Lent Issue 4

The

Cambridge

09 March 2017 Vol. 18 Lent Issue 4

www.tcs.cam.ac.uk

Student

Penalties faced by CUSU candidates as voting continues

• •

Eyre’s presidential campaign briefly suspended

Jackson warned for being “unacceptably aggressive”

Matt Gurtler

T

he CUSU Election Committee (EC) released a statement on Wednesday asserting that Daisy Eyre’s CUSU presidential campaign would be suspended for nine hours, following reports that a leaflet was circulated in Homerton which personally attacked another candidate.

Eyre’s campaign was initially suspended for 12 hours after a complaint was lodged concerning a leaflet that had the words “Jack Drury is a lying Tory” written in red pen on the back. It also had been graffitied with the suggestion to vote “1. Daisy, 2. Re-Open, 3. Keir, 4. Jack”.

In a Facebook post, the Elections Committee stated: “The EC emphasises that personal attacks of this nature are unacceptable and the Eyre campaign has had this reinforced with them. The EC wish to see this campaign fought cleanly and on policies, and will not allow such conduct.”

However, after having held a disciplinary meeting with the Eyre campaign, the EC issued another statement announcing that the ban has been shortened due to “the Eyre campaign’s complete condemnation of the activity and stated intention to take remedial action.”

Speaking to The Cambridge Student, Presidential hopeful Eyre said, “We are absolutely shocked and disappointed by the incident which came to light this [Wednesday] morning. Writing this inappropriate and disrespectful remark on one of my flyers is entirely at odds with my campaign. I do not know where the flyer came from and I hope it was not from anyone who supports me. We have no evidence of the source of this defaced flyer and I entirely condemn it.”

Separately, University Councillor candidate Josh Jackson had been called in for a disciplinary meeting, after his campaign was deemed “unacceptably aggressive” by the EC. At hustings , Jackson was accused of defamation and slander by incumbent Umang Khandelwal. He repeatedly accused her tenure of lacking transparency and accountability, and tension was palpable as she corrected his pronunciation of her name.

Jackson commented to The Cambridge Student: “At the beginning of this election CUSU said that we were allowed to attack other candidates. Throughout this election I have consistently drawn attention to the record of inaction and lack of accountability [...] I haven’t made any personal attacks.”

A view of Cambridge from the top of Castle Mound on a crisp Spring day More on CUSU Election p. 3 → Image: Lili Bidwell

Pink Week raises record £33,000 for cancer charities Khushali Dodhia Pink Week 2017 has raised a record total of £33,688.35 for breast cancer charities, smashing its target of £30,000 and up from the £24,078 raised last year.

The rise in donations came in spite of controversy during the week, when the Pink Week ball had to be shut down early, allegedly due to the destructive behaviour of its guests.

The ball nevertheless raised £24,000, £15,000 of which was raised in the first 30 minutes of ticket sales, according to organisers.

Speaking to The Cambridge Student, the Pink Week committee said: “The enthusiasm for Cambridge Pink Week has grown year on year, and we hope that our fundraising achievements are paralleled by an increase in awareness of breast cancer, and individual body norms.

“A month on from Pink Week 2017, we hope that a monthly check for signs of breast cancer becomes routine.

Because early detection saves lives.

“Pink Week could not have happened without the huge support of those beyond the organising committee – we have been overwhelmed by the support of the Cambridge community in our initiatives, and hope it will continue for Pink Week 2018.”

Pink Week was founded in 2011

by Cambridge alumnus Nina Rauch, in honour of her mother Dina Rabinovitch, a former Guardian columnist who died from breast cancer.

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09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

News

Editorial Team 09 March 2017

Volume 18 • Lent Issue 4

Editor-in-Chief

Will Tilbrook

Deputy Editors

Lili Bidwell Sophie Dickinson Joanna Taylor

News Editors Deputy News Editors

Reetika Revathy Subramanian Khushali Dodhia Matt Gurtler Abby Watson

Science Editors

Ned Booker

Features Editors

Noella Chye Caithlin Ng

Comment Editors

Matthew Harris Molly Moss Harry Robertson

Interviews Editor

Hannah Brown

Theatre Editors

Joe Richards Gemma Sheehan

Music Editor

Pippa Smith

Fashion & Beauty Editor

Octavia Akoulitchev

Lifestyle Editor

Amiya Nagpal

Food & Drink Editor

Emer O’Hanlon

TV & Film Editor

Eliza Dickinson

Chief Sub Editors Sub Editors

Howard Chae Cait Findlay Dom Waters Dee Dee Lee

Social Media Manager Staff Illustrator

Ellie Heikel Beatrice Obe

Directors

Stevie Hertz Jessie Mathewson Tom Patrick Urvie Periera Will Tilbrook

BEATRICE OBE

Apply to be on the Easter 2017 team The Cambridge Student is still accepting applications for all positions until 11:59pm on Sunday 12 March Visit tcs.cam.ac.uk/apply.html for more details All years and writing skills welcome!

Advertise with The

Cambridge Student We have recently introduced new local business and student societies rates Contact a member of the team directly Email: editor@tcs.cam.ac.uk

Phone: 01223 761685

Advertising opportunities are available in future print editions, on our website, and through our social media The Cambridge Student takes complaints about editorial content seriously. We are committed to abiding by the Independent Press Standards Organisation rules and the Editors’ Code of Practice enforced by IPSO, and by the stipulations of our constitution. Requests for corrections or clarifications should be sent by email to editor@tcs.cam.ac.uk or by post to The Editor, The Cambridge Student, Cambridge University Students’ Union, 17 Mill Lane, Cambridge, CB2 1RX. Letters to the Editor may be published.

Sun, seeds, and suspicious sunflowers

3

The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

News

CUSU Election: Meet the candidates A roundup of who’s who in the ongoing CUSU/GU Election 2017/18 Matt Gurtler Deputy News Editor

E

lections for the CUSU 2017/18 Officer Team opened at 9am on Tuesday morning following Monday evening’s hustings. Five of the roles (Education Officer, Welfare and Rights Officer, Access and Funding Officer, Women’s Officer, and Disabled Students’ Officer) are uncontested.The role of president is being fought over by three candidates: Jack Drury, Daisy Eyre, and Keir Murison. Hustings for the three candidates running for University Councillor were held on Tuesday.

At the hustings, a member of the student press played the role of RON (Re-open nominations) for the uncontested positions, in order to provide an alternative viewpoint and point out any issues in the uncontested candidates’ policies Standing for Education Officer is Robinson student, Martha Krish, who said, “If we, an educational institution, are not giving all students an equal opportunity to achieve, then we are failing all students.”

Micha Frazer-Carroll is the uncontested candidate for Welfare and Rights Officer. At the hustings, she made clear that her “race and gender have impacted on [her] own experience of mental health.” Mental health is an area that she sees as key to the role of Welfare and Rights Officer.

The Access and Funding Officer candidate is Olivia Hylton-Pennant, whose own experience of Cambridge

was drastically changed by an access visit. Speaking to The Cambridge Student, she said “I want to continue to be able to provide support for students who are keen to set up there own access initiatives but may lack the resources to do so.”

President and University Councillor are the only contested roles Lola Olufemi campaigned powerfully at hustings so as to be elected as Women’s Officer. She made clear her desire to work with the Disabled Students’ Officer on the CUSU Committee.

Florence Oulds is running for the position of Disabled Students’ Officer, a post which was introduced last year after a university-wide referendum. At hustings she expressed her desire to see colleges making arrangements for disabled students before issues come up, to make the Cambridge experience accessible to all.

The role of University Councillor is being contested by three candidates: Josh Jackson, Marcel Llavero Pasquina, and Umang Khandelwal, who is running for re-election. Speaking to The Cambridge Student, all three candidates named divestment as their key policy.

Jackson said: “I am unequivocally and unreservedly committed to

ensuring the University Council votes to fully divest from companies who make profit from fossil fuels.”

Khandelwal expressed a similar view, saying, “The most important policies in my view are divestment and student well-being.”

Llavero Pasquina commented: “I am certain that there is a wide consensus among students in favour of divestment, and I hope that the other candidates clearly show this demand up in their agendas too.”

The presidential candidates all provided pithy quotes at hustings and have been campaigning hard throughout the week. Drury claimed: “I am the candidate who offers an alternative trajectory to the one KHUSHALI DODHIA

The Three Presidential Candidates (From Left: Drury, Murison and Eyre)

CUSU is currently on.” Eyre said, “participation is a stumbling block in allowing CUSU to achieve its full potential”. “I want to make students’ lives better,” said Murison.

The campaigning began following Monday night’s hustings and there have already been some breaches of the CUSU Election Committee’s rules for the campaigns.

Voting in the CUSU/GU Election is open until 5pm this Friday As described on page 1, Eyre’s campaign was temporarily suspended due to the distribution of a flyer which had derogatory descriptions of Drury written on the back.

Drury has also been questioned by the Committee as he released a video showing the Master of Gonville and Caius college supporting his campaign. The committee ruled that, although figures of authority are not allowed to publicly endorse any particular campaigns, Drury’s video was intended to be humorous. No disciplinary action was taken.

Josh Jackson had to attend a disciplinary meeting, after his campaign was deemed to be “unacceptably aggressive”, but he was let off with a warning.

Voting is open until 8pm on Friday 10 March.

Doku to run for NUS Vice-President post Jeremy Corbyn campaigns in Cambridge Reetika Revathy Subramanian News Editor

I

ncumbent CUSU President Amatey Doku has announced that he is running for the role of VicePresident for Higher Education of the NUS. He is contesting for one of the five vice-presidential roles available on the NUS’s full-time team.

Highlighting the need for “a strong NUS for students”, Doku’s election manifesto clearly states that the NUS is becoming “less influential and less in tune with the real issues”. He has reiterated his plan to work for free education by putting forth his pledge to “launch an immediate campaign with student finance providers to give students more flexibility with their student maintenance income.”

His manifesto also touches upon

“The NUS is becoming less in tune with real issues”

existing fears plaguing campuses including the rise of anti-Semitism and Islamophobia. If elected, Doku has indicated that he would work with liberation campaigns to “tackle Prevent effectively”, as well as support students’ unions as they push for curriculum liberation.

He has also suggested that it should be a priority for the NUS to set out its “red lines” for Brexit negotiations, in particular focusing on the rights of international students, and the rights of British students abroad. In an attempt to showcase his support for the rights of international students, Doku has said he would be “very keen” to organise a summit of European students’ unions.

The vice-presidents will be elected by delegates at the NUS conference to be held between 25-27 April.

Abby Watson Deputy News Editor

O

n Saturday 4 March Jeremy Corbyn visited Cambridge to launch Councillor Kevin Price’s mayoral campaign for Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

The Cambridge Universities Labour Club (CULC) was joined by Jeremy Corbyn in Chesterton. With the Cambridgeshire County Council election of 4 May imminent, they canvassed support among residents.

The Cambridge Student spoke to Edward Parker Humphreys, a member of the CULC Executive Committee.

“It was a huge privilege to have Jeremy in Cambridge on Saturday and to hear him speak alongside our fantastic mayoral candidate, Kevin Price. Both Jeremy and Kevin know

Jeremy Corbyn’s visit was “a huge privilege”

how important it is to have Labour representatives in Cambridge, at a time when the Tory government is consistently cutting local budgets.

“As ever, CULC spent a great morning out and about in Cambridge, speaking to local residents and listening to their problems. We take pride in being an active, campaigning organisation, fighting for real change, and we look forward to helping Kevin and our brilliant County Council candidates get elected in May.” Price visited the Water Lane council housing development which he helped deliver as Deputy Leader and Executive Councillor for Housing.

“I will work from day one to ensure all communities in Cambridgeshire and Peterborough get the investment they need to share the growth and prosperity of areas like Cambridge.”

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09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

News

“Outlandish”: How the national m February 2016 saw more stories about the University reported in the national press than February 2017

Matt Gurtler Deputy News Editor

A

comparison of the number of news stories which concern Cambridge and appear in national press publications shows that more stories about the University were reported in the national news in 2016 than in 2017 (see graph). From 14-26 February 2016 The Daily Mail, The Guardian, and The Daily Mirror all reported on at least twice the number of stories directly concerning Cambridge than they reported on during the same period this year.

However, the data from The Telegraph shows that there were in fact more stories reported on in the period 14-26 February this year than there were in 2016.

Last year, the Cambridge-related stories included the campaign to return Jesus College’s Benin bronze, the costumes at the Charity Fashion Show, rape allegations against a Queen’s student, and the fall in number of applications from students from low income backgrounds.

The range of articles reported on in 2016

Cambridge students are often described as “elite” or “sensitive snowflakes”

was very wide, but across the board articles written about Cambridge University and its students are generally negative. They cite the University as one of the UK’s top educational institutions only to then express how the behaviour of the students is disparate with this reputation.

This is particularly true with last year’s Charity Fashion Show. Student newspapers, showed little interest in chastising the models for what they wore (The Cambridge Student referred to last year’s fashion show as ‘an artistic triumph’). However The Daily Mail published a story with the headline “Fifty Shades of Cambridge: University students take to the catwalk in bondage gear at controversial fashion show.”

These articles also reached high numbers in terms of how many people commented.

An article on The Guardian about Jesus College’s cockerel statue received 2173 comments. Understandably, the trend is that articles published in 2016 have so far received more comments than articles published in 2017, as there has been more time since the publication of these articles.

It is worth noting that there has not

been a dearth of scandals coming from Cambridge University in 2017. Ronald Coyne has not left the headlines in the past few weeks, Simon Jarvis, an affiliated lecturer has been accused of distributing indecent images of children, and the alleged racism and sexism of a charity fashion show attendee led to a walk-out by headliner Princess Nokia.

Yet, despite the potential for stories to be written about Cambridge, the national papers do not seem to be as keen to write about the University as they were this time last year.

The word cloud (pictured) is made up of the words most frequently associated with Cambridge students both in national articles and the online comments on the publications’ websites.

The trends show that the most common criticisms of Cambridge students are that they are ‘elite’ or ‘sensitive snowflakes’.

One commenter on an article in The Guardian wrote “JCRs up and down the country vote on all sorts of daft things.

It’s part of being young and idealistic and a little bit foolish.”

Comment: Dealing with derogatory comments and putting them in perspective

I

t’s week seven, and I’m coming to the end of my tenure as Deputy Editor for The Cambridge Student having spent two terms overseeing News and one on Investigations.

Although realistically this has been a very short time, as with the nature of Cambridge – and as with the nature of news – it feels as if I’ve been in the thick of it for far longer, and have overseen the publication of a number of eye-opening stories from the NUS Vice-President’s alleged plot to oust President Malia Bouattia over Christmas to the £20 cash note burning incident which hit international headlines to the Princess Nokia story which we broke on our print night.

Being at the heart of news is incredibly rewarding and I’d recommend it wholeheartedly to any student interested in journalism: being presented information before it is publicly available and responding to breaking news stories as quickly as humanly possible are undoubtedly some of the best parts of the job.

Instances like the Ronald Coyne

“With a platform comes responsibility”

story do, however, remind you just how important responsible, representative and properly-sourced journalism is.

What started off as a Snapchat video taken by one student of a fresher quickly became a witch hunt with rumours flying about his political ancestry. This was combined with what became an invasion into his personal life and background.

It was for similar reasons that, as News Editor in Michaelmas, I decided that we should stop publishing the anonymous notes beginning “Dear Son…” that some of you may remember which included homophobic and sexist comments.

Instead we simply published a roundup of how much the prank had cost: with a platform comes responsibility.

Although this is true of all student media, it is particularly true at Cambridge.

As a Pembroke student I have seen stories about our Halloween formals, bops, and canteen options hit national headlines within the last couple of years. The latter was recently the subject of an editorial in The Sunday Times which begun “students have found a new symbol of oppressive imperialist hegemony – beef stew.”

Quite aside from being horrendously patronising, this story was just simply

a gross embellishment of what started off as no more than a comment thread beneath a Grudgebridge post.

As it seems unlikely that the national press will reign in their disproportionate interest in Cambridge students any time soon, it is partly our responsibility to ensure that would-be applicants from less privileged and under-represented backgrounds aren’t put off applying by one or two students’ mistakes. After all, these are exceptions to the rule.

This shouldn’t mean that we feel afraid to comment on issues such as cultural appropriation, particularly as it’s difficult to foresee that a private Facebook conversation is worthy of attention from the national news.

Instead it means that we must place a greater emphasis on access and counter negative press with positive actions.

This duty extends to student journalism.

Supporting charities which work to improve the lives of homeless people in Cambridge as well as celebrating the incredible diversity of students at Cambridge University are far more important than agonising over derogatory comments such as being called ‘special snowflakes’.

Many of the ‘scandals’ which have reache

The Telegraph Newspaper

Joanna Taylor

The Guardian

Daily Mirror

Daily Mail 0

A graph to show the number of ar 14-26 February for both 2016 and

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The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

News

media presents Cambridge students MATT GURTLER VIA WORDCLOUDS.COM

Students condemn the marginalisation of important issues in the national press Khushali Dodhia Deputy News Editor

T

he Cambridge Student spoke to students whose seemingly illicit activities have found their way into the pages of the national press, and asked how they felt about the way Cambridge students are portrayed.

Michael, who appeared in the Daily Mail after the cardboard boat race, commented: “The article focuses on students drinking and having fun in public, albeit with a negative tone, but this is still mostly true.

Compared to other things we get done for, drinking and having fun as students, in my mind, would put us on par with basically every other group of students in the country. We might get scrutinised for it a bit more, but at the same time the cardboard boat race is inherently more interesting to report than simply students getting drunk, so it is story worthy”.

Louis also appeared in the Daily Mail after the cardboard boat race and had this to say: “For some articles the Mail are very predictable. There are always articles about May Balls, and there is always an article about the Cardboard Boat Race.

So predictable in fact, that our aim for the cardboard boat race was not to win, but to get into the Daily Mail!

“Silly articles mask some important issues which are worth our attention”

“Overall I feel that people who understand the nature of Cambridge recognise the inaccuracy and audacity of the articles posted, but from reading the comments it would seem that we are in the minority. It is a shame because the silly articles mask some important issues which are worth our attention”.

Fergus’s picture made its way into the Daily Mail after Jesus May Ball: “Obviously it’s in the interest of media companies to find controversy when there isn’t any, as it gives readers a chance to be outraged for a second. The more they do this, the more debate is moved away from the actual issues at hand, and towards these straw-people – like the pronoun thing in Oxford; they never said half the things that were claimed of them, but their response, and, more importantly, the actual issue of gendered pronouns got swept underneath a debate about a position which nobody could reasonably hold.

