The Beaver Making Sense of LSE Since 1949
Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union
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beaveronline.co.uk
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Tuesday 26 November 2019
STUDENTS CALL FOR IMPROVED SEXUAL VIOLENCE Inside Today SUPPORT, DECLARE CLIMATE EMERGENCY Features In two UGM motions filed last week, the LSESU voted to declare a climate emergency and approved a motion asking LSE to improve sexual violence support provisions
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his week, the LSE Student body brought forward and passed two motions in a Union General Meeting. Students approved a motion calling for LSE to improve its sexual harassment and abuse support provision and also declared a climate and ecological emergency, adding requests to the LSE and SU for action on the subject. Here’s a breakdown of the two motions: Improved Sexual Harassment and Abuse Support The passed motion - with 521 votes in favour, 9 against, and 5 abstentions - was proposed by Laura Goddard and seconded by Ella Holmes, with support from the campaign Hands Off LSE. Seeking to remedy what they see as “inadequate, under-resourced support for victims of sexual assault at the university”, the motion calls for the
following four solutions: 1. A support model based on proactivity and care, including “Prioritised student counselling referrals; A permanent, salaried sexual assault counsellor in the EDI; A survivors UK monthly counsellor specifically for male victims”. 2. Improvement of LSE’s online interface by improving “signposting to ensure students get the support they need more quickly; Ability to book appointments without emailing; Make it clearer for students to understand the options available to them when disclosing information regarding sexual assault”. 3. Urgent review of the extenuating circumstances procedure for those affected by sexual assault during the assessment period so that the submission of evidence is dealt with in a caring, supported manner. 4. Safe contacts in every department, including training of more male safe contacts.
Climate Emergency The passed motion - with 462 votes for, 28 against, and 28 abstentions - proposed by Isabella Pojuner and seconded by Angus Paget with the support of LSE’s Climate Collective, asks LSESU to declare a climate and ecological emergency and lobby the university to take the following actions: 1. Divestment from “all direct and indirect holdings and investments in fossil fuel companies as well as to divest from all forms of armaments” 2. Meeting net zero carbon emissions as an institution by 2030 3. Prioritising “student input into policy making regarding climate justice, as well as prioritising climate justice in curricula and pedagogy across courses and research” . 4. It further asks the Union to “disaffiliate from any current and future affiliations with fossil fuel or
armaments companies” and “support the Youth Climate Strikes and climate justice collectives in London”. In a statement on Facebook and Twitter, LSE CEC wrote “This is a historic day, not only for the campaign for which this represents a key first step, but for the LSE’s Students’ Union. We now join Students’ Unions across the UK in declaring a climate emergency.” They added: “However, this is just the first step in our campaign. LSE must call for a climate emergency and institute our demands: most importantly, engaging in a truly democratic and representative discussion with its community that will address and act upon the climate crisis with the urgency it demands. We encourage all members of the LSE community to participate in our next town hall: a conversation that looks to the future of what LSE can be.”
A Recent History of PRIDE at LSE 30 Years of Uneasy Pride Week Alliances
11 Comment Hong Kong Debate “Selective Blindness with Hong Kongese Characteristics” & ‘Hong Kong isn’t Charlottesville’
News
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XR Co-Founder Roger Hallam Withdrawn from Fabian Series Event
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Below: Students at LSE are gearing up to participate in the next Global Climate Strike, on Friday 29th November (News, Page 4). Photo by: Isabella Pojuner
DON’T FORGET TO FLIP OVER FOR
FLIPSIDE
SPORT:
Rugby – a safe space to be queer?
SOCIAL: We went to Zoo
The Beaver
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Established 1949 | Issue 907 | Newspaper of the LSE Students’ Union
Meet the team Executive Editor Morgan Fairless editor@beaveronline.co.uk Managing Editor Isabella Pojuner managing@beaveronline.co.uk Flipside Editor Christina Ivey flipside@beaveronline.co.uk Design Editor Colette Fogarty Editorial Assistants Ross Lloyd Jamie Boucher Illustrators Rebekah Paredes-Larson Raphaelle Carmarcat Emma Duper Amelia Jabry Sebastian Mullen News Editors Laura Zampini Jeffrey Wang Elena Christaki-Hedrick news@beaveronline.co.uk Comment Editors Lucy Knight Samuel M. Caveen Michael Shapland comment@beaveronline.co.uk Features Editors Emmanuel Molding Nielsen 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
Tuesday 26 November 2019 | The Beaver www.beaveronline.co.uk
The B in The Beaver stands for Bisexual Christina Ivey Flipside Editor
flipside@beaveronline.co.uk
“
Everyone is bisexual if they’re drunk enough” is probably the out of context quote that will get me cancelled in the future – that, or my future socialist dictatorship. I said it roughly four drinks into The Beaver’s Christmas party last year after witnessing two men, names withheld, get touchy. That being said, The Beaver is a wonderful place to be bisexual. The editorial board, hell even our executive team, is chock full of ‘em. I can’t be bothered to count but I would surmise that we’re at least one third of pure queer horsepower on this paper. But what do I mean by a wonderful place to be bisexual? Are we all sleeping together? Well, no. I mean that it’s a workspace where I haven’t had to deal with bullshit biphobic sentiments so much as other spaces. Biphobia comes in many forms, and it is distinct from homophobia. One common instance of biphobia is the insistence that bi-
sexuality is inherently trans-exclusive because you’re only men and women and this erases non-binary or third gender people. Bi means two after all. Except, this is an outsider’s view of bisexuality as very few, if any, bisexual people actually identify that way. Now I can only speak for myself here but my bisexuality means attraction to my own gender and others. Another biphobic sentiment is the idea that we suddenly stop becoming bisexual when we’re in a committed relationship. I wasn’t a lesbian when I was dating a woman and if I ever have a boyfriend, it won’t make me straight. Bisexual people are bisexual regardless of who they’re in love with at the moment. I don’t suddenly stop being attracted to men when I’m with women and vice versa. I imagine people that launch this criticism would like bisexuals to present them with an weekly schedule of which gender they’re fucking on which day. It’s a pedestrian understanding of human sexuality, and I’m going to assume the next person who repeats it has no understanding of object permanence since they can’t grasp that my bisexuality endures irrespective of who I’m seeing at the moment. To some people, biphobia might not seem
like a big deal. But when the Home Office fails to understand bisexuality, it means that bisexual asylum seekers get sent back to certain death. In 2017, four out of five LGBT+ asylum applications were rejected; there are no exact numbers for how many bisexuals this includes because the Home Office has refused Freedom of Information requests. I find myself wondering/worrying if I’ll get lucky if I claim asylum. Bisexual people deserve respect – no stereotypes and no judgement – whether we sleep with 50 people of the same gender or whether we’ve just had one gay crush. We are valid. We are proud.
Where’s democracy? Turns out, at the recent UGM Isabella Pojuner
Managing Editor managing@beaveronline.co.uk
I
’m truly sorry to forgo the opportunity to talk about my sexuality, but aside from my sexual endeavours, something pretty historic happened last Thursday. Two high-profile motions, facilitated by effective social media campaigns, were presented at the most recent UGM, and both succeeded. Politics at LSE is booming, as always, but both the Hands Off LSE and Climate Emergency Collective campaigns chose to use SU democracy as a mechanism to achieve their political strategies. Wholeheartedly declaring an interest here: I’m a member of LSECEC and proposed our motion to declare a climate emergency and lobby the LSE to do so too. But the facts can’t lie: the Students’ Union has an infamously and painstakingly long history of poor democracy. One Sabb told me on Thursday evening that in their years at LSE they’d never seen such high energy and engagement. You don’t need to be an expert on SU politics to know turnout at UGMs, its key democratic function and
necessary for democratic reviews, has been historically low. In 2018, the bylaw for weekly UGMs was suspended and replaced with monthly UGMs. On occasion, attendees have expressed discontent at the lack of awareness of what UGMs are, who represents them, and what happens after a motion is passed. For instance, as a passed motion becomes SU policy for three years, what happens if the campaign managers have left LSE? How can students entrust sabbatical officers to continue their work effectively? Every once in a while, a motion comes along that invites exceptionally high turnout at its UGM, with votes going well beyond quorum: so motions will range from receiving votes of 2 to approximately 500 votes. It was particularly exceptional to see two motions held on one night, with a turnout of about one hundred, and votes surpassing 400 (quorum requires 250 votes in a 22-hour period). Both campaigns are informing and enabling new political cultures, shining light on LSE’s lack of transparency regarding emissions and investment, LSE’s insufficient sexual support structure, with predominantly student-driven solutions. So perhaps the key is supporting studentled campaigns and enabling an atmosphere of
action: a grassroots approach. Without student motivation, of course turnout at UGMs is going to be low. LSESU previously resorted to desperate slogans like “We’re rewriting the rulebook to bring LSESU into 2019 but we can’t do it without you.” But then again, it does seem the generally young demographic of its staff helps their understanding of select student perspectives. Back in July 2018, the SU stated that LSE attempts to increase student satisfaction with free coffee or student trips would fail; that “LSE cannot rely on its reputation forever; it must innovate to survive.” Will LSESU always depend on particular campaigns to increase overall turnout at UGMs? If LSE does innovate, perhaps as a result of the Climate Emergency Collective’s campaign or Hands Off LSE, it may create a positive feedback loop that invites further campaigns. That’s the only viable theory I see at present, as the SU - as long as it lacks turnout at its democratic review UGMs - will fail to innovate itself. So I’m proud of us: we saw an opportunity to use UGMs to our advantage; but only time will tell if we’ve started a domino effect. I hope last Thursday wasn’t the first and last UGM I ever attend - it was pretty lively.
Collective Chair Andreas Redd collective@beaveronline.co.uk Collective members have contributed content three or more times for The Beaver. Room 2.02 Saw Swee Hock Student Centre LSE Students’ Union London WC2A 2AE 020 7955 6705
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.
Angus Paget and Bella presenting the motion at the UGM
News
News Editors Laura Zampini Elena Christaki-Hedrick Jeffrey Wang
Email us: news@beaveronline.co.uk
LSE Alumnus Play in VAULT Festival 2020 Esohe Uwadiae's 'She Is A Place Called Home' to debut in March 2020
Laura Zampini News Editor
L
SE alumnus Esohe Uwadiae announced on Tuesday November 19th that her play 'She Is A Place Called Home' will be featured in one of the largest curated arts festivals in the world. Uwadiae studied law as an undergraduate at LSE from 2013 to 2017. The play follows two sisters in the run-up to their father's wedding as they navigate the fall out of his decision to take another wife and what this means for their family, faith, and future. The play follows Uwadiae's acceptance onto the VAULT New Writer’s Programme 2019, where she
received mentoring from January to March 2019 to write a full-length play. When applying to the program, Uwadiae submitted a monologue called ‘The Performance of a Lifetime’ which she wrote in her third year at LSE for Adam Crowther’s Non-binary Gender Extravaganza Bonanza, a project funded by LSE Annual Fund. "It was after writing that monologue that I realised my interest in playwriting, prior to that I’d written mostly poetry and prose – which has been featured in Lacuna Lit," she told The Beaver. Uwadiae's favourite modules during her law degree were Family Law and Legal Pluralism. She told The Beaver that she wanted to bring the themes from these modules into the play and explore how culture and religion affect people's interactions with the law, and to highlight the
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failure of the law in properly accounting for people’s lived experiences. "I was also really influenced by LSE’s Faith Centre who advocate for a more holistic understanding of how people of faith are affected by their faith and how this shapes their decisions," she added. Uwadiae went on to explain that her objective was to write a story that reflected the experiences of black women and talked about Nigerian culture, especially from southern Nigeria, a majority Christian country where polygamy still takes place. She was interested in exploring, "What it means to exist in spaces where your culture and faith are in contradiction, and how you make peace with that." The play had been previously showcased at VAULT Festival 2019, in a sold out show. Queen Mary’s Theatre Company then put on a
The News Team condensed version of the play in their May Spring Fling. Working with Uwadiae are director Layla Madanat, who recently finished her MSc at LSE and directed Sweeney Todd for LSE SU Drama Society and producer Tia Alice Ray, a University of Birmingham graduate. Uwadiae is currently working on her next play about marriage, religious conversion and the challenge of navigating Blackness in Britain. She has been writing it at the Royal Court Theatre in exclusive writing groups led by Stef Smith (Olivier Winner, Roadkill, A Doll’s House). 'She Is A Place Called Home' will be running from 3 to 8 March 2020. You can follow it on Twitter: @sheisaplaceand Instagram: @sheisaplaceplay.
Thomas Chau Deputy Editor
Raphaelle Camarcat Staff Writer
Meher Pandey Staff Writer
Florit Shoihet Staff Writer
Benjamin Crozier Staff Writer
Photo courtesy of Esohe Uwadiae
Nora Lorenz Staff Writer
Angbeen Abbas Staff Writer
Kevin Morris Staff Writer
Grace Chapman Staff Writer
Zoe O'Logbon Staff Writer
Panelists Speak on Urdu Poet Parveen Shakir New LSESU Modern Languages Society talk poetry as part of new events
Thomas Chau Deputy Editor
O
n 21 November, LSESU Modern Languages Society hosted a panel event on the work of Urdu poet Parveen Shakir. Her poetry, which centred around the themes of love, social stigma and feminism, as well as the English translations of her literature, were the main focus of the panel discussion. Panelists present at the event included Naima Rashid, the author of “Defiance of the Rose”, a book containing English translations of Parveen Shakir’s poetry, and Dr. Amina Yaqin, senior lecturer in Urdu and Postcolonial Studies at SOAS. The panel was chaired by Adnan Khan, Public Policy Professor at LSE and visiting lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School. Parveen Shakir was an Urdu Poet, teacher and civil servant in Pakistan. Her major works, which include Khushbu [Fragrance] in 1976 and Sad-barg [Marsh Marigold] in
1980 are well-known and respected throughout South Asia. These works have earned her several honours such as the Adamjee Literary Award in 1976, and later Pride of Performance, one of Pakistan's highest honours, in 1990. Author and translator of Shakir’s poetry, Naima Rashid opened the panel by pointing to how mainstream scholars put disproportionate emphasis on a narrow section of Shakir’s work, thereby immortalizing the poet as one that solely focuses on the subject of love in her poetry. Dissatisfied with the neglect of the breadth and the more serious undertones of Shakir’s literature, Naima argued that her mission is to change this general perception of Shakir. In translating her work into English and allowing it to reach newer, younger audiences, Naima stressed that her task is essential because many young Pakistanis no longer speak Urdu. Naima believes that her project helps to “open up a whole new world in interpretation” of Shakir’s work. She pointed to a story about a young member of her audience, who thought that some of Shakir’s
shorter poems seemed to her to be “Instagram poems.” When responding to the audience on the challenges of translating Parveen Shakir’s poems, Naima highlighted how the poet often included some English words in Urdu literature, giving her work a special flavour. Naima said that it is inevitable that such “additional dimension in the work would be lost.” Nevertheless, Naima stated that she is always eager to understand which poems can strike a chord in people’s hearts, and the reasons for such reactions. The panel event was organised by LSESU Modern Languages Society, a new society in LSE founded in early Lent Term last year. Matthew Unsworth, LSESU Modern Languages Society secretary said, “Broadly, the Modern Languages Society is a language-learning community which aims to help LSE students keep up with any languages they learned prior to coming here.” Unsworth acknowledges the difficulty students face in keeping up with one’s native language when it is no longer part of their day-to-day interactions. In response to this, the
Society's mission is to “try to provide a fun and informal forum to practise speaking [...], writing [...] and listening [...]” through a wide range of activities such as French Cinema Nights and talks on languages used in the legal sector. When asked about the inspiration behind creating the society, Unsworth shared his story of participating in an off-campus ‘language exchange’ organized by MeetUp, where participants talked to each other in French and English, swapping languages every 30 minutes. “The atmosphere was very chilled and it was nice to meet some new people. We wanted to bring this to LSE: set up a space with different language tables people could switch between, play some music in the background and of course, provide some coffee and snacks,” Unsworth added. Looking to the future, Unsworth indicated the society’s interest in organising an Italian cooking social, as well as career-related talks related to professions such as journalism and law, “helping our members think about how they can use their language skills in a future career.”
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4 News LSESU Debate Soc Withdraw Invitation for Co-Founder of XR Hallam under fire after controversial comments on the Holocaust last week
Isabella Pojuner Managing Editor
T
he LSESU Debate Society have withdrawn their invitation to a Fabian Series debate from Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion, ex-KCL PhD student and co-founder of the environmental organisation Extinction Rebellion. Last Wednesday Hallam was quoted in an interview in Der Spiegel calling the Holocaust “almost a normal event...just another fuckery in human history”. Hallam was set to speak in the Centre Building on 5 December. He has been replaced with Dr Emily Grossman, Jewish science communicator, and XR representative. The motion to be debated at the event is titled: “This House Believes Extinction Rebellion has done more harm than good in the fight against climate change.” Also attending is Green Party MEP Dr Ellie Chowns. Extinction Rebellion UK is reported to have distanced itself from Hallam as a result. They have stated: “We stand in solidarity with XR Germany, with Jewish communities, and with all those affected by the Holocaust, both in the past and in our times.” What this means for the ‘leadership’ and public face of Ex-
tinction Rebellion is uncertain. In a Facebook post the day after publication, Hallam stated he was “sorry for the crass words that I used. I do not feel the need to apologise for drawing attention to the genocide that is happening now. "We must learn from the past, from tragedies like the Holocaust and other genocides, to prevent the horror of the near future. Despite my poorly phrased statement, I still strongly demand action on the preventable genocide that so many are ignoring across the world.” Freedom News published - on Sunday 24th - an article including a leaked email memo allegedly written by Hallam. The memo states: “we use the moral outrage of the opposition and turn it around to expose their own radical immorality”. The memo continues: “I am interested in saying ‘outrageous’ things at the LSE debate on 5th Dec (I think) to create another media event which we can turn around to our advantage in a similar way. I think designing this sort of ‘trap’ for the media has strong similarities to on the street direct action dynamics and we should be pro actively designing them as part of M and M Strategy to maximise the power of our messaging.” The Beaver spoke to Matthew Bradbury and Hamza Tariq Chaudhry, organisers of this year’s Fabian Series and members of LSESU Debate Society: "The LSE Debate Society has worked to organise public debates central to the
Tuesday 26 November 2019 | The Beaver
public interest...Appropriately, we decided to host a debate on Extinction Rebellion, working to secure XR’s most recognisable face, Mr Roger Hallam. "However, Mr Hallam’s comments earlier this week about the Holocaust were trivialising and utterly inappropriate...While the Debate Society values free speech and considers the issue of climate change to be of grave concern to the public, it would be inappropriate to knowingly give a platform to an individual who has the intent to make similar inflammatory and insensitive comments which would only serve to inflict further hurt on our student community. We are thus withdrawing our invitation for Mr Hallam to speak at our event.” According to London Student, Hallam dropped out of an undergraduate degree at LSE “to be an activist and go to prison.” He described his PhD research at King’s College as a study “in how to cause trouble effectively” - alternatives in how to promote radical activism. Hallam was also arrested in 2017 for criminal damage to LSE property as part of the Justice for Cleaners campaign, stating that “If [LSE] wishes to avoid damage to its international reputation, which will inevitably result from of our campaign of civil disobedience, it needs to follow the advice of its academics: cut Director pay and provide decent working conditions for all its workers.”
Hallam protesting outside KCL in 2017
Pride Week Kicks Off at LSE Nora Lorenz Staff Writer
L
SE’s annual pride week will take place this week, from Monday 25 - Friday 29 November 2019. Pride week celebrates the LGBT+ community at the university and aims to increase their visibility on campus. Organised by the LSESU Pride Alliance, it brings together the gender and sexually diverse community in a
way that fosters their role on campus, and protects the rights of gender and sexually diverse people. This year’s pride week features numerous discussions and events. Moreover, there will be stalls around campus for everyone at LSE to participate in, celebrating and empowering the LGBT+ community. Kicking off with a queer questioning event, the Pride Alliance motivates everyone to come around for a nonjudgmental group workshop about gender and sexually diverse identities. A very special focus of this year’s pride is a political pride stand which encourages all to register to vote on Tuesday.
Pride Alliance Comunity and Welfare Officer Christina Ivey told the Beaver,
“ I am looking forward to
the screening of "Pride" in partnership with LSESU Labour Society
“
LSESU Pride Alliance organises events for annual pride week
The film will be be shown on Wednesday 27 November. Lastly, the week ends with a pride fiesta party and a pride promo space in LSESU Saw Swee Hock student centre. The Pride Alliance encourages every student to join and participate in the activities. Further information can be found on the Pride Alliance’s Facebook page.
