The Beaver -#910 by The Beaver

The Beaver Making Sense of LSE Since 1949

Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

beaveronline.co.uk

- Issue 910

Tuesday 11 February 2020

LSE CLEANERS: “NO RESPECT, NO DIGNITY. WITHOUT US, THIS PLACE WOULD COLLAPSE.”

Two years after winning their fight to be hired directly by LSE, cleaners say that little has changed. Their complaints about a culture of degradation suggest a worrying pattern of treatment for the School’s newest staff. Colin Vanelli In interviews with over a dozen said one employee who complained ing cleaners working overnight Features Editor

he strikes which captivated LSE and national media in 2016 and 2017 centred around the demand that cleaners be brought ‘in-house’ – that they be hired directly by the school, rather than by the for-profit outside company that contracted their cleaning services to LSE. The cleaners won that fight. In early June 2017, LSE announced that it would hire cleaners directly, following seven weeks of strike action and ten months of labour organizing, and the cleaners officially became LSE employees in early March 2018. Nearly two years later, LSE cleaning staff are speaking up: they say that little has changed and complain of a culture of pressure and degradation which treats cleaners like second-class workers.

cleaners and cleaning supervisors, as well as multiple trade union representatives, The Beaver learned of a tense, high-pressure working environment in which many cleaners believe that they are seen and treated differently than other workers at the School. These interactions also suggested a worrying pattern of treatment by managers and a lack of accountability when cleaners believe that they face mistreatment. One cleaner, who was first employed at LSE over a decade ago through its outside cleaning company, said: “I thought Noonan [LSE’s cleaning company] was so terrible. But now I realize that the pressure was coming from LSE.” Many cleaners complained of the adverse mental health impacts of their work environment at LSE. “We feel like we are going to explode,”

of a tense work environment and has been diagnosed with clinical depression during his time at LSE, “they know you have a problem. And they keep applying pressure.” Another cleaner, facing continued mental health issues after returning from a wrongful suspension, allegedly faced pressure from managers to not take sick leave despite suffering from a diagnosed psychophysiological condition. Multiple cleaners complained about the mental and physical strain of understaffing: on one shift, the majority of workers said that they had recently taken sick days due to exhaustion and medical issues associated with their work. “When you come to work you have to be happy,” said one cleaner who said that their complaints had fallen on deaf ears, “they don’t like to listen when you cry,” added another. Unlike other LSE staff on the same salary band, cleaners are not eligible for the time-and-a-half pay offered for overtime work, includ-

shifts who receive only a modest night allowance. Estates Director Allan Blair told the Student’s Union that the cleaners are not entitled to these rates due to “specific contractual arrangements” made during the in-sourcing process. Despite this, trade union representatives with knowledge of the transition said that no such agreements had been made. A number of cleaners used this disparity as the basis for their complaints that LSE treats cleaners as ‘second-class’ workers: “We may be the lowest level, but we are working,” said one cleaner. In written comment to The Beaver, an LSE Spokesperson said: “The School has had a number of open discussions with the unions on overtime policy in the past few years. Overtime rates for staff on bands 1-5 vary across the organisation depending on operational need…Due to operational need, a very small number of staff have access to contractual over-time.” (continued on p. 11)

OfS raises “Access Gap” Concerns, Names LSE.

Jeffrey Wang

Features Editor

Illustration by Colette Fogarty

he Office for Students (OfS) has slammed several UK universities including Imperial College London, Oxford, Cambridge, Bristol, University College London and LSE for having the widest “access gap” between wealthier and poorer students. The OfS, which acts as the regulator and competition authority for the higher education sector in England, warned that this gap should be halved in five years. The LSE has rejected this statement, that it actively recruits exceptional students from all parts of society. According to the OfS report, de-

spite an increase in the total student base, the number of poorer students in England’s most selective universities has hardly changed. The report suggests that leading schools such as Imperial College and LSE should provide another 6,000 spots for disadvantaged students within the next 5 years. The OfS can levy fines for universities who do not comply with its policies. Mike Buchanan, who heads the Headmasters’ and Headmistresses’ Conference, said that “Care is needed in starting actively to discriminate against individual young people on the basis of the class they were born into” and argued for selective universities to increase availability for private school graduates.

Inside Today

Features

Dispatch from the Iowa Caucus ...In Paris

Comment Wales: Hidden by The Media

News

Diplomacy Ball Grows Threefold

CDS Hosts Forum on Future of Sino-British Economic

LSE and the Coronavirus Crisis

Buchanan declared that the 6,000 spots suggested by the OfS should be made up by limiting the number of international students at selective universities stating, “universities should not to increase international student numbers if it denied places to UK students”. (continued on p.5)

DON’T FORGET TO FLIP OVER FOR

FLIPSIDE

The Beaver

Tuesday 11 February 2020 | The Beaver www.beaveronline.co.uk

Established 1949 | Issue 9010 | Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union

Meet the team Executive Editor Morgan Fairless editor@beaveronline.co.uk Managing Editor Jamie Boucher managing@beaveronline.co.uk Flipside Editor Christina Ivey flipside@beaveronline.co.uk Beaver Editor Lucy Knight beaver@beaveronline.co.uk Multimedia Editor Yasmina O’Sullivan Design Editor Colette Fogarty Editorial Assistants Ross Lloyd Illustrators Rebekah Paredes-Larson Raphaelle Carmarcat Emma Duper Amelia Jabry Sebastian Mullen News Editors Laura Zampini Jeffrey Wang news@beaveronline.co.uk Comment Editors Grace Chapman Gustav Hagild Michael Shapland comment@beaveronline.co.uk Features Editors Marianne Hii Colin Vanelli Annabelle Jarrett features@beaveronline.co.uk Part B Editor Maya Kokerov partb@beaveronline.co.uk Review Editors Amber Iglesia Zehra Jafree partb@beaveronline.co.uk Sport Editors Seth Rice Gabby Sing sport@beaveronline.co.uk Social Editor Analía Ferreyra Sherry union@beaveronline.co.uk Any opinions expressed herein are those of their respective authors and not necessarily those of the LSE Students’ Union or Beaver Editorial Staff. The Beaver is issued under a Creative Commons license. Attribution necessary.

Printed at Mortons Printing Room 2.02 Saw Swee Hock Student Centre LSE Students’ Union London WC2A 2AE 020 7955 6705

Introducing the Beaver’s Journalism Festival Gustav Hagild

Comment Editor

or this weeks issue we are warming up the to first annual The Beaver Journalism Festival, by focussing on all things journalism! As we set sail for the festival’s virgin voyage, we have scoured LSE for opinions, perspectives and stories relating to the future of journalism. See for example Laura Zampini’s article on LSE Alums who have gone on to work in the field. She meets Molly Blackall who reveals that The Beaver helped her discover her call as a journalist, before working at the Daily Telegraph and the Daily Mail. Or, turn over to Comment, where the President of the Welsh Society, Adam Kearns argues that in a union of equal nations, the British media ignores Wales. This, he argues, is detrimental to the already thinly trusted press. More equal coverage, among equal nations, will help bridge this gap in the future. Anna Leigh writes for Features about the need to not only consume media, be it social media or news, but of the benefits of actively producing content yourself too. And, we have reprinted an article by Andrew Solender, who argues, perhaps controversially, that the biggest threat of journalism today is the public, who neither want to pay for, nor

care about objective news. This leads to increasingly poor reporting. He suggests, that to fix this issue, fundamental changes in media production are needed. I’ll let you decide if you agree. The Beaver Journalism Festival is our first attempt to bring broader questions concerning the future of the industry to the people of LSE – the people this newspaper is for and by. Will investigative journalism continue to have an audience in the next decade, as people are less and less willing to pay for their news? Come along to our talk on investigative journalism by Kity Chellel from Bloomberg BusinessWeek. And does the increasingly explosive work of whistle-blowers challenge conventional notions of freedom of speech? We ask Cannes selected director Tarquin Ramsay after a screening of his documentary ‘Free Speech, Fear Free’. And make sure to follow our social media platforms (@thebeaveronline) through out the week, as we focus on students’ relationship with the media, and publish stories concerning the journalism of tomorrow. We hope you will come along, share and continue to engage with the questions facing journalism as we enter the roaring twenties, full speed ahead. Happy reading, and happy The Beaver Journalism Festival!

“Free Speech Fear Free” Documentary Viewing + Q&A with Director Why Should We Take Sex Advice from The Beaver? Tarquin Ramsay

Christina Ivey

FLIPSIDE Editor

eorge Bernard Shaw, one of the founders of LSE and this paper once said: “Why should we take advice on sex from the pope?”. For this issue, you might ask the same thing about FLIPSIDE – we’re talking about sex in addition to our usual coverage. Bear with us here. This edition is also longer, harder and better than our last, totalling 32 pages instead of our usual 24. For the first time in recent history, our SPORT section has a double spread. We have a personal essay from Olympic rower Ollie Cook dismantling the stereotype of LSE’s un-athleticism, a profile of LSESU Pole Fitness and extended coverage of LSESU This Girl Can. SOCIAL has a thoughtful long read by Sadia Sheeraz on how dating intersects with internalised racism, alongside its usual columns Cliteracy and my very own bipolar blog. This week’s FLIPSIDE interview features Ella Holmes and Fikayo Adebajo. My alternate title for that interview, if it were an academic paper would be “Towards a more productive discussion of sex”. I wrote that in the original write up but my editors made me cut it. Anyway, we talked about consent, orgasms and community

Why The Beaver? Morgan Fairless Executive Editor

o. This editorial is not about our name, which - I have repeated endlessly - I will not allow to be changed whilst im at the helm. (Yes, our managing editor will read this and sigh, so be it). This editorial is about the paper. On our last issue, in these same pages, Jaime Boucher wrote an editorial explaining our struggles to reach more of the community, among other things. Somebody asked me if I liked his writing, I an-

building amongst the women of LSE. I genuinely believe reading that interview is a step towards having better sex in the context of this university. PART B, annexed from the front side at the start of this year, features original poetry by Salomé Melchior and another long read by section editor Maya Kokerov on the sexualisation of victimhood in the media. Also in this issue, REVIEW tried out popular dating apps, all for you, our dear readers. Section editor Amber Iglesia spent four long days on Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Match.com and OkCupid navigating swaths of horny men for very noble research pursuits. We thank her for her service. Zehra Jafree, our second section editor, reviews the latest season of Sex Education, with hot takes incoming, We also have staff writer Molly Horner detailing the weird incestuous life of Anaïs Nin in memory of her 117th birthday. A fun-filled issue to say the least. We, the FLIPSIDE team, laboured over this issue and we’re really proud of it. It’s 17,289 words of LSE students talking about sex and all the different ways we do it. We’ve put down towels so we wouldn’t make a mess of it.

4 March

CBG.1.08 at 6pm

Investigative Journalism with Kit Chellel, from Bloomberg Businessweek

6 March CBG.1.02 at 6pm

swered that I did, but above all, I knew it was effective: over the past two weeks, we have heard back from many people wishing to give us advice, and help out. We were humbled and thankful. Why keep The Beaver around, if it struggles to get read by more than 10% of the LSE population? Well, see the first page. Colin’s excellent journalism has brought to light voices rarely heard on campus. We have a platform, and we use it as wisely and professionally as we can. In a campus with no journalism degrees, The Beaver is a place in which students of all creeds can build portfolios, get trained, express their - cogent - opinions, and engage with their campus (a campus, I might add, that lacks a community). So, don’t mistake our willingness to admit weaknessess for an admitance of defeat or redundance. We are here to stay.

Journalismfocused content, collaborations and more!

News

News Editors Laura Zampini Jeffrey Wang

Email us: beaver@thebeaveronline.co.uk

The News Team

LSE Responds to the Coronavirus Outbreak LSE administration reacts to growing concerns and PKULSE students have on-campus courses suspended

Kevin Morris Staff Writer

s governments and global health authorities attempt to contain the growing coronavirus outbreak in China and around the world, operational lockdown and a paucity of accurate or timely information on the virus leave some students and academic programs in limbo. Among those impacted are LSE students, particularly those in the university’s jointly-run courses with Peking University in Beijing. In London, meanwhile, fears of a potential outbreak led to a false alarm in one of LSE’s student residence halls. As the number of confirmed cases grows, the LSE administration continues to assert that the university is closely monitoring the situation in London and Beijing and is actively communicating with health authorities in both countries. Chinese health workers detected the first cases of the virus in the city of Wuhan in the Hubei Province of China in early December and by the 31 January the NHS had confirmed the first two cases of 2019-nCoV in the UK (they are now three). That same day, the WHO declared the 2019-nCoV outbreak a Global Health Emergency. In an email sent out to the university community on 27 January, LSE Director Minouche Shafik emphasized that the risk level of this out-

break to the UK remained low and that LSE would continue to inform its advice for students and staff based on the guidelines set by WHO and Public Health England. She confirmed that LSE’s campus would remain open and exhorted students to maintain good hygiene and regular hand washing. Following reports that public health authorities had escorted a student from an LSE residence hall for screening, Director Shafik released another statement on January 31st explaining that this was a false alarm and the student in question was healthy. She again emphasized the “minimal risk on campus and in halls” but also noted that the UK increased risk level to “moderate.” Director Shafik’s call for calm is echoed by a WHO report published on Friday, February 7th, which cites available Chinese data from nearly 17,000 2019-nCoV cases to estimate that 82% cases of this novel coronavirus strain are “mild.” For LSE-PKU dual students in Beijing, however, the situation remains much more serious. Peking University, along with several other universities in China, announced on January 26th it would postpone the planned 17 February start date to the spring term. As part of the statement, the university emphatically requested that students “avoid returning to Beijing and the campus of PKU in advance of the school's announcement of a new semester start date.” On 31 January, however, PKU announced that in light of the rapidly evolving “public health emergency caused by the outbreak of a new strain of the coronavirus” it would postpone the start of the term indefi-

nitely. Later, on 7 February, PKU released another statement sharing the university’s decision to “to suspend on-campus courses” and requiring that “students not to come back to school until further notice.” The Beaver was unable to confirm if any PKU-LSE dual students returned to the UK or their country of origin. In an email sent out to PKU international students, the university announced the creation of a special working group to handle response measures and asked students to “strengthen their sense of self-preservation, maintain positive personal life/hygiene habits, stick to laws and regulations issued by the government and actively cooperate with relevant Chinese or foreign parties...”. To prevent too severe of a disruption to the academic schedule, the university stated, on 7 February, that it intended to move teaching to online e-platforms and provide recorded and streaming lectures through Massive Online Open Courses and webinars. LSE, meanwhile, released updated guidelines for students on its “Coronavirus FAQs” webpage. Due to the growing severity of the situation in the East Asia region, the university cites the WHO and PHE in recommending against student or staff travel to China during this time. The university also asked that students who have traveled to Wuhan or the greater Hubei Province in the last 14 days contact LSE Residential Life immediately. Likewise, the guidelines prescribed that students experiencing symptoms of “cough, fever or shortness of breath” have traveled to China, Thailand, Japan, Republic of Ko-

rea, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia or Macau should quarantine themselves for 14 days and contact the NHS and LSE Residential Life immediately. Finally, in light of rising levels of Sinophobia and racism stoked by uninformed concerns surrounding the disease, the website urged students to “work together to not let LSE become a place where fears overcome our commitment to tolerance and respect for one another.” This attitude appears to prevail amongst LSE students. Amanda Pleasant, an MSc student in International Affairs living in one of the LSE halls of residence, told the Beaver: “I think most people seem to be unconcerned about it - we have an active group chat and nobody seems to be worried or has brought up any issues. So most things seem calm and business as usual around here!” Nicolai Dolinal, a General Course student, agreed, stating “I don’t feel worried and I feel like most people I talk to aren’t either.” At the time of writing, however, both LSE and PKU continue to promote admissions to both the 2020 PKU-LSE Summer School in Beijing as well as the collection of joint PKU-LSE Masters and PhD programs for 2020 enrolment. For now, LSE students and staff with questions about the 2019-nCoV outbreak should continue to visit LSE’s “Coronavirus FAQs” website for insight on this evolving epidemic. LSE students and staff with questions about the 2019-nCoV outbreak should continue to visit LSE’s “Coronavirus FAQs” website for insight on this evolving epidemic.

Cindy Ren Staff Writer

Raphaelle Camarcat Staff Writer

Meher Pandey Staff Writer

Eva Fernandez Staff Writer

Rhea Malviya Staff Writer

Angbeen Abbas Staff Writer

Kevin Morris Staff Writer

Thahmina Begum Staff Writer

Mary Ma

Staff Writer

LSE Alumna Appointed UK's First Woman Ambassador to the US Laura Zampini News Editor

n Friday 7 February, the UK government announced, in a press release, the appointment of Dame Karen Pierce as Her Majesty’s Ambassador to the United States of America. She will be the first woman to occupy this position and is replacing Sir Kim Darroch, who resigned in 2019 after leaked emails revealed his description of President Donald Trump’s administration as “clumsy and inept.” Pierce graduated with Distinction from LSE IDEAS’ Executive MSc International Strategy and Diplomacy in 2012. Following Pierce’s appointment, Professor Michael Cox, LSE IDEAS Director said: “All of us here in LSE IDEAS are absolutely delighted that Dame Karen Pierce - one of the very first students to study on our Executive Masters in International Strategy and Diplomacy - has been appointed to this critically important post at this most crucial of moments in the Anglo-American relationship. We wish her the very best in her new role in Washington.” Currently, Pierce is the UK’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, since March 2018. Before this, she served as the Director-Gen-

eral for Political Affairs and Chief Operating Officer of the Foreign and Commonwealth in London. Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote on Twitter: “I can think of no better person to drive forward our hugely important relationship with the United States at this time.” Commenting on her appointment, Pierce called the UK’s relationship with the US the country’s “single most important relationship” and said she looks forward to working towards strengthening this “special relationship between our two countries and two peoples.”

“

All of us here in LSE IDEAS are absolutely delighted that Dame Karen Pierce one of the very first students to study on our Executive Masters in International Strategy and Diplomacy has been appointed to this critically important post at this most crucial of moments in the Anglo-American relationship. We wish her the very best in her new role in Washington.

“

Dame Karen Pierce to replace Sir Kim Darroch

Join the News Team! Join our News Team as a staff writer and help us report and investigate LSE news. For more information, visit beaveronline.co.uk/vacancies

Send us any tips to: news@beaveronline.co.uk

News

Tuesday 11 February 2020 | The Beaver

Church of England Partners with LSE Grantham Institute to Invest in Sustainability Church of England uses LSE research to cut carbon intensity of their investments

Jeffrey Wang News Editor

he Church of England Pension Board, which manages over £2.8bn for over 38,000 current and retired clergy and other employees of the Church of England, has launched the Financial Times Stock Exchange Transition Pathway Initiative (FTSE TPI) Climate Transition Index in collaboration with LSE’s Grantham Research Institute. The fund, building off the Transition Pathway Initiative which is co-chaired by the Church of England, Environment Agency Pension Fund and the Grantham Institute is backed by 62 funds with over US $18 trillion of combined assets under management or assets under advice. The fund aims to offer an environmentally sustainable investment

option. It sets climate-based conditions, alongside economic ones, by assessing the alignment of different companies with the Paris agreement goal to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius. These conditions were decided in part based on research by the Grantham Institute, a research institute at LSE that acts as the umbrella body for the school's research on climate change and its environmental impact. Adam Matthews, Co-Chair of the Initiative and Director of Ethics and Engagement for the Church of England Pensions Board, said in the launch of the fund, “The message is clear to all publicly listed companies: put in place targets and strategies aligned to Paris and be rewarded with inclusion in the Index or work against the long term interests of beneficiaries and wider society and be excluded.” According to a Church of England spokesman, “Under the index, the Pensions Board portfolio will have a 49.1% lower carbon intensity than its current passive allocation.”

Beaver Alumni and Careers in Journalism Past student writers and editors have pursued a career in journalism

Raphaelle Camarcat Staff Writer

he Beaver, LSE’s official newspaper and student publication, has now been around for more than half a decade. Since its creation in 1949, it has seen numerous generations of ambitious student writers and editors join its ranks. Year by year, students have gone through the media center, asking themselves similar questions: What makes an event newsworthy? Which are the best stories to cover? Where is the best place at LSE to get trustworthy information from? On this special edition focused on journalism, The Beaver looks at past student writers who have pursued careers in media and journalism. Molly Blackall, recent LSE graduate and last year’s Comment Editor was an intern at The Telegraph and the Daily Mirror. She took the time to tell The Beaver how writing for LSE’s student publication paved the way into her career as a freelance journalist. ‘‘The Beaver gave me my first introduction to journalism - my first taste of finding stories, editing articles, and learning how news went from an idea to a print page. Alongside the workers rights campaigns I was involved with on campus, and learning of the remarkable impact journalists had in challenging power abuses all over the world, The Beaver was one of most important factors in my realisation that journalism was something I wanted to dedicate my life to,’’ she said. “Perhaps most importantly, it provided my first bit of actual journalistic experience, which in turn opened a number of doors. Journalism is incredibly difficult to get into, and everything seems to require experience first, which ends up being a vicious cycle when you’re trying to get your foot in the door. Hav-

ing some experience on the student newspaper helped me get my first work experience placement at a local paper, which then helped me get to a national. It provides one of the rare leg-ups in this industry,” Blackall told The Beaver. Today, she’s pursuing a Masters degree in Journalism at City, University of London, whilst writing for The Guardian. Taryana Odayar, The Beaver’s former executive editor in 2016 and Features Editor in 2015, created an interview section and redesigned the paper's website. During her time at The Beaver, Taryana interviewed presidential candidates, high profile artists and Julia Gillard, Australia’s first female prime minister. After graduating from the school with a a BSc in Politics and Philosophy, she pursued a MSc in journalism at Columbia, and works today as a Power Finance & Risk Reporter. She recently interviewed Prashant Rao, former Deputy Europe Business Editor at the New York Times and today Global Editor at The Atlantic. Older Alumni count amongst them Members of Parliament, such as Richard Bacon, former Executive Editor, established journalists and authors. Justin Webb, a British journalist at the BBC, past main copresenter of one the BBC’s News programs and writer for the Radio Times made his début as a student editor here at LSE. Stephen Kelly, former contributor to the Beaver, is now a freelance culture journalist and has published articles in The Guardian, The Telegraph, Wired. Ekow Eshun, former editor for both the Features and Arts section, who pursued a BSc in Politics & History at LSE, has worked as the editor of several magazines including Tank, Arena and Mined. He became the Artistic Director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts between 2005 and 2010 and was a regular contributor to BBC Radio art programs. His memoir, Black Gold of the Sun: Searching for Home in England and Africa was published in 2005.