“I made it very clear that I didn’t want my photo to be taken after the May Ball, but it did anyway. But we do look like wankers when we go to balls, so it’s not the worst thing in the world to capture.

Privilege in Cambridge is something worth documenting and mocking, though the Mail aren’t the best placed to give a nuanced picture of this.”

University ‘scandals’ that started in the student press and went on to hit national headlines

ed the national press had a connection to Pembroke College.

ROGER KIDD VIA GEOGRAPH ABBY WATSON

2016 2017

2

4

6

8

10

12

Number of articles

rticles in which Cambridge University featured in newspapers for the period 2017.

Matt Gurtler Deputy News Editor

D

ue to the prestige of the University of Cambridge as one of the leading universities in the UK and the world, stories about Cambridge students and occurences at the University frequently hit the national headlines, especially if they paint the institution in a negative light.

The story about Ronald Coyne was broken by The Tab Cambridge, before it reached the national papers. The story has now been reported in The Mirror, The Daily Mail, and The Sun, to name just a few.

The main source for the original story was a Snapchat video sent to students. It is unsurprising that student journalists got hold of the story before it reached national newspaper headlines.

Equally, The Cambridge Student broke the news that Princess Nokia walked out of the Charity Fashion Show, claiming that a student had shouted racist remarks at her. This story has now reached The Independent and The Guardian.

The Charity Fashion Show also reached national headlines last year, but in a

Many of the scandals are linked to Pembroke

different way. Student newspapers reported on the proceedings without suggesting any scandalous activity, while national news outlets such as The Daily Mail got hold of pictures of the models and their outfits from the fashion show and described them as “outlandish”.

Other stories originally reported in the student press which went on to hit the national papers include the campaign to return Jesus College’s Benin bronze cockerel, and reports of cultural appropriation at Pembroke, both in the kitchens (a student called the catering staff out on their description of a dish as “Jamaican stew”) and in the bops (a bop originally entitled “Around The World in 80 Days” had its theme changed, due to fears of potential cultural appropriation in the wearing of costumes).

Antics at Pembroke Halloween formals have also been reported in national papers. The Sun reported as a person in a killer clown costume appeared at the 2015 formal and The Mirror reported when two students went to a formal in 2016 dressed as David Cameron and a pig.

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09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

College Watch

Images: Jessica McHugh

Emmanuel

Christ’s

Clare

King’s

Emmanuel has installed a plastic bird above its front court to scare off crows which have been eating the college’s grass.

Like other college lawns, the grass roots of Emmanuel’s Front Court have been weakened by chafer grubs. When crows fly down to dig in the lawn to eat the grubs, they pull up the weakened grass with them.

One particular corner of Emmanuel Front Court has been so scarred by the crows that a wire has been installed, which runs from the south side of the court to the chapel cloister. In the middle of this wire is a plastic model falcon with its wings outstretched.

The ground staff hope that this will scare crows away from the court and the grass can begin to grow back.

Emmanuel’s response to the epidemic of the chafer grubs is similar to that of Trinity College, which has reportedly purchased a live falcon to fly around the College and frighten off crows.

Other colleges affected by the combination of grubs and crows may adopt a similar strategy.

Matt Gurtler

Actor Ricky Tomlinson has claimed that Richard Whiteley, the late Countdown presenter and Christ’s College alumnus, was a spy.

Tomlinson believes that Whiteley was an undercover agent for MI5 whose actions helped result in Tomlinson’s imprisonment.

In 1973 Tomlinson, together with Des Warren, was sentenced to two years in prison after being found guilty of “conspiracy to intimidate” whilst picketing as a trade union activist in Shropshire.

Tomlinson claimed that a documentary broadcast the day of his trial influenced the jury as it was so against trade unions. The documentary, Red Under the Bed, was copresented by Whiteley. Tomlinson suggested that it was “designed, written, made and paid for by the security services”. In an interview with The Chester Chronicle he alleged that he has confidential documents as proof.

Whiteley matriculated at Cambridge in 1962 and graduated with a third-class degree in English in 1965. As a finalist he edited Varsity.

He died in 2005 after a heart operation.

Abby Watson

Clare May Ball has launched a new online game on their website.

The theme of Clare May Ball 2017 is “How Old Are You Anyway?” Organisers hope to create “the greatest birthday party ever”.

The aim of the game, “How Old Are You Anyway? The Game”, is simply to pop balloons of different colours, which have been allotted different values, to earn points.

Some balloons slow down time, some pop other nearby balloons as well, and some should be avoided to increase one’s score.

Since its launch it has in fact been played over 10,000 times. Current high scorers include two students from King’s College.

The ultimate aim of the game is to try and win two free tickets by achieving either the highest score in one game or the highest total score.

Winners will be chosen in both categories.

The five runners-up in each category will be awarded queue jump tickets.

Winners of the tickets are to be decided on 1st May. Abby Watson

Students from King’s have become embroiled in a battle to save a flock of Canada geese, whose droppings have caused “many complaints” after making walkways around the college “slippery and unattractive”, according to senior staff.

They have launched a petition urging the college council to “take a stand against animal cruelty by vowing not to cull Canada geese”.

In a letter, students, calling themselves King’s College Members Against a Goose Cull, said: “From a moral standpoint, we believe that geese have intrinsic value and therefore deserve a life free from suffering and human exploitation.”

They continue by quoting Mahatma Gandhi: “In the words of Gandhi, ‘The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.’”

Speaking to Cambridge News, a College spokesperson said: “The College has used a variety of non-harmful measures to deter the geese, and will continue to do so.

“If these measures prove unsuccessful we would consider moving the geese from King’s.”

Khushali Dodhia

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The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

News

Cambridge sixth-highest uni for claims of staff sexually harassing students Khushali Dodhia News Editor

S

colleges (although college figures could duplicate university-wide ones). It was followed in numbers of allegations by Nottingham and Edinburgh.

Cambridge came sixth, with at least six allegations of harassment made by students against staff.

The Guardian also revealed that with at least seven complaints made against employees by other employees, Cambridge has the second-highest number of staff-on-staff allegations. The University was second to Oxford, which recorded 17 allegations centrally, with another three at college level (though there could be duplication).

An Oxford University spokesperson told The Guardian: “A wide-ranging campaign across the university in recent years has made clear that sexual assault and harassment, whether by

staff or students, will not be tolerated anywhere at Oxford. We see the number of students now coming forward to disclose or report incidents as reflecting the progress made.”

Having already introduced a new centralised procedure for students to raise complaints against other students, the University is currently working to implement a specialist centralised procedure and guidance to tackle allegations between students and staff.

Cambridge’s Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Professor Graham Virgo, announced on the matter: “It is a very significant challenge for people to disclose sexual misconduct or harassment […]. [W] e’ve designed the procedure with student choice at its heart, so students can choose for their complaint to be heard in a way that suits them.”

exual harassment and gender violence conducted by university staff are at “epidemic levels” in the UK, reports The Guardian, based on At least six findings from an investigation.

A freedom of information (FOI) allegations request, sent to 120 universities, were made revealed that nearly 300 allegations have been made against academic and by students non-academic employees. against staff At least 169 allegations brought against staff from 2011-12 to 2016-17 were from students, with staff members making at least 127 allegations against their colleagues.

However, experts suggest that these numbers are just the “tip of the iceberg”.

Speaking to The Guardian, Anna Bull, co-founder of the 1752 Group, a lobby group working to end staffCHRISTIAN RICHARDT / WIKIMEDIA student sexual harassment in higher education, said: “There is evidence to suggest that the actual figures in the UK will be staggering. The Association of American Universities undertook a detailed survey of sexual assault and sexual misconduct in 2015 (studentstudent and staff-student). Surveys were completed on 27 campuses, with 150,072 students responding. The survey found the the proportion of reports of sexual harassment – staff and student – [was] 7.7%, and only 28% of even the most serious incidents are reported to an organisation or agency.”

The investigation found that Oxford University had the highest number of allegations against staff by students, with 11 received centrally and 10 by After Oxford, the University had the highest number of staff-on-staff allegations.

Uni society launches web database of black alumni Reetika Revathy Subramanian News Editor

O

n Monday, the Black Cantabs Society launched a website with a database of black alumni at Cambridge.

Touted as the “first formal effort” to compile this data, the Society is striving to increase the visibility of black alumni and their achievements in the university.

The website, which was set up by Flora Tesse, allows users to look up black alumni by college, and read case studies. It also includes a section on black alumni who have gone on into academia. Each person gets a credit based on the information they upload.

While explaining the rationale behind this effort, the founding President, Njoki Wamai, explained

how the research project began. One of the most pressing influences was the election of Priscilla Mensah as CUSU President in March 2015. As she was CUSU’s first female black president, this historic event prompted the cofounders to recognise the importance of documenting Cambridge’s black history. The Black Cantabs Society was formed in 2015.

“It’s about appreciating all those who’ve come before,” Wamai said at the launch event. “Generations of black students have always been asking these questions, thinking ‘what other black students have studied here?’ We wanted to give people the answers.”

The online database project was officially launched in 2015. “It started as a research society, but this is all political,” Wamai stated, adding, “It’s also a movement.” She emphasised

“It started as a research society, but this is all political”

the importance of the society as an inclusive, social space for students of colour in the University.

Dr Mónica Moreno Figueroa, the Society’s patron, is a lecturer in Sociology at the University, who haas also helped the society in putting together this significant databse. As the only black female academic in Cambridge, Dr Figueroa said that she feels strongly about the experiences of black students at Cambridge: “You come here to thrive, but find a lot of obstacles in your way to do with race,” she said. She upheld the society as “a space to celebrate that we’re here”, and has high hopes for it going forward.

The Society is planning a speakers’ series. The first session will be on Alexander Crummel, one of the first black students to have studied here, at Queens’ College on 17 March.

NEWS BULLETIN Cambridge most consistently high university in QS Rankings The annual QS World University Rankings by Subject, which compare higher education institutions across 46 subjects, have ranked Cambridge 2nd for Arts and Humanities disciplines and 3rd for Engineering and Technology subjects.

Cambridge has more subjects in the top 10 than any other institution, but UK institutions, Oxford was rated top in the highest number of subjects. Overall, Harvard and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology took the most top places. A quarter of all top 10 rankings were awarded to UK courses, with US and UK institutions having the biggest proportion of the highest places.

Ben Sowter, head of research for QS, said that “Subject rankings are becoming more and more influential.”

Rise in postgrad enrolments with new loan system On 2 March, the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) released data on the number of students from the UK and EU who started postgraduate courses at UK universities in the academic year 20162017.

The total number of postgraduate enrolments grew from 143,500 in 2015-2016 to 165,500 this academic year. This equates to an increase of approximately 15%.

This is partly due to a new loan system which was first proposed by George Osborne in 2014. These loans were first made available this academic year . They are available to all students under the age of 60, provided they have not already taken a postgraduate course and that they live in the UK. They are repaid in the same way as the £9,000 per annum undergraduate loan.

Three quarters of academics are ‘Left-wing’, finds report

A report by free-market think tank the Adam Smith Institute has warned that academia is dominated by leftwing professors. According to a report by the institute, 75% of academics are left-liberals, while just 12% would label themselves as Conservatives.

The report is based on a survey of academics by Times Higher Education in December 2015, in which less than 0.5% of respondents said that they were Ukip supporters.

It found that “Conservative and right-wing academics are particularly scarce in the social sciences, the humanities, and the arts”.

Its authors call on universities to deal with “ideological homogeneity” by “commit[ting] to ideological diversity with the same fervour they commit to gender, class, and race diversity”.

Cardiff Met advises against use of 34 non-inclusive words

Cardiff Metropolitan University has issued a Code of Practice on using inclusive language. It includes 34 terms that should be avoided.

These include “housewife” and “sportsmanship”. It seeks to “embrace cultural diversity”. “Wheelchairbound” should be replaced by “wheelchair user”.

A spokesperson commented amid allegations that the university is suppressing free speech.

“The University is committed unreservedly to the principle of academic freedom within the law. It is also committed to providing an environment where everyone is valued and treated with dignity and respect.”

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09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

News

The news roundup CULTURE

MUSIC

Cambridge museum launches India exhibition The Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology has launched “Another India”, an exhibition displaying artefacts from minority populations from India. Focusing on Adivasi (literally “original inhabitants”) communities, the artefacts include a snake charmer’s flute and a headhunter’s skull.

_EVANTHIA_

SPORT

Bishop of Ely blesses university boat

Cambridge lecturer restores Liszt opera A snake charmer’s flute will be on display

An unfinished opera by Franz Liszt is to receive its debut performance, after lying in archives for over 150 years.

David Trippett, a senior University lecturer in Music, spent two years restoring the libretto, abandoned by Liszt halfway through. “I like to think he would have smiled on it,” said Trippett.

The Bishop of Ely, has blessed a boat belonging to the University’s women’s Boat Club. It was named in memory of Ann Catherine Smith, mother of club member Patricia Smith. She raised thousands of pounds for Cancer Research as well as the club last year, in memory of her mother who died in 2014.

HEALTH

Scholars at low-ranked unis have poorer health

The number of new council houses to be built in the next five years.

CRIME

HOUSING

The Cambridgeshire police force has issued a stark warning against the drug ‘spice’, a synthetic cannabis which reduces its takers to a frozen, zombielike state. A police spokesperson said: “We would urge people not to take these substances and anyone caught producing or supplying them will face prosecution.”

Cambridge’s stock of council housing is set to receive a £70 million injection, which could be used to build 500 new homes over the next five years. Cambridge City Councillor Kevin Prive, told Cambridge News: “it will make a huge difference to a lot of people. It is a lifeline for the city.”

Cambridgeshire police Council to receive £70m warn against drug ‘spice’ for new council homes

SOUTHEBY’S / WIKIMEDIA

Academics at lower-ranked higher education institutions suffer from poorer wellbeing than colleagues at more prestigious universities, reports Times Higher Education. According to multiple studies of academics from around the globe, staff at lowerranked universities tend to have higher levels of social withdrawal and a worse work-life balance.

500

Users are reduced to a zombielike state

Week roundup

DILIFF

NEWS YOU MIGHT HAVE MISSED FROM TCS.CAM.AC.UK

CELEBRITY

Shami Chakrabarti made Honorary Fellow

24%

Shami Chakrabarti is to be appointed an Honorary Fellow of Lucy Cavendish, which is the only college in Europe for women aged 21 and over. Commenting on her appointment, Baroness Chakrabarti, the Shadow Attorney General and a Labour peer, said: “There has never been a more important time to invest in women’s education.”

The percentage of white British boys who achieve at least 5 GCSEs at grade C and are eligible for free school meals.

THE OTHER PLACE

POLITICS

Oxford targets students from certain postcodes Oxford has launched a summer school targeting students from certain “educationally disadvantaged areas”, in a bid to increase its proportion of working class undergraduates.

Research shows that 24% of white British boys who are eligible for free school meals achieve 5 C grades at GCSE, the lowest proportion of any major ethnic group.

Lords votes to cut ties between TEF2 and fees

The vote is “a major defeat” for the Government

The House of Lords has voted to cut ties between the TEF2 and University Fees in a move which CUSU President Amatey Doku has described as “a major defeat” for the Government. However, in a Facebook update, Roberta Huldisch, current CUSU Education Officer, said: “We’re not sure what exactly this will mean yet in practice.”

SOUTHBANK CENTRE

The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

Why should I care about...

Solar Cell Research Ned Booker Science Editor

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he UK government once had a Department of Energy & Climate Change, which no longer exists, having been incorporated into the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy, which sounds much more environmentally friendly. The former chief scientific advisor to this department, the late Sir David MacKay, wrote a book trying to be quantitative about renewable energy, not political, and then gave it away for free online (withouthotair. com). In this book he discusses various uses of energy and quantifies the scale required for renewable energy to be an effective contribution to the energy budget of the UK. Unfortunately, the picture painted by the book is not very positive and implies that to become a sustainable country, or even a carbon neutral one (these are not necessarily the same thing) the UK must make an

enormous effort, now. Sadly, the book was written almost ten years ago, and although there has been some progress (before it was dissolved the DECC reckoned the UK was on around 20% renewable electricity – not 20% of energy used was renewable by the way), government support for renewables has decreased as well.

In 2016 the government decreased the feed-in tariff for domestic solar panels (i.e. make electricity, not hot water) from 6 – 13 p per unit in 2015 to about 4p per unit today. There are arguments that solar should not need the feed-in tariff (which is essentially a subsidy) as it should be able to stand on its own against traditional large scale power generation facilities, primarily based on fossil fuels.

If this is to be the case (as the current government seems to think) then substantial changes will need to be made to the technology used and the implementation of that technology. Currently the solar panels that people would buy to put on

their roofs convert about 20 % of the energy in sunlight to electricity. This number varies a bit depending on age of the installation, but is actually really good as the fundamental limit on the efficiency for a silicon solar cell (like on the majority of roofs) is 32%. Prototype silicon cells have been certified at 25%, but these are a long way off being put on roofs though, and even when they are they will only reduce the space requirement by 20% for the same power output. This indicates that if we want to get really serious about solar energy there will need to be significant research effort into the materials and manufacturing engineering to bring down the price of existing technologies. It also indicates that additional technologies need to be investigated to try to squeeze as much electricity out of the sun as feasibly possible to meet our future energy needs, as at present solar power only provides about 2 % of the UK’s electricity, and the government doesn’t seem to want to help us get there.

UNSPLASH VIA PIXABAY

Ruairi Mackenzie

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ambridge-based design firm Dovetailed have unveiled their vision for the future of food: 3D printed dishes on demand.

The company’s nῡfood robot can create culinary 3D structures which in practice look like small mounds of colourful caviar.

The robot builds its creations using base liquid ingredients that Dovetailed plan on supplying, including sauces, juices, and cocktails. The robot can then encapsulate the liquids and build the resulting droplets into larger shapes. Potential creations suggested by the creators include roast beef jelly, a grapefruit flavoured star that can be added to a pimms’ cocktail, and even a nutritional “vitaminberry”.

The technology is undoubtedly an ingenious application of 3D printing, and the novelty of seeing isolated gel drops form into complex shapes is undeniably memorable.

Nῡfood’s biggest challenge, however, is selling this unorthodox design of its food to the public.

