Lilith

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Transexclusion by Ronni Blackford

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Peachy by Lottie Hodson Photographic feature on adolescence

14 Generational Masculinity by Frankie Mayo 18 Culture Tradition by Katherine Tudor

Photographic feature on designer Sheena Jones

The T.E.R.F.s

Written by Ronni Blackford Illustrated by Jess Vaughan

It’s a 5 hour drive to the cottage I’m running away to with my partner. We’ve played music, listened to a podcast or two and disagreed slightly over some political issue. The next activity is obvious.

“Okay, so if an alien came down to Earth and wanted to know about you, what would you tell them? The catch is that they want to meet absolutely everyone on the planet and they’ve only got a few days off of work, so they’re going to have to ask you to keep it short and snappy and you can only say three things. Go!” After a bit of pedantic niggling from said partner, (“Why do they want to know about everyone? How are they going to reach everyone in the time? How are they going to make sure they don’t ask the same person twice?”) we agree that said alien has an encyclopaedic knowledge of humanity: they understand stereotypes and cultural references, that way you can sneak way more information into just three descriptors in the form of the baggage behind most of our language.

My final answer: i) I’m a humanities student at Oxford University.

(Possibly cheating? Possibly counts as two lots - or even three? But my game, my rules and I say it’s fine... ) ii) I’m a feminist. iii) Sometimes I smile so much my cheeks hurt.

It wasn’t until I was driving the two of us home a few days later, whilst my partner was neglecting his entertainment-based passenger duties by sleeping for hours on end, that I began to think properly about my answer - not about what I did put in, but what I didn’t. Imaginary me never told the imaginary, extra-terrestrial visitor that I identify as a woman, or that I have a vagina. Usually, I would say my mostly conventional femininity definitely constitutes an important part of my identity but I realised it didn’t actually say anything about me, apart from perhaps signposting to the alien

that I experience some elements of life in a certain way.

Still, my womanhood would have said more to this all-comprehending alien than the fact that I have a vagina. What would that have said? That I probably menstruate, given my age and body shape. That I probably have the ability to bear a child - though whether or not that would ever be relevant to me would remain unknown to the alien. And that’s really all. They would be able to visualise an approximation of my genitals.

Lucky them. Also, creepy them. Of course, I’m flattering this intelligent life form that they wouldn’t equate having a vagina to identifying with those “217 Things All Women Will Understand!!!1!!1!” Buzzfeed-esque videos.

Anyway, in realising that actually having a vagina seemed to be of little consequence regarding my identity, I realised something else: not only should ciswomen find transphobes and trans-misogynistic feminists offensive for their insulting treatment of transwomen and transfeminine people but we should be really fucking annoyed that they care so much about our vaginas. Aren’t some of the aims of feminism to deconstruct the male gaze and stop automatically sexualising conventionally attractive, female bodies? Doesn’t part of that male gaze and that sexualisation inherently reduce ciswomen’s bodies to the fact they own a vagina?

So if we won’t accept it from men and non-feminists, why should we accept if from the very people who are supposed to be on our side?

Last year, Germaine Greer told an audience at Cambridge University that transwomen don’t deserve womanhood since they don’t know what it’s like to have “a

big, hairy, smelly vagina”. I don’t know about you but I just can’t accept that argument. Let’s put aside for a moment the fact that transwomen and transfeminine folk have been an invaluable force both in the push for all women’s equality and for the rights of LGB people, and that I would be a terrible ‘ally’ if I didn’t attempt to backup their struggle when I had the ability and resources to do so. Aside from that, when was the last time you ciswomen out there ticked the “F” box on a questionnaire that asked your sex and thought, “Ah yes, female. Because of my big ol’ pal, Cunty McCuntface down there. Thanks for clearing one up for me!”

I mean, apart from remembering to pee after penetrative sex to avoid UTIs (Seriously. It’s not an urban myth. Do it.) and those mornings you wake up on the flag of Japan because you had a leak / your period came early, how often does your vagina actually affect your life? Isn’t it your womanhood that is the greater player in your everyday experiences? Because, the last I heard, that guy in that van who catcalled you in the street didn’t check what your genitals looked like first.

He saw “woman”, not “vagina” when he decided to yell.

Sure, I suspect he equated the two, but that’s not really the point.

The point is, having a vagina doesn’t define my identity. So can trans exclusionary feminists please stop acting like I am a giant, walking vagina, who sees everything through vagina-tinted lenses? What makes me a woman is that I say I am one. Sure some women don’t have vaginas, but if I’m allowed to distance my identity from my vagina-having, we shouldn’t accept some ‘feminists’ forcing different standards onto transwomen.

Words by Ronni Blackford Illustrations by Jess Vaughan

Pe a

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The series Peachy candidly observes and captures the transitional period between adolescence and adulthood.

Lottie found herself looking internally for inspiration, reflecting on her own experiences and observing her peers who are all in a similar age group.

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Images by Lottie Hodson

This transition is unique and personal, which encourages her to capture individual characters in each image. Lottie endeavours to oppose the stereotype of youth, avoiding rebellion but exposing an alternative outlook, a more peaceful insight into the subjects and their surroundings.

Light hearted and soft, this series offers a relaxed viewing and provides a refreshing and youthful experience for those who view it. Relatable to individuals the same age, and nostalgic for all those who have undergone this transition.

