Meeting at the start of September Contact editor@forgetoday.com or message us on Facebook with any questions.

Image: Chelsea Burrell

Editor’s Picks: LGBT+ History Month events The Coffee Social LGBT+ Lounge 14 February 2020, 12.00pm

LGBT+ Housemate Finder Coffee Revolution 21 February 2020, 5.00pm

Grapefruit presents Kim Woodburn Foundry 28 February 2020, 10.00pm

LGBT+ Committee’s regular coffee social is going public for one week during LGBT+ History Month, hosted in the LGBT+ Lounge at the Students’ Union. Head down to have a chat with committee, find out a bit more about what they do, as well as to chat with other LGBT+ studnets.

Finding housemates at university can be tough, so LGBT+ Committee are working with their friends over at Welfare Committee to put on an LGBT+ Housemate Finder event in Coffee Revs. The laidback event is a great chance to head down, have a drink, and maybe more.

Grapefruit is returning late in February with Kim Woodburn, as well as a performance from our very own DragSoc (interviewed later this issue). The night out is sure to be a fantastic way to end History Month, and is not to be missed during this month of events.

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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News in Brief

Got a story? press.news@forgetoday.com

News editors Tevy Kuch, Lucas Mentken, Georgie Marple and Niall O’Callaghan

NATIONAL UNIVERSITY Storm Ciara wreaks Varsity tickets go havoc nationwide on sale

SHEFFIELD Northern Rail taken under govt control

Cineworld in Sheffield was forced to close as winds shattered their glass and one man has died as a result of Storm Chiara. Over a month-and-a halfs worth of rain fell in just 24 hours while 20,000 homes were left without power. Temperatures are expected to drop further this week.

Rail franchise Northern is to be taken back under public ownership from 1 March. The failing franchise has faced major problems since a botched timetable change in May 2018 and has struggled to recover.

Parent company Arriva is already owned by the German government.

Tickets for Varsity 2020 have gone on sale with huge queues for the Box Office as students try and get their hands on tickets for Ice Hockey at the FlyDSA Arena. Also on sale is the Sports Park Day, Boxing and the Football 1s at Hillsborough Stadium.

All other events are unticketed.

An outdated Northern Rail pacer train

GLOBAL SHEFFIELD NATIONAL Korean film Parasite Over £114k saved Eighth coronavirus cleans up at Oscars thanks to £1 buses case in UK

Bong Joon-ho, director of Best Picture, Parasite

Korean film Parasite has made history at this year’s Oscars by being the first non-English film to win Best Picture, the top prize at the awards.

Parasite won four awards including a best director for Bong Joon-ho while 1917 scooped three awards including Best Cinematography.

First Bus have revealed that Sheffield students have saved over £114,000 thanks to the reintroduction of £1 bus fares in September, as negotiated by SU President Jake Verity.The move also forced Stagecoach, the other bus operator in Sheffield to move back down to £1 student singles.

A GP practice in Brighton was forced to close after a staff member tested positive for coronavirus, confirming the eighth case in the UK. The Department of Health called the virus a “serious and imminent threat” but the risk level is “moderate.” There are now 40,000 cases worldwide.

Hallam Uni rugby union men’s sides banned from Varsity 2020 Georgie Marple News Editor

Sheffield Hallam University’s Men’s Rugby Union teams have been banned from partaking in this year’s Varsity events due to a breach of their University’s Code of Conduct. The breach means the club will be banned from playing in all men’s rugby events.

This therefore means that the Sheffield University Men’s Rugby Union teams will not play against Hallam at Varsity this year.

Sport Sheffield have acknowledged the unfair position that this puts Sheffield’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd Rugby Union teams in and have confirmed that they are working towards an alternative so that Sheffield’s teams can still play at Sports Park.

It is alleged that during an initiation, rugby freshers were made to lie on the floor naked while senior boys urinated on them.

Team Hallam’s Code of Conduct

explicitly states that initiations are banned, saying: “Harassing and/or victimising others on the basis of their year of study/ age, including organising and/or partaking in initiation ceremonies.”

Various other parts of their team’s Code of Conduct were broken, including acting in a way which “adversely affects or reflects on or discredits the reputation of the Club or the University,” and “behaviour which is likely to intimidate, offend, insult or humiliate another person involved in the event on the basis of their sex, disability, race, colour, age, religion, national or ethnic origin.”

This breach of conduct is a large disappointment for both Hallam’s and our own students who look forward to this as one of the largest Varsity events each year. However, the University is hopeful that new game fixtures will be confirmed so the teams can still partake in this event.

Sports Officer Britt Bowles has

Sheffield Hallam Sports Park confirmed that the outcome for the UoS rugby teams is currently undetermined, but urges everyone to look forward to the Women’s 1sts Rugby game, “which is our showcase event for Varsity this year.” This event will also be taking place at Sports Park on 25 March, and tickets are now on sale and

available at the Students’ Union.

Last year Hallam’s three men’s rugby teams were all beaten by Uni of with the 3’s getting beaten 28-24, the 2’s getting beaten 26-6 while the Uni of Sheffield Men’s 1st team came from 10-3 down at half time to run out 16-10 winners.

Professor Gill Valentine

UoS ranked as Stonewall top 100 LGBT+ employer Lucy Moses News Contributor

The University of Sheffield has been named as one of the top 100 Employers for LGBT+ workplace equality, ranking 11th place in the Stonewall Workplace Equality Index 2020, the University’s highest ever ranking.

The Stonewall Workplace Equality Index is a definitive benchmarking tool to help employers measure progress on LGBTQ+ inclusion in the workplace.

Sheffield University recently amended its policies on adoption, maternity, paternity/partner and shared parental leave policies which removed any gendered terms and ensured inclusivity of same sex couples, regardless of gender.

The University also has an Open@ TUoS allies programme guidance for LGBT+ students and staff studying abroad.

At Stonewall’s Regional Awards, the University was awarded Employer of the Year while Deputy Vice-Chancellor Professor Gill Valentine was named Senior Champion of the Year.

Professor Valentine said: “I came out at a time when being openly gay was taboo. I experienced discrimination in the early stages of my career which I overcame in part through the support of straight allies. That’s why I’m passionate about development an inclusive work environment”

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News

Engineers develop nuclear clean-up technology George Tuli Science & Tech Editor

Engineers at the University of Sheffield have developed new materials that could be used to help clean up the hazardous substances at Chernobyl and Fukushima. The materials are designed to simulate Lava-like Fuel Containing Materials (LFCMs) that form during nuclear meltdown.

In the Chernobyl disaster, molten radioactive fuel mixed with materials such as steel, concrete, and sand, forming almost 100 tonnes of radioactive lava. This flowed through the power plant and solidified, and now blocks decommissioning efforts at the site.

If these deposits aren’t stabilised or removed, they can remain hazardous for millennia, posing a significant risk to the environment and to personnel tasked with decommissioning the power stations.

To gain a better understanding of the properties of LFCMs, Dr Claire Corkhill and her team from the University’s Department of Materials Science and Engineering worked with scientists from Ukraine to develop a close approximation of the lava.

A piece of LCFM Dr Corkhill said, “Understanding the mechanical, thermal and chemical properties of the materials… is critical to help retrieve them… if we don’t know how hard they are, how can we create the radiation-resistant robots required to cut them out?”

The simulant materials are less radioactive than real LFCMs, and safe to study without radiation shielding.

The team hopes that their material can advance the clean-up of nuclear meltdowns with Chernobyl expected to take 100 years to clean while Fukushima is expected to take 50.

LGBT+ History Month kicks off at Sheffield Students’ Union Georgie Marple News Editor

This February our Students’ Union is holding LGBT+ History Month, celebrating the history of LGBT+ people across the world. The SU will be holding events throughout the month based around LBGT+ awareness and celebrating our LGBT+ community alongside the LGBT+ committee.

This annual event seeks to emphasise the importance of individual and personal histories of LGBT+ people, and remembering the history of groups of people that are most overlooked in the LGBT+ community - such as communities

of colour, colonised communities, community, but also for reflecting trans people, and sex workers. on how far we still have to go.

Welfare Officer, Beren Maddison, “We are using History Month to and LGBT+ History Month organiser raise awareness of the issues we’re and Committee Campaigns campaigning on within Officer, Marlowe the University, such as Macdonald, said: improving Gender “There is a thriving Neutral facility LGBT+ community provision across here at Sheffield campus, reducing University, all with the barriers that unique and diverse LGBT+ people face identities which are in sport, and tackling Beren Maddison really important to racism in the LGBT+ celebrate. community.

“LGBT+ History Month “It is also a great opportunity to is important not only for socialise and meet other LGBT+ remembering how far we have come people - it’s a chance to get really in gaining rights and equality for our involved with the community, as an

ally or as one of us!”

There will be events taking place throughout February to celebrate the LGBT+ community, which began with the Opening Ceremony on Monday 10 February.

A panel was held on the 11th February, which included a number of activists from across the student movement, such as Natalia Mole and Fope Olaleye, who discussed the future of LGBT+ activism.

The final week of February is Pride in Sport Week, where the organisers will work with the Sports Committee to address the barriers that LBGT+ people face in getting involved in sport.

Society endorsements allowed as Officer nominations flood in Niall O’Callaghan News Editor

The Students’ Union have announced that societies will be allowed to endorse candidates in this year’s Officer Elections in “an exciting change to this year’s election rules.”

The announcement was made earlier this month after nominations opened on Monday 6 January.

Nominations will close on Friday 21 February at 5.00pm, with the candidates being announced on Monday 2 March.

Campaigning will then begin for ten working days, and voting will start on Monday 9 March.

This year also sees a shortened voting period compared to last year, following incidents in 2018 and 2019 which meant all eight Officer winners couldn’t be announced at Results Night in Foundry.

In 2018, Education Officer had to be delayed by a day, with Anna Crump Raiswell eventually being crowned the winner, while last year the International Students’ Officer announcement was delayed by two weeks due to a complaint, with Sissi Li eventually being named as the new ISO. The biggest change, however, is that this year SU-endorsed societies will be able to endorse and nominate candidates for the eight elected Officer positions.

Working and Representative Committees, SU Officers, SU Councillors and staff are still prevented from endorsing candidates in the contest, and must remain neutral.

Both the shortened voting period and society endorsements were initially trialled in the SU Council elections in October, and have clearly been a success enough to be implemented in the spring elections.

This year the SU is also encouraging staff to “recomend bright and brilliant students to us who they think would make great leaders of the SU.” “We’ll get in touch with everything they need to know about standing, and even if they decide not to it can be a real confidence boost for them,” they said in an email.

Once voting has opened on Monday 9 March, students will be electing eight Officer positions, two trustees, delegates to the NUS Liberation Conference and an Honorary President of the SU. There is also expected to be referenda as in previous years.

Voting will close on Wednesday 11 March and the results will be announced at a ceremony in Foundry on Thursday 12 March.

Forge Debates will take place over two evenings on Tuesday 4 and Wednesday 5 March at the Students’ Union.

Sports Officer Brittany Bowles (left) and Womens’ Officer Rosa Tully (right) campaigning last year

Labour Party leadership candidates visit the city Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief

A number of candidates for the leadership of the Labour Party have visited Sheffield as they vie for poll position in the contest.

Keir Starmer (shadow Brexit secretary), Rebecca Long-Bailey (shadow Business secretary) and high-profile backbencher Lisa Nandy have all visited in the past two weeks, packing out lecture theatres around the city.

Emily Thornberry, who is yet to secure her place on the ballot, is the only one yet to do an event in the

city, and is running out of time to secure enough nominations from constituency Labour parties to find her way onto the ballot.

The other three candidates have all already secured their places.

The contest was started by the Labour Party’s heavy defeat in December’s General Election, after which Jeremy Corbyn announced he would stay on for a “period of reflection” before stepping aside for a new party leader.

The new leader of the party will be announced at a special conference in London on Saturday 4 April, a month before the local elections.

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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News

Tramlines launch 2020 summer festival lineup Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief

Sheffield SU set for third climate strike of the academic year Lucas Mentken News Editor

Students will once again march through the city on Friday 14 February and join the third climate strike organised by the Students’ Union this academic year.

The rally will start on the concourse from 10-10.45am and

We’re running out of time and call for drastic structural changes necessary to combat the climate crisis we are facing will then continue onto Devonshire Green, where students will meet other Youth Strikers for 11.15am.

SU Development Officer Harry Carling, who organised the rally, said: “These strikes won’t go away until world leaders wake up to the reality of what is happening.

Year on year, our Students’ Union will be welcoming more and more climate activists from Youth Striker movements, and I am sure these

events will continue until something in Sheffield have been welcomed is done. at rallies with open arms, showing “School students have been the importance being placed on this leading the fight for climate justice, issue at the SU. and it is crucial that university Development Officer Harry students join the fold and call for a Carling has made environmental systemic change. Perpetual growth and climate issues a central part of is eating away at our environment, his tenue in office, and has inspired world leaders have consistently the SU to take a number of put profit over people and measures to limit their this existential crisis impact on the climate, has failed to have including the three been addressed. climate strikes this “We’re running year. out of time and The most recent call for drastic climate strike structural changes organised by the SU necessary to combat took place on Friday Harry Carling the climate crisis.

29 November last year “In the face of climate catastrophe, we need to take drastic action. Join us on the concourse on Friday 10 am to strike again for the future of the planet.”

This is the third time student leaders will have joined in the climate strikes in Sheffield, and in September even went as far as to close down the Students’ Union for an hour to show solidarity with those striking for the climate around the world.

Student strikers from schools

and followed a similar route down to Devonshire Green for the Global Youth Climate Strike.

In October, the Students’ Union also launched a steering group, led by students, in order to aid the SU’s policy on climate issues and how, as an organisation, they aim to tackle them.

Harry Carling launched this group alongside Charlie Porter, Education Officer, and Rosa Tully, Women’s Officer.

At the time, Charlie told Forge

Press: “At the SU we recognise that the climate crisis is not only one of the most pressing issues humanity faces, but supercharges every other fight for justice.

“With only 10 years to radically transform our economy, practices and relationships with one another,

With only 10 years to radically transform out economy, practices and relationships, we cannot stress this enough at the SU we cannot stress the importance of action enough.

“The climate crisis is systematic.

This means that is cannot be challenged by individual responses alone and necessitates collectivity.

Further, when faced with a problem on the magnitude of the climate crisis, it is easy to feel despair.

“The increase in climate anxiety shows this clearly. Collective action offers a hope that individualism cannot and avoids the isolating effects of the climate crisis.”

Tramlines have unveiled the first wave of acts in their lineup for the 2020 edition of the festival, returning this summer.

The Sheffield festival revealed over 30 acts who will be appearing at Hillsborough Park this summer, on Tuesday 4 February. It came a day after they sent out postcards to people who registered, hinting at some of the big names who could be appearing at the festival.

The three main stage headliners are former Stone Roses frontman Ian Brown (Friday), Catfish and the Bottlemen (Saturday), as well as London ska band Madness, who will close out the festival on the Sunday.

A number of other big acts are set to appear, including The Pigeon Detectives, SMA’s, local rockers The Sherlocks, Lucy Spraggan and more.

Sheffield-based ukulele band, the Everly Pregnant Brothers, will also be playing on the Saturday for another year, although it looks like Reverend and the Makers are giving it a miss this time round.

This will be the third year Tramlines has taken place on one site at Hillsborough Park, and it looks like tickets are as popular as ever, with over 98 per cent already having been sold. It will take place from 31 July until 2 August.

Government invests £2m in travel in South Yorkshire Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief

Sheffield City region is set to receive an extra £2.5 million from the Government in the coming financial year to spend on improvements to active travel.

The money will be spent on improvements such as new cycle training, e-bike loans and walking groups for disabled people.

Sheffield City Region mayor Dan Jarvis celebrated the announcement, and praised the good it will do.

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forgetoday.com

News NUS undertakes democratic reform ahead of spring Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief

Taking delivery of the PET-MRI

Ahead of conference season, the National Union of Students has launched what it claims is its ‘biggest democratic reform in half a century’.

This is off the back of an agreement to reform at last year’s National Conference, in order to “reenergise”

the student movement in the United Kingdom. The new democratic system will be centred around four key principles – inclusiveness, considered judgement, popular control and transparency – and hope to open up the NUS as a democratic union. In practice, this means there should be more regular balloting to

ensure that decisions truly represent the views of members, voting will be made more accessible and more open.

NUS President Zamzam Ibrahim said: “We’re trailblazing a different kind of politics and history shows that when students lead others follow.

“We want to be a model for how a genuinely powerful democracy can work to make real change happen and want every single student who engages with us to feel that

their voices are heard and they’re influencing real change.

“Our members had been telling us for some time that our governance and democracy weren’t working and the historic decisions last April provided the platform for change to happen.

“Our Turnaround and Reform programme is all about putting members back in control of their national organisation and it’s fantastic that we’re now able to start revealing what this will look like.”

MRI scanner installed at the University Zoe Hu News Contributor

The University of Sheffield has taken delivery of its new PET-MRI scanner, just over a year after hitting an ambitious £2 million fundraising target.

The new scanner will be used on a number of clinical research areas to speed up the diagnosis of, and lead to the development of new treatments for some of the most devastating diseases including Motor Neurone Disease, Parkinson’s disease, Alzheimer’s, dementia, Multiple Sclerosis and cancer.

The facility will house one of only eight PET-MRI scanners in the UK - and the first in Yorkshire, which was made possible by the Sheffield

11,000

donations were received from staff, students and alumni

Scanner appeal launched in 2017.

It received more than 11,000 donations from staff, alumni and students of the University, as well as members of the public from across the region.

Professor Dame Pamela Shaw, Director of the University’s Sheffield Institute for Translational Neuroscience and its Neuroscience Institute has been leading the Sheffield Scanner appeal, said: “It has been truly inspiring to witness the fundraising efforts which made this innovative facility possible. We hope that the pioneering research made possible by the scanner will have a global impact and benefit people across the world.”

Staff and students’ on strike in November

UCU staff strikes could still be stopped, says branch president Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief

(cont. from front) ...at the contempt that that shows for students,” he said.

“This week is almost a last-ditch attempt to stop the strike and I hope they bring us something. If they come with nothing, then the strikes are definitely going ahead. I think that shows real contempt for students.”

Alongside the pensions dispute, there is a simultaneous dispute between the UCU and UUK on equality and fairness in the higher education sector, focusing on pay, casualization, workloads and gender/race pay gaps.

74 universities are set to walk out

for 14 working days over February and March in the two disputes, with Sheffield UCU being one of 47 which is striking over both issues. Around 1.2 million students are set to be affected by the industrial action.

Student support in Sheffield in the strikes last semester, and in spring 2018, has traditionally been high, but Sam Marsh understands why students could be frustrated by another round of action, and said lecturers don’t do this lightly.

“I completely understand that students in this position, looking at this strike action, and for whom this might be the third wave of serious industrial action, might well be saying this is completely wrong, and I agree with that.

“Nobody wants to be disrupting

the education of the students they teach. It’s the worst thing for staff,” he added.

“We never know what the level of student support will be and we never take it for granted. All we can do is put across how we see things which we’re trying to do, and hope that students spot the unfairness and injustice.

“For students who supported us last semester, for whom we’re really grateful, I would appeal to them to say there has been almost no progress since before we started the strikes in terms of an attempt from the other side to properly resolve this issue.

“If you supported us then, please support us now because this industrial unrest will continue as

long as the underlying issues aren’t resolved.”

Marsh added that future cohorts of students will continue to be affected unless the issues can be addressed in negotiations, with further talks set to take place before strike action begins.

“The only way for these strikes not to happen is for the employers to realise that time’s up, they can’t stop ignoring these issues,” he said.

“They have to start actively trying to end these strikes, but my fear is they will only try halfheartedly before the strikes, and during the 14 days is when they will start trying.

And that’s hugely insulting to the students, because they could start trying now. We’re trying, we want them to try now.”

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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News

ISO admits making posts which concern international students James Cottis News Contributor

(cont. from front) ...into a singular Chinese nationality option.

Bringing attention to the Chinese noun ‘官方’ in the screenshot, these students argue that the use of ‘官方’ (official) is a generally accepted definition of government official. Coupled with the use of the Chinese flag emoji after that word, representatives of Hong Kong and Taiwanese students believe that the ISO was encouraging mainland Chinese students to report those who chose to identify as ‘Taiwanese’ or ‘Hong Kongese’ on official university forms to Chinese government officials.

They allege that the ISO’s focus on registration forms is used as one of many examples in which Chinese sovereignty could supposedly be questioned at the University. They add that even if they identify openly as ‘Taiwanese’ or ‘Hong Konger’ in language classes, they are at risk of being reported.

Sissi Li has denied allegations that she was encouraging minority ethnic Chinese students at the University to be reported to Chinese officials.

She has, however, admitted to encouraging Chinese nationals to ‘report to the University any examples of where the organisation lists China, Hong Kong, and Taiwan separately’ on official forms.

This has raised concerns that the ISO was attempting to push the University into grouping these nationalities together into a singular

The future officers must serve every international student, not just their own nationality during their term nationality option on registration forms. Student representatives argue that this could deny minority ethnic groups the ability to identify with the nationality they recognised as their own when many Taiwanese and some Hong Kong students do not identify as Chinese.

These posts came to light after a tumultuous few months on campus for international student groups. October saw the arrest and suspension of a mainland Chinese

ABOVE: posted by the ISO, this is a widespread graphic posted by the People’s Daily (the official newspaper of Chinese Communist Party) in July 2016. The slogan reads, “China: Not even a bit can be left behind”.

LEFT: The disputed posts surrounding the allegation made

by Hong Kong and Taiwanese student representatives that students can be reported to government officials. The ISO denies this claim.

student after Hong Kong students, raising awareness of the prodemocracy movement in Sheffield city centre, were disrupted by over 150 mainland Chinese students.

Attending an awareness session organised by Hong Kong students in the city, Forge Press was shown an article published on the messaging platform Weixin (China’s domestic version of WeChat) aimed at exposing the identities of Hong Kong students involved in the city centre clash a couple of days before.

The article praised the attempts of mainland Chinese students and encouraged them to share the ‘exposure material’ among the rest of Sheffield’s Chinese community.

Early December saw the Students’ Union Council pass a policy supporting the Hong Kong democracy movement, mandating the Students’ Union to defend the security and freedom of speech of Hong Kong students on campus. The policy was not, however, exempt from controversy. One Hong Kong student was ejected from the meeting, and all mainland Chinese students sat in the observer block staged a walkout once the policy was passed.