This challenge is one faced by several competitors in what is an increasingly crowded future food market. Companies such as Huel, which makes nutritionally balanced powders to be consumed as protein

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Ned Booker Science Editor

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At an altitude of 5000 m in the Chilean Atacama desert, about 50 km from the border where of Argentina, Bolivia, and Chile meet, a collection of 66 radio dishes is under construction. This will form the ALMA radio telescope (The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array), and even before it is completed, researchers are able to use it to obtain results providing insight into the formation of stars. Astronomers have used ALMA to study a supermassive black hole in the Phoenix cluster of galaxies around six billion light years away. This black hole is ejecting huge amounts of hot gas into lobes surrounding the galaxy hosting the black hole. These lobes were thought to be too hot to allow stars to form, but the ALMA observations have shown filaments on the periphery of the lobes that are cold enough to allow stars to form and big enough to provide material for several billion stars.

Science

Printer to plate: The future of food?

The company’s robot creates 3D structures which in practice look like small mounds of colourful caviar.

Iron is an important physiological mineral and is used in the transport of oxygen.

The levels of iron in the brain are strictly controlled as an excess can result in the death of brain cells due to the production of reactive oxygen- containing compounds. Iron deficiency is also a serious problem though, as it can impair the production of important neurotransmitters (messenger chemicals within the brain such as dopamine or monoamines).

A study, carried out by researchers in Cambridge and the Netherlands, published in the journal Translational Psychiatry shows that chronic cocaine use is associated with excessive iron accumulation in the globus pallidus section of the brain. This structure is associated with the regulation of voluntary movement. The researchers also saw that the accumulation levels correlate strongly with the duration of regular cocaine use.

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Huntingdon’s Disease is caused by a mutation in the HTT gene.

When the protein associated with the disease is produced abnormally due to a mutation, it may gradually damage brain cells.

This damage is the subject of much research, as there is no cure for the disease, and limited treatment. There is an association between metabolic symptoms, such as skeletal muscle wasting, and Huntingdon’s disease but measuring the metabolism of human patients is difficult. Animals may be more effective. Cambridge researchers have used sheep as they are big enough to allow blood to be taken regularly, and their food and housing may be well controlled. By comparing the metabolisms of sheep with presymptomatic Huntingdon’s disease with controls, a large number of metabolic changescan be tracked, which could be used to research. thefficacy of any future treatments.

shakes, and Mealsquares, which offers a meal replacement that appears to be the lovechild of a flatbread and a scone, have been on the market for years now, with Huel claiming that its flagship product sold out three times within its first month on the UK market.

It’s hard to see your average punter swapping out an actual raspberry in favour of a moist blobberry Even these relatively successful stories are of companies struggling to move beyond their initial niche audiences, which for nῡfood appears to be food savvy tech geeks, and to be seen as more than a fad (tellingly, Huel’s latest product, the Huel Bar, looks very much like a bog-standard protein bar).

Nῡfood’s promotional video deftly shows off the technology of the robot, but it’s hard to see your average punter swapping out an actual raspberry in favour of a moist blob-berry with the appropriate raspberry flavoured chemicals.

Of course, these purely aesthetic concerns would be assuaged with a taste-test (no one worries about how bad a Greggs pasty looks when they are eating it) and opportunities to do just that are available, with nῡfood embarking on a European wide tastetour this year.

Nῡfood has a lot of hurdles to jump to reach success, but the proof will be in the (3D printed) pudding.

MAURIZIO PESCE

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09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Features

What it really means to feel like an adult Dee Dee Lee

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atilda the Musical reminded me of how much we look forward to growing up and doing all the things that adults wouldn’t let us do when we were young. In my experience, however, I have realised that growing up is a trap, and the only thing you wish when you’ve grown up is that you never had.

My friend from San Francisco once told me that people in the Bay Area are known to have “Peter Pan syndrome”, a pop-psychology concept of an adult who is socially immature. While it can affect both sexes, it appears more often among men. Some characteristics of the disorder are the inability of individuals to take on responsibilities and to commit themselves. Humbelina Robles Ortega, an expert in emotional disorders, points out that, “Sometimes they can have serious adaptation problems at work or in personal relationships.”

Psychologist Dan Kelly also used the term “Wendy Syndrome” to describe women who act like mothers with their partners or people close to them.

Like Wendy, they make every one of their partner’s decisions and take on various responsibilities, thus justifying their significant others’ unreliability.

Researchers state that you don’t have to look far for Wendy, “We can find [her] even within the immediate family; for example, consider the stereotype of the over-protective mother.”

Growing up: What does it m

Both of these phenomena show that the social dynamics and personal mentalities we develop in our childhood can carry over to adulthood. The commonly accepted distinction between adulthood and childhood is less rigid than we typically realise.

Here in the UK, studies show that Britons do not believe they are fully grown up until they reach the age of 29. Living at home longer, playing computer games, and watching children’s films are some of the most common reasons for people not feeling like an adult.

The sociologist Dr. Frank Furedi stated that, “More adults than ever before are leaving it later in life to move out from the parental home, get married, or have children. This is having a knock-on effect to how ‘grown-up’ people actually perceive themselves to be.”

So when do we actually grow up?

Research shows that what people really believe constitutes being an ‘adult’ are actually significant life events that give them adult responsibilities. This includes buying a house, getting married, becoming a parent, and, interestingly, looking forward to a night in.

Growing old is inevitable. Growing up is optional. It’s less about age and more about reaching milestones in life.

I reached this revelation recently while celebrating a friend’s 26th birthday. She looked back on the carefree days of her childhood wistfully, but at the same time is excited about what lies ahead in life.

The cookie-cutter concept of growing up Noella Chye Features Editor

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dulthood is a daunting prospect for many of us, and it is only made more intimidating by the fact that in our societal system, we find laws, both spoken and unspoken, about what constitutes adulthood, and when we reach it.

Consequently, for many, one’s childhood and teenage years are spent pre-empting adulthood, instead of experiencing the natural transition that it really is.

At age 18, we are suddenly eligible to vote, plunged into university (for the majority), and free of the need to have a legal guardian. Together, the onslaught of independence and responsibilities creates the impression that adulthood begins at a fixed age, and is characterised by a checklist of milestones.

In light of this, it is hard to remember that the process of maturing happens neither at the same age for everybody, nor does it take place in a split second.

“The blurring between the images and reality of adulthood can be isolating.”

This makes it more important to keep the distinction between legal and actual adulthood in mind. Peer and societal pressure have also come together to create a false image of adulthood, as an example of what John Stuart Mill termed “the tyranny of the majority”.

We are in a culture where an unspoken set of social milestones, such as consuming alcohol, or having a newfound ‘mature’ appreciation of art and ‘the smaller things in life’ have become a litmus test for maturity, and the pressure to be sure of yourself, or to fit into a laughably narrow notion of mental health are criteria for how much of an adult you are.

For some who have grown up in alternative backgrounds, or simply feel like adults later in life, the blurring between the images and reality of adulthood can be isolating. It is highly likely that most of us are victims of this at least to some extent, especially in the ‘Cambridge bubble’.

This shows itself whenever we look at the people around us, whose lives

appear to be in perfect order, and whom responsibilities never seem to faze.

We associate perfection and competence with adulthood, so that whenever we fall below this ideal, we think of ourselves as less of an adult, instead of recognising the rather obvious fact that adulthood and incompetence are completely compatible.

In reality, however, we may in fact just be adults in a way that is not typically recognised by laws and social norms.

Practically speaking, there is little we can do to change the system, such that it reflects the natural process of maturity at least a little more.

At some point, rules need to be laid down that dictate when people should take on various responsibilities, even when they are not fully ready.

Letting people dictate when they feel ready to take on the responsibilities associated with adulthood, such as voting and living independently of a guardian simply isn’t feasible.

I can certainly imagine someone (read

as: me) exploiting the system to avoid employment and paying taxes because they “just don’t feel like an adult quite yet”.

What we can do, however, is remind ourselves and each other of the reality of growing up, and empathise with those whose experiences simply do not fit into a typical mould.

For those who are indifferent to these struggles, or find that the system actually suits them rather well, it is important to remember that this is not the case for all people and may not work for everyone.

Yes, the majority of people are able to grow into their responsibilities, but for those who take a longer time to do so, it is important to recognise them as adults in their own right.

More fundamentally, we need to change the existing notion of adulthood, and think of it not as a number, completed checklist, or level of ability, and instead as a personal, subjective definition. People should have the opportunity to define adulthood in line with their lifestyle.

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Ed Sheeran’s ÷ Review Subversive Stitching: from Emin to Aydua Watersprite: The Pick of the Week

The Thursday Magazine

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Ed Sheeran’s ÷: ‘You’ll find nothing daring here’ Pippa Smith Music Editor

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ne of the most hotly anticipated albums of the year, Ed Sheeran’s ÷ is destined to spend weeks if not months at the top of the charts. That’s not necessarily because it deserves it.

The strongest songs on this record have already been released. ‘Castle on the Hill’ and ‘Shape of You’, as I wrote in an earlier article, are pitched at a nice balance between easy listening and individual in their sound. The rest of the album, however, is a mixed bag. The opener, ‘Eraser’ has a fairly strong chorus but it is annoyingly over-produced.

The live extended version Sheeran performed of this track for SBTV last week had all the artist’s characteristic rawness that this streamlined version sadly lacks.

nowhere in these later versions, though I’m sure they’ll still soundtrack proposals and first dances because that’s exactly what they were written for.

The whole album feels quite calculated. The folky ‘Galway Girl’ is at least unashamed about wanting to appeal to a certain kind of fan. The catchy lyrics and joyous fiddle in this track are twee but at least they don’t hide behind the pretence of emotional sincerity.

‘Happier’, for me, is the only track to successfully recreate the original emotional vulnerability that made EVA RINALDI

This streamlined version sadly lacks the artist’s characteristic rawness This is, unfortunately, a recurring theme across the entire record. ÷ is essentially a mass of the songs that worked on x, rehashed and reworked to appeal to a mass market. ‘Dive’ is probably the best vocal performance on the album, but the song is musically and lyrically lacking.

Like ‘Perfect’, it is an over-saccharine, insincere appeal to easy listening. The wit and sweet honesty of earlier tracks such as ‘Thinking out Loud’ and ‘Gimme Love’ are

Sheeran famous. This is probably because it, mercifully, escapes the smoothing hand of production that plagues the other downbeat tracks.

Sheeran seems so keen to pander to his fans that he starts to sacrifice artistic integrity Beyond this, ‘Barcelona’ is inoffensive; ‘What Do I Know’ catchy but unconvincingly moralistic; and ‘Nancy Mulligan’ just a bit pants. The record has no apparent structure and its marathon 16-song length becomes, frankly, tiresome. As I said earlier, this record would do well regardless, but Sheeran seems to be so keen to pander to his millions of adoring fans that he starts to sacrifice artistic integrity. Some of these songs are memorable, and have grown on me the more I’ve listened, but you’ll find nothing daring here.

Of course, this is not an album made for critics, but for fans. As someone who loosely falls into both these categories, however, I remain distinctly unimpressed. This isn’t a bad album, it’s just not a particularly good one.

6/10

Review: Logan tackles love and loss Eliza Dickinson Film and TV Editor

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n a world of blockbuster Marvel ensemble pieces and parody Lego superhero movies, Logan stands out as something strikingly different. Unlike the most recent X-Men films, there is no big threat to the world, no city-destroying battle scene, and no big romance.

It is a smaller film, but all the more powerful for it, as its characters grapple with love, loss, and tragedy.

Rather than focusing on Wolverine, the X-Men comic book hero, the film focuses instead on Hugh Jackman’s Logan, the man struggling with the deterioration of his health as his own body betrays him. Similarly, Patrick Stewart’s Charles Xavier is presented not as the allpowerful Professor X, but as a man whose age has caught up with him, with illness turning his brain into the world’s most dangerous mind.

Hugh Jackman is really able to show off his acting prowess The two mutants are stagnating at the beginning of the film, trapped by their own design in a hideout just over the Mexican border, with only the light sarcasm of Stephen Merchant’s Caliban to lighten the mood. Logan drinks to hide from the fact that his wounds don’t heal like they used to, while Charles resents being imprisoned in the hideout for a crime he cannot remember.

With the arrival of Laura, a young mutant played by Dafne Keen, action and life is immediately thrown into Logan’s quiet world. It is revealed that Laura is running from the scientists who made her, Boyd Holbrook’s harsh and manipulative Pierce, and Richard E. Grant’s creepy Dr. Rice. This returns to a common superhero theme –

the engineering of mutants for dubious purposes. It is a subject that is revisited in a big way later in the film, with the genuinely shocking introduction of Dr. Rice’s ‘weapon’ in the second half.

The relationships between Logan, Charles, and Laura make up the bulk of the storytelling, with Logan and Laura being far more similar to each other than either had first anticipated.

This is a film that is designed to be different The film is gritty, but it is also very emotional, and Hugh Jackman is really able to show off his acting prowess as Logan’s tough exterior is gently peeled back over the course of the movie. Laura is also very endearing, as the girl raised in a lab is finally able to express herself and find a family.

Of course, there are still plenty of dramatic fight scenes (and a lot of swearing), even if they are not the main focus of the film. They’re fantastically choreographed, with a particular highlight being the stretch-limo car chase as Logan, Charles, and Laura attempt to escape their pursuers. The film’s climax is also especially intense, as the audience is aware of the toll that its events have taken on the ailing health of Logan, and the sacrifice that is involved.

Logan presents an unforgiving world, but also one in which there is a glimmer of hope. While the older mutants are past their prime, there is a new generation: Having escaped from their lab, Laura and the younger mutants are a breath of fresh air in the X-Men franchise, which has

been saturated with the same characters for too long.

This is a film that was designed to be different, even choosing to eschew the traditional post-credits scene (much to the amusement of the roughly 25 people who chose to remain in our seats in the cinema, only to be greeted by a blank screen at the end of the credits).

It shows that there is still a place for small emotional journeys within the big superhero franchises, and hopefully its success will encourage the studio bosses to make more films like Logan.

8/10

MARISA HENRY

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Subversive Stitching: from Emin to Aydua Amy Murgatroyd and India Ayles

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eaving, quilting, applique and embroidery are ways that we can literally embed our thoughts into something via a simple piece of thread. These old-fashioned textile techniques usually associated with a domestic female space, forms of “low” art, are being powerfully reclaimed within contemporary art and fashion, showing us that they have relevance to our lives. As Grayson Perry reminds us, textiles have an intimate relationship with our lives, whether in the clothes we wear everyday or the quilts we sleep under: “We are born and we die and we make love under a quilt.”

Birth, the in-between, and death are echoed in Grayson Perry’s The Walthamstow Tapestry 2009. The almost Bayeaux Tapestry size textile work begins with the visceral birthing of a child, to the inevitable deathbed.

The tapestry becomes a medium for Perry to explore contemporary culture. A fibre-mirror is held up to society.

From abortion, the British class system, religion, sexuality, and identity, Grayson confronts us with the issues pertinent to our time through a threadbare medium.

Tracey Emin parallels the footsteps of Perry in a more personal manner. To her, techniques such as quilting provide a space for self-expression. Emin in the 90s began producing a series of quilts for her retrospective at the White Cube. This textile exploration led her to large-scale installations such as To Meet My Past 2002 that consisted of a four poster bed, mattress, bed clothing and curtains. The confessional quilt, featured on the bed, plays upon the old concept of quilts being a medium to record one’s memories. Emin’s quilt has body stains and embroidered red thread across the cotton sheets, denoting the menstrual cycle and her lovers. Displayed in the contemporary white walls of the Cube, Emin creates an aggressive and almost primeval reinterpretation of the original medium.

Looking at the most obvious use of textiles, clothes

INDIA AYLES

designers have returned to these timeworn crafts as a theme in their collections. Recently in Paris Fashion Week AW17, Maison Margiela created a walking tapestry in jacket form. The model wore what looked like a Persian carpet with neon yarn embroidered onto the surface.

Mimicking the jacket, her hair was knitted with the yarn; she embodied the craft in a powerful feminist fashion.

Like Margiela, Molly Goddard who won 2016 British Woman’s-Wear Designer of the Year, expanded the notion of embroidery. This year the designer created a modern installation at the Now Gallery, where visitors could freely sew into her gigantic tulle dresses hanging from ceiling of the space. In a world full of conceptual art and fastfashion, it is heartening to see a return to craft, especially craft that is empowering women. We are trying to make this happen in Cambridge.

This ability of the medium to bridge so many different aspects of contemporary culture is exciting, but its value also lies in the therapeutic quality of the process itself.

Embroidering is a slow and relaxing activity, mindless as well as creatively challenging, and in a world and a university environment where efficiency and productivity is always the priority, it can be a welcome gap in a hectic timetable. It is a medium that allows collaboration and discussion, which arguably does not happen enough in a

competitive academic environment such as this one.

Recently the two of us made a tapestry for the exhibition Responses to Feminism, organized by the Churchill Feminist Society. Our piece, sewn continuously over a month, used wool to drawn our thoughts on feminism into a large piece of calico. We used slogans denoting female types such as goddess, femme fatale, vestal virgin, mother earth, and krone, to question the many stereotypes with which women are often associated. Behind closed doors, other students in Cambridge are working with these mediums. Ella Chapman, for example, creates beautifully detailed embroideries of vaginas, which on handkerchief sized cloths subvert the stereotype of female docility.

Hopefully in the future more exhibitions and events will allow people to participate in collaborative textile projects showing that these old-fashioned techniques still have significance to our lives.

Aydua is collaborating with Amnesty International for the event “Tapestry Against Torture” this Monday. After Amnesty’s Cage petition in which students signed fabric banners against Trump’s endorsement of torture, we are hoping to bring lots of people together to form a sewing chain joining these pieces into a large tapestry to send to Theresa May. Please join us!

INDIA AYLES

Escape the Bubble: Sunrise on Castle Hill Amiya Nagpal Lifestyle Editor

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never quite had the same green, nature-centred childhood that kids here seem to have had – I instead filled my time with Enid Blyton books, blissfully ignorant that these landscapes I was reading and dreaming about were actual landscapes that other children my age were getting to experience. Moving to the UK was a shock to the system; I had never seen this much expansive greenery. Three years down the line, journeys through the countryside still fill me with awe.

Cambridge has its share of parks and fields, and I’ve been on beautiful walks around the outskirts where there’s nothing but nature surrounding me for miles and miles.

But getting that far out takes time and planning, and there’s often no time to dedicate a chunk of a day to simply having a nice, freeing walk. So, Castle Hill has been my favourite close-by nature escape instead.