Illustration by Gabriela Krol
LSE Makes Plans to Join the November Climate Strike Student climate activists to protest for climate action
Angbeen Abbas Staff Writer
S
tudents from LSE will be joining the next Global Strike for Climate on 29 November, alongside other striking university students in London. Assembling at 11 am this Friday, strikers are set to march towards Parliament Square to join Student Climate Action. The network of student climate activists in London has been working to organise students across a number of universities based in London including UCL, King’s, and SOAS. Groups on campus involved with organising students at LSE include the school's Climate Emergency Collective (LSE CEC), LSESU EcoSoc, and LSESU Amnesty International. The strike follows the success of LSE CEC’s UGM motion calling for LSESU to declare a climate emergency and lobby LSE to take action. The motion, which passed by 462 votes, calls for divestment, institutional net-zero carbon emissions by 2030, transparency, and a greater focus on climate justice within the curriculum. LSE CEC told The Beaver: “The Collective is proud to be co-organ-
ising its first climate strike, and just a week after our first institutional victory. Our campaign works with other societies and uses a breadth of methods to raise awareness and apply pressure to the Directorate. Over the past year, we’ve seen an unprecedented surge in climate activism at LSE, and, combined with our institutional means, we are shaping the future of LSE every day. We will succeed in our mission to make LSE a climate-justice-driven, transparent, and appropriately educational university.” “In striking this Friday, we stand in solidarity with all students and workers striking in the UK and worldwide: whether for workers’ rights and a just transition, or climate and migrant justice, especially those battles on indigenous lands.” The Global Climate Strike on November 29, following the September climate strikes, will be the last strike before the UN climate talks to be held from 2 to 13 December, as well as the 12 December UK general election. The strikes on 20 and 27 September saw roughly 300,000 people across the country in attendance, with an estimated 7 million striking for climate justice around the world.
LSE Announces MSc International and Asian History New Masters program to be launched next year
Raphaelle Camarcat Staff Writer
F
ollowing the creation of new undergraduate and masters programs last year, the International History department announced a new MSc on 20 November, focusing on International and Asian History. Applications for 2020/2021 are now open. In order to recognise its expertise in the field of social sciences, LSE has been continuously diversifying courses. The new masters program will offer the possibility for students to specialise in any aspect of the region while producing a dissertation with an Asian focus from the 16th century onwards. The program description reads that the new MSc will be valuable "for our understanding of individual countries in Asia, as well as
for global flows and interactions." Students choosing to study International and Asian history will be able to choose from a large variety of specialist courses from the International History Department as well as the Departments of Economic History, Geography, International Development, Government, and Anthropology. LSE has also been expanding the breadth of its undergraduate courses in the social sciences. Just this year, a joint BSc in International Relations and Mandarin was inaugurated. Students now have the possibility to combine linguistic proficiency in Mandarin to the discipline of International Relations, while analysing the country's political role and learning its language. Students will also have the opportunity to hone their linguistic skills by participating in an exchange program, studying abroad at Fudan University in Shanghai. A BSc in Language, Culture and Society has also recently seen the day and is now available to students at LSE.
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LSE Students’ Alliance for Hong Kong Takes Action on Multiple Fronts Students and staff send an open letter to LSE Director Dame Minouche Shafik
Kevin Morris Staff Writer
A
s the protests in Hong Kong reached a fever pitch, LSE’s related movement, The LSE Student’s Alliance for Hong Kong, stepped up its efforts to amplify the protesters’ message and respond to opposition on campus. The LSE Students Alliance for Hong Kong, an official LSESU-affiliated campaign, is engaged in multiple forms of action to raise awareness in the LSE community about the protests in Hong Kong. Earlier last week, on 18 November, the Alliance led a body of students, faculty, and alumni in penning an open letter to LSE Director Dame Minouche Shafik. The letter details intense concerns that foreign funding is wielding a deleterious effect
on the university’s principles of academic freedom and human rights. The Alliance and its associates outline fears that overseas autocratic regimes are funding programs and student groups, corroding LSE’s commitment to free speech. The Alliance asks Shafik to reconsider choices made by the university, which the authors believe pose a fundamental threat to the integrity of the university’s human rights principles. They reference the controversy over the recently suspended China programme due to the actions of its main donor Eric Li, which was first reported by the Financial Times on 27 October. Li has previously defended the Chinese government’s response to the Tiananmen Square Protests and allegedly maintains turbid ties to the Zhongnanhai. The letter also notes the ongoing debate over the potential propagandist function of LSE’s Confucius Institute for Business London (which is
part of the larger Confucius Institute network) given the institute’s sponsorship from the Ministry of Education of the People’s Republic of China. Additionally, the letter expresses grave concern over the experiences of students participating in the oncampus solidarity rallies in support of the pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong. The letter holds that some participants experienced intimidation and harassment during the rallies from other students who did not hold the same political views. The Alliance accuses the Chinese Students and Scholars Association (CSSA) of interfering in the rallies and notes that this same suspicion is held by the Royal United Services Institute, an independent British think tank on international defence and security. The letter argues that the CSSA and related organizations on campus will fundamentally compromise the ability of LSE students
to express their political opinions on campus and abroad. The CSSA is the Chinese governments’ official organization for Chinese citizens studying outside the People’s Republic of China, which chapters at several foreign universities around the world. The chapters are managed by the Chinese Communist Party’s United Front Work Department, with Chinese embassies and consulates overseeing local CSSA chapters. At LSE, however, the CSSA is not an official student group and is unaffiliated with the LSE Students’ Union. The letter concludes with an appeal to Shafik for action. Detailing five suggested steps to curtail undue influence from authoritarian foreign governments, it calls for a review of diligence processes for financial donations, consistent consultation with academic experts in decisionmaking processes to ensure the protection of academic freedom, revision of the Ethics Code, and an
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audit of existing student societies for “potential links to autocratic surveillance functions.” The letters’ cosigners currently number over 130, a list that continues to grow as the Alliance awaits a response from the university. Later in the week, on 21 and 22 November, the Alliance unveiled an art exhibition in the Saw Swee Hock Centre, which illustrated the daily, lived experiences of the protesters in Hong Kong. The exhibition, modelled as a timeline of the protests, was intended to address insufficient media coverage of the protestors themselves, which Alliance members say is unfortunately typical of Western news narratives of the prodemocracy activists in Hong Kong. Jessica Chan, a student from Hong Kong and one of the organizers of the art exhibition, said that the exhibition was attempting to address the complexity of the local experience, as the ethnic diversity of Hong Kong’s population can make defining who is “local” a challenge. Another student organizer, also from Hong Kong who asked to remain anonymous due to security concerns, added that the exhibition sought to enhance the protest narrative by providing a look into the individual experiences. As international headlines and news outlets often focus only on the big picture, reporting mostly on numbers, statistics, and broad policy changes. She said this exhibition was a way to understand the protesters holistically as individuals, highlighting their personal stories. These protesters are often confronted with significant decisions, this student organizer said, with potentially enormous consequences. “They worry about their families,” she said, “and they have to choose whether they should go back or if they should stay [at the protest], run this way or that way.”
LSESU Political Societies Debate on General Election Political societies go head to head on parties' manifestos
Florit Shoihet News Editor
W
eeks before the UK general election, about 40 LSE students gathered on 20 November to watch a head to head debate between the presidents of three main LSESU political societies - Melissa Pittman (Labour Party), Aadil Khan (Liberal-Democrats), and Hamish Mundell (Conservative Party). Professor Tony Travers, Director of LSE London and visiting Professor in the Government Department, hosted the debate. The purpose of the debate was to introduce each party’s manifesto to students, allow the audience to challenge the speakers on their party’s policies as well as encourage students to register to vote. The speakers discussed hot topics such as Brexit, social-economic policies, the environmental crisis, the NHS, international relations, antiSemitism, Islamophobia, and racism in the parties. Despite the great divergence in views and some contentious moments, the debate ended peacefully.
As expected, Brexit was one of the core questions in the debate. “I want to stop Brexit; this is the biggest issue of our time. Labour, unfortunately, is sitting on the fence and on the other hand, the Conservatives, the party of the hard Brexit. Make no mistake – Boris’s deal means higher tax and harder borders. We are the option of the bright future,” said LSESU Liberal-Democrat President Aadil Khan. Hamish Mundell, LSESU Conservative Party President, emphasised the need to use Brexit for better trade deals and the positive yields for the country's prosperity. He said, “Years and time were wasted on Brexit, while it should have been done years ago. The voters have their voice: they want Jeremy Corbyn governance, or they want Boris Johnson in the country board. Voting for Lib-Dem is a fruitless vote – they don’t want a second referendum, they want rotation. And if you vote Labour, you are voting for Corbyn’s centred coalition, that will lead to two more referendums in the next year: one on Europe, and the second on the Scottish independence.” On the other hand, Melissa Pittman, Labour Party President, at-
tacked the Conservative position and diverted the discussion towards welfare and economic policy. She said, “You have many people suffering for so many years, ten years of austerity. That is why people don’t trust the government, and in my opinion, that is why Brexit happened in the first place.” The leaders also showed a decisive anti-racist approach, an issue that has affected all three parties in recent years. Commenting on the allegations of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party, Pittman said, "I think it is horrible and we haven’t done enough to protect the Jewish community in the party," but "We now have a zero-tolerance policy, we will make sure that any member in the party that is racist in any form, anti-Semitic or otherwise, will be removed from the party instantly. Jeremy Corbyn, who I know, is thoroughly not racist in any way. In response to this question, I think that the Tories have a lot to answer, about Islamophobia in the party specifically, Boris Johnson himself compared Muslim women to ‘letterboxes' and I haven't heard an apology." Khan responded sharply, “Lib-
Dem had problems and small incidents of anti-Semitism, but what we did is to expel them. We didn’t have years and years of people saying that we are a racist party, because we found the racists and we kicked them out. So, for the question why it is taking so long to deal with this problem, I think that the answer is in two words: Jeremy Corbyn.” “[Within the Tories] there is in-
stitutional racism going on. Nearly half of your members wouldn’t want to live next door to someone like me,” Khan added. The issues that seemed to have support from all three parties were the NHS and the climate emergency, although each proposed different programs to address these two issues.
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7
Comment
Comment Editors Samuel Caveen Lucy Knight Michael Shapland
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Selective Blindness with Hong Kongese Characteristics
Comment Writers
Deng Jingyuan
Comment Contributor
Christiana Ajai-Thomas Deputy Editor
A
“However,
this can hardly account for the primal violance now reigning in Hong Kong. There is another political movement in the West which parallels the protests in Hong Kong: populism.
“
vids standing against the Goliath that is the Chinese state apparatus, of democracy-loving protestors standing against the brain-washed mainlanders with no judgement of their own, of a united Hong Kongese front standing against a mindless, faceless Enemy across the Pearl River bent on crushing all opposition. To the editorial board’s credit, the said news coverage is followed by an anti-rioter piece in Comments. Yet, unlike all the other articles, it is granted the unique, singular distinction of having a few lines of italics attached, reading ‘at the Beaver, we are dedicated to publishing comment pieces from all perspectives. If you would like to respond to this article, register online to contribute at beaveronline.co.uk or email editor@beaveronline.co.uk’. The perlocutionary act of a call to arms against anyone
Oliver Harrison Staff Writer
Sagal Mohamed Staff Writer
Jesser Horowitz Staff Writer
Jacob van de Beeten Staff Writer
opposing the rioters is self-evident. In all fairness, The Beaver is not alone to suffer from this affliction. Until a few days prior to the time of writing, the Financial Times had been entirely silent on the violence of the rioters. The Wall Street Journal gave in only after months of hiding the barbarism of the rioters from its readership. Even now, reports of rioter violence are disproportionately contextualised in terms of police brutality. On the 17th of November, the Financial Times published a piece titled ‘Hong Kong police officer shot with arrow in new clashes’, yet only devoted a single paragraph to cover the titular incident, before using the rest of the piece to regurgitate previous instances of police brutality. Even more tellingly, a few hours after the publication of the piece, it was updated as ‘Hong Kong hit by new clashes as violence escalates’, listing the said incident along with a bloodless police raid on campus. This is just one instance of burying inconvenient facts with favourable ones. In the meantime, an opposing echo chamber formed in mainland China. WeChat is overflowing with videos of rioter violence, while instances of police brutality went unnoticed. A few months ago, when the riots were still protests, the Party-controlled media had already caricatured the protesters as agents of hostile powers. Early in the summer, I had the privilege to dine with some of the finest lawyers based in Shanghai, and overheard a lawyer bantering with a pro-reform official, asking him how many of the protestors were on his payroll. If propaganda seeps into the minds of the elite, China cannot claim to be a country run by informed technocrats. It is hardly surprising with which echo chamber the LSE Student Union, or indeed the Western liberals at large, chose to side. The very idea that individuals from the Chinese world, the new civilisational adversary, are now craving for the liberal system of society instead, panders to their universalist fetishes. Fanatically convinced of the universalism and moral absoluteness of their ideology, the Western
liberals support the advancement of their own view of society at all costs. It is through this blinding ideological zealotry that the world is seen. China, after more than a century of mostly self-inflicted defeat and poverty, is stripped of its selfconfidence as the Celestial Empire, and replacing that is the Nietzschean ressentiment disguised under nationalism. Deeply unwilling to admit the superiority of those it once deemed to be barbarians, China resorts to empty boasts and a blind rage against anyone who supposedly has wronged it. In this narrative, China was simply defeated by technological trinkets, and there is no need to consider the foreigners’ dangerous philosophies. The Hong Kongese protestors waving British and American flags proved to be an embarrassing counterpoint. The protestors in Hong Kong
This battle “combines the
cry only form of legitimacy internationally recognised tofay with one of the deepest human instincts: to unite against an opposing group, an Other.
“
s I write, another tumultuous week has passed in Hong Kong, whose reverberations have travelled across the Eurasian continent to the LSE. Yet unlike its geological counterpart, the shock waves of this seismic event have spread in a curiously selective manner. The brutality of the police and the ‘unprecedented oppression’ are meticulously reported, while the vandalism, violence, and homicidal acts of the rioters are dismissed as Communist propaganda. The rioters’ rhetoric of democracy is taken at face value, while contradictory evidence is ignored and the underlying causes are barely discussed. Issue 906 of The Beaver devoted half of its front page to report the demonstration organised by LSE Students Alliance for Hong Kong, not least anointing it as the ‘LSE’ Black Bloc Day. A one-sided coverage of the event ensues on the first page, quoting extensively from the aforementioned society while the only opposing view the issue noted was the position of the Chinese Students and Scholars Association. It is curious that while the Chinese government is decried as unrepresentative of the people, it was the government-sponsored CSSA that was chosen to represent the voice of the opposing side. Indeed, lopsided reporting has now become the norm in this series of events, a point to which I shall turn later, but more ominously it creates a false veneer of Hong Kongese Da-
are right to be concerned with an increasingly revanchist and paranoid China. Carried away by the momentum of its own propaganda, in the past few short years China has become ever less tolerant of any view, any evidence, that could contradict its narrative of national resurgence. Resultant of a deep insecurity about itself, China can pose an existential threat to the freedom of speech in Hong Kong. However, this can hardly account for the primal violence now reigning in Hong Kong. There is another political movement in the West which parallels the protests in Hong Kong: populism. This is a painstakingly obvious point but a point which, again curiously, the liberal commentators in the West have
somehow ignored. Like their counterparts in the West, the protestors in Hong Kong have many pent-up legitimate economic grievances. Now with a political outlet, they burst forth in full. Indeed in many ways the events transpiring in Hong Kong are an instantiation of the woes troubling almost all developed economies. Considered as the freest economy in the world by the Heritage Foundation, Hong Kong unsurprisingly is also one of the most unequal. The Gini index now stands at a whopping 0.54. Even more shockingly, one in five Hong Kongese live below the poverty line, which roughly is defined as living on less than $6,000 a year (the per capita GDP in Hong Kong is about $46,000). Property prices have been skyrocketing for decades, widening the wealth gap between the haves and have-nots. Excessive regulations, which to some extent are the result of the over-friendly relations between the Hong Kong government and the property tycoons, stymied the growth of real estate supply, while an influx of investments from the mainland drove up the demand. Even as the riots raged across the city, an average apartment would cost twenty years’ worth of income of an ordinary worker. Having been priced out of their own property market, young Hong Kongese face competition from mainland immigrants of all levels of training in the job market. Even without immigration, the structure of Hong Kongese economy, heavily reliant on a relatively small number of high-productivity functions, would nevertheless make its highly educated workforce face fierce competition. The Hong Kongese economy, especially its financial sector, has benefitted enormously from its ties with China. Yet the costs have been spread evenly; the benefits have not. Just like the gilets jaunes in France, the young Hong Kongese are well within their rights to feel outraged, and like the gilets the Hong Kongese feel powerless and disenfranchised. Now curiously, France is a full democracy. Electability does not equate with accountability, nor does it equate with sensible governance that benefits all.
Nonetheless, seizing on the fact that Hong Kong is not a full democracy, the protestors chose to unite under the banner of democracy against the mainland that supposedly imposed a non-democratic government – even though it is in fact an improvement upon the preceding British colonial government. This battle cry combines the only form of legitimacy internationally recognised today with one of the deepest human instincts: to unite against an opposing group, an Other. Just like Brexit. Indeed, the parallels between the events in Hong Kong and Brexit are exceedingly hard to miss. Both claim to represent democracy against the arbitrary rule of a far-away bureaucracy; increasingly, both claim to represent sovereignty; and beneath the rhetoric, both are strewn with xenophobia. With the rioters unwilling to return to dialogue and willing only to enforce their full demands, which include a clause prohibiting any criminal investigations of the rioters, even the ostensibly violent and homicidal ones, the rioters have broken one of the most basic tenants of democracy, compromise, and one of the most basic tenants of liberalism, the rule of law. One wonders the sort of ‘democracy’ the rioters claim to represent when one can be beaten up by the mob simply for speaking in Mandarin. It is worth noting that Mandarin is not only spoken in the mainland (and many mainlanders do not speak Mandarin) but also in Taiwan, Singapore, and many other parts of the world. Indeed, a personal Taiwanese friend studying in Hong Kong has now fled the city. Even more indicative of the rioters’ nativism, a Japanese man taking photos of the protestors was attacked simply because he could not speak Cantonese. Last month I was asked whether I believed the ‘pro-democracy’ movement would spread to the mainland. That is as likely as English nativism spreading to Poland. The events in Hong Kong are a case where Donald Trump’s ‘violence on both sides’ is in fact an apt description. The policy solution, both economic and political, will be hard to formulate and may take decades of experimentation to succeed. However, acknowledging wrongs on both sides and the complexity of the issue at hand will be the first steps.
8 Comment
Tuesday 26 November 2019 | The Beaver
How Brexit-biased is LSE In Reality?
In a response to a submission from our last edition, Harry Ward discusses literature put forward for ‘The London School of Brexit-Bashing’, which argued that LSE is biased against Brexit.
Guest Contributor
B
rexit, as the reader knows, has permeated all aspects of UK politics for the last threeand-a-bit years. So, it is not shocking that there has been published recently a lengthy comment that deals with the ongoing muddle of the UK’s withdrawal from the EU. What is shocking, however, is the quality of this comment. The article ‘boldly’ exposes how far the “loathing of the referendum has extended” – so far, in fact, that a university dedicated to the social sciences hosts a blog that deals with Brexit. Not only this, but the author seems astounded that there are anti-Brexit sentiments on such a blog. The issue of any views of authors on the blog not actually representing the views of the LSE (which the author, interestingly, acknowledges) aside, this article’s arguments are deeply flawed.
I’ll first look to the author’s view that, by hosting the posts of non-LSE academics that deal with Brexit, the LSE shows its true colours – that it has a ‘Brexit-bias’. The main thrust of this argument is that, by agreeing to host ‘anti-Brexit’ posts, the LSE is tacitly endorsing their positions. This seems like a promising avenue – the controversy over ‘no-platforming’ certain speakers revolved around a similar point, that giving a platform to speak in fact presents the views of the speaker as at least worthy of engagement. I might have more sympathy with the author’s point if the examples they highlight were actually as ‘anti-Brexit’ as they are claimed to be. Both articles, by Fetzer and Kunst, both conclude quite modestly that the results of their enquiries are not clear – that more research is needed before we can say anything more. What, then, is the use of these articles for the author? Anyone can see that they are far removed from any ‘proof’
@beaveronline
that the LSE is ‘anti-Brexit’. If this is supposed to be what we find on our “subterranean journey”, our courageous search for the truth, then I think we’d be sorely disappointed. So much for the non-LSE articles. The stronger ‘proof’ the author offers is an article by Prof.
article ‘boldly’ “The exposes how far the
“loathing of the referendum has extended” - so far, in fact, that a university dedicated to the social sciences hosts a blog that deals with Brexit.
“
Harry Ward
www.beaveronline.co.uk
Valentino Larcinese. The article explores the difficulties we find when we attempt to coalesce diverse political preferences into one ‘will of the people’ and the role that institutions have to play when implementing such preferences – but you wouldn’t know it from the author’s commentary. The author instead implies that the Larcinese article dismisses those who support Brexit as simpletons who didn’t know what they were voting for. They write that Larcinese engages in “dressed-up, intellectualised mud-slinging” by saying that, had remain won the referendum, there likely would have been more than one way to implement ‘remain’. They then compare this case to that if “a nuclear missile struck Britain to halt the referendum, we would have learned that there was an infinite amount of variation involved in the missile’s flight through the air”. I don’t think I need to demonstrate to the reader how ridiculous this point is. Lastly, Larcinese
clearly states that the referendum’s result is to be implemented: “there is no doubt that it’s outcome must be respected”. How could the author possibly arrive at the conclusion that this article opposes such a course of action? Perhaps they didn’t read the article very closely, or perhaps they are misrepresenting it on purpose. Whatever the reason, it isn’t a good look. The implicit (or perhaps all too explicit!) starting-point of this comment is that academia at the LSE is against Brexit, and thus against the wishes of the British people. I’ve shown that, from there, the author desperately grasps at whatever ‘evidence’ they can to confirm this initial bias. The great irony is, of course, that not even such ‘evidence’ supports their position. In sum, I think we can accurately describe this comment with the author’s own words: “uncorroborated accusation and grandstanding”.