Taiwanese and Hong Kong student communities speaking to Forge Press have expressed anger and disappointment at Sissi’s

posts. They believe that the posts have compromised their safety on campus and in the city as a whole.

Hannah*, a Taiwanese student, stated that during the Christmas holiday she “felt really nervous while transferring my flight in Beijing [...] because [Sissi] said she would report us to the authorities.”

She added that she was excited by Sissi becoming an SU Officer, but that the ISO’s posts led to Chinese students becoming more offensive to her community on campus.

Becca* felt the same, that advocating the ‘one China’ principle on campus, and the idea of being reported to government authorities was “an act of suppressing freedom of speech”, adding that it was “utterly wrong and sad to see that the Taiwanese students are also being oppressed for acknowledging their own ethnic identity.”

As a Hong Kong student, Becca believes that the WeChat posts enflamed those tensions over the autumn semester, stating that: “I,

an international student myself, experienced it first hand when I was threatened for my political stance over Hong Kong.”

Forge Press spoke to June*, a student who felt that Sissi was not fulfilling her role as the elected ISO. Asked whether the posts had impacted her directly, she explained that: “I was very worried about my personal safety since photos of me and my name were being posted on social media [...] I couldn’t leave my room and be on the street on my own for a couple of weeks, especially when the SU policy on Hong Kong democracy was ongoing. [I was worried] that I may be recognised.”

June expressed concerns that Officer and Sheffield Students’ Union Council candidates could use their position to monitor students of other nations; in the instance of the screenshots, those who would speak out against the Chinese Communist Party.

She went on to explain that: “We all have the right to know about this matter. Since the Officer Elections will be held soon, the Students’ Union need to emphasise to candidates that the future Officers serve every international student, and not just their own nationality.”

In a statement from the ISO, Sissi said that: “It is an honour to be elected International Students’ Officer in an organisation with such a brilliant global community.

My role is to support and represent the University’s international student population, and I value all our international students, who can speak to me on any matters important to them.

“It can be difficult navigating so many different political opinions, and I’m sorry if anyone who has seen these messages was concerned. I want to let all international students at the University of Sheffield know that I am committed to representing you all - no matter where you are from or what you believe. I’m excited for the opportunities to improve international student experiences over the coming months.”

A statement from the SU President Jake Verity praised the hard work the ISO was doing in office, that the posts did not constitute misconduct in office, adding that: “This doesn’t lessen its significance, but considers the likelihood of differing political opinions between an elected Officer from the People’s Republic of China and other international students.”

If you have any concerns about the issues raised here, the Student Advice Centre can be reached on 0114 2228660, and Nightline can be reached on 0114 222 8787. Names of students have been changed.

y b f l e s r u o y e t a n 0 i 2 m 0 o 2 N b e F t s 1 2 t u o 5pm b a e r o y t m i t n u u t o r o p p Find o g n s i n g o n i a t h c c e l e e f / m o this li c .

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Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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Features

Anastasia Koutsounia Bernadette Hsiao Features Editors

Hello everyone and welcome back!

We hope you enjoyed your time off before the second semester and happy LGBT+ month!

A lot of significant events took place recently, one of which is Brexit and we of course had to ask our students how they were feeling about this big shift we are experiencing (p.12).

This issue, we also have Finn Byrne tackling the prospect of a LGBT+ inclusive sex education, Bethany Hanson talking about the bandwagon effect that we’ve all fallen a victim to and a great article by Bethany Wilson about the stigmatisation of sex therapy. (Yes, we were inspired by Sex Education.)

Lastly, if you want to be part of our wonderful team here at Forge come and have a chat with us this Refreshers week!

How would the UK look at the LGBT+ community if education was more inclusive...?

OPINION Finn Byrne Features Contributor

Sex education - something that most of us were taught during primary and high school. However, if you identify as LGBT+, chances are you got the bare minimum of the information you needed from that course and probably had no-one to answer your questions about sex. Currently, this part of education fails to acknowledge the various types of relationships that exist, however, in this day

and age it is time for education in schools to take a more progressive stance. Should a new, more inclusive outlook on sex education be embraced in schools to allow teenagers to be educated about the spectrum of sexual relations?

The prospect of such a progression would definitely benefit those that identify on the LGBT+ spectrum, allowing them to gain the same sexual knowledge as their heterosexual peers. The demand for this knowledge is clearly there; nearly a tenth of the English population don’t identify as heterosexual. To implement an LGBT+ inclusive education

would mean that a large number of people would be left with fewer questions unanswered regarding their sexuality and feel more included. For many, this translates into a high school experience that doesn’t include isolation or discrimination due to their choice of partner. In addition, an inclusive sexual education would benefit heterosexual students as, by providing them with knowledge on the subject, it could lead to accepting attitudes towards the LGBT+ community and might prevent both future discrimination and the perpetuation of its normalisation.

Last year there were over 11,000 hate crimes towards those who identify as LGBT+ in the UK according to official statistics.

Recently, cases of such hate crimes have even reached the national news, a memorable example being the lesbian couple who were viciously attacked by a group of teenage boys on a bus in North London. The increase of hate crimes in the last year clearly shows a problem with people accepting LGBT+ rights and, instead, actively expressing intentions of harming such couples. If a more inclusive sexual education was implored, it would allow teenagers to ask questions about these sorts of relationships, and be able to learn about those that they regard as different. If the teenage boys on that bus in North London had been previously taught about lesbian couples, if the idea had been normalized in their minds, it could have prevented their animosity towards non-heterosexuals and, in turn, this attack, a byproduct of such hate, from ever having taken place. According to the Guardian, LGBT+ hate crime across the UK experienced a 144 per cent increase from 2013 to 2017-18; a more inclusive sex education could contribute, by tackling the root of the problem

which causes the perpetuation of such intense backlash, in bringing down the rising number of hate crimes towards this minority and eventually allow LGBT+ people

An LGBT+ inclusive education would mean a large number of people would be left with fewer questions unanswered regarding their sexuality to feel accepted and safe in our society.

However, although the inclusivity of LGBT+ in sexual education seems like a great idea not everyone agrees. Famously, throughout 2019, a Birmingham school saw months of protest take place outside its premises after the decision was taken to include LGBT+ education on its syllabus. This time it was not the sex education course that was upgraded, it merely involved the addition of certain stories in the curriculum where a transgender man would appear as well as stories that included boys dressed up as girls. This led to months of protests, mainly from parents who held Islamic beliefs. Many said it was against the teaching of Islam for children to be taught about these sorts of relationships and the school was accused of influencing children and promoting being LGBT+, and not ‘straight’.

Religioun is a tricky topic; there are multiple religions such as Islam, Judaism and Christianity, in which non-heterosexual relationships are not allowed and it is against the religion to engage in them. In the Bible, homosexuality is treated as a sin. If a more inclusive sexual

education was to be placed in schools it is quite possible that it could have religious problems, possibly introducing the prospect that whilst making those who are LGBT+ comfortable, it could make religious believers uncomfortable.

The opposition from religious groups about teaching students about LGBT+ relationships could be a big obstacle in the battle against the alienation of nonheterosexual relationships.

It is hard to battle religious beliefs against sexual identity .

However, despite various views, if there was to be inclusivity in sex education it is highly unlikely that this would result in more people joining the LGBT+ community.

As of now, there is no evidence to support that, by learning about LGBT+ relationships, it makes you more likely to turn gay, lesbian etc. In reality, if anything, it would encourage acceptance from religious backgrounds by helping them to better understand the world that we are living in today.

Just like in religious education at school, you are taught about all religions, you therefore can live and accept that there are people with these beliefs in our society and become a more accepting and inclusive person. The same should be seen about learning about LGBT+ in sex education.

Overall, sexual education should be an important part of our learning experience. The addition of LGBT+ sexual issues in the curriculum should be seen as necessary, in order to make all students feel accepted and acknowledged in their schools, and also to help them learn about key sexual things that will impact them as they move on through life.

For heterosexuals, this knowledge would be a great tool in assisting them to become more accepting of people with different sexual preferences and hopefully, reduce the hate that this minority has become systematically subject to.

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Features

The Bandwagon Effect: Have we lost our individuality?

Bethany Hanson Features Contributor

The bandwagon effect is a type of cognitive bias which causes us to adopt certain behaviours because everyone else is doing it. Cognitive biases are our brain’s way of enabling us to make decisions quickly, based on witnessing other people’s actions or by dipping into our own previous memories, but acting on that basis may not bring a favourable result.

Acquiring, therefore, an awareness of the human tendency to ‘jump on the bandwagon’, as it has been referred to, is vital to preventing poor choices as well as the imminent loss of individuality.

Certain conditions can encourage the bandwagon effect, such as a lack of sources outside the consensus or the absence of pre-existing strong views. We are hard-wired to pick sides, and often we mistakenly chose the side that is heard the loudest.

So why do we do it? There is tremendous pressure to set aside our own beliefs and attitudes to conform. Exposure to strong opinions from large groups of people often drowns out our thoughts, and we prefer to keep the peace rather than disrupt uniformity. In many cases, people disregard ideas where there is the possibility of their peers rejecting them and, through education, the message that with time became firmly ingrained in us was that the correct answer is the one identical to everyone else’s.

Take as an example a group project for university; initially, the leader of the group proposes an idea that you are unsure about. You believe there might be a better way to pursue the project, yet when everyone else in the group seems to be agreeing with the initial idea, you automatically assume you were wrong. At the time, this artificial agreement may seem efficient, as you avoid

Image: Gage Skidmore

contradictions and tensions in the group, but at the end of the project you may find yourself unsatisfied with the end-result as well as the final grade.

Through education, the message that with time became firmly ingrained in us was that, the correct answer, is the one identical to everyone else’s Social media has an undoubtedly large part to play in the perpetuation of the bandwagon effect. It translates to a continuous stream of opinions, fashion, political ideas and beliefs that can drown out our

People can bankrupt themselves, believing that the only measure of success is to have the lifestyle everyone raves about.

It is often leveraged in marketing strategies based on the theory that, once we perceive a brand as popular, it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy. That is why online influencers have become the new face of many products. They are the ones that start and maintain the trends, the ones followed by millions of young consumers; and so the age of affiliate links and sponsorships began. However, this behaviour is

Other damaging examples of the bandwagon effect include the anti-vaccination movement which encourages people not to immunize their children, leading to outbreaks of preventable diseases such as measles. Another is the influence that the mass has on voting; people may lean towards voting ‘tactically’ for a party that is virtually more likely to win than one whose policies they authentically support.

Journalism is also responsible for some of this bandwagon bias, as journalistic interpretation of poll responses and betting odds can hold sway with readers. Often the impetus given to covering stories quickly can overrule the need to conduct valid and conclusive surveys, giving the impression that certain parties are more widely supported than others. In addition, when people read news stories, they are more likely to be attracted by t h e o n e s

covered by multiple publications as this gives a sense that t h e

individuality.

There is an element of the bandwagon effect in anything deemed “trending” or “viral” by internet users. A potential side-effect is, for example, to stray from medical professionals’ advice and entertain popular fad diets. The effect can be as innocuous as buying an item of clothing, or as dangerous as joining an extremist movement.

Image: Christophe95

event is of Image: Elias Bizannes greater importance.

However that might give them only a small glimpse of what not only is actually happening around the exploitive but can also be harmful to world or in their country. others when the promoter does not On the other hand, we can utilize sincerely enjoy the product, or they our natural tendency to follow by are promoting something faulty for surrounding ourselves with people the promise of money. who inspire and engage

Image: Nicole Alexander

us. There are positive rallying bandwagons, such as the climate protests, that have allowed students to be part of a constructive change that may help save our planet. The ice bucket challenge is an example of a social media craze that raised the US $220 million worldwide and awareness of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (also known as ALS or motor neuron disease).

How can we avoid the bandwagon effect? We can use knowledge of this phenomenon to listen more critically and become aware of behavioural pitfalls. Engaging in further research and becoming open to new contrasting ideas can be an effective way to break the cycle of popularity. Slowing down the thinking process can give us more time to reason and come up with a conscious decision. For example, if you see something on a post on Instagram and are tempted to buy it, delay the purchase for a day and see if you still feel the same way. If possible, avoid making big decisions when surrounded by people.

As mentioned above, the bandwagon effect is not always negative. There are some scenarios where social cues can be productive.

It can be useful to know where the majority vote lies but we should always retain our own opinion and support it if we think it is right.

However, when people come together to reject unhealthy habits such as smoking, or to embrace healthier ways of life, that can be a bandwagon worth jumping on.

Image: Tanner Fox

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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Features

Sex therapy: The need for open accessibility to everyone Bethany Wilson Features Contributor

Now that everyone and their aunt has binge-watched season two of Sex Education on Netflix, it’s time to open up a discussion on sex therapy.

Despite the overt sexualisation of the media, we remain constrained by stigmas when it comes to openly talking about sex and sexual issues.

Embarrassment and a lack of understanding prevents people from accessing sexual therapy which is why shows such as Sex Education are so pivotal in the reshaping of our attitude towards this form of therapy.

According to recent studies, 43 per cent of women and 31 per cent of men experience sexual dysfunction in their lifetimes and one in four sexually active adults claim to be unsatisfied with their sex lives. Common problems range from erectile dysfunction and the inability to orgasm to issues of low self-esteem and sexual confidence.

These are concerns that everyone has, yet embarrassment and a lack of understanding prevents people from feeling able to access sexual therapy. And despite the overt sexualisation of the media, we are still so constrained by stigmas when it comes to openly talking about sex and sexual problems.

Many people have the misconception that sex therapy is reserved only for older couples whose sex lives may have lost their initial magic spark. I like to call this ‘the Jean Milburn approach’; it is the traditional view of couples therapy that aims to reignite a missing passion and to ‘save’ a long-term, committed relationship. It acts as a lifeboat. But now more than ever, there is a growing prominence of ‘the Otis approach’: the inclusion of teenagers and young

adults in this world of sex therapy, trying to navigate the difficulties of sexual exploration and pressures to live up to the high standards of sex portrayed in the media.

Although I would advise consulting a professional and not a schoolboy if you have issues; you wouldn’t ask your friend to teach you how to

Despite the overt sexualisation of the media, we are still so constrained by stigmas when it comes to openly talking about sex and sexual problems swim, you’d go and get lessons.

As mentioned, the more traditional view of sex therapists depicts a long term couple who have lost the sexual passion of their relationship. And so a sex therapist, like Jean from Sex Education, will then attempt to find the root of the problem and help their clients to discover a coping mechanism to overcome this concern and to rejuvenate their sex lives. This form of therapy can be a healthy way to strengthen a relationship and to destigmatise discussions about sexual issues. Yet, despite experts suggesting that 93 per cent of those who seek sex therapy will enjoy an improved sex life afterwards, this is still a topic that is severely stigmatised.

For couples in committed relationships, whether it is a married couple or young adults, admitting sexual weakness can be viewed as the downfall of the relationship.

Sex therapy is often linked

to a need to ‘save’ this inevitable breakdown. This misconception stems from a generalised fear of therapy as a whole. Conversations about therapy so often revolve around connotations of weakness and of personal failure when in fact

Many people have the misconception that sex therapy is reserved only for older couples whose sex life may have lost its initial magic spark it can be a path to find renowned strength, whether this is sexually or mentally. Why should we have to accept defeat when there are professionals who are trained to help us out, if only we are willing to go to them.

Yet, as Sex Education shows, adults are not the only ones who have problems and concerns regarding sex.

Teenagers and young p e o p l e also have questions a n d worries as t h e y discover

sex for the first time. This is partially due to the limitations of sex education in schools which often doesn’t go beyond preaching preventative measures and erasing any narratives of pleasure, particularly for women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Now that we are all so exposed to sex from a young age through television and the internet, education needs to go beyond the basics, and a safe environment needs to be established for teenagers to ask questions and to receive in depth answers to their questions and concerns. This is where sex therapists can come in.

Official figures show that, in the last two years, the number of teenagers seeking sex therapy through the NHS has trebled with one in ten sex counselling patients being under the age of nineteen.

Previously, the rising accessibility to pornography through the internet was thought to be the main cause of this increasing need for teenage sexual therapy.

Sex is everywhere nowadays, it can be found on TV shows or any social media. However, it is portrayed as ‘perfect’ sex where nothing goes wrong, everyone has a good time and they look great doing it. This isn’t realistic; it is instead ingraining unhealthy sexual ambitions and expectations. It is something that Sex Education highlights really well: the lack of understanding of real sex by the young public, one that is not a scripted act you see on TV or in a film.

Sex therapists can help with this problem by teaching that

93%

of those who seek sex therapy will enjoy an improved sex life afterwards

some ‘problems’ are natural - 52 per cent of men will experience erectile dysfunction and only 25 per cent of women consistently reach orgasm in their lifetimes - and then providing healthy solutions. Sex therapy shouldn’t just be a method to reignite passion in a relationship, it should give people the chance to really discover how sex works and become able to disassociate myths from the truth.

Overall, the input of sex therapists goes a lot further than just a discussion about ‘the Jean approach’ versus ‘the Otis approach’. All age groups should be more open to the possibility of consulting this new kind of advisor, who is full of answers to questions that neither parents nor friends are able to answer. Sex should not be a taboo topic - after all, most of us have an active sex life - and neither should conversations that promote a healthy sexual lifestyle.

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Brexit: How has it changed the way we view our future?

Forge Press asked five students how they feel about Britain’s departure from the European Union I’m a Brit; I’m planning on staying here, and neither my immediate situation nor any of my future plans really hinge on us being in the EU. So, on an immediate, individual level, you wouldn’t think Brexit would affect my future too much.

However, when I think about the effects it could have on my hometown, my family and my friends the idea of it suddenly

seems grave. My dad, like a lot of people in my hometown, works in distribution, which is naturally something quite reliant on trade – in an industrial estate that is literally called the Europort no less! I worry about him and countless others locally losing their jobs. Much of the money that came to build said Europort came from the EU in the first place, to help re-develop the

area after we’d suffered through deindustrialisation.

I’ve got family members who are on medications that are at risk of shortages. Most can probably get alternative medicines, but some are on treatments that might not be so easily replaced and I’m worried sick about the consequences it could have on their future health – I’ve lost sleep at the thought of family ending up

in hospital or worse. I’m worried about the impact Brexit will have on my family and friends who aren’t British citizens, and I’m worried about the bitter political divides it’s caused between previously close family members becoming more permanent. When I think about my future now, everything seems less certain than ever before.

Taylor Ogle United States of America

In June of 2016 when the Referendum was held, I was sitting in a hotel room in London watching the news unfold on TV. At the time, I had little comprehension of what Britain without the EU would look like. Since moving to England and having seen the general election come and go along with arguments and hopes for a second referendum, I have slowly gained

a greater grasp of my place in an independent United Kingdom.

As an international student, I arrived here on a Tier 4 visa with strict rules and regulations. I have always known that finding a job after graduation would be more difficult than any UK or EU students as I need to earn the right to apply for a work visa. However, with the completion of Brexit, new doors

for international students seem to be slowly opening. In September 2019 the Home Office announced a new post-study work route for students who will graduate from accredited institutions with a bachelor’s degree or higher. This new route, when introduced, will allow international graduates to work in the United Kingdom for up to 2 years before needing

to switch to a general work visa after graduation, without today’s rigid salary guidelines and tight time constraints. I am aware of the concerns many citizens and immigrants alike have for a post-Brexit Britain, but in my immediate future there appears to be benefits for international students beyond Europe.

Aimée Cooper United Kingdom

The Brexit referendum took place two days before my 18th birthday, I couldn’t vote however I did campaign for Remain. Now, I’m in my final year of a languages degree and that vote seems like a lifetime ago. During my university years, I was given endless opportunities and possibilities to live, work and study wherever I chose. For the first six months of my study abroad year I worked in a start-up

in the heart of Berlin, and for the other six months I was welcomed into Utrecht University in the Netherlands. As I’ll be graduating this summer I’m now questioning what to do next. My aim has always been to go on and study a masters degree in journalism abroad, but now I dread the uncertainty of changing tuition fees, bureaucracy and, quite frankly, stress. Brexit couldn’t have changed the view

on my future more. I believe that more opportunities are available for me in Germany and now I’m trying to make roots in a new country as soon as possible before more Brexit turmoil complicates life abroad further. As someone wanting to start their postgraduate life by exploring possibilities abroad I have a lot to lose. Moreover, I fear that we won’t know the full extent

of how Brexit will negatively impact on our Erasmus schemes, post-graduate opportunities and relations with the rest of Europe until the coming years. Until then, the only thing that is for sure is more uncertainty.

Mohammed Eissa United Arab Emirates

Confused, unaware, and lost are the adjectives most suitable to describe the state of many international students. At this stage, despite my efforts to try to gather information about this transition the UK is undertaking, Brexit remains a mystery. Will it make life more difficult or better for me as an international student?

The questions seem to have no

end as each question seems to lead to another, moreover, I find myself questioning who/what to believe many times. Despite the University sparing no expense in trying to fill us students in, it just doesn’t seem very convenient.

Students lead a very busy lifestyle that barely grants them time to look after themselves and have some ‘me’ time, therefore when

there’s time to spare, concern about Brexit seems to evaporate.

Which brings up the previous question, should we be concerned?

Awareness must spread, no doubt.

Being aware of what’s happening around us is something expected from us, however, with a lot of banter and jokes about the topic it doesn’t seem to look that serious to many. I believe that the University

should consider innovative methods for its students to get a clearer vision of what their future will be and what they should be expecting during their study years here as well as their consideration for permanently settling in the UK.

Joshua Thory-Rao United Kingdom

I am somewhat apprehensive about my future as a result of Brexit; it’s being delivered by a right-wing Tory government who have a majority in the Commons, meaning there is nothing that we can do preliminarily to prevent them from compromising workers’ rights, food hygiene standards and the future of the NHS. As someone who eats food,

will probably have a job, and has been and will continue to be reliant on the NHS, this is a pretty worrying thing for me personally.

Although a lack of EU regulations is dangerous under a Conservative government, these regulations in the long run would be working against us. Take the fourth railway package, for example, a piece of legislation which means that upon

its introduction in 2023 private companies will have access to rail contracts, even under fully nationalised railway systems.