When I tell you I love Castle Hill, I have very little to compare it to. The primary hill related experience in my life before I discovered Castle Hill in my second year was a misguided hillwalking expedition with CU Hillwalking Club in one of my very first weeks here. The uphill slog through the sleet with my thighs in agony and the overwhelming breathlessness still gives me nightmares.

Perhaps this is why Castle Hill, and its benign little hump, is so appealing – I’m still out of breath when I get to the top, but the struggle is far less exhausting. My memories of it all blur into one – somehow I’ve only been there at night, endless time spent atop what students at hill colleges apparently call ‘The Mound’ – lots of laughter, catching up, drinking, smoking, and inevitably shivering. There is something about looking at the quiet industry of the city from the hill that is breathtaking. The various rigs and TIGER

construction elements don’t point towards anything but they just glint in the gentle glare of the moon and remind me that there is so much beyond the stress-bubble that is Cambridge. Whenever friends come to visit I drag them here, and they always love it – not because they’re doing what I am, which is taking a break from my university on ground level, but because it feels removed from everything and everyone else. It feels like we could be the only people in the whole city. It’s really not as far as you think, especially if you’ve got a bike. It can be part of a longer trip too – I once had a fight with a friend and sad-cycled well past it in the middle of the night, only to turn around and end my night there. A couple of blankets go a long way, and if you own a flask, it would definitely be worth bringing some tea or hot chocolate to keep you going too.

I have always been a sucker for sunrise. I’m the person who forces everyone in the friendship group to wake up at some ungodly hour in a bid to let the rays of the morning wash over us all. I have seen sunrises in Cambridge, after one too many essay all-nighters, a few accidental mornings, May Balls, parties that last an age, but surprisingly I’ve never seen one from Castle Hill. So, it’ll likely be my sunrise pit stop next term. Let me know if you’d care to come.

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

The daily grind: Giving up coffee

Emer O’ Hanlon Food & Drink Editor

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Chris Tan

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Restaurant review: Thela

COULEUR VIA PIXABAY

pring is my favourite season. Coming from the tropics, I still feel a sense of wonder when I see the flowers coming back to life after the bleakness of winter, the days start getting longer, and the sun slowly returns. As the cliché goes, spring is a time for new beginnings.

I’m not very good with New Year’s resolutions, so I like how spring gives me a second chance to try to change something about myself that I would like to improve upon. This year, in the spirit of Lent, I have given up coffee. No coffee at all from Ash Wednesday till Easter Sunday, if my willpower holds.

Though I did manage to go up to about seven cups a day at one time, I know my limits now The prospect of this terrifies me. I’m normally a three-cupsof-coffee-per-day person during term time – one to get me to a semi-lucid, vaguely human state in time for morning lectures, one at lunch time to prevent myself from taking an afternoon nap, and another at about 4pm to help me focus on work rather than wander off to the cat video section on YouTube. If I have an essay due, I could easily have another two cups, bringing it up to five cups in a day. I know caffeine dependency is probably relatively normal in Cambridge, and three cups per day is probably not too unhealthy, but I fear becoming inured to it. Though I did manage to go up to about seven cups a day at one time, I know my limits now – the hand tremors were quite worrying.

Nevertheless, I think the number of coffee loyalty cards that I got through indicates I could perhaps save a significant amount of money if I simply stopped drinking coffee. Plus, I don’t generally like the idea of being dependent on anyone or anything, even if it is only caffeine. So I’ve been without coffee for only a few days – not even a week. Do I feel healthier? Not really. Has it allowed me to save money? Also no – I still go to cafés relatively regularly out of habit. However, I now have an added incentive to try non-caffeinated drinks – like the cacao and banana smoothie which I enjoyed at Espresso Library earlier this week. Also, I do feel like I need more sleep now – my bedtime has shifted from about 2am to just after midnight.

But, the trade-off is that I do feel more rested in the morning, both because of the additional sleep and, I think, because of the enhanced quality of my sleep.

Will I make it to Easter Sunday without coffee? I’m not sure.

I may have to make occasional exceptions. I’m currently in Cork for the weekend and would really like to have an Irish coffee – having both coffee and whiskey in the same drink sounds like a truly brilliant idea. However, since the end of term is (fortunately, finally) just under a fortnight away, perhaps I will be just about able to reset my caffeine sensitivity in time for Easter term.

hela is a brand new restaurant on Regent Street, which promises to bring a diverse range of Indian street food to Cambridge. I visited two weeks ago with my sister, as both of us are big street food fans. We avoided food for several hours beforehand (only sharing a falafel wrap for lunch – and both of us have big appetites) and had very high expectations of the food, based mostly on the luscious pictures on their website.

After much agonising over the menu, we eventually decided to go for a mixture of different ‘starters’, as they were put on the menu. What we really wanted to try out was as many of the snacks as possible, as for both of us, they are our favourite aspect of Indian food. We asked to have as many of the dishes at the same time as was possible First up were the samosas. Now, both of us have very high standards, and we were delighted that these standards were met. The pastry was perfectly flaky and crisp, and the filling was a delicious, rather spicy pea and potato mixture. There was a drizzle of tamarind chutney on them (though we could have done with more) and a side salad of raw carrot and red onion.

Paneer pakoras were a new discovery for both of us, having only ever had vegeatble ones before. You might question the notion of deep frying already-high-fat cheese in batter, but they were very tasty. The batter was delicately spiced, enough to make it interesting, yet not so much that it was a distraction. This, too, was served with the same side salad and chutney. Although I enjoyed these, they were definitely plainer than the other offerings, which were so bursting with flavour that I felt the paneer pakoras didn’t quite stand up enough against them. However, they were

my sister’s favourite, so it depends on what you like.

We went for the dahi puris, as my sister had never had one before. These are small shells (which taste sort of like a poppadum) filled with potato and chickpea, drizzled with yoghurt and tamarind with sev puri (vermicelli pastry) sprinkled on top. The fun part is trying to fit a whole one in your mouth at once. They were delicious, but rather rich with all the yoghurt. We had a hard time eating three each, so I would advise either ordering the plain (ie. no yoghurt) puris if sharing between two, or ordering the dahi puris for a larger group.

Finally came the stuffed aloo tikki, a potato cake with a spiced lentil filling in the middle of a yoghurt bath. We’d never had a stuffed aloo tikki before, so this was new. Very spicy, it had a firmer texture than the potato cakes I’m used to, and was bursting with flavours from the filling. Although I’m a sucker for samosas, this was probably my favourite of the dishes we have tried because it was so unexpected.

No doubt about it – the food was delicious. If we had one small niggle, it would have been that we wanted more variety of side salad, and perhaps a greater quantity of chutneys (as some of the food felt a little dry). We could have solved this problem by ordering a curry to go with everything, but I don’t think we could have eaten any more no matter how hard we tried!

However, the flavours were very satisfying and the price very reasonable – it was about £10 for each of us, and we left feeling abosutely and gloriously stuffed. There are still so many dishes on the menu that we didn’t get to try, not to mention their thali which seems to have a sample of everything on it. I want to return to Thela again and again to try everything they have to offer.

In defence of studying film Lili Bidwell

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aving applied for a French and Spanish degree at Cambridge, I was aware that the course would entail a lot of literature analysis. Yet something that came as more of a surprise to me was the number of films we are expected to study over the course of our degree.

Film is an interesting medium to investigate, and can tell us a lot about a certain period in time and the cultural context, yet it can seem a little simplistic to an outsider.

However, a film is not merely a source of entertainment, in fact the director will often have much more in mind than a simple plot. The smallest things in film can be meaningful and symbolic, from a camera angle to a close up shot.

Perhaps not immediately obvious to the viewer, a little thought can go a long way. Often the film will need to be viewed a second, or even third time in order to comprehend the full meaning of the work.

A film can be analysed to the same extent as a book, and once one becomes acquainted with the different cinematic techniques it is possible to gain a deeper insight into the thoughts and feelings of a director. In spite of criticism that films are too modern and not interesting enough to warrant being studied, there is most certainly an argument that the age of a work does not necessarily make it more worthy of academic study, there are people taking masters degrees in film after all.

Furthermore, the study of film provides a far more relatable source of entertainment than a medieval poetry

anthology. Films can be vibrant and engaging in a way that a book cannot always achieve. Films are something we can share with our families and friends thanks to their far more accessible nature, and the potential to watch them together.

This experience can include the old and the young, sparking debate about the film and the different characters and political undertones that might be present within it.

For anybody who might claim that a film is not academic enough to be worth studying further has never explored some of the riches of both the international and independent film scenes. In short, don’t knock it until you try it. Film may not be for everyone, but that does not mean it is not a fundamental part of our culture that ought to be appreciated for what it is.

YANN DE LA MARNE

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

TCS recommends: Favourite foreign films Eliza Dickinson Film and TV Editor

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CS writers tell us their favourite foreign films, and why they love them.

Emer O’Hanlon – A Summer’s Tale After a ten minute opening in which the main character Gaspard buys a crepe, Eric Rohmer’s A Summer’s Tale follows the story of his summer holiday in Dinard. While waiting for his girlfriend to show up, he becomes involved with not one, but two other women: Solene, with whom he has great sex but shares very few interests, and Margot, a waitress with whom he discusses philosophy during long walks together, but who doesn’t have a romantic interest in him.

Rohmer’s films are never plot-heavy – they’re more often understated character studies. This may make the film sound terribly pretentious, but, amazingly, it never crosses that line. It’s light, funny, and engaging. It’s at once the most stereotypically French film I’ve ever seen, and yet also a film which defies categorisation and is quite unlike anything I’ve ever watched before.

accompanied with spectacular imagery and a classic Studio Ghibli score. A definite ‘must-watch’ for all ages.

Eliza Dickinson – Good Bye Lenin!

This German film follows a young man as he attempts to hide East Germany’s fall from his sick mother, a staunch Communist who should not receive any shocks.

It perfectly balances the humour of explaining the introduction of Coca Cola to East Berlin, and the sadness of a family struggling to cope with loss.

MOVIECLIPS TRAILERS VIA YOUTUBE

Dee Dee Lee – The Way Home There’s something about Korean films and grandmas. In The Way Home, Mom leaves her spoilt little brat alone with his mute granny in the countryside as she looks for a job in the city. At first, the boy is hostile to the poor old lady, but slowly, he grows fond of her, and comes to admire and respect her. Since the grandma is mute, many of the scenes are without dialogue. But don’t let this dissuade you from watching; there are moments that’ll leave you aghast, and moments that’ll make you smile or cry (or both). It’ll definitely remind you of your own Nan, and make you want to visit her right away.

Charlie Crisp – Spirited Away Spirited Away is a beautiful and moving story of a girl – Chihiro – who is plunged into a mysterious and alien world, and must embark upon a journey to find her parents. It’s a tale of fear, friendship, and fantasy

CU Cat Club

Just too much theatre?

Cat Club Presidents

Joe Richards Theatre Editor

t’s a soggy Tuesday evening in Lotus Thai. The room is packed with preclinical vet students, and the topic of conversation is cats. Full of brutally cheap Sainsbury’s wine, I’m having a good old evangelise about the wonders of feline kind, in all their fluffy, mysterious, and duplicitous glory.

As I pause for breath, one of my chums turns to me, fixes me with a piercing gaze, and informs me that he loves cats just as much as I do. I am astonished. Surely this is not possible? But after more wine and kitty chat, it becomes clear that we’re very much on the same page.

We agree that Cambridge distinctly lacks a cat community.

It was then that the Cambridge University Cat Club was finally born.

On the Club’s Facebook page, we share all things feline with our community. Cambridge can be something of a pressure cooker at times, and in such stressful moments, we can learn a lot from our feline friends, happy and content with the simple things in life: food, sleep, a bit of mischief, and (we hope) company.

CUCC was created as a spur-of-the-moment expression of our perhaps over-enthusiastic love of cats, but as it grew, we realised that we had inadvertently connected a wideranging group of cat-lovers across Cambridge and beyond!

Amidst the pressure of essays, exams, and supervision work, many students have found time to message in with pictures and stories of their beloved kitties.

Perhaps we’ve just added a further source of Internetbased procrastination, but as exam term rumbles ever closer, we encourage you to continue submitting.

We’re very hopeful for the future of the Club, and have some exciting plans in the pipeline alongside the daily dose of kitty goodness. Let’s share our cats with each other and #SpreadTheFelineLove!

pen up Camdram and the front page of the site will proudly boast of the scale of the vast Cambridge theatre scene.

This week alone, it tells me, there are 46 performances of 16 shows across 9 venues, involving 279 people. From show choir, to Renaissance verse dramas to sketch shows, in one week alone, Cambridge theatre is covering a vast array of genres and styles, providing, hopefully, something for everyone.

But with all this going on at once, you could be forgiven for wondering: is there ever such a thing as too much theatre? For me, the huge amount of theatre in Cambridge doesn’t necessarily seem to be a good thing.

Cambridge is extremely lucky to have such a diverse array of different venues, all of which have a slightly different atmosphere and lend themselves to different pieces of theatre. It’s also lucky to have a large number of people who want to be involved in theatre and whose talents cover a number of different skills, from directing and acting, to stage management and publicity design.

It is of course right that we take advantage of all these opportunities and all of this talent.

Indeed, some would argue that it’s only because we have this huge quantity of opportunities that all those who wish to be involved can be. Yet, looking at the entries on Camdram, you start to notice a familiar pattern.

Ultimately, it’s the same names cropping up again and again. Largely speaking, it’s the same few people producing shows, just as it’s the same few people directing, acting, designing, and teaching. The results of this narrowness are problematic in two ways. The first is the much remarked upon theatre ‘clique’, which excludes many enthusiastic and talented people who would like to be involved, in particular creatives who are BME, transgender, non-

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Dee Dee Lee – The Intouchables Imagine Me Before You, but replace the romance with bromance. This charming and uplifting French drama, which is based on a true story, is one of my favourites.

After becoming a quadriplegic from a paragliding accident, an aristocrat hires an ex-con to be his caregiver.

Their employer-employee relationship soon evolves into a close friendship, as they open up new vistas for each other in ways neither could have anticipated. The film isn’t about disability or race; it’s about the beauty of friendship, and how people cross paths and change each other’s lives. Packed with jokes and positive messages, The Intouchables will put a smile on your face.

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binary or who fall into another marginalised group. This is a significant issue, but it’s one that as a white, cisgender theatre enthusiast, I am not qualified to write on.

But what I would critique is the sense that this narrowness creates, of Cambridge theatre being some kind of machine, which churns out show after show. The ‘biggest’ actors appear in several shows a term, moving in the space of a week from one intense role to the next; designers will have built several sets in the space of eight weeks; others will act and direct and design for a different show each week. It all comes down to the relentless pursuit of ‘Camdram credits’, which leads Cambridge creatives to hunt frantically for as many opportunities as they can. One can’t help but feel that the sheer volume of theatre does not exist because there are genuinely hundreds of people who have a burning passion for a concept, but because this volume creates more opportunities to get your name out there. After all, how much can one really commit to a piece when you’re preparing for five roles at once?

Of course, this isn’t to say we should reduce the variety on offer. It’s important that we keep up the verse dramas, the sketch shows, the modern classics, the new writing and the stand up, as well as continuing to stage productions in a variety of spaces, including in colleges, so that no one feels intimidated by the prospect of going on stage. It’s also important that we continue to have those opportunities for radical theatre which exist now. But at the same time, is it necessary to have four sketch shows in a week and three Renaissance dramas in a term? If we cut down the number of productions, perhaps we’d have a theatre scene where people really committed to one piece at a time, instead of attempting to churn out as many productions as they can.

Who knows, maybe those brilliant pieces of theatre that we’re privileged to enjoy would be even better?

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

“Clever and engaging”: The Shape of Things Gemma Sheehan

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lara van Wel’s interpretation of Neil LaBute’s The Shape of Things is clever and engaging, with real narrative force.

Following the reinvention of Adam after the start of his relationship with confident and controversial Evelyn, the play explores ideas of personality, art and display within a minimalised yet effective set.

This production’s largest strength was the force of its actors: the small cast of four worked well, and actors played off one another effectively to bring out the subtleties of scenes. Adam Mirsky as Adam brilliantly conveyed both insecurity and a believable response to popularity, while Katurah Morrish stole the show as an alluring (yet never quite emotionally available) Evelyn. Their foils – Adam’s popular roommate Phillip (George BoothClibborn) and his sweet yet perceptive girlfriend Jenny (Beth Hindhaugh) – brought a believable intensity to scenes, with Hinghaugh’s Jenny in particular offering a quiet strength of personality.

The blocking of characters exposed a deliciously stark standoff The performance was at its best and most memorable in tense scenes of confrontation, such as the coffee encounter between Evelyn and Jenny, and Adam’s final showdown with Evelyn. Here, the blocking of characters exposed a deliciously stark standoff. These scenes really wouldn’t have worked without the incredible talent of the cast, and this made the decision to have the actors join the audience to watch Evelyn’s final art project inspired. In this meta moment, the crossing of boundaries of interaction underscored the questions raised about audience participation and artistic influence, whilst also reminding us

of Evelyn and Adam’s first interaction.

The play wasn’t perfect: while the modern and upbeat music choices were enjoyable, they did give the play a film-like feeling, and also emphasised the length of scene changes. Overall, a shorter duration (the play is almost two hours long) would have benefited this performance, keeping the tensions taut and emotional investment in characters high. Yet this production should be commended for its narrative force and uncomfortable questioning. Details like the graffitied poster adorning the white wall of the Playroom in a clever reference to the play’s opening scene emphasised the blurred line between art and reality taking place within the performance itself. The opening and closing with a video recording perhaps tied the play up a little too neatly, yet the video element in itself was a nice touch, and its intimate nature made us as an audience uncomfortably implicated in Evelyn’s actions.

This production should be commended for its narrative force Raising questions of what art exactly is, the play makes us question the ethics and importance of what we too have just watched. Should Evelyn be condemned or celebrated for her artistic innovation and personality? If we condemn Evelyn’s manifesto as gratuitous, what does that say about us as an audience? Like Evelyn’s closing ‘real’ words, we are not given an answer; instead, we are left replaying the scenes that have come before us, searching for the meaning in the enjoyment we have just experienced.

9/10 IMAGE: LOUIS ASHWORTH

“A stripped back, raw Britain”: Arden of Fave Liza Hartley

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his ADC mainshow sees the transposition of the 1590s Renaissance drama Arden of Faversham into a stripped back, raw nerve of 1920s Britain. This is not an arbitrary stylization: the 1920s house backdrop creates an insular sense of luxurious claustrophobia. The set design from Ciaran Walsh should be applauded for its attention to detail and its fearsome aura of entrapment.