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Homophobia: a Western Export
Illustration: Christina Ivey
Christina Ivey Flipside Editor
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around the quote from Paul the Apostle in 1 Corinthians 6:9-11 wherein he names people that will go to Hell, and a lot of them are of a sexual nature. The main confusion here comes from a homophobic mistranslation of the Greek word arsenokoitai, which is actually a neologism by Paul that biblical scholars are actual still arguing over. Therefore, we can’t say for certain that Paul is being homophobic, but at any rate, Paul is not God. What should inform the Christian approach to queer people is that Jesus himself said nothing about about gay people. Access to the Bible and knowledge to interpret it has historically been very closed off to the public. So when a homophobic interpretation of the verses came about with the King James Version of the Bible, there were few people, if any, with the knowledge to refute it. The damage spread as this became the version of the Bible taken to evangelise British colonies. Colonisers used indigenous and enslaved people’s deviances from heteronormativity as a blanket condemna-
tion of their societies and cultures. Then, upon violently obliterating any semblance of native community values, they imparted their homophobic rule of law on to these colonies. As a result, the Sexual Offences Act of many British excolonies contain nearly identical
used indig“Colonisers enous and enslaved people’s deviances from heteronormativity as a blanket condemnation of their societies and cultures.
“
omophobia is a Western export, a violent byproduct of expanding Christendom to the colonies. It all starts with a few misread biblical verses and ends with Uganda jailing women wearing mini-skirts — apparently only lesbians show their knees in public. Tracing the Western legacy of homophobia is important, because many governments in the Global South rely on the tired concept that queerness is a foreign import to continue to justify institutional homophobia. Once we recognise that it’s actually the other way around, we move one step forward in establishing the legal rights of queer people the world over. We also temper racist weaponisation of LGBTQ+ rights to further imperialism in the Global South. Leviticus 18:22, which states “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination,” is probably the most popular biblical defence of homophobia. Out of context this quote seems perfectly anti-gay, but the first clue towards its misuse is the section of Leviticus in which it’s found. The passage it is taken from is one about idolatry and more progressive biblical scholars have argued that it actually condemns God’s people from performing Canaanite fertility cult rituals. Another oftcited biblical passage concerned the story of Sodom and Gomorrah in Genesis where a crowd of men attempt to gang-rape an angel. It doesn’t take a genius to realise that maybe God was condemning the attempted gang-rape and all the other vile happenings in the two cities rather than the sexuality of the perpetrators. Lastly, evidence cited from the New Testament usually centres
laws against same-sex encounters. The effects of these laws and others like it have been documented in the blog Erasing 76 Crimes. As the map shows, the majority of these
laws can be found in former colonial British states, such as Guyana and Malaysia. So far, I’ve made the case for why homophobia is a British export. While Britain is definitely Western, we need to look at a more contemporary example to highlight the Western nature of homophobia: US evangelicals in Uganda. Uganda has come under intense scrutiny for its hateful anti-gay laws, but these laws don’t appear from thin air. A significant proportion of these laws can be attributed to the influence of fundamentalist white Americans who have seized the country as a means to propel their hate speech. America may not be perfect, but the tides have shifted so that the laws we see in Uganda could never take hold there. As a result of that, US evangelicals had to take their hate elsewhere. Anti-gay, evangelical pastor Scott Lively was condemned earlier this year by a US District court after Sexual Minorities Uganda filed a federal lawsuit against him for his “aiding and abetting efforts to demonize, intimidate, and injure
LGBTI people in Uganda”. The court found that Lively’s actions constituted a violation of international law. Now, advocacy groups like Sexual Minorities Uganda are working to undo the damage Lively and his compeers have spread. As the Global South struggles against imperialist and neo-imperialist domination, homophobic leaders have increasingly adopted anti-imperialist rhetoric to further demonise LGBTQ+ people. LGBTQ+ are cast-off as foreigners and left to seek asylum in countries with hostile immigration policies. This is why it is so important for us to recognise that homophobia is the real Western import, not queerness. A few landmark judgements show that there is a bright future ahead for LGBTQ+ people living in ex-colonies. Already, India and Trinidad & Tobago have repealed anti-gay colonial era laws from from their Sexual Offences Acts. In time, we can hope to see more of these challenges launched across the Commonwealth and across the world.
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Can a free Lula Stop Brazilian Fascism? LSE Alumnus
A
fter 580 days of being a political prisoner in a federal precinct in the southern Brazilian state of Paraná, former President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva was released on the late afternoon of Friday, November 8th, following a hotly-argued Supreme Court decision. Leaving the complex, Lula met with a crowd of his supporters, who had held vigil there since the day of his arrest; his release created an outpouring of support and relief by an embattled left throughout the country (and overseas, from figures such as Jeremy Corbyn and Bernie Sanders), being celebrated online as well as offline in peaceful street demonstrations. The next day, his speech at a metalworkers’ union in the state of São Paulo, where he started his political career, was televised live by most major national networks – there, he attacked sitting President Jair Bolsonaro for his dismantling of social institutions, for the growth of unemployment and informal labour, and for his links to paramilitary groups in Rio de Janeiro. Claiming to have “74 years of age, but the energy of a man of 30 and the eagerness of a man of 20”, Lula made a clear statement: he is back on the political scene.
Lula’s prison sentence had been, in many ways, a shaping aspect of Brazil’s political climate. The result of a rushed – and, as confirmed by a series of leaks, politically motivated – process that prevented him from running for President in the 2018 election, it had also severed much of the left’s capacity for unified articulation. Large street protests and widespread outrage against education cuts, police brutality, and the government’s encouragement of the Amazon fires, combined with record-low approval ratings and growing international ostracism, could only barely be utilized by a fierce but politically weak leftist presence in Congress. Meanwhile, constant infighting among the ranks of the far-right – between a conservative legislature and military, a neo-fascist foreign ministry, and an ultra-liberal economics team – had been kept in order by the figure of President Bolsonaro. 2019 has been a year of indignation, frustration and powerless anger for any Brazilian sympathetic to social justice. After Lula’s release, however, a new spirit seems to be gradually sweeping the nation; people, even news anchors from networks that had campaigned for his arrest, already seem eager to slip and refer to Bolsonaro, not him, as “former President”. The mood for the last
few days has been lighter and happier, and some younger people have even adopted the expression “to free Lula” to indicate going for a hard night out. The government’s reception of the news, of course, has been more chilly: after a day in silence (which many Brazilians also saw fit to celebrate), Bolsonaro gave a speech urging his supporters to not lose sight of “command” and “commit friendly fire”, and to not “provide ammunition to the scoundrel, who is momentarily free but loaded
“Lula’s prison sentence
had been, in many ways, a shaping aspect of Brazil’s political climate... it had also severed much of the left’s capacity for unified articulation.
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Pedro Llullier Rosa
with guilt”. He also took the opportunity to bold-facedly thank for his own election the judge that had sentenced Lula to prison: his appointed Justice Minister, Sér-
gio Moro, idolized by the right. At 27.4% approval, Bolsonaro’s ruling strategy is to double down on playing to his hardline base of support. Such a base might be further inflamed by a free Lula – but it is to be seen if this will be enough to preserve his governability against the former President’s skill for conciliation. Lula’s massive popularity has good reason, rising from his achievement of dramatically changing the course of Brazilian policy at a time of social crisis – making the government move towards including poor and disadvantaged populations for the first time in history after he, from a poor upbringing himself, rose to the Presidency. He has the charisma to bring large popular support to leftist positions and demands, and he is an expert at forging deals to turn them into real change. Even at his lowest, he was still forecast to handily beat Bolsonaro in the ballot. But to portray the two as polar opposites would be misleading – because, while Bolsonaro represents one of the furthest extremes of reactionary politics today, Lula falls short of a revolutionary figure or harbinger of socialism. Out of prison, people will have to confront that the real Lula might be quite different from what they projected onto him. And this is the contradiction
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of Lula’s release for the left. While his massive support among populations his government raised from poverty is something no one else on the left has been able to fully replicate, his coalition had also included banks, national businesses, and powerful centre-right opportunists, all of which contributed to the parliamentary coup which ousted his successor in 2016. When Lula says in many of his speeches that he “showed it was possible to raise Brazil from poverty”, the second, unsaid part of that sentence is “under a neoliberal framework”. By stopping shy of social reform, he allowed certain populations to remain marginalized, key structural problems unaddressed and powerful interests unchecked – all the while not creating the kind of subversive, decolonial national consciousness seen in other countries in the region, such as is currently being used in Bolivia. When he mellowed from his radical stance of the 80s and 90s to be elected in 2002, he sowed stability. He reaped jail and Bolsonaro. It is a latent concern, in a country so rudely made aware of what its elites are capable of at their most barbarous, that he will make the same mistakes again. It is too early to tell, and the timing too politically delicate, but it is the hope of many that Lula has learned to listen to his critics.
Hong Kong is not Charlottesville
In a response to a submission from our last edition, L.O and T.Y discuss the differences in depictions of mob violence between the Hong Kong protests, and far-right protests across the world.
L.O and T.Y
Guest Contributors
T
he original article has two central tenets: firstly, the equation of ‘Neo-Nazis, Fascists and extremists’ in cases such as the Charlottesville Rally, with the ‘violent, nativist and extremist organisation’ of Hong Kong protestors. Congratulating himself on establishing this foolproof equivalence, the author goes on to argue against Western media bias for their contrasting portrayals of what he thinks are identical events. The article’s conclusion that western media, and media in general, are to a certain extent biased is mostly indisputable. Media privileges particular discourses and operates on behalf of a distinct set of interests and ideologies. It chooses which sources to cite, which images are used and whose voices are heard. The problem, however, is that the Hong Kong protests are qualitatively different from the neo-Nazis, Fascists and various strands of the far-right movement, thus justifying the contrasting portrayals. Let it not be said that this account does not aim to condone violence conducted by protesters in Hong Kong. Everyone who breaks the law should face a fair trial before a judge in a civilised society. Instead, it hopes, in providing a more holistic view of the violence in Hong Kong to provoke
an awareness, and re-examination, of the nature, actors, and context of Hong Kong’s civil society, which positions it in contradistinction to the movements that the author refers to. The specifically mentioned, but not elaborated, Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ rally, began as a protest from White Nationalist groups against the removal of confederate statues in US municipalities - linked to a dark history of slavery, white supremacy, and institutionalised racism. The protest turned violent as groups such as the KKK and Nationalist Socialist Movement clashed with counter-protestors. At risk of simplifying the events at Charlottesville, we encourage readers to engage in further reading. Still, for the sake of speaking to the parallels drawn by the article, the Neo-nazis rallies were motivated by a desire to perpetuate symbols of suppression, by parties with aims to revitalise the devastating ideologies of the Third Reich. Hong Kong protests, on the other hand, are rooted in resistance towards a perceived lack of governing accountability and systematic state suppression of dissent. The 2019 movement was sparked by the governments’ complete disregard of the 2 million people who peacefully marched against the extradition bill. By the time the government withdrew the bill, public grievance had shifted towards evidenced police brutality against pro-democracy protestors, includ-
ing reports of arbitrary arrests, torture, sexual violence, unnecessary force and a mask ban — now declared by Hong Kong’s court as invalid. All while there is no effective mechanism to hold those in power accountable, as the government refuses to budge on demands to establish an independent commission of inquiry into police conduct. Unlike far-right ideologies that seek to dominate political apparatuses and weed out “unfavourable” minorities entirely, pro-democracy protestors seek genuine political representation and safeguard basic civil liberties of those vulnerable to systemic suppression perpetrated by a powerful state apparatus, simply by the virtue of their prodemocracy political views. To provide an alternative perspective, and furnish a more holistic account of the protests than that presented in the original article, let us take the widely publicised and condemned attack in Yuen Long attack on the 21st of July. A whiteshirted mob armed with batons and ration whips rushed into the metro station, indiscriminately attacking passengers — black-clad protestors, the press, the elderly, everyone. Police on patrol turned away upon the sight. Some citizens desperately tried to reach nearby police stations to seek help, but the stations were shut down. The police made no arrests that night. To this day, the police only charged 6 people from the attack under unlawful assembly despite ample video evidence showing the faces and
identities of other perpetrators. There is a qualitative difference between being motivated by the selective enforcement of the law by Hong Kong’s authorities and institutions, and being inspired by National Socialist ideology. Moreover, by arguing for a uniform condemnation of Hong Kong protestors — the article aggregates the entire movement into one violent ‘mob’. The characterisation lacks basic understanding. Described as ‘leaderless’, the movement consists of different and contrasting factions, including moderate groups who organise events such as human chains and those more radical. The moderates’ increasing tolerance of radicalism did not arise from a perverse acceptance of neo-Nazi goals and methods to eradicate difference. Underlined by the principle ‘do not split’ and increasing intensity of suppression, people across the spectrum see the need stay united to continue the movement. Do not be mistaken, this is not blind tolerance. Some protestors do voice their discontent towards others’ imperfect tactics and suggest improvements. After harsh criticism from within the pro-democracy camp, protestors who blocked the Hong Kong International Airport congregated at the airport again holding placards to apologise to international visitors. The dichotomy, tying “violence is either right or wrong” to the entire protest, is a rudimentary simplification of the dynamics within social movements
and discredits their underlying pleas. Yes, some radical protestors have resorted to violence and have harmed those who oppose their calls for democracy, accountability, reform, or their tactics. The system ensures that pro-democracy protestors will pay the exact price, if not more, for any laws broken. But this does not equate the Hong Kong protests to a far-right movement. Yes, the media is biased. Western liberal media has gone above and beyond to legitimise the Hong Kong protests, while mainland Chinese media fervently delegitimises it by focusing on the geopolitics, the violence, and ignoring all normative dimensions. Each is situated in their respective ideologies and interest. However, western liberal media has been consistent in the values and ideological “bias” implied in its reporting of Hong Kong visa-vis far-right movements. The judgement of violence must take into account the contextual and institutional power differences in the relationship between those using it and those receiving it. It shows a lack of basic historical knowledge and analytical depth, subsuming structural and agency factors into one. Equating the violence of Hong Kong protestors to far-right movements ignores the complexities of societal phenomenon as it opts to fit disparately different events into neat, convenient boxes.
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Comment
Tuesday 26 November 2019 | The Beaver
Heternormativity: the Underpinnings of LSE Culture Deputy Comment Editor
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eteronormativity can be understood as the assumed normalcy of heterosexuality where social norms presume that all people fit neatly into two complementary genders. This presumption is such that all other expressions of sexuality and gender are reduced to mere ‘others’ of heterosexuality rather than sexualities and genders in their own right. The power of this othering is made clear in the way we talk about LGBTQ+ people in our everyday language. In a ‘liberal’ university, the dominant discourse say that we should be “tolerant” of others’ identities – the insinuation being of course that they have deviated from our accepted norm – and the vast majority of us do exactly that. We tolerate others, we would never dislike someone for simply being gay or trans because ‘to each their own.’ But it is this type of thinking that allows us to remain complicit in the oppression of LGBTQ+ people whilst claiming progressivism. We continue to “other” this portion of the LSE community in our everyday discussions about them or without them. The othering of LGBTQ+ people through heteronormativity is especially clear through the functioning of our various societies at LSE. There of course is no deliberate exclusion of them, however, an assumption of being cisgender and heterosexual is implicit. Take
other societies – the Afro-Caribbean Society, for example, recently held a ‘Take Me Out’ event mirroring the popular British heterosexual dating. They are an afterthought. They are allowed their own society or own Pride week but cannot be considered part of the mainstream culture of LSE because
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The othering of LGBTQ+ people through heteronormativity is especially clear through the functioning of our various societies at LSE.
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Christiana Ajai-Thomas
the LSESU Athletics Union, for example, it has a social culture very much focused on sex, sexuality and gender. The Men’s Rugby and Football clubs are well known as sites of cis-heterosexual masculinity expressed through pints, obnoxious boisterousness and ‘getting laid.’ Meanwhile, the Women’s Rugby club can be regularly heard derogatively described in terms of their masculinity as strong women and assumed lesbians, their strangely strong nature meaning they are ruled out as the counterparts to the Men’s Rugby club due to not being suitable sexual partners. The Netball club exists, however, as a highly sexualised site of (largely white) cis-heterosexual femininity as the natural counterpart to Men’s Rugby. In fact, Netball girls were just recently told they’d be rewarded for sleeping with the member of Men’s Rugby whom they’d been paired with at a pre-Zoo event. Clearly, much of what constitutes the sociality of the “AU for all” is cis-heteronormativity and thus exclusive to LGBTQ+ students at the LSE, particularly those of colour. It becomes an uncomfortable experience in which one must decide between accepting their ostracisation by rejecting participation in this social life or performing heterosexuality for the sake of not being left out. Even I, as a cis-heterosexual Black woman and member of Netball, find myself uncomfortable in such an environment that emphasises white men and women belonging together as the natural order of things. LGBTQ+ students are not taken into consideration by the AU or many
that would involve us challenging our own assumptions. In assuming heterosexuality, we reify a hierarchy of sexuality in which all things that aren’t cisheterosexual are inferior due to not being the norm or natural. At the same time, we reinforce that cis-heterosexuality isnatural and normal because we position everything else as a deviation or mimicry of it. The ‘lesbian’ Women’s Rugby, for example are considered lesbians because they perform what we consider a masculine trait under heteronormativity (strength) but are women so must obviously be creating their own version of heterosexuality (lesbianism). Heteronormativity violently pushes out all identities that do not conform to it and we see this in the ostracisation of LGBTQ+ from participation in LSESU societies.
Beyond societies, this implicit bias against LGBTQ+ students persists in our everyday language. The ‘don’t assume my gender’ joke seems to still be favoured by those who’d like to call themselves socially liberal but fiscally conservative. It wasn’t too long ago that the Conservative society ran a stall asking people to debate them, with one of the topics being ‘there are only 2 genders.’ ‘Gay’ as a pejorative to describe quite literally anything is apparently still acceptable terminology as long as nobody gay is there and you went to a boy’s school where it was normal. And you can hate someone gay as long as it’s just because they’re too obnoxious about it. Overall, being LGBTQ+ is stigmatised as something that both cis-heterosexual and LGBTQ+ people should avoid appearing so as to be accepted into dominant culture at the LSE. We get away with it by clinging to liberal politics of tolerance, but this very term shows us just how LGBTQ+ students are treated. Tolerance implies undesirability of the thing we must learn to accept, LGBTQ+ people are understood as the nagging in our ear that we put up with so as to not upset them or look bad. One is considered straight until proven guilty, and I use guilty here because of the stigma we attach to a lack of conformity. We let them into our clubs, societies and friendship groups so long as they don’t make us uncomfortable with their non-conformity. As a result, they are othered and excluded even in their inclusion, they are not allowed to be themselves around us. Cisgender and heterosexual
people ought to question our own implicit biases against LGBTQ+ people which do in fact constitute homophobia and transphobia. It is not enough to claim we are progressive if all of our behaviour reflects otherwise through the exclusion of LGBTQ+ students from the LSE community. Heterosexuality must be decentred from our societal organisations so as to not just tolerate but recognise and validate the existence of LGBTQ+ people. Claiming that most people actually are straight and cisgender at LSE is not good enough because it is, firstly, an assumption made within the confines of heteronormativity and, secondly, it serves to reproduce the exclusion and self-exclusion of LGBTQ+ people who are not afforded the opportunity to belong at LSE due to the assumptions we make. The status of being LGBTQ+ at LSE is one of having to constantly adapt to or avoid environments that are unwelcoming, this can even be the case for LGBTQ+ people of colour within the community itself. This LSESU Pride Week I implore you all to challenge the homophobia and transphobia we see around us, whether explicit or implicit, and hope that all of our societies can use this critique positively and substantially. This does not necessarily mean we all ought to make sure we have a gay friend or trans member of our societies but rather that we should make our communities more open to these possibilities through the decentring of heterosexuality and, thus, destigmatising of LGBTQ+ students.