This would mean that full nationalisation of the railways, a key introduction which is clearly needed given the state of it as of now, would be present but not in practice. Regulations like this, and the EU’s general neoliberal

outlook means there is a glimmer of hope for the future, for radical change, outside of the EU, and hopefully this can change the narrative for left-wing politics in the future, something I hope to contribute to.

Caelan Reid United Kingdom

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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Jack Mattless and Jack Redfern Opinion Editors

Opinion

Hello and welcome back readers!

In our first issue of this semester we’ve got plenty of pieces to keep you up to date with all that’s been going on.

To start, Jake Loader and his piece on Ann Franckely, a boss who has recently banned football chats in the workplace and another on the Church of England’s recent

announcement regarding sex and marriage. On page 14, we’ve got a piece on our Uni’s anti-racism programme, and Tom Coates’ celebration of Katie Hopkins’ recent Twitter ban. Then finally, our own Ella Craig and her piece, sticking up for Harry and Meghan, as well as pieces on our Uni’s exam services and why Adam Sundle thinks it’s time the UK changes its voting system. Enjoy!

Franckely, Ann’s got it all very wrong Jake Loader Opinion Contributor

A scathing attack on football conversation at work has been launched by Ann Francke, the head of the Chartered Management Institute, who claimed that it ‘excludes women and leads to laddy behaviour’.

So, is she right to tackle this topic? Or will creating rules around conversation be a sensational own goal for team cohesion and morale?

Most people think the latter and have attacked Ann for not only being naïve about work relationships but for her sexist assumption that it is

Eliminating football talk due to fear of exclusion is a slippery slope... what comes next?

only women who might be excluded.

Obviously, this is not true.

With an increasing focus on women’s football at the moment and the massive growth of the women’s game, Ann’s comments can only be bad news for those trying to open up the game’s accessibility to all.

Instead of banning conversations about football, perhaps Ann should focus on real gender issues at the workplace; issues like the pay gap and harassment. Or, if she genuinely feels that women are excluded from footballing topics, she could even encourage them to get involved.

Sport England and their #thisgirlcan campaign have already got the football rolling in that respect.

The reality is that topics of conversation are not simply drawn upon gender lines as Ann assumes. Does her idea of an office environment have skimpy-skirted secretaries gossiping about the latest face foundation fashions, and macho, muscly men asserting their opinions on their favourite firearms?

This perception should be left behind in an era long before England won the World Cup - 1966, in case anyone feels excluded.

Topics of conversation at work are a varied flow, and eliminating football talk due to fear of exclusion is a slippery slope. What comes next?

A ban on talking about the kids to include those with no kids or a ban on talking about summer holidays to include those who didn’t go on one?

Let’s just make incredibly tedious small talk about how awful the weather has been, and then sit in uncomfortable silence throughout the rest of the working day.

Ann is right in trying to make the workplace feel comfortable. But she is very wrong in the way she’s going about it, risking not only creating a divide in her workforce but damaging inclusivity and accessibility in football too.

What Ann probably imagines offices still look like Image: J. D. Phagan

The Church of England have lost the plot Bethany Thomas Opinion Contributor

The Church of England has announced that it will not withdraw guidance on sex as permissible only for ‘heterosexual married couples’.

The ruling is hugely problematic in a climate of increasing acceptance of LGBT+ individuals and their relationships, and in an era of sexual freedom.

However, bizarrely, the Archbishops of Canterbury and York have apologised for the ruling of the institution, providing a selfcontradictory and divided message.

Justin Welby and John Sentamu both took responsibility for releasing the statement, and acknowledged that it ‘jeopardised trust’. This appears to undercut their original stance,

suggesting that the Church itself is facing a struggle, but one that should have been overcome long ago.

The ruling indubitably feels outdated, ostracising and even offensive, but the fact that the Church knows this – and has still issued the statement – is bewildering. In an era of decline for the Church in both financial terms and the number of people on pews, one would expect an ethos of welcoming acceptance to be their primary selling point. They appear to be their own worst enemy in their determination to abide by old dogma.

Whilst they supposedly accept all people, they have ruled that sex in gay or straight civil partnership‘falls short of God’s purpose for human beings’. This follows the change

in law which now allows straight couples to have a civil ceremony. In this case, it is not only members of the LGBT+ community who might feel rejected by the institution, but

people within all forms of sexual relationships outside of marriage– including many Christians.

The guidance wasn’t new or surprising, but it is disappointing to see that an institution with the potential to do so much good is struggling to do the basic good of acceptance, portraying itself as exclusivist. This stands in conflict with its core mission to deliver ‘loving service’ and ‘transform unjust structures’. Amongst the charity work, children’s support, and community groups, there seems to lie institutional homophobia and genophobia. Which is disturbing.

Not least in its false reflection of the individuals within the Church, many of whom disagree with the recent statement.

The distance between the Church and the wider community has been emphasised in the recent statement against sex outside of

marriage, which ostracises any who do not abide by this teaching (including many of the Christian faith). However, it does particular damage to relations between the Church and the LGBT+ community, who are still forbidden to marry in a church. If the Church wishes to heal the rift that lies between itself and the communities it wishes to reach, it must make swift changes to its already outdated guidance.

One would expect an ethos of welcome and acceptance to be their primary selling point

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Opinion

Olive Enokido Lineham on why SU racism programme is a step in the right direction

Image: Sheffield SU

Olive Enokido- Lineham Opinion Contributor

Hide! The word police are out to get you, apparently.

Our University recently announced its newest bid to tackle racism on campus with its ‘Race Equality Champions’ initiative. Starting later this year, the University will pay a group of 20 students to lead “healthy conversations,” covering perceptions of racism and how to tackle microaggressions on campus and university residencies. In reaction, the University has faced

fierce criticism and was even dubbed a “microaggression monitor”. So is this really a violation of free speech, or an attempt to address racism at university?

In October, a report by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (ECHR) revealed that 24 percent of ethnic minority students experience racial harassment at university, often by other students. It stated microaggressions were a common experience of students who suffered from racial abuse.

The Race Equality Champions will encourage discussions

around the Windrush scandal, perceptions of racism in British society and microaggressions. In response to ongoing criticisms, SU Women’s Officer, Rosa Tully, told Forge: “microaggressions simply represent one way in which students and staff of colour are racialised and worn down, not a means to trivialise the more serious instances of racism experienced by many.”

“The training has never been about silencing people, nor has it been to encourage students to ‘police each other’ but instead to acknowledge the role we all have in

challenging racism.”

Whilst seemingly ambiguous, microaggressions can be defined as “subtle yet offensive comments directed at black, Asian and minority ethnic people.’’ Examples of this may include remarks based on racial stereotypical assumptions.

Yet the common misconception is that everything has become offensive, blowing out of proportion the potentially cumulative and demeaning insults which are then dismissed as ‘sensitive’.

But the precise reasoning for such an initiative is reflected in

24%

of students experience racial harassment at university

student experiences.

Simply, if racial harassment was not so prevalent at universities this would not be necessary. It should not be seen as an attack on students, nor does it assume that individuals are inherently racist but instead acts as a point of guidance to cultural sensitivities. Whilst all students are encouraged to take part in the classes, they will not be compulsory, a detail remaining absent from many media reports.

There are undoubtedly many questions to be asked - like how these conversations will be guided, but the notion that this is a draconian crackdown on the freedom of speech is simply not true.

The student-led approach instead seeks to stimulate more honest conversations about racism.

It nurtures a safe environment, particularly for those who have experienced racism to share their thoughts. To neglect this seems somewhat hypocritical and essentially discourages the very open debates which free speech champions.

To overlook this as a form of victim culture sets a dangerous premise of complacency to racism and ignores the very real experiences which so many students face at university.

Tom Coates on why we should all celebrate the Hopkins Twitter ban Tom Coates Opinion Contributor

Some seem to believe that the art of political debate is dead. But these people - often ironically intolerant of opposing opinions themselvesseem to confuse opinion with fact.

The left receive frequent critiques This often leads to a flurry of accusations in the direction of the left, who over the last few years have dealt with many insisting that they are ironically intolerant of opposing opinions.

This has perhaps been the case at times, yet this view has snowballed beyond control due to the blurring of the lines between what is opinion and what is fact. If the issue of public service nationalisation arises, debate. If the building of a new Greggs store on the high street causes backlash, debate. If a football referee makes a controversial decision, debate.

These are not the kind of issues

that were regularly brought up by media personality and political commentator, Katie Hopkins, on Twitter.

The 44-year-old’s account was recently suspended, leading to both jubilation and fury from those on each side of her views.

Islamophobia and homophobia do not fall into the category of subjects which can be tackled through debate.

Arguments built upon a misguided, hateful and quite frankly incorrect ideology cannot be reasoned with.

This is not a case against free speech, this is a case for the right of people to adopt a religion without suffering abuse from someone of a sickeningly ignorant mindset.

If hate speech, the type of which was spread by Hopkins across social media, is given a platform then it is provided an opportunity to thrive.

The messages reach those of a similar narrow-minded view, and soon platforms are rife with far-

right rhetoric.

The debate approach has been tried and tested. Hopkins has been challenged for years regarding her views on migrants, yet her stance remains the same. The issue is that many of her views, particularly on Islam, aren’t opinions as such. They are barefaced and hate-filled lies.

To what extent can a lie be fought with reasoned debate? Should it be expected of anyone to be reasonable and empathetic in the face of such hate?

Burying it and giving hate no right of reply halts its spread, and ultimately offers more protection to those on the receiving end of undeserved abuse. Social media, in particular, is the most dangerous weapon to be in the hands of Hopkins or her ilk. It provides a free pass to take aim at the most marginalised amongst us in society, and Twitter has served society in its banning of Katie Hopkins.

Image: AlmostAngelic123

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

15

Opinion

Harry and Meghan have every right to leave, says Ella Craig Ella Craig Music Editor

The ex-Royal couple, Harry and Megan Image: Mark Jones

In January, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex announced that they would be stepping down as full-time members of the royal family and subsequently working to become financially independent as they split their time between living in Canada and England.

You would think that people would be happy for them, taking time to raise their son, Archie, and to give him a normal life; one that Prince Harry never had whilst growing up. Yet the Sussexes faced a huge media backlash for their execution of the announcement.

The Daily Mail said that there “can be no sympathy” for the way the announcement was made without consulting the Queen first, people took to social media to brand them “inconsiderate” and The Times said that “little thought” had been given to the practicalities of their new roles.

A few weeks prior to the Sussexes decision, Prince Andrew was

accused of multiple cases of sexual assault and stepped down from his royal duties. The response to that, from the media, seemed tame in comparison. Yet when the young couple decided to take some time away from royal life to raise their son, they faced a backlash from the media and the public. But the backlash was to be expected; Harry has faced the wrath of the media throughout his whole life from being labelled a rebellious ‘wild child’ in his teenage years, to ‘unconventionally’ falling in love with a mixed-race woman.

Over the course of their entire relationship, the Susexes have faced an extensive amount of hate from the media with Meghan being subjected to racism. From explicitly being described as “exotic”, to the press attacking her for making decisions and actions that Kate Middleton had been previously praised for, there are grounds to argue that racism is still an ongoing issue in the media. In October

2019, Meghan began legal action against the Mail on Sunday after they published a private letter from her estranged father, which Harry described as “bullying.” And now, the media are failing to support their decision to take a break from their senior royal roles. It’s no wonder they wanted to take a step back from the public eye.

It’s sad that Harry, who we have followed throughout his whole life, will no longer be standing beside his brother as a senior royal. But surely the public should want to support the Sussexes decision after Harry’s late mother, Lady Diana, who died in a car accident in 1997, changed the stigma surrounding mental health and encouraged people to seek help and take time for yourself.

Just because people have royal titles doesn’t mean their life is a fairytale.

Harry and Meghan demonstrate that. This is them saying they need a break from their royal duties, yet they are receiving no support from the public or media.

Exam support at Uni is ‘extensive and helpful’, but more to be done at state level James Hodgson Opinion Contributor

I’ll admit I did initially dismiss the University’s strategies for exam support. The yoga mats in the Diamond look as though they’re merely there to give the appearance that the University actually cares about our wellbeing. However, if you stop to look at the full selection of what’s on offer to support students at exam time then it is actually quite extensive and helpful. Even the small things you can take for granted such as the ‘Exam do’s and don’ts’

video on the MUSE homepage, which seem initially like obvious points but can prove helpful when sitting an exam.

The small things do add up: the introduction of the Garden Room, the encouragement to “study healthily and take a break” and the introduction of Stress Buster programmes by Sport Sheffield are certainly welcome additions.

I personally would encourage extended opening hours for Goodwin at the weekends during exam periods and an expansion of the Stress Buster initiatives.

It is important to remember that although the implementation of these strategies by the University is a great way to help with students’ general mental health over exam season, they aren’t a substitute for proper support which is provided through SAMHS and DDSS.

The problem here is that responsibilty for mental health support ultimatley lies at state level

Whilst the University does provide some immediate access through Big White Wall and Nightline, SAMHS can take months to admit new cases. The problem here is that responsibility for mental health support ultimately lies at state level, opening up the wider issue of the need for mental health to be regarded with the same importance as physical health and the desperate need for both more funding and an expansion of NHS mental health services.

The demand for student mental health support is enormous and

the University can and should do more to help to relieve this demand.

Yet, we mustn’t disregard or take for granted that support which the university does provide, the recent introduction of exam support strategies must be welcomed and utilised to incentivise the university to do more in the future.

You can register with SAMHS and Big White Wall on the University website, while DDSS can be reached on 0114 2221303. Nightline can be contacted on 0114 222 8787, and the SU’s Advice Centre can be found at advice@sheffield.ac.uk.

is that it can never represent the whole population. In the

at least allowed for more scrutiny of the incumbent party which is

It’s time we change our voting system Adam Sundle Opinion Contributor

When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 the newly formed nationstates embarked on a new wave of democratisation. But when choosing a desired electoral system none of them proceeded to utilise the firstpast-the-post system (FPTP). The reason being that for any emerging democracy it would simply be counter-productive as it generally seems to give undemocratic results. Today, the only Western democracies clinging on to FPTP are

the UK, the US and Canada.

FPTP works on the basis that the

candidate who gets the most votes wins a seat, regardless of whether a majority of the electorate voted for other candidates. This produces a parlaiment unrepresentative of the view of the people.

Since the 1950s, no party in the UK has managed to achieve over 50 per cent of the popular vote. Yet, there has been a decisive enough victory in terms of seats at every election, excluding the coalition formed in 2010 and the confidence and supply agreement reached between the

DUP and Conservatives in 2017.

Last December, 53 per cent of

people voted for parties that wished to revoke Article 50 or have a second referendum on Brexit. According to Boris Johnson this led him to gain a “stonking mandate” on Brexit.

Since the election, there has been talk about ending divisions, and “the will of the people”, but it’s clear a second referendum on the EU would only serve to create further partisan divisions - not that that matters following the Conservatives’ large majority.

The underlying issue with FPTP

December election, proportional representation would have shown a stark difference in the results. The Tories would have 75 fewer seats and the Lib Dems would have gained 65 more in the biggest differences.

Add to this the fact that many voters are put off voting for parties that aren’t either of the big two as they feel it’s a ‘wasted’ vote; then the election could have brought a very different result. It would have still almost certainly ended in a Conservative majority, but it would

arguably what the people actually voted for.

One benefit of FPTP is supposedly that it thwarts radical parties from emerging. Judging by the proposed reforms to terror laws proposed

by Boris Johnson last week, the UK has elected its most rightwing government in decades. An alternative system like a form of proportional representation would be more representative and help make the government more accountable to voters.

forgetoday.com

16

Lifestyle

Em Evans and Taylor Ogle Lifestyle Editors

With the seemingly neverending month of January finally out of the way, February is upon us. The tedious exam season has finally ended and the start of a new academic term is quickly approaching.

With Refreshers underway and Valentine’s Day just around the corner, it’s a busy and exciting time of year for everyone.

It’s tempting to fall into the same

routine for dates and haunt the regular pub over and over again, but Sheffield has so much more to choose from. Check out Georgia Welch’s top five date ideas around the city for some cupid-level inspiration. We’ve also got an array of ideas to change up your routine for the spring term! From tips on redecorating your home space to revision aid and recipes, we’ve got loads for you to browse through for new ideas in issue 141.

The Art of Turning a Student House into a Home Taylor Ogle Lifestyle Editor

Moving to a new city can be difficult, but doing it on a student budget can prove even more straining.

While getting out and exploring a new city to become familiar with its sights and sounds is a great way to get settled in, there’s another important aspect that shouldn’t be ignored: curating your new living space to your taste. With Refreshers now well underway, this seems the perfect time to have a bit of a springclean and redecoration to make your student space feel not just like a house, but a home.

As an international student, making my student house feel like a home is incredibly important as there is not an option to go back to my family’s home on the weekends to retreat from student life. However, it isn’t just international students who benefit from thoughtfully decorating their student homes; creating a welcoming retreat at home is valuable to everyone.

In many rented flats and houses, students have very limited control over their environment. The walls can’t be repainted, kitchen and living spaces need to be negotiated with friends or flatmates and landlords can sometimes be uncooperative.

Just like clothing and accessories

available and this is where those paper bits have the potential to come into their own. Pinning up photos is a classic for a reason, but mixing textures and colours is a good option to give the space more variety and let each piece stand out.

Books As an avid reader, I find that books tend to accumulate effortlessly in stacks around my room. While books are so much more than just an accessory, they also work brilliantly to add colour and substance to spruce up an otherwise empty space.

Stacking them also works to add height to lamps or plants around the room. Waterstones offer student and rewards cards, but the Oxfams

Soft Lighting Lighting in student houses isn’t always fantastic. To remedy this try picking up one or two cheap lamps and placing them around the space to create sanctuaries of warm glowing light. This should help to balance out harsh overhead lights.

Smaller lamps or fairy lights are great for creating a more mellow, relaxing space.

Filling your space with things that are reflective of your hobbies and passions is a great start are an outward expression of our identities, home spaces can also be an extension of our personal style.

Filling your space with things that are reflective of your hobbies and passions is a great start. Here we’ve compiled a short list of tips to give your space a fresh start for the new academic term.

on West Street and in Broomhill are reliable and sustainable options to pick up that paperback you can’t help but dream about.

Second-hand Finds Buying secondhand is almost always cheaper as well as environmentally friendly. Charity shops are a great place to pick up art prints, records, plant pots, crockery, and plenty of books to fill up your space to make it more your own. Paying special attention to things like colour schemes will allow a greater degree of coordination across the room.

Plants A little bit of green can bring new

energy to any space. Long spindly and leafy plants are a good choice because their vines give bedside tables or bookshelves an extra punch of colour and a touch of life. Having plants in your bedroom is also a good anchor to the natural world.

Plus, who doesn’t like thinking they have a green thumb? The Botanical Garden and Students’ Union both have plant sales at various times throughout the year, but if you’re in need of a botany-fix now, the Gravel Pit on Abbeydale Road and Plantology or MoonKo on Division Street are great for the amateur indoor gardener.

Postcards and Paper Bits Collecting little paper bits from your travels can be a fantastic way to remember all the places that you have visited and the good times you had there. University halls and houses often have bulletin boards

A Piece of Home (Away From Uni) Moving to a new space can be disorientating at first. It can be easy to feel too separated from your family and home away from university life. Picking a few key things from your old bedroom to integrate into your university space is a great way to pay homage to the place ‘back home’ without treating it like a childhood bedroom.

Creating a welcoming retreat at home is valuable to everyone Student houses are always going to be temporary, it’s in their nature.

Many students will never stay in the same space for more than a year while studying, but making these spaces as welcoming as possible can be exactly the stress relief you need from academic or society work. With the start of a new term underway, what better way to refresh your routine than by refreshing your space. After all, there is no place like home.

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

17

Lifestyle

RECIPE: TERIYAKI SALMON, GARLIC ASPARAGUS & COUS-COUS INGREDIENTS:

100g of Couscous 3 sprigs of Mint 300g of Long beans 1 tbsp lemon juice 1 can of peas 1 salmon fillet 2 cloves of garlic, chopped finely 200g of asparagus, the ends trimmed 3 tbsp soy sauce 2 tbsp honey 1 tbsp butter 1 tsp vegetable oil A pinch of chilli flakes

METHOD: 1. Add the soy sauce and honey with one clove of finely chopped garlic into a small bowl and mix before pouring it over the salmon. Leave to marinate for at least five minutes.

2. Put the marinated salmon into the oven at 180°C for 15 minutes until the salmon has turned pink and flakey.

3. Cut your long beans into small pieces and toss them in a pan with 1 tsp of oil. Add a pinch of salt and pepper and let it sauté for 10 minutes. Set them aside once done.

4. In the same pan, add 1 tbsp of

butter and fry the remaining garlic before putting in your asparagus .

Let sauté for another 10 minutes and serve onto a plate.

5. Prepare the couscous according to the package. Chop the mint finely and toss it in your couscous along with beans and peas. Season with 1 tbsp of lemon juice, a pinch of salt and pepper, and a pinch of chilli flakes. Toss well.

6. Plate your food and enjoy!

Serves 1 Yash Raveendra

Top Five Date Spots in Sheffield

Not only does February mark the end of the exam period and the collective sigh of relief breathed by Sheffield students everywhere, but it also signals the arrival of Valentine’s Day. This holiday can certainly be overly commercialised, but it’s all about what you make of it. It can provide the perfect opportunity to ask out that person you’ve been admiring from afar or do something special with your significant other.

If neither of those options sounds good, it’s worth keeping in mind that all of these date spots can also be ideal for taking your friends on a mate-date, or a place to go when the family visits. Here are a few examples of what Sheffield has to offer in terms of ideal date spots.

Georgia Welch Lifestyle Contributor

SHOWROOM CINEMA If you’re into film, Showroom Cinema is arguably Sheffield’s best spot for independent and classic cinema. It also boasts a cosy bar and cafe that offers a varied

selection of pre-film snacks and the perfect backdrop for a postfilm chat if you’re not ready to wrap up the date when the credits roll. Almost as interesting as the films screened at Showroom is the building itself: a 1936 art decostyle former car dealership, which was even once the backdrop of an Arctic Monkeys music video. It’s one of the first familiar sights to greet you when stepping off the train at Sheffield station. .