This played into the hands of Anna Jennings’ gender-conscious play, which promised an exploratory exhibition of ‘coercion, classism and patriarchy’.

Jenning’s gender conscious play promised ‘coercion, classism, and patriarchy’ Isobel Laidler’s Alice was ‘off the chain’: full of dark energy and subtlety, Laidler

should be lauded for her excitingly nuanced performance, and she seemed to have a finger on the pulse of her character from the start.

Arden’s darkly humorous death scene was expertly executed by Tom Chamberlain, who exhibited a strong performance throughout.

Spence’s on-edge neuroticism destabilised the play to its advantage Joe Spence’s on-edge neuroticism destabilised the play to its unending advantage: his Mosbie was, at his best, pretty electric. While scenes were occasionally jarred by an inability to work the set (a ‘pull’ door was repeatedly pushed), Seth Kruger’s Clarke was consistently strong.

Though sometimes a little inert in silent approval – his character could perhaps have been directed to do more on occasion – Henry Eaton-Mercer’s Franklin was exceptionally

The Cambridge Student • The Thursday Magazine • 09 March 2017

IMAGE: ALEX STROUTS

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“Promising but repetitive”: 13 Objects Review Joe Richards

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oward Barker’s 13 Objects is an odd little play. A series of vignettes ranging from the very short and very funny to the overlong and somewhat bizarre, it aims to critique our fetishistic attachment to the everyday objects that make up our world. It’s a strong premise, but unfortunately becomes a little laboured in Barker’s script, this Pembroke Players production doesn’t consistently manage to bring it to life.

De Silva stands out throughout as confident, varied, and funny The piece certainly started strongly. Eve Gatenby and Isabelle Higgins’ direction is lively and creative, and an opening vignette with a spade brings out the dark humour of the piece well, not least down to an extremely assured performance from Shimali De Silva. Indeed, De Silva stands out throughout the production as a confident, varied, and genuinely funny performer, with an excellent knack for characterisation that is at once comic, dark and absurd. A particularly strong performance comes in her role as the Girl Queen, which captures perfectly the petulance and facetiousness of the character and drew genuine laughter from the audience.

The piece appears to be recycling the same tricks which become laboured

nerve of 1920s ersham Review good. Black Will’s misadventures were at times rather funny – however, the humour was relied upon little, and so added little.

Despite a series of largely rather wonderful performances, there were moments when the set looked vaguely precarious. The gauze screen and smoke indicating the movement of the action outside was brilliantly effective.

The house, just visible through the screen, became an ominously spectral reminder of the impending return to the claustrophobic domesticity which Jennings and Bruce-Jones seem to point to as the root of the drama.

The occasional failure of the gauze screen to descend fully after being caught on a table was another instance of slight prop malfunction which one hopes will be ironed out after the first night.

Other than some rather unconvincing and clumsy bullet wounds, which are admittedly difficult to pull off, there was little to complain of in costuming and make up. The glamour of

De Silva’s strength clearly lies in her range and the variety of her performance, but unfortunately this is an attribute that is not consistent across the production. The performances and direction which made the opening of the piece successful are

the 1920s was effectively tempered so as not to be gimmicky, and while I was unsure if the time setting actually contributed much to the movements of the drama or the exploration of gender and domesticity, it was considerately and sincerely done.

The glamour of the 1920s was effectively tempered so as not to be gimmicky Overall, this excellent production’s moments of true brilliance more than made up for the few hiccups, part of which must be attributed to opening night nerves. The strength of the acting is a draw alone, and the aesthetics of this performance deserve commendation.

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maintained throughout, but there is a lack of variety to the direction which means the piece simply appears to be recycling the same tricks. While they may have been successful for one or two vignettes, quickly become repetitive and a little laboured.

In part, this is down to Barker’s script,, which reuses the same devices and conceits over and over again. However, it is certainly a shame that this production does little to counter this and thus breathes no more life into the script, particularly its latter end, than it has on the page. The performers do make a valiant effort with this script: Alex Franklin is energetic, if a little garbling at times, and Grace Etheredge captures well the highly-strung characters she is given, though it is a shame that she was not given a greater range of characters to better showcase her own range.

Ultimately, it struggles to break free of the constraints of the script The production design was also strong, particularly the projections, though these could have been used more consistently. The props, so key to this production, were wellsourced and successfully evocative. This was a slick production which had been well put together, and features a largely successful and clearly talented cast. Had the direction shown greater variety, it could also have been a highly successful one. As it was though, the piece became cyclical and repetitive and by the end simply wasn’t engaging anymore.

13 Objects is a promising production, but ultimately one that struggles to break free of the constraints of Barker’s script.

7/10 IMAGE: KATIE WOODS

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Playlist: Get ready for bedtime Pippa Smith Music Editor

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s we near the end of term, capitalising on those ast few good nights of sleep to get you through to the holidays is a must. Sometimes the buzz of Cambridge life can leave our brains whirring a little too fast, and what better way to wind down to bed time than with another TCS Spotify playlist perfectly curated to help you in your hour of sleepy need (you’re welcome).

The soft guitar notes and beautiful harmonies will doubtlessly soothe you If you’ve fallen into the trope of the second year grandma like me, a solid bedtime routine is a familiar thing. If you still think early March is warm enough to brave the three minute trek to Life, then please have some of my cosy pearls of wisdom, or you’ll catch a cold.

We can start of our chilled evening with some early Mumford and Sons, the soft guitar notes and beautiful harmonies of tracks such as ‘Sigh No More’ will doubtlessly soothe you softly into the late hours.

A little Adele and Damien Rice can go a long way too, though avoid anything too heart-wrenching – we want to snuggle up for some sweet REMs not lay awake yearning for relationships past.

Lesser known female acoustic artists Julien Baker and SOAK are both also perfect for a chilled night in.

I particularly like ‘Sprained Ankle’ and ‘B an NoBody’ respectively. Both women pair beautiful lyrics with relaxed vibes which will pair perfectly with your cocoa and fluffy socks.

Classic such as Joni Mitchell’s ‘Both Sides Now’ and ‘Landslide’ by Fleetwood Mac also shouldn’t be overlooked.

I also often look to early Kings Of Leon for some bedtime chill. The rock band may be known for soaring ballads such as ‘Use Somebody’ but the more stripped back ‘Pickup Truck’ and ‘The Runner’ serve nicely for when you’re looking for something a little more laid back.

‘Conversation Piece’, from their latest album, WALLS, is also nice, with similar haunting vocals from lead singer Caleb Followill.

Oasis’ ‘Stop Crying Your Heart Out’ is also good for the rock fans.

without something from Ben Howard. I suggest ‘Gracious’ and ‘I Forget Where We Were’ for ultimate relaxation, but pretty much anything from the back catalogue will work well.

Finally, I’d definitely recommend ‘Run’ by Steven Fretwell. You’ll probably know it as “that song from Gavin and Stacey” but as a full track it encapsulates everything you need musically to help you feel warm and ready for a snooze. Until the evenings get a little lighter, this is music that will make you savour an early night.

Follow the tcsnewspaper Spotify account to listen to our Bedtime Playlist, and the other playlists from Lent 2017.

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You can listen to your all time favourites, but in a slightly more restrained form Acoustic covers are also a perfect way to wind down to bedtime. You can listen to your all time favourites, but in a slightly more moderated and restrained form. A personal favourite of mine is Ben Madeley’s stripped back version of ‘True Colours’, originally by Cyndi Lauper.

A chilled out playlist of course wouldn’t be complete

Watersprite: The pick of the weekend Eliza Dickinson Film and TV Editor

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t has been an exciting few weeks for the student film scene in Cambridge. ADC hosted its Cambridge Shorts evening a few weeks ago, A Festival of New Writing sees television and film professionals descend upon Cambridge in the latter half of this week, and the Watersprite international student film festival is back in Cambridge from 10-12 March.

With students and professionals attending from all over the world, Watersprite’s purpose is to provide a showcase for student filmmakers from all walks of life. TCS has compiled our own list of the top 10 free events for you to look out for this weekend.

10 – Dangerous Crossings: Filming the Migration Crisis (Saturday, 2pm) If you’re interested in the high-octane coverage of current affairs, then it will definitely be worth listening to Jack MacInnes, Marco Orsini, and Ragnhild Ek talking about their experiences filming refugees and migrants.

9 – Screening: Encounters (Sunday, 3.15pm) All of the nominated films at the festival will be shown at some point over the weekend, loosely grouped into themes. Encounters is one of those themes, from a man meeting a seagull to a banker befriending a cleaner..

8 – The Power of Visual Effects – with Paul J. Franklin (Saturday, 4pm) The man who worked on the visual effects for Harry Potter, Interstellar, Inception, and The Dark Knight will be talking about his experiences in the industry and how he got to his position as an Oscar winner. This should be interesting for anyone curious about the work that goes into on-screen wizardry, and will hopefully provide some

sneak peeks into your favourite film franchises.

7 – High Fliers: Stunt Filming with Gareth Milne (Sunday, 12pm) Another exciting speaker should be Gareth Milne, who choreographed and performed many of the stunts in Skyfall, The Bourne Identity, and Indiana Jones. This should be an entertaining chat, whether you aspire to jump boats over bridges, or would rather watch from the comfort of your own home.

6 – Screening: Expression (Saturday, 10.45am) This is a screening that should really showcase the diversity of student filmmaking. The films on show include the surrealist What happens in your brain from Germany, and G Face, following a rapper from South Africa.

5 – Fantastic Beasts and How to Film Them (Sunday, 2pm)

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Everybody was in awe of the filmmaking in Planet Earth II, and this event could be your chance to ask one of the producers, Elizabeth White, how they did it. Dr Gabrielle Walker, the BBC4 presenter of shows such as The Secret Life of Ice, will also be there, explaining her path from Cambridge to TV. 4 – Bird’s Eye View: Cinematography Masterclass (Saturday, 10.30am) This masterclass is run by Illuminatrix, an all-female group of Cinematographers, giving a great example of the diversity on offer in the film industry today. This is not just an event about their experiences as women in the film industry, however, as they will also provide an insight into the art of cinematography.

3 – Screening: Confinement (Sunday, 12.15pm) From the story of the 1912 expedition to the South Pole to the tale of a man trapped in an attack by a sinister organisation, the films shown in this screenings display the ability of student filmmakers to capture the essence of ‘confinement’.

2 – The Value of Visibility (Saturday, 12.30pm) Brian Robinson, the Festival Programmer of BFI Flare, and Chanya Button, the director of Burn, Burn, Burn, and the actor John O’Connor talk about their perspectives on the increased representation of LGBT relationships.

1 – Winner’s Screening, Picturehouse (Sunday, 10.30am) The winning films in each category will be shown at this screening. While it’s unfortunate that no Cambridge students made it onto the nominations, this should showcase the best of student film from across the world, giving us all something to aspire to!

09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Friendship and Online Fashion Spring Reads Aisha Arden and Momo Hassan-Odukale

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riendship initially seems a strange theme to explore in a ‘five seconds of fame’ industry, notorious for its ruthless two-faced personalities and superficial friendships. Yet our personal experience has given us a totally different outlook on the matter. In fact, we would say being in an industry like fashion is an opportunity to really be a friend. Because of its competitive nature, and the need to rely on people’s skills or ideas, building genuine friendships with those you work with really is what gets people through, and inspires them!

In a way, our experience with fashion and styling has always had friendship at its centre. Years ago when we first started “blogging”, it was with a wider group of friends on Tumblr: our friendship influenced one another’s style and clothing choices. We all had quite different looks but would pick and choose from each other’s wardrobes. We both ended up having this eclectic style, somewhat similar to one another but distinct from everybody else, and people always pointed it out.

Cut to the present day and we’ve had our fashion and styling focused website Culpavinum for almost a year now – our friendship was both what inspired it and what keeps it going. It’s funny, because of the fake relationships, friendships, or the “friendship” angle used in campaigns with people who barely know each other, sometimes we get asked if someone put us together, and even if we really are friends.

We find it absolutely hilarious, seeing as we’ve known each other since we were 11. We still picture one another in the ill-fitting uniform we had to wear in school.

That being said, statements like that aren’t completely unfounded! Social media has become a medium for

Sophie Dickinson people to connect with one another, often on the basis of an “aesthetic” that they appreciate in another person’s feed.

We have actually made some really great friends through our collaborations. We may never have met them before, but after they contact us (or vice versa) we often end up genuinely getting along and later on helping one another out with a shoot, or location advice. The more cynical may say this is strategic but we genuinely have friends we can just hang out with, no strings attached. That isn’t to say we have never come across people who believe – solely based on the fact that we own certain items of clothing – that we will be the kind of people they can hang out with. It’s absurd but we’ve honestly both had people comment on what we’re wearing and then declare that we “must hang out”. Yes, sadly those judgemental people do exist who will dismiss you if you don’t comply with certain style standards, but welcome you with open arms if you do.

On a personal note, exploring our styles and so much more with our website together has made our friendship something really special. Having a website with your best friend does have its challenges, whether it’s within the fashion realm or not. Not to mention we also live together, so we spend 70% of our time together, and if you don’t already have a solid friendship that’s enough to make anyone crazy. It’s taught us to push each other without being pushy, rely on one another, be straightforward when one of us doesn’t agree (because tip-toeing around feelings or passive aggression never helps anyone). And on the fashion side, we definitely push each other to take risks with what we wear.

But most of all – it’s a lot of fun.

Visit https://www.culpavinum.com/ for fashion, travel and film from Aisha and Momo.

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GYULA BENCZUR

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pring is here, and- especially if you’re an english student- that means afternoons can be spent lounging under trees or by the river with a good book. There’s nothing more joyous than reading about nature whilst being among it, and these books are a great companion for a bout of relaxation in the sun.

Tintern Abbey, William Wordsworth Trust me on this one. Whilst Romantic poets are hardly known for their brevity, this moving poem of childhood and playfulness is perfect for that not-quite-adult feeling.

Take it up to Castle Mound and gaze down dramatically on Cambridge- you won’t be dissapointed.

A Room with a View, EM Forster Is there anything more wonderful than imagining a spring spent in Venice? This classic is notable for various reasons, but its setting is exactly what you need to get through the last week of term.

The Trees, Philip Larkin This Poet Laureate is known for his wit more than his nature writing, but The Trees- and the depiction of spring within it- are at once touching and joyful. The poem rejects the usual mysticism of spring as a time of ‘rebirth’, too, so look at the seasons differently with Larkin.

Spring-themed recipe:Burrito bowls Emer O’ Hanlon Food & Drink Editor

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hen the weather begins to get warmer, I find myself turning increasingly to burritos. Perhaps it’s the inclusion of avocado and tomato, both of which can be hit-and-miss in winter, but become reliable again in the spring. Or perhaps it’s the portable nature of a burrito that makes it a nice lunch to bring with you on a walk, or perfect for a picnic dinner.

Whatever your opinion, here’s my recipe below: A burrito is a mixture of refried beans, salsa and avocado, wrapped in a flour tortilla and then fried in the pan, which helps to keep it from falling apart.

For the refried beans: 2 cans of beans (black-eyed and pinto are nice) 1 onion, finely chopped 2 cloves garlic, crushed 1 red chilli (optional) or more if you want it spicy 1 bell pepper (any colour), roughly chopped Handful of cherry/ baby plum tomatoes 1 tbsp ground cumin 1 tbsp paprika 1 tbsp cayenne pepper For the salsa: ~225g baby plum or cherry tomatoes, chopped in half ~2/3 cup tightly packed fresh coriander

3 cloves of garlic, crushed 2-3 red chillies, finely chopped Juice of half a lime Salt + pepper For the avocado: 1 avocado Juice of half a lime Salt, pepper and chilli flakes to taste Method For the beans: heat oil in a pan on high, and add the onions. When they begin to brown, add the garlic and chilli. Fry for about a minute more.

Add the spices and stir to coat the onion-garlic mixture.

Fry for a further minute before adding the chopped pepper and tomatoes. Finally, add beans along with a little water from the can, and lower to a medium heat.

Keep cooking for about 15-20 minutes until the water is mostly evaporated. Transfer about half of the bean mixture to a blender, and blend roughly. You want the finished product to be a rough paste. Mix the blended paste with the remaining whole beans well. If you don’t have a blender, you can easily skip this step – it just makes a more pleasing final product. Allow to cook for another 5-10 minutes.

For the salsa: roughly blend together all the ingredients

for the salsa and season with salt and pepper. Make as early as possible, and set aside to allow to marinate while you cook everything else.

Meanwhile, open the avocado and mash/chop as you like. Squeeze in a little lime juice to stop it going brown, and season to your liking.

Fill a tortilla wrap with a mixture of all the above and wrap it up tightly, folding the bottom first before the sides.

Lighlty fry in a clean pan to hold it together and make it more filling, or, as shown below, serve in a bowl without the tortilla.

EMER O’ HANLON

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Highstreet Extracurricular or academia? Bookshops Juliette Bretan

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t is undeniable that Cambridge contains one of the most intensely pressured environments possible: you can almost taste the pervading anxiety concerning the true legitimacy of our offers, the progress of our work, and the desire to seek perfection, coupled with the more general concerns about our embarkations on an individual life away from home. It is no wonder, therefore, that most of us seek some respite from this by participating in extracurricular activities – but even these come with troubles of their own.

We all have differing approaches to academia: we work at diverse paces and at a variety of times; we have different modes of study, and unique motivations. Yet our individual opinions about our studies also carry forward to the various attitudes held concerning extracurriculars.

You may see studying as the sole focus of your time in Cambridge, hobbies might be your priority, or you could sit at any point in between these positions. I know I fluctuate between wanting to focus on my work and desiring to get involved with everything I can get my hands on. My inability to give equal support to both ambitions past a certain point fills me with feeling of failure. Everyone else seems to be managing to juggle sports, acting, committee positions, writing, and socialising, whilst also being on track for a First. My fear that I may not be able to do either terrifies me.

This is worse for some extracurricular activities in particular, such as theatre, where there seems to be an unspoken requirement to abandon one’s academic activity in its entirety. The workload for such pastimes is so intense

Sophie Dickinson

that there is no time left at all to actually participate in one’s degree – all energy must be on the task at hand.

While extracurriculars can provide a helpful break from one’s degree, there needs to be a balance between the two; we are, after all, at Cambridge for a degree. Though hobbies are important, work is too – and these categories should not be regarded as mutually exclusive. It is possible to juggle both.