Queerness and the Qur’an Anonymous
tion was deemed inappropriate for the young, innocent eyes of a good Muslim girl.
tolerant flatmates than two people joined in love. The only acceptable conversations were had in the presence of exclusively other women, and they centred around who each of us would marry. We would sit there and giggle as elders laid out our lives for us and the slightly older girls made knowing comments about the trials and tribulations of relationships. We were resigned to the fact that no relationship would
ever be amazing – typical themes were the laziness of men, their abusive and violent tendencies, and the emotional distance between a husband and wife. Even still, divorce was the absolute last resort; no one wants to be the poor, quiet auntie in the corner, unable to fulfill her one true purpose: to cook and clean for a man who would on occasion recognise her efforts. Islamic culture, at least how I know it, has a lot of straightforward and gendered rules to prevent individuals from developing the life experience which would empower them to expect more of a marriage: never have a pre-marital relationship. Don’t interact with boys unless absolutely necessary. Physical contact with men is a dirty sin, but fall head over heels with the first man who will take you when you’re of marital age. This will be followed by a whirl-
Islamic culture, at “ least how I know it, has a lot of straightforward and gendered rules
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Growing up, even “heterosexual affec-
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She wasn’t like me. She came from a barely religious family and was one of the handful of white students in a school of over a thousand.
in my mosque class who had chosen to wear a hijab full time. I was soon to be one of the few girls who would eventually choose to take it off. Growing up, even heterosexual affection was deemed inappropriate for the young, innocent eyes of a good Muslim girl. Kissing on TV warranted changing the channel, and my parents seemed more like
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These gendered rules were easy to follow. I knew I was expected to look away if a member of the opposite sex fell into my line of sight
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I
was thirteen when I first realised I wasn’t straight. I had a “best friend”— if best friend were code for “I haven’t realised I have a crush on you yet because I thought I was only supposed to feel this way about boys.” We followed an almost boring sequence of high school relationship milestones: it began with harmless conversations over text, and soon we were holding hands in empty corridors and taking every opportunity to sit next to each other in class. She eventually asked me to the end of year disco, and the rest was history. She wasn’t like me. She came from a barely religious family and was one of the handful of white students in a school of over a thousand. I was one of the majority at my school, British-Pakistani Muslim. I was one of the few girls
wind romance during your honeymoon where you’re expected to conceive a child, and it all ends with the death of your happiness. These gendered rules were easy to follow. I knew I was expected to look away if a member of the opposite sex fell into my line of sight so as not to commit zina (the sin of lust). I could only show my hair and my arms in the presence of other females. But when we went on trips to girls-only gyms and swimming pools, I was faced with questions I couldn’t ask. How could I get changed in a room full of body parts I am attracted to? I would not be allowed to sit in a room where men walked around shirtless, but the lines were not so clear when it came to other women. In the mosque, the women prayed separately to the men so as not to
distract them. Was I supposed to be praying alongside the subjects of my attraction? There are no rules for women who liked women, because these women apparently don’t exist. So I sit politely in rooms where older women joke about how I will one day marry the son of so-and-so, hoping my phone screen won’t light up with notifications from that girl. I wince when a name is suggested as my potential suitor and someone says, “he’s a bit gay.” And I guess, when push comes to shove, I am more like them than I am like my fellow queer women; I will find an acceptable man and allow him to sleep with me to remind myself not to get my hopes too high. In the end, when I am of age, I will fall head over heels for the first man who will take me. We will have a whirlwind romance, I might conceive his child, and the death of my happiness will follow as I realise he could never give me what that sweet girl could, briefly, when I was 13.
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Features
Email us: features@beaveronline.co.uk Features Editors Annabelle Jarrett Colin Vanelli Marianne Hii
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‘I Would Like to Report a Sexual Assault’: How My University Failed Me When I Needed It Most Ella Holmes
Contributing Writer
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hen I began organising a campaign to raise awareness about sexual assault, I wanted to detach my work from my own experience. It felt easier to research sexual violence and plan events as a concerned student rather than trying to process my familiarity with the issue. I wanted to be an efficient campaigner but I no longer feel that I can advocate for this cause in the abstract. It’s not my intention to attack the LSE and cast judgements about the EDI team. University welfare departments are struggling across the country to cope with the huge increase in reporting of sexual violence. I hope that this account will contribute to that dialogue, highlighting how things can improve and the urgency of change. In my first year of university, I was sexually assaulted by a hooded stranger on the way to a party. It happened suddenly, and violently, and the perpetrator ran away as soon as it was over. If this account seems lacking in detail or feeling, it conveys my approach to what happened at the time. I didn’t get particularly emotional for a long time, I just wanted to concentrate on reporting the attack and then continuing with my life. The morning after the attack, I went to LSE counselling’s dropin service and was asked to fill in a form explaining why I was there. Writing ‘I would like to report a sexual assault’ felt very strange, especially in a box. The box was below a checklist of statements about whether I felt anxious or depressed - I still hadn’t processed what had happened and how I felt about it. After a short wait, I was called in
to see a friendly, female counsellor. I briefly described the events of the night before and concluded: “so I just want to report this, as soon as possible.” A pause. The counsellor looked at me with shock. I was surprised to see that she seemed more upset than I was. “I’ve… I’ve never heard of something like that happening, how awful.” “Right…” I didn’t know how to respond to that. Was I about to explain rape culture to a mental health professional? After restating that I just wanted to know how to report this to the police, she told me to call 101 (the police non-emergency line in the UK) and said someone from the counselling team could be present when I made the call. When I inquired about what would happen after I made the report she wasn’t able to give me any more information. I lodged the call that afternoon and made an appointment at the local police station the next day. The experience of filing a police report could not have been more different. A woman from behind a glass window asked me a set of detailed questions about time, place, circumstance and didn’t linger on the details of the assault. Her directness soothed me, as I could talk to someone detached, who didn’t interject during my account with noises of sympathy or distress. Everything proceeded smoothly until she asked: “and what were you wearing?” I sat in shocked silence. At last, I stammered “how exactly is that relevant?” She explained that to look through CCTV footage they needed to be able to identify me as well as the perpetrator. With relief, I described my clothes, inwardly wincing at
how little I had been wearing (the same feeling as when I described how drunk I was). I expected this to be an empowering process to take control of my situation, but I hadn’t anticipated feeling ashamed and embarrassed. The policewoman was in no way reproachful, but she wasn’t offering me any sympathy either. I was coming to realise that a pragmatic approach to the situation wasn’t going to make me less confused. I thought of going back to the counsellor I had seen, but couldn’t face the idea of upsetting her again. The next few weeks aren’t hard to imagine and unpleasant to dwell on. London had never been entirely safe for me but it had never felt this dangerous before. The routines and habits I’d cultivated within a month had to be re-learnt and it took a long time before I could walk alone at night. I often puzzled over the attack, trying to remember more facts or details for when the police station would call me back. I also spent time trying to reconcile the statistics I read about how you’re much more likely to be assaulted by someone that you knew, that the stranger who pounces on you in the dark alley is much rarer, a plot point in a bad film. I do not lay any blame on the counsellor who saw me for the difficulties I experienced following the assault. But there were things I needed: I needed information about how to report a crime, which I did not receive in full; I needed a description of what that process would entail; I needed someone to forewarn me about what kind of information I would have to provide and how that might make me feel. Most of all, I needed some kind of preparation. I wish I had been warned that after everything I
had done to make a report, I would most likely receive this email: Dear Miss Holmes I am emailing to update you on the investigation. A full investigation was carried out with no suspects identified. The report will now be closed pending any new information coming to light. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me and I will be happy to explain.
30 Years of Uneasy Alliances
Amraj Lally
LSE Pride Alliance Treasurer
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ride brings together lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, queer, intersex and asexual groups with allies in ‘uneasy alliances’. It is a diverse parade, a social institution, an LGBT+ awareness month (or week), and the name of our SU group. Pride is commercial and political, festive and rebellious, and normalising and confrontational. This week is a dedicated week to raise awareness of LGBT+ issues, a tradition we have followed for at least 30 years at LSE. And with 2020 around the corner, it will be
50 years since the world’s first Pride parade. LSE in particular has been a surprisingly instrumental site for LGBT+ activism. The infamous 1969 Stonewall Uprising in New York is commonly thought to have sparked the Pride movement. Tired of police harassment, queer people fought back during a routine raid at the Stonewall Inn, which led to a three-day rebellion. We don’t know who “threw the first brick”, but queer people of colour, including Stormé DeLarverie, Miss Major, Sylvia Rivera and Marsha P Johnson, were pivotal.. Because the protest is remembered as a watershed moment in political mobilisation, other key
events in LGBT+ history are often overlooked. UK Pride-inspired events followed shortly after North American ones in the early 70s, including the first UK Pride parade. A key site for the beginnings of Pridestyle activism was campus turf. Inspired by New York City gay liberation politics, second-year Sociology student Bob Mellors set up a meeting on 13th October 1970 in the basement of the LSE Clare Market building to gather like-minded students. Whether the venue was an intentional choice or not, it was a fitting location. Clare Market had a long queer history, being home to the equivalent of a
gay bar (a ‘mollies’ club) as early as 1794. The Beaver published an article written by an anonymous student covering the group’s first meeting, which was the founding moment of the UK Gay Liberation Front. By 1971, their weekly meetings each attracted 200-300 people, and the group famously carried out ‘Operation Rupert’. Playing on the gay tradition of ‘camp’ performance, the group considered activism as theatre. Operation Rupert was a protest against the homophobic, anti-reproductive rights Christian event the Festival of Light. Protesters invaded the event, spontaneously kissing, releasing
I am sorry that you are a victim of crime. Kind regards. ‘Hands Off LSE’ is a campaign to raise awareness about sexual violence within universities and lobby for increased support services for survivors at LSE. For more information about their upcoming events, see their Facebook page: Hands Off LSE. Illustration by @beepa_la
mice, blaring horns, and sprawling banners with pro-LGBT messaging. By 1974, the group disbanded due to internal disagreements. However, they had effectively increased visibility through their provocative acts of civil disobedience. Years later, the LSE Lesbian and Gay Society wanted to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the UK Gay Liberation Front. Even though they did not request funding, they were met with pushback from university figureheads. LSE Director Indraprasad Patel rejected persistent efforts and pleas for a commemorative plaque to be erected, describing the issue as contentious and incidental. This
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Features
Tuesday 26 November 2019 | The Beaver
1993 LSE Bisexual Awareness Week poster.
led to the beginnings of LSESU Pride Week itself through petitioning and awareness-raising events. The Lesbian and Gay society organised a Pink Plaque week in November 1989, including events with the Law Society and Labour Club, a screening of My Beautiful Laundrette depicting queer love between a brown and white British man, an event on the social construction of sexuality, and a disco. All events were open to everyone. Following its success, the Lesbian and Gay Society repeated the series of events the following year, renaming it Lesbian and Gay Awareness week. The university never got fully on board with plans for the plaque. However, in October 1991 the SU unveiled a pink commemorative
plaque to recognise Bob Mellors for his contributions. His unpublished biography and working papers are now available in LSE Women’s Library in the Hall-Carpenter Archives. At some point, the week-long event became Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Awareness Week. This dates back to at least the early 90s, according to a programme of events published in a 1993 issue of The Beaver. The name change reflected increasing inclusivity of those who don’t fit the (false) lesbian/gay binary. Keen to have a voice on a larger platform, queer students proposed a new student officer role in the LSESU. In 1994, ’N Daeron’ wrote in The Beaver that the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Society’s motion to create an
LGB SU officer was “defeated by straight, white men”. Struggles to establish the role continued. Meanwhile, activists began to officially incorporate transgender people as part of the community label from the 90s, by using the term ‘LGBT’. However, it was not until the early 2000s when the society renamed itself the LSESU LGBT Society and changed the Lesbian, Gay and Bisexual Awareness Week to LGBT Awareness Week. Unfortunately, it was only at this time that the SU finally introduced a part-time LGB SU officer role. 2009 was officially the first time the awareness week was called Pride Week, which it remains today. While this technically makes ten years of Pride Week, ten years doesn’t reflect the true length of its history. Having first registered as an undergrad in 2012, I am now an LSE veteran or – as some lovingly call me – an LSE Daddy. I have personally witnessed many of the name changes of the society. When I joined, we were still the LGBT Society, but a motion passed to change LGBT to ‘LGBT+’ to reflect the growing number of identities included in the community. In 2016, a year after I first graduated, the society considered a name change again. As the general movement outside the LSE became more inclusive, the initialism became comically long — expanding to LGBTTQQIAAP (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, queer, questioning, intersex, asexual, ally, pansexual). But even this
was criticised for leaving some people out. The society president Alexander Spalding wanted to rebrand: “I campaigned for a name change because I wanted the society to move away from restrictively compartmentalising (and quite frankly heavily ethnocentric) constructions of gender and sexuality.” Society members approved his motion to scrap the initialism altogether, in favour of ‘Pride: Gender and Sexual Diversity Alliance’. When I returned, like other students, I was baffled by the lengthy title. Gender and sexual diversity. Isn’t everyone included with this term? Alliances are often uneasy, but I think it’s crucial that the historically marginalised are put first by using language they identify with. I wasn’t opposed to the term Pride. But I was also aware that the project of Pride is not relatable to everyone. Many outside the North American/European bubble did not share its history. The Pride project is also synonymous with ‘coming out’, collectively showing that queer people are everywhere. Mainstream society places a burden on queer people, who are often discomforted by restrictive behavioural norms and the presumption of heterosexuality. But equally, I don’t think we should add to that discomfort by making queer people feel obliged to come out. Inspired by the academic and everyday reclamation of ‘queer’, I suggested ‘Queer Society’. In the end, it was put to a vote. With a
razor-sharp margin, an abridged version of the name ‘Pride Alliance’ won. Instead of feeling disappointed about who may or may not be included, I focused on the work I could do as Secretary. Our annual drag show became dedicated to queer drag artists of colour across the country. Along with the help of the alliance’s queer person of colour officer, I set up a coalition of more than 20 university groups, bringing together hundreds of students of colour across London. The reality is that there aren’t any ‘perfect’ terms. In-vogue terms are based on language currently used, as well as what we have collectively learned. But any new terms we create don’t exist separately to original terms. Does this mean we should give up trying? As a sociologist studying categories and labels, I would say no. It’s always useful to be attentive to what baggage a term has, but also not endlessly bicker for the ‘best’. I remember attending my first meeting in 2013 and seeing a sea of white faces in an awkwardly disordered room. Six years later, and to the best of my knowledge, we’ve elected the most racially diverse committee in history. And I like to think we have a good balance of celebrating every ‘Thursgay’ to the fullest, and continuing the good fight.
Seeing Both Sides: Bisexual Masculinities and the Bi Experience Features Editor
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ast week, New Zealand’s Ministry of Health released the findings from a 2014/15 health survey on sexual orientation. The findings confirmed what other surveys, including an earlier BBC-funded study by Ipsos MORI, have found: young people are getting gayer. The survey also revealed a gendered gap in experiences of same-sex attraction, being experienced by one in six women as compared to one in 20 men. This is a significant gap in experiencing bisexual attraction, and one that is particularly striking when compared to the similar rates at which men and women reported homosexual identities, at 1.3% and 1.1% respectively. How can we explain this difference? What does this speak to in the bisexual experience? To be sure, all members of the queer community face unacceptable levels of stigma, discrimination and violence. These inequalities must be understood in an intersectional framework: a white bisexual woman is likely to have more privileges than a black transgender bisexual man. There are nuances and social structures, however, that can inform the gendered differences in the bisexual experience as a whole. For women, there is increasing social acceptance towards bisexuality, as evidenced in the NZ government findings. If anything, the larger risk for the female bisexual is one of being discredited and delegitimised. Her meaningful
emotional and sexual connections with other women are written off as unimportant or even performative. Patriarchal power structures inform that the bisexual woman, by rejecting a completely heterosexual existence, exists for male sexual approval. Think of the popularity of the ‘lesbian’ category in porn searches. Think too of the trope of the university student “experimenting” with her fellow classmates (“it’s just a phase”), or being scouted by heterosexual couples on dating apps for threesomes – both all-too-familiar experiences for the bisexual woman. For men, the story is different. In this same patriarchal environment, heteronormativity and masculinity are mutually reinforcing. To be an authentic, traditionally socially-acceptable man is to have sex with women, and vice versa, under this traditional conceptualisation. Under this logic, to not have sex exclusively with women is inherently feminine. Such understandings are being rightfully challenged by queer and feminist groups, but the root of the concept has proved hard to pull out. Maybe, then, the rift between men and women in experiencing same-sex attraction can be understood as a reaction to the real stigma faced by men in expressing non-conventional sexuality. For bisexual men, being confronted with judgement is not limited to periods in which they are having emotional and sexual connections with men. Bisexual men can also face misconceptions and prejudice in their experiences with women, including their partners. Many bi men are seen as “gay
To be bisexual “ in today’s society
is to be simultaneously not straight enough and not gay enough. In a way, this sums up the bisexual experience: to be both and neither at the same time.
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Annabelle Jarrett
in waiting”, according to popular sex and culture magazine Cosmo. A simple Google search proves countless articles on the topic about whether female writers or their readers should date bisexual men. In this sense, bisexual men are also at risk of having their identity delegitimised, but in the opposite way to bisexual women: they are seen as homosexual men that aren’t ready to make this step yet, or are confused. Bisexual men are not alone in facing prejudice for defying conventional experiences of masculinity. Particularly within the queer community, trans and homosexual men are also challenging expectations of what it means to be a man.
It is important to highlight certain commonalities within the bisexual community, however, as with increased awareness comes reduced stigma. In a world of strict binaries, what does it mean to reject the two poles of hetero and homosexuality? In one sense, bisexuals can experience relative privilege when compared to other members of the queer community. In periods of heterosexual-partnering, such as a bisexual man with a girlfriend, or a bisexual woman with a boyfriend, they are often less likely to face direct public acts of violence or discrimination. In another sense, however, the bisexual community is at constant risk of having their identity erased from either side. To be bisexual in today’s society is to be simultaneously not straight enough and not gay enough. In a way, this sums up the bisexual experience: to be both and neither at the same time. When this is met doubly so with expectations of masculinity, the statistically underrepresented bisexual male experience is more understandable. What can we do about this? Cries for sexual ‘fluidity’ as a new model leaves behind those for whom this is just unsuitable. It risks alienating the homosexual community in particular, by implicitly advocating for heteronormative sexual practices. At the same time, there is much that is wrong with the current models. The Kinsey scale is one of the mainstream mechanisms for identifying levels of same-sex attraction. The scale, created in 1948, has seven points,
ranging from 0, “exclusively heterosexual”, to 6, “exclusively homosexual”. The scale is useful as a means of providing a language in which to talk about same-sex attraction, something that is desperately needed. The scale is inherently flawed, however, in that it again seeks to quantify an identity that for so many is unquantifiable. Although seven points is more than the two of heterosexual / homosexual, it is building off the same concept. Perhaps the answer then lies in reconceptualising our understanding of sexuality. Embracing bisexuality as a radical act of honesty is almost a political act: a rejection of society’s binaries and expectations. As with the queer community as a whole, to be bisexual is to challenge prevailing notions of traditional womanhood and manhood – both rooted in heteronormativity. It is a strong and powerful act that deserves greater recognition and acceptance. One thing is for sure: in order to dismantle the current systems of heterosexual, male, white, cisgendered, able-bodied, and class privilege within the queer community, we need to work together to unpick them one at a time. A greater bisexual acceptance is just one place to start.
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Muxes: The Mexican ‘Third Gender’ A lesson for sexual diversity or reinforcing gender norms?