Indignation Sparked as Home Office Denies Visa to Cambridge Sociologist UK academics pen open letter in support of LSE graduate Asiya Islam

Eva Fernandez Staff Writer

r Asiya Islam, an Indian sociologist at Newnham College, University of Cambridge, has been denied permanent residency in the UK after having lived in the country for a decade. Islam graduated from LSE with Distinction in MSc in Gender, Media and Culture in 2010. From July 2016 to June 2017, Islam left the UK to do field work for her PhD in India. She was backed by Cambridge University in doing so, but is deemed to have spent too many days out of the UK during the application process to be able to obtain the Indefinite Leave to Remain (ILR). Islam has applied for a Tier 2 visa

to legally protect herself while her appeal to obtain the ILR is still ongoing. The Home Office’s refusal of the ILR endangered her ability to work and rent in the UK and almost left her with an “over-stayer” status. Academics across the UK have protested the decision in an open letter to the Home Office, describing Islam as a "superb academic", winner of a Junior Research Fellowship, and judging the visa denial unacceptable. The letter, which obtained 2,055 signatures from students, professors and staff, warns the UK Government to avoid sending xenophobic messages when handling foreign academics’ application. 56 of the signatories are LSE Professors, Faculty and students, including Emeritus Leverhulme Professor Mary Evans and Professor Tarak Barkawi, from the International Relations Department. Dr Islam’s case is not isolated. Other academics have faced an unwelcoming immigration environment

and had their visas denied. Furaha Asani, a young academic at Leicester University, had her visa application rejected in August in 2019. Four days before Brexit, on 27 January, the UK government announced the launch of a fast-track ‘Global Talent Visa’, indicating the country’s intention to encourage and welcome international scholars and students. However, Islam remains unable to obtain the Indefinite Leave to Remain.

LSE IDEAS Ranked Number One University Affiliated Think Tank LSE Think Tank continues its upwards trajectory

Angbeen Abbas Staff Writer

SE IDEAS, a think tank affiliated with the London School of Economics, has been ranked as the number one university-affiliated think tank in the world by the Think Tanks and Civil Societies Program (TTCSP). LSE IDEAS is a foreign policy think tank founded in February

2008 which publishes analysis of international affairs and houses the Executive MSc International Strategy and Diplomacy programme. The Global Go To Think Tank Report, published by the TTCSP based in the University of Pennsylvania, was first published in 1989. Since then, it has provided a comprehensive database of think tanks, that comprises over 8,000 institutions in 177 countries. Out of 94 other university-affiliated think tanks, IDEAS was ranked at the top. IDEAS was first recognised by the TTCSP report in 2011 and has remained within

the top 5 since then. LSE IDEAS Director Professor Michael Cox, commented, “LSE IDEAS continues its onward trajectory our ranking is a great testament to our staff and programme managers, and the journey has just begun!” Dame Minouche Shafik, LSE Director, said "Congratulations once again to everyone at LSE IDEAS for this fantastic achievement. This international recognition for work to influence policy is an important part of maintaining LSE's global reputation for excellence and our mission to shape the world."

www.beaveronline.co.uk | @beaveronline

Email us: beaver@thebeaveronline.co.uk

CDS Hosts Forum on Future of Sino-British Economic Relations Forum argues that Western countries must improve willingness to cooperate with China

Mary Ma and Cindy Ren Staff Writers

n 5 February, the China Development Society hosted its 2020 LSE SU China-Britain Business Forum at the Hilton, London Canary Wharf. This year, the forum focused on the topic of ‘Paving Paths to Mutual Prosperity’ and invited 13 experts in fields ranging from business, policy and fashion. Of particular note are Mei Chen, director of fashion and luxury Europe at Alibaba Group, Lin Feng, CEO of DealGlobe, and Michael Hill-King, Collaboration Director at Huawei Technologies. The forum, which featured three business-focused panels, attracted over 150 participants from London university students to business professionals. The opening speech, given by LSE Economic History Professor Kent Deng, emphasized the global trade cycle and stressed the increasing impacts of globalization. Deng also addressed the need for countries to

seek bilateral development options given the reduced possibility for unilateral economic opportunities. He further affirmed the importance of ‘mutual perspectives’, arguing that a ‘zero-sum’ approach to economics is disastrous and states need to focus on cooperation for win-win situations. This was followed by a keynote speech given by Mark Schaub, owner of a China-focused multinational law firm based in Hong Kong. Calling on his 30 years of experience working in China, Schaub said that the country has not only improved its economic well-being but also gone through a mindset transition. Schaub compared the attitude of

Chinese people towards their government and the attitude of those in the West, claiming that Chinese growth China over the past 30 years is caused in part by the stability afforded by people's trust in authorities. This was followed by a series of panels. Mei Chen's panel summed up the general theme of the conference: with the increasing cruciality of China in the global market, Western countries can no longer unilaterally dominate economic development. Chen argued that Western countries must improve their level of understanding and willingness to cooperate with China in order to achieve mutual growth.

LSE responded to the Beaver’s request for comment in regards to their policy to comply with the OfS report, saying, “LSE is committed to recruiting exceptional students from all parts of society. As part of this commitment, the School continues to commit significant funds on access, bursaries and outreach, with the aim of attracting and supporting a wide range of qualified students from under-represented backgrounds at LSE, as well enabling students to access higher education more generally through our widening participation outreach programme. Details can be found in the School’s Access and Participation Plan. LSE has been recognised by the Independent think

Diplomacy Ball Raises Thousands for Charity £3000 to go to Amnesty International (UK) and UNICEF

Raphaelle Camarcat Staff Writer

OfS Raises"Access Gap" Concerns (continued from front page)

Photo courtesy of the Diplomacy Ball organisers

tank, REFORM, for our progress on increasing admissions for students from the lowest participation neighbourhoods based on the POLAR3 dataset.” In regards to the use of contextual information, LSE’s policy for applicants from the UK is to use this information "to gain a more complete picture of the educational and individual context of an applicant. This allows our admissions selectors to assess achievement and potential whilst recognising the challenges an applicant may have faced in their educational or individual circumstances.” Finally, LSE rejected Buchanan’s argument that international students are displacing domestic students since LSE recruitment quotas

are set before the application season so that a balanced number of domestic and international students may study at the school.

RULE BREAKER RISK TAKER DEAL MAKER BE THE DIFFERENCE

n Saturday 1 February, students from LSE, KCL, and UCL arrived at the De Vere Grand Connaught Rooms for the second annual Diplomacy Ball. Started in 2019, the initiative came from two LSE students, former presidents of LSESU Grimshaw Society and LSESU UN Society, who were joined by KCL’s Diplomacy Society and UCL’s Diplomacy in Action Society. The Beaver met with three LSE students who organised the event: Jonas Bokelmann, a 2nd year BSc Management student, and Thea Koehn and Tea Visnjic, both 2nd year IR students. The organisers of the 2020 Diplomacy Ball expanded the guest list from 150 attendees to 500, with funds raised through ticket sales going to charity. "We couldn’t be more excited about having hosted a ball that was both widely enjoyed and had a real social impact: the diplomacy ball 2020 raised nearly £3000 for Amnesty International (UK) and UNICEF," said Koehn. Last year’s tickets sold out in 4 hours, whilst this year’s first release sold out in under a minute. Regarding funding, LSE Ideas was

the event’s title funder for a consecutive year. "Without them, the ball wouldn’t have taken place," said Bokelmann, "not only in terms of finance but also through their network, enabling us to meet new sponsors and create new partnerships". During the event, Michael Cox, LSE Ideas Director, delivered a speech thanking the different student societies who contributed to the event for their hard work. "With this event, students can really become a part of the London university experience," explained Tea Visnijc. "When we realized how important the demand was and how much people had enjoyed it last year, we understood we could really go bigger this year. We felt that a gap existed within the range of events available. You don’t need to belong to a specific group here", she added. The three organisers interviewed spent a total of 15 hours working on seating arrangement alone. "We realized that after working on this seating chart, our wedding planning would probably be much easier," Tea told The Beaver jokingly. The Diplomacy Ball is set to be organised for its third consecutive year in 2021.

Comment

Comment Editors Grace Chapman Gustav Hagild Michael Shapland

Email us: beaver@beaveronline.co.uk

Cymru: Wedi’i ei chuddio gan y cyfryngau Wales: Hidden by the Media. President of the Welsh Society, Adam Kearns argues that supposedly British media ignores one of its nations. In order to improve the regard of media in the Union, A British press should focus on all British naitons equally.

President of Welsh Society

he UK media is not exactly held in a state of high regard at the moment with nly. 32% of British adults saying they somewhat trust the media. As of very recently, we have seen the UK media make horrendous blunders such as mistaking the identities of Kobe Bryant and the MP Dawn Butler respectively, whilst even Wikipedia warns that the British Tabloids should be treated with “greater caution” when fact-checkingfact checking. All of this is in the midst of an historic weariness the UK public feel towards the UK media possibly as highlighted by the events of the Leveson inquiry. Despite this, the situation seems worse even more dire in Wales. With only one national newspaper, The Western Mail, Wales lags behind the otherits counterpart devolved nations, Scotland and Northern Ireland, whilst having little media that is communicated in Welsh - a language spoken by nearly 900,000 people in Wales. This is hugely concerning as the Welsh Assembly has many powers

that can influence the lives of the Welsh population such as healthcare, education, transport, and a degree of taxation power. However, turnout at the last assembly election was a meagre 45% compared to the 56% turnout at the respective Scottish Parliament elections. By contrast, the 2019 UK General Election had a turnout of 67% despite the potential for election fatigue, given that this was the third general election in five years. One wonders if it is the lack of Welsh media which prevents Welsh Assembly elections from being more greatly cared about by the Welsh public. A lack of understanding for Welsh issues has often been seen in the UK media. For example, the Welsh language has been written about as being “existentially pointless” to learn and “indecipherable with no real vowels” in the Guardian and the Sunday Times respectively. This undermining of a key aspect of Welsh culture by an Anglocentric media no doubt helps to reinforce the notion that decentralised media is not needed, thus limiting the chance for a prominent Welsh centric media to develop. Recently, some new media out-

“A lack of understanding for Welsh issues has often been seen in the UK media.

“

Adam Kearns

lets have tried to plug the gap. Nation.Cymru was set up in Bangor aiming “to address the absence of a national print media in Wales”, whilst Senedd Home consists of three blogs which focuses specifically on national and hyperlocal issues. In time, perhaps this development will be contrasted with a greater Welsh language media presence as Wales can develop a strong devolved media which can better inform the public about national issues and hopefully greater engage the public when it comes to Assembly Elections. Until then, Wales arguably risks its status of being an equal nation in a union of four equal nations without having a devolved media that it so desperately needs.

To Survive, the BBC Must Learn from Fox News This article is published under a pseudodonym

s the Conservative's rule progresses, the BBC seems to be confronted by the grave threat of increasing irrelevancy. This has come in the background of well founded accusations from the conservative party regarding bias throughout Boris Johnson's election campaign, as well as his run for the conservative leadership. In the meantime, across the Atlantic under President Donald Trump, Fox News has seen continued success, seeing it's revenues rise by 12% last year as well as raking in $600 million superbowl revenue amongst other lucrative money making ventures. Fox's success also spans it's ability to differentiate itself from other competitors such as CNN and CNBC, who have become dragged into an endless war of attrition concerning who can denigrate President Trump the most. To thrive once again, the BBC should leave it's leftist brainwashing and Boris-bashing behind and adopt the Fox-model, or risk losing its central position in status in British media ain forever. The first aspect of Fox News that the BBC can learn from is its patriotism. A single glance at Fox News' online site demonstrates it's love of the United States. This is evident in Fox's personalised 'military' and 'religion' sections: each

pinpointing key aspects of American culture that are coming under threat, including articles on the Navy Seal who has his 'Trump 2020' flag stolen, and as well as the outcry concerning anti-Jewish and anti-Christian acts being on the rise in France. Throughout Fox's television output, a love of America is also continuously asserted, throughout Fox's television output with content on with direct 'patriotism' related

“

Fox shows the BBC the importance of being a tolerant and inclusive media outlet.

“

Maciej Garztecki

content: such as the decline of patriotism amongst US millennialsmillenials, as well as the politicization of patriotism. Meanwhile, the BBC has resorted to creating mindless, antiBritish drivel such as comedian Nish Kumar's presentation of CBBC's Horrible Historyies programme, released on Brexit day, presentshighlighting the idea that there exists are "hardly anything" British things in existence due to foreign influence over history. The BBC's attempt to brainwash children into believing revisionist leftwing history is reinforced by its almost suicidal decision to have the controversial rapper Stormzy read

out St Luke's Gospel on Christmas day, right after having asserted publicly that Britain, one of the world's most tolerant countries, is 'definitely racist'. To begin it's process of renewal, the BBC simply must end such self-destructive behaviours. Only then can it begin to learn to be like Fox and stand for its country again. The BBC's inclusion of Stormzy for its Christmas message further highlights its problems. With Stormzy also having been filmed telling children on a school visit that 'Boris Johnson is a bad man', the BBC's implicit endorsement of a figure so willing to publicly slate it's leader shows a lack of political impartiality that used to define the BBC as a stalwart of British culture. This is aligned with the sneering and

often hostile tone the BBC adopted toward Boris Johnson during the December Election. In contrast to this, throughout Trump's tenure, Fox News has steadfastly supported the President, whilst maintaining an impartial perspective upon his policies. Fox's coverage of Trump's impeachment trial in particular has highlighted how measured and robust political reporting, free from belittling important politicians can strengthen discourse across the political spectrum: something the BBC should replicate if it hopes to rid itself of the association of being a biased media outlet. Finally, Fox shows the BBC the importance of being a tolerant and inclusive media outlet. This was evidenced by its interview between famous black conservative Can-

dayce Owens and Socialist professor Cornel West: one that was marked by mutual respect as both debated over whether Trump's policies had harmed or aided black Americans. Moreover, Fox talk show programs such as 'The Tucker Carlson Show' have frequently featured commentators from the other side of the political spectrum, including Democrat runner Andrew Yang and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio. In contrast, the BBC has shown to be both against British values, whilst endorsing racists and antiSemites. This was present in its selection of a man during the conservative leadership contest that once tweeted: "how long are the Zionists going to hide behind the Holocaust cry?", whilst still giving a platform to Labour's anti-Semitic MP Richard Burton, currently running for deputy Labour leader. Burgon once stated in a secret filmed Labour meeting that 'Zionism is the enemy of peace'. Through learning Fox's acceptance of other cultures and beliefs, the BBC can once more hold its head high. This need to emulate Fox is not only necessary for the BBC to become a respected media outlet once more, but for it to recover from the impending decriminalisation of its license fee. If the BBC is to ever become consumable by the British public again, it must adapt to a rapidly changing political landscape, or otherwise become an artefact of history.

8 Comment

Tuesday 11 February 2020 | The Beaver

The Public is the Number One Enemy of Good Journalism

t is a sad fact that the journalism industry is in a sorry state, both fiscally and qualitatively. In the first quarter of this year alone, online media companies like VICE, HuffPost and BuzzFeed News all laid off sizable portions of their reporting staff. Meanwhile, the UK has had a net loss of 245 local newspapers since 2005, 45 in 2017 alone. The US has lost 1,800 local papers since 2004–that’s one in every five local newspapers. These outlets are failing in part because they can’t find a financial model that generates a sufficient profit for newsmaking. But the underlying cause of that is something more fundamental. For one, fewer and fewer people are turning to the media for their information leading to a diminishing reader pool. The other problem is that there is less willingness among the remaining readers to pay for quality journalism when there are so many free alternatives. So which operations are thriving? That would be cable news and social media (although, in Britain, tabloids play something of a parallel role to cable news in the US). 24hour news channels like Fox have seen a steady increase in viewership during the 21st century, which has been even more pronounced during the Trump era. Meanwhile, over two thirds of Americans say they get at least some of their news from social media–even while nearly 60% say they expect some of the information on social media to be inaccurate. This shift in news consumption habits can be attributed to cost, convenience and partisanship. Social media and cable news are both free

Deputy Editor

This article was originally published 17 April 2019 sources of news, which is a massive incentive to consumers. Social media provides individuals the opportunity to consume the news that those in their circle are already discussing. Finally, openly biased channels like Fox, and social media echo chambers provide an increasingly polarised public with something they truly value–reinforcement of their previously held beliefs. The issue of partisan news consumption is particularly damaging to the quality of modern journalism. Increasingly, people no longer want to read news that casts a negative light on the politicians they support or contradicts their political philosophy. Instead, they demand that every story be spun–like you might see in favour of Trump on Fox News–to satisfy their confirmation bias. If not, it’s invalid in their eyes.

no longer “want"People to read news

that casts a negative light on the politicians they support"

“

Ex-Features Editor

Christiana Ajai-Thomas

This leads to hard, objective news sources–like local papers–either going belly up at the hands of opinion news sites and cable news companies, or being forced to lower the standard and quality of their reporting in favour of salacious headlines and biased narratives. The flipside of confirmation bias is that people blindly share stories that reinforce their views without proper vetting of the quality of the source, or the quality of the article

and the reporting. One study found that a large majority–over 60%–of people will even share a given article on social media without reading past the headline. This has led to the preponderance of fake news stories. It has also led to a decline in demand for straight news reporting where no side is necessarily reinforced. We saw this phenomenon firsthand last year in the public reaction to then-News Editor Isabella Pojuner's balanced account of the controversy surrounding the new globe on campus, which did not label Palestine, and its subsequent vandalisation. Several students reacted to the article with outrage in the comments section on Facebook, accusing the piece of focusing too much on the vandalisation and not enough on Palestine being left off the globe. Only, they were not responding to the content of the piece, which was mostly focused on Palestine being left off the map, but the headline, which was focused on the vandalisation. Evidently, these students either didn’t read past the headline or simply bristled at a straight news article that didn’t defer to their position on the issue. This highlights how even students at one of the top universities in the UK can be susceptible to the behaviours that are driving down quality in journalism. There are, of course, more preexisting consumer habits that have led to the long-term decline in reporting quality. The most prominent of these is the rabid manner in which the public consumes certain types of stories that often lack substance. These include extreme weather stories–which is why you will often see wall-to-wall coverage of a given hur-

Oliver Harrison ricane on cable news–stories about cultural issues like immigration or religious, racial or gender controversy, and salacious stories about scandal and intrigue. In this, the media is, to some extent, complicit. More and more, the media’s focus has narrowed to covering juicy stories that will draw as many clicks or eyeballs as possible, rather than stories of substance and import. Reporters, editors and media executives had a responsibility, in this case, to ignore the public demand and stick to quality reporting.

“

"The media's focus has narrowed to covering juicy stories that will draw as many clicks or eyeballs as possible"

“

Andrew Solender

Comment Writers

However, for any one outlet to do so would’ve been a huge risk, providing an opportunity for their competitors to steal readers by playing to their demands. Even if the industry somehow compromised on a benchmark of quality, they could’ve been supplanted by a startup or readers would have simply stopped the news altogether. So where do we go from here? It’s difficult to think of any magical solution that can dig the media out of the hole that it and the public collectively dug for itself. Increased public ownership of media outlets would be one way to maintain quality and decrease the necessity for scandal coverage–but that would

Staff Writer

Sagal Mohamed Staff Writer

Jesser Horowitz Staff Writer

pose serious dilemmas in the area of censorship. Then there are market-based solutions: some startups, like Vox, are attempting to make typically tedious areas of journalism like policy reporting more digestible to the average reader. However, Vox suffers from a serious case of biased reporting from the left-wing perspective. At the end of the day, there is no silver bullet to slay this dilemma. However, the media and the public must do more to fix this issue, which is greatly contributing to the rise of polarisation and populism. As it stands, the media is in a state of total inertia when it comes to institutional reform–largely due to the fact that positive reforms share an inverse relationship with public demands. But if something isn’t done soon, there may not be a ‘media’ left to fix.