But it is important to recognise that this juggling can be problematic. Our situations in Cambridge often alter, and so we must be ready to abandon our hobbies to turn to our degrees, or vice versa, if we feel we need to. It is possible to support both tasks, but this must be done at our own pace – we learn what we can handle, and it is perfectly okay for others to be participating in more, or less, than we are.

What matters most is for us to have a nice time in Cambridge, and this should be done in the best way we, as individuals, see fit.

SHIVMIRTHYU VIA PIXABAY

The ability to browse gives a child the agency to develop an identity

How to fit sex into uni life Lili Bidwell

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ex. How much should we have? If any at all? Is it beneficial to our self-esteem or detrimental?

Is there any time for proper meaningful sex in a busy Cambridge timetable or is it just another thing on the to-do list, to be hastily finished off before moving on with the rest of your day?

Sex is something which can make you feel confident, wanted and glowing, when you feel loved and secure in a relationship. But with the wrong person, in a compromising situation, it can have quite the opposite effect. The downward spiral of decreasing self-confidence that can follow a one night stand is proof of this.

Wondering what is going on between you and the other person, nervous to face them sober the next day, was it good? Was it bad? Will they tell their friends? These unknowns can shake our confidence and leave us feeling bad about ourselves after what had been envisaged as a just a harmless bit of fun after a night in Cindies.

Does this mean we should not have casual sex? No. Definitely not. But different people are suited to different things, some people will be more capable than others at seperating the physical and emotional sides to sex, and if you know yourself well enough you will be aware of whether of not casual sex is going to make you feel good about yourself. Nobody should use sex to seek validation for themselves and their self-esteem, sex should be a positive experience for both people involved.

As for those trying desperately to incorporate sex into their everyday life in Cambridge, say goodbye to sleep.

Between balancing your degree, extra-curriculars and

L

ast week, the national media commented somewhat tentatively on the news that Waterstones- that middle class high street haven- has opened three shops in Southwold, Rye and Harpenden. Importantly, these shops are trading under their independent names, with pastel signs welcoming in the happy bookworm to a seemingly innocuous high street store.

The only sign of this deception is a somewhat sheepish, handwritten notes in the corner of the shop windows. Some have decried the move as a deliberately misleading attempt to mask the corporative attachment to the Waterstones brand, and reap the benefits of a romantic independent shop without actual managerial independence.

As someone who is genuinely thrilled by the sight of a bookshop, it is hard to decide whether this is an unholy betrayal or a genuine opportunity.

The charm of an individual bookshop can’t be overstated: from idiosyncratic decor and a lack of competent categorisation, to being able to order a book via a human rather than on Amazon or a dodgy eBay seller, I love them.

So there is definitely something joyful about a bookshop being there; the very fact that these stores are open, especially as town centres become increasingly homogenous, is a positive.

social life, sleep is the only thing left to give when it comes to having fulfilling sex with your significant other.

As tempting as it is to sneak in a quickie before morning lectures, it is important that this does not become a habit, and that there is still room for spontaneous sex that lasts longer than the bare minimum ten-minute slot.

Avoiding routine is also important, make sure you do not fall into the same pattern of when, where and how you are having sex. Even if the same two positions work for you, mix it up from time to time and try something else. Do not schedule sex in like the other chores you have to do; some days you might not want to do it as much as others. That is okay. The stressful environment in Cambridge is not condusive to a healthy sex life, but if you commit to making the time for it, it is perfectly possible.

So, however much or little sex you are having, don’t let it become yet another burden in your life, sex should be fun.

LILI BIDWELL

Perhaps more seriously, a bookshop on the high street gives people the opportunity to read. Although sweeping broadsheet editorials may say otherwise, millennials (and their children) are influenced by their high streets- even a visible store front acts as a physical reminder.

The experience of shopping for books- reading the blurbs, looking at the cover art- is different to any other product, and to foster this thrill in a child is genuinely important.

The ability to browse gives a child the agency to find interests; online predictions of what ‘you may like’ could well be true, but they don’t allow anything off piste.

Furthermore, it is educationally so important- linked to class, gender and race- the ability to read can drastically effect chances in life.As libraries are closing, so is the opportunity for children to even experience being amongst bookshelves, and the potential of that is dwindling.

The CEO of Waterstones defended the decision by decrying the ‘godawful uniformity’ of their rival, WH Smiths.

Certainly, this chain is more of a glorified stationer for your year 7 pencil case than a serious bookshop, and most readers would surely agree that their presence is not akin to the experience of a ‘real’ bookshop. By stocking only the bestsellers, there is an assumed monotony; it doesn’t allow development of an identity.

But there is surely something cynical happening here. The fortunes of Waterstones have been rocky, and the business has tried every marketing technique conceivable to make the high street bookstore a viable business.

From briefly removing the apostrophe (because who needs grammar anyway?) to entire floors dedicated to various Kindle models, the unnamed stores shouldn’t come as that much of a shock.

Certainly, they are exploiting the whimsical reader’s ideation of a well-mannered paradise. But if this means that there is greater access to books, and bookshops that are still owned (if only in part) by people genuinely interested in their product, Waterstones’ latest venture is a worthwhile and positive endeavour.

09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

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Internalised misogyny and makeup Anna Nightingale

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rom the minute we enter this world, we’re likely to be delivered by a female midwife wearing a gendered uniform, that is different from the uniforms of both the female and male doctors of the hospital. There is no clear, practical occupational reason for these uniforms to be different – they serve to instil power, and consequently gender, hierarchies that follow us through our lives.

Many of us unconsciously adhere to gendered society, fed to us by marketing that sees such distinctions as easy money. When puberty, our first step towards sexual maturity, coincides with our first major experience of institutionalisation – secondary school – it’s important for many of us to fit in and to do so by fulfilling the expectations that are fed to us.

So, when I was 12 years old and left the house wearing eyeliner and mascara to school for the first time, it was much more about fitting in than anything else. I didn’t even buy the products designed for a self-identifying girl like myself, I stole them out of my mum’s makeup bag. The act didn’t garner much or any attention from my peers, but it made me feel more confident and comfortable.

This first act was the beginning of something that became ritual for me. I used to, and to a lesser extent still do, spend a lot of time applying products to make myself look the way I like to look, and the way that other people recognise me. Makeup works magic, but this is unsurprising when the companies supplying the products are the ones propagating the images that form our

mainstream beauty standards.

But what happens when I decide that I don’t feel like wearing makeup, if it’s become a part of my identity? I’m aware, and I’m sure everyone else is aware, that I look different to how I usually do, as my made up face has become a part of my identity. No one comments, but I do feel less comfortable, especially if it’s in a more public setting or someone wants to take a picture.

A couple of months ago I was watching an episode of The Lie Detective on Channel 4 which featured two gay men, just friends at the time but trying to find out if their relationship would go anywhere, who bonded over their interest in makeup. Shortly after though, one man rated the other’s makeup a 7/10, saying that “the man who messaged me was a man, like a manly man” and that he prefers men without makeup, despite donning 10/10 makeup himself. What we find attractive is difficult to change (although not impossible), since we are have always been subject to beauty standards. But this sort of ‘femme-shaming’ that exists in the gay community and associates feminine attributes with weakness creates a sort of paradox regarding makeup. Makeup is associated with femininity and therefore loosely to ‘weakness’, but women who don’t wear makeup aren’t associated with ‘strength’.

Ultimately, though, it is a form of self-expression and identity, like clothing or hairstyle or anything else. I have formed an identity that is inevitably shaped by beauty standards, and the feeling I get not wearing makeup is similar to if I decided to dye my ginger hair black. There

Mug shots

Taste test: Take-away falafels

Lili Bidwell

Emer O’ Hanlon Food & Drink Editor

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rownie in a mug was just the beginning, there are so many variations on this classic mug cake. Perhaps my favourite at the moment is the classic apple crumble. A British family favourite, this stodgy, warming, autumnal dessert can be adapted to suit any occasion. Sometimes though, believe it or not, you might not feel like devouring an entire dish of crumble, and it is at this moment where baking in a mug takes over as the perfect solution to this terrible dilemma. Forget needing an oven, this sneaky little pudding can be whipped up in mere minutes with a trusty microwave, the staple of any student gyp room.

Start with getting your ingredients sorted: (for 1 mug) Half an apple, peeled and chopped 1 tbsp water A dash of ground cinnamon if desired 15g salted butter 2 tbsp plain flour 2 tbsp caster sugar First things first, mix the apple, water, cinnamon and any other fancy flavour ideas in the mug, and microwave for 3 minutes until the apple is soft. Meanwhile rub the butter into the flour and add the sugar to make a breadcrumb-like consistency. Top the cooked apples with this mixutre and microwave for a further 30 seconds.

Serve with cream, ice cream or custard.

Experiment with different fruits and flavour combinations! How easy is that!

F

alafels: what’s not to love about them? They’re gourmet fast-food, deep-fried snacks made acceptable. Cambridge has a large selection of falafels on offer, but which is the best for your taste-buds and your wallet?

The Taste of Cambridge van will always be special to me because I got a falafel wrap there when I was doing my interview. My mum and I had looked it up before coming to Cambridge, and were instantly hooked by the menu.

There are four fixed wrap options, with a special which changes every month. The regular size consists of four falafels (five if you go for large), a variety of extra salads (hot and cold), and harissa (you can choose to leave this out, or to go up to hot, whichever way the fancy takes you). I must admit to being a fan of the classic (hummus, rocket, grated carrot, and red pepper), although I usually get an extra bit of grilled aubergine to go with it. The Fiery Falafel is also delicious. At £4.25 for a regular, Taste of Cambridge’s wraps are definitely the best value.

Mediterranean Falafel in the market offer slightly smaller wraps for £4 (3 falafels rather than 4), but my goodness, the falafel alone is worth it. These falafels are stand-alone the best in Cambridge, and if you don’t believe me, simply go along to their stall. They’re always offering free samples. The salad offerings here are more limited and traditional - lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red cabbage, pickles, and gherkins – but the quality of the falafels and hummus is so high that I never feel I want more varied salads. Sometimes simple is best, and Mediterranean Falafel have got the basics pitch-perfect. This stall is a

is nothing wrong with black hair, it’s just out of sync with the identity I’ve constructed for myself. So, as much it’s important to smash the hetero-capitalist patriarchy by subverting normsetc., telling young girls and boys that they should or shouldn’t wear makeup can be just as damaging as forcefully dying their ginger hair black. Or something along those lines.

Here’s a quote from Too Turnt Tina: “Boys, I do not wear makeup to impress you. And I don’t wear makeup because I’m insecure, because frankly I look good without makeup. Hmm – beside the point, irrelevant. Anyways, I do not wake up in the morning and think ‘I’m gon paint my eyelids blue because Josh loves blue’ or ‘I’m gonna fleek the eyebrow because Josh loves the flicka da wrist’. No, uh-uh. My eyelids gon be gold cus I’m glitter AF. My lips gon be pink cos they so luscious. And I’ma look good, and you ain’t gotta tell me I look good, cus I know. So check this contour.”

MAXPIXEL

regular fixture – open seven days a week (unlike Taste’s Tuesday to Saturday times), dependable for all falafel crisis.

I haven’t been to The Wandering Yak recently enough to really compare properly (although my memory is a very positive one), and being an arts student, I couldn’t quite bear the thought of travelling all the way to West Cambridge, even in the cause of journalism, so I sought an opinion from Bruno Barton-Singer, a regular customer: “The Wandering Yak food van is a bit harder to find than other falafels in Cambridge (their only regular slot is in West Cambridge on Wednesdays, but they often wander closer to the centre) but it’s well worth the search. In their mix and match mezze box, the absolute must-pick is the crunchy Egyptian falafel (made from fava beans instead of chickpeas). Delicate and flavoursome, it’s the kind of falafel you’d be happy to eat on its own, although it comes with a range of delicious sides.” The Wandering Yak is the most expensive takeaway falafel lunch in Cambridge, at £6.50, but the quality of the side dishes make it sound like it’s worth splashing out on for a treat.

There are, of course, many other falafel places in Cambridge. Gardie’s offers a more Greek version of the classic, and Kebab King on Regent Street is certainly the greasiest. For a fancier experience, you can try Bedouin, Al Casbah, or Lagona on Mill Road. The restaurants – especially Lagona – offer a wide and high quality range of other mezze dishes, which are worth trying out in their own right. However, on the basis of falafel quality alone, Mediterranean Falafel wins hands down.

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09 March 2017 • The Thursday Magazine • The Cambridge Student

Purrfect Pets

With spring rolling round and the sunshine making you want to be outdoors, it gets hard not to miss your pets and want a big, furry cuddle. The Internet may provide some solace with a plethora of pet and animal appreciation groups online, but here are some of Cambridge’s own beloved joys!

FAYE GUY

“Django is the light of my life and a little minx” LUKE NAYLOR-PERROTT

“This is Alfie. Life is meaningless if you don’t have a floof to put you to shame” AMIYA NAGPAL

“This is Champ. This boy is my whole life”

LUCINDA JONES

“Hector is a rescue cat and we are best friends! I miss him so much when I’m at uni” XELIA MENDES-JONES

“Jasper is not the cleverest, but he is doing his best”

JOANNA TAYLOR

“Ruby doesn’t judge you if you miss your 9ams” CASSIA PRICE

“Brush is the warmest company and a darn good doggo”

LILI BIDWELL

NOELLA CHYE

“I miss Moss lots – he’s my favourite cuddly ball of love”

“Charcoal is outrageously (but somewhat endearingly) spoiled”

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The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

Features

mean and will we ever stop?

BEATRICE OBE

What happiness means to me today Celia Morris

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couple of weeks ago, I went home for my older sister’s birthday meal. It was nice, with just her and my little sister and our parents, and we ended up talking about my nana, who died just as I was starting secondary school. She comes up in conversation quite a bit because she was one of those people that stories gravitate around. No one in my family talks about nana without launching into a retelling of some specific, silly, or remarkable thing that she did.

And I said, in an offhand way, in between the starter and the main course at this nice restaurant, sitting with some of the people I love most, that I don’t think I’ve ever been, or will ever be again, as happy as I was on those afternoons at my nana’s house. I’m not entirely sure how much I meant it, but it felt true as it came out of my mouth. There’s something about being a kid, I think, that makes the feeling of happiness bigger – maybe it’s because everything about you at that age is so small. When you’re happy, how can there be room for anything else inside you? I think it all the time when I see a kid laughing or crying; they’re full to the brim. I have moments of that, still.

Sometimes, they’re obvious, like opening my Cambridge acceptance letter, but most of the time they’re not because

of anything particularly memorable – it’s the little things that count. And I’ve found as the ecstatic joy of making it into Cambridge has faded to something slightly more muted, and notably more stressful, that to let those little things go would be to do myself a massive disservice.

I realised this, in a more definite way than I had before, as I left the restaurant.

I’m never going to be eight years old again, dressing up in my nana’s pyjamas, or pretending that her stairs are mountains, or watching with heart-stopping eagerness as she divvies out Pringles between me and my sisters. But those aren’t really the things that would make me happy now.

So, what’s the point in feeling sad about it? Instead, I can be twenty, and maybe I’m knackered, and maybe my essay’s late again – but I spent yesterday evening in a cuddle heap with three of my friends, making innuendos and laughing at a TV show. I go out and I dance in a way I was too scared to in secondary school; I got a tattoo that makes me smile and smile; I have sex, I get hugs, and my friends make me laugh every single day.

Some days I wish my nana still did silly things that I could tell stories about. But, other days, I just want to assure her that, often enough, I find myself as absolutely happy as I was on the days she came to pick me up from school.

BEATRICE OBE

Coming of age in the Cambridge bubble Caithlin Ng Features Editor

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he ‘Cambridge bubble’ is a phrase that comes up over and over again, which is perhaps a reflection of how true it is.

It might not be something that we consider when going through our daily routines, but insularity has long been a defining characteristic of the university.

Living in colleges, for instance, instantly introduces a sense of closeness to other people; help from our lovely bedders means we can shed certain responsibilities; the fact that Cambridge is a smaller city rather than a big one means that distances are relatively short, compressing our journeys back and forth from our accommodation, lecture halls, and supervision rooms.

It is an experience vastly different from other universities, particularly those situated in sprawling cities. The effect of these few formative years on students here, as opposed to others elsewhere, is

thus quite distinct.

University years represent one of the most important transitory periods of our lives – still entrenched in student life, but with ‘adult’ responsibilities ominously edging ever closer.

It is unsurprising that our experiences now go a long way in defining us and in colouring the way that we learn to perceive the world, both in the present moment and in the future.

The Cambridge experience, then, provides an interesting effect. One of the biggest things to strike me about the difference between it and other universities was the sense of community, something evident right from the beginning of freshers’ week.

Living in such close quarters with the other freshers made introductions much easier, which was a convenience that I took for granted until I spoke to other friends attending London universities about our first-term experiences.

I heard about how vast university life

seemed to them, how they could walk to lectures and attend classes without interacting with anyone else, and how few of them actually made friends with their neighbours in their quiet, dorm-style accommodation. London universities have many perks, of course, but an instant sense of community and kinship is not as present as it is here.

It is safe to say that Cambridge operates in a very compressed environment, but ‘compressed’ itself is a two-fold concept.

It may make socialising easier, but it also introduces the idea of having to work in a high-paced and pressurised climate.

With so much capable of happening at the same time within such a small space, it is easy to feel overwhelmed and exhausted, or to have no time to stop and reflect before the weeks rush us on.

There are highly rewarding moments, of course (I soak up like a sponge every positive remark from my supervisor), but there are those of frustration and fear too.

Not everyone can quickly establish

Cambridge operates in a very compressed environment

a balance between responsibilities, but within the pressure of the Cambridge bubble, it is easy for them to go unheard.

Keeping in mind the importance of university years for shaping character and endurance, neglecting or suppressing any such potential problems could have deeprooted consequences in the long run.

Perhaps the most important thing to remember in the next few years, then, is that the Cambridge bubble is ultimately nothing more than a social construct.

This fabricated social construct does indeed aptly describe the university’s environment, but always thinking that one is susceptible to its pressure might only exacerbate any stresses that occur.

While it may not seem immediately possible, it is important to look beyond this intense setting to acknowledge the bigger picture, in an effort to put things in perspective.

Try to think of ‘the bubble’ as a space that expands as you grow, rather than a bubble to hold you within.

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09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Features

The Long Read:

We cannot eliminate all homelessness the same way Intersectional homelessness is neglected in schemes developed to reduce it, and it’s time to change that.