Andres Gomez
Features Staff Writer
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atin American countries Mexico in particular - are not places known as advocates for progressive LGBTQ+ rights. Although Mexico City was the first place in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage, the region is still known for its violence and discrimination against the LGBTQ+ community. An August 2019 Reuters article states that “At least 1,300 LGBTQ+ people have been murdered in the region in the past five years, with Colombia, Mexico and Honduras accounting for nearly 90 percent of all deaths”. However, the existence of different communities that consider themselves to be a ‘third gender’ since the prehispanic era could provide insight into the normalisation of different sexual and gender identities around the world. Muxes: The Mexican Third Gender Pronounced moo-shays, this community is native to the indigenous Zapotec region of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. What characterises this group is that although they are born with
male genitals and assigned the male gender at birth, they assume roles that are considered to be traditionally feminine in a social, personal, and sexual context without necessarily identifying as trans. What is particularly surprising is that muxes can be highly regarded in the social hierarchy of certain indigenous towns. Granted, this is not to say they are not discriminated against or that they do not go through many of the difficulties that LGBTQ+ people face in social and work environments. However, in different predominantly indigenous towns in this region where muxes have been around for a long time, they have come to be highly respected and taken on important roles in the community. Traditionally, muxes have taken on the role of making all the preparations needed for important Zapotec cultural festivities, from designing and sewing costumes to making traditional crafts, and cooking a variety of dishes and preparations specific to every festivity. In recent years, traditional festivities and holidays have become a pillar of the economy of the region, attracting thousands of tourists every year, and thus making the work of muxes highly valuable. Muxes
have become such an integral part of society that even the Catholic Church in these indigenous towns has accommodated to the tradition of the three genders in this region of Mexico. A Lesson for Sexual Diversity? It is precisely because muxes have been around for centuries that their highly-valued place in society could serve as a lesson for acceptance and inclusion of LGBTQ+ individuals who don’t adhere to heteronormative gender and sexual roles across the world. What makes the muxe community stand out is its level of inclusiveness when it comes to different sexual identities and orientations. Muxes may identify as feminine gay men, masculine gay men, trans women, travestis, non-binary, asexual, or simply as muxe, a third gender category of its own. This is different to other cultures in which the ‘third-gender’ category is reserved for trans or intersex individuals, such as the Hijra community in India. In this sense, the fact that muxes have been around for so long and have come to be regarded as a highly respected group in many indigenous communities in Mexico could prove to be a lesson for the rest of the world
when it comes to the acceptance of queerness in society. According to a 2018 report by the Stonewall Charity in the UK, a third of trans people interviewed have been discriminated against because of their gender identity when visiting a café, restaurant, bar, or nightclub in the last year in the UK alone. Realising that communities such as the muxe have existed for so long proves that being queer is in fact normal, and could serve as a lesson for the acceptance of sexual diversity around the world. Reinforcing Gender Norms However, even if muxes are inclusive in their sexual diversity, and their place in society has been normalised, the problem is that Mexico is still a very traditionally ‘macho’ country. When it comes to gender norms, muxes must strictly adhere to what are seen as traditionally feminine roles. In the household, if there is a muxe child, they are expected to clean, cook, and take care of their parents for life. Society’s reliance on muxes for housework has become so pronounced that in recent years, some mothers have resorted to purposely raising their youngest son as muxe if they are no daughters in the family so that they can take care of
them when their parents reach old age. Narrow expectations of what people in this group should be or do have severely limited their ability to go out into the world and do with their life anything that does not conform to their prescribed roles. This is an ironic contradiction: on the one hand, muxes are crucial to the culture and economy of the region. On the other hand, not fulfilling their presumed roles will probably lead to them being discriminated against.This is a pattern that can be observed around the world when it comes to rejecting heteronormative gender norms. Acceptance to Overcome Barriers Muxes are indeed a very interesting and important group which have been largely erased by the media in Mexico and around the world. When it comes to structural discrimination, gender norms are still one of the biggest obstacles to overcome for people everywhere. However, accepting queerness is the first step when it comes to the advancement of universal rights for LGBTQ+ individuals all over, and shining the spotlight on muxes and other queer communities around the world is crucial in recognising that we are all one and
In Conversation: Tony Pua on Malaysia’s Future Marianne Hii Features Editor
T
he LSESU Malaysia Club invited Tony Pua, Political Secretary to the Minister of Finance of Malaysia and Member of Parliament for Damansara, to LSE on 15 November to talk about ‘The Middle Income Trap’ and have a Q&A session. Features Editor Marianne Hii sat down with him to discuss the improvements and challenges behind installing a new government. Interview has been edited for clarity and length. Beaver: So, now that Malaysia has 62 years of independence, we have been making some major developments. What is your opinion on the role of education in shaping the Malaysian economy? Pua: I think the number one solution towards higher income, better economy, better quality of life for all, better equality, has to be education. Better quality education, more holistic education. But that change takes time. That change involves not only good policies, but also very strong political will, and hence that will be a strategy that is longer-term in nature. Beaver: How are Malaysia’s politics and economy intertwined? Pua: The elaboration will take at least an hour, but the short answer is that politics and economics will perhaps always be intertwined, in any part of the world, but particularly so in Malaysia. Partly because Malaysia for the past 60 years has been - I think the word is - “brainwashed” to think along racial lines, which was the formula used to sustain the previous government in power. Now that we have managed to defeat the previous government, the thinking remains the same. It’s all about how much is it for Malays as opposed to how much are other races gaining, when the argument should be how much is
it for the bottom income earners versus how much the top income earners are getting, regardless of race. And hence, policy choices that the government imposes must take into account the perceived divisions, perceived stereotypes, perceived racial mindsets, or you might have the best policy for any economy but fail in implementing it, because you failed to take into account how these policies will be perceived on the ground as being biased to any particular race. Beaver: Are there any policies that the government is taking to reduce rent-seeking patronage? Pua: I think that the simplest policies that we started is to ensure that all contracts are tended competitively. [Open contracts], that’s the simplest, and even when there are certain types of contracts that are restricted to bumiputras (Malays and indigenous peoples of Malaysia), for example, as it was in the previous government. What we do now is even if it’s restricted to bumiputras, then it is tended competitively between bumiputra companies as opposed to in the past: they say it is for bumiputras only; they will allocate it to a particular bumiputra company. There are plans to table a Government Procurement Act, and that Act will cover a lot of reforms on how the government will carry out procurement in the future, so this is actually currently in the making. And we will table it, I believe sometime next year. Beaver: So you believe that the Pakatan Harapan Government is making solid progress towards a more transparent economy? Pua: in terms of progress – increased transparency, good governance – absolutely. In terms of delivering actual tangible results on the ground where the people can feel it, it’s still pretty much a work in progress, because changes in government do not immediately translate into better quality of life for
the people out there. It is a change that will take time. It is a change that will be appreciated by domestic and foreign investors, and for them to react to this change, it will take time for them to shift and change their investment decisions based on their confidence in Malaysia and in turn, overtime, medium-term, will have an impact on the economy. So it is something that we need to be slightly patient about. Voters’ expectations are very high, but the economy isn’t going to flip upside down just because there was a change of government less than 2 years ago. But with all the right foundations put in place, we believe that all this effort in governance and transparency will translate itself to better economic returns, clearly, over the medium-term. Beaver: I know a lot of Malaysians here, especially at LSE, would like to continue seeing such changes, but it all depends on the next government. Pua: And that’s the reason why we are institutionalising many of these changes via laws, so the Government Procurement Act is meant to do exactly that, so that for them to change the law, in which they do a procurement, for example, go back to direct negotiations, will take a lot of effort. They cannot give direct negotiations without breaking the law unless they make a separate effort to change the law, which will then make them look very bad. Beaver: Do you have any advice for young Malaysians hoping to enter politics and continue contributing to such changes? Pua: I think young Malaysians who are interested in politics are extremely welcome. The opening answer or statement I would like to make is really the fact that the problems that you see today in the country’s administrations: you will scold the ministers for being dumb, you will curse the ministers
LSESU Malaysia Club, The Middle Income Trap Event
for being daft, you will cover your face in shame by some of the idiotic statements that our country’s leaders seem to be making, but the reason for that is that there is not enough talent in politics. When the smartest people in the country shun politics, then the worst of the lot become your leaders. So the only way to solve the problem, is more smart people, more clever people, more intelligent, young Malaysians decide to join politics at some point in time. That’s the only way you can get better quality leaders in the country, so that’s number one. But point number two that I would like to make is that a lot of young idealistic Malaysians often like to join politics immediately, because you want to do it now, that’s your desire, that’s your goal, but what happens it that when you join immediately after school, that means college, what will happen is that you lack real world experience out there. You have not seen the people out there, you have not seen how corporations work, you have not seen how people react to policies, that only creates smart people making policies in a vacuum. So it is always useful to have some real
world experience, whether it’s two years or ten years or more. It is better than having no experience out there; it is very important to learn to manage, to see how policies work or don’t work, before joining the governing sector or the politics, so that you are better able to contribute if you are elected or become part of the decision making committee. And I think that lastly, we definitely look forward to more Malaysians, young Malaysians, bright young Malaysians coming back home and changing things for the better. The current generation has done only step one, and that took a while, only step one, that is, to change the BN government, the corrupt kleptocratic BN government, but that doesn’t solve all our problems. We need more leaders who are even more determined to make Malaysia better, to take step two, step three, to change the mindset of Malaysians, to make Malaysia even more democratic, even more cohesive, even more united, and to put in place better economic policies to ensure that we can compete with the best of the world.
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Features
Tuesday 26 November 2019 | The Beaver
Voting At Uni: Who’s Running to Represent LSE’s Halls? Our Deputy Features Editor takes a look at the candidates gunning for the most important job of all.
Tom Prendergast
Deputy Features Editor
Holborn & St Pancras Accommodations: Passfield Hall, Carr-Saunders Hall, College Hall, Connaught Hall, International Hall, The Garden Halls, Urbanest King’s Cross, High Holborn Labour: Sir Keir Starmer (Incumbent) General: · Current Shadow Brexit Secretary, formerly Head of the Crown Prosecution Service. · Worked for many years as a defence barrister specializing in human rights. · Historically associated with New Labour politics but has shown some embrace of more left-wing positions in the Shadow Cabinet. · Supposedly was the inspiration for Colin Firth’s character in Bridget Jones (possibly fabricated, but so the rumour goes). Brexit: Largely advocated for a Soft Brexit with a permanent customs union and close relationship with the single market – but since 2018 has also supported the idea of a second confirmatory referendum. Conservative: Alexandra Hayward General: · Formerly an NHS nurse working in Farringdon, currently a District Councillor in Three Rivers, Hertfordshire. · Campaign has thus far highlighted few direct policy preferences beyond those raised in the Conservative manifesto. Brexit: Refuses to confirm whether she voted to Remain or Leave in 2016, but now pledges to “get Brexit done”. Liberal Democrats: Matthew Kirk General: · Former barrister working in criminal law. · Outspoken supporter of all main Liberal Democrat talking points in this election, namely to stop Brexit, address climate change, and secure higher funding for local services. Brexit: Firm Remainer – his initial statement to voters describes how he has “campaigned to promote European co-operation for over twenty-five years.” Brexit Party: Hector Birchwood General: · LSE alumnus and former Beaver cartoonist. · Former reality TV “Heir Hunter”, a detective of sorts who searches for the living relatives of deceased individuals without a last will. · Aside from advocating for the Brexit Party’s suggested PR voting reform, dedicates significant time on attacking on opponent Sir Keir Starmer, whom he describes as “the poster boy of our broken political system”. Brexit: Self-explanatory. Other – Green: Kirsten de Keyser; Socialist Equality: Thomas Scripps
Cities of London & Westminster Accommodations: Grosvenor House, Northumberland House, Nutford House, Lilian Penson Hall Labour: Gordon Nardell QC General: · Barrister who became a key and controversial figure in the Labour anti-Semitism scandal as the initial QC overseeing response to the complaints – his tenure as General Counsel was described by a Jewish Labour Movement spokesperson as “remarkable only for the absolute chaos and political manipulation… which took place under his watch.” · Emphasises housing as a key issue – this constituency is home to some of the priciest real estate in London and has faced substantial pressure on its social housing from property developers. Brexit: Little specific said thus far – but has extensive experience in EU law and advising on Brexit-related issues as a legal professional. Conservative: Nickie Aiken General: · Current leader of the Westminster council, former press secretary to William Hague. · Replacing incumbent Conservative MP Mark Field, the former minister who famously manhandled an environmental protestor on camera earlier this year. · Highlights tackling rough sleeping, higher police numbers, and preventing overuse of shortterm letting on platforms such as Airbnb as priorities. Brexit: “Get it done”. Liberal Democrats: Chuka Umunna General: · Former Labour MP and cofounder of Change UK, which he left to join the Liberal Democrats in June 2019. · Running for the first time in London & Westminster after years as the Labour representative for his home constituency of Streatham. · Regularly publishes columns in The Independent, opining on everything from NHS reform to immigration to the Labour antiSemitism scandal. · Broadly associated with centrist, Blairite positions. Brexit: Strongly pro-Remain. Brexit Party: Georgine Thorburn General: · Comes from a career restoring documents damaged in accidents and calamities. Attempting to describe her previous work, her profile on the Brexit Party website contains this unfortunate formulation: “She has been involved in most of our nation’s major disasters ranging from the Piper Alpha oil well catastrophy [sic] in the North Sea, terrorist bombings and the flash flooding around the country over the last 28 years”. Might be worth having a look at that wording, Nigel. · Campaign has included a little-seen YouTube clip where she stands outside of the BBC headquarters railing against the “left-
wing liberal elite” who supposedly run the nation’s media. · Like other candidates in this constituency, highlights lack of housing, rising property prices, and absentee landlords as key issues. Brexit: Hard Brexit – but according to her Brexit Party profile, she “loves the European countries for their individuality”. Other – Green: Zack Polanski; Women’s Equality: Jenn Selby; Liberal: Dirck van Heck
Constituency Trivia: As a heavily Remain-voting (72%) but traditionally Conservative constituency, this is set to be a key battleground, primarily between moderate Tory Nickie Aiken and archRemainer Chuka Umunna. Georgine Thorburn’s presence on the ballot is somewhat odd – although the Brexit Party Westminster website states that she is still running, this would appear to violate Nigel Farage’s pledge to not contest previously Torywon seats. Bermondsey & Southwark
Old
Accommodations: Bankside, Sidney Webb House, Butler’s Wharf Labour: Neil Coyle (Incumbent) General: · Priorities included opposition to Universal Credit welfare reforms, tackling homelessness, and knife crime. · Noted opponent of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, despite initial support, who narrowly escaped potential deselection. · Recently found himself in hot water for referring to Boris Johnson as a “dick” on television, followed by calling Piers Morgan a “scrote” who should “go fuck [him]self” on Twitter. Brexit: Strongly Remain – was one of 47 MPs who disobeyed the Labour Party three-line whip to vote for triggering Article 50 in 2017, and has advocated for its revocation ever since. Conservative: Andrew Baker General: · Claimed priorities include the building of affordable housing, air pollution, and retaining both the academy system and OFSTED. · Legal professional with a background in the City, having also provided campaign support for the Conservatives in preceding elections and the Scottish independence referendum.
Brexit: Quiet on specifics, but does allude to “deliver[ing]” it. Liberal Democrat: Humaira Ali General: · Currently stands on Southwark Council. · Emphasises better quality and more affordable housing, police shortages, and funding for schools, youth services, and infrastructure. Brexit: Remain Brexit Party: Alex Matthews General: · Former Labour party member (albeit with no active political experience). · Discusses few points of policy other than Brexit, although he has defended the Brexit Party against accusations of “cryptofascism” from Neil Coyle and labelled the EU a “racist institution”. Brexit: Hard Brexit.
Islington South & Finsbury Accommodations: Rosebery Hall Labour: Emily Thornberry (Incumbent) General: · Current Shadow Foreign Secretary, formerly held multiple Shadow Cabinet positions. · Key role in defining Labour’s foreign policy positions in the upcoming election. · Priorities have included affordable housing, equal pay, and defence spending reform. · A controversial figure in the Labour Party due to a number of public and private gaffes, and frequent conflict with party leadership over Brexit. Brexit: Passionate Remainer: has been pictured dressed as the EU flag in recent months. Conservative: Jason Charalambous General: · Lawyer and former Conservative councillor for Enfield. · Few distinguishing policy priorities aside from the standard Conservative talking points in this election. Brexit: “Get Brexit done” Liberal Democrat: Kate Pothalingham General: · Relatively new to politics, having joined the Liberal Democrats in 2017 after a career in financial services. · Professed priorities include education funding, improved adult learning opportunities, investment in the NHS (particularly in mental health), and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Brexit: Strong Remainer – originally became politically active in order to support a Remain position. Brexit Party: Paddy Hannam General: · Writer for the anti-establishment, far-right/far-left (depending on which is the more contrarian position to take at the time) publication Spiked, and according to its author profiles is still a student. · Noted climate change sceptic, describing going carbon neutral as
a “massive waste of money”. The majority of his Spiked articles revolve around this contention. Brexit: Hard Brexit Other – Green: Talia Hussain; Monster Raving Looney: Sandys of Bunhill
Constituency Trivia: Although Emily Thornberry has held this seat without serious opposition since 2005, significant headway by the Liberal Democrats in this heavily Remain-supporting constituency have seen it placed on the Labour Party’s ‘at risk’ list. Bethnal Green & Bow Accommodations: Lilian Knowles House Labour: Rushanara Ali (Incumbent) General: · Priorities included investment in education, restructuring bills for leaseholders, unemployment, protecting remittances, and foreign aid. · Campaign pledges include enforcing a £10 per hour living wage, affordable housing in the East End, support for carers, equitable funding for schools, and tackling air pollution. · A significant critic of Jeremy Corbyn who was almost ousted by Momentum activists earlier this year. Brexit: Defied Labour three-line whip on triggering article 50 – since then has advocated against a Hard Brexit, rather than complete revocation. Conservative: Nicholas Stovold General: · Conservative Party Area Chairman for Wiltshire & Swindon. · Campaign priorities have included tackling knife crime, mental health support, and interestingly, what he labels “water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH)”. Brexit: Very little said on Brexit directly – but his Twitter feed does indicate support for Boris’ deal. Liberal Democrat: Josh Babarinde General: · LSE alumnus and founder of Cracked It, an enterprise that aids young ex-offenders find employment. · Professed priorities include tackling knife crime and investment in youth services. Brexit: Remain Brexit Party: David Axe General: · Last minute replacement for Marc Sidwell, The Telegraph’s Head of Personal Finance. Bafflingly, Sidwell is the author of a book entitled The Case Against Brexit: Why Britain Must Remain
www.beaveronline.co.uk | @thebeaveronline in the European Union with an endorsement from Jacob Rees-Mogg on the front cover. Or, it seems baffling until you open it and realise that it’s a novelty book full of blank pages. · Taken time to express support for the Brexit Party’s proposed abolition of the House of Lords. Brexit: On the board of Invoke Democracy Now, a campaign demanding obeisance to the “democratic mandate” of the 2016 vote through an immediate Hard Brexit. Other – Green: Shahrar Ali; Animal Welfare: Vanessa Hudson
Vauxhall Accommodations: Urbanest Westminster Bridge Labour and Co-operative: Florence Eshalomi General: · Running jointly for Labour and the Co-Operative Party. · Current London assembly member for Lambeth and Southwark – priorities in this position have included tackling gang violence and highlighting the effects of austerity on violent crime. · More centrist position in the Labour Party – an attempted trigger ballot against her London Assembly position was launched earlier this year by Momentum affiliates, although the organisation itself has since criticised the action and voiced their support for her candidacy. Brexit: Remain Conservative: Sarah Bool General: · Mayfair-based real estate lawyer and Conservative Party activist since age 9, reportedly. · Key focus of campaign has been “safer streets” and the prevention of knife crime – advocating for the immediate arrest and
Email us: features@beaveronline.co.uk
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charge within 24 hours of anyone found in possession of a knife. Brexit: You guessed it – “Get Brexit done”. Liberal Democrat: Sarah Lewis General: · Along with the standard Liberal Democrat talking points priorities include building new council houses and tackling rising rents. · Highlighted the Labour-led council’s demolition of council houses in the constituency – a Labour safe seat for decades – as a key battle line. Brexit: Remain. Brexit Party: Andrew McGuiness General: · A last minute replacement for previous candidate Hortense Sheppard. · Little is known about this mysterious new candidate, apart from the fact that he shares a name with an intensely Remain-supporting Liberal Democrat activist in Manchester (who steals a certain amount of his limelight on Twitter). Brexit: It’s safe to assume that a Hard Brexit is on the cards. Other – Independent: Salah Faissal; Green: Jacqueline Bond
Constituency Trivia: Vauxhall had the highest Remain vote in the UK at 79%, yet still reelected deeply Eurosceptic Labour MP/professed DUP voter Kate Hoey in 2017.
British, Irish, and Commonwealth citizens are eligible to vote in the General Election. Students may choose whether to vote in their home constituency or at their term-time address. You must register by 26 November to be eligible. Voting takes place in-person on Thursday, 12 December 2019, but can also be conducted via postal ballot. Get registered at:
https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote
Photoillustration by Colin Vanelli.
FLIPSIDE VOL. 23
NOV 26 FREE
Three trans rappers you need to know
The Beveridge Report 2.0: We went to Zoo
Rugby: is it a bit gay?
AMRAJ
LALLY
Where to go for a queer night out in London
TOBY
DRAPER
JESSICA ROSE
CHAN
I
n the lead up to this interview, we joked that queer time theory is the most important mysterious paradigm dominating the lives of LGBTQ+ people, you know, apart from queerphobia. The planned time for this interview to take place was 11am, but at a quarter to the hour everyone let me know they’d be running late. Which was great because I was also running late. Things didn’t get off the ground until a few minutes past noon. Toby, third year BSc Social Anthropology, helpfully explains the idea behind queer time theory: “socially, the way that we construct our past and present and future is kind of related to these sexual normative markers of life… if you have a queer relationship to that, that kind of distorts those ideas.” For trans people like Toby, this can mean feeling like you’re going through puberty in adulthood due to the processes involved in transitioning – he’s “often mistaken for being a lot younger” than he is. Apparently, “being on testosterone has kind of been described as like going through male puberty and menopause at the same time, which is an emotional ride. But it’s also amazing and it’s great.” Toby is doing his dissertation on queer time theory and sex workers, exploring “more broadly, labour under capitalism generally and like how that impacts their relationship with mainstream society.” Amraj, a PhD Sociology student, is looking at race representation and HIV prevention in England, “specifically with looking at Brown men and how we’ve been overlooked group in data collection.” He “kind of accidentally fell into this specific niche but it feels really rewarding.” Jessica, like Toby, is also a BSc Social Anthropology student. She’s looking at the relationship between the Hong Kong protest mobilisation and linguistics. “There’s an online forum – it’s kind of like Hong Kong reddit. It’s got like specific culture before the protest was it quite misogynistic and like, semi right wing, but during the protest it actually fueled and helped a lot of people get together.” Just returned from Hong Kong in the week before this interview, Jessica is also a part of the LSE Stands with Hong Kong
campaign, which recently published an open letter on academic freedom. She’s “really glad to see a lot of international students supporting Hong Kong,” adding that she thinks it’s because “it’s not so much of a like left-right issue – it’s kind of universal.” In an entirely different mood and tone, Amraj’s hometown, Slough, is notorious for being the filming location of The Office UK – the main building used was recently demolished. “We were so ashamed of it,” he says. Whatever turbulences may be happening at home, Jessica, Amraj, and Toby have made a place for themselves in London. Jessica lives with her mum and sister in the southwest. Amraj did his Master’s in medical anthropology and sociology at the University of Amsterdam just to prove that he could, in fact, leave London – “I could, and I was like ‘now I can come back.’” Toby runs a “support network for LGBT Christians or people that have left Christianity and have some kind of relationship with with the faith,” in addition to “doing some volunteering with some organisations that are campaigning for decriminalisation of sex work.” Toby describes the time he has had rebuilding his relationship with his faith as a queer person: “I’ve been on a long journey with faith – I grew up very Christian and then in my late teens stumbled into the kind of quite conservative evangelical church and was very deeply rooted in that. That was a lot of my life for a long time. But I guess I found that that was very difficult to navigate as a queer person. I’ve kind of been on a journey of deconstructing some of the beliefs I felt were harmful in that time. And again, I have a kind of complicated relationship with church now that I’m kind of like, still somewhat involved, but still at arm’s length.” He doesn’t feel comfortable describing himself as a Christian, and instead identifies as agnostic. Amraj comes from an Indian Sikh background, but says his family is “not very religious. My granddad’s an atheist and my uncle and cousins, so that helps with not necessarily following what might seem to be expected in terms of political views and feminisms, which is cool.”