Generational Written by Frankie Mayo Images by Katherine Tudor

I suppose looking back, one may have described my grandpa as particularly masculine, at least outwardly. It’s not something that would have occurred to me as a young boy, as I found interest enough in his cigars and gristly beard without pondering the deeper implications. However he was someone who was physically very strong, appreciated meat and beautiful cars so I would may have picked up a certain impression of stereotypical masculinity had I never exchanged a word with him. For inwardly he exhibited none of the cold emotionlessness of my conception of masculinity.

Honestly the strongest impressions from my childhood memories of my grandparents are of good casserole, being absolutely horrified by an episode of Coronation

Masculinity

Street where someone intentionally ran someone else over, and of drawing in their front room. Though the outward appearance of my grandpa was perhaps thus pretty stereotypically masculine, the conversations, actions, and our interactions placed very little emphasis on anything other than enjoying ones time, which we seemed to manage well enough. This distinction between internal and external masculinity is clear and requires a second look. My grandma was always involved as well and I owe both of them a large debt for who I am, notwithstanding a singularly harrowing episode of Corrie.

Perhaps one unavoidable internal masculine characteristic I consider myself to have picked up over the years, from him and others, is a form of arrogant confidence which I also project onto my other family members. Thus I pretty much consider my grandparents perfect people, saddled with me. I couldn’t draw a line between his and her effects on my upbringing, except perhaps in the casserole department – to which my grandma has my eternal adoration.

I didn’t have any conversations I can remember with my grandpa about such societal constructs as masculinity. More recently my brother, dad, and I have been having more discussions about this and that, but it’s the subtle and inadvertent reinforcement of gender roles which is more interesting, through unspoken displays of masculinity. Perhaps I escaped the expectation of being a strong sportsman at a young age by bitterly complaining about being frogmarched to play a game of football in the rain which soon became hail. A nightmare situation which put

an end to my football career, and stays with me to this day.

Meat-eating seems to be another masculine thing - the only place a man is expected to cook -and is another place where my masculine education fell down. As much as my grandpa and younger-me loved meat, my number one male role model (a dangerous term) is vegetarian and thus I am less aware of masculine associations. So when I made the great migration to veggie-kingdom (the third member of my nuclear family to do so) I was encouraged, and moved further away again from being accepted at old men’s clubs – though perhaps an over-appreciation of cider might save me yet.

I believe the formative experiences my dad and granddads had in which they grew ‘as men’ are different, but not strictly from a generational point of view. I don’t think things have changed fundamentally that much, in my opinion it would ne historiographically crazy to suggest the rate of progress has increased in recent years, and scientifically silly to take the generational differences in masculinity of my family as evidence of much. I suppose all you can do is allow it to inform you worldview as all experiences do. In my opinion, other variables effect generational differences in my family. Civil rights campaigns concerning masculinity will have impacted each of them, and generally one hopes the march of feminism will have progressively broken down gender roles over time. ‘Bread-winning’ is an example of the exterior, non-personal, form of masculinity, and I imagine that this masculine trope has been broken down recently with changing attitudes and better workers’ rights for women.

Masculinity cannot exist in a world without femininity. I wouldn’t say my mum is overly feminine and so the unstated feminine/masculine comparisons of mums-and-dads in my life was undercut from the beginning. My grandpa and grandma probably fulfil this concept better. My wonderful younger sister has unfortunately been forced to adopt underappreciated resolve in being talked-over by men, as she has lived her whole life with two older brothers. Us boys have shown due appreciation for the finite-nature of life

by speaking quickly and practically without pause ever since learning the skill.

If my grandpa lived in a very masculine way, my dad does not, and I sort of bumble along trying to emulate both (and others besides) while attempting to make the most of the opportunities my privilege has afforded me. Masculinity and heterosexuality are closely, closely linked and whilst both of these men in question settled down with women again it is the subtle, and unintentional standard setting which will have affected my understandings of sexuality. Not that there was anything explicit or overt that I can recall, I was never expected to find a girlfriend, and in fact I imagine it was rather unexpected the first time this occurred – being a slightly shyer kid with apparently not much interest in the girls at school. In what ways the older generations interacted with sexuality I haven’t the slightest clue, I have some idea about my father, and generally try to remain unfussed about myself. I would argue that like masculinity, sexual orientation is a societal construct and as such the way men develop in this region is closely linked to ideas of gender roles. I’ll take this opportunity to bemoan the concept of men identifying as homosexual being either ‘more’ or ‘less’ masculine as a rule.

Looking across recent history there are clear reasons to suspect we may have different ideas about sexual orientation and gender roles. I would imagine that in the UK some of our concepts of masculinity have changed over recent years, however none of it counts as progress unless we reject the idea of masculinity and femininity completely. It’s no use that a man can now acceptably grill a veggie burger on the BBQ, however tasty and convenient it is, if all that is happening is the idea of masculinity is changing. Our ideas of acceptability in masculinity can change over generations, but the idea of masculinity itself must be gotten rid of. I would say that our ideas of gender roles have opened up more, but it is a very long road and the changes across 60 years may become unnoticeable in the long future of masculinity.

Written by Frankie Mayo Images by Katherine Tudor

Culture Tradition

Words and Images by Katherine Tudor

Sheena Jones is a Fashion Design BA(Hons) graduate who focuses on the clashing and combining of different cultures. Jones uses this collection to express the diffculty of belonging and combining two opposing nations, such is the Jones' personal background whose family migrated to the UK from the Gambia and Sierra Leone area in order to escape the issues of civil war in the 1990's.

Designer. Sheena Jones Model. Rachel Franks MUA. Briony Dowson

The garments are modelled on the traditional English pieces and then deconstructed to try and merge the two cultutral identities while also reflecting the military motivation for migration

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Front cover image by Katherine Tudor