THE CABIN The Cabin is a place that should be on every Sheffield student’s bucket list. Situated at the foot of The Moor, The Cabin is one of the most homely and cosy brunch spots in the city. With its kitsch Canadianthemed decor and incredible menu of waffles, pancakes and bagels with every topping imaginable,

not only does it make a charming daytime date spot, but you can also take advantage of the opportunity to woo your date by taking on their impressive waffle/pancake challenge!

GRAVE’S GALLERY This next date spot is centrally located and within walking distance of some of Sheffield’s finest coffee shops. This is a real perk if you want to continue your date after you’ve made your way around the amazing sights of Graves Gallery.

Taking your date to an art gallery, even if you don’t consider yourself an art connoisseur, can be great if you’re feeling a little nervous or don’t know each other that well. Looking at the art not only takes the pressure off needing to constantly talk, but also provides an instant conversation starter if you’re struggling to keep things flowing.

KELHAM ISLAND For those who enjoy a drink, and more importantly, enjoy craft beer, there’s a reason why Sheffield is considered one of the brewing capitals of the UK. Most definitely check out The Fat Cat and Kelham Island Brewery if you want a drinking spot that’s a little further afield than the usual student haunts. Alternatively, Church: Temple of Fun is great if you’re looking for tasty vegan snack options or enjoy retro arcade games! Kelham Island pretty much has all the ingredients you need for a fun and memorable night, whilst also paying homage to Sheffield’s industrial heritage.

BAKEWELL This isn’t technically within the confines of Sheffield, but this list wouldn’t be complete without giving Bakewell a mention. This quaint Derbyshire town is accessible by the 218 bus from Sheffield Interchange, and is the perfect place for a day out when you want to escape city life for a while. This is the ideal date location for someone you’ve been seeing for a while and want to spend a little more time with. It’s overflowing with snug tea rooms, pubs, unique gift and record shops, and the best Bakewell tarts you’ll ever taste.

18

Review: Grapefruit Tom Buckland Secretary

When I went to Grapefruit to see RuPaul’s Drag Race UK winner, The Vivienne, perform I was genuinely apprehensive for what the night had in store. LGBT+ nights, especially new (or rebranded) ones, often struggle to take off. This isn’t because they do anything necessarily wrong, but because of the stigmas surrounding both LGBT+ people and the process of generating positive, safe, and secure spaces for them.

As an LGBT+ person, my main concern was being able to be in the SU’s Foundry (a venue that hosts countless other nights that aren’t actively painted as LGBT+ inclusive) whilst feeling a sense of security and comfort. I needed to feel comfortable in my own skin. I know that’s difficult to understand when you consider the fact that I’m attending a drag show, but no matter how hard I tried the worries remained unshaken.

However, the night and its

atmosphere welcomed me with open arms as soon as I stepped through the door. With its campy lighting and flamboyant, over-thetop stage dressing, I couldn’t have felt more at ease if I tried. The music that played was varied, but all of it quintessential listening for most – if not all – LGBT+ people. There was little for me to have been worried about as the space itself magically dispelled any fears or concerns I had as soon as I came in.

The bar staff were nice and accommodating, and the clubgoers were equally accepting. A central criticism of many LGBT+ spaces is they can be easily and readily inhabited by a heterosexual majority, but Grapefruit doesn’t have that issue. Everyone there respected the space and the boundaries that were in place, and it made for a comfortable and enjoyable space without really having to do anything actively.

The acts, performed by The Vivienne and the Students’ Union’s very own DragSoc (who you can read more about in this issue’s

forgetoday.com

Lifestyle

Society Spotlight), were as equally reassuring as the venue itself. Not to mention that all the performances were absolutely phenomenal. The crowd received the performances by the student drag artists wonderfully and the audience oozed with support and encouragement. It was a sensational space to experience throughout the night.

It’s hard to accurately explain the comforting space that Grapefruit provides, both actively

and passively, but I cannot stress enough that this is a rising LGBT+ space to keep your eye on. Most people may be wary when it comes to venturing beyond the Students’ Union to find an LGBT+ space they enjoy, as everyone’s accessibility and inclusivity requirements are hard to meet completely. However, Grapefruit is on every student’s doorstep, so it feels like a no brainer to give it a chance.

Next Grapefruit Night: Kim Woodburn: How Clean is your Drag House?

28th February 2020 @ Foundry 10pm - 2am £8 tickets from SU website

Exam habits: Achieving success whilst staying positive!

Aimee Cooper Head of Online

Another exam season survived! As a final year student I feel your pain… and relief now that it’s all over. But this exam season, I was sick of my unhealthy habits and panic flashcard making; so I tried out some new tricks- here are my most useful tips: Before we begin…

This exam season I needed to have a stern talk with myself before I even began revising. There is a lot to be said for entering an exam period with a positive and realistic mindset. Be

kind to yourself, honest about what you can achieve and determined enough to make it happen. There is a tricky balance between keeping yourself accountable but also giving yourself some slack when you need it. The best advice I could give would be to go into any exam period with the best intentions possible.

Practicalities: There are loads of tips out there on how to be most ‘productive’, but it is all very subjective. Here are some really simple but effective tools that got me through!

Firstly, find the time of day that

works best for you. If you’re an early bird use that to your advantage and get up and at it. If you know that complying with your alarm will just leave you blurry-eyed for the rest of the day, give your body the extra hour of rest it needs and try revising later on. My next tip would be to break it up. Hours and hours of staring at the same screen in the same seat without any breaks is most probably going to drive you into the ground.

Work out how long your optimal working period is - for example, I work best in 50-minute intervals and give myself a short break after each revision slot as this helps you

to keep alert throughout the day.

Mix up your study space, vary your revision methods, practice and test yourself. That’s my process. If you work best listening to something then why not try and find a podcast or audiobook on your topic? If in doubt, someone out there has made a Spotify ‘IC Playlist’ …there are some good ones on there!

Look after yourself!

Sleep is important, as is recognising your limits. There is no shame in not always replying to the competitive group chats of who has been camped out in the Diamond for the longest

amount of time. Remove yourself from situations that aren’t helpful and instead try spending quality time with the people who make you laugh after a long day, as this will help you rest and prepare for your next session. Whilst revising, don’t forget yourself, after all, we are only human and burning out in the first few days is never the answer.

If you’re taking some time out to look after yourself during exams and stressful situations they are always going to feel more manageable and ultimately be more successful.

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forgetoday.com

20

Luke Baldwin and Alicia Hannah Break Editors

Break This issue’s crossword is obviously on all things LGBT+, whether that be iconic figures, pop culture stand-outs or historical milestones

FUN FACT The word lesbian comes from the Greek island of Lesbos, home of the poet Sappho who expressed affection towards women in her work

We’re mixing things up this issue. In honour of LGBT+ history month we’re going through some of the most pivotal moments in queer history.

1951 – Roberta Cowell is the first known British trans woman to undergo reassignment surgery Cowell was a racing driver and World War II fighter pilot. She underwent a procedure which allowed her to change her gender to ‘female’ on her birth certificate.

1967 – the Sexual Offences Act decriminalises sex between two men over 21 However, this didn’t extend to the Navy, the Armed Forces, Scotland, Northern Ireland, Channel Islands, or the Isle of Man, where sex between two men remained illegal.

1969 – the Stonewall Riots A series of spontaneous, violent demonstrations occurred. Members of the LGBT+ community fought against a police raid on the Stonewall Inn in Manhattan. The event triggered the modern LGBT+ liberation movement

Down

1. Leonardo Da Vinci spent most of his life living in this Italian city (8) 5. Complete this Oscar Wilde quote “We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the...” (5) 8. This dance style is popular amongst LGBT+ community and is also a Madonna song (5) 10. First country to legalise same-sex marriage (11) 11. Which member of Queer Eye’s Fab 5 identifys as non-binary? (8) 13. There are this many stripes on the Pride flag (3) 14. British physicist Alan Turing famously broke which code, significantly shortening WW2 (6) 15. The opposite of a drag queen, a woman who performs dressed as a man is known as a drag what? (4) 16. Ellen Page breakout role was in this film where she played a pregnant teen (4)

2. The first gay kiss on British TV was on this soap (10) 3. Most recent Drag Race winner (8) 4. This mountain did wonders for two bisexual shephards, but people often mislabel them as gay cowboys (9) 6. Athlete Caitlyn Jenner won her gold medals in which event? (9) 7. Philip Schofield rose to fame on CBBC with his puppet companion, but what type of animal was Gordon? (6) 9. ‘A friend of Judy’ was a code in the 60s to identify fellow gay men, but what famous Judy is it commonly associated with? (7) 12. Titular character of the 2018 rom-com about a teenage boy struggling to come out (5)

1972 – the first Pride march is held in London, attracting around 2000 participants Today, Pride in London attracts up to a million people, with other Pride events happening throughout the year and across the UK.

Did you Know?

On this Gay

Across

1982 – Terry Higgins dies of AIDS in St Thomas’ Hospital His partner Rupert Whittaker, Martyn Butler and friends set up the Terrence Higgins Trust, the UK’s first AIDS charity. A year later, the government banned men who have sex with men from donating blood due to the AIDS crisis.

1992 – the World Health Organisation declassifies samesex attraction as a mental illness The specialised agency of the United Nations, established on 7 April 1948 and headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland, declassified same-sex attraction as a mental illness.

2004 – the Civil Partnership Act passes, granting civil partnership in the UK The Act gave same-sex couples the same rights as married oppositesex couples. Years later in 2013, the Marriage (Same-Sex Couples) Act was passed, legalising same-sex marriages.

(Luke)

1.Florence 2.EastEnders 3.Vivienne 4.Brokeback 5.Stars 6.Decathlon 7.Gopher 8.Vogue 9.Garland 10.Netherlands 11.Jonathan 12.Simon 13.Six 14.Enigma 15.King 16.Juno

Crossword

Hello guys and gays and welcome to a very special issue of Break, where just like the rest if Forge Press we are celebrating all things LGBT+ in honour of LGBT+ history month.

So expect themed crosswords, a look through queer history and even a handpicked selection of the gayest Sheffessions.

Also let me take this opportunity

to plug my painfully amateruish drag. So keep an eye out for Sally Sinnerman, coming to your SU very soon. (I also have a blank instagram which I’ll upload to as soon as I’ve made my face look even half decent) So readers let me leave you on this note: love is love so show compassion to those around you and make the world a better place!

Images courtesy of Wikimedia

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

21

Sheffessions Dating

GOING OUT-OUT

mates

...EVERYTHING ELSE

So I guess the story has a happy ending

http://_Sheffessions #Sheffession8277 I’m on cheer and I’m scared to tell my friends I’m a lesbian because I don’t know how they’ll react! But I want them to be a part of my dating life. Advice please!

Ella Furness: Personally being on Pom I know we have girls who are LGBTQ+. �

It can be scary sharing something so important to you but Pom girls (and I’m certain stunt cheer) will love and support you no matter what your sexuality is.� my inbox is always open xx Ellie-Jane Piper: As a former Pom cheerleader, many girls past and present have been LGBTQ+ and is so nothing to be scared of! Sending all the love and support xxx Olivia Whyley: I’m on cheer and just hope whoever wrote this knows how supportive myself and all the other girls are.� love is love and we are all here for you gal x

Stressing about what the future holds? Flunked your exams and worrying about the resuls? Do you have grad job uncertainty? Check your horoscope and see what is in store for your future.

Horoscope

Disclaimer: This may be made up

#Sheffession7347 Moving into endcliffe last year I met my flatmate for the first time, and her mum.

That night my flatmate told me she was gay, but that she hadn’t come out to her parents yet as she was unsure how they’d react. Throughout the year, every time she went home her mum (who I’d only ever met that one time) would drop hints about how we should become a couple.

I’m a guy, so obviously it wouldn’t quite work out... Eventually her whole family started trying to set us up. Fast forward to May and her 12 year old cousin randomly messages me telling me how much my flatmate fancies me and how she’s madly in love (including a rather bizarre message about how she likes my ‘normal brown boy hair’, whatever that means). I was trying to think of a way of telling this girl “I’m not quite your cousin’s typeâ€? without outing her to her familyđ&#x;˜‚đ&#x;˜‚ Anyway, this summer she finally came out to her parents, and apparently it went really well and they were very accepting.

#Sheffession7075 if you haven’t been to grapefruit before, you’re really missing out. non-stop fun and wholesomeness with no judgement and whole square metres to yourself for a big ol bop around, 10/10 #Sheffession7609 Sheffield Drag Soc were absolute FIRE opening for the Vivienne #Sheffession6129 Dempseys is so polluted that Greta Thunberg is scheduling a UN talk about it. #Sheffession7419 I know lots of people either shit on the gender neutral toilets or like them cos they can fuck, but personally as a nonbinary person they make me feel so so so validated in such an unbelievably cisgendered world. They make me so happy to be at this university-so thank you to whoever made these happen you will never know how happy you make the non binary students of this uni xxxx

Aries (Mar 21-Apr 19)

Try not to takeaway Funky food lies in the future for you, Aries. Try not to get a takeaway for a while, I can sense some dodgy dinner and stomach ache.

#Sheffession7050 I’m a lesbian and I’m scared to come out to my homophobic family so I thought I’d at least come out to sheffessions. I’m gay *rainbow emoji* #Sheffession6154 No one can ever complain to me about walking up Conduit after i’ve just done it in Full Drag xoxo. #Sheffession7685 Top tip for all the straight girls out there, ask your lesbian friends for sex advice.

They know how to pleasure themselves and other girls, so they be damn good at getting girls to orgasm. Love from a straight girl who greatly benefited from this. đ&#x;?łď¸?â€?đ&#x;Œˆ #Sheffession5050 All of you moaning about Tinder back home in the arse end of nowhere, try being gay. I just got a message on Grindr from my old English Teacher. Fml

Libra (Sep 23-Oct 22)

Cutting ties There’s someone close to you but you’re not really sure why? They don’t enrich your life, in fact they’re sort of toxic. Time to get rid!

Taurus (Apr 20-May 20)

Scorpio (Oct 23-Nov 21)

Fortune in your future Treat yourself because you’ve got cash on the way. Could be a lottery win or just a tenner on the floor, not sure on the specifics.

Let loose A night out is on the cards for you

Gemini (May 21-Jun 20)

Sagittarius (Nov 22-Dec 21)

Expanded palette There’s some food you’ve hated

since being a child. Olives, sprouts, gherkins, something you’ve just always despised. But not anymore!

Looking good You’ve either just had or are about to have a major glow up so embrace it.

Change up your outfit or hair, you’ll look great regardless!

Cancer (Jun 21-Jul 22)

Capricorn (Dec 22-Jan 19)

Greener pastures Been thinking about a holiday? Well do it, there’s never been a better time for you to jump on a budget airline flight and take a break.

Job success Get those applications sent off because your dream job is just around the corner. Already got a job?

Even better, you’ll be the boss soon!

Leo (Jul 23-Aug 22)

Aquarius (Jan 20-Feb 18)

Valentine time Had your eye on that special someone? Now is the time to make a move. Ask them on a romantic date to Flavours and never look back.

Job failure Hey Aquarius, now is the time for a clean up. Get rid of dusty rooms, straggling friends, and pointless problems. Have a life declutter.

Virgo (Aug 23-Sep 22)

Pisces (Feb 19-Mar 20)

Deadline looming Virgo, you better check Blackboard - you have a deadline that’s coming earlier than you think. Get to the IC before it’s too late.

Scorpio. Get your mates together and bop down West Street. Though if any of them are Aries, watch out..

An enigma You’re mysterious. The universe is sending me lots of mixed messages which is usually a bad sign. Just try to keep your head down for a bit.

22

forgetoday.com

Spotlight

What’s On

Wednesday 12 February - Wednesday 19 February

GIAG Liverpool day out National hot chocolate week

Interval, 10-15 February Indulge in a range of creative hot chocolate flavours. Perfect to meet-up with friends over after the exam season or to celebrate getting throguh this first week of exams with!

Venture with the GIAG team to the land of the Beatles and the home of Liverpool FC and Everton. This city has a number of cultural landmarks for you to explore: The Albert Dock complex, the Beatles Story museum, the Tate Liverpool gallery, the International Slavery Museum and the World Museum Liverpool.

The trip will run with an 8am departure from the Glossop Road entrance to Bar One. You will then be expected to be at the Liverpool meeting point at the end of the day at 4.45pm, to travel back to Sheffield.

16 February, 8am -5pm Tickets: £24.75 (£19.25 with Res Life) can be bought on the SU website.

like a girl

Grapefruit presents Kim Woodburn: How clean is your drag house

Galentine’s Day is coming along, and what’s better than spending the night with the queen herself, Lizzo?

Join the Leadmill as they spin the best anti-fuckboy tunes and host the ultimate female power party.

And what’s better did you say? The photobooth will be half price!

The Leadmill, 13 February 11pm-4am Tickets online or on entry.

Believe this or not my loves, Britain’s own Queen of Clean is gracing the Grapefruit stage- bringing her charm and charisma in the bucket loads for another fantastically fruity night of drag and decadence You want trouble? You’ve got it: All scrubbed up and ready to face the Cleaning Queen, a host of Queens and Kings from local Drag Houses will be joining us on the Foundry catwalk. Kim will also be taking part in a live Q&A on stage, followed by a free meet & greet.

Tickets can be purchased onthe Founfry website or at the SU Box Office.

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Wednesday 12 February 2020

23

Spotlight

Society Spotlight Drag Society

Getting to know...

Ben Warner Editor-in-Chief

This year has seen the University of Sheffield’s Drag Society, now in its second year, really come into its own in terms of becoming a real Students’ Union fixture.

Following a packed out Freshers’ Week show, the group of drag kings and queens have gone from strength to strength, culminating in opening for the winner of Ru Paul’s Drag Race UK, The Vivienne, when she performed at the Foundry in December.

We sat down with three members of the committee and spoke to them about what it was like to perform with The Vivienne, and how it feels to be one of the hottest societies at Sheffield Students’ Union.

“DragSoc is a safe space for you to come and try out, and enjoy the art of drag, whether you just want to try out the makeup, or get some

tips from our artists,” said president Anna Newman, who performs under the persona Jamie Pizzazz.

“We do also have opportunities to perform if that’s what you want to do.”

Anna started the society when she began her course in 2018, and sometimes last year there were only a few people at their weekly meetings, but now the society has transformed into a cast which now

We’re constantly being amazed when someone comes on and what they bring to drag, there’s a lot of individuality has “12 ready-to-go performers”, and is regularly being booked for shows, instead of having to produce

their own. Having appeared prior to The Vivienne at Grapefruit, they have also been booked for the next Grapefruit as well.

As well as having a large cast of drag queens, DragSoc also features kings as part of their performance, and are pleased with the amount of individuality which can be seen in their actsa.

“We’re constantly being amazed when someone comes on and what they bring to drag, and there’s a lot of individuality in the society,” said JD Holland, the treasurer.

“We have people who sing, people who dance, people who pole-dance now. It’s amazing.”

At the minute, Dragsoc aren’t in the financial situation to be able to support people in creating personas, but do hope that is something they could start to do in future, by making financial packages.

Despite that, any student is welcome to come to the weekly

Wednesday sessions to experience being part of the society, without any pressure to pay for membership until they’re sure it’s for them.

Memberships are currently £5 a

‘Can I do drag even though I’m a straight man?’

Absolutely, when do you want to go shopping at Superdrug? semester, or £10 for the year.

The society welcomes people getting in touch about how they might get into doing drag, even if they can’t offer any financial support. In JD’s words, “we all get messages saying ‘can I do drag even though I’m a straight man?’

Absolutely, when do you want to go to Superdrug?”

The committee seem to be in a bit of disbelief at the rate of growth, and with people who want to come and perform with the society, and appearing alongside The Vivienne has been the icing on the cake, especially when she’d regularly pop out from her dressing room and watch the DragSoc acts do their thing.

“I spent half of Grapefruit crying backstage because this thing that I’d spent the last six months joking about creating had grown, and a year later I was opening for the winner of Drag Race UK, alongside ten drag children thanking me for making it and realising I’d had an impact on people’s lives. It’s extremely overwhelming,” said Anna.

Sam Andrew, the vice-president, added: “We’re still chuffed when we see ourselves being praised. It’s still strange.”

Trust us Sam, there’s plenty more coming.

forgetoday.com

24

Kate Procter and Rosie Davenport Arts Editors

Arts

Welcome back to Arts and Happy New Year! In this issue we are celebrating Arts-related LGBT+ topics. Rosie spoke to the creator of Sounds Queer, a variety evening that has created a safe space for queer voices to be promoted. We also have an interview by Kate with the writer, Leo Mercer, of Guy: A New Musical, which visits Sheffield’s Theatre Deli

“I can’t imagine gay life without the internet”: Leo Mercer on writing a musical about Grindr INTERVIEW

Kate Procter Arts Editor

Grindr is not the most romantic place to meet your soulmate. The dating app for gay men arranges profile photos in order of proximity and has a seedy reputation for its use to arrange quick sex. It therefore seems an unusual source of inspiration for a rom-com musical. However, Leo Mercer, lyricst and book writer, assures me the app’s usage is more complex than it appears.

Mercer is one half of musical theatre company leo&hyde, set up in 2017 with composer Stephen Hyde. The pair met while studying at Oxford University (Philosophy and Theology for Mercer, Music for Hyde), and share a mission

to reinvent musicals with their electropop infused contemporary stories.

The first show they created, The Marriage of Kim K, is a Goggleboxinspired musical that merges The Marriage of Figaro with Keeping up with the Kardashians. The music is equally genre-defying, including electropop, classical opera, and contemporary musical theatre. I caught the show in November at The Drama Studio during its second tour where its blend of high and low culture proved hugely popular.

Guy: A New Musical is the pair’s second show which first went on tour in 2018. Described as “Bridget Jones meets Queer As Folk with a catfishing electronic musical twist”, it tells the story of Guy, a young, shy gay man, who feels he doesn’t fit in with the body-conscious

gay community. Depressed and overweight, when he is rebuffed by his ‘soulmate’ on Grindr he uses his best friend’s photo to become a catfish with predictable consequences. Spurred on by what could be possible if only he looked different, Guy joins a gym and turns into a Grindr ho. In the process he is forced to confront his inner demons, as he pushes away everyone close to him.

Now on its second tour, with the addition of some new catchy songs, the show is visiting Theatre Deli this month. “This is our largest tour,” Mercer says, “and I think that is because it feels like a very current story.”