Both Toby and Amraj lamented the loss of HER Upstairs in Camden, highlighting the club’s commitment to diversity and the fact that it was a communityowned space. It was forced to close down as it could not cope with rising rents. In lieu of HER Upstairs, the gang recommends alternative places to party: SHE bar in Soho and G-A-Y Late. Jessica did her second-year anthropology coursework in SHE bar – it’s the only women’s bar in London. “From what I observe in SHE, people don’t really drink that much. They’re just there to dance and make friends,” Jessica says, which she thinks contributes to the lack of profitability of queer women’s nightlife. Amraj is a member of G-A-Y Late but he does “think there is a move towards night outs instead of more concrete venues.” Jessica, president of LSESU Pride Alliance and Amraj, the treasurer, have been involved in the society since the start of their time at LSE, having both held executive positions in previous years. Toby was the LSESU LGBTQ+ Students’ Officer in the 18/19 academic year. They’re all very well placed to suggest what LSE could be doing more of to support its queer students. Jessica says there’s a counselling deficit, “I’m involved in different campaigns and groups and everyone’s been reflecting that.” She also thinks funds need to be made more accessible to LGBTQ+ causes. Amraj adds, “you have to fight for this funding, and it’s not a given.” Toby also highlights that “financial prosperity is such an issue with the with the trans community – if you don’t have solid support from family that can very be very quickly be cut off when you come out.” He also adds that accessing part-time work can be particularly arduous for trans people. Amraj thinks a lot more can be done to make spaces that aren’t explicitly for LGBTQ+ people more inclusive, especially with regards to sports and widening participation. He would also like to see more academic engagement with queer ideas and the university do more to promote queer academia on campus, as is already done for other marginalised groups. Pride Week at LSE has come a long way from being Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Awareness Week in 1993 – Jessica, Amraj and Toby are living testaments to this. interview: Christina Ivey photography: Sebastian Mullen
TOBY
DRAPER
AMRAJ
LALLY
JESSICA ROSE
CHAN
SOCIAL The Beveridge Report 2.0: We went to
O
nce upon a time, we used to have a weekly report on the happenings at Zoo called The Beveridge Report 2.0 or simply The Beverage Report. For one time, and one time only we returned to Zoo. Here’s what we found. Seth Rice, Sports Editor & Men’s Football Sixth Team Captain One’s first Zoo excursion is like listening to one’s first Beatles song – if that song happens to be Revolution 9. At this point, stepping inside the sticky edifice elicits, for most of us, a feeling of ambivalence: this is how it is and this is how it will be until we leave LSE. But for our own Executive Editor, who I am told could barely contain his excitement, there was nothing but joy at the prospect of ‘his first’. ‘The Boss’, as he likes to go by, took to the ‘Leicester Square Cathedral’ like a duck to water – chanting, nicking fags, and boogying to Katy Perry until the early hours of Thursday morning. When I glimpsed him from the other side of the cage, he had the gun fingers out and a jagerbomb in hand. When a song to his particularly liking came on, he would shout ‘Oi, oiiii’ and then start jumping up and down in a vain attempt to start a mosh pit. Unfortunately, few obliged. How anyone could avoid the magnetism of Zoo for over two years is beyond me. In any case, I imagine this won’t be the last we see of the Exec. Ed. on a Wednesday. Laura Zampini, News Editor & Women’s Volleyball Member I was late for pres, arriving sweaty and in my volleyball kit, straight from a game in Canterbury. This is how curious I was to see The Beaver at Zoo. In the end, this Zoo experience was like many others. I was not surprised to see our group blend into the sweaty crowd dancing on the sofas in the Cage, struggling to find space in the smoking area and giving each other a look of resolve at about 1:30 am that said, “we’re done.” Despite the painful day after, I have to admit I enjoyed my night, though I think from the response of our first-time goers that ‘The Beaver Goes to Zoo’ will remain a one-time experience. Lucy Knight, Comment Editor I’ve made a lot of mistakes in my life, and I can find no clearer example than Zoo – for every Wednesday night, there is a Thursday morning. Dizzy and dehydrated, we wake up to swipe through blurry pictures with people we met in freshers week but haven’t spoken to since. Some have a few hickeys on their necks to add to their list of regrets. And every Thursday, we attempt to answer the age-old question: why do we do this, week in, week out? Is it really worth going just to see your Executive Editor being forced onto the sofas to get down to Pitbull?
I think Mr. Worldwide and myself would agree that it was absolutely worth it. Regardless, what arrogance do we have here, mere students who strive to be referred as BNOCs only because our names are printed on a paper strewn about campus every other Tuesday? Why should our experiences matter, as, just like every other LSE mortal, we too slide into insignificance in the cage, existing only to fist pump and throw it back anytime Drake blasts through a speaker? No jacket to be found, with only an atmosphere of second-hand smoke to keep us warm. And yet whether you’re quantitative or qualitative, Tory or Labour, Zoo exists for us all to regret the morning after, to keep us #humbled. Idil Omar, Social Staff Writer I would like to begin with a disclaimer that I have never been to Zoo before, and I have no plans to visit again in the foreseeable future. Nevertheless, I am told it is an LSE tradition and Wednesday night ritual, so I am withholding most of my judgement. If you miss riding the Central line in mid-July, boy do I have the place for you. The Cage was a health hazard, but also a fascinating site for a potential anthropological study. I took a break in the smoking area while someone smoked a Mango Juul pod a metre away. As a postgrad student, I have never been more aware of my own mortality. Also, shout out to the security guard who helped me find my hat at the end of the night. You are a king amongst men. Michael Shapland, Comment Editor Zoo, to my surprise, was like any other club, only with cheaper drinks and far more people I knew in it. It was good seeing some old, and some relatively new faces. For this reason, Zoo is largely better than the typical club experience, especially in London. It’s bar layout was aesthetically pleasing. The men’s bathroom attendants were a welcome addition. The place can get rather packed, but if one works on their core strength then they’re set. Music-wise more hard trap would have been sufficient, but Zoo supplied a healthy mix of classic dance numbers, R&B, and rap. I don’t recall any Drake being played, however, which is a serious blot on an otherwise solid showing. Overall, I award the place four out of five Beaver stars. Gabby Sng, Sports Editor & Women’s Hockey Member Whenever people ask me how Zoo went, my classic response is always ‘Zoo is Zoo’. I never go to socials or pre’s with the intention of going to Zoo but somehow always end up there anyway. There’s nothing quite like Zoo on a typical Wednesday AU
night. The sweat, the stench, the stickiness, and the same people. The best part of it all, you get an encore of the whole process every week on repeat. I guess this familiarity and predictability of Zoo is what brings me back every single time, week after week. Not to my mention my weekly procrastination and inability to stand up to peer pressure, of course. Nevertheless, I’m glad I hit up Zoo this week because I got to see our fabulous Executive Editor and other Beaver Zoo virgins pull their best moves in the Cage and nick some cigarettes in the smoking area. Furthermore, the sky wasn’t spitting for once so that was fab. As always, I woke up with a painful headache, sore feet, and massive regrets the day after, but that won’t stop me from seeing y’all there next week. Morgan Fairless, Executive Editor Fucking Zoo – I didn’t make it through third year before getting dragged there. Even LSE’s top social scientist wouldn’t dare try to explain why our student body keeps going there, like Stockholm Syndrome ridden, horny rabbits. If there is anything right about Zoo, it’s the name: anyone there is an imprisoned animal. Prisoners to our lack of options, we sweat away as we try to avoid eye contact with people we don’t really know too well. On the Flipside, we make heart eyes at the attractive people in our classes but it only has the effect of making the rest of the year painstakingly awkward as you try to juggle attraction and parsing Down’s Theorem. I gather some people love it (factcheck not available), but most regulars will usually say something along the lines of “its fucking shit but its our shit”. Hell, if that doesn’t sum up the LSE student experience, I don’t know what does. I did enjoy myself for about 20 minutes, though. We shall be going to La Fiesta to dance to some proper music next. Sam Taylor, Sports Deputy Editor & Men’s Football Seventh Team Captain Like many within the AU, Zoo is a haven for me: a home from home, a shelter from the relentless downpour of problem sets and essays. Wednesday nights have become a focal point of my week Mondays and Tuesdays simply the pre-match for a massive Wednesday night out. For one observing from the outside, deciphering the strange allure of Zoo can be quite a conundrum, with its sticky floors, sweaty blokes, and alarming lack of personal space. You’d be hard-pressed to define Zoo as the most luxurious of clubs, but for me, that’s the beauty of it. A dark pit of despair well represents the institution we attend. A place where you can bum a cig or dance like a freak without fear of judgement. Zoo is a simple club, but it gets the
job done. Unfortunately, I was rather incapacitated and thus didn’t manage to link up with any of my fellow journalists on the night. A real shame, as following a recent Beaver social (where I was slammed for speaking out in defence of thy hallowed club), I was eager to see how everyone’s nights panned out. As for their opinions on my favourite gaff: mixed. Miles McCollum, Social Deputy Editor & Men’s Football Sixth Team Member The writing staff of The Beaver are, in many ways, uncannily similar to the semi-aquatic animal which they represent. They are incredibly territorial, and will defend with their lives that citadel which is the media office. While seemingly innocuous and fair-natured, they behave fiercely and erratically when provoked. One would be a fool to write these people off as cliquey, or geeky, or neeky. The dark side of the insidious, drugfuelled, sex-driven world of journalism – the one which would drive any normal man’s spirit to emotional destitution – is no more haunting to Beaver writers than an egg and cress sandwich. And there is only one place for animals of this nature to be kept responsibly: The Zoo. What actually happened when we went to Zoo? Oh mate, no idea, I was battered. Christina Ivey, Flipside Editor and Pole Fitness Member Zoo is, without a doubt, the closest one can come to the Hobbesian state of nature – a war of all against all, nasty, brutish, and short. To really enjoy it, you need to drink yourself to the edge of oblivion in order to annihilate any of your senses. You don’t want to be sober enough to notice the sticky floors, the pugency, or the sweat shower that bathes you upon entering in The Cage. It’s a place where being tall is a huge advantage: you can navigate the two arenas of Zoo – The Cage and the smoking area – without being stuck in a whirlpool of ominous smells. Having fun at Zoo is an episode in strategic planning. Pre’s are a must, but you have to keep your wits about you to make sure no one jumps you in the queue to get in, or in the arduously long line for the cloak room. After this Kafkaesque experience, you can finally step down to enter The Cage to enjoy some early 2010s pop bangers. Finally, after tiring of the stifling heat and being surrounded by horny second years, you will emerge to the smoking area with a quest to bum a cigarette off of one of your friends. The air will not be fresh, but it will be cool and crisp. Eventually, your back will start to tire and you will sober up – off you go, into the night in search of Maccies.
Tuesday 26 November editor: AnalĂa Ferreyra
lifestyle/advice/satire
L-R:Morgan Fairless, Laura Zampini, Sebasti an Mullen and Christina Ivey
by L-R: Gab
y
Sng, Luc
ni
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m and Sam Taylo L-R: Miles McCollu
L-R: Sadia Sheeraz, Christina Ivey and Esther Stefanini
a Gentili
nd Elen Knight a
Throwback: The Beverage Report as it appears in issue 849 of The Beaver.
Tuesday 26 November editor: Analía Ferreyra
lifestyle/advice/satire
Cliteracy 5: But it ain’t no lie baby, bi bi bi
P
ussy’s out sick this week, but fear not – Jolly Goodhead is here to pick up the slack. It’s PRIDE week, so in this issue of Cliteracy we’re talking about bisexual awakenings. First things first: what does it mean to be bisexual? You’re bisexual if you’re attracted to people of the same gender as well as others. Now,
my bisexual awakening was a bit unusual. Growing up, I always knew I was attracted to women but with men, I wasn’t so sure. It wasn’t until the 2014 FIFA World Cup and I started feeling tingly things in my nether regions that I realised I was bisexual.
Jolly Goodhead
Sometimes, in a bid to explain our attraction to straight people, bisexuals will explain their attraction to specific genders in terms of percentages. For instance, one might say that they are 20% attracted to women and 80% attracted to men. Fuck that, in my opinion. My attraction to any gender is indivisible. I am 100% attracted to women, just as I am 100% attracted to men and 100% attracted to everything else on the gender spectrum. I just like people and I think it’s a bastardisation of my sexuality to pretend that I can quantify this attraction in any meaningful way. That being said, I don’t believe I experience attraction to women the same way I experience it to
men, but that’s because men are trash. I love every woman until proven otherwise, I’m a bit more selective about the men I choose to let near my heart… and my fanny. If you’re wondering whether you’re bisexual or not, I can’t really recommend a foolproof way to end the uncertainty but there are a few things you can try. Do you get aroused at the thought of someone of the same gender? Can you imagine yourself pursuing a romantic relationship with a person of the same gender, or is it purely sexual? I find the Kinsey Scale is a useful way to contextualise these feelings. It’s a model created by Alfred Kinsey as a way of describing the spectrum of human sexuality, from perfect heterosexuality to perfect gayness. In a 1948 paper, Kinsey wrote “Males do not represent two discrete populations, heterosexual and homosexual. The world is not to be divided into sheep and goats…The living world is a continuum in each and every one of its aspects.” The illustration below by Michael Dimotta is a solid visual guide to the scale, now available for your own perusal!
Illustration by Michael Dimotta via Tumblr
my home is on fire
I
Zehra Jafree
couldn’t reach my brother on Monday. I woke up to news reports that police had shot a student in Hong Kong, where my family lives, and I couldn’t get a hold of my little brother.
The effects of the events in Hong Kong on my mental health have been significant, as I am sure they are for other LSE students - whether they’re from Hong Kong, Chile, Bolivia, or any other place experiencing civil unrest. I am not a menThis week, the situation in Hong Kong tal health expert, but my mum is. She rehas gone from horrific to an actual night- cently wrote an article for Hong Kongers mare. And being so far away from home about the impact of stress caused by long is so, so shit. term civil unrest. I don’t always actively think about Hong Kong, but every now and then it’ll pop into my head out of nowhere. I have no control over what happens next. How am I supposed to feel OK when I can’t be sure if my family is safe as I see the city I love up in flames?
“In times of civil unrest, we have to be mindful of tipping over from a tolerable stress response (finite stresses) to a toxic stress response. Toxic stress responses can occur when someone experiences intense, frequent, and/or prolonged adversity—such as physical or emotional abuse, chronic neglect, caregiver substance International students speak too little abuse or mental illness, exposure to vioabout being far away from home. But we lence, and/or the accumulated burdens need to, especially if our homes have seri- of family economic hardship—without ous shit going down. adequate support. This kind of prolonged activation of the stress response systems
Protests in Causeway Bay, Hong Kong
sexual-groundworks.pride (ep.3)
A
s a continental European, I first understood what it means to be proud when I spent my tenth year of school abroad in Scotland. The Scots are a proud people — proud of their beautiful country, proud of their age-old dislike of England, and yes, proud of their sexual diversity.
The entire school was overrun with queer kids: boys wearing makeup, lesbian couples, the flamboyant actor types (my group), you name it. It was considered really cool to be queer. In fact, you almost attracted suspicion when you weren’t. Scotland isn’t paradise on earth, but in that regard my experience came pretty close to it.
and while I was certainly a bit obnoxious, my pride hasn’t diminished. I was certainly aggressive about my self-identification, but, given the conservative backdrop, I had all the right, maybe the need to be. Pride is emancipatory; it’s a way to fight back when you’re at odds with expectations.
Insidiously, public discourse is too often centred around justifications for queerness. The “born this way” argument is as well-meaning as it is unnecessary: it doesn’t matter why I’m queer, queerness requires no justification. Equality shouldn’t be conditional on naturalism or sameness — it’s both a claim and a commitment that our society must uphold. Pride is pure self-affirmation, to assert Back in Germany, my old classmates were and enforce our claim to treatment as amazed. First, they noted my weight loss, equals. then “how nice I was all of a sudden.” Over time, it transpired that more had Before I first kissed a man, I didn’t think changed. I wore very colourful shirts and I would like it. I had always flirted both bowties, had my nails painted, constantly ways, but seldom felt the wish to act on talked about sex, and started calling it. Some moments passed where I had myself bi. One might say I had fully em- just been too hesitant. When it finally braced my campness. happened, I was surprised how little the experience resembled my expectations. I was immensely proud of myself then, What was I supposed to feel? The answer
Merlin Krzemien
had become irrelevant in light of the unique quality of my experience. To be proud is to affirm our idiosyncrasy. This means to embrace labels in the positive and transcend them in the negative. Identifying as gay can be an act of empowerment because it provides you with a self-description to help you develop your sexuality. At the same time, it enforces some level of self-lucidity as one must constantly question the limitations of sexual categories. Labels aren’t facts, they’re lenses of self-understanding and tools of autonomy.
est exploration of who we are and want to be — opens us up to the world of grey areas and should prompt us to be more adventurous.
If you identify as queer, the world is set up so that you’re constantly forced to reconsider your identity. Our social, cultural, and symbolic background paints queerness as deviancy: from Disney movies to the institution of marriage to gym changing rooms — we live in a world of assumed heterosexuality which discourages straying from the norm.
In a very mundane sense, good sex obviously requires that you know yourself. Maybe more than that, however, it requires sensitivity to your opposite’s perspective. If you’re a straight man, believe me, you never really appreciate what vulnerability feels like until you’ve made out with muscular, bearded, six foot five guy who could break you with his bare hands. Try it, your girlfriend will thank you for it.
Those who feel more comfortable with those norms are less likely to embrace their ambiguity. This falsely reinforces the illusion that categories are a priori artefacts and clear-cut. Pride — the hon-
can disrupt the development of brain architecture in young children and other organ systems, and increase the risk for stress-related disease and cognitive impairment well into the adult years.” - Dr Quratulain Zaidi Our mental health or understandings of our stress may seem more hidden than they would be if we were home. From the outside, it looks fine. We’re living our lives - for the most part incredibly normally. But the thoughts will creep up, again and again, and if we aren’t aware of how we are dealing with them - the results can be severe. Analía, our Social Editor spoke to me about her experiences being away from Chile. “In the first few weeks, I found it Protests in Santiago, Chile very difficult to disconnect from my personal ties to the city. When the ENEL (electricity provider in Chile) building burned down, my first thought automatically went to one of my best friends, whose
People who identify as straight need to be reminded to reimagine themselves. That’s why it’s amazing that gay culture is slowly breaking into the mainstream: with gay becoming cool, there is vast potential for more diversity. In my opinion, we could go even further. Let’s gayify the youth. If we all were to gay up a bit, we’d be a more thoughtful, self-aware society.
parent works there. In the second week of the protests, a group of looters went to my high school, an international school, and destroyed the guardhouse, with small fires set on the driveway leading to the main gate. It’s the not knowing that’s the worst part. That fucks with me.” It’s incredibly isolating to be so disconnected from what is happening, and I don’t think I am dealing with it as well as I could be. Per my mum’s (and my psychologists) advice though, I try and keep busy, surround myself with an active support group and write extensively about how I’m feeling. It does feel like a lot - and if you’re feeling the same, speak to someone. Book time with a mental health professional, either within LSE or outside. Civil unrest is stressful and being so physically far away makes it worse.