LSE Must Realise it is Blinded by Privilege up, and one particular student answered something along the lines of ‘the people living in the tower weren’t well-educated, and didn’t know the safety risks in order to report them’. A whole year and a bit later, similar words left the lips of Jacob Rees Mogg. He is apparently “profoundly sorry”. I wonder if that student is, too.

“

"So angry, at the rich, at the poor, at the bankers, at the boys on the corner of my nan’s street and the boring teachers waiting out retirement in shitty schools.

“

ur generation is plagued by guilt. Guilt for our beliefs, our choices, what we say, and what we wear. We are made to feel guilty for who we are, and no more intensely is this felt by me and my fellow ‘snowflake’ students. Sitting in the office of my undergraduate programmes manager, I make a confession: “Forgive me, Academic Mentor, for I have sinned”. LSELove has forced me to admit it: I am angry. Always angry. So angry, at the rich, at the poor, at the bankers, at the boys on the corner of my nan’s street and the boring teachers waiting out retirement in shitty schools. Anger has framed many interactions I’ve had since coming to University, and looking back I can see that it all began at one singular point This began in my very first class at LSE, my introduction to university life. The lesson was about the Grenfell tragedy, and we were asked what the potential causes of the fire were. Hands shot

LSESU Working Class Officer, Sadia Sheeraz, points out that we are not all born with the same advantages in life and that LSE needs to stop celebrating privilege.

My LSE experience could be summed up as living in a world of alienation. A world where “at this point, I wouldn’t even be happy

with a salary of £80k” is a statement one can overhear in the library (almost five times my household income). Where buying £90 jeans on a whim using your parent’s card is fine because “they were on sale” . Where being broke means having spent £900 at Selfridges because you have no self-restraint and, thanks to mummy and daddy, no reason to develop some. “It’s not fair”, I cry, and yet my words fall on deaf ears, or are met with snide comments: “why do you have to make everything about class?”. I know it is unjust for us to expect anyone to not live life how they would like to. It is absolutely your right to be able to buy what makes you happy, eat lunch out five times a week and ask if they take Amex. But it hurts us to know that not only are so many students unaware of, or unable to accept the fact that this is a privilege, but that they also appropriate the language of our struggles to describe their hardships. You are not broke, you are

not poor, the struggle is not real. At the end of the day, you have the financial support available to never truly experience any of these things by virtue of your birth.

"So many of our “peers grew up with

educational opportunities we could only dream of"

“

Sadia Sheeraz LSESU Working Class Officer

Maybe we’re wrong to let it strike us so deeply, but when someone calls for the end of welfare or suggests that poor people are stupid for not just innovating and investing wisely - whilst having almost everything as a result of birth -we can’t help but despise the bubble of LSE where such a high percentage of the student body comes from a household that is in the top tiers of the population. Not only that, but so many of

our peers grew up with educational opportunities we could only dream of, and it’s a privilege we cannot forget. With little support from underfunded schools, through poverty, caring responsibilities, loss and grief, you brush shoulders with students for whom every academic achievement has been the result of a fight. We are physically exhausted, mentally drained and emotionally ruined by defending our right to be angry about this. We can’t help but be mad when we read about investigations into private schools where exam regulations were not met, or when we hear about classes a quarter of the size of the overcrowded ones we attended, because these are the hand-outs we should be talking about. We are sorry for our anger, but there is a limit. LSE is blinded by privilege. We see it, normalise it, celebrate it. But this is a new LSE tradition that needs to change. I am angry. And that is okay.

www.beaveronline.co.uk | @thebeaveronline

Email us: beaver@beaveronline.co.uk

Australia's New Normal Dylan Stevens

Comment Contributer

dangerous plants and animals, extreme weather conditions, and dry, untenable earth. Australians remain both deeply proud and fearful of the natural environment we live in. We read reports of dingoes eating babies, tourists drowning in rough seas, and crocodile hunters killed by stingrays with cautious curiosity and reverence for our land and its inhabitants. We are reminded endlessly that we cannot control the environment around us and we must accept its decisions. Why do these bushfires, then, feel so different? Why is it an event that seems to have galvanised the country, and the world, so intensely against a government and its prime minister – whose entire mantra was little more than “things just are the way they are”? Why is it that Australians, calmly enjoying their highest quality of life in the world, their high wages and low crime rates, feel so compelled to criticise a government they voted for just 6 months earlier? The governing coalition in Australia has operated a brutal program of human rights violation in its detention of migrants,

it has flagrantly supported the coal and fossil fuel industry and declared climate change a conspiratorial fear of the opposition. It has slashed budgets endlessly – on a state and federal level – to protect communities from drought, fire, and the destruction of habitats. It has done this without fail since returning to power in 2013. Why have we changed our minds? The dread that you feel in seeing the haze blanketing Sydney, and the even denser toxic smog that made Canberra the most polluted city in the world earlier this month, is emblematic of the same sense of dread of infanticidal dingoes and homicidal stingrays. The misery of seeing a swathe of land larger than several European countries, entirely burnt without the chance of full regeneration for several decades is the same as the misery of a year without harvest because the soil is too dry and the sun is too hot. Australians are no stranger to the climate anxiety that has gripped the world in recent years, but this time there is a feeling of genuine existential dread turned

This sense of “ dread has changed

the discourse in Australia around climate change, and around our relationship with our government intensively and perhaps permanently

“

escending down from the altitude above Sydney, the first thing you see is not the great expanse of the Pacific Ocean, the serpentine sandstone coastline billowing around the blue water, nor the endless suburban sprawl that characterises Australia’s biggest city. Instead you are greeted with a thick cloud of yellow-grey haze. When the plane hits the ground and you lean forward and look out the window, you realise it is still there, hanging ominously in the air and covering everything you once saw as familiar in an alien sheen. You are filled with a sense of genuine dread because you know that your country has been burning endlessly for at least three months, and with no end in sight. Australia is a bizarre country; any Australian or someone who has lived in Australia for an extended period of time is familiar with its stark polarities. The breezy attitude of its citizens and their quiet sense of distrust towards outsiders, the searing heat of summer and its torrential downpour, the most beautiful landscape in the world with its arid soil and deadly wildlife. Each year, Australia is marked by an increase to each of its extremes. The summers grow hotter and drier, and the storms stronger and wetter. The politics grows more apathetic and the citizens more aggressive. More trees burn and more reefs bleach. A country as enormous in size and as thin in population as Australia is likely to bear the brunt of the new global condition of extremes more so than those more developed or populated because it genuinely feels at times like you are in one of few places where humans remain at the mercy of their environment. One of the biggest tropes in Australian culture is this sensibility: the colonial anxiety of white settlers in a strange, alien land that seems to any normal person incredibly inhospitable, filled with

to universal anger at those that are responsible for this condition. The government had assured Australians that they would maintain things as they were, and we would be all the richer; they failed, they continue to fail pathetically, and now there are 33 dead, over 6000 homes destroyed, potentially half a billion wildlife extinguished, and over 18 million hectares in cinders.

It is precisely this sense of dread – that we cannot master our environment and that it will return our violence back in kind– that has changed the discourse in Australia around climate change, and around our relationship with our government intensively and perhaps permanently. The breezy smiles and handshakes of Scott Morrison are now met with disdain as the “quiet Australians” have realised that prayers for rain and pats on the back cannot bring back your homes or your loved ones, and that the government’s love of coal and gas which has made Australia one of the biggest polluters per capita in the world, does not bring wealth without destruction. Almost everyone I know at home has at least one, if not multiple people, in their life who have been seriously affected by these fires; people from all sides of the political spectrum have admitted the failures of the government and its responsibility in these fires, and the growing necessity to take climate change seriously. Australians must also remind ourselves that this destruction has taken place on land that has been stolen but whose first inhabitants have never ceded their sovereignty to it. Their methods of protecting this land, living in harmony with it, and valuing its cruel beauty are crucial to the survival of the Australian landscape in contemporary times, and we should take seriously their suggestions of landscaping, bushfire prevention, and community development. This cannot be done under our existing political circumstances, but demands the revival of Aboriginal languages, religions, and cultural practices, an Aboriginal parliamentary body: a united movement of civic activism that is dedicated to the preservation of humanity’s oldest extant civilisation and the most unique and beautiful land in the world.

Coronavirus: What's Behind the Mask? Jintao Zhu

Comment Contributor

he Coronavirus outbreak has severe consequences. Based on the official report, 28,083 cases had been confirmed. The death toll had reached 564 as per the 6 February. Another number that rises rapidly is the demand for hygiene face masks. Required by both hospitals and citizens as important protective equipment, hygiene face masks have become a necessity. In most cities, citizens cannot access public transports if they do not wear masks. However, there is inadequate supply to meet the high demand. There are many contributing factors for this demand-supply mismatch. The sheer size of the population, the one-off

nature of most hygiene masks, and mismanagement by local organizations have all contributed. Several neighbouring countries to China share a similarly high domestic demand for masks and have encountered the shortage. Some governments have imposed purchase limits and export bans. Still, most people in the streets wear masks. In contrast, the situation is very different in the western world. While masks are also out of stock online, they are purchased by Chinese overseas, who buy them either for their own use, or for their loved ones. Different guidelines are provided by the respective authorities. Unlike countries such as China, Western health agencies such as the Center for Disease Control and Prevention are

@beaveronline

sceptical about their usefulness. Instead, they emphasise basic measures such as washing hands regularly and covering coughs. The debate about the effectiveness of wearing masks goes on. It is hard for lay-people with no medical expertise to make the judgement. However, the initial “purely technical” debate has manifested itself with undesirable social ramification. Several cases of alleged assaults against people wearing face masks have been reported in the US and in the U.K. In less severe but more common cases, mask-wearers have been isolated or avoided in public. Such phenomena deserve attention and investigation, as often this amounts to xenophobia. It seems irrational to be afraid of mask-wearers. So why

www.beaveronline.co.uk

does their common-place use in a variety of countries inspire fear in the West? It turns out culture and convention play a significant role. In Western cultures, people usually link wearing face masks with actually having infectious diseases. People wear masks to prevent the virus from spreading to others and, as masks are not an orthodox preventive tool, all who surround them are in the infection zone. Such an understanding of the use of masks makes people intuitively treat the mask-wearers as virus carriers. This amounts to ignorance and serves to justify discriminatory behaviour. In reality, wearing masks has potential benefits not only to the mask wearer but also to those around them. The mask can protect the mask-wearer whilst also

protecting others, so should be met as the act of a conscientious citizen rather than a carrier of a disease. The discrimination of mask-wearers is xenophobia. This can no longer be ignored. After all, regardless of whether masks are effective, the maskwearers have demonstrated responsibility not merely for themselves but for the community. They deserve respect rather than hatred. Especially in the global context. While we are facing many challenges, mutual support and understanding are especially valuable and important.

www.facebook.com/thebeaveronline/

10 Comment

Tuesday 11 February 2020 | The Beaver

The Last Man Standing in the War on Drugs Risteard McDhomhnaill LSE MSc Gender Graduate Senior Policy Advisor at Cabinet Office

work in the Ministry of Justice and am close to drugs policy. I assure you that policy makers know that criminalisation does not lead to an obedient and deterred public, nor does ‘stigma’. On stigma: punitive policy is one position a government can take, but to advocate for ‘stigma’ is just illogical. How does one ‘promote’ stigma? Unless the author means stigma via pure punitive policy. This should have, had the author had any clout, been a more rigorous article proving that punitive policy works. It should have also gestured to the wide gamut of cannabis users and smokers who engage with the drug in extremely disparate ways. The author, crucially, ignores any outside factors that may cause people to become addicted to the escapism cannabis presents. The author seems to be writing about some suspended fairy-tale land where cannabis doesn’t represent an ideal escape from increasingly precarious times, nor does the author explain the differences between different strains of cannabis, which can have massively different effects. In fact, the author has crafted

Risteard McDhomhnaill responds to ‘Green Beast: LSE Should Stigmatize, Not Normalise Marijuana Use’, published online 01/02/2020: a piece arguing that the negative psychological effects of marijuana require a rethink of the current trend of normalising the drug.

an article based on extreme cases of injury in which cannabis was a factor, a sentimental anecdote, and “tunnel vision”. Many athletes smoke weed. I doubt that the author’s friends didn’t represent Britain because they passed the doobie - it is wrong to draw arboreal chains of logic between smoking cannabis and “X”. I despise the sensation of smoking cannabis because I react strangely to drugs. It’s not for me. But most people I know enjoy it. Most of my professors and lecturers do. If one is going to call for further criminalisation of weed, do so too for alcohol: alcohol causes more deaths, broken families, mental health issues, and scenes of public disorder than marijuana. The original article lacks depth, evidence, due diligence, and rigour. In the words of Shirley Bassey when referring to Tina Turner: “She doesn’t have the range”, and sir, neither do you. A more mature position would be that the regulation of marijuana and the production of safe strains and the medicalisation of other strains for specific purposes, along with increased funding into

drug rehabilitation services, communities, mental health services, and education, so that: people have other things to do instead of needing to smoke, weed use doesn’t need to compound mental health issues,

people aren’t smoking fucked-up super strains of skunk, and are fully aware of the risks. And here, all you offer us is a reactionary tale we’ve heard for decades. The war on drugs failed. You

are the last man standing. While those of us working in policy grapple with this, you keep on writing. And so on.

The Trappings of Power: Aung San Suu Kyi at the Hague Pedro Vasques Milhinhos

come President of Burma, she may even feel that the role is her rightful inheritance, in order to to continue the work of her father. With Burma’s current constitution, however, she will not be able to do so without the support of the military. Aand advocating on behalf of the Rohingya would not only undermine her political standing in Burma, it may imperil her power ambitions.

Comment Contributor

At the Hague, she “ defended the indefen-

sible. Her idealism has given way to the realism of power politics

“

n December, Nobel Peace-Prize Winner and de-facto civilian leader of Myanmar, Aung San Suu Kyi arrived at The Hague to face accusations of genocide against the Rohingya Muslims. Suu Kyi, who for years has refused to acknowledge the violence exerted by the military on the Rohingya minorities called the accusations an “incomplete and misleading factual picture of the situation”. Imprisoned, on and off, for the better part of two decades, Suu Kyi, a soft-spoken, Oxford-educated woman, had been heralded as an icon of human rights and democracy. Her soft image, in contrast to Myanmar’s oppressive military junta, and her persistence and commitment in fighting for democracy in her country had made her one of the world’s most prominent dissidents, ultimately securing the highest form of Western acceptance: the Nobel Peace Prize. When she rose to power, in 2016, she was a symbol of hope in what had been a long and dark road for Myanmar. Today, she is the leader of a government which has curtailed personal freedoms, restricted the freedom of the press and persecuted muslims. The extreme violence perpetrated by her government in its persecution of the Rohingyas has been described by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, as ‘a textbook case of ethnic cleansing’. Since 2017, over 700,000 Rohingyas have been forced to flee their country. Many

were forced to neighbouring Bangladesh and live in squalid refugee camps. Disturbing reports have indicated that thousands of women have been raped and killed and thousands of villages have been burnt to the ground. Cultural and historical figures in the Rohingya community were targeted in an attempt to undermine their historical and cultural heritage. The threat of genocide has become undeniable. Suu Kyi, however, has remained impassive. In the Peace Palace at the Hague, graphic accounts of mass murder and rape perpetrated by

Burma’s military were revealed to the international community. The calculated extermination of an entire ethnic group is being carried out. Yet, her face remained expressionless. She reasoned, as she has done many times when pressed, that the violence had originated in a 2017 terrorist attack by the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army on police posts. No mention was made of the countless innocent people,women and children included, who have died as a result of the methods employed by the military. No mention was made of the countless villages

that have been burnt to the ground. No mention has been made of the refugee crisis these methods have triggered. Her silence echoes that of a pragmatic realist. For years, the narrative constructed by the West around Suu Kyi supported her democratic ambitions. A Human Rights Champion. A beacon of hope. Burma’s very own Mother Theresa, if you will. What this narrative conveniently overlooked was that she was, and is very much so, a politician with strong political ambitions. There is no doubt that Suu Kyi wants to be-

At the Hague, she defended the indefensible. Her idealism has given way to the realism of power politics and her regard for morality and solidarity has been set aside. These are the trappings of power. Ironically the words Suu Kyi once wrote ring especially true: “It is not power that corrupts but fear. Fear of losing power corrupts those who wield it and fear of the scourge of power corrupts those who are subject to it.” Since this article was written the International Court of Justice has issued an injunction ordering Myanmar to protect Rohingya Muslims.

Features

Features Editors Annabelle Jarrett Colin Vanelli Marianne Hii

Cleaners Raise Concerns Over 'SecondClass' Treatment (Continued) Continued from cover story.

number of other issues crosscut complaints about pay to outline a system of inequality. When cleaners received new uniforms recently—the first replacement in two years, according to multiple cleaners—they did not include jackets, despite the fact that cleaners are expected to work during winter conditions, and other workers within the Estates Division received such items. Although LSE has reportedly agreed to give cleaners jackets in response to complaints and trade union pressure, many cleaners have still not received them as winter has nearly passed.

We are on the “ground, they are in

“

the office...we are not robots.

Other cleaners complained about a series of everyday slights which contribute to these feelings of ‘second-classness’: for example, male and female cleaners do not have separate changing rooms, leading to many feeling that they must change in open hallways. Moreover, cleaners say that they do not have access to their own break room, instead relying on security staff for access. In other circumstances, cleaners claiming sick time for workplacerelated injuries were pressured by managers to come into work before finishing treatment, despite management being informed of treatment specifics, according to electronic communications reviewed by The Beaver. There are limited opportunities for cleaners to raise grievances with management. Cleaner supervisors told The Beaver that the Estates Division has ended periodic meetings between supervisors and management. Whilst supervisor meetings were held weekly under Noonan, one supervisor said that such meetings have become rare, with the last meeting—during Michaelmas Term—adjourned because an insufficient amount of staff attended. General meetings, between cleaners and upper LSE management, were similarly regular, but now are held only two times per year. These take the form of “town halls”, which leave little opportunity for cleaners to voice grievances, particularly those of a sensitive nature. While cleaners can seek recourse with LSE’s Human Resources (HR) department, multiple cleaners expressed their anxiety to The Beaver that HR overwhelmingly took the side of LSE during disputes. LSE is increasingly bringing in outside workers on zero-hour contracts to fill shifts. Some cleaners, particularly those without full-time contracts, complained that they feel that they have been denied shifts and feel “pushed out” by out-

the daytime, and just two work during the high-traffic shift between 9am and 2pm; another complained that cleaners are increasingly covering jobs which used to be distributed between three to six people. At night, just seven cleaners are expected to deep clean the fourteen floors of the Centre Building, while on some nights there are just two cleaners available to clean the entire Library, according to cleaners with experience on those shifts.

Developments “around campus

have raised concerns that cleaners are subject to different treatment than other LSE staff.

Students complain every day,” said one Library cleaner, “but what are you expecting when you give a job meant for eight people to four, and sometimes only two?” The Beaver understands that, in the past, up to nineteen cleaners would be assigned to the Library during the daytime. The significant reduction of these numbers has put pressure on cleaners to sacrifice quality for speed, under pressure from managers to complete jobs regardless of numbers. The Beaver heard frequent complaints that managers are unwilling to alter expectations or make appropriate changes even when cleaners raise the issue of insufficient staffing. “They think that we’re algorithms,” said one cleaner, who jokingly indicated that LSE had calculated the precise amount of space that a cleaner could cover in a shift. “We are on the ground, they are in the office,” said one cleaner, “we are not robots.” CONCERNS OF DIFFERENTIAL TREATMENT Developments around campus have raised concerns that cleaners are subject to different treatment than other LSE staff. In autumn 2018, The Beaver understands that LSE installed biometric fingerprint scanners around campus and residence halls and asked that cleaners sign into work shifts using these portals, rather than using access ID or SALTO fobs like other LSE staff. No other LSE staff are asked to submit to biometric sign-in features, leading cleaners to question why they were being singled out. In a written comment to The Beaver, Unison, the official union of LSE cleaners, said “our members have made clear that they do not wish to use” biometric fingerprint scanners, and indicated that the fight against the scanners were among the union’s highest priorities. Managers at Passfield and Bankside student halls reportedly pressured workers to use the biometric equipment, including suggesting that cleaners might not be paid

if they failed to comply, according to trade union representatives with knowledge of the situation. The Beaver understands the LSE has not withdrawn plans to implement these systems and continues to engage in discussions with Unison. The issue raises complicated ethical questions about whether LSE—or any organization—should be allowed to compel staff to hand over biometric information, particularly given that LSE has provided unsatisfactory assurances regarding the data protection and privacy of such information, according to trade union representatives with knowledge of the ongoing discussions. Given LSE’s legal requirement to comply with government immigration enforcement, one cleaner questioned why LSE seeks to require such intimate personal information from cleaners given that many cleaners are migrants: “LSE already has a complete record of our activity [through card-access and sign in sheets]; why do they need our fingerprints? This is LSE, not the Home Office.” Other incidents have similarly raised concerns about the differential treatment of cleaners. Cleaners were reportedly not consulted when “smiley face” quality monitors were installed in Library bathrooms, and do not have access to feedback data from these devices as many students might expect. Multiple Library cleaning staff complained of their anxiety towards the monitors, given their knowledge that students are unhappy with bathroom cleanliness: one piece of graffiti says "No swamp toilets" and encourages students to submit negative feedback. Cleaners say that they agree with student concerns, but low staff numbers and the Library’s high traffic makes upkeep difficult. "We can't do everything. We're doing as much as we can."

institution “is This a big builder of

social mobility; why don't they do it on their own doorstep?