Before arriving in Sheffield, they’ll have visited Hexham, Saltburn and Hartlepool - to name but a few Northern towns not well

this month. Sheffield Museums is also telling LGBT+ stories with its collection, Proud!, which this issue includes a feature on. The theme of underrepresentation continues with our opinion piece from Betty Wilson on the controversial Barnes & Noble re-design of classic books covers.

We hope our section is inspirational and helps champion all voices equally.

known for their theatrical scenes.

However, Mercer says, “they’re loving it and you realise there is a massive appetite and demand for really fresh stuff in these places so it’s been really fun going to smaller places.”

Mercer also feels pop musicals are having a moment. From Six to Dear Evan Hansen, crowds are being drawn by these shows’ newer sound.

The music comes first for him and Hyde: “As a duo we love popelectronic so we are always looking for stories that belong in that world and a story about the internet just felt perfect for that.”

He was inspired to write a story about the experiences of millenial gay men who “grew up with the gay community as an online community.”

He says: “I can’t imagine gay life without the internet... I think this generation is very acutely aware of the emotions of having the internet around you and I think it is important that there is a show out there that you can watch and realise you’re not the only person dealing with the internet right now.”

Mercer admits that Grindr has a “seedy reputation as a sex app” but wants to show that “for every werid coversation that is happening there is a conversation happening between two very nice people.” He

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

says, as is the case for other dating apps, there is the potential to show “these beautiful moments of people meeting online.”

However, he admits there is a somewhat “utopian vision of meeting someone on the other side of the world, talking and falling in love”, where in reality “half the time your speaking to people and the other half you’re looking at the people you want to be speaking to and trying to work out why they are not responding to you.”

Mercer finds the picture-centric nature of dating apps interesting.

“One of the key themes of the show is this notion of what seeing other people’s pictures does to you and your sense of self-confidence.” In this way, in particular, he feels the emotional male characters in Guy fill roles typically played by a women in a classic rom-com (“I think gay men are in a similar position with the pressures to look beautiful”).

When it comes to catfishing, with the show he wants to explore “regardless of whether it’s right or wrong, why does a person choose to do it, what emotional corner have they been pushed into such that they feel the need to be somebody else online.”

As a self-confessed introvert, he says the characters in Guy are also quite introverted - “always living in their own head and thinking too much” - but he also feels it is important “show characters who have a very self-possessed, internal world and are at one with that and don’t need to do anything extrovert to find themselves.” He is comparing his show specifically to Everybody’s Talking About Jamie - itself only having just returned to Sheffield ahead of its national tour - in which the titular character dresses in drag.

Ultimately, he sees the “contemporary online gay community as its own very specific world with it’s own language and look”. However, while it may appear “one-dimensional” he says that we need to recognise “that each profile has a human being sitting on the other side who is going through some interesting individual emotional journey and if you tell that story the right way it can speak to anybody.”

Guy: A New Musical is showing at Theatre Deli on Friday 14 February.

25

Arts

Left: Publisher TBWA\Chiat\Day spearheaded ‘The Diverse Editions’ project for Barnes and Noble.

Above: Book cover of best-seller Crazy Rich Asians.

“Literary blackface”: Why race-swapping book

covers fails to increase representation in publishing

OPINION Betty Wilson Arts Contributor

Last week, Barnes & Noble, America’s largest bookseller, unveiled a new book series – “Diverse Editions” to kick off Black History Month in the United States. At a time when companies are looking to increase representation, you’d be forgiven for expecting this new series to spotlight authors of colour or books centred on racial minorities.

However, that’s not what Barnes & Noble decided to do this year.

Instead, they planned on releasing new covers for twelve literary classics, now portraying the protagonists as ‘culturally diverse’. From a new portrayal of Frankenstein’s monster with black instead of green skin, and a copy of Alice in Wonderland with a Native American Alice on the cover, this attempt falls drastically short of fixing any problem and instead highlights the severe lack of representation in the publishing industry.

The bookstore, whose initiative has since been scrapped, had identified the literary titles using artificial intelligence to analyse one hundred of the most famous classic works and choose ones where the ethnicity of the protagonists is unidentified.

This clearly isn’t the right move to make when trying to

increase racial representation in literature. Merely redesigning the covers doesn’t change the content of these books and can lead to incorrect expectations for what the characters may represent for readers. The notion featured on the back covers that “for the first time ever, all parents will be able to pick up a book and see themselves in a story,” makes the misleading assumption that by merely imaging Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz as Asian, the text suddenly becomes representative. The narrative of a young white girl being swept away

Merely redesigning the covers doesn’t change the content of these books and can lead to incorrect expectations for what the characters may represent for readers from her home in Kansas versus that of an Asian lead isn’t the same.

The redesign of Frankenstein goes as far as presenting the newly black skinned protagonist as a negative representation of monstrosity as their original green skin makes them distinctively different. This isn’t the representative narrative

that Barnes and Noble thought they were achieving. Ultimately, the new covers present the view that the appearance of representation is enough to solve the problem.

A study in 2016 found that 79 per cent of the American publishing industry is white, while in the UK this figure has been estimated to be as high at 90 per cent. This has obvious repercussions on the type of books that make it onto shelves.

If asked to name authors of colour, most people would struggle to recall even big names such as Malorie Blackman or Toni Morrison, whose books are rarely included on school curriculums.

In the last few years, there have been some hugely successful books by authors of colour which depict the intricate lives of their characters.

Angie Thomas’s The Hate U Give which focuses on police brutality in the African American community or Crazy Rich Asians by Kevin Kwan, both of which were adapted into films in 2018, are examples of the type of books that publishers should be promoting in their attempts to be more representative. These books actually focus on narratives of race and racial identities instead of just redesigning a cover and hoping that it will encourage people to believe that these classics are actually representative of cultural communities.

After severe criticism, notably from racial justice organisation Color of Change who called the new covers

“literary blackface” as well as many authors online, Barnes & Noble decided to withdraw the redesigns.

The company stated that “the covers are not a substitute for black voices or writers of colour, whose work and voices deserve to be heard. The booksellers who championed this initiative did so convinced it would help drive engagement with these classic titles.”

Yet there still appears to be no attempt to solve the true problem.

Yes, the covers are being viewed as a mistake but there is no new push to actually diversify the industry or the books on sale in the wake of this.

This “superficial fix” to the real issue isn’t being followed by an actual resolution. The publishing industry needs to realise that representation is deeper than just publicity stunts.

It’s not going to be achieved merely by flying a few rainbow flags for Pride or redesigning some classics covers for Black History month, bigger changes are needed and it needs to start with the stories that are published and the authors who write them.

26

forgetoday.com

Arts “I want people from all ages, even the fresh, baby-faced queers”

level, where the rest of society might not. At its core it is trying to grow a community of people from anywhere. Obviously, student societies are for students but I wanted to make it for anyone. I want people from all ages, even the fresh baby-faced queers.

What topics are often covered in your shows?

Nothing is off the table. We have had all sorts come up. I think that’s a tough question because a lot of the performances aren’t actually about queer content necessarily.

The performers just happen to be queer. A lot of people will say to me that they don’t have queer material and that is perfectly fine. You don’t have to talk about being queer just because you are. That is not entirely who you are, it is just a part of you.

For some people it’s really not a big deal. For me it is because it has taken over my life, and I am so in love with being queer and involved in the queer community and doing work for it.

Spoken-word performer Talya Stitcher on

creating safe spaces for the LGBT+ community

INTERVIEW Rosie Davenport Arts Editor

Talya Stitcher regretted not getting involved in the queer community while studying in Leeds, so when she moved to Sheffield she threw herself in the deep end. She wanted to create a regular event where queer artists are encouraged to perform in a space that is going to accept and promote them.

Stitcher and her co-producer Tommi Bryson formed Sounds Queer, with its first show taking place in the Cellar Theatre in March 2019. “We wanted to make sure we weren’t gate-keeping on ability or ‘how queer’ someone is. If you are queer or questioning in any kind of way then you can feature,” she tells me as we sit down for a chat at Interval. What follows is a candid conversation on everything from armpit hair to emotional performances.

How has writing poetry helped you work through personal issues?

I wrote a poem about my armpit hair.

It is supposed to be a bit funny and about accepting it as a part of me and realising it didn’t matter what other people thought about it because I really liked it. I have also found that a lot of the time when I write I don’t use pronouns at all. If I’m

writing about a love interest, I tend to go completely neutral. These are things that have started appearing in my writing since becoming more comfortable with my sexuality.

Which queer artists or artists addressing LGBT+ issues inspire you?

Travis Alabanza and Alok VaidMenon. They care so much about what they are doing and saying whilst being so unapologetic on social media and in their work.

They wrote a show called Burgerz, about how someone threw a burger at them in the street and shouted offensive slurs at them. They took that one moment and wrote an entire show about what makes up a burger and what makes up a person, and why we do these things to each other. They are truly inspirational because having someone visible is really important, and they are very visible. They would be my ultimate headliners.

What was the purpose of creating Sounds Queer?

Our aim is to help rising performers and grow a community, to give queer voices a platform and a safe space to be themselves and express themselves. A space where regardless of how you identify or your own personal situation, people understand you – at least on some

Are there any performers that have stuck with you?

One person who performed at the open-mic was shy and nervous and then they sang acapella, and their voice was so beautiful. I felt everyone lean forward in their seats.

They kept coming back and doing the open mic. At the last event we had, before they sang they made this little announcement, to say thank you to us for creating a space where they felt safe, loved and accepted, because some people in their life didn’t know about how they identify. They felt safe to be all their authentic self and I honestly nearly cried, because that meant so much to me.

How can people get involved?

Anyone can attend and anyone can do the open-mic, with featured spots reserved for those who are queer or questioning. It is literally any kind of art form imaginable welcome. People can like our Facebook page and our Instagram (@soundsqueer.sheffield) to follow the postings of our events. If people want to perform, open-mic is just sign up on the night or you can email in advance (queernightcellar@ gmail.com) to express your interest.

Sounds Queer’s next social will be on Tuesday 18 February at Birdhouse.

They will be collaborating with Weston Park, Sheffield Museums in May.

FEATURE

Queering the collection: Finding LGBT+ stories in Sheffield’s past

Weston Park Museum Kate Procter Arts Editor

The history of Sheffield’s LGBT+ community has remained largely uncovered. Where queer history has been documented in England, it has typically focused on southern cities - London, Brighton and Bristol are well-known for their LGBT communities. Recently, cities further north including Birmingham and Manchester have undertaken heritage projects to research and archive the unrecorded lives of LGBT+ people who live and have lived there. Now, a new collection by Museums Sheffield aims to do the same.

Opened in October 2019 at Weston Park Museum, Proud! has been organised by Clara Morgan, Curator of Social History at Museums Sheffield, who spotted the gap in the museum’s social history collection.

Talking to her in front of the display, she tells me: “All we really had was some sexual health leaflets from the early 2000s… and even though the leaflets are interesting they’d come straight from the clinic so they had no personal story attached to them.”

Clara had also noticed that the museum wasn’t getting any LGBT+ related artefacts donated. “People weren’t thinking of us as a place for those collections. Sometimes it’s because they are quite recent and people don’t think of items from the last few decades as history.

But because we try to reflect contemporary life you have to collect things now so you have them for the future.”

Using funding from the National Lottery Heritage Fund, Clara set about creating the collection with the help of co-creators from Sheffield’s LGBT+ community. Together, they gathered items and set themes for what should be included in the display - from coming out to local protests to civil partnerships and marriage. “It was a bit of a risk and I just hoped we would get the right kind of group and support from people in Sheffield generally so that we could create the display,” Clara tells me. However, it actually proved to be “surprisingly easy” and they ended up with a massive collection, including items lent by the cocreators, to then narrow down for the display.

When it came to writing the descriptions, it was important to

Clara t h a t r a t h e r than a curator’s voice telling the items’ stories, the co-curators and individual donors explained their importance. From a post-operative compression binder to a messy teenage diary, these item’s stories are best told by their owners.

However, there are also some older items to represent historical figures. This presented a challenge for Clara given these people - from Roman emperors to a musical hall actress from the early 20th century - wouldn’t have used modern day terminology and not recognised the same identity categories.

But what does at least show is a history of queerness and a source of inspiration to modern society.

Clara’s passion for the collection is palpable. She herself is not a member of LGBT+ community and in the process of making the collection she says she has been on an educational journey, including recognising heteronormativity in society. At one point during our conversation she tells me about her excitement upon receiving a steward’s badge from Chequers, the first regular LGBT+ disco in Sheffield, set up in the late 1970s.

“It might seem so strange for me to get so excited by a plastic badge but it’s just so hard to capture some aspects of history,” she says.

For other memories which can’t be represented by objects, Clara is collecting oral histories to be archived.

Currently the display will stay in the museum until the end of July, however Clara hopes that it can stay for longer. “For a lot of people you wouldn’t really see this kind of representation in a museum because the collections weren’t there or there was reticence from some institutions about having them.

“The legacy of this collection is to keep on representing Sheffield and already we’ve had a few other offers so it shows that people now know that we care.”

forgetoday.com

28

Dana Raer and Ella Craig Music Editors

Music

Welcome back after a well-deserved holiday! We’re back with a range of features, including one to introduce you to LGBT+ History Month surrounding the history of LGBT+ artists who sparked a change to the stigma of sexuality in music.

We also have another feature about The Leadmill’s contribution to Sheffield’s music scene over the last 40 years since it opened its doors.

Image credits: Treefor Music Fest. Modifications

by Dana Raer and Ella Craig

Image credits: Sam Smithpitpony.photography Kim Petras- Ted Eytan

Putting the Blues in the rainbow...

OPINION Tom Buckland Secretary

When it comes to LGBT+ artists, their evident existence doesn’t bubble up to the surface until recent, up-and-coming and popular artists that everyone knows and loves now just so happen to be LGBT+. Sam Smith, Lizzo, Years and Years and Sia are a mix of names that many are adding to their casual playlists.

And who’s to blame them? These artists are forcing their way onto the mainstream stage, with Lizzo and her iconic ‘Juice’ being a household name at this point. But what stands out in contrast to the rise of LGBT+ artists is why on earth it’s only happening now; LGBT+ people have been around since the dawn of time – so where were they before?

The biggest issue to consider is the concept of the “Death of the Author”, and to summarise without a bunch of theoretical waffle, this is the ability to separate the creator from the created. Though it’s typically associated with writing, it is readily and easily applied to many to other creative outlets, including music.

It can be easy to presume why LGBT+ music isn’t as blatant in the past when considering this concept. Homophobia is historically prevalent, so LGBT+ artists could understandably tend to avoid

This issue’s continuing feature on university bands and societies presents ways you can get involved with the Medics’ Orchestra.

We are also excited to have reviews of Bombay Bicycle Club live at the O2 Academy, written by our Opinion Editor, Jack Mattless, as well as an album review of Louis Tomlinson’s latest album Walls.

labelling their sexuality in the public sphere and remain closeted – as did many other LGBT+ people in different environments, like actors and actresses during the 1950s and 60s in Hollywood.

However, it’s not as simple as that. David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music, a book

by Darryl W Bullock, examines the history of LGBT+ music closely and claims that queer music was evident in the early 1900s in the world of blues and jazz. Tony Jackson, a renowned and popular pianist at the time, who rivalled Jelly Roll Morton himself, was openly gay.

He is believed to have created the cinematic stereotype of the “saloon pianist” we regularly digest, and wrote the song ‘Pretty Baby’ in the 1910s. These are two highly commendable accolades that you wouldn’t expect an American LGBT+ artist to achieve – especially when they were so openly gay at the time.

However, in history, Tony Jackson is not the rising symbol of blues and jazz culture that he appears to be when placed alongside Jelly Roll Morton. His accolades are impressive and yet fall a little short.

‘Pretty Baby’ is rumoured to have had its lyrics modified, no longer about Jackson’s gay lover, and it was also reworked by lyricist Gus Kahn and composer Robert Van Alystne for Broadway and a commercial publication. Jackson thankfully received a composer credit but

reports later show he sold the rights to ‘Pretty Baby’ for a measly $45, and so Jackson faded into obscurity.

He wasn’t the only loud and proud queer voice amongst the blues scene, though, with individuals such as Ma Rainey and Gladys Jackson also fighting the fight. Ma Rainey was a queer woman of colour who hinted at lesbianism and bisexuality within her music, such as the 1928 song ‘Prove It On Me’.

In his book Bullock continues to detail several artists that are forgotten about or unappreciated during their lifetime. Billy Tipton, a respected jazz musician during the 40s, 50s and 60s, had a lot he kept hidden and it wasn’t until his death in 1989 that his family revealed that he was transgender. Even his own sons only found out about his identity once Billy passed.

There’s a recurring pattern of LGBT+ artists not being viewed with perfect clarity until it’s too late, and they’re lost in history. It’s a shame, but it’s by no means a surprise to see it. Yet in today’s climate, it feels like sexuality is next to irrelevant when it comes to appreciating a musician and their craft, but that shouldn’t be the case. Artists in all mediums set a precedent and serve to be role models, and musicians are some of the strongest mainstream examples.

Music is listened to voluntarily and involuntarily at least once a day, and it’s hard to avoid – so what

these musicians do and who they are is essential. Bullock has explained that Tom Robinson and his 1978 queer post-punk anthem ‘Glad to be Gay’ was one of the first that made a huge impression on Robinson. He had recently come out and originally believed there were no songs that he, as an LGBT+ person, could imprint on. In 2020, this is still very much the case, or at least it should be.

Music and its artists are enjoyed because their songs relate to and attract their listeners. LGBT+ artists are vital and integral when it comes to people shaping their LGBT+ identity, and even if people who have absolutely realised identities don’t consider their favourite artist’s identity to be relevant, it is essential that they consider many others in the world will. When you are telling friends or family about a musician or artist that you enjoy, ensure that the artist’s identity is made known – because it’s important. LGBT+ youth and even its community as a whole need to know that they’re not the only ones dancing to the beat of a different drum.

Some LGBT+ artists you may not have heard of...

Kim Petras – Despite steadily forcing her way into the mainstream, Kim Petras is still massively unappreciated.

A transgender artist with a bubbly, electric, bubblegum pop sound – her music will be hard to stop dancing to.

Vincint – Though he’s been on reality TV and should have been a name on everyone’s lips, he’s another unrecognized name. A queer artist led by the works of vocal divas like Whitney Houston and Celine Dion and other LGBT+ icons such as David Bowie and Madonna, his music is inspired.

Christine and the Queens – A French singer who has worked with the likes of Charli XCX and featured on RuPaul’s Drag Race, it’d be foolish to give her only a brief glance and mild interest. She has such a unique, Poppy sound that is so indescribably infatuating it’s hard not to fall in love.

Sir Babygirl – A smaller, more unique name on this list, but that’s why they’re so enticing. A non-binary artist with a peculiar, quirkier sound that you wouldn’t think work and yet it absolutely does. Their style is heavily based upon other pop idols like Britney Spears and Katy Perry but their music has an eccentric twist that focuses on relatable teen issues.

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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Music

Celebrating 40 years of The Leadmill FEATURE Ella Craig Music Editor

In 1980, what came to be known as the best music venue in Sheffield opened its doors, welcoming local artists looking for a place to play.

Flash forward 40 years and The Leadmill is still doing exactly that, only on a slightly bigger scale.

The music scene in Sheffield would be completely different if The Leadmill wasn’t here With an extensive list of successful artists who have graced the stage throughout the years - Pulp, Arctic Monkeys, Annie Mac, Coldplay, Oasis, Lewis Capaldi, to name just a few - The Leadmill remains the hub for live music in Sheffield. The venue has had an award winning impact on the Sheffield music scene, gaining industry awards from Music Week, Live UK, Exposed magazine and NME. Frans Ferdinand, former member of Arcade Fire, once described The Leadmill as a “rite of passage”, showing just how impactful the venue has been to

REVIEW Louis Tomlinson: Walls Sahar Ghadirian Music Contributor

In the four years since One Direction’s ‘hiatus’ began, Louis Tomlinson has been working extremely hard to make his way as a solo artist. With a small catalogue of singles, it has taken Louis quite a few years to get to the point of a debut album release. The tribulations the singer has faced in such a short amount of time over this period have become an embodiment of the record he has created.

‘Kill My Mind’ serves as a great opener with its punchy, anthemic

the artists lucky enough to perform there.

Forge Music talked to Rebecca Walker, Senior Promoter and Assistant General Manager at The Leadmill, to discuss the iconic venue’s history, passion to support Sheffield’s community of local artists and what the future holds for this well-loved site.

“I think the music scene in Sheffield would be completely different if The Leadmill wasn’t here. Any band that is cutting their teeth on the music scene will go via The Leadmill at some stage in their career. It’s where people learn their craft, build their audience and make their memories.”

However, The Leadmill is more than just a live music venue, it is “an artistic collective.” It also hosts the Comedy Club (that has seen the likes of stand-up legends, including Jason Manford, Jo Lycett and Eddie Izzard), drag queen performances, regular club nights, DJ sets, cinema nights, podcasts and even it’s own radio and TV shows. “There’s definitely something for everyone - we don’t put on a bad show!”

The Leadmill strives to support local artists by providing them with a platform to perform on. The live music team, consisting of three industry experts who scout up-andcoming artists, focus on progressing artists from their 100 capacity

subsidiary, Café Totem, to an audience of 900 on their main stage, right up to performing to 20,000 fans at the Don Valley Bowl which is also a branch of The Leadmill’s evergrowing brand.

“The dream is to find the next Arctic Monkeys and go through that progression with them. We would love to find the homegrown talent to do this with and there are some brilliant things coming out of Sheffield at the minute. SHEAFS, Bang Bang Romeo, Bedroom High Club, Clear Vinyl and LIO are all from Sheffield and could all be the next

indie pop sound. With Louis drawing influences from artists such as Liam Gallagher and DMAs, it is clear that there is an element of their sound in the catchy chorus of this track. This song proves he has the capacity to sing alone and showcase his individual strength. The track differs from his previously released singles and features Louis’ rasping vocals. The accompanying upbeat drums and guitar further deliver the effect of 90s indie pop.

Similarly, the sound of ‘We Made It’ features both acoustic and heavily distorted guitar influences.