Noella Chye Features Editor

T

he intersectionality of homelessness is often forgotten when we discuss the issue. Perhaps this is a symptom of its misrepresentation as being purely a product of alcoholism and addiction, such that homelessness is often misconstrued as being the fault of those of who have been made homeless. It is obvious, however, that homelessness is often a consequence of increasingly exorbitant housing and healthcare prices, and a fragile economy where many do not feel secure in their employment.

Another possible reason for our unrepresentative idea is that a lot of homelessness is hidden, and what we do see masks its true demographic.

More often than not, the people we see on the streets of Cambridge are white males, between the ages of 25 and 50. This is a far-cry from reality.

Where are the women, children, elderly, minorities, and families?

With the difference in rates at which homelessness rises between different ages, genders, and social backgrounds, we need to remember that despite what we see, homelessness is a highly varied experience, and therefore cannot be addressed with ‘one-sizefits-all’ strategies.

A study published by Homeless Link, the national membership charity for organisations working directly with people who become homeless in England, found that over half of those approaching councils for help are under the age of 25. Additionally, “the main cause of homelessness amongst young people is that their parents are no longer willing to house them, with the main driver being the irretrievable breakdown in that relationship. Nearly half of young homeless people become homeless for this reason.”

Homeless youth are more likely to remain homeless in the long term. This fact is a product of both the psychological effects of the experience, and a range of other factors. These include the fact that

nearly 6 in 10 are not in education, employment or training, and lack the skills to live independently. Measures need to be put in place that ensure that they are in a good position to get the physical and mental stability that they specifically require.

This can come in the form of caseworkers who act as a pillar of support, not only in the quantity of time spent with them, but also the quality. It is not enough to check up on youth in need regularly. We also to help them find support, whether that involves therapy, or reaching out to their family if they have any.

Obviously this applies to all branches of social work, yet this needs to be emphasised particularly when it comes to homeless youth.

Yet Homeless Link reports that only 19% of cases receive government aid, and this figure is dropping with increasing benefit sanctions.

The most common move-on option, for example, is emergency accommodation provided by No Second Night Out (NSNO), an organisation dedicated to helping the homeless population across England, due to its wide availability. Others seek hostels and foyers; however, these options have become increasingly inaccessible due to welfare reforms.

Women are the minority in the homeless population, with only 26% of clients of single homeless services being female. Crisis, the national charity for single homeless people, reports that there are high levels of vulnerability to mental ill-health, drug and alcohol addiction, and experiences of sexual abuse amongst homeless women. In particular, homeless women are more likely than men to have mental illness as a result of physical and sexual abuse.

A report, based on research conducted amongst 160 homeless women across England, revealed that approximately 20% of homeless women were made homeless after escaping from violence. 70% of this was from their partners. If schemes to reduce homelessness do not recognise these different levels and natures of risks, it will result in women

Only 19% of homeless youth cases receive government aid.

PETER LARKHAM

not getting the treatment that they need. In particular, post-traumatic treatments and increased security against one’s abuser are essential to some women’s process of recovery.

Some may inevitably face triggers when finding a job, which can in turn hinder the process of getting back on one’s feet.

The needs of homeless women are, far from being acceptably met. Crisis research showed that “the majority of homeless women have negative experiences of approaching local authorities, with many being ‘turned away at the door’ or deterred by frontline staff from making a homelessness application.” A woman I encountered on the street in Cambridge tells me that she was turned away by local shelters, which seemed only to be taking in men. While the claim goes unverified, it is a reminder that we must question the assumption that there is equality within the Cambridge homeless shelter community. The problem escalates still: female rough sleepers are at incredibly high risks of sexual and verbal abuse. Plus, the need to make themselves invisible to avoid such encounters leaves them at greater risk of remaining unfound and thereby prolonging the problem.

Underpinning the neglect of these subjective issues is the government’s fallacious cost-cutting strategy to

20% of homeless women were made homeless after escaping from violence.

weed out measures which target issues that do not affect the largest population group. This leads to insufficient measures for minorities of gender, age, and ethnicity. We need to realise that this is counterproductive, in that allocating misdirected manpower for the sake of the majority is a surefire way to ensure that we make the best use of our resources. Why should we distribute manpower in a way that does not fully harness our resources, in order to combat limited resources?

On 4 March this year, the Government announced that it would scrap housing support payments for under-21s, a cut first put forth under David Cameron’s administration and only implemented recently. A study

by Shelter, a housing charity with over 85,000 volunteers, showed that five households are now being made homeless every hour, and perhaps with no savings for taxpayers. Plus, with its abandonment of homeless youth in particular, LGBT youth or those who face difficult family situations are disproportionately at risk of being made homeless.

Research by Heriot-Watt University showed that the study would save just £3.3 million, a figure that is easily trumped by the knock-on costs if just 140 young people become homeless, meaning that taxpayers will have

to pay more money overall, The Independent reports.

This is precisely the mentality described above which results in the neglect of certain population groups. The problems mentioned above extend to various other groups, including the elderly, amongst which rates of homelessness are on the rise. This can be attributed to rising healthcare and housing costs, with a report published by the Homelessness Research Institute in 2010 predicting that homelessness amongst people age 65 and older will more than double by 2050.

Imagine an elderly couple, put out of work through no fault of their own, and having to give up a house they have lived in for longer than some of us have been alive. When they are forced onto the streets, and unable to receive the help that they need to get a house under policies designed based on inaccurate homelessness statistics, and which end up costing taxpayers more, it forces us to ask whether people have a right to have a house, and how to change the way we approach the issue.

Homelessness is more subjective and complex than is often realised.

However, even to recognise that fact is the first step towards granting people their right to a home in a way that actually works.

Current measures are insufficiently nuanced.

13

The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

Features

Combatting stress: Crushing the essay crisis The truth about Cait Findlay

W

e are all familiar with the concept of essay crises: working in a frenzy of anxiety to complete your work before the deadline, generally fuelled by some variety of caffeine-dense drink, resulting in sleep deprivation, extreme stress, or both. We have romanticised and glamorised this undeniably unhealthy behaviour until it almost seems admirable or desirable.

The essay crisis has become the pinnacle of the Cambridge academic experience, symbolising that undying devotion to your subject that we all (somewhat) hyperbolically claimed to have had when we applied here. More than that, it has become an emblem of the fact that Cambridge students pack so much into their waking hours that the only way to have time for everything is to sacrifice our sleep and mental wellbeing.

Cambridge students and administration alike appear to pride themselves on how stressful its terms are. We see this in multiple places, such as the arbitrarily short but hectic eight-week long terms, to which multiple objections have been vetoed in the name of tradition, as well as the fact that one’s lack of sleep, mountain of work and difficulty of degree are constant hot topics of conversation.

If sleep is as undeniably wonderful and necessary as it is, what possible reason could we have for subjecting ourselves to these unhealthy and soul-

sucking crises? It is time for some serious thinking when saying “I only got three hours of sleep last night”, or “I need five coffees to function today” sounds more like a boast than an admission that something is wrong.

Part of this attitude stems from the ‘impostor syndrome’ that affects all of us. It can be hard to recognise these statements as unhealthy when you already feel like you are somehow ‘not good enough’. This feeling is augmented by constant comparison with our fellow Englings, Natscis, Mathmos, etc.

We all know, in the logical parts of our brains, that this comparison is both unhelpful and unnecessary.

However, that part of the brain seems to go mysteriously silent when anxiety starts talking.

We are intelligent students – or at least, we are clever enough to convince people that we are. We know that sacrificing sleep and sanity for an essay is irrational. And, for those who think that giving up a few hours of sleep to finish that essay does not make a difference, there are endless studies which prove that it does.

I won’t bother boring you with the numbers, but suffice it to say that every single study agrees that a lack of sleep has a detrimental impact upon cognitive performance.

Most crucially, it has a negative effect upon the very work for which we are sacrifising those much-needed dreaming hours. In the short term, it may help us to get that essay written,

Stress has become an emblem of Cambridge students

or that worksheet completed, but over a long period of time – say, an eightweek term – the effects are bound to be exponential.

This is not to mention the effect on mental health. Working until the wee hours with an unhealthy blood caffeine level is hardly the type of habit you want to become engrained into your psyche, and that is not to mention the more serious effects such a lifestyle could potentially entail.

Happiness and health should always come ahead of academia, regardless of the academic pressures and expectations you may be facing.

So how can we dismantle this romanticisation of stress, caffeine addiction, and sleeplessness? The first step, in my view, is to stop calling it an ‘essay crisis’, and to remember that, ultimately, it is only an essay. Changing attitudes starts with refocusing on reality, and not exaggerating mildly stressful situations until they become all-consuming and completely blown out of proportion.

In the hours and minutes leading up to a deadline, it can feel like nothing else is more important than work, but this is simply untrue.

A little bit of stress can be a good source of motivation, and, in an academic pressure cooker like Cambridge, is almost inevitable.

However, it is neither an admirable nor a sustainable lifestyle.

Let’s stop glorifying the essay crisis, and start celebrating a healthy attitude towards work instead.

VoxPop: “Are you giving anything up for Lent?”

zero-hour contracts Hettie O’Brien

FACEMEPLS

F

indings from the Office for National Statistics revealed that 105,000 more people are working in zero-hour contracts compared with the same period in 2016. The figures also showed a slowdown in the growth of zero-hour contracts compared to the overall growth in UK jobs, a fact some explained as a result of the reputational costs of the Sports Direct model of precarious employment. Zero-hour contracts have been described by some as an opportunity for increased flexibility, ideal for students and others who need to fit work around their lifestyles. However, in a recent interview I conducted with a Deliveroo driver, I learnt how this flexibility is often not what it seems.

The driver said, “I want to do this interview because this type of work is becoming common – so many other places are seeing what Deliveroo does and they want to do the same”. They wished to remain anonymous, explaining, “Don’t mention who I am because I don’t want to lose my job; they don’t like us talking to people. We’re not allowed to talk about Deliveroo to people outside of the company – I might get blacklisted or something”.

The promise of getting paid to ride and fit work in around existing schedules has led many people to choose to work as a Deliveroo rider. Yet such work is not necessarily so ‘flexible’. The driver spoke of an “insinuation” that you are expected to work a number of weekend shifts in order not be blacklisted for other shifts on weekdays. With no guarantee of a set number of hours, drivers feel pressured to sign up to multiple shifts, often only finding out which shifts they are expected to work a couple of days in advance.

“I have to keep all of my time free in case a shift comes up just so I can pay the bills. I don’t even know what days I’m working next week. You have to apply for every single shift and they just decide which ones you can do – it’s like setting aside full time hours for something that says it’s flexible.”

Those who depend solely on zero-hour contracts can lead precarious lives Hours can drop from 40 to 10 a week, making bill payments and long-term planning difficult. If you are living “Badminton. I have other “Yep, I’m going vegetarian.”

“I’m giving up alcohol for Lent.” at home or have a student loan, this might not be a concern. priorities in life.”

Harry, Pembroke But for those who rely on low paid, zero-hour contract Katy, Jesus Tim, Pembroke jobs as their primary source of income, this can mean a precarious existence.

In 2016, Deliveroo began to trial a scheme that would see drivers be paid per drop (delivery) rather than being guaranteed a minimum wage. Theoretically, this could see drivers earn more than the minimum wage depending on how many drops they manage to make in an hour. Yet in reality, this means that drivers are not paid for the time they spend waiting for delivery orders – time that is classed as not working.

Deliveroo makes work seem fun and flexible, but while “I’m giving up meat for Lent” this type of work might provide flexibility for students and “No. I don’t think it achieves anything” Rica, Jesus Ellen, Pembroke those supplementing existing incomes, for people whose livelihoods rely on zero-hour contract jobs, such flexibility seems far from a worthwhile opportunity.

14

09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Interviews

Louis Slater on responding to homelessness in Cambridge Hannah Brown Interviews Editor

P

embroke College has recently been subject to a number of attacks by the media. National newspapers have been swept up in controversy over bop themes, furore over menus, and the drunken misbehaviour of a fresher. The news that a white tie-clad Pembroke student had burned a £20 note in front of a homeless man has not only shaken and angered the college community, but it has also galvanised a spirit of responsibility and emphasized the need for students to take action. We spoke to Louis Slater, a RAG committee member and, until recently, Pembroke JPC Charities Officer, on the subject.

Louis explains that there has been a “big push all over Cambridge but particularly in Pembroke to raise money for Jimmy’s Homeless Shelter” in response to recent events.

He tells me that Jimmy’s provides accommodation, food, and support for homeless people in Cambridge, and that they are ‘adamant’ that the support should not be permanent.

“What they want to do is be the stepping stone in someone’s life.”

Louis describes the current momentum as ‘disaster relief ’ – “whenever there’s a natural disaster people then donate a lot of money”.

It seems to me that the response is a guilty knee-jerk to the media’s attacks on University culture.

“It’s an emotional response”

He rejects this: “No, I don’t think it’s a defensive thing at all, I think it’s a human thing. I think it’s a very emotional thing. It’s an emotional response that you give when you hear what happened.”

But he does not deny the guilty undertones, saying, “people want to give using that same emotional momentum because they feel bad.”

Louis highlights the privilege enjoyed by Cambridge students: “yes, we might be in nine grand of debt a year but look where we’re going to be after this. Look at the kind of relative luxury that we’re living in at the moment. So yes, we do have a responsibility.”

More than this, he emphasises the wealth of colleges and the huge discrepancies within Cambridge. He tells me, “I’d say the colleges actually have a much greater responsibility.

There’s hundreds of rooms in Cambridge colleges that no one sleeps in every night. How does that make any sense at all? That these colleges have endowments of millions, tens and hundreds of millions of pounds and are just not doing anything?” He describes his difficulties in pushing Pembroke to donating leftover food to homelessness charities.

Bringing together the responsibility of students and colleges is a way in which Louis suggests this knee-jerk reaction can be transformed into a long-term project.

“Push your colleges. Why should a college have rooms that aren’t being stayed in? Why should a college have hundreds of millions of pounds of endowment, money just literally sitting in the bank?”

Above all, Louis highlights that this is an opportunity to change mindsets.

He tells me, “let it make you think differently when you see a homeless person.” He adds, “if you ever do go sit with a homeless person, you

“Let’s make colleges do something”

will notice just how much people completely ignore you – it’s like you’re not there, you’re invisible, you’re not a valued member of society at all.”

He concludes that this is how we can ensure change in the long term, beyond the aftershocks of the recent ‘natural disaster’ of the note-burning.

His two-pronged approach is: “speak to homeless people and let them change your mind” and also “let’s make colleges fucking do something.”

TOM DORRINGTON

Compass News: Changing the face of journalism Katherine Boucher

T

CS talks to Mayank Banerjee, previous President of the Oxford Union left in order to found start up ‘Compass’, a new app that aims to revolutionise the way journalism works.

Where do you feel news has gone wrong?

We’ve ended up too reliant on one point of access. Most people of our age spend hours on Facebook, now our way of finding out about what’s happening in the world. Facebook is designed to maximise positive engagement which means that it’ll always show you stuff you’re likely to ‘like’. We think we can do better. We can provide a news source which is easier, quicker, and more fun to use than Facebook, but without all the filter bubble problems it has brought up.

worldview. I went into the 2015 general election pretty convinced that Ed Miliband would be the next Prime Minister. After all, I had constantly been reading articles on Facebook telling me that. That led to me thinking this might be a worthwhile topic for a thesis. That in turn led to me reading up about how exactly the industry worked and how much financial trouble it was in.

Next thing I knew, I had become obsessed with figuring out a solution and eventually I dropped out of university to do this full time. It’s been a pretty crazy ride ever since.

after, we met another one of my cofounders, Matilde, who prioritised getting stuff done as opposed to just talking about it. Luckily, since then things seem to have been going pretty well and we’re incredibly excited about our launch at Cambridge.

What is it like to transition from student to CEO? I’m not really sure I ever think about myself as CEO. It’s a very strange experience to go from being a student to having to make decisions which impact on other people’s lives.

If I mess up my job, people don’t get paid their salarie and can’t pay their monthly rent. That’s a genuinely terrifying thought. At the same time, that fear is also a good thing, as it forces me to make sure something like that never happens. Every day is focused on making an effort to get better at my job.

How did you go about making Compass a reality?

With great difficulty. May 2016 was a pretty crucial month for us. An offer of investment that we thought we were getting fell through at the last minute and although it didn’t seem it at the time, it was probably the best thing that could have happened to us. We What are your hopes for the future?

What drove you to start Compass?

We want to help people make better It was partly this realisation about panicked and completely reassessed how Facebook was distorting my everything we were doing. Not long informed decisions about the world

they live in. Journalism is a crucial part of that process – but right now the consumption method is completely contradictory to it. We think we can change that.

The really important thing is that we always think there will always be a need for well researched journalism to

help you make that kind of decision.

Our job is to figure out a way to get you access to those kind of stories, but also finding a business model to allow them to exist in the first place.

That’s really our long term goal with Compass and if we can go some way to achieving that, we would be delighted.

COMPASS NEWS

15

The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

Interviews

The creators of Blueprint and BRASH on mental health Hannah Brown Interviews Editor free-for-all in terms of pitching. And personal articles have been written, So when you say solidarity I think just being a place dedicated purely to

T

CS talks to Micha FrazerCarroll, creator of Blueprint Magazine, co-presenter of BRASH and candidate for CUSU Welfare Officer, and Emily BaileyPage, Blueprint’s arts editor and copresenter of BRASH, about magazine, radio, and mental health.

What is Blueprint?

Micha: It’s a magazine and online platform that specializes in the topic of mental health. I basically wanted to represent more BME issues and feminist issues to get the whole scope of how those individual things tie into mental illness.

Who participates? What does the magazine feature?

Micha: We’ve got three sections: arts, non-fiction, and creative writing.

A lot of Cambridge students email in saying that they’ve got ideas they want to write about, or people will just approach me in college. It’s a bit of a

we’re quite keen to give a platform to first time writers.

Do you get many submissions?

Micha: At least a hundred pieces.

I was surprised by the amount of anonymous stuff we got as well because often with writing people have this idea that a lot of it is about self-promotion and getting your name out there. A lot of people submitted things without their names on, which I thought was interesting because it kind of conveyed an ethos of just wanting to share.

Do you think that a desire for anonymity is partly to do with the stigma of mental health?

Micha: I think that’s a factor.

Emily: Especially within the Cambridge community, it can take a lot of confidence and a lot of guts.

Attaching your name to something like that is stigmatised and you’re really sticking your head above the parapet by doing it.

Micha: But surprisingly, some very

and I always ask writers “Do you want me to just put anonymous?” And often people have said “No, I want my name on this” because it feels like an act of reclaiming.