“

Features Editor

side workers, for whom LSE does not have to provide any benefits. In response to a request for comment, an LSE spokesperson said “LSE uses two agencies, Resourcing Group and PRS, to provide cover during seasonal or unexpected absences. Agency staff are only used, however, after LSE staff are offered these hours first.” There is an apparent inconsistency between LSE’s insistence that agency staff are only used to cover unexpected absences, and allegations from cleaners that agency staff are being brought onto shifts in lieu of LSE cleaners. At least six cleaners—including cleaner team leaders—and multiple trade union representatives told The Beaver that such shifts are not routinely offered to LSE staff and have thus reduced the number of cover hours available for LSE cleaners, particularly those who do not hold full-time contracts or are financially reliant on taking additional cover shifts. This represents an apparent violation of what Unison agreed to in negotiations with LSE, according to trade union representatives with knowledge of the arrangements. Such issues are reportedly particularly acute in School residence halls, which employ large numbers of temporary workers during the summer months. A cleaning supervisor said that agency staff were primarily brought in for night shifts, and multiple cleaners speculated that LSE may be engaging outside workers as a cost-cutting measure because they are not entitled to the same wage or benefits as in-house cleaning staff, although specific details of these arrangements were not immediately available and LSE did not provide further information on the contract held between LSE and the agencies. A cleaner, who previously worked at LSE through Resourcing Group but is now hired directly by LSE, said that the wage received by agency cleaners is lower than that received by LSE cleaners—although they noted that the per-hour cost paid by LSE to the agency was higher than the per-hour cost of an LSE cleaner due to overhead costs. What emerged in interviews with multiple cleaners with knowledge of the arrangements was not anger against the agency workers, but rather sincere worry that LSE is using precarious non-union contracted workers to slowly reintroduce the dynamics that it previously enjoyed when workers were hired indirectly. These moves come as LSE has significantly reduced the number of cleaners under its employment, according to multiple cleaners who have been at LSE for more than a decade. Such moves have significantly increased the workload of full-time cleaners but have not necessarily increased the amount of shifts available to cleaners without full-time contracts because of the use of agency cleaners to fill “cover” shifts. One cleaner noted that just three cleaners are responsible for the entire Centre Building during

“

Colin Vanelli

Conversations with affected cleaners and community leaders suggest a pattern of questionable suspensions and dismissals, including the use of suspension before grounds of misconduct have been established through investigation. In a recent incident in the Centre Building, a cleaner was accused of theft and suspended for a week pending investigation. The Beaver understands that the employee— who reportedly suffered significant mental duress as a result of their suspension—was reinstated when it became clear that the video footage allegedly showing the theft did not contain the cleaner in question and was captured a number of hours before their shift started. An LSE spokesperson said that

they were unaware of any staff members who had been suspended without investigation but stressed that all suspensions are dealt with under LSE’s Disciplinary and Dismissals policy. The policy includes the phrase “[s]uspension is not a disciplinary act, and does not imply that there has been any misconduct,”. Although cleaners are paid while suspended, affected cleaners described significant mental duress caused by the uncertainty of suspension, which is heightened by infrequent contact from LSE during suspended periods. A number of cleaners said that they did not receive regular updates on the status of their investigations—which can last multiple months—and are often expected to return to work immediately following the conclusions of these investigations, without flexibility for cleaners to recover if they have faced mental duress or other issues. In a comment to The Beaver, a representative from United Voices of the World (UVW), an independent trade union which represents many LSE cleaners, said that “a number of cleaners have been suspended for inordinate amounts of time and when dismissed they have been refused the right to appeal.” Although LSE’s policy is to only enact suspensions in “cases of very serious allegations,” the volume of inconclusive or dropped investigations related to The Beaver by cleaners and trade union representatives suggests a potential pattern of suspension overuse. One cleaner said that they had been suspended for four months. In the end, LSE dropped the investigation due to a lack of evidence, according to internal communications reviewed by The Beaver. The cleaner said that they accepted this explanation but asked that LSE put the conclusion of their investigation into writing before they returned to work. A highly placed employee in the Estates Division refused to do this, telling the employee to submit a letter of resignation if they would not relent on his request, according to the cleaner’s account and corroborating electronic communications reviewed by The Beaver. A number of cleaners complained to The Beaver that LSE is overly focused on operational efficiency rather than the wellbeing of its workers. Many cleaners told The Beaver that they live paycheck-to-paycheck; although suspensions are with pay, these concerns are not ameliorated. A number of cleaners described being financially reliant on overtime shifts due to their low base salary: LSE’s policy of suspending workers before wrongdoing is proven may pose significant, long-term financial and mental burden to workers, even in cases where no wrongdoing was committed. There are concerns among some cleaners that they face retaliation for organizing with UVW. Two years ago, LSE’s cleaning company, Noonan, maintained a retaliatory “blacklist” of striking

12 Features

staff at the School’s request, according to a UVW official with knowledge of the legal case, which was settled out of court. Today, multiple cleaners who were part of the strike believe that they continue to face retaliation for their participation. In written comment to The Beaver, an LSE spokesperson stated unequivocally that LSE does not maintain a record of workers who have previously been involved in industrial strike action. One cleaner said that although

Tuesday 11 February 2020 | The Beaver LSE no longer maintains a formal blacklist, it has been difficult for cleaners to overcome their association with the struggle for improved working conditions, and association with the strike is often used against cleaners as an expedient “as soon as [we] do something wrong.” Feeling that they have limited recourse to internal structures, some cleaners have begun to organize beyond LSE. The studentactivist group Justice For Cleaners

(J4C), which was central to supporting the 2017 protests, was recently resurrected—its most recent town hall was standing-room only, and included involvement from cleaners, students, and organizers of the 2017 in-sourcing campaign. Their basic message is simple: two years since insourcing, many cleaners believe that LSE has failed to meaningfully improve the working conditions of its most essential staff, and they have waited long enough. "This institution is a big

builder of social mobility," said one cleaner, "but they won't do it on their own doorstep?" The Beaver is committed to expanding our coverage of the LSE community beyond the student body. If you work at LSE or otherwise consider yourself part of the community, don’t hesitate to contact us via email at beaver@beaveronline.co.uk or securely via Signal at +447477916115.

This piece appears online under the headline “LSE cleaners sound alarm on “second class” treatment, two years after in-sourcing” and will be amended to any further comments from involved parties.

Below: Protests from the 2016 J4C Campaign (J4C)

Riding the Korean Wave through Parasite, K-Pop, and LSESU's Korea Future Forum

The LSESU Korea Future Association is holding the 2020 Korea Future Forum on Saturday 29th February, bringing together experts in Korean Affairs to discuss contemporary Korean affairs, foreign policy and the 'Korean Wave'.

Claire H. Evans

Contributing Writer

he recent success of Bong Joon Ho’s Parasite has brought global attention to the South Korean film industry, with the highly acclaimed black comedy thriller earning countless awards and nominations, including two BAFTAs and six nominations at this week’s Academy Awards. Parasite is the latest in a long line of cultural exports that have caused people around the world to realise that there is much more to South Korea than its headline-grabbing relations with its northern neighbour. In recent years, South Korea has been successful in leveraging its cultural products for soft power. The massive increase in global popularity of Korean culture since the 1990s is often referred to as ‘Hallyu’, meaning ‘Korean Wave’, which political scientist Joseph Nye defines as “the growing popularity of all things Korean, from fashion and film to music and cuisine.” The PyeongChang Olympics two years ago provided an opportunity for Korea to display this soft power on the global stage, with its ceremonies soundtracked by hits from world renowned K-pop artists such as BTS, Psy, Bigbang,

and Red Velvet. Besides K-pop, Korean television dramas have also gained popularity in the international market. Netflix has already increased its Korean content significantly, and recently signed contracts with two Korean production companies to bring over 40 K-dramas to the streaming site within the next three years. The Korean wave has also been linked to a huge increase in the number of people outside of Korea studying the Korean language. According to the Modern Language Association, between 2006 and 2016, the number of American college students taking Korean classes almost doubled. This represented the largest increase among all languages with more than 1000 students enrolled. South Korea has also recently announced plans to open 30 new King Sejong Institutes – state-supported Korean language institutes – across the globe this year alone. The Chief of the King Sejong Institute Foundation, Kang Hyoun-hwa, told Yonhap News Agency that “boosted by the popularity of K-pop idol group BTS, a boom of learning Korean is growing globally,” demonstrating the Korean government’s readiness to build its soft power on the foundation of the country’s cultural exports. It is notable that this expansion of the King Sejong Institutes is

focused on regions such as Africa, Central and South America, Russia, and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). In a recent book entitled “New Kings of the World,” Fatima Bhutto has linked Korean popular culture to “the end of American cultural hegemony” and highlighted its particular importance as an alternative to Western culture in many non-Western societies. South Korea’s soft power strategy is not just about its global image – evidence suggests that it has also yielded significant positive results for the country’s economy. The Hyundai Research Institute has estimated that BTS alone brings more than $3.6 billion into the South Korean economy annually. This figure not only reflects sales of albums, concert tickets, and merchandise, but also includes the boost that such idol groups bring to the Korean tourism industry. Idols such as EXO have become ambassadors for the Korea Tourism Organisation, and some holiday providers offer Hallyu themed tours, visiting the shooting locations of films, K-dramas, and music videos. More generally, Korea’s soft power initiatives have caused a new wave of interest in the Korean peninsula, with many people seeking to understand South Korea’s social and cultural issues in their

own right, rather than constantly viewing the country through the lens of relations with North Korea. The LSESU Korea Future Association is the largest student-run association in the world focused on issues relating to the Korean peninsula, and it aims to bring such issues to the attention of students and professionals through lively discussion at an annual event, the Korea Future Forum. As the name suggests, this event is forward-looking, focusing on the future prospects for Korea from a variety of angles. For the past five years, the KFF has gathered together many of the world-leading experts in Korean affairs for panel discussions on topics including the economy, security, technology, and feminism. This year’s Korea Future Forum will take place on Saturday

29th February in the Old Theatre, with the title ‘Korea’s Ascent to the Global Stage’. The panels will discuss foreign policy, the fourth industrial revolution, the criminal justice system, and K-culture. Tickets are available via the LSESU website, with a reduced price for students. The KFA also hosts Guest Speaker events, including upcoming talk and Q&A this week with Sokeel Park of the organisation Liberty in North Korea. Full details can be found on the KFA’s website and Facebook page. Whether you are a long-time student of Korean foreign policy, a K-Pop fan, or completely new to Korean affairs, we hope that you can gain valuable insights from all of our events, and look forward to seeing you there! Photo: Director Bong Joon Ho (left) and the cast of his award-winning 2019 film Parasite

www.beaveronline.co.uk | @thebeaveronline

Email us: beaver@beaveronline.co.uk

Journos, Hacks and Nosey Bastards: Why Journalism is the Career for You Alex Jones, Deputy Editor of the Orbital, Royal Holloway's magazine, writes about searching for content on campus, the impact student journalism can have, and its wider role in modern politics.

Alex Jones

Deputy Editor, The Orbital Magazine at Royal Holloway

he world of student journalism is hard-working, weird, and rewarding in equal measure. It has been described, by a disgruntled editor with their back up against a print deadline, as “a full-time job for which I earn no money”. There are stresses and challenges that professional journalists encounter at every stage of their careers. There is always a struggle for funding, responsible advertising, engaging a broad readership, and keeping tired Students’ Union staff members content that we won’t get them sued. As we threaten varying acts of hypothetical violence towards our colleagues at the most stressful of times, we have to remember we are doing this for fun and we’ll be in

the pub in 20 minutes; even though it is 3 o’clock on a Tuesday afternoon and we all invariably have essays due in the next day. That is the hard-working element of our world. The weird usually occurs in the part of our work involved in finding and researching stories. You would be forgiven for thinking at a small campus university we would be tripping over gossip worthy of a story on a regular basis. As much as I would love for that to be the case, it is not. The best stories tend to be the hardest to find as idle gossip seldom to leads to a newsworthy story. This can lead to very strange situationsa personal highlight of mine is being criticised on Twitter by Katie Hopkins. But whether being told to ‘fuck off’ in Parliament Square or brow-beating exhausted Students’ Union staff members until they finally tell me where the bod-

ies are buried, I have never once been bored or disinterested in the work I do. Finding a story and, more importantly, finding the truth are what drives any journalist to suffer through stressful times. The rewarding aspect to our job comes, not in the form of formal accolades, but in the impact our work can have. Whether it is triggering a campus-wide Students’ Union referendum, or, simply getting a new beer on at the campus bar as well as fifteen emails recommending Alcoholics Anonymous, the reward in journalism is the outcome and impact of the story you’ve told. Whilst I wouldn’t say no to a Pulitzer, I’d be hard pressed to find an award that could replicate the sense of achievement I feel when real change occurs because of something I’ve contributed to. As a journalist, I am scared for the future. Fake news, censorship, and

sensationalism damage the career I am so passionate about; if you damage and restrict journalism, you damage, restrict, and destroy democracy. Journalists are the most important check and balance in modern politics and are necessary to preserving society as we know it. It may come as a surprise that I will be the first to admit journalists occasionally go too far in the invasion of the privacy of others. This is often justified in an off-handed manner suggesting freedom of the press is or should be absolute, and nobody has any right to privacy and any limitation on that is fascism. I disagree. Journalists should be responsible in the manner in which report so as to preserve our credibility. Without credibility, we may as well all read The Tab. Journalism has been an important part of my university life and as my dream career, I hope it

is part of my life for many years. I find something appealing in metaphorically coming under fire from a politician or actually coming under fire in a warzone; depending on how Brexit goes that could end up being Slough. It is easy to complain about the stressful elements to the job. And I hope this article would not put anybody off a foray into student journalism. The people who make it special are the colleagues you work with who are talented writers, motivated journalists and skilled editors, illustrators, and creators alike. As long as the university and the Students’ Union hate us, we know we’re doing alright.

Happy 120th Birthday Gadamer, With Love From LSE Jack Bissett analyses Hans-Georg Gadamer's lasting legacy on the hermeneutical tradition in philosophy. Jack Bissett

Contributing Writer

Photo: Hans-Georg Gadamer (Wikimedia Commons)

oday, 11th February 2020, marks what would have been the 120th birthday of Hans-Georg Gadamer — a prolific German philosopher and titan of the hermeneutical tradition right up until his death at the modest age of 102, in 2002. Hermeneutics is the study of modes and forms of interpretation which first came to prominence in the early study of religious texts, and developed through the work of Schleiermacher, Dilthey, Heidegger, and Gadamer into a broader philosophical movement focussed on the nature of the process of understanding, its relationship with truth, and how our experiences, prejudices, and preconceptions situate our approach to making sense of things.

While I can find no record of Gadamer visiting the LSE, the relationship between philosophical

hermeneutics and logical positivism connects Gadamer, at least, to Popper. Logical positivism is the doctrine that certainty about knowledge can be found by reducing truth to some objective criteria—and both Popper and Gadamer famously criticised this theory, but from two distinct traditions. Popper was part of a tradition known as analytic philosophy, which is a style of philosophy distinguished by preciseness and a focus on objective truth, while Gadamer was a continental philosopher, which is an approach to philosophy which is more deeply rooted in history and experience. Popper, the founder of philosophy at the LSE, argued that no amount of proof or verification can be sufficient for objective truth, but rather the focus should be on falsification, as a reproducible refutation of a theory can prove it to be

false. While Gadamer argued that positivists consider only one form of truth, and that actually there is a deeper form of truth that exists in the dynamic process of understanding and self-understanding. Much ado is made about the incompatibility of continental and analytic approaches to philosophy: on an open day at UCL I was told that they didn’t allow philosophy undergraduates to take part in their year abroad scheme because alternative approaches to the subject were “too different” to how they teach it. But by making the object of our focus the process by which we come to understanding, selfunderstanding, and interpretation, the methodological differences between the analytic and continental schools can be seen to complement each other. The contrasting perspectives can provide new insight into how we understand our ca-

pacity for understanding, in the sciences, the social sciences, art, and everyday experience. The questions which occupied Gadamer’s work, questions about the how our pre-judgements about things shape our interpretations of them, about how the background of our conscious activity shapes our understanding, are questions which have developed a newfound pertinence in the age of post-truth and alternative facts. The popular conception of truth is being questioned and revised now in a particularly interesting way, and, in the spirit of Gadamer, to push against monolithic interpretations of certainty and attempt to capture the dynamic nature of how we come to understandings should come back into focus as we enter this new decade. Happy Birthday Gadamer!

A Letter from Roar: My Experience with Student Journalism

Editor in Chief of King's College London's student newspaper, Roar, muses on the challenges and rewards of student journalism.

Tara Sahgal

Editor in Chief, Roar

rom one student to another, KCL-LSE backgrounds aside: being a journalist at university is a daunting task. As a journalist, you feel responsible for ensuring that students – your classmates, friends, and the general student body – are aware of the happenings on campus and the hypocrisy behind closed doors. As a student, however, it becomes difficult to balance your academic commitments with the demands of journalism.

This is heightened by the fact that more often than not, student newspapers are underfunded, understaffed, and at the receiving end of bureaucratic politics. Roar, the our student-run newspaper at King’s, is a prime example of this: despite being a multi award-winning tabloid, we receive very little funding from our Students’ Union (KCLSU) and often hit a roadblock when trying to publish issues which criticise the organisation and its agendas. One such instance was in 2018, when Roar attempted to publish an article exposing the official Justice for Cleaners Facebook group chat for encouraging

protesters to disrupt an event on campus. KCLSU ordered that Roar wait a month before publishing the article in order to protect the ‘welfare’ of those students who organised the disruption. These are the same students responsible for inciting violence that hospitalised security guards and led to brawls between activists and students at the event. Despite our article eventually being released, no action was taken against the students involved. At times like these, it becomes difficult for us to function independently and efficiently, because no matter how hard we try to deliver the truth, our hands remain

tied by the wishes of a bureaucracy that is more concerned with virtue signalling than actually improving the welfare of students. And it is not just us – most student media organisations across the country have had similar experiences. Another challenge that I have faced – although minimal in comparison – is coping with the criticism that student media inevitably receives. Our ethos is based on doing public good through the successful dissemination of truth, but like all organisations, we occasionally falter. The criticism we receive for this is often constructive – which is appreciated, because

we’re constantly trying to improve, but when it is not, it becomes a bitter pill to swallow. This may come as a surprise to many, but it is not always easy to be the media. It remains important to understand that recognising these challenges does not mean that I have had a bad experience with student journalism. In fact, the reality is quite the opposite: being a part of student media has helped me grow, both as an individual and as a journalist. Similarly, these challenges have taught me to step out of my comfort zone, adapt to the problems I have faced and perse

14 Features

vere. During my time at Roar, I have been able to talk to people from all walks of life and cover stories that I am incredibly passionate about. I have written about departmental sexism at King’s, KCLSU electoral intimidation, and harassment at the library – articles which have had a big impact on me as a journalist. I have also had the

Tuesday 11 February 2020 | The Beaver opportunity to write about slightly more hair-raising events, such as the London Bridge attack and the plight of a King’s student who was initially stuck in Kashmir during its lockdown. It was hard for me to be objective and put aside my biases while writing these stories, which is a struggle that every journalist faces. Despite this, these experienc-

es proved to be both challenging and rewarding in equal part. In short, being a journalist at university is a daunting task, but it isn’t something that you should shy away from. Student media is a community, and one thing that has helped me overcome the difficulties I have faced is the passion I see in my fellow student journalists – be

it at LSE or at King’s. Our battles are the same: we have all faced the displeasure (and oftentimes, the suppression) of our administration at some point or the other, and we all understand the struggles that come with representing the media. Nevertheless, we do what we have to in order to hold those in power to account and present fair and

unbiased news. Of course when it comes to our universities there will always be a sense of competition, but what brings us together is our common passion to seek the truth and make the world a better place – and maybe, just maybe, that is enough to keep me writing.

provides marketing services to clients. Or you may find yourself as a part of an organisation’s ‘in-house’ communications team. Though all these positions may be classified as ‘media and communications’, their roles and functions are very different. While it is helpful to note that because of this diversity a career path in the industry is rarely structured, what these roles have in common is a drive to be storytellers, to entertain, educate, and to bring about change. I worked as the social media/ web intern at the International Peace Institute (IPI), a peace and security think tank in New York for several months. For someone who only really had a summer of working in broadcast journalism behind them, it was a great chance

to explore different sides of the field. A typical day included managing the social media accounts for the institution, and curating content to promote our various programmes and publications (courtesy of the editorial team). I also worked closely with the events and external relations teams to promote our many in-house events to the UN community, providing live social media coverage for the numerous (over 100 each year) panels and discussions hosted in-house. I made graphics, dabbled in coding for our website, and contributed to bigger external relations projects (lots of hashtag brainstorming). My internship with IPI revealed how big the media and communications community is, and the plethora of different roles one

could find themselves in. When conducting your job search, be open minded to more informal opportunities that can give you more general media and communications experience, especially since there are few formal graduate recruitment schemes. A general communications or social media internship at a smaller organization like IPI may let you try your hand at many different roles and give you diverse experience that could take you down another avenue – like journalism or publishing. My experience at IPI is ultimately what led me to working as a marketing and communications assistant at LSE Careers. In the meantime, consider engaging not only as an active consumer of media but also as a pro-

ducer. Get involved in The Beaver or PuLSE FM, a great place to make contacts with alumni already established in the industry and other similarly interested students. Careers in Creative Industries Week (taking place from 12 to 20 February) is a great time to start building your toolbox of media and comms skills, and a chance to hear more from employers as you start planning career moves. As always, you can also consult LSE Careers for media and communications specific job boards or guidance.