Tomlinson does not shy away from reclaiming the music he enjoyed as a teen. The lyrics contemplate the joy of sustaining an authentic romantic relationship despite the difficulties that come with success. The rest of the album builds on those themes in the form of personal discovery and awakening. The death of his mother and sister, along with the breakup

The dream is to find the next Arctic Monkeys and we would love to find the homegrown talent to do this with

Image credit: The Leadmill

big thing.”

The Leadmill hosted George Ezra back in 2013 to an audience of only 250 people. Then in 2018 the venue promoted George again, but his fanbase had grown to fill 7,500 seats at the Don Valley Bowl Arena.

Similarly, Lewis Capaldi performed as a support act to a crowd of just 100 back in 2017 and now three years along the line, Lewis is a chart

topping, Grammy nominated artist who started out at The Leadmill.

“To pinpoint a highlight of the past 40 years really depends on what decade you are in. In the 80s and 90s Pulp played here, but back then they weren’t massive so it wasn’t necessarily a highlight. But thinking about it historically, it was a huge deal.”

It’s clear that The Leadmill has been a huge success over the years, surviving three recessions

as an independent venue and it is currently thriving - so what more can we expect? “The future of the Leadmill is really exciting. We have a lot of different events coming up across different venues and we’re looking into doing things like cinema events in other venues as well. We also have club nights in Leeds and Manchester that we hope to expand to more student cities. It’s just about expanding the Leadmill’s brand.”

of the band, romantic breakups, controversies and living it all extensively through a public lens, it is clear he had to rediscover himself or some semblance of normality.

‘Always You’ is especially reflective of feeling lost in the haze of all that happens around you at such a time.

Whilst Tomlinson has clearly evolved musically from the band days, ‘Too Young’ sounds like it could be on the last One Direction album, providing a wistful and nostalgic sentiment for old and new fans.

Songs such as ‘Perfect Now’ are more lacklustre and serve more as a filler or merely an easy listening song.

The standouts on the album are ‘Walls’ and ‘Habit’; aptly representing the album as a whole.

‘Habit’ starts off with a ‘Champagne Supernova’-esque intro, recalling a time in the singer’s life when things were a lot simpler, despite it not really being simple at all. The

paradoxical element of needing a habit that is both positive and detrimental outlines how life is meant to be imperfect.

The Oasis influences are not just restricted to one or two tracks. The title track ‘Walls’ sees a similar Britpop style with the special addition of light drums and an orchestral background.

These elements tie in well with the lyrically challenging t h e m e s Tomlinson discusses.

Overall Walls is a positive start for Louis’ solo career.

Having previously stated that the response from his fanbase is the

most important reaction for him, hitting the number one spot in 30 countries upon its release proves his point. Whilst the album may not be for everyone, the global support the Doncaster singer has, as he embarks on his world tour this year, suggests he has a very promising and secure future ahead of him.

Image credit: Sony

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Music

Dana Raer interviews the president of Medics’ Orchestra, Anna Hughes-Lawson What is the Medics’ Orchestra?

It is a society that caters for a wide variety of musicians from Sheffield.

So we’re a non-audition orchestra which means you get a large variety of people that otherwise might have given up their instrument or that might not want to audition for another orchestra. We have more of the social side of an orchestra than rather a strict “you must be great” kind of thing. I would say it was founded at least ten years ago, and now there are 60 members.

It’s called the Medics’ Orchestra because we get funding from Medics’ Society so that is why we tend to have medics on the orchestra. It was founded by medical students who built around their schedules.

What type of musical events do you usually do every year?

We do two concerts per year, one at Christmas and one in spring. We do it for charity; we have one charity per year that we raise money for and for the last couple of years we’ve done St Luke’s Hospice, which is Sheffieldbased. We raise on average over £1,000 a year. We think we’ve just raised approximately £500 pounds for the Winter concert we’ve done in December. For that concert, we filled up the St Mark’s Church. We played quite a big variety of music, everyone seemed to enjoy it because we did a space-themed concert. We had Holst ‘Planet Suite’ and the best Star Wars songs.

LIVE Bombay Bicycle Club at O2 Academy Jack Mattless Opinion Editor

Admittedly it’s been a while since I last properly listened to some guitar music. The tendency for every bar in Sheffield to blast out Arctic Monkeys whilst you try and enjoy your pint is frankly enough to put anyone off indie for life. Yet Bombay Bicycle Club’s recent gig at the O2 Academy was the perfect reminder of why its popularity endures.

The Big Moon provided a stellar supporting set, offering high-power renditions of tracks from both of their LPs which artfully engaged the

What is the theme for the upcoming concert?

It will happen on Saturday 9 May this year. The theme is romantic so we’re going to do Swan Lake and more. We’ve got a committee meeting coming soon to sort out the music, but it is on a romantic theme.

What other themes have you done in the past?

We’ve done an ‘S’ theme, composers beginning with ‘S’ such as Schubert and others. We did a Michael Buble winter-themed concert last year so a lot of jazz music, or film music themes. Again, there is a wide variety of music. We have one rehearsal a week on a Friday evening for about two hours, so between eight to nine rehearsals for every concert.

Any socials?

Yes! Pancake socials, Notty House pie socials, we had a bake-off social once, roller skating, walks to the Peak District.

We do quite a few socials per year and obviously sometimes Pop Tarts.

In terms of socialising in the society, we have group chats for every section in the orchestra to encourage people to keep coming and keep them up to date. Within those group chats people become friends. It’s a social society really. We’ve also got a ball coming on the Friday 13 March. It’s the third year we’ve been doing this, so it’s still kind of new.

crowd in a way seldom seen during an opening set. There was a distinct lack of the usual background chatter and even a bit of a sing-along to 2017’s Cupid.

Bombay Bicycle Club themselves opened with ‘Eat, Sleep, Wake (Nothing But You)’ and ‘Is it Real’two belters from the new album Everything Else Has Gone Wrong before moving in to some slower paced tracks spanning their thirteen year discography. Whereas live sets can sometimes feel like a bit of a relentless assault on the

For how long have you played the clarinet and why this instrument in particular?

I have played the clarinet for 12-13 years, and honestly *laughs* I have big teeth. At first, I wanted to play the flute and practice playing it, but the teacher looked at me and said “you’ve got some big front teeth, I am going to put you in the clarinet queue”. So, I tried it and I was one of the few children who could play it. I really enjoyed it, I played in orchestras throughout my life, in different groups like the Sheffield Music Academy which is like Saturday school for people who are really interested in music so kind of kept it going.

When I came to university, I didn’t want to lose it. I really enjoyed playing it and I met quite a lot of my friends previously in orchestras so I thought it would be great to play in an orchestra. A committee role enabled me to encourage other people to come and play.

If you don’t use it, you lose it.

Carry on playing.

Images by Refractive Images

tracklist to the extent that there was a palpable sense of anticipation by the time the goofy piano riff of ‘Shuffle’ kicked in after fourteen songs.

If tensions had driven the desire to take a hiatus in 2016, they had clearly b e e n well ironed o u t prior to this

and frequently chatted to an enthusiastic crowd that never let their avid displays of support drift into unneccesary rowdiness. The call for an encore was pleasantly restrained and the subsequent renditions of ‘Everything Else Has Gone Wrong’ and ‘Always Like This’ were slickly and emotionally delivered without the whole thing ever drifting into excess. All told, the gig served as a timely reminder that if you’ve got a solid bank of songs up your sleeve and a decent degree of chemistry then the rest usually follows pretty easily. The whole night was musically impressive without ever being too showy - a rare thing indeed.

Do you believe playing in an orchestra can be therapeutic?

Yes, especially for those studying more difficult degrees like engineering, it is quite good to have time off where you can just play music. It’s quite cheesy, but it does nourish the soul. You don’t think about your degree, you just have fun.

It’s like you’re switching off from it and when you’re coming back to studying, you’re focusing more.

eardrums, everything here was perfectly paced and it was clear the band had thought hard about the

Image credit: Pomona of

performance.

Jack Steadman was visibly delighted to be in the company his fellow band members

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Dan Cross & Josh Teggert Screen Editors

Screen REVIEW Film: Portrait of a Lady on Fire Annabel Goldsmith Screen Contributor

Celine Sciamma’s Portrait of a Lady on Fire was one of the front runners for the Palme D’or at Cannes Film Festival and won the Queer Palm, making Sciamma the first female director to win the award, as well as the Prix du Scénario. Undoubtedly, the film is well deserving of these high awards and is Sciamma’s best feature yet.

Portrait of a Lady on Fire is set on an isolated French Island in the fin de siècle of the 18th century. We enter this world through the eyes of the young painter Marianne (Noémie Merlant), who is commissioned to paint a portrait of a woman for

an organised marriage proposal. A complication arises, however, with Marianne being informed that the lady she has been commissioned to paint, Héloïse (Adèle Haenel, who shines with her incredibly intense performance), has previously refused to be painted as she does not want to be married to one whom she does not love. Marianne has to paint her surreptitiously in the guise of a

walking partner for her to gain her trust, but only to end up falling in love.

We realise that you’ll probably have read several of these editorials by the time you get to us at little ol’ Screen, so we’re not going to bother welcoming you to the first issue of 2020. There’s plenty of new content in this issue; with this being a special LGBT+ edition of Forge Press, we’ve got a truly fantastic piece from our contributor Morgan Westwood-

This feature from Sciamma can be considered as wildly different from her previous films. She stated in an introduction preceding the screening at Portrait’s premiere at London Film Festival, that she has only made films “from a girl’s bedroom in contemporary France suburbs”, but the way she depicts this story through the female gaze with subjective styles of filming and intimately lit setting makes this lesbian love story feel timeless and not at all feel like a period film.

Portrait remains beautifully shot throughout that the film itself feels like a painting; there are some frames that would make for a great laptop screensaver. The cinematography by Claire Mathon was lauded upon the film’s first release and deservedly so. Each wide shot is composed with a finesse that not only emphasises the isolation of these two characters, as their figures move against the predominately empty scenery, but draws attention to the tenderness of Marianne and Héloïse. When another character

REVIEW Film: Richard Jewell Eve Thomas Screen Contributor

Critics describe this as Paul Walter Hauser’s breakout role Image: MovieDB

Richard Jewell tells the story of the dismal spiral which saw the hero of the Centennial Olympic Park bombing accused of planting the pipe bomb which killed one and injured one hundred and eleven others. The titular Richard Jewell (Paul Walter Hauser), obsessed with law-enforcement and desperate to be a cop, saved hundreds of lives only to find his own destroyed by the inexorable media after an FBI leak that revealed Jewell was the target of the investigation.

Hauser’s acting irrefutably deserves credit for the film’s success.

He portrays his character’s flaws honestly and brutally, establishing Jewell as an imperfect protagonist from the start. His fallacious trust in the menacing and manipulative FBI establishes an innocent

introduces their space, it feels like

The cinematography by Claire Mathon was lauded upon the film’s first release and deservedly so a disruption to the harmonious way these two characters become part of the island themselves, with the turbulent waves symbolising their wild passion for each other.

The performances by Merlant

Cooke on the history of LGBT+ representation in film. This article is sandwiched between two pages of reviews of the yet-to-be-released Portrait of a Lady on Fire by Annabel Goldsmith, Eve Thomas’ take on Clint Eastwood’s latest production, Richard Jewell, a film which illustrates what can happen when what is reported as fact obscures the truth, and finally Josh analyses the 2019 Cannes Film Festival Palme d’Or winner, Parasite.

and Haenel alone are deserving of the highest rating, yet where this film particular shines is through the almost poetic composition of the film itself — the film throughout invites you into this tender relationship with the sound design’s focus on breathing and Sciamma’s emphasis on close-ups of the actor’s features.

Alongside Haenel and Merlant’s brilliant physical performances their movement emphasising the words unsaid - Portrait of a Lady on Fire makes you feel every emotion shared between their characters, and remains fixed with you well after the film concludes.

In France, 1770, a forbidden love affair blossoms.

Image: MovieDB

strangeness to his character, which portrays him as both child-like and disturbingly adult in his fascination with guns, hunting and the military.

Clint Eastwood’s utilisation of claustrophobic scenes, saturated with people, gives the audience a sense of the entrapment Jewell’s character experiences, relieved only by the presence of Jewell’s lawyer, Watson Bryant (Sam Rockwell).

Rockwell’s performance is equally noteworthy, as he dominates scenes with his character’s brash tone and pronounced sense of justice. The two work as polar opposites to create an endearing duo, as one learns that the law enforcement is not always righteous, and the other learns the good-heartedness of his client.

However, the representation of women within the film is certainly unsettling, particularly Kathy Scrugg (Olivia Wilde) who the film inaccurately portrays as trading sex for tips. Her over-sexualised and over-ambitious representation is misogynistic and degrading, and is the film’s only shortcoming.

Although Wilde plays her character’s shrewd nastiness admirably, the fact remains that Eastwood’s film adds

unfounded and unnecessary slutshaming to an otherwise largely accurate retelling of events.

Remarkable amongst the factual recounting is the level of emotion achieved in Billy Ray’s scriptwriting.

Paired with the outstanding delivery

by Kathy Bates, Bobi Jewell’s press conference brought the audience to an overwhelmingly quiet silence.

The raw emotion of a family torn apart by a miscarriage of justice seemed to speak to the sympathies of the entire cinema, and the scenes of a broken mother were rightly distressing, as the motif of protection going wrong manifested itself again in a mother unable to protect her son.

Eastwood’s film is undoubtedly a success. The combination of emotion, innocence, hopelessness in the face of great power and – above all – Jewell’s modest dream to work for his country as a police officer, is a recipe for a good film, with plenty of opportunity for reflection on the role of law-enforcement and the critical importance of justice for the individual.

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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Screen

Is there a reluctance in representation? An analysis of LGBT+ characterisation in film OPINION

Morgan Westwood-Cooke Screen Contributor

With some of the biggest nights in film occurring during LGBT+ History Month, LGBT+ representation in film is something neglected. With Moonlight winning Best Picture in 2016, and films like Booksmart, Love Simon and Call Me by Your Name bringing LGBT+ relationships to the popular screen are we seeing change within the industry?

Whilst you can probably list some films off the top of your head such as Brokeback Mountain, Blue is the Warmest Colour, and Carol, you can equally list as many films that involve Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson being in a jungle. LGBT+ representation in film is historically sparse, and mostly used for shock factor or jokes, and when combined tropes like “Bury-your-gays”, leading the LGBT+ representatives being killed off far too often. Representation is incredibly important, with films like Victim, the first English language film to use the word ‘homosexual’ in 1961, credited alongside other LGBT+ films as responsible for changing public opinion leading to the decriminalization of homosexuality via the Sexual Offences Act 1967.

Representation is not only important to those who identify as LGBT+, but allows film to be a platform for LGBT+ issues and have a normalizing effect for large audiences. In recent years, there has been change with LGBT+ representation appearing more

and more on screen, with nearly 1 in 5 films in 2018 featuring LGBT+ characters, such as The Favourite

and Deadpool 2.

When searching for LGBT+ representation in film, there is an imbalance between the levels of representation with gay and lesbian characters featuring more than bisexual, transgender or any other members of the LGBT+ community.

Whilst there are brilliant films featuring transgender characters such as the romantic Boy Meets Girl, or Tangerine, a film about black transgender sex workers filmed on an iPhone 5. Streaming services are even organising films into subgenre for those looking for representation, such as the famous documentary Paris is Burning shows the LGBT+ Harlem drag scene, which inspired the TV show Pose, and is referenced

by Rupaul.

Not to limit the focus to Hollywood, the Kenyan film Rafiki (2012), a film centred on first love between two girls from rival families, created controversy and was banned in Kenya by the country’s film classification board. Wanuri Kahiu, the director, even sued the government for infringement of freedom of expression. Director Zi’en Cui has produced a number of LGBT+ films under Chinese censorship including the documentary Zhi tongzhi or Queer China, ‘Comrade’ China in it’s English title. Rara­ is a 2016 Chilean film based on the director Pepa San Martín’s loss of custody of her children in 2005 after coming out as a lesbian. Furthermore A

Jared Leto won an Academy Award in 2013 for his role as a HIV-positive transgender woman living in Texas in the 1980s Image: MovieDB

Victim (1961) is credited as helping decriminalise homosexuality in the UK Image: MovieDB Monsoon Date directed by Tanuja Chandra is about an Indian trans woman, and upcoming film Shubh Mangal Zyada Saavdhan is a romantic comedy focusing on same-sex marriage. There are over 125 LGBT+ film festivals around the world with several based across the UK, including London, Leeds and Glasgow. Clearly there is some incredibly diverse representation outside of Hollywood, although you as a viewer have to go looking for it as you do in Hollywood productions.

Unfortunately having films that feature LGBT+ stories as the narrative or a subplot doesn’t always lead to representation, with trans roles in films rarely given to trans actors; Jared Leto won the Oscar for best supporting actor for his role in Dallas Buyers Club and Eddie Redmayne secured a nomination for leading actor for The Danish Girl in the year Tangerine was snubbed.

Further LGBT+ relationships are often played down or only hinted to, with Fried Green Tomatoes being an implicit film based on a novel with an explicit lesbian relationship. The LGBT+ representation that exists is also a narrow window, with GLAAD finding that in 2018 out of the 110 films from major studios, 11 featured gay and/or lesbian characters, three featured bisexual characters and none featured transgender or nonbinary characters. Further nearly 60 per cent of the LGBT characters were white in 2018, and even in the year Moonlight took to the screens only 20 per cent of LGBT+ characters were people of colour. Even LGBT+ focused films are more drawn to narratives from the white LGBT+ community, with films such as Stonewall (2015) twisting the story of the Stonewall riots that were started by black trans women and sex workers to focus on white gay men.

GLAAD uses the Vito Russo Test to decide what characters they include in their findings, so the lesbian kiss between nameless characters in Star

Wars: Rise of Skywalker wouldn’t count.

The test relies on three criteria: firstly the film must contain a character that is identifiably lesbian, gay, bisexual, and/or transgender; secondly this character must not be defined by their sexual orientation or gender identity; and finally the LGBT+ character must be tied into the plot in such a way that their removal would have a significant effect. Having a character that isn’t defined by the fact they’re a part of LGBT+ community and matter to the plot is a low bar and yet many films fail to meet it.

There is still hope for the future of LGBT+ representation in film with Harley Quinn, the main character of Birds of Prey: The Fabulous Emancipation of Harley Quinn as confirmed bisexual and Marvel’s The Eternals said to feature Marvel’s first openly gay male superhero (a low bar to beat with 23 films without any openly LGBT+ characters, because an unnamed character for

Unfortunately having films that feature LGBT+ stories as the narrative doesn’t always lead to representation 10 seconds of screen time does not count). There are more films in development, including adaptations of the popular productions Everybody’s Talking about Jamie and The Prom, as well as original films such as Supernova starring

Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci, about a gay couple on a road trip, which was recently filmed in Cumbria. Not to mention the recently released

Portrait of a Lady on Fire (reviewed

It appears there is more and more representation, but with the limited LGBT+ characters the change is slow in this section), that won praise at Cannes and features a lesbian relationship, being shown at the SU’s very own Film Unit later in the semester. However, being able to list a couple films or even read the limited articles on upcoming films versus the almost uncountable number of straight cis films that are pumped out of Hollywood year after year really shows the gap between the LGBT+ audiences and their representation on screen.

It appears there is change as we see more and more representation on screen, but with the limited LGBT+ characters and narratives, the change is slow. In the world of TV, the small screen features more representation, however it still doesn’t reflect the demographics of the world we live in. With a greater call for LGBT+ films, Hollywood is a business so will supply the demand with minimal effort, with large companies such as Disney getting credit for the limited representation of LeFou in Beauty and the Beast, and promising one or two LGBT+ representations in upcoming films.

Whilst representation is improving, there is still a fair way to go until everyone sees themselves on the big screen.

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Screen Parasite was nominated for 6 Oscars, but we can’t actually say what it won because the awards were held after the deadline for this issue... damnit. Images: MovieDB

REVIEW Film: Parasite Josh Teggert Screen Editor

“Once you overcome the one-inch tall barrier of subtitles, you will be introduced to so many more amazing films.” ~ Bong Joon-ho, director of Parasite.

Film, much like music, is a universal language with the exceptional ability to be understood and appreciated by anyone, regardless of the language one speaks. As the above quote stipulates, the language obstruction that is so often a hindrance to the viewership of many foreign language films is very easily shattered, and Parasite is arguably one of the most prime examples of the cross-cultural impact a film can have once this “one-inch tall barrier” is overcome.

Bong Joon-ho’s social satire, also a genre-bending, Palme d’Or and Oscar-winning thriller of class struggle, is set to the backdrop of a contemporary South Korea and follows two families of four: the Kim family and the Park family. After

Kim Ki-woo (Choi Woo Shik), the son of the poor, working-class Kim family, is offered the opportunity to tutor a member of the wealthy Park family, a scheme soon formulates which sees the other members of the Kim family steadily infiltrate this upper-class home.

Parasite, in short, is a marvellously luxurious work of cinema; its sly, raw power slithers its way under your skin slowly, much like the organism referenced in its title. But of course, the metaphoric title is specifically alluding to the more derogatory use of the word, that being a person or people who habitually rely on or exploits others, giving nothing in return.

Joon-ho designs the film in such a way that this definition can apply to both families; each set employs

$166.1

million worldwide gross as of 7th February. This is Bong’s first film to pass the $100 million mark worldwide.

some deeply morally questionable attitudes, but with the Kim family as the protagonists, Joon-ho manages to arouse a distinguishable empathy towards their desperate situation in spite of their actions, laying the groundwork for what proves to be a thematically provocative feature.

It is blissfully simple to lose oneself in these characters, particularly Cho Yeo Jeong’s Park Yeon-kyo, the mother of the Park family, whose gentle, wide-eyed anxiety is captivating from the start. Likewise, Song Kang Ho (Kim Ki-taek, the Kim family father) is the driving force of the film. His cheerful disposition even in the face of adversity helps retain a distinctly light-hearted feel even with Parasite’s elicit motifs.

It’s downright hilarious in places. A special mention to Jeong-eun Lee is also essential, who perfectly tackles the transformation of her character, Moon-gwang, the original Park family housekeeper, over the course of the film.

Yet what really separates Parasite from the rest is its visual wit.

Each shot speaks for the film’s main themes of class conflict, social inequality and capitalistic greed, juxtaposing the families through the use of colour and their other surroundings. Joon-ho

Its sly, raw power slithers its way under your skin slowly, much like the organism referenced in its title uses staircases predominantly to display the positions of the families across the film, and the mirroring structures between the Kim house and the Park house – especially the square windows and basement settings – plays a subtle if hugely significant role in presenting these ideas.