SPORT
TACKLING THE STEREOTYPE QUEERNESS IN RUGBY
OF
AMELIA JABRY Women’s Rugby
“
It’s not gay if it’s rugby,” is a tactless phrase I’ve heard uttered multiple times by the Men’s Rugby team, usually after drunkenly kissing a comrade in Zoo. For Women’s Rugby, it’s a whole different field (you didn’t think I was NOT putting a pun in there, did you?). Women’s Rugby, along with other women’s sports clubs, has a stereotype of having a lot of LGBTQ+ players. However, what makes it different to societies like Pride Alliance or iFemSoc is that it does not explicitly market itself as an LGBTQ+ club. LSE Women’s Rugby, and most other women’s sports clubs with which we have interacted, attract freshers with the sport, the social life, and the tight-knit family we provide. Emma Lyons, player for LSEWRFC, comments on this: “I think first of all the idea of rugby players being queer is kind of self-perpetuating —in a good way! Because if you’re not straight, and you’re looking for some like-minded friends, you’ll probably have heard of women’s rugby as being a sort of hub for queer women… It’s different to a lot of other LGBTQ+ groups, because there’s not a huge political or identity element. It’s based
around this really absorbing, addictive sport instead. So its a space where a lot of people might be queer, but you’re not only bound together by identity, but by a shared interest.” This year more women and girls are playing rugby than ever before. The RFU (Rugby Football Union, a governing body for British rugby) set participation targets four years ago to double the number of women and girls playing rugby. Their success is marked: around 37,000 women and girls are playing rugby in clubs in 2019, up from 25,000 in 2017. The RFU’s Inner Warrior Camps designed to introduce women and girls to rugby - have attracted over 18,000 women over the last two years. LSE’s club has also seen major growth over the last two years, from barely being able to fill a team of 15 in first year to now having over 35 playing members. I recently shared a Vice article entitled ‘How Rugby Gives Queer Women a Place to Be Themselves’ with teammates, and many members were in agreement with its basic principle: “Because rugby players come to the sport in all manner of sexualities, sizes, and gender presentations, it provides a unique space where females are allowed to be
unabashedly themselves.” The consensus seems to be that this is an unintended consequence of the intensity of the sport. On a regular basis our players are put under a lot of physical and mental pressure in games, so social stigmas are not so much tackled as they vanish completely in the face of an intimidating number eight barrelling towards you. “What the article didn’t mention so much, why rugby is a safe space, if you will, is because it’s about physical ability and mental capacity on the pitch,” adds Bron Jackson-Turner, player for LSEWRFC and the Saracens. “Everything else is secondary, respect is earned on how well your body can do and how you work as a team, things like sexuality [are] much less important.” The social life (possibly including Zoo — ew) is also paramount to creating a comfortable and safe environment. Clubs and societies are where most people find friends on this socially atomized campus and invite each other to do things, without the pretext of doing it for gender or sexual identity, but because you want to be friends. This latter point can be applied to most clubs. Hannah Kierspel, alumni player for LSE-
WRFC, examines this further, saying, “generally I think rugby is a great unintended safe space for girls to explore their sexuality in a depoliticised context and also a context that isn’t explicitly gay. So, like if you want to experiment or discuss your thoughts but would feel ashamed or find its is too intimidating to go to a gay bar because that’s admitting something solid to yourself… I feel there is space to do that within the club.” It is also worth noting that, although Women’s Rugby has been highlighted because of its stereotypes, there are other women’s sports clubs that promote inclusivity as well and actively: again, the focus is on the sport or activity. So, is it gay if it is rugby? The point is, it doesn’t matter, because the game, and the friends you make take pride of place. Outside the team there may still be a stereotype, but within the team little thought is given to that, it all falls away.
On the afternoon of 20 November we began our journey to Canterbury for the second week in a row. Surprisingly enough, all ten players showed up on time to King’s Cross Platform 12. On the previous Wednesday we had left Kent University with a clear vision of our great comeback, after being defeated 3x1 (this means three sets to one, you volleyball virgins) in the BUCS League. This time, the stakes were higher, as this was our first knockout round of the BUCS Cup. Arriving in Kent, we were faced with our first set-back: men (what else is new?). As a men’s volleyball match delayed the start of our game for more than an hour, we attempted to stretch and warm-up in a flooded court with limited space. For most of the first and second sets, we chased after Kent, falling short by two points in both sets. Finally, in the third set, our last opportunity to continue in the game, we began playing with some intelligence and reduced our mistakes, finishing 25x20. They were not ready to crush our dreams of a victorious comeback just yet. We began the 4th set full of hope, but when we reached 10 points, their best server began sending difficult floating serves our way, making our defense scrappy and our attacks predictable. By the 20th point, their score advantage was practically impossible to catch up with. When Kent were about to score their winning point, I began to regret my promise to write a match report. So far this season we’ve won the easy matches, lost the hardest ones, and tied against Imperial – although this isn’t technically supposed to happen in volleyball. Our ‘tie’ happened because we ran out of booking time in our home court and had to leave the game unfinished with our rivals. Of course, this is just one difficulty of trying to operate a chronically underfunded SU club: we can’t even afford to book a venue in central London for the entire duration of our matches.
Topias Lauri
I
ce hockey but without the ice? Field hockey but indoors? Close to both, not not exactly either. Floorball players in the UK have gotten used to answering questions like this when trying to explain to their friends what sport they are playing. Floorball is played indoors on a rink with sticks and a ball, with the objective of scoring a goal against the opposing team by getting the ball in the opponent’s net. But unlike ice hockey, it doesn’t focus on physical aspects like hard hits. It’s faster, and players have to focus on skill, creativity, and teamwork rather than physical strength. Much of its resemblance to ice hockey comes from the fact that it was created in Canada in the early 20th century by ice hockey players who wanted to play the sport when there wasn’t any ice. The official rulebook was created in the 1970s in Sweden, and since then it has grown into a reputable sport in Europe and all around the world. Largely dominated by Sweden and Finland, the latest round of the Floorball World Championships, contested between 16 countries in the Czech Republic last year, saw a total attendance of 180,000. It is a testament to the growing popularity of
the sport, especially when the earlier World Championship tournaments this decade have struggled to gain over 100,000 in total attendance. But there continues to be many countries where floorball remains relatively unknown, one of which is the United Kingdom. LSE floorball team, which has traditionally consisted of mostly international students, was created in 2011. It has always been a small but passionate club, consisting of players who share a common love for the sport. Last season the team got a small taste of success by winning an invitational tournament held in Oxford, though the tournament was only contested by three universities. Throughout the years the team has participated in similar kinds of small tournaments around the country, but there has never been a proper floorball league in the UK.
“
During the summer, the LSE Floorball team was almost cancelled
“
Laura Zampini
LSE FLOORBALL FIGHTS TO STAY AFLOAT
The latest attempt at bringing all of the University Floorball teams together
started last Saturday in Birmingham. The inaugural season of the UK Universities Floorball League, organized by the UK Floorball Federation, launched with 6 teams contending to be crowned the national champions next spring. LSE is competing in the league jointly with Imperial College London, under the team name London United, which, besides the obvious resemblance to the famous football clubs, is meant to reflect the unification of the two London-based universities.
“Looking
into the future, the hope is that this league will continue for the years to come
“
MATCH REPORT: WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL
However, the collaboration did not start this year. With the two universities having trained in the same sports hall together, inter-university friendships naturally emerged. Combining forces for the league this year was a no-brainer, owing to the small player turnouts. Last year the total number of players from LSE and Imperial combined fell short of a normal floorball team size of 16. During the summer, the LSE Floorball team was almost cancelled altogether, because the player
count was less than half of what is needed to form a new sports club or a society. Even in the early stages of Michaelmas term it was not certain whether floorball would continue as a sport at LSE. Fortunately this year, fueled by the interest generated by the League, player count doubled not only for LSE but for Imperial as well. The joint team will be a strong one, with over 20 players competing in the League. Despite the vast majority of players being new this year, with some never playing the sport before, the season for London United started well with a victory over local rivals UCL in a friendly match two weeks ago. Looking into the future, the hope is that this league will continue for the years to come, and that more universities will continue to join this growing and fast paced sport. Much work has been done in order to create the League, but much more work is still required both to maintain it and eventually help it grow into an official BUCS sport in the United Kingdom. In the meanwhile, London United hopes to make history by competing to be crowned as the first national university champions of floorball in the United Kingdom. So stay tuned for more news about LSE floorball and the London United.
SPORT AROUND THE CITY Sam Taylor
It doesn’t take the deepest search of the web to find things to do in London, especially this time of year. However, you won’t find much to do on the sporty side. Here’s a few places you can go to get involved with a bit of sport around the city this winter.
Skiing Unfortunately for the skiers
Ice Skating
An unholy amount of skating rinks can be found in the London area around Christmas time, with Somerset House being the closest one to campus. Ice skating is really good fun and a great chance to watch your mates embarrass themselves. Rinks can also be found at the Natural History Museum, the Tower of London, and Alexandra Palace in case you fancy escaping LSE. In previous years the SU, have organised trips with discounted tickets, so if that’s to your taste then keep your eyes peeled. Otherwise, just check it out with your friends or significant other. Could be cute.
among us, London isn’t the most mountainous of cities. If you happen to not be going on the LSE Ski trip, but would still love to slalom the slopes, I have a solution. The Snow Centre indoor slopes at Hemel Hempstead have some pretty realistic looking slopes and are welcoming of all levels of skiing ability. Easily accessible by train from central, it could provide a fun day out. If your skiing abilities are lacking, there’s also a bar. It’s a little on the pricier side for students, but is still a unique London experience.
Curling That sport we watch at the Winter
Olympics and think ‘yeah I could do that’ - now’s your chance. Queens, located in Queensway near Paddington, have several curling lanes that can be hired for a reasonable £10 per person. It looks like quite a decent idea for christmas parties or just a nice evening with friends. Besides, it’s always good to try something new.
Ice Dancing
Probably not the first thing that comes to mind for the winter sport fanatics, but it does sound like a right laugh. Alexandra Palace hold Saturday night discos and sunday afternoon ‘chill sessions’, as well as a club night on the ice if you’re in the mood for dancing. Once again, something new for most and a nice change from the norm.
Ice Karting
Another one that is unfortunately pretty pricey but, in my defence, this does sound unbelievably cool. Go-Kart around an ice rink with your pals for half an hour before checking out the rinkside bar; also at Queens in Queensway. It’s also probably less reminiscent of DK Summit from Mario Kart than I’m imagining, but still, real cool.
P.S.
If none of this is to your fancy, there’s always ice hockey, figure skating, and the usual all weather sports available to watch at various locations around the city. So don’t let the cold put you off all the wonderful sporting action that London has to offer this winter. Illustration by Emma Duper
the scoop AU Lout rediscovers unerring comfort of masculinity after brief enlightened stint In early October, BeaverSports covered the astonishing story of an AU reprobate who, after an epiphanic experience at the Tate, swapped Carling for Cava and plunged into the confusing world of art and philosophy. This month, we speak with a rather different Scott Johnson. “Bro, so I was passing Tuns on my way home to catch up on this William Morris doc I’d been watching and I heard the boys chanting my song.” His song, for reference, is an edited version of Lord of the Dance, regarding ‘cheating on his missus’. “Fuck knows why they were singing it, but I saw myself in the
reflection as they chanted in the background and just thought to myself: ‘all this poncey clothing and boring literature just highkey isn’t you bro’.” And so our fallen hero returned to his former stomping ground. “Just one swift pint,” I thought, “for old times sake.” Within minutes, Johnson had ‘seen off’ three pints and was engaged in a heated discussion about the ‘top 10 netball lasses’. When asked for any final thoughts, the profligate replied “I’ve tried both sides of the coin and being a top shagger is much more fun. Why would I give a fuck about absurdism and the fundamental meaningless of everyday experience when I can just pork birds and neck beer for the rest of my life?”
w/ seth rice
7 articles that didn’t make the cut 1. LSE AU responds to controversy of being ‘too diverse’ by hiring all-white committee 2. Rugby lads or Management students: Who would you least like to shag? 3. Men’s FC members request permission to wear LSE-branded trackies to internship 4. Tuns hire DJs on Wednesday; everyone suddenly forgets they serve shit pints 5. LSE AU elections: Why your vote really doesn’t matter much at all 6. Buying a Pret lunch before a game at Berrylands: Too bougie or just right? 7. “Let the free market do it’s thing, brother”: Rowing chap weighs in on homelessness in Britain
LSE AU member decides not to attend ‘pesky’ Thursday morning class During a time in which you can’t even have a single pint of lager without being called a lazy, pathetic slob, there is one man whose fondness for the alcoholic beverage has buoyed juvenile delinquency at our beige university. Lewis Munk, a second year Economics student, went to bed at 3:00AM last Wednesday with the intention of waking up seven hours later for an 11:00AM seminar. Rather than rising gracefully, Munk chowed down the remainder of last night’s kebab, conveniently strewn across his bedside table, and then turned back onto his side as if dormant for the first time.
BeaverSports contacted the selfproclaimed ‘piece of shit’ once he had fully awoken and made some pasta. Your corresepondent on scene gleaned that he ‘genuinely did not give a fuck.’ When asked what his father might think of his unexemplary attendence record, the miscreant replied “Fuck that jizz-stain… I’d rather eat a whole bag of dicks than go to a fucking management seminar.” Charming, Mr Munk. Charming.
REVIEW
Gay London – Where to Go Out in Ek Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga: a Rickety Paving Stone by Shahana Bagchi the Big Gay Capital by Andrés Gomez
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hen it comes to going out LGBTQ+, London is the place to be. From wild, scandalous nights out with your friends to funky drag shows and comedy nights, the capital has nightlife to suit all interests. However, navigating the scene can be daunting: there are so many places that it can be confusing! But fret not, I’m here to help. Here’s a review of the best and most popular LGBTQ+ places London has to offer. 1. Dalston Superstore: Located in East London, Dalston Superstore is an amazing combination of bar and club, with two different levels and scenes. Depending on the night, you can find anything from Bollywood themed Drag Shows to electro and mutant pop-dance nights. Everyone is welcome here, and you’re guaranteed to have a fun night out. If clubbing or drag shows are not really your thing, you can always just grab a cocktail or a beer in the upstairs area, have a chat with your friends, and meet some lovely people. 2. Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club Although not strictly an LGBTQ+ venue, the BGWMC in East London has become famous for its parties and shows celebrating queer culture and nightlife. Probably the most intimate place on this list, this venue has a completely different vibe from that of Heaven or G-A-Y. Going here makes you feel like a true local. If you enjoy comedy nights, drag shows, or funky disco, this is the place to go in East London. 3. Heaven: Probably the most famous LGBTQ+ venue in London. If you’re gay, straight, or anything in between, chances are that you’ve ended up here at least once — and had a blast. If you’re new to Heaven, Thursday is probably the day to go. The club hosts a show called ‘Porn Idol’, in which members of the audience participate in a strip competition. Friday ‘Camp Attack’ nights are really fun too, playing music from the 80s and 90s all night long. A word of caution though, given how popular it is — Heaven gets REALLY crowded. So show up early or be prepared to wait in line for over an hour, especially on weekends. Insider tip: If you go to G-A-Y Bar before Heaven, make sure you get a wristband for £1 entry.
4. She Soho: She Soho is an incredible Lesbian venue in Soho. It’s small, but really entertaining, with top-quality DJs and wonderfully friendly atmosphere. Drinks are not super pricey for a Soho location, and you’re guaranteed to have a very enjoyable night out. She is a safe space for women, nonbinary, and trans people, so if you want a lads night out this isn’t the place to go: you’ll need to be accompanied by a girl in order to be let in. 5. G-A-Y/G-A-Y Late: G-A-Y Bar is one of the most popular gay bars in London. Here, you can dance to pop music (be prepared for a lot of Britney- pre and post 2007) across three different floors. When the doors close at midnight, don’t worry! You can go to G-A-Y Late: it’s a completely different venue, five minutes away from GA-Y — something a lot of people don’t realize the first time they go. The club itself is smaller than Heaven and gets less crowded. If you like dancing to current pop music, from Taylor Swift to Ariana Grande, this is the place to go. Later at night, they turn up the classics. Be sure to grab a wristband from G-A-Y to guarantee free entry into G-A-Y Late.
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k Ladki Ko Dekha Toh Aisa Laga (How I Felt When I Saw That Girl) gets its title from a classic 90s love song, sung from a man’s perspective. It revels in earnestly romantic imagery, comparing his lover to a blooming rose, a ray of sunshine, a moonlit night, a deer (as you do when in love, apparently). This 2019 release asks ‘What if the singer was a girl?’
In many ways, this story, directed by Shelly Chopra Dhar, marks a definite milestone. It is the first mainstream Bollywood movie with a lesbian love story at its core. Not as the butt of a joke or a side-lined surprise twist, which somehow is a lot to ask for, even in 2019. It was released mere months after the repeal of Article 377 of the Indian Penal Code in September 2018, a decision which decriminalised same-sex relations in the country. The story depicts Sweety Chaudhry (Sonam Kapoor), who suffers from shame and anxiety as she deviates from societal expectations. Budding playwright Sahil Mirza (Rajkummar Rao), helps her overcome this by organising a play to tell her story.
The movie starts in the ultimate heteronormative setting: a big Indian wedding, featuring all the extravagant marriage rituals. Sweety is confronted by the undercurrent of match-making in the wedding, but there is a playful sense of irony here, as this is where Sweety meets and falls in love with her girlfriend, Kuhu (Regina Cassandra). Kapoor plays Sweety as a reticent, longsuffering woman, defined by her difficulties with her sexuality. Her character is missing depth and her love story is restricted to a mere three-minute, albeit beautiful, montage scene. Ek Ladki is at its best when Sweety talks about her school experiences-- her first crush, becoming an outcast, and witnessing her brother bully her only friend for being gay. The movie doesn’t shy away from underlining her loneliness or desire for permanent escapes from her problems.
parent. His eventual acceptance of her sexuality is heartbreakingly beautiful. My initial impulse was to criticise Ek Ladki, but in the end I sympathise with the makers of this film. There is so much to argue, so much to defend, all while playing nice with a notoriously unreasonable censor board. Even if Ek Ladki is not perfect, it is a move towards a better future in the Indian LGBTQ+ movement where one can move beyond the conversation of basic human rights.
Sweety’s choices are subjected to patriarchal notions of izzat (honour), and the unique challenges of being a queer woman are especially evident her affectionate yet controlling relationship with her older brother. Anil Kapoor, the real-life father of Sonam Kapoor, gives a delightful performance as a loving
Into the Night: Cabarets and Clubs in Modern Art at by Molly Horner the Barbican Centre
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n inscription over a painting by Alva de la Canal of El Café de Nadie, a club in 1920s Mexico City proclaims, “one day we will carpet life with the scattered petals of new songs.” In many ways, the new exhibition at the Barbican is itself carpeted ‘with the scattered petals of old songs’. It aims to tell the stories of twentieth-century cabarets and clubs. Like most of the Barbican’s exceptional programming, Into the Night is a dynamically and intelligently curated exhibition. Nightlife is a fascinating subject for an exhibition, and one which has never been explored in a gallery setting. The show in the Barbican is confidently organized and fluid. The space is highly compelling: social history preserved in concrete and glass, perfect for exploring multi-layered cultural stories. One of the most alluring facets of the exhibition is the painstaking recreation of Vienna’s famous Café Fledermaus on the lower floor. Leaning against the colourful tiles of the jewel in the crown of the Vienna Secession while being firmly in EC2
is a surreal and evocative experience.
The exhibition excels in its exploration of Café Fledermaus, as well as the Cabaret del Diavolo in Rome, Chat Noir in Paris, and the gender-fluid genre-bending artistic clubs of Berlin at the beginning of the twentieth century. Furniture, menus, paintings, and early grainy photographs are all offered up to piece together a picture of boozy smoke-and-jazz-filled rooms as places of real creative birth. Muffled music coming from the lower galleries feels like you’re behind a closed bathroom door at one of these clubs. Moreover, focus on the Mbari clubs of Ibdadan and Osogbo provides a muchneeded exploration of mid-century Nigerian nightlife without shying away from the impact of colonialism on such endeavours. From lesbian nightclubs in Paris to the sexually free cafes of Berlin, the exhibition gave great insight into how cabarets and nightclubs offered LGBTQ+ people both a safe space and unlimited artistic freedom. Those who lived in the margins of society were
finally free in the shadows of night and created beauty when they were. At its heart, this is a truly fascinating and dynamic show: the chasm between experiencing and observing nightlife has never been demonstrated so dramatically. Perhaps I would have been better visiting the exhibition on one of the evenings it opens late, with free live jazz and operating bars. My Wednesday daytime meander consisted almost entirely of delightful postbrunch middle-aged couples. There did feel to be a bit of an emotional disconnect in portraying the fizzing and frothing nightlife of the interwar period in a, dare I say, clinical way - as is bound to be in any kind of gallery setting. There’s nothing more anachronistic than blinking in the early afternoon sunshine at photographs of now-dead people enjoying themselves hundreds of years ago, hundreds of miles away. Cinema and exhibition tickets are only £5 with Young Barbican membership, which is completely free to sign up for if you’re between 16 and 25.
Tuesday 26 November Editors: Amber Iglesia and Zehra Jafree
Arlo Parks: Arlo Will Go Far(lo) by Sebastian Mullen
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or our sad generation, Arlo Parks could be a shining light. She’s an emerging London-based artist who produces dreamy tunes that are perfectly compatible with London skies. While it may not be sad enough for your ‘sad boi hours’ playlist, Parks’ music elegantly touches on negative emotions, expressing her feelings in a neo-soul / pop / jazz / hip-hop amalgamation that truly rocks — pun intended. When I listen to her music, I can’t skip it halfway. Side note: the first rule of playing music is don’t skip halfway – if you aren’t confident enough to play the whole song then fuck off and leave it to those with conviction. Parks’ music never fails to capture the imagination. When your mood aligns with her tunes, the connection is electric. It would not be surprising
to catch me belting the life out of Cola or George on a rainy walk into LSE. Spanning a range from modern ballads to bedroom pop, it feels as if Arlo Parks is trying to express herself in whatever way feels the most natural. The boundaries of genres that typically constrict musicians don’t appear to apply when Parks is involved, and other artists are taking notice. Despite only releasing her first single, Cola, last year, she has already taken on a supporting role on Jordan Rakei and Loyle Carner’s respective tours. Arlo Parks’ sound represents a new wave of music where authenticity is valued above anything else. If she continues to express herself with a vulnerability that connects her to her listeners, Arlo will go far(lo).