Career Diversity in Marketing and Communications Anna Leigh

Contributing Writer

oday the media is an inescapable and ingrained force in our society. Whether it’s on your cell phone, advertisements in the tube, or even LSE’s own branding, you are consuming content nonstop throughout your day. As an industry, media and communications is constantly evolving, blurring the lines between broadcast, film, and interactive media, and careers in the field are becoming correspondingly diverse. One could work for a more traditional media producer, such as a newspaper, news channel, or publication, or for an agency that

Find out more about Careers in Creative Industries Week at: lse.ac.uk/creative-industries-week.

Dispatch from the Iowa Caucus...In Paris.

We consider what the outcome — or lack thereof — of the Iowa caucus might mean for 2020, and speak to an LSE undergraduate who travelled to Paris to participate in her state’s unique democratic process.

Colin Vanelli Features Editor

or those watching the American elections for the latest trial of the future of the mainstream left — or with anticipation to see who the Democrats might nominate to unseat Trump in November — the Iowa caucuses were a must watch. Iowa casts the first votes in both Democratic and Republican primary elections, in which the parties choose their nominee for the upcoming presidential election. Winning Iowa is often a top priority for presidential hopefuls because of the inordinate media coverage coming out of the contest, despite the state’s relatively small electoral footprint and reliably Republican position when it comes to the actual General election. A decisive victory is widely credited with having secured Barack Obama’s status as a frontrunner during his upstart 2008 candidacy, and the winner of Iowa has gone on to win the Democratic nomination in six of the last eight Presidential elections. FiveThirtyEight, the data analysis aggregator, estimated that Iowa’s impact on the race is worth twenty times what its electoral impact would suggest, making its February 2nd caucuses the second most important date on the 2020 primary calendar—and making Iowa more important than any single state. Only ‘Super Tuesday’, when fourteen states and Democrats Abroad cast their ballots simultaneously, is expected to be more important in terms of the impact that it can have on a candidate’s campaign.

Simply put, winning Iowa is important. Yet the morning after the election, the Iowa Democratic Party hadn’t released any results. At time of printing, a week on from initial returns, the final result was still unclear due to a series of errors including: a failed vote reporting app, errors tabulating vote data, and controversy over the allocation of delegates — which included, in true democratic fashion, cases of coin-flipping as a tiebreaker. Multiple local party leaders took issues with various levels of the process, with the national Democratic Party Chair Tom Perez calling for a re-canvas of all results. In all likelihood, the victor was either Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) or former South Bend, Indiana mayor Pete Buttigieg, who both claimed victory soon after caucuses closed — Sanders, for having won the popular vote in the state, and Buttigieg, for having won a plurality of state delegates due to quirks in the way in which votes are translated into voting delegates. It was a good showing for both candidates. There were more decisive headlines: Joe Biden’s paltry fourthplace finish was a spectacular fall for a candidate who had long been polling at the top of the race, particularly for a former Vice President. The implosion of the app used to tabulate votes, Shadow, underscored deeper structural issues for the Democratic party seeking to unseat Trump. Through the app's parent company, Acronym, the app spearheaded a digital strategy seeking to compete against the superior digital ground game which propelled then-candidate Trump to success in 2016. Its fail-

ure, replete with complaints about the apparent proximity of Shadow to the Buttigieg campaign and to the national Democratic National Committee, threatened to re-open the accusation by many on the left that the Democratic party is septic and insular, and ultimately unprepared to compete against Trump in the next six months. For the first time, the Iowa Democratic Party hosted three overseas “satellite” caucuses for residents of the first-in-the-nation state to cast their votes. Glasgow, Tbilisi, and Paris joined sixty other satellites in Iowa and twenty-four around the United States, as part of a party effort to make the process more accessible for those who spend time outside of the state, or who cannot caucus due to work shifts. Kate Ikeda, a second-year International Relations undergraduate, took the Eurostar to Paris to take part in her state’s distinctive democratic process. The French capital played host to seventeen Iowans – coming from as far as Egypt to participate in a few hours of stone-cold American democracy. Caucuses are distinctive from the type of democracy that most are used to: in the first round, participants gather around their favored candidate. In the second round, only candidates with more than 15% support in the initial instance are eligible, and their supporters seek to convince newly-unaffiliated voters to join their side. Presidential candidates spend months travelling across Iowa – from state fairs, to living rooms, to picket lines – in an attempt to connect with voters and tip the scales in their favor. This is for a

good reason: Kate says that most Iowans wouldn’t vote for a candidate that they had never met. “If you haven’t shook their hand, you wouldn’t vote for them.” The proximity becomes enmeshed within Iowan political culture: for a few months every four years, the state becomes the centre of the American political universe, bringing in droves of outside visitors and the economic windfall that comes with accommodating thousands of voracious travellers. The Paris caucus was a relatively simple affair: beginning late after confusion about time-zones, Elizabeth Warren netted the coveted Paris victory with eight votes, closely followed by Bernie Sanders and Amy Klobuchar. It was also one of the few caucuses which did not face the myriad issues in reporting results: they Skyped in to report their results back to the party. Moving forward, the events of Iowa will likely lead party activists to question the state’s first-in-thenation status, with Iowans facing the prospect that their state may

lose its unique position for the first time in four decades. Some questions are re-litigated every four years: many charge that Iowa is older and whiter than the rest of the electorate, meshing awkwardly with the Democrats’ self-image as a youthful and diverse party. Some media reports indicate that key members of the Democratic Party rules committee may now be coalescing around a calendar change. Yet if this is to be the last of the Iowa caucuses, it will have been a thrilling end to the state's unique claim to fame — and, given how the primary appears to be shaping up, may well herald a broader disruption of Democratic party politics. Overseas Americans are eligible to vote in all Federal elections, and in local and state elections in some states. Absentee ballots can be requested at fvap.gov. Registration deadlines vary based on state and election.

Advertise with The Beaver

Special Rates for Societies and LSE Organisations advertise@beaveronline.co.uk

FLIPSIDE VOL. 20

OCT 15 FREE

REVIEW: Dating apps, reviewed

PART B: The art of the scandalous nude

ELLA

SOCIAL: Hookups on TfL

SPORT: Hanging out with LSESU Pole fitness

HOLMESFIKAYO ADEBAJO

ELLA

HOLMES

FIKAYO

ADEBAJO

or this special FLIPSIDE sex issue I chose Fikayo and Ella because no one speaks on the topic better than feminists. They are both at the head of their respective societies, Intersectional Feminist Society (iFemSoc) and Women in Politics (WiP). To be sure, sex is not sexism, but sexism is imbued in how we think about it. I wanted to speak with people who recognise this, and would have the range to unpack it. Anyway, sex: are LSE students having enough of it? From a casual glance at LSELove, it seems to be more of a problem for the men on campus. Fikayo thinks “it’s just a very small pool” but thinks this is mitigated by the fact of living in London, which “means you’re not exactly limited to LSE all the time anyway”. Ella says the bigger looming issue is that students “aren’t really willing to consider that they need to be educated about consent, that there might be things that they don’t know about sex and about how to talk to your partner.” It’s a type of arrogance all too common amongst LSE students – an arrogance hardly limited to sex. Fikayo recalls her time in halls when one guy walked out of a consent talk because he thought that consent “ruined the mood,” to which Ella asks “What’s not sexy about being asked, What do you like? Is this okay? Do you want to take a break?” As Ella says, It’s about feeling “safe and in control” giving consent is essential in how we “establish that baseline”. Fikayo adds that it’s also a “matter of respect for the person”. Both remarked on the amount of honest-to-God bullshit we could move past if people were more forthcoming about communicating with their partners. Ella brings up a plot point of the latest season of Sex Education (see Review): one character, nervous about fingering his girlfriend, finds the clockwork fingering technique online and uses it on her instead of asking what she likes. Needless to say, it was a horrible experience for her. Ella comments on the mythology that it’s “almost impossible to make a girl orgasm. And that’s why men and even some women who are very well-intentioned feel like they have to think about all these difficult technical methods of making women orgasm. But actually having a conversation with your sexual partner would probably cut through all of that.” Fikayo places the blame for this societal predicament on our education systems. Most curricula’s discussions about sex are centred around male pleasure while female pleasure is ignored. Ella shares the very disturbing reality of being

shown only diseased genitalia in her sexual health classes; the school was trying to promote abstinence as covertly as they could. The result was that the only vulvas most guys had seen before coming into contact with one were those diseased ones and the ones they watched in porn, which should strike anyone as an alarmingly unhealthy dichotomy. Porn, let’s face it, is more problematic than it is good. Fikayo says “it just like gives out these [false] ideas about what sex is like and what bodies should look like. So you see a very certain kind of body and a very certain way to have sex; you kind of forget that there’s a whole spectrum out there.” She feels what is missing from our discussions on sex is a lack of recognition that “anyone who isn’t a cis-hetero white male experiences and navigates those kinds of things very differently because there’s so many different things to consider with layered identities. The way I navigate sex and dating as a heterosexual black woman is so different from the way that a queer Hispanic woman would.” So what’s the one bit of sex advice they would give to LSE students? For Ella it’s “even if you’re in a relationship, sexual preferences might change; checking in with that person… really helps. Those conversations can be very fun and very freeing.” Fikayo highlights how important it is to “own up to your shit. Be accountable, and recognise when you’re in the wrong in terms of consent so you make sure that your actions aren’t going to completely screw someone over.” Ella and Fikayo, like many of us, belong to the “HSPS [Human Social and Political Sciences] reject club”. For them, it’s a blessing to have been rejected – they’re glad to be at LSE and in London. Ella is in the third year of her Government degree and Fikayo is a second-year studying Sociology. Ella thinks “LSE as an institution is very flawed in lots of respects but nothing beats living in London, especially being involved in politics. The exposure you get to so many politicians – unmissable.” Fikayo adds “I have an entire module on race, and I would literally have never had it at Cambridge.” On the topic of LSE’s flaws, Ella has spent most of this academic year leading the Hands Off LSE campaign. She says, “our efforts were very much focused on having this informational week generally to raise awareness of the issue of sexual violence, but it’s also specifically within universities and on campus. And as we were preparing for that, we thought it would be really good to collate some resources about what support is available at LSE in case anyone needs to access support and doesn’t know how to do it. But as we

were looking into that, more and more, we realised that these provisions are actually incredibly inadequate.” Before the Hands Off LSE week had even taken place they’d already decided they would launch a campaign afterwards. “People hear a lot of statistics about sexual violence and everyday circumstances but don’t think about how it relates to the university. I had a lot of people who were shocked to find out the number of assaults that take place on university campuses… Now we’re still looking to set up various events this term; it’s become a bit more behind the scenes. We’ve been meeting a lot with the LSE management and Directorate, which has been an interesting experience. We’ve received a lot of positive, enthusiastic ‘yes, we have several working groups looking at this issue’. Just this morning we received a response to our demands, and they’re very half-hearted. They are not time-specific. They are a bit of a wash. There’s still a lot of work to be done.” As for Fikayo, she’s had the “quite difficult” task of bringing iFemSoc back from the dead. She says they “basically started the society from scratch, because we didn’t have any money, we didn’t really have any kind of connections, anything. So it was very going back to basics: restructuring the society, getting new people and trying to expand our network. I think because we’re starting small it’s been difficult to have a more tangible impact with campaigning because there’s still so much work to do.” “What we’ve really tried to do is put an emphasis on building an intersectional community. We’ve had a cocktail event for Black girls; that was incredible that because a lot of the girls they said they’d never seen that many Black girls on campus before. It was crazy to think that LSE had created this atmosphere where it’s difficult to kind of connect to other people who look like you.” They plan on expanding these types of events to other groups of women: “it’s just a matter of finding where we can kind of collaborate because we don’t want to speak over people. It was easy for me to make an event for Black girls because I kind of know as a Black woman what other women want. Ideally, we’d reach out to kind of other groups like Islamic Society and collaborate with them so that it’s more representative – not just imposing what we think that people need.” The gap between what people need and what we think people need appears across social science. In the case of sex closing this gap means a better time for everyone involved instead of just one person. Fikayo and Ella show that closing the gap is possible through good and honest communication. interview: Christina Ivey photography: Angie Abdalla

SOCIAL Welcome to the Social Sex Edition The Beaver prides itself on its informed, balanced, and professional content. Therefore, when you read this issue’s Flipside sex edition, you can rest assured that every article has been extensively and meticulously researched. As I have previously documented, the Beaver team boasts some of the wildest, most raunchy students at LSE, and although at time of writing I have not yet seen this issue’s contents, I have no doubt that it will be a celebration of the sexual, an exposition of the erotic, a true licentious fanfare. So why I’m writing here is beyond me. Not because I don’t have game, of course. You didn’t think it was that, did you? No. It’s because I think this whole

‘Sex Edition’ thing is a bit scandalous, really. How can half an entire newspaper be about sex? Is sex a sport now? Is the Flipside cover going to be the person who has the most sex at LSE? Is that an accolade someone would want to have? It seems so. Anyway, despite this, I still have a responsibility to uphold the institutions of The Beaver by delivering classy journalism at every opportunity. Therefore, I will be looking to investigate a poignant topic in the life of every student here: how much shagging does LSE do? And while at first this seemed like a playful, light-hearted exercise, I would soon be delving down the deepest of rabbit holes, on a journey of intellectual

discovery far beyond what I could have ever foreseen. I basically just searched “unis with the most sex”. I wasn’t prepared to do much more than that. I was astonished to see LSE’s stature in some of these sex leader boards: of the three which exist (why do they exist?), LSE came nineteenth in one, the highest ranking of any UoL member, and third in another. Third! In the country! How? For the university which comes dead last in the Complete University Guide for student satisfaction, and has a library which is open twenty-four hours a day, it seems bizarre that we happen to be getting the third most side action.

Miles McCollum

that third in the country sounds about right given the amount of action that I get. Whether the claim was true or not wouldn’t matter because, too late, this article has already been printed. But that’s not what robust journalism is about. Therefore, my conscience forces me to come to a more sobering conclusion: all those students who took that survey were liars. Dirty, stinking liars. I hope. It seems the only people you can trust on the truly important problems nowadays are Beaver writers. And we’re all writing about sex this week. Enjoy the issue.

Now, I could just sit here and claim

The Beaver reports: S.E.X. and the city “It’s dire,” Max Fucke, a student at LSE, tells the Beaver. “I’m a quant by day and a pup by night, but seeing my kennel decimated by the changing landscape of the city is horrific. The pup community is Students could previously afford gimp howling for support.” leather suits and latex puppy gear from dipping into student loans, whereas now Pup-paws and doggy masks have become the rising cost of accommodation and in- prohibitively expensive for students, as flation has driven many students to take the community is increasingly populated out overdrafts in order to buy basic accou- by older ‘rottweilers’: richer men who use trements e.g. fist gloves and speculum doggie treats to dominate and subdue younger ‘slut-pups’. sets. As living costs skyrocket in London, LSE students are hard pressed to sustain lifestyle habits previous generations took for granted.

Peter Slopp, a general course student, is worried: “I’m in appalling debt; I take out loan after loan and it still isn’t enough.” Slopp is one of a few students who participate in findom. These ‘pay-cucks’, cismen or occasionally cis-women, pay their mistresses/masters for sexual thrill.

Ross Lloyd

LSE management has addressed the growing concerns of pups and paypigs, releasing the following statement: “We recognise that students are under strain from financial uncertainty and living costs. We urge that those looking to be financially degraded and socially humiliated consider visiting the LSE shop, “Mistress is hurting right now,” Slopp where they can buy LSE themed cufflinks continues, “She’s used to a certain life- or crystal school logos. LSE Dad and Mum style, and Mommy’s little pay-pig can’t T-shirts are also on sale.” make ends meet.”

Tuesday 11 February editor: Analía Ferreyra

lifestyle/advice/satire

the talk and all that follows

I first learned about sex when I was in the second grade. The class clown had begun dropping the word in art class, and as with most seven-year-olds (I hope), I had no idea whatsoever about what the word meant. I was lost. Naturally, wanting to be in on the joke about whatever ‘sex’ was, I giggled. He had said the word the same way that little kids use the words ‘potty’ or ‘stupid,’ just loud enough to be heard with a mischevious grin. In the car on the way home, I asked my mom the question that every kid finds themselves eventually asking: “What is sex?” And that’s how I found out.

control, no questions asked, she would book me a gynaecologist appointment. And that was it, she let me go. Many of my friends, by the time my mom gave me the talk, were already on birth control. Most girls went on it to ‘help with the acne,’ which is just as credible a reason as saying that you got a nose job just ‘to breathe better’. I’ll let you choose who to believe.

In the later years of high school, at any given night out with the girls, at least five phone alarms would go off, varying from a honking horn to Drake’s latest single to church bells. The church bells were by far my favorite, I loved the irony. Time for the Fast-forward ten years and I find myself pill! Nine of every ten alarms that went being called down to my mom’s room off had an accompanying caption: “Don’t to have an ‘important conversation.’ Yes, contribute to the seven billion people,” I’m referring to the talk. Unlike many of read some, while others said “DON’T BEmy friends, who were sat down for hours COME A MOTHER TODAY!!!!!”, as if capiupon hours, mine was rather brief. The talizing and adding twenty exclamation only thing that my mother said to me marks would decrease the probability of was that when I was ready to go on birth

becoming pregnant. To all the girls that have forgotten to take the pill in the midst of fun endeavors: I hope that the all-caps worked. Then of course, the girl who was still trying to convince us that she was on the pill ‘just because of the acne’, despite being in a year-long relationship, the caption read “clear the skin!” I hope you know that nobody believed you, Beatrice. Then there was the girl with the contraceptive patch on her arm. She liked to laugh at the girls ceremoniously taking their pills together because she only had to “remember to change the patch once a week.” She liked telling us that “if [she] were on the pill, [she] would have already gotten pregnant before we were even born.” But not all girls opted for these two birth control options. A particularly close friend of mine got a contraceptive implant in her arm, before giving her boyfriend an ultimatum: wear a condom or furnish a list of all his previous sexual

Social Contributor

partners. He opted, reluctantly, for the latter. After she told me this story, I realized why he had been so hesitant to share. The list was… loooooooong. Personally, I opted for an IUD. I heard terrifying stories of the arm implant. Random, spotty periods, always unexpected, staining favorite undies. Shiver. I was not willing to run that risk. The selling point for me was when my gynecologist uttered the words “...and you won’t have a period for another five years,” after explaining the procedure to me in detail. I didn’t think my life could get any better at that point in time, but it did. You’re probably wondering if my mother stayed true to her word and ‘asked no questions.’ Nope.

birds, bees and big booties: bipolar people and sex CW: alludes to non-consensual sex in paragraph 4 I’m at a junction in life where I’ve been reflecting on the people that I share my body with. I take sodium valproate for my bipolar disorder. I recently ran into problems getting it in the UK because this drug causes severe birth defects, which I learned when the pharmacist stopped dispensing my medication to me. I was already at the till. They left me cold turkey because of a foetus that does not and will not exist. After a few too many weeks of crying on the phone to my parents, they’re now bringing me six months worth of my medication from Jamaica. The onset of bipolar disorder is late adolescence to early adulthood, which coincides with the period most people are becoming sexually active. It makes an already awkward, sometimes painful experience even worse. The predominant

issue we as bipolar people face with sex is hypersexuality, which sounds fun until you get chlamydia from risky sexual encounters. Yes, it happened to me and I’m over it now. I also had a dangerous habit of traipsing around sugaring websites. In my time exploring the world of sugar babies, I was offered an office job that would have paid me £3000 a month, no strings attached, if you can believe it. I slept with a 50-year-old man who insisted on watching me pee. I also had a proclivity for sleeping with my friends, out of boredom most times. All of the above are examples of what psychiatrists call “inappropriate and risky sexual behaviour”. I regret all of it. If I could do 2019 over again with stable mental health, I think I’d only sleep with one out of the many people I got with. Depression, basically has the opposite relationship with sex: low libido and negative self-image.

To make sure these weren’t just problems for me specifically, I talked to another bipolar woman about how sex affects our disorder and vice-versa. For her, going on mood stabilisers made her constantly fall asleep and killed her libido, which led her to stop her medication without consulting her doctor. She describes frequently dissociating during depressive episodes and then coming back to find herself in a ‘compromising’ situation. She says that despite a lack of positive experiences with sex and bipolar disorder she’s “happy and settled with [her] sex life now”. We all relate to going through periods of hypersexuality, followed by “long bouts of the general self-loathing that comes with depression made worse by what [we’ve] done during manic episodes.” It’s a horrible feedback loop where the things that make you feel amazing in one mood make you feel like shit in the next one.