There’s so much to uncover in this film. Parasite is pure, explosive filmmaking, a visual spectacle and a thrill from start to finish. The sooner western cinemagoers overcome that god-darned one-inch tall barrier that “foreign films” exhibit, the better, as Joon-ho’s stingingly topical film is a first-rate paradigm of the kind of universal filmmaking

that transcends the confines of language, and appeals in some way to everyone who watches it.

A quick fact list on the history of films given the biggest awards at the Oscars up to 2019 1. Since the the best film editing award was introduced in 1934, no film has won best picture without either an editing or acting nomination.

2. After the creation of the Directors Guild Awards in 1948, there has been no film which has won best picture without either a DGA win or an editing nomination.

3. No film made in a language other than English has won best picture.

4. No film produced by a streaming service has won best picture.

5. No film based on comic book material has won best picture.

Source: The Hollywood Reporter

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

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Catherine Lewis and Ash Williams Games Editors

Games

We’re back! Did you miss us?

No? Well then.Anyway, it’s a new decade, which means a new generation of consoles and loads of fantastic games to play over the next ten years.

Meanwhile, in the present, we here at Forge are celebrating LGBT+ History Month and Valentine’s Day this issue, with some of Forge’s

favourite character pairings, a review on Heroland from Catherine and a piece on gender representation in games, written by Joe Warner.

We’ve also put together some gaming themed pickup lines, which we absolutely do not recommend trying if you want to keep any shred of decency, but if like us, you don’t care, feel free to use them on your significant other this Valentine’s.

Or you can just stay in. That game isn’t going to finish itself. Enjoy!

“Now tell me, are you a boy? Or are you a girl?”

Why gender representation is still an issue in games Why gender representation is still an issue in games

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Image: Nintendo/Game Freak

OPINION Joe Warner Games Contributor

Over the past 40+ years, larger development teams, bigger budgets and numerous technological advancements have served to drastically increase the scope of video games, ever enhancing the immersion of their players in a virtual world. In 2020, a time where video games are bigger, better and more complicated than they’ve ever been, my question is this: why the hell can’t people seem to write interesting and credible LGBT+ characters in video games?

For generations, stereotypical depictions of social groups have permeated popular culture, painting unrealistic, inaccurate and fundamentally damaging pictures of people in our society purely for their existing outside of the hegemonic majority. Historically victimised groups include women, ethnic minorities and members of the LGBT+ community.

Representation has been problematic in video games for decades, with stereotypes we’re all too familiar with: the notion of the ‘foreign enemy’ airlifted from propaganda and film is as prevalent as ever, while the presentation of many female characters as large breasted,

one dimensional sex objects is representative of a self-reinforcing, culture-wide misogyny that is only beginning to change for the better.

Both aforementioned issues have garnered an abundance of attention in the gaming community in recent years, yet the issue of LGBT+ representation in video games remains relatively undiscussed.

Perhaps this is because the issue is not simply one issue, but several; because the LGBT+ community is in essence a bundling together of many smaller communities, to discuss LGBT+ representation is to discuss the representation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and other individuals under a singular umbrella term. This is problematic when considering that all of these groups are represented differently in popular culture, with different stereotypes dominating each group.

Perhaps the multifaceted nature of the community is a key reason that many game developers choose not to represent LGBT+ characters in their games at all, but what many fail to understand is that ‘doing representation right’ isn’t difficult.

In fact, it’s pretty easy.

Many games sell themselves on the appeal of being interactive stories, with believable, sensitive and emotional human characters. Although placed into fantastical situations, these

characters are forced to tackle fundamentally ‘real world’ issues.

2018’s God of War explores themes of grief, remorse and regret. The Witcher 3, released in 2015, forces players to make morally grey ethical decisions that can positively or adversely affect its cast of main and side characters. Through outstanding performances and exquisite writing, the resulting experience is one that players can emotionally invest themselves in. No suspension of disbelief is required; what we see are seemingly the stories and struggles of real life humans, serving as unequivocal proof that video gaming has the power to represent real people as real people. There is therefore no excuse for hamfisted representation in video games.

The character Hainly Abrams from Mass Effect: Andromeda is just one example of recent hamfisted LGBT+ representation in video games.

The first time the player meets her in-game, they have the option to ask why she came to Andromeda.

No more than 13 seconds after starting the conversation, Hainly will then proudly announce that she is transgender, and tell the player her dead name. There are several problems with this, the smallest of which being that this is simply not how you ‘do’ realistic characterisation or dialogue. Mass Effect: Andromeda certainly isn’t a game that’s praised for its writing, but it doesn’t take a good writer, let alone a great one, to accurately

write a transgender character. The biggest issue here is the fact that Hainly’s gender identity is clumsily shoved into the player’s face with no degree of subtlety, and more importantly no thought for how these kinds of representations damage perceptions of the LGBT+ community; the notion that trans people actively seek to approach strangers, essentially introducing themselves by saying “Hi, I’m trans” is frustratingly pervasive in modern society, and fundamentally a gross oversimplification of a person based on one aspect of their personality. Please, by all means, write an LGBT+ character in your video game, but don’t make them ‘the trans character’ or ‘the guy that’s gay’. Don’t make them a token. Make them interesting, make them complicated, but most importantly of all, make them human.

Many people play video games to relax, unwind and ‘take a break’ from the stresses and worries of dayto-day life; with the sheer amount of hate and discrimination sadly still rampant in society today, to many, putting the real world on hold for a while and escaping to somewhere is a prospect that proves all the more appealing. Members of the LGBT+ community are no strangers to confrontation, often being asked downright invasive questions

regarding their sexuality or their gender identity. With this in mind, Pokémon’s infamous “are you a boy? Or are you a girl?” is exactly the kind of confrontation that many non-binary people try to get away from by playing video games, especially when many see video games as a means of expressing the way they truly identify through a virtual avatar.

By contrast, Temtem, an MMO spiritual successor to Pokémon gets it right by introducing two key changes: the ability for a player to select he/ him, she/her or crucially, they/ them pronouns, and the means of selecting a preferred body type.

Representation of trans people and the wider LGBT+ community in video games certainly leaves a lot to be desired, often relying on tired stereotypes and token characters; yet the ability to pick your own pronouns in games like Temtem is a promising start towards an inclusive, industrywide recognition that the LGBT+ community, though made up of minorities, is by n o means a ‘minor’ demographic to simply be ignored.

Lower left: Hainly Abrams’ dialogue was later altered in a patch.

Image: Bioware Upper right: Temtem lets you be male, female, or even a skeleton!

Image: CremaGames

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forgetoday.com

Games

FEATURE

We here at Forge love a bit of romance in games. Titles such as Mass Effect and Stardew Valley have made us fall in love (pun intended) with the idea of falling in love in various media, none more interactable

Love is in the air!

Forge’s favourite pairings

or immersive than video games.

Some are player choice options, like Persona’s social link system, while others create romance through a story, such as Nathan Drake and Elena Fisher’s relationship in the

Uncharted series. Playing as these characters and investing yourself in their lives really delivers on the connection you feel with them and their love lives. Here are just some of our favourite pairings.

Phoenix Wright & Edgeworth - Phoenix Wright series Catherine Lewis

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One of the most iconic video game pairings in my opinion is Phoenix and Edgeworth in the Phoenix Wright series.

Throughout Ace Attorney, Phoenix, the newly-fledged defence attorney, faces the cold, hard

prosecutor Edgeworth. The start of the game would lead you to believe that they could be enemies of some sort, but as the story unfolds, the player discovers that there’s more to their relationship than meets the eye. In their younger years, a close friendship was formed between the two after an incident in school, where a young Edgeworth helped defend

Phoenix after he was accused of stealing lunch money. They drifted apart when Edgeworth was forced to move schools, but as the events of Ace Attorney unfold, they once again become close, and many speculate that they’re more than friends. This bond continues to grow stronger in the later installments of the series. In Edgeworth’s own words, thanks

to Phoenix, he is “saddled with unnecessary feelings”, and if that doesn’t scream love interest to you, I don’t know what will. While they may appear to be complete opposites, a hardened prosecutor and a jolly, clumsy attorney, they really do feel like two halves of the same whole.

Cloud Strife & Aeris Gainsborough - Final Fantasy VII Paige Cockbain

understood him the way she did, and where circumstances brought many of them together? Whether you choose to romance her or not, there is no doubt that Cloud threw his hat in with her because he wanted to know her. It’s one of the only early game decisions in which he is not aggressively reluctant to do something.

Whilst the game does not

explicitly canonise any confirmed relationship, it certainly gives you ample content to project your own into it - and for me, this one is eternal love.

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to form bonds with the girl (or Barret) of your choosing. I can tell you this - Cloud and Aeris felt like destiny aligned. Cloud is a character very much lost in his own past and trauma, and Aeris is the last of her kind. What we see is two characters alone in the world, but together. There are plenty of wonderful characters there for Cloud, but no one ever

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Final Fantasy VII is almost unanimously heralded as one of the greatest RPGs of all time, and for me personally, one of the greatest parts was the relationship between the protagonist, Cloud Strife, and his flower girl, Aeris Gainsborough.

Romance is not exactly a central theme in the Final Fantasy series, but the game allowed you

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Zelda & Link - The Legend of Zelda series Tristan Dubuc

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Valentine’s Day is approaching,and many of us will be busy preparing for it. For some of us it will be the first Valentine’s Day with a new partner. With this in mind, video games can be a great inspiration for

love. In my opinion, even if they do not officially express their love, Link and Zelda are for me a great couple.

Link is a loyal knight to his princess Zelda. He loves her and will do anything for her. This is illustrated in Breath of the Wild.

When Zelda is faced with danger, Link comes immediately to her

aid. In a surprising turn of events, Zelda reveals her powers to save Link and to put him to sleep for 100 years.

The reason why Zelda and Link are my favourite partnership in video games is that they each love each other but they know that their relationship is not possible since she is a princess and he, her

knight. Their love is like a secret tragedy. Nevertheless, at each release of a new game, you expect them to be drawn closer to how they feel for each other. In my opinion, what makes their love compelling is that we are forever waiting for the moment that they come together as lovers.

Sam Greenbriar & Lonnie DeSoto - Gone Home Ash Williams

home after travelling abroad.

The whole game is linked to Sam’s story. You and Katie are in the same boat, piecing together the puzzle as you move through different parts of the house. It’s done very effectively, as each area of the house has a new part of the story to reveal, usually linked to the area you find that note in. For example, finding a disciplinary

folder unlocks the entry where Sam’s relationship with Lonnie is discovered by her parents, or how finding a Halloween band note reveals Sam’s decision to sneak off with Lonnie and go to her first gig, which eventually led to the two getting together.

It’s a touching and well realised representation of a young girl discovering herself and her

sexuality, and the challenges of coming out.

I won’t spoil the specifics, but the narration and handwritten notes really sell you on the journey that Sam goes through to finally get what she wants.

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Gone Home does a lot of things well, but the relationship between Sam and Lonnie is crafted delicately around the exploration of the Greenbriar family home.

Picking up journal entries and looking at various items throughout the house clue you in to the events that happened before your character, Katie, arrives back

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Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

REVIEW Heroland Catherine Lewis Games Editor

Welcome to Heroland, a magical theme park where anyone can become a hero! Except you, you’re an employee.

Take control of Lucky, your silent, poofy haired protagonist, as you dive into a hysterical and quirky RPG adventure, brought to you by the minds behind MOTHER 3, Fantasy Life, and Legend of Mana.

Your job as a tour guide is to lead your guests through the theme park’s dungeons, taking down the “monsters” (who are actually your co-workers) that await. As their guide, you aren’t doing any of the fighting, but rather, assisting them to make sure they have the best experience they can (AKA, not getting beaten up on their day out).

Every few seconds, Lucky can offer assistance to the guests in the

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Games

form of guidance, using a flag signal, or using a healing item. Guidance allows you to instruct one guest on what specific action they should perform, and on what enemy.

The flag signals affect the whole party, giving them a more general instruction to follow, such as ‘all aim at one enemy’, or ‘all put your guards up’. The healing items are self explanatory, but you can only use one at a time. As for the rest of the time, the guests act however they please. Their AI isn’t bad, but sometimes you’ll find yourself wondering what on earth they’re doing targeting random enemies when they could have finished off a particularly bothersome one two hits ago.

This ‘hands-off’ take on an RPG at first felt a little limited.

When you first start the game, the cooldown time you have to wait to give assistance is at its longest; this improves as you level up Lucky. This means that at first, it really feels like you’re doing more sitting back and watching than actually playing the game, especially when the early

Image: FURYU Corporation

enemies are so easy that the guests don’t really need any help. This does improve as you progress however, due to the cooldown time improving and the enemies becoming much more challenging. It becomes a fun mad rush, thinking on the fly what the best decision is to ensure your guests do the best they can. And, if you’re feeling a little impatient, there’s also a speed-up button you can use to make the combat threetimes faster than usual. Perfect for if you’re in a rush!

It’s packed to the brim with quips, humour and pop -culture references All the attacks, from your guests and the enemies, are on timers rather than being turn based.

Stronger moves generally have a longer charge time, and leave guests vulnerable for longer. You have a lot of guests to guide, and each has a unique move, as well as different attacks they get from using different weapons. However, giving them a new weapon is the only way you can customise the way they work in battle, which does feel a bit limited.

Speaking of the guests, they are brilliant. The writing in general is fantastic, and is by far the best thing about the game. It’s packed to the brim with quips, humour and pop-culture references, and is a real treat to read. The characters all feel very unique, and through gaining friendship with them (by making

Image: FURYU Corporation them happy on the tours) you can unlock sidequests with them which allow you to get to know them better.

Not one character felt like there was no point in them being there, and all of them will make you smile in their own way.

The unique art style, with its bouncy and stretchy pixel art character sprites on a colourful cartoony background really gives the game character, and coupled with its constant zany humour, it truly makes for a very unique and fun experience. The music is also very pleasant and cheery; it has some really catchy tunes.

As the game progresses, you and the guests start uncovering the mysteries and dark secrets that reside within Heroland, but the tone remains very light, and the game generally doesn’t take itself seriously. The writing is really what drives the game, and is what will have you itching to power through more dungeons to see what comes next. However, the dialogue stands as the only thing in place to break up the dungeons, which, after a while

do begin to feel monotonous.

The enemies can drop different treasures when you defeat them, from rare collectible plushies, to new weapons for you to use, and while this offers a vast amount of items for completionists to collect, it’s all done through repeating the same dungeons over and over. I personally felt it could have done with some other mode, maybe a minigame of sorts, to break up the main gameplay a bit more so that it didn’t feel as repetitive. The game is really long too, and while this may be a real treat for those who fall in love with the humour and characters, others may find the unvaried gameplay tiresome.

Despite its flaws however, Heroland has a lot to offer for those who can get behind a game with a very self-aware, unapologetically funny sense of humour. Even if you can’t see yourself finishing the game completely, the experience is still something very special that you won’t forget; it’s definitely worth a shot.

Gaming themed pick up lines!

Image: Game Freak

Image: Nintendo

Image: Riot Games

Image: Blizzard

Image: Blizzard

Image: Intelligent Systems

forgetoday.com

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Science & Tech

George Tuli Science & Tech Editor

Welcome back to Science & Tech and to our first issue of the new decade.

To start the year, we're covering exciting science news stories from the University of Sheffield.

From our engineers creating new antimicrobial materials that can be 3D-printed, to our physicists designing and prototyping part of a muon generator used in

creating the world's most powerful particle accelerator, to researchers experimenting with the latest drone and satellite technology to understand how the Arctic is becoming greener as a result of global heating.

Turn over for our definitive gift guide for Valentine's day, with Science & Tech gifts ranging from touchscreen gloves (suitable for Sheffield's weather year-round) to a DIY Bonsai growing kit.

Global science team on red alert as Arctic land grows greener Beth Hanson Science & Tech Contributor

Climate change is warming the northernmost latitudes of our planet at an alarming rate, and this is increasing plant growth in areas that were previously snowy tundra.

The arctic tundra is a vast treeless ecosystem where the subsoil is permanently frozen. Tundras cover large Arctic ranges in Europe, Asia, and North America where frozen soil acts as a crucial carbon store.

Rising global temperatures and increasing vegetation could trigger the release of these stocks, further exacerbating planetary warming.

Research is vital for measuring the increased greenness of the arctic region to understand the complex interactions that underpin this expansion of vegetation.

Researchers from 40 institutions, including the University of

Sheffield, have been experimenting with how to implement the newest drone and satellite technologies to understand arctic greening.

These technologies allow a higherresolution view over a large and threatened area of our planet. Our understanding of these events is increasingly vital for mitigating the effects of climate change. Dr Isla Myers-Smith, of the University of Edinburgh’s School of GeoSciences, said: “New technologies including sensors on drones, planes and satellites, are enabling scientists to track emerging patterns of greening found within satellite pixels that cover the size of football fields.”

The results from these experiments highlight the complexity of the underlying mechanisms of arctic greening. The impact of rising arctic temperatures combines with other factors such as elevated carbon dioxide, snowmelt,

3D-printed materials could tackle antibiotic resistance Killing 99.9 per cent of the germs could be unnecessary if there are no germs to start with. Scientists at the University of Sheffield used 3D printing technologies to create antimicrobial materials, and the results are “crystal clean”.

Bárbara Pinho Science & Tech Contributor

A team of researchers led by Dr. Candice Majewski has 3D-printed materials with antimicrobial properties, resulting in surfaces that

prevent bacteria from attaching.

Their research was published in January in Scientific Reports.

“Managing the spread of harmful bacteria, infection and the increasing resistance to antibiotics is a global concern. Introducing antibacterial

Jeffrey T. Kerby, PhD, launching a camera drone in Qikiqtaruk, Canada.

Photo: Dr Isla Myers-Smith

and wetness of landscapes. Loss of snow cover reduces the amount of the Sun’s radiation that is reflected away from the planet. Due to warming temperatures, the growing season is lengthening, as winters become milder. There are even reports of ‘lost winters’ due to the increasing timidity of recent winter weather. In contrast with this, extreme weather events such as storms, floods, and freeze-thaw, are becoming more frequent. These effects can lead to

the release of carbon balancing out or even exceeding the amount taken in by plant growth and therefore exacerbating global warming.

Co-author Gareth Phoenix, Professor of Plant and Global Change Ecology at the University of Sheffield, said: “The greening of the Arctic has been one of the clearest consequences of climate change we can see in the natural world.”

The MET office predicts global temperatures in 2020 will average

protection to products and devices at the point of manufacture could be an essential tool in this fight,” said Dr Candice Majewski.

Dr Majewski’s words reflect the concerns shared by major institutions such as the World Health Organization (WHO) and the NHS, which promote citizens to act towards diminishing antibiotic resistance. The paper describes how to incorporate antimicrobial properties into 3D-printed parts using ‘laser sintering’ – a technology that “produces parts through scanning and melting polymer powders”. The team's main approach was to mix antimicrobial powders with polymer ones, before printing the part.

The result is a resistant material

to which bacteria cannot attach.

Additionally, the scientists also showed that parts printed with this method are not toxic to human cells.

Thus, it could be the ideal material for objects used within sensitive conditions, such as medical implants, door handles, and children’s toys.

The surface’s antimicrobial nature also promotes hygiene and sanitation.

3D printing has been used in a wide range of markets. It can be used to customize running trainers, print tubes for Formula One cars and even produce textiles.

Majewski’s research reinforces this

1.1 degrees Celsius higher than preindustrial levels. This is highly concerning because of how quickly we are closing in on the 1.5 degrees Celsius limit set in the Paris Agreement that is key to preventing irreversible damage. This research into arctic greening could aid us in maintaining the balance between the amount of carbon captured and carbon released into the atmosphere in these regions.

Pseudomonas aeruginosa bacteria on a Nylon-12 surface

technology’s versatility and presents an avid solution to lessen the spread of infections and consequently, antibiotic resistance.

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

Science & Tech

Breakthrough made towards building the world’s most powerful particle accelerator

The target mechanism designed by scientists at the University of Sheffield. Photo: STFC

George Tuli Science & Tech Editor

Physicists at the University of Sheffield have been working as part of a global team to create the world’s most powerful particle accelerator. The collaboration aimed to demonstrate how to create a muon accelerator, and their results could advance our understanding of the fundamental constituents of matter.

Since the 1930s, particle accelerators have been used to generate high-energy beams which are used in a range of scientific

disciplines, from treating cancers to measuring the chemical structure of drugs, and from manufacturing silicon microchips to studying the make-up of matter using colliders such as the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. So far, protons, electrons, and ions have all been accelerated into beams, but an international team called the Muon Ionization Cooling Experiment (MICE) collaboration, including physicists from the University of Sheffield, has been working towards creating a muon beam.

Muons are subatomic particles

The best of CES 2020 Sony Vision S concept car The Japanese electronics giant has surprised visitors at the end of its press conference this year by revealing its own concept electric car. The most remarkable feature of the car’s interior is the uninterrupted touch screen display which reaches from the dashboard all the way over to the front passenger seat. Even the rear mirrors are attached to the sides of the display, showing live footage from cameras on the outside. Sony is not planning to mass produce this concept car but it captures the company’s vision of future cars which is pretty exciting.

Hydraloop Hydraloop, which won the CES2020 award for Best Of Innovation, is a revolutionary residential water recycle system. It recycles 85 per cent of all domestic water used, cleaning shower, bath and washing machine water to be reused for things like toilet flushing. The product is the size of a fridge, and its price point at US$4,000 isn’t cheap. But the company is on a mission to make a huge difference and address concerns over future water scarcity. This product is a great concept, and will hopefully become more affordable for households in the future.

that arrive on the Earth’s surface after forming as a by-product of cosmic rays colliding with molecules in Earth’s upper atmosphere — about 10,000 muons reach every square metre of Earth’s surface, every minute. While their electrical charge and spin (an intrinsic property of elementary particles) are the same as those of an electron, muons have a mass 207 times as great. This means they have the potential to create beams with ten times more energy than those made in the Large Hadron Collider.