Condragulations to RuPaul UK Season 1 by Zehra Jafree
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uPaul’s Drag Race has landed in the UK and is making Drag Race history. The finale was last Thursday, and what a finale it was – whether your fave won or not – it was one for the books. I didn’t know how much I was craving a UK drag race until the judge lineup was announced. Permanent judges RuPaul and Michelle Visage (of course!) are joined by Alan Carr and Graham Norton. Nothing’s more perfect than those four sharing a panel. The iconic guest judges range from Andrew Garfield to Maisie Williams to Cheryl Cole, much to queen Cheryl Hole’s delight. Their excitement to be involved was wholesome – they were clearly fans of the original show. It’s not just the guest judges who are massive Ru stans: the contestants are also constantly quoting Ru-isms. As Blu says, many of these queens grew up watching Drag Race. The season is brilliantly British, and it makes me proud and excited for the future of British drag. Ru remarks in episode one that there’s so much “rich cultural exchange for me here!” Queens like Baga Chips, Sum Ting Wong, and Cheryl Hole come out – excuse the pun – with incredibly authentic British banter. Over the course of the season, they educate Ru on our classiest slang: minge, gobshite, minging. The show is a celebration of drag, queerness and everything British. Obviously, you should watch it.
Illustration: Gabriela Krol
Divorced, Beheaded, Live In Concert – Tudor Queens Pop Revolution
by Ash Layo
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re you a fan of British history? Do you unapologetically stan female pop sensations? Do you believe that we should be demystifying the landscape of musical theatre by introducing popular cultural forms that speak to a wide range of audiences? Then do I have the musical for you: SIX the musical, written by two university students procrastinating for their exams, Toby Marlow and Lucy Moss. It follows the six wives of Henry VIII as they form a girl group in retaliation to the sexist historians who’ve conveniently forg o tt e n their lives apart from Henry. T h e y a tt e m p t to prove who’s the most significant queen by bearing the “biggest load of BS to deal with from the man who put a ring on it” (Anne of
Cleves, 2017). Essentially, it’s god-tier historical shitposting as a means of exploring the trauma of a toxic relationship — just really gay. And I love that. But what makes this musical fantastic isn’t the amazing cast, the talented writers, or the costumes that, as one YouTube commenter puts it, look like they were bejewelled with the tears of Henry VIII. It’s the music that has stirred up a lot of controversy in the Musical Community™, being more overtly produced than your standard musical soundtrack. Each of the queens were based on real life pop sensations, from Beyoncé to Adele to Alicia Keys. Many avid musical fans were originally put off by this, as pop music apparently doesn’t carry enough artistic weight to be incorporated into musical theatre. However, I think the beauty of the music is its femaledriven pop roots: it’s a celebration which carries thematic significance. Just think about it: the whole story is about the six wives re-claiming their story and de-centring themselves from Henry. What better way to do that than to use a musical style that has been majorly scrutinised as being culturally inferior to tell the stories of six overshadowed women? The best example of this is Katherine Howard’s song All You Wanna Do, which bor-
rows the musical stylings of young, over-sexualised pop stars like Britney Spears and Ariana Grande. It sheds light on the trauma and abuse Howard faced because of her youth and beauty, subverting the mainstream portrayal of her as a promiscuous mistress. She was, by the way, sexually abused when she was 14 and married Henry when she was 16. Songs such as Don’t Lose Your Head references Anne Boleyn suffering from PTSD, and Heart of Stone is really a ballad illustrating the complex psychology of being in love with an abuser. That’s what I love so much about this soundtrack — it’s brilliant use of pop allows us to read into the trauma that the six wives endured at the hands of a power hungry man. The one gripe I do have is that the music could’ve delved into what the history books don’t tell us about the queens, instead of reframing what we already know from a different angle. This would have made it easier to fully reclaim the stories of the six wives. But other than that, the soundtrack is amazing, whether you’re a fan of pop music or trying to get into it. It’s a short listen with only nine songs, and there’s a medley of all the queens’ songs if you search up ‘MEGASIX’ on Youtube. And please, for the love of God, do NOT skip Haus of Holbein. Play it out loud at your next house party, you won’t be disappointed.
All Around the World: Queer Films You Absolutely Have to See
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here’s something for everyone on this list. I spent my closeted youth indulging in some of these films, and I’m glad I finally have people to share them with. One thing I’ve made sure NOT to put on this list is any film that ends in tragedy. Enough of those, Hollywood. I can promise you that all of these are quality content. Try at least one of them – even if you’re not queer - they’re still damn good stories. This list has a lot of coming-of-age and semiautobiographical films. Why? Well, some argue that queer people have a completely different understanding of time from The Straights™, and I reckon they’re right. No matter what age you come out, the vulnerability of the experience has a way of making you feel like a teenager. 1. But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) Megan (Natasha Lyonne) is an all-American girl who can’t seem to find happiness with her boyfriend. Her parent’s solution is to send her to a gay conversion camp, where she meets all sorts of colourful folk. This hilarious satire highlights how ridiculous performing heteronormativity can feel when it just isn’t for you. 2. Hoje Eu Quero Voltar Sozinho (2014) This Brazilian indie film is a monument to the time-honoured trope of friends to lovers. Leonardo, a blind student, and Gabriel, the new kid in class, are paired up for a group project and the rest is history. This is a great movie for its beautiful scenery, honest kisses, and a commitment to showing disabled people finding love. 3. Mosquita y Mari (2012) This tender coming-of-age film documents the friendship between two Chicana high schoolers
in Los Angeles. Despite the propensity of this genre to fall into cliché after cliché, Mosquita y Mari manages to strike a mature tone as it explores the struggles of being undocumented, low-income, and a teenage girl all at once. 4. Jongens (2013) Jongens is a Dutch film about two boys training for a relay race, slowly coming to realise they like each other but totally not being prepared for what that means. Much of this film is without dialogue, a testament to how incredibly well-acted it is. 5. J’ai Tué Ma Mère (2009) This French-Canadian import is the semi-autobiographical directorial debut of Xavier Dolan. It details the tumultuous mother-son relationship between Hubert (Dolan) and Chantale (Anne Dorval). It’s not a coming-out story – his sexuality has very little to do with their troubled relationship – but has all the drama of one.
by Christina Ivey
of Queen Anne of Britain. Basically, what I’m trying to say is that I came away from this film with the impression that this is the era when the English MAY have invented camp. Imagine 18th century RuPaul’s Drag Race, except all the queens are members of the royal household vying for the attentions of Queen Anne. 9. Appropriate Behaviour (2014) Yes, another semi-autobiographical directorial debut. Go figure. Unlike the others though, this one is pure comedy. It documents the trials of Shirin, a bisexual Iranian-American woman go-
ing through the ravages of a break-up whilst being unable to tell her conservative parents. 10. Fabiana (2019) This documentary shows the journey of Brazilian truck driver Fabiana as she winds down for retirement. Fabiana is a lesbian trans woman, but she’s not concerned in the least with activism. Instead, we get an extremely personal look into her nomadic life on the road, her wistful reminiscence of past hookups, and her relationship with her girlfriend Priscila.
6. Rafiki (2018) Okay, this one I haven’t personally watched but we’ve done a review of it already so it doesn’t matter. Basically, Kenyan lesbians in a coming-of-age story. It slaps. 7. El color de un invierno (2016) Finally, something out of Argentina that isn’t beef or a debt default. While university student Lucia (Cecilia Valenzuela Gioia) struggles to overcome overwhelming panic attacks she also discovers her sexuality. Like #5, this is a semi-autobiographical directorial debut. 8. The Favourite (2018) Dark comedy done right. Loosely based on actual historical events, the film contains all the drama and competitiveness of life in the court
Patsy: a Heartbreakingly Restorative Story by Amber Iglesia of Sacrifice
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icole Dennis-Benn’s vivid portrayal of motherhood, racism, womanhood, and sexuality is the timely story of an undocumented immigrant, Patsy, who leaves her daughter behind in search of new opportunities in America, and hoping to reunite with Cicely - her former best friend and secret lover. Dennis-Benn takes us into the mind of Patsy and her motives. This tender and passionate story mediates on how immigration shapes lives, from both without and within. Her compassionate devotion to her characters makes for a colourful and immersive plot: you are part of Patsy’s journey, not an external observer. Dennis-Benn explores the silent bonds of love across continents, the strange forces that divide us while simultaneously binding us to those we love. Annoyingly, this book is classified as a “coming-of-age story” - an overused term which I hate here particularly, because Patsy offers so much more. Patsy’s defiant act of leaving her daughter in the hope of being free to love whomever she wants underpins
the novel. It is through her new-found freedom that she discovers a sense of self in an unapologetically restrictive society. For me, the most interesting character in the novel is not Patsy but rather her daughter Tru. Back home in Jamaica, Tru questions her sexuality and identity while grappling with her mothers’ abandonment. Dennis-Benn explores how rejection negatively affects the upbringing of a young person and why many of us attempt to replicate the lives of our parents. The bittersweet farewell with her strict mother is a moment both of sorrow and relief. Tru’s psychological trauma causes her to suffer from mental health issues. It is only through the soothing power of friendship that she discovers a new level of belonging. The fact that this is Dennis-Benn’s second novel after Here Comes the Sun is a testament to her success as a graciously compelling and honest writer. The familiar narrative perfectly captures the feeling of isolation from most, if not all the characters, making the story timeless.
PART B SAPPHO IN THE 21ST CENTURY
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appho was an ancient Greek poet who lived on the island of Lesbos. She did so much gay stuff on the island that we named lesbians after it. Despite living ages ago, she has a lot to tell us about romance in the digital age. Here I will explore my favourites of her poetry fragments, as tweeted by the Twitter account @sapphobot. because nothing signifies queerness in the 21st century more than a Twitter bot posting translated fragments of Sappho’s work every two hours. I have a deep adoration for Sappho Bot, because it’s how I came to familiarise myself with her poetry. It can be repetitive, as the bot runs out of new material to post after a while, but I’m awestruck at how a woman who lived millennia before me can be so damn relatable. Countless times I’ve scrolled past a Sappho Bot tweet, silently nodded to myself, and thought “Big mood.” Sweet mother, I cannot weave – slender Aphrodite has overcome me with longing for a girl. Excuse my pun, but this one is a classic. Sappho’s poetry feels refreshingly honest compared to that of her contemporaries because she’s writing from her own feelings instead of trying to tell some epic story. She’s the hero of her story, a concept that’s yet to truly take hold in our times. Her humour also shines through in this fragment. Before there was Damien in Mean Girls, Sappho was letting us know that she was too gay to function.
We know this feeling – when you see someone so effortlessly attractive as to boggle the senses, and completely they’re oblivious to the fact. I can’t speak much for the town-country divide present in this fragment, but there’s something beautifully sensual about the way Sappho has described her subject. She’s describing a girl whose charms are effortlessly maddening. It’s reminiscent of a first girl crush: being suddenly in awe of every facet of someone’s being, wondering if you want to be with her or be her. you came and I was crazy for you and you cooled my mind that burned with longing Look, we can debate the meaning of the word “came” here but that would be juvenile. This fragment speaks to the feeling of completion, calm, and wholeness that comes with spending time with your beloved. I don’t think I’ve had a beloved yet; I’ve never felt this way with anyone. I suppose this fragment is particularly relatable for people in long-distance relationships. After spending weeks, or even months apart, the world is suddenly right again when you get to be together.
Here, Sappho strikes a very different tone: it’s the type of thing I imagine she would tweet out after a less than pleasant break-up. Either way, it’s true. None of us like to critically reflect on the maladaptive fantasies we craft in our heads when we like someone. We should though, because the person in our head doesn’t exist. And with sweet oil costly you anointed yourself and on a soft bed delicate you would let loose your longing That’s right. Sappho fucks. Can you imagine receiving this sext in 610 BC? Scratch that, can you imagine receiving this sext now? No one has quite managed to recapture this level of finesse. Here we are with the greatest technological capacity of any human society to date, and the best some of us can get is a late-night “u up?” text. I weep for humanity.
Illustration by Christina Ivey
editor: Maya Kokerov
arts & culture
by Christina Ivey
what country girl seduces your wits wearing a country dress not knowing how to pull the cloth to her ankles?
Love is a cunning weaver of fantasies and fables.
Tuesday 26 November
Sure, we now at least have Facetime, Skype, and WhatsApp, but nothing comes close to replicating physical human contact. You may forget but let me tell you this: someone in some future time will think of us We’ve lost a lot of Sappho’s poetry, which is why most of her work exists in fragments like these. I’m particularly glad that this survived. Its message rings true now more than ever. In the Internet Age, it’s entirely impossible to be forgotten. The monumental EU law on the right to be forgotten only has clout within the EU itself. To some, that might be frightening, but for me, it’s exhilarating to think that my shitposting antics will entertain someone in the near or distant future. Long after climate change ravages the earth, someone will remember me. Her next fragment is very much in the same vein, so I think I shall let it stand on its own. Cheers Sappho, relatable poet hero of women-lovingwomen everywhere. Although only breath, words which I command are immortal.
Three Trans Artists Changing the Game by Maya Kokerov
Quay Dash ‘I’m black, I’m trans, and I can actually rap. Plus, I’m pretty... When you have beauty, brains, and talent, that’s some shit they can’t take’- Dazed Digital
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uay Dash emerged from the embers of SoundCloud rap to create her debut EP, Transphobic, boasting five flaming tracks that will have you marching down the street on a cloud of ‘I’m that bitch’ spirit. Not only does it aim to empower transgender people in an exceptionally powerful tone: it is welcome in any club, rave, or even bedroom scene where rhyme and inspiration become the antidote to self-doubt. The electronic beats, synth, and steady percussion hypnotise, while her lyrics are a head-turning combo of rhyme, wit and big boss energy. If you’re a fan of cleverly worded rap mixed with subtle hues of ‘hip house’ or dance-pop, or perhaps stan Azealia Banks’ discography, then Quay should be your new go-to. You’re welcome.
‘Queen Of This Shit’ Cover
The Cliks
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ook them up if you’re into something more alternative. The front man of The Cliks, Lucas Silveria, was one of the first trans men signed to a major recording contract (Warner Music Canada). They emerged in 2006 with the album ‘Snakehouse’. One of my favourites is their cover of Justin Timberlake’s ‘Cry Me a River’, reimagined as a soulful, indie, rock-band ballad. Recently, they took on a new sound, verging on Motown, in their latest album ‘Black Tie Elevator’.
Wu Tsang
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hough she doesn’t sing, Tsang does perform - creating award-winning films and visual art. Her work has been featured in countless exhibitions and festivals, including Tate Modern London and Guggenheim, in addition to magazines like The New Yorker and Vogue. The pinnacle of her career so far has been the feature documentary, Wildness, which explores the stereotyping of trans and queer people. At the core of her work lies an intense dedication to activism and an unveiling of the truth. Photography By Tosh Basco
Keshavarz’s Circumstance is one of Disruption and Defiance by Maya Kokerov
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n the surface, Circumstance (2011) depicts the emotive, tumultuous journey of Atafeh and her orphaned best friend Shireen. They fall in love in Iran, where tensions mount between the underground youth culture, particularly their steps toward LGBTQ rights. and the post-revolution customs that become increasingly embraced by some characters, especially Atafeh’s incredibly creepy brother, Mehran.
beyond asking whether the film is depicting ‘real’ Iranian lesbians, and instead question the relationship between location and LGBTQ+ politics.
The scenes of dubbing, such as working on the movie Milk, includes one character being told to sound ‘more gay’ but ‘not that gay’. It’s a comment on the Western understanding of what it means to be and perform gay, because the gay identity involves a point of reference The chemistry between the two protagonists, which is, in reality, a construct. and the actresses who play them (Nikohl Later comes the lip-synching scene, where Boosheri and Sarah Kazemy) captivates the Shireen and Atafeh’s initial crush is hinted at viewer, who is allowed a momentary escape as they perform a giggling rendition of Total into the sensitive and sensual world that even Eclipse of the Heart. The scene is about being the protagonists themselves can only grasp silenced in a few different ways. In this ephembriefly. eral moment, their current situation is silenced so that they can embody a louder queer idenWhile the star-crossed relationship is central tity, before being literally silenced by Mehran’s to the film, director Maryam Keshavarz moves surveillance., Through this imitation, they unbeyond merely creating a film with a queer consciously occupy a Western voice in order storyline. The actors, while all of Iranian herit- to articulate their desire for one another .Kesage, are members of the diaspora raised in the havarz seems to both problematise and leave West. . Shot in Lebanon, the film provided a open for discussion. fake script to authorities in order to avoid any disruptions and to protect the cast and crew. At times, however, I found the eroticisation of Given the politics built into the very produc- their fantasies to be slightly more catered to tion of Circumstance, the audience can move the Western, perhaps even male, gaze- more
Photography by Brian Rigney Hubbard. Film: Circumstance (2011)
so than a ‘realistic’ depiction of a young lesbian couple would warrant. In the end though, these brief scenes of glamour and freedom, which become phantasmagorical expressions of love in Dubai, help to build the tension, and force the viewer to yearn for the two women’s happily-ever-after just as much as they do. Their sexual desire and emotional bond are the only indication of their feelings for one another , and their lesbian identity. Labels are avoided and the terms of their relationship remain unaddressed. . This kind of coming-out discussion is far more common in Western movies about gay relationships. The film’s political setting pushes the word ‘queer’ beyond a description of the girls’ identity, to encompass subversive cultures deemed ‘radical’ under Iran’s regime. Perhaps the best way to watch Circumstance is to avoid reading it either as a solely positive account of lesbian desire or an eroticised product stemming from Western, orientalising logic. The film’s script and cinematography lead the audience into a world of rebellion, disruption, and emotion. It is a thought-provoking commentary on identity, and a beautiful example of queer, transnational cinema.
Thoughts I have when I’m at a Gay Bar
by Ash Layo
Here’s the (bitter) tea (soz, I left the teabag in for too long); That guy with the crisp haircut and beard is cute, but is he too old for me? Nah, I’ve had older… (is that a problem?) I like this drink, it’s sweet, tastes like rainbow candy, or unicorn something. (whatever’s gayer I guess.) C’mon anxiety, let’s get sickening.They’ll love that difference, that swing in your hip. Come thru and werk! (maybe I’m not masc enough for trade) C’mon anxiety, just sit down and drink that cider, and maybe another vodka sprite. Or is that too many calories? (Did I eat enough today? Should I be drinking this much?) There are so many people here, why do I feel lonely? (I should try talking to someone) But look at me; fat, fem, asian…nobody gonna respond when you’re looking. Maybe you’ll have luck with an older fella, heard they’re into rice? Get some sugar while you’re at it. Y’all wanted a(n exotic) rent boy? (am I that kind of guy?) Am I cute enough? Do I have enough makeup on? Damn, these queens walking in here with mugs beat for the gods, and my face is like baby drag realness… (it’s a sign I should learn to paint better) Maybe lose the cardigan and wear a beanie to hide the mess a top my head I pass off as hair. (looks like a shake-and-go wig, should invest in lace front) I’m invisible aren’t I? Concealer on my face matches the background maybe. (that’s an improvement) I wanna serve these boys some looks, but I don’t have any. Nobody’s gagging. I can hear them reading me in their heads. (Ain’t no hennies in this club) That couple is cute, those two twinks with matching Andrew Christian boxer briefs peeking out just beneath the hemline of their skinny jeans. I can see their hands slowly moving underneath each others fabric, passionately caressing arse skin. Are they keen for a threesome? (oh look they’re making out.) Has everybody found someone? I hear tongues popping in foreign mouths. Maybe I should’ve come here with a boy. (that’s funny, what boy?) Haha, maybe I should go, catch the cab before it leaves my dignity in the shade. This house ain’t for me.
Peter Handke is Problematic: A Response to Vol. 22’s ‘The Winner of the Nobel Prize in Literature’ by Robert Remy
S
ince the announcement of Peter Handke as one of the Nobel Prize winners of Literature, an old controversy about his comments regarding the Bosnian War has resurfaced.
should be ethical. He then went on to double down on his position, claiming that not a single word he had ever written on the topic of Yugoslavia could be denounced.
In 1995, 8000 Bosnian Muslims were killed in what the International Criminal Court acknowledged to be a genocide. After this atrocity, Handke travelled through Serbia, writing a text subtitled ‘Justice for Serbia’. Later, he spoke at the funeral of Slobodan Milosevic, the former president of the Republic of Serbia who was tried for crimes against humanity in Den Hague, but died before he was convicted. In an interview, he stated that he doesn’t buy into the grief of the mothers of Srebrenica (the location of the genocide). Many supporting columns have tried to separate Handke’s literature from his politics or have argued that even if they do not agree with his views on this particular issue, it is not representative of his œvre. Indeed, Handke has been a well-known actor in the literary scene long before the 90’s and before his comments caused an uproar.
Another approach has been to accuse critics of not having read Handke correctly. Suhrkamp, his publisher, released a selection of quotes trying to rehabilitate the author. These quotes have been found not to be a representative sample of what Handke has said and written over the years. In fact, he has a long standing record of relativizing the massacre and defending the aggressors.
The argument is that an author does not have to be perfect and that his views on Srebrenica are not central to the work he has been recognised for. One of the people who disagrees with this happens to be Handke himself, who in a recent interview with the German newspaper DIE ZEIT stated that authors
In his play Voyage by Dugout, he describes one of the protagonists, who was modelled after Novislav Djajic, as “innocently guilty” – Djajic has been found guilty of accessory to the murder of 14 muslims. Whilst he has acknowledged that the Srebrenica Massacre was the worst atrocity to have happened in Europe since World War Two, he later paddled back on this statement, continuing to relativize what happened by stating the number of deaths as between 2000 and 4000. Alfred Nobel wrote in his will that the Nobel Prize in Literature should go to someone who “produced the most outstanding work in an idealistic direction.” Even critics acknowledge Peter Handke’s literary talent. However, outstanding work alone is not enough to earn a Nobel Prize. The judges should have recognised this.