Christina Ivey

Maintaining a relationship as a bipolar person is difficult, as you can imagine. It requires a lot of work from both partners to stop the disorder from ruining the relationship. As bipolar people, we have a responsibility to communicate our feelings with our partners in an emotionally mature way, even if it takes a lot of therapy and learning to get there. Our partners have a responsibility to listen to us and avoid triggering the shit out of us. Interpersonal conflict is a huge source of turmoil for bipolar people as it spurns negative feels beyond the scope of what’s been said in the argument. In the isolation that usually follows these rows, bipolar people can end up doing serious harm to ourselves. In any case, what most of us end up with is an unhealthy reliance on another person for emotional support, putting that person in a position of power to exploit us.

Tuesday 11 February editor: Analía Ferreyra

lifestyle/advice/satire awkward encounters on public transportation hours of knowing him. The parting blow was when he offered to, and I quote, I often imagine that I’ll meet a guy in “drink champagne off [my] tits.” Safe to some serendipitous way in London: in say, for that point on, he was left on read. the poetry section of a book shop; whilst gazing at flowers in Greenwich park; on a butt squeeze at the bus stop bench in Lincoln’s Inn Field whilst reading Das Kapital. I thought such a ‘meet cute’ My TfL tale begins on a Tuesday datehad finally come to fruition when, out of night in February. We’re playing minithe blue, a very attractive man started golf, the mood is cheeky, clubs are being speaking to me on the tube at Holborn. swung and, true to my nature, I throw a He proceeded to brag about how he was mini-tantrum every time I lose, which part of the England Under 21s team and luckily makes him chuckle. Things are that he had a successful start-up, and I looking up but I’m not expecting much. thought ‘weird, but as introductions go, Let’s just say I had mentioned I was going not the worst’. After talking all the way to on a date with this guy days before and Kings Cross, he’d asked for my number two girls overheard me and shared that and I was feeling rather pleased with my- they’d separately got with him a week self. I recounted the story with flourishes earlier. I’m not one to judge though, my to my housemates, and was rather hop- own goals that evening weren’t exactly ing that this could be the start of at least Christian. a casual hook-up. However, my fantasies were soon dashed when he messaged Except... nothing happened. Our banter me once, twice, eleven times within 24 was in full swing, flirtatious touches were meet not so cute

passed back and forth, but when was he going to make his move? Now I don’t want you to get the impression that I refuse to take the first step. It’s just in this instance I was ready to get my face kissed off, you know? We shuffled around Moorgate but my dreams were dashed, all hope was lost, and we awkwardly headed to the bus stop. He politely waited with me for the bus, but I was desperate for him to leave me to my disappointment. Then I heard a mumbled, “Look up.” In confusion, I said “What?” as I raised my head from my phone, but the word was barely audible under his lips, which were suddenly smacked on my face. In a blur of limbs, I am lifted off the ground, still being face smashed, spun around, and plonked back down. As my feet touch the floor I feel a very different touch. He gives my bottom a smack and a squeeze, then runs away shouting “Bye!” as the bus arrives.

I step on in a daze as the bus stop full of waiting passengers looks on shocked. I now think of that strange encounter whenever I’m waiting for an evening bus in London. Suffice to say I’m glad I didn’t ask him to ride with me. capricious on matters of PDA I already knew who I was going home with that night. It was a 40-minute journey involving two buses in the daytime, and considerably longer at night as we discovered. This particular encounter happened whilst waiting for the second bus. The bus shelter was fairly deserted at 1:30 am, so we did the natural thing and started kissing. It was good, until it wasn’t. He spooked at the idea of PDA and abruptly stopped kissing me. Then to round the whole experience off, he moved me bodily to the other side of the bench. Sexy.

Cliteracy Class 8: Oh won’t thou dominate me? Pussy Galore “Romeo, Romeo, wherefore art thou Ro- significant amounts of control during my next week. It may seem ironic but briefly meo? And when will thou giveth me a day. This includes commanding my time, letting go of control and giving it to a spank?”: that’s what I like to think Shake- staying on top of my work commitments, trusted partner can be liberating. And speare intended to write, reflecting the realities of many healthy sexual relationships. Dominance and submission in sex get a bad rap in pop culture. From the terrible writing of Fifty Shades of Grey to the even worse film, these sexual interests are looked on with condemnation from all angles. But what’s so wrong with them? A common accusation is that you can’t be a feminist whilst engaging in dom/sub acts in sex. Submission to your partner, particularly as a woman submitting to a man in a heterosexual relationship, is seen as a renunciation of equality. You’re giving the middle finger to feminist activists who fought for our sexual liberation from male oppressors. Now, I’m here to say that’s wrong. Feel no shame, my fellow feminists, for wanting to boss or be bossed by your partner between the sheets. Feminism and sub/ dom are not mutually exclusive. In fact, I argue that, when done right, a sub/dom dynamic can be hugely liberating and proof of a respectful, equal relationship. As a self-identifying bad-bitch feminist, I keep busy with many a project, so I exert

and generally trying to keep up with shit LSE throws at me. I’m exhausted by the end of my day and I want to rid this weight on my mind. So, in true feminist fashion, I tell my partner exactly what I desire. I want them to take charge, to pleasure me, and for it to totally consume me, so I don’t have a chance to think about that summative I have due

it isn’t just women! Men in positions of power have often been found to seek the services of dominatrix. We can assume their reasoning follows a similar theme of relinquishing control in contrast to their daily lives. However, there is a right and a wrong way to do this. As with all sex, communication is everything and it’s sexy. To enjoy your experi-

ence you must be sure that you and your partner are totally on the same page. Tell them what you want, and listen to their desires. Boundaries are crucial, so set up a safe word, and never do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. For me, engaging in sub/dom dynamics is something that comes only after knowing a person for some time. You have to build up trust, love, and respect. Only then can you allow them brief control over your body. That’s why I say when sub/dom is done properly it signifies a valuable relationship. Plus, communication is an incredible turn on. Why stop at having a partner fuck your body when they can also fuck your mind? Mental stimulation through play and purposeful power changes make sex more of a special occurrence, a change from your normal day. Now, I know we could talk about this topic for days on end and I encourage you to do so. Start debates and learn from each others’ experiences. Importantly, however, remember not to judge. This is not the last you’ll hear from me on this topic, as we smash sexual taboos and march into the sunset of eternal orgasms.

Brown girl meets brown boy, falls in love Sadia Sheeraz

A boy tells me that his mother doesn’t want to see him marry a brown woman. He is a brown boy, she is a brown woman. But as far as they are concerned, no woman looking like me could be worthy of his hand, heart, and home. He responds to my anger with laughter, making cheap period jokes, but the activity in my uterus had nothing to do with my outrage. My anger comes from embarrassment, because the minute he mentions his mother’s belief about her family’s superiority to other brown people, I can’t help but think back to when I too showed symptoms of being mentally colonised, of feeling this way.

ence of many brown working-class children. This feeling grows in large part from the mainstream media’s exclusion of brown excellence. It is an affirmation of families’ greatest fears: that their life isn’t good enough for you, that they are not doing well enough, and that you are not satisfied by their hard-earned provisions. And so I was sent to be re-socialised amongst brown people, as were many others.

My head of year had been my aunt’s head of year and my uncle’s head of year before that. I had more relatives at school than I could count. Coming to this new school was a huge culture shock. I went It began when, as a child in a diverse from mingling with middle-class children class of thirty children who were mainly owning Mercedes in a world of choir, brown, I chose to become friends exclu- violin lessons, and an engaged PTFA to a sively with those who were not. White? school in which I was bullied for the way Black? The other kind of Asian? Sure. I spoke. My new school didn’t own vioI just couldn’t see myself being close lins and had no reason to either. There, friends with the brown kids. Their par- it wasn’t cool to join choir and compete ents were friends with mine, they came for a solo. Most children didn’t have the over to my house and I theirs, but I never money to buy class books, let alone afbecame close enough to care. When we ford violin lessons, and had minimally went to high school, I applied to every supportive parents. These kids had few single high school my white friends did, examples of life after higher education to but one. I don’t know where my brown push them to stick with it. The teachers at classmates ended up, and for a long time, my new school adored my outspoken self I didn’t care. and used comparisons to me to undermine other students. My parents and extended family were more than eager to send me to the closest Seeing myself as the golden child, an state comprehensive, a school that had exception to hopeless and uninspired stayed in the family, convinced I was a brown kids, seemed the rational conclu‘coconut’: brown on the outside, white on sion. Empathy and compassion for other the inside. Showing signs of ‘whiteness’, children of colour is difficult when you like academic engagement, grand aspira- are taught that you are superior to them, tions, and anything remotely creative or in my case by a gaggle of white teachartistic, is seen almost as an offence to ers who adored how culturally relatable those around you I was. In the case of the person to whom I in the experi- dedicate this article, this view is fostered by a family who see few links between their affluent and cultured selves and the brown people that we see in shows like Citizen Khan on the BBC.

ment, brown people were the boys who couldn’t pronounce their words properly and would tease me for enjoying literature. Brown people to me represented no more choir and lots of talk about shooting people to get rich. Brown people to me were chairs thrown at teachers, dents in the wall from fights, and fire alarms during tests I had worked hard revising for. So I did what I had always known. I became friends with the white people. Sure, there were a few brown people in my group too, but as far as we were concerned, we weren’t like other brown people. We were the exceptions to the rule, much like this boy who, years later, would tell me brown women aren’t good enough for him. I don’t want to absolve myself from my acts of injustice, but I do think it should be mentioned that I was looking through the uncritical eyes of a privileged and indoctrinated child, and had no access to educators to teach me better. I often question the validity of this excuse. After high school, I went to a semi-competitive state college boasting a diverse student body. I finally changed my thinking and began undoing the damage done to me. I began challenging my understanding of the world, which was shaped by mainstream media and my education. Since then, I’ve worked hard to fill my life with brown brilliance. I frequently question my values and beliefs. It is only through interactions with ranges of people that you begin fully understanding individuality.

Yet, this boy’s comment and his mother’s beliefs were specifically about romantic relationships with brown women. Personally, I began advocating for romantically sticking to brown people for three reasons. Early on in our friendship, the boy asked me to help pick his profile photo for a dating app: “Which one looks best to a white girl?” I use this to illustrate that as a brown person, in the world of dating, you risk being fetishised or rejected I hated brown people, and, much like this on the basis of ethnicity. Neither is desirboy, I believed that I simply could not able. Compliment my hilarious jokes and relate to or enjoy the company of these conversational skills, goddammit, not on lesser people. I say ‘lesser’, and use the my “brown sugar” skin that may or may language of colonisers, because it is not not taste like milk chocolate. That’s reason far from colonial thinking to believe that one for intraracial dating: no one is going brown people who aren’t you are degen- to be weirdly obsessed with your “exotic” erate or deficient in culture and mind. features when they have them too. At this At this point in my teenage develop- point, I believe that few people are more

capable of loving the scarred skin of a brown person, or accepting the thickness of a brown girl’s leg hair, than someone who has themselves known the struggles of a brown person. Secondly, men tend not to match with brown women. In multiple studies by various dating sites, and even the work of questionable academics like LSE’s very own Satoshi Kanazawa, the findings are that women of colour have a difficult time finding partners. Now, there are two potential conclusions. The likes of Kanazawa argue that women of colour are less attractive and inferior, that the boy and his mother are correct to brand us as undesirable. The second explanation is that external influences have manipulated common standards of what is desirable and beautiful for women, standards unobtainable for those of colour. This latter reasoning is a kinder understanding of why women of colour are considered a homogenous group, instead of the brilliant individuals that they are. I find it easier to swallow. I should add that, in a similar vein, brown men often comment that using dating apps with foreign sounding names is difficult, even without the burden of dark skin. Men of colour, as per the statistics, have been shown to be less likely than their white counterparts to get that sweet right swipe. Choosing to celebrate a brown partner’s beauty and brilliance is a political act of resistance to a racist narrative that damages the reputations, prospects, and mental health of brown men. Your experiences with people can help or harm your perception of them. Romance is an important aspect of your life, where you can express an acceptance of yourself. It is through exploring, understanding, and accepting people that have your features that you truly begin loving yourself and your fellow brown people. It is the only way to dismantle your own complexion-based pyramid. Basically, I’ve come to realise that brown people are in fact capable of being funny, talented, entertaining, and lovable. I hope one day, that this boy and his mother will too.

REVIEW

Tuesday 11 February Editors: Amber Iglesia and Zehra Jafree

My 4 (very long) days of online dating

Despite having heard a number of horror stories over the years, last week I decided to brave the stormy seas of popular dating apps – for review purposes, of course. This probably makes me a catfish, but it was all for a good cause. P.S. sorry if I matched with and then aired you. Now you know who I am, find me on Facebook so we can continue our debate on whether toilet paper roll feeds out over or under. It’s over...definitely over. Just as I was finishing up my GY245 research paper, I set out to conduct my own research project. I downloaded 5 dating apps: Tinder, Bumble, Hinge, Match.com, and OkCupid. I set my preference to include both men and women, 18-30, and swiped right on 40 random people per day per app. This excepting Hinge and OKCupid, both of which limit you to ten swipes a day. Bemusingly, Match doesn’t allow you to set your preferences to men and women, so all my Match matches were men. I wanted to see which apps worked, which didn’t, and which ones matched me with the most … interesting people. Like a true geographer, I kept my control variables the same: pictures, name, age, and bio: “I like my partners the way I like my coffee, hot and bitter”. For someone who doesn’t tend to put herself out there, this bio proved to be a welcome conversation starter rather than mundane small-talk.

for him, underage boys aren’t really my style. I’m also not a fan of the logo, it reminds me of my Santander banking app. Some may say just as unsuccessful.

Bumble - ‘Date, Meet, Network Better’ 78 matches, including 8 girls, and sent 39 messages.

ple; they were more amused with my bio, which I can’t take credit for as I found it online. If it were up to me I’d have left it blank. I don’t know if it was me, but the people I matched with on Bumble seemed to be looking for more than just a hookup. They were genuinely interested in finding out about me and going on dates, rather than whether or not I lived alone. Bumble has the same swipe function as Tinder, making it just as easy to use. You can also add more information like your height, if you have pets, if you smoke, and how much you drink, all of which

by Amber Iglesia

Whilst Hinge proportionately had the highest ratio of swipes to matches, it was by far the most confusing dating app of the bunch. Four days later I am still none the wiser. The swipes are limited to ten a day, which makes the dating process all the more tiresome. As someone with the patience of a three year old, this made the app ‘designed to be deleted’ for the wrong reasons. Within the first five minutes I was ready to be done. I have no idea why there were so many questions related to my religious beliefs, ethnicity, and my desire for kids

Match.com - ‘Start Something Real’

Match.com was the biggest waste of time out of all the apps. I was on it for two days before I discovered that I had to subscribe before receiving messages. You can swipe all you want for free, but what’s the point in that? Clearly it is aimed at a much older demographic — the average age is 39, a touch out of my age bracket. One of the questions asked what my relationship status was: never married, separated, married, widowed, or divorced. It felt odd to define myself only as someone that hadn’t gotten around tying the knot. Interestingly and rather shockingly, the opening question to the app was “are you interested in men or women?” There was no option to choose both, an annoyingly closedminded stance for a dating app in 2020. The only place match.com ‘started something real’ was in my email inbox: I received 96 emails from matches I couldn’t see because I hadn’t subscribed. I would not recommend anything about this app.

79 matches, including 12 girls, and 41 messages (most asked where I lived and if I lived alone...can’t imagine why).

OkCupid - ‘Dating Deserves Better’

Many of these apps are known for one thing: hookups. If you have a curious personality combined with the need for constant validation, then Tinder’s addictive swipe function might be for you.

As far as choosing a simple, easy-to-use dating app goes, you can’t go wrong with Tinder. Just like Instagram and Snapchat, it’s fair to say most people have Tinder on their phones. This increases the probability of matching with people you know, as I quickly confirmed. There was a multitude of cringey messages, including one seventeen-year-old guy posing as 18, and with a peculiar message. In all fairness, it was very nicely written: “I’m going to be honest with you, if you’re looking for hookups that suits me because I just want to lose my virginity. I would very much appreciate it if you agreed, and I will even treat you to some dinner.” Disappointingly

One positive element is a very useful twoway function. You can see who has liked your pictures and also like their pictures. Once you choose to match, you can then prompt them to reply rather than responding yourself, which gives you extra control over the like-to-match pipeline.

41 matches, all guys, 0 conversations

Tinder - ‘Match. Chat. Date.’

Let me just start by saying (and this is applicable for most dating apps) for the love of God, if you post a group picture please please please make it clear who you are. It’s also very easy to tell when your picture is fake. My thirteen year-old self got very excited when a Joe Sugg profile popped up. It’s an app that gives you false hope in more ways than one.

meant to answer to “the key to my heart is _____” besides ‘food’? I know, how boring.

6 matches, all guys, 5 conversations

What impressed me most about Bumble is its account verification. The app will use your camera to take a candid picture and verify it against the pictures on your profile. Why don’t they ALL do this? I didn’t realise this was even a function until a guy messaged me making it clear he wouldn’t talk to me unless I verified my account. I didn’t think I’d be a fan of Bumble. The idea of sending the first message was really daunting, especially when the best I could think of was “hey” (Sometimes I would go with “hey x” if I was really getting my flirt on). That’s as far as my chat-up skills go. But it seemed like that was enough for most peo-

provide

good

conversation

starters.

Like all dating apps, there are some questionable individuals. One asked me if I would give him a rimjob because I “looked like the type of girl who would do that” - classy!

Hinge - ‘Designed to be Deleted’ 9 matches, including 7 girls, and 6 messages.

Illustration: Colette Fogarty

— I don’t want to scare people off before I’ve even started. This wasn’t helped by one particular match of mine, who sent me the short but not-so-sweet message: “wine and anal?”. I told him I was happy to take the wine and pass on the anal, to which he replied “as long as I can suck your toes, we’re fine.” As anyone who knows me knows, that is certainly NOT fine. You are also required to write three painfully cringe conversation starters. As I’ve established, this is not my forte, and my answers probably didn’t help my chances. If you are naturally witty, I’m sure you’d be great on Hinge. But really, what are you

Again, the statistics look very good on paper. However, like Hinge, you are limited to ten swipes a day. The app makes you answer a few questions, like what you want out of the dating app, your age, your ideal partner, and, naturally, whether the monarchy should be abolished. The app then works out a percentage match with users you can swipe on. Just like the LSE100 black box problem, you have no idea how these percentages are calculated. Like Match.com, OkCupid targets an older demographic, including many married people looking for someone to join their threesome. It’s also the only place I met a Holocaust denier. All in all, Tinder and Bumble offer the best of both worlds: Tinder to bang, Bumble to date. Stay away from the other three unless you don’t mind waiting three months for your first date with the maximum ten swipes a day.

Sex Does Not Thrive on Monotony: Re-visiting Anais Nin on her 117th

Dear Collector: We hate you.

Sex loses all its power and magic when it becomes explicit, mechanical, overdone, when it becomes a mechanistic obsession. It becomes a bore. You have taught us more than anyone I know how wrong it is not to mix it with emotion, hunger, desire, lust, whims, caprices, personal ties, deeper relationships that change its color, flavor, rhythms, intensities. Thus Anais Nin began a letter to the mysterious ‘Collector’ in 1940. Alongside her literary contemporaries Henry Miller and George Barker, Nin was commissioned to write erotic fiction for this elusive figure’s personal collection, at the rate of a dollar a page. The ‘Collector’ was later revealed to be fairly nondescript Oklahoman oil baron Roy M. Johnson, who had told Nin to “cut the poetry” and focus on the explicit sex. Her avowed rejection of this notion is what brings her work to life. The short stories, collated and subsequently published as Delta of Venus, are dazzling examples of mid- twentieth-century modernism and a radical exploration of female sexuality. The entire dynamic of the situation regarding Nin’s erotica is compelling: a prominent Conservative Midwestern businessman paying struggling bohemian writers from California and New York to write smut to pay their rent.

This strange circumstance managed to thrust together disparate areas of American identity with sex in a country with a complicated and multifaceted attitude to that particular activity. Nin was born in 1903 in Neuilly, France, to Cuban parents of French and Spanish descent. She spent her life skipping through the metropolitan capitals of the new, glittering cultural twentieth century. She spent a few formative years in New York City, some time in Havana during her marriage to the experimental film-maker Ian Hugo, and, of course, many years in Paris romantically involved with Henry Miller. In this context you can see the forging of the white-hot gold literary talent and cultural awareness.

Despite Nin’s celebrated literary fiction and short stories, her most-read works are her journals and commissioned erotica, a selective focus that demonstrates the challenge posed for female writers not to be defined by salacious public consumption of their pain and sexuality. Despite being firmly in this paradigm, Nin’s erotica breaks key ground in creating a female voice on sex that is neither purely victim nor vixen; she dignifies women and their choices in her stories. Nin is explicit in her understanding of the differences between male and female sensuality. The preface to the contemporary Penguin edition of Delta of Venus is an extract from Nin’s di-

ary, expressing her amused disbelief at the ‘non-poetic’ brief she has been given: “Didn’t the old man know how words carry colors and sounds into the flesh?” It’s telling of how chromatic and rhythmic her writing is. She uses sensory language to portray the sensual, her most alluring and effective trick. In the preface she further describes the language of men as “inadequate” to describe women’s sensuality, and claims that “the language of sex has yet to be invented. The language of the senses has yet to be explored.”