Muons have several uses, including studying the atomic

Lucas Mentken News Editor

Razer Kishi Finally, Razor pushed the boundaries for mobile gaming at this year’s CES. The Razer Kishi has similarities to a Nintendo Switch controller, except that it easily attaches to your Android or iOS smartphone through the USB or Lightning port. Because it draws power directly from your phone, the controller does not need to be charged and features passthrough ports to charge your phone while gaming. Due to the close contact with your phone, the controller will have very low latency and it will also work with cloud gaming services like xCloud or Stadia.

structure of materials, as catalysts for nuclear fusion reactions, and seeing through materials which are too dense for X-rays to penetrate.

For experiments, muons are produced by smashing a proton beam into a target. The muons are separated at the target and directed through a series of magnetic lenses.

The collected muons form a diffuse cloud, so in a collider, the chances of them hitting each other and producing interesting phenomena are low. To combat this, a process known as beam cooling is used. By bringing the muons closer together and making them move in the same direction, the muon clouds become less diffuse. However, the magnetic lenses used could only bring the muons closer together, or get them moving in the same direction — not both at the same time.

To combat this challenge, the MICE collaboration tested a new method. They cooled the muons by putting them through specially designed energy-absorbing materials, while the beam was tightly focused by powerful magnetic lenses. Following this, the denser cloud of muons could be accelerated by a normal particle accelerator in a precise direction. This dramatically increases the likelihood of a muon collision.

Physicists from the University of Sheffield designed and prototyped the target mechanism that produced the muons for the experiment.

Dr Chris Booth, from the University of Sheffield’s Department of Physics and Astronomy, who led the development of the particle-

Samsung Ballie At this point, we are all used to our voice assistants like Alexa who help us get things done. But what if you had a little robot ball rolling around the home and even taking care of it when you’re out? Ballie, which is Samsung’s vision of the smart assistant of the future, is connected to your smart home devices, recognises you and follows you around. In a promotional video, the smart companion can be seen drawing curtains, taking care of a dog while the owner is out and even cleaning with a robot hoover. At this stage, little is known about the actual capabilities of Ballie, so it will be exciting to see how the project will progress.

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production target, said: “The techniques demonstrated by the MICE experiment will allow new particle accelerators to be constructed which could explore fundamental physics in areas ranging from neutrinos (subatomic particles with no electrical charge and very little mass) to the Higgs boson and the energy frontier that lies beyond the reach of the Large Hadron Collider.”

On Thursday 6 February MICE announced the success of this crucial step in creating a muon beam. They published their results in Nature on 5 February.

The experiment was carried out at the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) ISIS Neutron and Muon Beam facility on the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus in Oxfordshire. The results of the MICE experiment show that this method of beam cooling (ionization cooling) works and can be used to advance development of the world’s most powerful particle accelerator.

Dr Chris Rogers, based at ISIS and the collaboration’s Physics Coordinator, explained: “MICE has demonstrated a completely new way of squeezing a particle beam into a smaller volume. This technique is necessary for making a successful muon collider, which could outperform even the LHC.” Professor Ken Long, spokesperson for the experiment from Imperial College London, added: “The enthusiasm, dedication, and hard work of the international collaboration and the outstanding support of laboratory personnel at STFC and from institutes across the world have made this gamechanging breakthrough possible.”

Segway S-pod Inspired by the gyrosphere from Jurassic World, the S-pod looks like an egg-shaped wheelchair which could enable you to cruise through airports, theme parks and even cities. The self-balancing twowheeler is controlled by a joystick and can effortlessly drive you around with a top speed of 24 miles per hour. The vehicle also comes with two tiny wheels in the front and back to prevent you from toppling over. It even features a slot for your tablet on the side and charges in just two hours. The S-pod does not currently have a price point but it may well set the scene for one of the main transportation methods of the future.

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Science & Tech

forgetoday.com

The definitive Science & Tech Valentine’s Day gift guide George Tuli and Kate Procter Science & Tech Editor and Arts Editor

Fujifilm Instax Mini 9 £59.99, Amazon Includes a selfie mirror and macro lens for capturing even more memories. A range of colours are available.

Anker Power Bank, 20,000 mAh £32.99, Amazon Never be without charge again.

Comes with dual USB ports to charge two devices at once. Charge over micro-USB or the faster USB-C.

Veni Masee Touchscreen Gloves £4.89, Amazon Keep your hands warm and still be able to use your phone. Perfect for playing Fruit Ninja while waiting for the bus.

Tea & Coffee Alarm Clock £345.00, Joy Resolve You might need to save for this one.

The modern day teasmade makes you a fresh cup of tea or coffee to enjoy as soon as you wake up.

ASAKUKI Essential Oil Diffuser £23.99, Amazon 5-in-1 aromatherapy device. Choose from a range of essential oils and from seven LED colours, and adjust the amount of mist.

Folding LED Book Lamp £15.99, Amazon A decorative folding book-shaped mood light with 12 colours of dimmable LEDs. Includes a remote control and timer.

Wouf Birdies 13” Laptop Sleeve £37.90, Flamingo Gifts Perfect for someone who’s a fan of birds and laptops. Protect your laptop in style with this beautifully designed laptop case.

Breville Blend Active Blender £19.99, Amazon Make a quick smoothie with fresh or frozen fruit using this compact blender from Breville. Can also be used to mix pancake batter.

FOREO LUNA play Facial Cleanser £29.00, Lookfantastic Transdermal sonic pulsations are diffused through silicone to unclog pores and remove 99.9 per cent of dirt, oil, dead cells, and makeup.

Pressed Flowers iPhone 11 Case £20.00, Urban Outfitters Protect your iPhone 11 in style with a transparent case filled with pressed flowers. Similar designs are available for other phones.

Plant Theatre Bonsai Trio Kit £11.99, Amazon A great value method of growing Bonsai trees. This kit contains three different species and everything you need to grow Bonsais from seed.

Conical Flask Terrarium Kit £29.09, Amazon Perfect for someone who loves chemistry and plants. Contains all you need to create a mini ecosystem in a conical flask.

Belkin 5-Way Headphone Splitter £9.95, Amazon Never share one pair of earphones again with this splitter. Perfect for coach, train, and plane journeys. Up to five people can plug in.

David Attenborough Mug £7.95, Etsy It is true that coffee tastes better from your favourite mug. This will be your new favourite mug. Featuring the one and only Attenborough.

Tech Kit Carry Case £49.00, Bellroy Keep all your wires from tangling while you travel with this tech organiser from Bellroy. Spaces for your mouse, charger, and SD cards.

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

41

Sport Thoughts

press.sport@forgetoday.com

Forge_Sport @ForgeSport

Kobe Bryant: A legend bigger than basketball Harry Harrison Sport Editor

Kobe Bryant was a loving husband and father, a fierce competitor, one of the greatest basketball players of all time and a future Hall of Famer.

Over his 20 year NBA career he faced controversies, most notably the serious rape allegations in 2003, which were settled out of court. Nevertheless, Bryant went on to become a caring family man, NBA legend and raised tons of money for charity. This competitive spirit brought him 18 All-Star appearances, five NBA championships, two finals MVPs, two Olympic golds and a coveted NBA MVP award for the 2007-08 season.

He was third in the all-time scoring list until the 25 January when current Lakers star, Lebron James, passed him with the 33,644th point of his career. Kobe was courtside, applauding James and embracing him in congratulation.

A tweet to Lebron, recognising his achievement, was the last tweet he

posted before his helicopter went down in California, claiming his life, his daughter Gianna’s and the lives of seven others.

Both Kobe and Gianna, along with one of Gianna’s teammates and her family, were on their way to a basketball camp, in which Gianna was to play and her father was to coach. Tragically, they never arrived.

Kobe was respected by all, not just basketball players and fans.

Footballers to politicians and hockey players to Irish dancers have paid tribute to an all-time great athlete and an all-time great man.

He influenced generations and will continue to inspire many more generations to come. Dallas Mavericks’ European sensation Luka Doncic’s emotional tribute on Instagram was of a moment he shared with Kobe, who played in Europe in his youth, at a game between Dallas and Los Angeles in December. During the game Kobe trash-talked Doncic from his courtside seat, speaking in, to Doncic’s surprise, the Dallas star’s native Slovenian. It was captioned:

Kobe Bryant in 2015 Image: Alexandra Walt, Flickr

“Not you!! RIP mamba! Thank you for everything you showed and did for the world.”

F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton shared an image of Kobe and Gianna on social media. He paid tribute saying: “@kobebryant was one of the greatest athletes and such an inspiration to so many including

myself.”

Both Luka and Lewis were right.

Kobe was one of the greatest and most inspirational athletes to walk the earth, one of the most ferocious competitors and a loving man.

His daughter Gianna was bright and promising, both academically and athletically, and inherited her

father’s spirit. Hearts across the globe were broken. Those who played with them at their camp were in tears. They’d lost two teammates, sisters and friends, as well as an inspirational coach who drove their desire to win.

May all the victims rest in peace.

They will never be forgotten.

How sport can keep you smiling through tough times Benjamin Ide Gomes Sport Contributor

The camaraderie in the stadium when your team scores a screamer.

The heartbreak when your side concedes a last-minute try. The jubilation as your team gets their hands on the big shiny thing at the end of the season. Sport evokes a vast range of emotions in us – we can go from feeling elated to devastated in the blink of an eye.

The highs are so magnificent, the lows so crushing, yet they make the good times so worth it.

Sport can offer us an escape. We dive into this world where three points are suddenly life and death, where “next goal wins” is like a call to arms. No matter what sport, no Sadio Mane in 2019 Image: Mehdi Bolourian, Wikimedia Commons

matter what level, if your team wins, you feel good, you feel healthy and for me, football has played such a crucial role in my mental health over

the past few months.

Being on my year abroad, I spent most of my first semester feeling isolated and alone, my mental health deteriorating day by day. However, I was able to find solace in supporting my football team, Liverpool.

Whenever the Reds took to the field, I could forget about the negativity that surrounded me and lose myself in the moment – 90 minutes’ worth of incredible, nail-biting, magnificent football.

Liverpool Football Club allowed me to smile in spite of how down I felt.

Every piece of brilliance from Sadio Mané made me appreciate the position I was in, to feel lucky enough to even have this opportunity; every imperious display from van Dijk gave me the strength to keep fighting, to stick it out another day and every last-minute winner gave me the belief that things would turn around, that I would feel better.

When I wasn’t watching Liverpool take to the pitch, I was listening to fan podcasts, reading articles and watching highlights from teams up and down the UK and across Europe. If being a football fan makes me happy, then I thought it best to maintain that warm feeling for as long as I could.

Now, I’m not saying falling in love with a sport will right all your mental health-related struggles, it doesn’t.

But I truly believe that sport’s ability to establish such a strong emotional connection between fans, club and players is a wonderful thing. With so much wrong with the world at the moment, taking a break from it all can be the ideal remedy – and there’s no greater escapism than sport.

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Sport

Sheffield United & Sheffield Wednesday: the season so far Alex Brotherton Sport Editor

With both the Premier League and Championship seasons well over halfway through, it’s the perfect time to take stock of how United and Wednesday have fared so far.

Chris Wilder’s Sheffield United have exceeded all expectations this season. In their first campaign back in the Premier League they sit sixth in the table, just five points off Champions League football. Wilder has successfully implemented his attractive, attacking system in the top division without compromising results.

They’ve overturned tricky opponents like Arsenal and Burnley, while running the likes of Manchester United and Liverpool extremely close. An incredibly tough side to beat, United have the secondbest defence in the league, having conceded only 23 goals in 25 games.

Retaining the core of the promotion winning side of 2018/19 has proved a Wilder masterstroke, as his group has a unique togetherness and spirit.

Centre-backs Jack O’Connell, Chris Basham and John Egan have been integral to United’s success this season, playing out from the back with confidence to start attacks, while young goalkeeper Dean Henderson has been largely exceptional.

Although they play attractive

Image: Ian & Amy Mergard, Wikimedia Commons football, the Blades need to be more clinical in front of goal. They’ve scored only 26 goals in 25 games, with top scorers John Fleck and Lys Mousset bagging just five goals each.

Going forward, January clubrecord signing Sander Berge could be an excellent addition. The £22 million defensive midfielder already has Champions League experience and could anchor the midfield for years to come.

Relegation favourites before the season began, a top-seven finish is more than achievable given their performances.

For Sheffield Wednesday, it’s been an inconsistent season. After Garry Monk was appointed manager

in September the Owls went five games unbeaten in the run-up to Christmas. The purple patch, which included wins against promotion hopefuls Brentford and Bristol City as well as a 4-0 demolition of Nottingham Forest, catapulted the club to third place in the Championship.

But since Christmas Wednesday have lost five out of seven league games, including an injury time capitulation at Stoke City, losing 3-2 despite leading after 93 minutes.

After a 2-1 loss to Wigan, Monk admitted that “there needs to be change”, and that “there are some players who shouldn’t be here at this club.”

But off the pitch, the threat of a points deduction for breach of EFL financial rules has loomed large.

Monk’s side now lie 11th in the standings, six points off the playoffs following a dull draw with Barnsley at the weekend.

Before he suffered a knee injury in January Steven Fletcher was Wednesday’s stand out player, scoring twelve goals. In defence Dominic Iorfa has been imperious, his recent goal-saving tackle against Millwall representative of his performances this season.

Since Fletcher’s injury the Owls have looked toothless. They are the lowest scorers at home in the Championship this season, having

netted only 14 goals in 15 games at Hillsborough.

To address the goalscoring problem, Monk has brought in attacking players Connor Wickham and Alessio Da Cruz on loan, as well as Josh Windass from Wigan Athletic, who scored on his debut. Wickham has had previous successful loan spells on Wednesday, while Da Cruz promises the flair and creativity that’s often been lacking this season.

The target for the Owls is a playoff spot, but the goalposts may change if a point deduction materialises.

Top ten may be more realistic.

Sheffield United edge towards Europe after come-frombehind win against Bournemouth but the visitors kept them at bay.

It was a tightly fought game, with several fouls and a dose of playacting. Tensions flared when John Egan tackled Dan Gosling; the hosts

Rahul Warrier Sport Contributor

After a poor start in difficult conditions, Sheffield United rallied to a 2-1 come-from-behind win against Bournemouth. They now go up to fifth, two points behind Chelsea in the Champions League positions.

Bournemouth adjusted better to

the after-effects of Storm Ciara in the first half. The visitors dominated possession and created a number of chances, with Harry Wilson and Callum Wilson both heading wide early on. The latter soon made it 1-0, hammering in the rebound from a blocked shot.

They then had the chance to make it 2-0 almost immediately, with Ryan Fraser’s cross evading

his teammates in the box. After that chance, Sheffield United found their way back into the game. Sharp hit the side netting on one occasion, and was able to poke in a rebound towards the end of the first half. It was his first goal since the opening day of the season, coincidentally against Bournemouth too.

In the second half United continued to pick up the momentum,

were enraged, leading manager Chris Wilder to go head-to-head with Andrew Surman. Both were booked.

The game looked to be heading for a draw with both sides unable to find a way through. Dean Henderson made a superb save from Fraser before substitute Lys Mousset, signed from Bournemouth in the summer, saw his shot blocked by Adam Smith. Soon after though he was able to set up fellow substitute John Lundstram in the 84th minute, who showed remarkable composure to finish into the bottom corner.

New signing Sander Berge made his home debut to the adulation of

the fans and had an understated afternoon. Apart from giving the ball away for Bournemouth’s opener, he was comfortable in possession and helped to shift the momentum in

the second half.

After the game Sheffield United manager Chris Wilder said: “To turn a losing position into a winning one shows what my group of players are about. We found a way to win. It was a great comeback. The belief the boys have is amazing.”

Bournemouth manager Eddie Howe said: “There’s things to grow from and stuff to learn from but we’re running out of games to keep saying that. It’s a horrible feeling to take into the break but we have to come back after this two-week break and go again.”

Forge Press

Wednesday 12 February 2020

Got a sports tale to tell? press.sport@forgetoday.com

Michael Ekman Sport Coordinator

Hi everyone! Welcome to the first Sport section of the decade!

I hope everyone is feeling refreshed and ready for the new semester after the winter break and exam season. There are a lot of interesting sporting events happening this next term. The BUCS season for all teams will be finishing up and Varsity is not too far away, so there is plenty to be excited for!

Featuring on the back page we’ve got University of Sheffield runner Harry Russell who recently represented England for the first time when he competed at a competition in Vienna. Moreover, in Women in Sports, boxer Jade Pearce won gold at BUCS Boxing Championships, having recently become a GB Champion as well.

Additionally, Sheff United are nearing the top four and European qualification doesn’t look too far away, and Sport Editor Alex analyses

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Sport the season for both Sheffield football teams.

In Sport Thoughts, we have a piece from a contributor speaking about the positive effects sport can have on mental health while Sport Editor Harry pays tribute to basketball legend Kobe Bryant after his sudden passing recently.

Lastly, if anyone wants to help in covering Varsity, then check out our Facebook pages where we have advertised the roles available. Hope to see a lot of new people sign up!

Results board

Upcoming fixtures

Sheffield Utd 2 - 1 Bournemouth

Sheffield Utd - Brighton

Barnsley 1 - 1 Sheffield Wednesday

Luton Town - Sheffield Wednesday

Sheffield Utd Women - Crystal Palace (Game postponed)

Charlton - Sheffield Utd Women (Game postponed)

Sheffield Wednesday Ladies 8 - 0 Bradford Park Avenue

Sheffield Wednesday Ladies - Harrogate Railway

Sheffield Tigers 10 - 27 Huddersfield

Hull - Sheffield Tigers

Sheffield Steelers 1 - 5 Nottingham Panthers

Sheffield Steelers - Dundee Stars

Sheffield Sharks 76 - 69 Worcester Wolves

Manchester Giants - Sheffield Sharks

Women in Sports: Boxer celebrates success after BUCS triumph and GB win Michael Ekman Sport Coordinator

A University of Sheffield boxer collected a gold medal at the BUCS Championships while also having been crowned GB Champion earlier in December.

Jade Pearce was too much to handle for her opponent in the deciding game, forcing eight counts and a second round technical knockout.

“It feels really good to win the gold in BUCS,” she said.

“I trained all over the Christmas period, I don’t have breaks per say, so I felt prepared. I’d been getting some really top sparing beforehand.

I’m always nervous before I box, but a good level of nerves that then turn

to energy when I get in the ring.”

Three years ago, Jade lost out in the BUCS novice final with a contentious decision while she also missed out last year as there was no one in her weight class.

Despite there still not being anyone in her weight class this year, Jade chose to compete in the class above.

However, this time around she ended the day with a well-deserved gold medal along with her recently becoming a GB Champion at the GB Championships over the winter.

Comparing how it is to box in BUCS and the GB Championships, Jade believes the latter is the right way to go in taking her next steps.

“The two events are very different.

The GB championships is possibly the best thing a boxer could win in the UK. “BUCS is still an amazing event and opportunity but in terms of providing future opportunities in boxing it is a lot more beneficial to win the GB competition.”

Looking ahead, Jade is set on representing her country at bigger international events.

“I will definitely continue with boxing and competing after university.

“The first step in aiming for the Olympics is to be given the opportunity to be part of the GB team and if that happens I will continue to work on short term goals from there on to build up to the final goal.”

Uni of runner reveals how university aided him into representing England Michael Ekman Sport Coordinator

Harry noted a new personal best in the Austrian capital Image: (C) ÖLV & Alfred Nevsimal

(cont. from back) ... I felt on the day that I was a match for them.”

Harry has been running ever since he was eight-years-old when he did it as a hobby. He then moved from cross country and started running shorter distances, like 200 and 400 metres, in his late teens.

However, he credits the time spent doing the sport while at university as being a formative period.

He said: “I love the sport and the year before coming to university I trained on my own.

This is probably a time that really shaped me, I wanted to get better and really dedicated my time to

improving.

“Back home, I didn’t really have anyone to help apart from my mum

University has provided me opportunities in athletics that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve otherwise who would drive me to races.

“Having not had a coach or training partners, I came to university wanting more than anything to find both.

“Luckily I got everything I wanted.

My coach Martin, training partners Liam, Tom, Ollie, Matt and Tamsin have really been my rock for me the last four years which haven’t always been the easiest with injuries.

“It’s been hard to strike a balance both mentally and physically with the sport, but university has provided me opportunities in athletics that I wouldn’t have been able to achieve otherwise.

“For that I’m always grateful.”

Looking ahead, Harry is determined to remain in the sport and represent his country yet again at international competitions.

“I’m realistic about my future, I have a belief in my ability and just desire more than everything to feel that I’ve maximise my potential.

“Internally, I set goals but never tell anyone, I think this keeps me driven. I’ll keep going as I’ve always been and will always be a runner. I would love to finish uni with a BUCS medal but I’m looking towards the Birmingham Commonwealth games in 2022, that is a huge target.”

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Harry (far right) battling against athletes from across the globe Image: (C) ÖLV & Alfred Nevsimal

Uni of Sheffield runner sets personal best while representing England at Vienna competition Michael Ekman Sport Coordinator

A University of Sheffield track runner has spoken about the “honour” he felt having represented his country for the first time at the prestigious Vienna Indoor Classic.

Harry Russell competed at the acclaimed competition, facing off against some of the world’s best in his age group.

“It was a real step up, the mindset and professionalism especially of the team and other athletes was very different,” he said.

“BUCS is big but at my level you end up racing the same old faces most of the time. So it was nice to face new people from abroad.”

Harry finished the tournament having run the 800 metre sprint, placing fourth and coming home with a new personal best.

Having gone through trials to represent England, Harry was surprised when he got the call from the national side.

He said: “I was very shocked when I got the call. I was in the dungeons of Western Bank, so I had to escape to take it. It was a huge honour.

“I came second in the England trials which, at the time, ranked me second in the country.

“Then a week later I won the North of England Athletics Indoor Championship, which put me in contention for a spot but not guaranteed.

“I was extremely honoured and humbled to be selected as one of two athletes for the team.”

Harry, 23, who also studies a Masters degree in Real Estate Planning and Development, had just come back from an injury in the day’s leading up to the race but

remained confident that he could put on a show.

“I had an injury for the two weeks

I was very shocked when I got the call.

I was in the dungeons of Western Bank, so I had to escape to take it leading up to the race, so I wasn’t able to enjoy the build-up as much

as I may have wished,” he added.

“I was confident however, as I know that prior to this I was in great form. I was nervous as I wanted to do my team justice having been given the opportunity.

“The race was filled with class competitors but ...(cont. on p43)