Nin’s work begins to discover this new language. In Lilith, the protagonist is described by her lover: “her hair grow[ing] electric, her face more vivid, her eyes like lightning, her body restless and jerky like a racehorse’s.” Whilst most erotica of the era opted for mechanical and often violent narration, Nin’s language is sensitive and tender. She caresses all that exists outside of the logistics of sex – hair, heart, eyes – and gives melody to the emotions surrounding it. Lilith isn’t just left alone, she is “in a state of isolation – indeed, like a wild animal in an absolute desert.”

obscenity trial in the US during the 1960s. The lack of a demand for female-driven erotica encouraged Nin to be more experimental within her barely-scrutinised space. Where Miller’s characters touch and hit, Nin’s caress and stroke; his descriptions of female genitalia are crude, hers are ‘hidden recesses’. Her language is honeyed and mosaiced; light pours through her words and everything around is made beautiful. Nin was concerned that if her erotic writings were published, they would overshadow the rest of her career. To Henry Miller, she jokingly referred to herself as “the madam of this literary, snobbish house of prostitution.” Never-

The motifs she uses give her language a deeply sensuous female fullness: the lazily elongated eyes of felines, sea shells, “salty honey”, Venus, flowers in bud. Nin recognises that her male contemporaries relied on cruder and more bawdy writing. In the tradition of Francois Rabelais, Miller’s Tropic of Cancer led to a long

Season two was disappointing from the outset. It took me three days to get through the first episode. I wondered if it was impossible to escape the shadow of the first season, or if it really was just a bit shit. I think both. Most crucially, the characters seemed completely different from their season one selves. Then there are the offputting structural differences, way too many bloody love triangles, and the aesthetic of the show which all make the sex chat seem like a dim afterthought. Episode one was excruciating. I texted Amber - my fellow Review editor - to share my exhaustion and emphatically state that this would not be getting a write-up and that was that. I did eventually watch more. Soldiering on because of my residual affection for characters from the first season allowed me to indulge in more shitty high school love stories. The cast is still wonderfully talented and the show maintains a refreshing level of maturity regarding sex. One moment jumped out at me: a character has to navigate the obnoxiously gendered and invasive process of picking up the morning-after pill. Beyond the half-baked storylines, the season definitely has something to offer and eventually gains momentum. Adam’s return brought back season one

nostalgia. Whatta man. What. A. Man. I watched the first season of Sex Ed with my high-school best friend; we binged the whole thing on her bed in Bath whilst gorging on cheese toast and taking breaks to dance to Billy Idol. The Adam/Eric scene in season one – you know the one I mean – had me squealing and her rolling her eyes. “He’s a bully, Zehra. This is problematic, not romantic.” She wasn’t wrong – she rarely is.

an overly simplified obvious ‘girl power’ solution to an incredibly complicated problem. But before that silly shot of five girls at the back of a bus, when Aimee got to the bus stop and found them all there: “What are you doing here?” – she’s welling up, I’m bloody welling up – “Getting the bus. We’re all getting the bus.” Seventeen by Sharon Van Etten is playing in the background – ooh baby, you got me.

This season, Adam grew. It was really, really lovely to see. There was a lot of character growth: Otis’s dad was surprisingly self-aware for an absentee father. It made me wonder how much arseholes can genuinely grow. Whilst there is merit to showing the humanity of these characters, it felt unrealistic at times. In the words of Ciara (the aforementioned season one-watching pal): “I do love discussing Adam. What an annoyingly problematic boy.”

As the show is so crowded with storylines and subplots, Aimee’s assault couldn’t be a main focus. But in this instance it worked to effectively communicate the way much of life keeps going after assault. But then something like a bus (for Aimee), or a specifically coloured hoodie (for me), specific moments when you’re alone (for everyone I’ve spoken to)

Beyond Adam, Aimee’s journey was unexpectedly solid. Whilst not necessarily perfect at addressing sexual assault – which may not even be possible to do – this storyline was far more realistic than other fictional depictions I’ve seen: “So you can’t get on the bus because you think that man is going to be on it again?” “No. It’s more that he had this really kind face. I remember because he smiled at me and he didn’t look like some wanking psycho killer. So it’s like if he could do something like that, then anyone could. I always felt safe before. And now I don’t. It probably sounds stupid.” This. And the bus scene. Fuck. Yes, it was

theless, in 1977, a year after her death from cervical cancer, Delta of Venus was published. Two years later, another collection, called Little Birds, was published. Many of her journals were published during her lifetime, including Henry and June, which details her relationship in Paris with Henry Miller and his wife June. Since her death, numerous volumes have been released to the public, including particularly troubling accounts of sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her father and a subsequent affair she had with him in her 30s, which combined to create a decidedly blurry public image. Whilst popular in cult circles, her mainstream fame only came relatively recently, when she ascended to the throne of early-2010s Tumblr’s darling of the inspirational quote. A 2015 Guardian article bizarrely describes her as an “earlier Lena Dunham”, illustrating nothing but how confused we still are about female writers. In terms of influence, it’s fair to say that Nin instigated the female literary tradition of erotic writing, from Sylvia Plath’s poetic sex splintered with intense sadness to Anne Sexton’s confessional ramblings. Also notable is one of the best exercises in the English language, Elizabeth Smart’s electrifyingly alive By Grand Central Station I Sat Down and Wept, about her heartbreak at the hands of Nin’s contemporary George Barker. (Coincidentally, Smart’s writing is far superior to Barker’s insipid T. S. Eliot knock-offs). Separate the noise from the woman, and all that remains is glorious writing that forces you to look directly into the sun. In her words: “only the united beat of sex and heart together can create ecstasy.”

Sex Education Season 2: A letdown expected for a first-timer, not a second Sex Education season one was pretty great. I remember it being goodlooking, sexy, cool, aware, and honest, whilst, yes, giving the teenage experience a little too much credit. I didn’t leave my teenage years all that long ago. I certainly remember wanting to romanticise that time in my life, and the show picked up on that. I loved the relationships and characters that developed on-screen.

by Molly Horner

snaps you back to that moment. It’s shit but then you have to be living again and it becomes background once more. Despite these almost-perfect relevant and incredibly important moments, they were drowning in the quarter-cooked storylines and character arcs surrounding them. Such a shame. I HATE wasted potential. It makes me very angr On a tentative, conservative first attempt, I counted twenty-three core characters who were a part of central storylines. TWENTY THREE. You do NOT need to have gone to film school to understand that this might be too large for any show to digest properly. The worst part is that each has a substantive storyline. How can a show talk about Jacwkson’s mental health properly while also giving enough time to Maeve’s mum’s drug abuse? Or follow Otis’s and Adam’s family drama and Jean’s heartbreak, whilst tactfully

by Zehra Jafree

dealing with Aimee’s sexual assault and allowing Ola, Lily, and Adam’s sexual consciousness to manifest naturally? It can’t be done and season two doesn’t do it. UGH. So, is season two worth a watch at all? Mm – I don't know. I would still recommend season one to literally everyone, and it is difficult to not continue when you’re a season in. It also isn’t a complete disappointment: I enjoyed it enough to finish it, albeit over two weeks as opposed to a weekend. I’m also looking forward to another season. But I would still call this one a failure, which sounds harsh, I know, but doesn’t feel unwarranted. Ooh quickly, final thoughts on the last episode: Stephen Fry: I love you! Isaac: fuck you.

Bombshell: Fox in the #MeToo Hen House

by Shahana Bagchi

There’s an irony in a proto-MeToo movement taking place in the halls of the fiercely conservative Fox News’ offices in 2016. Yet Jay Roach’s Bombshell subverts this irony. He provides context to the origins of the scandal while giving humanity to the women involved. The movie plays out as a darkly humorous exposé, with three women at the centre: Gretchen Carlson (Nicole Kidman), Megyn Kelly (Charlize Theron), and the fictional Kayla Pospisil (Margot Robbie). The narrative widens the lens beyond Roger Ailes (John Lithgow) himself, incorporating everyday harassment and Trump’s appalling response to Kelly. Kelly is the central figure of the film; Theron is an eerie embodiment of her, thanks to amazing prosthetics and make-up. Pospisil is fictional and, perhaps because she is a creation of the writers, the most sympathetic. In Bombshell’s most distressing scene, Robbie is exceptional. Her expression – the confusion, fear, and vulnerability – is remarkable, despite being a difficult watch. Lithgow establishes Ailes as the dangerous, perverted villain, lending a cartoonish side to this pathetic man, throwing doughnuts at people in rage, or stumbling into the newsroom to yell at the

F**cks Given: Great Laughs, Mediocre Advice

by Yasmina O'Sullivan

female anchors that he “needs to see [their] legs”.The overwhelming detail is jarring at times. Bombshell is incredibly fast-paced, the camera constantly flitting between people, zooming in and out, while keeping an excellent hold on the audience’s attention.

is praiseworthy. Normalising the realities of sexual health and happiness are crucial in tackling the shame society teaches us, especially given the diversity of guests’ sexual identities and experiences. Hopefully, it can make listeners less lonely in their own experiences. If you’re kept laughing by weighty themes intermingled with humour you won’t be disappointed: one guest described his tendency to steal random items from sexual partners he felt had been too selfserving in their sexual encounter. It’s not an advisable practice but certainly provokes a shocked giggle.

It is also filled with familiar faces playing… familiar faces, like some kind of heightened SNL-esque parody (Kate Mackinnon’s cameo doesn’t help). The parallel is not without reason: the political setting of Fox News is a reminder that Kelly and Carlson are themselves problematic figures in a sensationalist fearmongering institution. This is powerfully addressed in the last scene when Carlson tells the audience: “I don’t care that you like me, only that you believe me. There is one scene that completely undermines the movie’s narrative drive. At one point, the film places blame on Kelly for not coming forward earlier and indirectly allowing other women to be assaulted. It felt ridiculous, and genuinely put me off an otherwise wellmade movie. While Bombshell does not escape these clichéd pitfalls, it is a compelling film well worth a watch.

Combine smooth sultry vocals of two outrageously sexpositive ladies and a sprinkle in diverse guests – strippers who have spiritual sex and trans models demystifying period-penetration – the result you get is F**ks Given. Florence and Reed, the London chicks leading a battle against sexual taboos, ask guests to confess their best fucks, worst fucks, and the fucks that made them. This effortless structure makes it a pleasure to listen to. Many chat-pods get it wrong, they’re plagued by awkward laughter, hosts who never get to the point, and guests who are uncomfortably squeezed in. But F**ks Given is pure chemistry. The hosts’ banter allows the guest to slide easily into the mix. For me, it’s the perfect pod for when I’m cooking, which let’s be honest, has its own very sexy undertones. When it comes to content, this pod makes you chuckle and gasp in the same sentence. Honesty is everything, so be prepared for when all the sexy details are laid bare. They cover all the topics we whisper about, from powder deodorant for smelly balls to stinging STIs. Although their candour sometimes stuns, the impact

But I caution prospective listeners (or curious fuckers as the hosts like to call them): This is not a place for expert advice, and the hosts have a tendency to be uncritical. Do not mistake strong opinions for expert knowledge. When it comes to sexual and mental health, it’s important to seek fully informed advice. In addition, the podcast’s aim of sex-positivity sometimes clouds its ability to be critical about questionable encounters. In a recent episode, the guest describes his first sexual experience as a teen, in which he met an older man on Grindr, was driven out to a field, and blew the man while his date was handcuffed to a tree. There is nothing wrong with sexy bondage in outdoor locations, and thankfully the story has a happy ending, but there are many ways the situation could have been much worse. When the story was shared, there was no discussion of safety or the vulnerable position the guest had been in. Instead, it was laughed off as a saucy story, totally at odds with the project of straight talking about sex. Being sex-positive should not mean papering over the darker sides of sex. Overall, I’d encourage you to give this pod a listen while you haphazardly cook cheap pasta at 9 pm on a Tuesday. However, as with anything dispensing opinions in an attractive and compelling way, take F**ks Given with a clit-sized pinch of salt.

The Beaver's Sex Playlist: I Said-a-Bang, Bang, Bangity Bang, I Said-a-Bang Bang Bangity Bang

by Sebastian Mullen

DISCLAIMER: Although some songs may appear on both lists, this is not my sex playlist. Mine has way more Shakira. As the in-house music review writer, it appears to be my duty (or honor?) to create the Beaver’s official sex playlist. These songs will turn any so-so hookup into a sheet-tangling mind blower straight out of The Notebook (specifically the scene where Noah and Allie, after so many years stare into each others eyes and their souls connect and it’s so beautiful and then they bang). How does one create a sex playlist I hear you ask? Great question. You want to know the song, but not love it to the point that you start singing along. It should be motivating, but not so upbeat that you’re exhausted by the first chorus. It’s a plus if there are deep lyrics as long as you stay far away from the devastatingly depressing or overly-romantic (those are best left for break-ups or weddings). This playlist may not appeal to you in the slightest, and that’s okay. Sex playlists are typically a private, personal item where you keep songs that are specific to you. Moods can also change – different atmospheres require different tunes. Take a look though – you might find a nice track for a good night. Tracklist (in no specific order):

Illustration: Raphaelle Camarcat

Deep End - River Tiber The Weekend - SZA Warm on a Cold Night - HONNE Redbone - Childish Gambino Exchange - Bryson Tiller Skin - Mac Miller South - Galimatias Vete - Biig Piig (with Mac Wetha) SUMMER - BROCKHAMPTON Ugotme - Omar Apollo Speedracer - CAPYAC Get You - Daniel Ceasar (feat. Kali Uchis) Waves - glibs Too Deep - dvsn I’m Sorry - Swell (feat. Shiloh) Planet God Damn - Mac Miller (feat. Njomza) Special Affair - The Internet Untitled (How Does It Feel) - D’Angelo Chanel - Frank Ocean Lights On - H.E.R.

PART B

Tuesday 11 February

editor: Maya Kokerov

arts & culture

What’s the value in historical romance?

A person like me would not have a life worth living in 19th century Britain, and yet I am so enthralled by romantic fiction novels exclusively set in this era. This predicament doesn’t keep me up at night, per se, but it does take up a lot of my headspace. Sitting down to write this article, I think I’ve finally figured out why: it’s the stringent social mores that shaped this century which encapsulates both the Regency and Victorian era.

by Christina Ivey

These novels are as entertaining as they are anachronistic. I really doubt that many people in 19th-century nobility were having oral sex, but it’s nice to imagine. A lot of historical romance is historical in setting only, with authors making fair use of their creative licence to overcome the unsexiness of using a chamber pot, bathing once a week, and racism.

The protagonists of these novels are unfathomably progressive. I’m not comThe rules of the time make the romantic plaining; these books would be unbearpay-off all the more interesting. Finding able to read if these details weren’t omitout the heroine isn’t a virgin is hardly ted. a plot point in any other sub-genre of romantic fiction but it is so much more If you’re still hesitant to start reading entertaining when all the characters are historical romance, that’s completely un19th-century gentry. derstandable. Most are very white and heterosexual. Thankfully, that is now inThe setting makes the stakes much high- creasingly not the case with authors like er, for the heroine especially. Any misstep Cat Sebastian writing love between queer on her part inevitably leads to her social people, people of colour, and queer peoand sometimes financial ruination. There ple of colour. The great thing about those are some stakes for the men in these nov- is that they aren’t even that anachronisels as well; matters of honour can quickly tic, because we know that those people become grounds for a duel. These duels definitely existed within that time and would usually take place in Hyde Park at space. The only thing anachronistic is dawn. Backing out was seen as cowardly their happy ending. Once again, I’m not and ungentlemanly so it often ended in complaining. bloodshed or even death.

Profession : Rêveuse by Salomé Melchior

Ses pensées fusent au sein d’un marécage

existentiel

où se mêlent des étincelles Illustration by Charlie Davis

de réel et d’irréel

Talk to Her (2003) and the sexualisation of victims in the media

by Maya Kokerov

Almodóvar’s film Hablé con Ella (Talk to Her: 2003) aestheticizes the female body, masking sexual violence in nuanced and very problematic ways. The treatment of the main female character Alicia and her rapist Benigno have been justified as part of the director’s interest in Immoralism, where moral principles are deliberately violated in the name of art. It’s depiction of sexual violence can perpetuate harmful consequences on understandings of rape. Rape is used as a plot device which moves the story forward. By intentionally providing the reader with ethical discomfort and parading female nudity decoratively, it emphasizes the power of male friendship. Although the film may be miles away from similar narratives such as Brimstone and Treacle, it delivers a less sinister but perhaps even more dangerous notion that rape is not as important of an issue when accompanied by a backdrop of “ravishing romantic obsession, loneliness and friendship”. The treatment of sexual violence is almost disguised as ‘love’ by the ‘sympathetic’ characterisation of the male nurse, Benigno. Although the plot hinges on the vegetative states of Alicia and Lydia, the narrative primarily centres around their male partners, who talk to the women’s comatose bodies. Benigno, obsessively tends to Alicia’s body. This leads to an unseen rape, implied by a cut to a short erotic film - an ‘aesthetic’ suggestion that it occured. However, the narrative doesn’t focus on the rape or the events following her awakening. By muting the reality of the rape scene, male viewers are not able to be confronted with its horror, while female viewers are silenced due to this strange aestheticization of it. The rape scene is interrupted again by another close-up of Alicia’s breasts, before the miniature male figure in the short film climbs into a plastic reconstruction of what resembles female genitalia. This symbolically simulates non-consensual intercourse between both the silent film actors as well as Benigno and Alicia’s comatose body. It is suggested that the giant woman reaches climax despite being asleep and unaware. The film cuts to Alicia’s face while the words ‘and he stays inside her forever’ appear. The man’s miniature size and the allusion to female pleasure diminishes the audience’s awareness of what happened, despite its confirmation soon afterwards. The juxtaposition between the obvious lack of consent and the idea of enjoyment disguises the reality of the rape, especially as the parallelism with the silent film involves a genuine couple. By displacing a physical rape with an almost ‘pleasant’ scene, Almodóvar prevents the spectator from confronting their feelings towards the rape. Instead, one continues to sympathise with Benigno. The omission of the rape scene denies viewers the ability to fully recognise the weight of the experience on Alicia. The camera’s attention to the female body and focus on the emotional dimension of the male relationship, creates a silencing effect on the female characters. Even when the women are ‘talked to’, their superficial characteristics are a large focus of the lens. The film’s denial of scenes including a court-case or Alicia’s physical recovery, Almodóvar manipulates the representation of sexual violence in a way that changes our relationship to Benigno, allowing us to easily accept this. Alicia’s compliant body is more sexualised in its passive state than in her physical life. Her parted lips and permanently sealed eyes convey a naked vulnerability, complimented by the gracefully languid arm gently laid beside her head. Her ‘odalisque-like’ pose seems intended for Marco and the spectator’s admiration. Her exposed breasts foreground her erogenous zones, eroticising her lack of autonomy rather than portraying her as an entire person,

a whole body. Her passive representation aligns with gendered stereotypes of beauty, delicacy and grace which invites the lustful or adoring male gaze. Therefore, the film depicts the female body as gaining aesthetic value in relation to its vulnerability. When Alicia wakes up, the lens moves away from her and focuses on the male protagonists instead. The female body becomes an aesthetic device when Alicia is in her most vulnerable state. She is erotically caressed by hands and eyes; even after Marco is heartbroken, the scene follows his look towards Alicia’s breasts through a half open door. Directly preceding the rape, the lens focuses on Alicia’s parted lips while Benigno removes her bra, before the scene cuts to the black and white film and the rape scene. Karen Boyle’s analysis on the representation of female victims of sexual violence in British tabloids such as The Sun suggest that readers are encouraged to “make sense of sex crime in the context of sex”. The example of the alleged gang rape by eight footballers was framed in light of their sports success. This diminished its status from being an abhorrent sexual crime to a ‘sport’, suggesting agency. Its reality is overshadowed by their fame and success. The picture used of a model whose coy smile, suggestive clothing and ‘inviting’ gaze towards the camera lens was intended as a sexu-

ally provocative spectacle. Instead this provides the reader with sexually charged material leading to the association of rape with sex, rather than violence. Her objectification seems to “promise striptease”, a false and alluring representation of the real victim, in a way not far from glamour models on Page 3 and ‘Lad Mags’. As in Talk to Her, this sexualisation of the rape victim not only idealises her passivity and victimhood, but works to obscure the reality of rape so the viewer does not have to confront it and may even sexualise the concept themselves. The female victim is denied full personhood in favour of male desire which is thrust upon every reader, solidifying the hegemonic structures of feminine inferiority and masculine dominance. Both films and magazines contain media representations which have the power to undermine the seriousness of sexual crime through the objectification and sexualisation of its victims. In Talk to Her, Alicia is not represented as ‘deserving’ of the rape and fits neither mould of the ‘virgin’ or the ‘vamp’ precisely due to her vegetative state. However, the promise of a future affair between her and the other male protagonist (Marco) at the end, perhaps infers that she is a willing recipient of male desire. This is exacerbated because her own mental and physical recovery following the rape is completely ignored in favour of Benigno’s psychological qualms and the resolution of his friendship with Marco. In this way, she subsumes both categories of ‘virgin’ and

‘vamp’ because her non-autonomous body is inviting to the audience. No resistance is shown on her part due to her passive state, while she also remains innocent and oblivious as a character the whole time. News coverage of violence against women who fit in the ‘vamp’ category, such as prostitutes, is rare and sympathy tends to swarm towards victims who ‘deserve’ it- this usually only covers white, middle-class women who conform to conventional sex roles. In Talk to Her, the rape scene itself is signified through a short, artistic film which creates the major point of visual spectacle in the film as an aesthetic production. This is done to intentionally obscure the rape so that Benigno can become a morally complex character. However, one of the outcomes of this representation is that it is aestheticized and attention is drawn to the scene itself, rather than the character’s victimisation. In real life scenarios, it is likewise the case that media and public attention is devoted primarily to cases where the rape attack creates an air of sensation and the victim’s story ends tragically. Almodóvar would not have been able to portray the rape scene or the rapist as such if Alicia had died, as more attention would have to be paid to her character’s development.. In fact, the rape’s consequences of pregnancy are named a ‘miracle’ by Benigno because of its ‘positive’ effect of waking her from her coma. Rape is often categorised as newsworthy by the press if it is dramatized and linked to tactics intended to shock a n d sensationalise violence against women, so that only the most brutal cases are made prominent. M a l e perpetrators are also often pathologized as monsters and psychopaths in order to distance them from the title of ‘rapists’, so that social structures which normalise rape culture do not have to be disrupted. People are not willing to accept that members from their own communities can be rapists. When middle-class, white rapist Brock Turner was charged with rape in 2015, news outlets such as USA Today characterised him as ‘Stanford University Swimmer’ rather than ‘rapist’, in article headlines. In contrast, the media almost always labels people of colour as rapists before any additional personal details. However, rapists with social currency, irrespective of their race, often also use mental illness to explain and mitigate the crime. A recent example is the R Kelly case which relied on personal abuse experiences to set up a sympathetic lens towards his actions. The lack of media sympathy for his victims was also due to their race; black women do not get the same reaction as ‘idealised depictions of heterosexual… white women’ who have ‘become the metaphor for innocence’. Women of colour who are victims of sexual assault are gendered and racialised in a way which both blames them and marginalises them as ‘other’. In contrast, Alicia is idealised because she fits Westernised ideals of beauty. While Almodóvar’s Talk to Her has some philosophical value as an aesthetic cinematic production, its representations of sexual violence undo the work of feminist ethical ambitions by sexualising a woman who is ultimately a victim of sexual violence.

Rubik’s Cube by Salomé Melchior

Le cerveau, ce Rubik’s cube à démêler et utiliser comme jouet des idées. Illustration by Nono Astro Irarez

The art of the scandalous nude: classical vs Instagram by Maya Kokerov

The nude as a concept has made waves on the digital sphere ever since the eponymous 2007 nude leak when Disney stars like Vanessa Hudgens became privy to a scandalous violation of privacy. But, this sensationalised pop culture phenomenon was all birthed by classical art dating back to before Christ; the human body has always been both celebrated and scorned in its natural state in the form of both sculpture and Instagram art accounts. There are many more scandalous examples to choose from but these are some striking ones:

Classical Praxiteles, Aphrodite Female nudity was a faux pas in Ancient Greek art- in contrast from the frequent male sculptures, even the goddess of love was usually draped in loose robes. This was the first life-size representation of the naked female form. Another version made for the temple was purposefully clothed. The Nude Maja, Francisco Goya

guess it depends on how you look at it; it could indicate what you’re likely to see on an inkblot test. However, she denied this gendered reading and perhaps insisting on this ‘cliched interpretation’ is an injustice to her work and talent. The similarity could just be a ‘happy accident’. “O’Keeffe was very assertive as a woman but was always very keen to assert that she was an important artist, not just an important female artist.” -Borchardt-Hume

As above, there was both a clothed version of this painting (The Clothed Maja) and this nude one. It was “the first totally profane life-size female nude in Western art“ and gained its controversy due to the ‘explicit’ depiction of pubic hair. Unlike most renaissance female nudes, this one maintains teasing eye contact with the viewer, daring them to… well, it’s open to interpretation. As the Catholic church had banned the display of artistic nudes, it was never displayed during Goya’s lifetime which is honestly a let-down.

Instagram

Georgia O’Keeffe

@milkformycoconut Uses frantic brush strokes to create beautiful images surrounding femininity, erotica and chaotic nude representations. I couldn’t find a name or any other information for this talented enigma.

Okay, this isn’t a nude but how could I not mention the vaginal flower imagery which most of us learned about in year 8 art and were momentarily confused by. Sensual and ahead of their time, these were extreme close-ups of flowers which called you out on how you chose to interpret them. Are they flowers or vaginas? I

@Exotic.cancer Illustration of women and men in various shaded of blue are pictured with deliberately obvious body hair, often in strip clubs satirising male customers and tinder profiles. The message is often one of sexual liberation and #freethenipple.

SPORT LSESU: THIS GIRL CAN Tuesday 11th February Editors: Gabrielle Sng and Seth Rice

Empowerment and exercise combine for a week full of opportunity Juliette Glennon-Alty AU Exec

he LSESU This Girl Can Week is running this year from the 10th to the 16th February. Much like the nationwide This Girl Can campaign, our week-long version aims to get women and girls moving, regardless of shape, size and ability. We don’t want anyone to feel embarrassed getting sweaty and red in the face whilst exercising, as it’s 100% natural, healthy and worth celebrating! The set-up is a little different from previous years. This year, the SU and AU have empowered clubs to run their own events throughout This Girl Can Week. Clubs that have stepped up and are running give it a go sessions include Netball, Boxing, Dance, Rugby, Football/Futsal, Dance, Athletics & Running, Yoga and Basketball. As an AU Exec, we have been thoroughly impressed with the amount of clubs and individuals wanting to get involved, contributing ideas and supporting the campaign. Through these sessions, we hope women embrace the idea of trying new sports, making new friends and eventually realising how good it is to have a variety of exercise in your weekly routine. However, the week is not just AU clubs running events. Individuals both within the SU and beyond have gotten in contact with us looking to run unique and useful events; I for one

am really looking forward to them! The Bootcamp, circuits, weights, selfdefence seminar and women who fight sessions are all really special additions to the schedule. They give us the opportunity to take something away from the week and into our daily lives. The chance to feel a little safer in London through the selfdefence seminar, to have more confidence to go to a workout class like the Bootcamp or to know how to use the weights in the gym are individually small achievements but can really have an impact on a woman’s life. Given the diversity of the events running in the week, I hope that there is something new or different for everyone. I am especially excited about the women’s only weights and boxing because those are sessions I would never ordinarily engage in. I am keen to gain confidence and revisit again after this week. The social on Wednesday is open to all AU members, with a crucial focus on the women’s clubs and representation. We hope women across LSE manage to take part in the week and that they end the week more confident in their abilities, skill and bodies than ever before. And that that confidence grows even more going forward.

Top events to look for! Self-defence seminar This is an opportunity to take something tangible away from the week and one that is definitely useful for life in London. Learn the basics of self-defence in this session. Women’s Sport Social Though open to everyone, we want to bring the AU’s female clubs together for a night of socialising and really getting to know one another. We so rarely get to hang out as an AU, at least outside of Zoo, so we are excited to mingle outside our sports and get to know some of the other fantastic AU women. Women’s Only Weights If you’ve ever walked into the gym at peak time and felt too embarrassed to even go pick up a dumbbell because you weren’t sure what to do, this session may be for you. If you’re looking to get started, improve your technique and learn about why weights as part of your workout will add something completely different to your fitness, come along! Mindfulness Yoga By Thursday evening you’ve pretty much made it through another week of LSE and all the stress of the week definitely builds up. Come along to yoga to relax and learn how to take better care of yourself during the week. Whether you’re a yogi or a beginner, this session is open to all women looking to learn some mindfulness that can be used in the stressful life of an LSE student.

TOP 10 INSPIRATIONAL WOMEN IN SPORT

longside the fantastic sports events happening every day this week, there is a social media campaign running alongside it of equal importance. We opened up nominations university-wide for the LSE Inspiration Women in Sport as we strive to celebrate those women in the AU who go above and beyond to inspire others, improve at their sports and enhance our AU experience. There were over 50 nominations in the end from a whole range of sports within the AU, which we as an exec found really amazing; each AU club is invariably full of inspirational women. We read through the nominations and why individuals found them inspirational and managed, with great difficulty, to narrow it down to our top 10. These women represent the very best the AU has to offer. From club captains to committed team members, each woman on this list brings something different to their club. From Laura Goddard’s successful UGM motion to make LSE improve support for sexual assault survivors; Ellie Cumpsty playing for Netball 2nds in the week and Sailing pretty much every weekend; Anisa Khan having been part of the women’s team that won the National Kabaddi Championships last year. The sheer talent, dedication and commitment these women have for their sports, their team-members and their AU is undoubtedly inspirational and we are overjoyed we get to share their

success with the entire university. It is important to recognise women and their commitment to the AU because it is far too easy to take for granted how much is done both on the court and field (often behind the scenes). Every day. So, this week serves as an opportunity to highlight to the entire university that the AU truly is a community that fully supports one-another and celebrates our achievements together.

Laura Goddard – Lacrosse Club Captain

Jess Coventry – Netball Vice Club Captain

Georgia Mosheim - Lacrosse

1st Team Captain [pictured above left] Ellie Cumptsky - Netball, Sailing & Sports Performance Program [pictured below left] Eponine Balibrea – Football [pictured below right] Ines Söderström – Ex-Rugby Vice-Captain Anisa Khan - Kabaddi Maria Pavlovec – Dance Club Captain Charly Brady - Ex-Rugby Club Captain Kirsten McNally - Athletics & Running Club Captain [pictured above right]

OLIVER COOK: DISPELLING THE MYTH OF ‘NONSPORTY-NESS’ AT LSE

was told not to apply for LSE and then, when I got in, that I wouldn’t enjoy it; “It’s not that sporty... it’s not that, you know, fun”. LSE was, in the words of my head of sixth form teacher, “not a place for sporty all rounders.” To some extent, he was right - LSE is one of the most academically focused universities in the country - but he was also woefully wrong. I graduated from LSE back in 2012 and since then I have been a full time member of the Great Britain rowing team. I have won the National, European and World Championships and I am currently training for the 2020 Olympics this summer in Tokyo, Japan. But I’m far from the exception. Attending my LSE classes was a full time rugby player for Wasps; a good friend of mine was (and still is) an Olympic fencer; I knew a GB/LSE triathlete; a GB judoka; an internationally ranked tennis player; a GB track and field athlete. The list goes on. For a relatively small university in the middle of the UK’s capital, and

with a pretty uncompromising attitude towards academic excellence, LSE definitely punches above its weight. Nonetheless, the reality of being an LSE student in the middle of London is not easy to always get around. The University of London Boat Club (ULBC) is nine miles from LSE along the Thames in Chiswick. Some days I would clock up almost 40 miles cycling between my flat, LSE and ULBC. This would then be on top of two 16 kilometre water sessions, or one water session and an indoor ergo session, as well as morning lectures and classes (disclaimer: I was heavily fuelled by the flapjacks at Wrights Bar). LSE wasn’t always the most understanding of places; it’s just not in the fabric of the university in the same way it is at Oxford and Cambridge. I remember having my termly meeting with my academic advisor at the time. The morning I met with him I had already cycled 20 miles and had a 20km rowing session. I sat down with him and

he asked if I was managing to find any time to do any extracurricular activities outside of my academic commitments. I didn’t have the heart to tell him that it was more a case of finding time to do any work alongside my training commitments. I did say that I was doing a bit of rowing, he replied this was fine as long as I found my ‘pareto optimal’ level of studying for five hours a day. Even though many at LSE didn’t know or couldn’t understand the commitment of something like rowing outside of university work, it was a culture I came to thoroughly enjoy and appreciate. A lot of guys on the GB rowing team went to universities that would give academic credits to their athletes or help them with access to easier modules. Indeed, American universities give out huge bursaries and scholarships to talented sportsmen and women (note the recent college admissions scandal in the USA). Although British universities don’t engage in the same kind of rapacious recruitment as their US

counterparts, there is still plenty of acclaim on offer for playing in the varsity team for your university. At LSE, not so much. It was at times frustrating. It seemed as though no tutor or lecturer cared or knew I was captain of the University of London rowing team or that I was competing for GB; they certainly weren’t sympathetic to a request for an essay extension or if I displayed a clear lack of preparation for a class. But I loved LSE for that. At LSE, it was about you as the person who turned up for class, what you got up to outside of Houghton Street was up to you. It felt like, almost uniquely at LSE, you were held up to the standard of your classmates and they respected you, not for how far you had cycled or trained that morning, but for your thoughts on US foreign policy, student debt or whether snake bite is genuinely rancid. In my first year at LSE I was an active member of the LSE drama society and the rugby team. In the drama society

[continues onto next page]

[continued from previous page]

we put on a rather forgettable play which involved me accidentally breaking character (and accent) to the unexpected enjoyment of the small audience. In the rugby team we managed to get promoted that first year and gave KCL a close shave. The weekly session at Tuns was always a highlight, but for me I had an itch that I needed to scratch, so I found myself drifting down to ULBC. I started in the ULBC second 8, we only had two 8s at the time. By the following year I was trialling for GB but I didn’t make it through, and by my last year, with a great squad, we won Henley Regatta and I was selected for the GB U23 team. That was back in 2012 and following the London Olympics

a few guys in the GB senior team retired, opening the door for a few of us younger guys to step in. I have been a full-time member of the senior team ever since. Sport and LSE have always been very special to me - ever since the teacher back at school told me I wouldn’t enjoy LSE, possibly hinting that it would be too academic for someone who enjoys playing sport. It is possibly why, while I was LSE, with the help of Prof David Marsden, we set up what was then called the LSE Ambassadors for Sport Fund - now known as the LSESU Sports Performance Program. It was an initiative founded upon financial support for LSE students who were aiming to compete nationally or internationally and it quickly became the most well-funded initiative of its kind amongst all London universities.

LSE is not a ‘non-sporting’ university. It definitely has its challenges for someone who wants to take sport seriously (or even not seriously). But many of these challenges, if managed right, can be excellent assets. The boat club is a trek from LSE but it meant, for example, I could warm up or cool down after a session. Most boat clubs are quite far from university campuses, meaning university students will often have to drive to them. But the notion that LSE doesn’t have any sportsmen or women is just plain nonsense. They’re just not on show like at other unis, but they were there when I was there, and there is no doubt there are great sportsmen and women at LSE now.

LSESU Pole Fitness Debunking Stereotypes

Gabrielle Sng Sport Editor

“ Photography by Angie Abdalla ally about. “It’s pretty physical,” she said before we broke into a unified chuckle of understanding. One of the biggest misconceptions people get from seeing the effortless fluidity of professional pole dancers on television or in real life is that pole dancing is easy. Having tried it out myself during first year and after dropping by a beginner’s class to capture some pictures, suffice to say I knew pole was anything but easy.

“ People associate pole fitness with sex workers in a bid to shame them

“

trippers, sex, prostitutes, promiscuous females, perhaps even the recent movie ‘Hustlers’: these are probably the first few things which come to mind when one mentions pole dancing or pole fitness. While such stereotypes may hold true to a certain extent, pole fitness is so much more than the heteronormativity and stigma attached to it in the media’s portrayal. As Flipside’s theme this week is sexuality and in line with the athletic union (AU)’s upcoming campaign ‘This Girl Can’, I sat down with Héloïse Regnault de Montgon (a familiar face to readers of Flipside and the Events Officer for the LSESU Pole Fitness) to debunk the misconceptions surrounding pole fitness and to discuss pole fitness in relation to empowerment, mental health and LSE’s pole fitness society. Naturally, the first question I asked Héloïse was to describe what pole fitness at LSE was re-

Nevertheless, she described it as a ‘great sport’ with an exceptionally ‘supportive environment’. Pole fitness helps you ‘develop what you want to

know about your body and confidence’ on your terms. Even though direct skin contact is required to stay on a pole, Héloïse was quick to reassure that short clothing or sleeveless tops weren’t mandatory in pole fitness classes. “You can just roll up your sleeves so don’t feel uncomfortable about the clothing part. People aren’t judgemental about your body. People don’t give a damn.” Before I could move on to the next question on my list, Héloïse beat me to the punch by leading the conversation to talk about two main tendencies of people to ‘strongly sexualise’ pole dancing and associate it with sex workers in a bid to shame them. Agreeing that pole can be sexual ‘if you want it to be, but it doesn’t have to be’, Héloïse made it clear that pole dancing ‘can make you feel great about yourself’ regardless of your gender. She enlightened me on the fact that LSE’s Pole Fitness does indeed have ‘quite a few straight guys’ in the club (not that

“

You can build a lot of strong friendships, strong bonds with the people in your (pole fitness) team

“

After hearing such positive things about the social aspect of pole fitness, I was also curious about both the progression and the competitive nature of the sport. There are 3 levels of pole classes at LSE – Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced. I wanted to know if Héloïse had moved up a level after being there for over a year. She laughed and said that she was still in the Beginner’s class because she was having a more relaxed approach to classes. She explained that most of her friends moved up levels really fast but that progression wasn’t an absolute necessity. “If you get into it, if it’s your thing as it often ends up being the case, if you go every week, you can, in less than six months, move up to more difficult stages. Me, I’m more focused on the social parts and I’m having a chill approach to it.”

The London Pole Varsity (happening on 29th February 2020) and the LSE Pole show (happening on 20th March 2020) are two of the main events LSE pole fitness gets involved in every year, regardless of skill level. LSE also competes against other universities such as Imperial College London, although Héloïse maintains that the spirit is always ‘still friendly’ and ‘positive’. Additionally, Héloïse highlighted the empowerment within the sport so I was keen to know her opinion on the ‘This Girl Can’ campaign organised by the AU. She did not disappoint. Seemingly apathetic to the upcoming campaign, Héloïse eloquently explained how she felt that the campaign was somewhat centred on a traditionally male-oriented idea of empowerment. She questioned ‘whether traditional male fields like business and sports’ are the only ways that ‘women can be empowered’. “I don’t think they are inherently feminine or masculine concepts. So, I don’t believe in only one way of giving power back to women but if it fits you, that’s okay too.” Stressing that pole fitness wasn’t just about sports or empowerment but ‘a way to bond with people in a team’ regardless of gender or various differences, Héloïse drew me into a conversation on mental health because she felt that there wasn’t enough discussion at LSE about issues that were indiscriminate to gender. “Mental health is quite a hot topic at the moment but it’s still not taken too seriously. I feel like a lot of people can struggle with isolation and mental health issues and a lot of stress and workload. For me personally, it’s helped a lot to meet my teammates and it has built a strong support system without a doubt. So, if you’re interested in that, pole can definitely be a great way to just start doing so and feel more comfortable in your experience at LSE.” Adding on to this, it was also made abundantly clear that LSE’s Pole Fitness club is an openminded and accepting one. One does not have to be experienced, have a dance background (Héloïse doesn’t) or sporty background, have a certain body type or be of a certain demographic to join. Héloïse praised her teammates for being extremely dedicated and hardworking whilst noting the lack of a ‘clique’ mentality in pole. She

even strongly emphasised that anyone could join the society throughout the year, not just at the start. “It’s pretty open. You can talk to anyone. We’re always keen on meeting new people. You can always just come to the social part if the sports part is not your thing, most of them do that.”

“Empowerment, unfortunately, has been capitalised... it has been made to sell stuff more than anything

“

it matters anyway) and she wanted to clear up the heteronormative prejudice and stigma of pole fitness and encourage more men (regardless of sexual orientation) to join LSE’s Pole Fitness society. “You can build a lot of strong friendships, strong bonds with the people in your (pole fitness) team just as any in other teams.” This social aspect of pole fitness is precisely what enticed Héloïse to stay on for another year in pole and become their Events Officer. She proudly organises many of their social events, including their trip to Budapest. “I feel like at LSE, sometimes, it can be hard to find your crowd, find your people. Maybe you can feel socially awkward or not know how to talk to people.” “I really wanted everyone to have a great experience.”

Having spoken to Héloïse for awhile and not wanting to take up any more of her birthday (which I didn’t realise when I scheduled the interview until I saw it on Facebook the morning of the interview), I thanked her for enlightening me on the fact that aside from its stereotypes, pole was also more than just empowerment. To which, she replied with a fitting conclusion to end the interview. “I would say that empowerment, unfortunately, has been capitalised. It’s been made to sell stuff more than anything. It’s a word you can use to describe pole but I would also say that pole is a pretty universal thing. It doesn’t correspond to a specific gender, specific body type. I think it’s really your own interpretation of it. That’s what makes it great. You don’t have to be a certain number to do pole, have a certain body type, be in a certain physical condition. It’s really something that is adaptable which I think is extremely important.” After reading this, I hope that any misconceptions or prejudices you may have had towards pole fitness have been replaced by a desire to be a part of this society, or at the very least appreciate its nuances a little more. After dropping in on a session to watch and speak with the people involved, I have nothing but admiration and respect for anyone participating in such a physically demanding sport. Also, as requested, don’t forget to go watch LSE’s Pole show coming up on 20th March 2020! If anyone would like to get involved in LSE’s Pole Fitness, they run classes on Wednesdays (Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced) and a chill beginner’s class on Friday.