What is Blueprint’s stance on mental health issues in Cambridge?

Micha: Stigma was definitely a very big part of it. We just want to open up a debate that isn’t being had and start a space that isn’t really there for people. Also, I think we’re doing it for solidarity. I think it does mean a lot to be able to see an article on something you’ve experienced and be like “oh my gosh I’m not weird, there are other people experiencing the same thing.”

Emily: In a way there are conversations that happen around mental health in Cambridge, it’s something we’re kind of attuned to in terms of discussions. And yet I think the Cambridge experience can be so isolating, particularly for some subjects. You can feel very alone with the things that you’re going through.

that’s really important.

Micha: I also think that another thing with mental health in Cambridge is that, but I think there are other factors at play, is that there’s just huge discrepancies between different people’s experiences, partly because of the collegiate system here. Often it feels like luck of the draw.

Do you think that’s fair when it comes to applications?

Micha: I have a lot of issues with the collegiate system. We say “All colleges are the same, it doesn’t matter which one you apply to, you’ll love it,” and I think that’s really unfair and really misleading. I think we need to be talking more about discrepancies between colleges and measure them more fairly.

Going into the future, then, is that something Blueprint would like to focus on? More campaign-based things? Or do you have other plans?

Emily: I feel like there is a real value in Blueprint that comes from it

writing and expression.

Micha: I think that’s true. But I think it would also be interesting to do features on certain campaigns without doing the campaigns ourselves. Other things in terms of future plans: more discussions. We did a discussion this term on mental health and feminism.

I think different things work for different people too. Some people prefer to write, some prefer to come along and chat, and it’s nice to have both of those spaces.

And what’s BRASH? Emily: It’s a weekly radio show that we do live on CamFM every Monday evening at 9pm. We say, “it’s not your grandma’s woman’s hour.” We wanted to update it, make it more relevant for a student audience. Race and gender is kind of our remit. We like taking pop culture very seriously and treating it as the reflection of our society that it is.

It’s fun, it’s light-hearted, it’s stuff that we really enjoy having a chat about, and we laugh a lot.

HELEN FROST

The founders of Marulin tell TCS about Taiwanese tea Emer O’Hanlon

A

couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of talking with Chau-Jean Lin and Tim Takacs, founders of the tea company Marulin. Its origin story is fascinating and charming. Chau-Jean explained: “My family has had tea gardens in Taiwan for about four generations, we’ve always been selling to companies that sell our tea as their own, and so we decided to branch out into trying to sell teas to the British market.”

Tim adds, “Taiwanese tea is very difficult or expensive to find in Britain and it was one of these things which was always sold as a premium product, so we wanted to make it more accessible to people.”

“We settled on four different types: Four Seasons, which is a type that Chau-Jean’s family has historically been making, an oolong with small

“A fascinating origin story”

pearls in it”, says Tim. Chau-Jean explains that the English Beauty is a blend of “oriental beauty tea, which is a type of oolong, which has little bugs that start to eat at the leaves, which starts the oxidation process. It gives it a sweeter fragrance. It’s like a light version of English breakfast, with a black tea base.” Lady Orient “has a rose flavour, also with oriental beauty tea”, and Emperor Grey is “has an Earl Grey taste to it, but is more lavender”. They sell matcha powder of a Taiwanese variety, although it originally comes from Japan.

One of the most charming aspects of their company is their ‘tea inspector’, Reeves the muntjac. A muntjac is a Taiwanese breed of deer, the name Reeves after an East India Company tea taster. Reeves ‘writes’ his own tasting notes on the back of each packet in haikus. Chau-Jean imagines him living in the deer park at Brasenose (her old

college) in his own tea-tent.

Marulin has a devoted ethical ethos, which Chau-Jean explained to me: “we try to help the farmers by educating them a little bit about the processes. We try to tell them, ‘your factory should be running more frequently, more efficiently.’ My father was a tea farmer and he left to become a professor because he got tired of picking the tea.

We know all our suppliers – they are our neighbours! So I suppose we’re fair trade in our own way.”

They only began selling the company’s teas in December after being invited to the Future of Food Christmas market in Aldgate East, and already their English Beauty has been nominated for best product of the year from a start-up at the Food Awards.

This is very impressive, and Tim confesses he believes it may be due in part to their very attractive packaging.

They’re both clearly very modest,

“Their tea is flawless”

but it must be said that their tea is flawless. The flavours of each blend are clean and perfectly judged, the blends sharp and delicately balanced. My favourite is the Four Seasons oolong, which is also Chau-Jean’s favourite, but I’m very fond of the Lady Orient.

Like Tim, I never imagined I’d like a rose tea so much.

There’s no doubt that the teas are expensive, at just under £5 for twelve tea bags, but when it comes to tea, I really do believe that you get what you pay for.

Unlike a company like Whittard’s, the expense of these teas feels justified, not only because the flavours are so perfectly judged, but also because of the company’s ethos – not to mention their lovely founders.

Although they are just starting out, I think big things are in store for Marulin. I can’t wait to follow their progress in the future.

16

09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Comment

Oxford’s summer schools should focus on class, rather than race Harry Robertson Comment Editor

O

xford University have recently announced that they will be running a summer school aimed particularly at white, working class boys, who are now the least likely group in Britain to go to university. The scheme is open to Year 12 students at state schools who achieved five A to A* grades at GCSE level and aims to increase the number of working class students Oxford takes on.

The venture is admirable in many ways, not least because it’s an example of a major institution putting time and money into addressing one of society’s biggest problems. White British boys that claim free school meals (the go-to indicator of poverty) are indeed the least likely to do well at school according to most measurements, and so are in need of attention. There are serious dangers and pitfalls, however, in engaging with students on such narrow lines.

Firstly, there is the unnecessary focus on the race of these working class students. Working class boys aren’t doing badly because they’re white, but because they’re working class; yet the discussions in the media and in politics focus more on

their whiteness than their poverty. Theresa May, for example, stood on the steps of Downing Street the day she became Prime Minister and declaimed: “If you’re a white, working class boy, you’re less likely than anybody else in Britain to go to university.”

This may chime well with her mission to lend a respectable veneer to intolerance of immigration, but it makes for poor education policy.

She neglected to mention that it’s overwhelmingly being working class that is the disadvantage, rather than being white. In the 2013-14 academic year, 29.2 per cent of boys eligible for free school meals attained five A*-C grades (including English and Maths), compared to 55.4 per cent of more wealthy, non-eligible students.

These statistics include boys of all races: richer white students do better, as do richer black and minority ethnic students, while poorer white students do worse, as do their poorer black and minority ethnic peers.

By focusing on race we forget about the huge obstacles that all working class students face in the education system.

And it must also be said that by focusing on whiteness, newspapers and politicians conveniently shift the debate away from the problems of black and minority

Being working class is the difficulty, not being white

ethnic students, who face huge obstacles on account of their race. Black Caribbean students that aren’t on free school meals, for example, are outperformed by their white counterparts by 17.2 per cent at GCSE level.

For many politicians and newspapers, the claim of focusing on the white and working class is a convenient excuse to merely focus on the white. As much as papers like The Times and Daily Mail decry identity politics, they produce a dangerous identity politics of their own with headlines like ‘School low achievers are white and British’ (The Times) or even ‘White working-class pupils fall behind ‘because they’re turned off by lessons on other cultures’’ (Daily Mail, of course).

It should not be forgotten that socioeconomic background—that is, wealth— is by far the best indicator of educational performance. Well meaning programmes like Oxford University’s summer school should not be too heavily criticised, and are a sign of movement in the right direction.

Yet until class is emphasised over race (particularly whiteness), the education system will not change for the better. These types of Summer schools only serve to perpetuate the problem.

On the French election and why it matters Matthew Harris Comment Editor

T

he first round of the French presidential election will be held on 23 April – just over two weeks from now. The two candidates with the largest share of the vote will move on the to the second round on 7 May. The right is split between two main candidates: Marine le Pen, the controversial face of the Front National, and Francois Fillon, the candidate for the Republicans and the former favourite to win.

Fillon, a politician derided by the media for his ‘Thatcherite’ views and conservative stance on social issues, has been plagued by scandal and seen his popularity fall dramatically in recent months.

Marine le Pen has been accused of Islamaphobia and racism. She claimed the sight of Muslims praying outside on the street was like an ‘invasion’ and recently said that Russia was right to invade Crimea as it has always been Russian. She also dislikes the European Union and wants to hold a referendum to leave it.

The left is split two ways between the most powerful left wing party, the Socialists – arguably the equivalent of the Labour Party in Britain – fronted by Benoit Hamon, an advocate of the universal minimum wage and other populist left-wing policies from

the hard-left of the party. Against him on the left, there is France Insoumise, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, an anti-globalisation, left-wing politician who has called for mass redistribution of wealth with a 100% max income tax.

In the middle is the poster-boy of the moderate, Europhile fight-back on the continent. Emmanuel Macron has been called ‘France’s Tony Blair’ for his moderate views, charisma, and his polished political demeanour.

At the moment, Marine le Pen is leading in the polls, a couple of points above Macron.

The stakes are high. If, as president, le Pen were to call a referendum on EU membership, she could bring about the end of the European Union as we recognise it today. Her positive stance on Russia is also dangerous for the stability of Eastern Europe and the security of the West. An increasingly confident and aggressive Russia would threaten the independence of Eastern European countries and it might continue to challenge international rules of behaviour.

However, at the moment, it is unlikely that she will be the next French president. While le Pen may be leading in the most recent polls, the fact that there are two rounds of voting under the French system means that she will have to win a majority of voters in an

Marine le Pen could bring about the end of the European Union

election with only one other candidate. Her 26% in current polling will not be enough to win her the presidency.

The candidate most likely to win - and the bookies’ favourite - is Emmanuel Macron. With a clear majority in polls that pit him head-to-head against le Pen, most commentators are already predicting a strong victory for the charismatic politician.

But that is not to say that Le Pen cannot win. If we have learnt anything in the past year, it is that politics is becoming a lot harder to predict.

KAROOMPICS / KAROLINA

Honour the Dubs Don’t abandon re Amiya Nagpal

T

he Dubs amendment was passed in May 2016 to grant safe passage to unaccompanied refugee minors into the UK. As of February 2017, it has been restricted from the original ballpark figure of 3000 children to a mere 350.

Local councils in the UK show that they are able to cater for the full 3000, but the Government has voted against taking offers from councils able to accept more minors.

The so-called ‘refugee crisis’ is one of mass migration from conflict zones, oppressive regimes, and violent states around the world. I have long been sceptical of NGO and humanitarian work for its often-colonial undertones and its lack of understanding of cultural specificities. I’m also not sure how responsibility is allocated in a situation like this, or where narratives of belonging come in. These ideas are too complex for this short article – I cannot tell you about the politics but I can tell you about the personal, human dimension.

I worked at the Children’s Centre in the camp in Dunkirk over Christmas. The camp there is organised, compared to how makeshift the camp in Calais was. There are huts for most people, three meals a day, toilets, supply containers, a women’s centre, a children’s centre, a learning centre, and a tea tent. This is unusual in itself; across the rest of Europe many refugees are sleeping rough in cold and dangerous conditions.

Importantly, it’s not just the youngest ones we need to be concerned for; most of the unaccompanied minors at the Dunkirk camp are boys in their late teens. They look like men because they have been through a lot. We often neglect to recognise their childhood, and we expect that because they have already lived the lives of men well beyond their years, they can and should be able to continue as such.

Some of these kids had parents that were dead, in prison, or were human traffickers.

These kids, in a flash of unfortunate circumstances, could be left alone, leaving them vulnerable to trafficking, physical abuse, and emotional trauma. We must look out for them. When we neglect to

17

The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

CHRIS RUSSELL VIA DIOCESE OF WORCESTER

Comment

Debate: Does the Cambridge bubble exist?

Yes: We’re separated from the real world Molly Moss Comment Editor

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s amendment: efugee minors provide for minors, we essentially give up hope for the future. The camp is a strange combination of optimism and despair – someone once said to me that it’s like watching flowers grow out of manure and I think that’s true. The residents there don’t believe that Europe will not provide for them – the UK is a shining beacon of hope.

Everyone wants to get here. I met someone there who was younger than me and had spent every night for two months trying to get into the back of a lorry to make safe passage to this country. Before he was in France, he had been in Finland. He had fled Iraq aged 15.

The camp is unsafe. The living conditions are cold, cramped, and there is an abundance of dangerous black mould. The camp is mostly male and so women are unsafe; human faeces was scattered around the edges of the camp because the women were too afraid to use the toilet facilities after dark for fear of being attacked. There is a large Kurdish majority in the camp, and this often means those that are of another ethnic group, such as Afghan, or Persian, can be made to feel less than welcome. This is harrowing for all residents, but for those who are just children, it is heartbreaking.

Nobody leaves their life behind for fun.

These people have uprooted their homes, their families, and their existences for whatever hope that is driving them.

We have laws and policies enshrined to protect our minors, and yet we are letting painful neglect occur just across the Channel. The moment that will always stick out for me was when I was walking through the camp and passed a girl who hadn’t been at the Centre that morning. I asked ‘where were you?’ and she gave me the world’s cheekiest grin: ‘I was in a lorry last night and I only woke up now. Everybody is sick – my mommy is sick, my daddy is sick, and my sister is sick, but I’m not sick because I had two blankets!’ She stuck her tongue out and galloped away. The joy in her voice over having two blankets, contrasted with the desolation of the scene, breaks my heart. It makes me bitter, and sad, and angry. Take action: these are kids whose lives hang in the balance.

s the Cambridge bubble a myth? Do I spend my time in Cambridge engaged in the world’s political affairs? The answer is (unfortunately) no. I have to resort to catching up on what’s happening outside Cambridge in the holidays.

Perhaps students at less intense universities have time to, but, like it or not, here in Cambridge we’re stuck in our small world. Cambridge University disconnects us from what’s going on in the rest of the country, and from the political and cultural life of the UK as a whole.

We’ve all heard the rumours that MML degrees don’t focus on the spoken language, English degrees are painfully medieval, and that current HSPS issues are rarely covered in their degree.

Cambridge disconnects us from what’s going on elsewhere

It is certainly true that most Cambridge courses are all old-fashioned and not at all relevant to modern life.

Studying English, I’ve spent many weeks trapped in the labyrinthine UL with only King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table for company.

Needless to say, Camelot’s politics are far from those of our current world. During term time I remain trapped in the bubble.

There is, moreover, hardly any cultural diversity at Cambridge. Supervisions, lectures, and even buildings in college are often dominated by white male lecturers, fellows and students.

All these factors inevitably mean that we’re stuck in a medieval time zone from which, during term time, there is no escape.

Cambridge often bombards you with the mindset that work is the most important

thing in the world.

The workload can be, at times, immense!

It has certainly seemed like wrestling Tennyson’s monstrous Kraken would have been an easier option than writing the many essays I was meant to be doing.

The result can be isolating: we are forced to spend time stuck staring at books, wrestling words, or despairing in supervisions.

On top of the ridiculously heavy workload, of course, there are extracurricular activities and a social life to keep up with, only adding to the pressures placed on Cambridge students.

There is very little time to be engaged with the rest of the world, when your current one is so hectic. All in all, it’s unlikely you’ll have time to do anything else other than catch up on sleep.

CMGLEE

No: We’re in touch with the world around us Harry Robertson Comment Editor

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e at Cambridge are hugely privileged in our exposure to myriad different political and social ideas on an almost daily basis.

Besides our courses, there are countless opportunities to engage with interesting, challenging and different ideas. Take, for example, this recent selection of events on around the university: Samar Yazbek, a Syrian writer and journalist, talked about her book on the devastation in her home country; Tory Work and Pensions secretary Damian Green spoke at Caius; Dr Patrick Hussey gave a lecture about Biotechnology; the Union debated liberalising prostitution; renowned black Labour activist Linda Bellos spoke at CULC; the list goes on…

Our courses are often attacked for being too traditionalist. Yet they, too, are an element of Cambridge life that introduce us to concepts and arguments that very few

other have the opportunity, or the good fortune, to grapple with. The HSPS tripos, in particular, addresses the issues that affect wider society such as—among other topics—crime and education policy and their connection to class and race, modern understandings of gender, and the political systems of non-Western states.

It is often said that students at Cambridge have too little time to check the news and stay involved in what’s going on around the world. But this is clearly untrue. Visit any cafe around the city and you’ll hear students debating Trump, Brexit, Corbyn, and climate change, among thousands of other issues. Simply being in this environment, surrounded by engaged friends and academics, makes it almost impossible to lose sight of what is going on in the wider world.

These friends, for example, often come from countries other than Britain, and conversation with them provides an

We come across debates and arguments that very few others do

understanding of the wider world that is not available at school.

In supervisions, for example, which include two or three students often from different countries, we are actively encouraged to discuss and debate our opinions and learn from each other.

Where else is there such interaction?

Student newspapers such as this one also avoid a bubble forming and ensure the wider student body remains aware of issues that are important to a range of students from different backgrounds.

Recent comment articles in this paper discuss misconceptions of transgender people, the town vs. gown divide, LGBT+ history month, and what it means to be northern.

Online, articles that pick up heat and generate discussion are often unavoidable, making nearly every student aware of a certain issue. For all these reasons we can end the myth of the Cambridge bubble.

18

09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Comment Editor-in-Chief: Will Tilbrook Founded 1999 Volume 18

CUSU/GU Election drama The last week has seen election fever sweep over the whole university, with everything from the doorways into lectures to the radio airwaves being covered by campaigners for the candidates running in the CUSU/ GU Election. This has certainly felt a bit overwhelming, especially with the student press making the most of the chance to try out their live-blogging skills (guilty as charged) and the candidates themselves using social media to their advantage as if there was no tomorrow.

However, beyond all of the bombast of hustings and the dramatic headlines, it’s important to remember that the CUSU elections serve a purpose which, whether we are apathetic or

not, affects us all. By 5pm on Friday, Cambridge students will have chosen a new cohort of student union officers whose job, collectively, will be to represent the interests of all students at the University. This means that we are all stakeholders in this election to some extent, and this is one of the reasons why we would encourage readers to find the time to vote for what they believe in. CUSU can hardly be described as a perfect organisation or student union, and President Amatey Doku has always been the first to suggest that CUSU needs reform; so when given the opportunity to influence these changes and choose the people who represent you comes up, the chance has to be taken.

Goodbye from Lent 2017 Team This is the fourth and final issue of The Cambridge Student for Lent 2017, and the current TCS team would like to thank all of our readers and everybody that has contributed to the paper in some way over the past eight weeks. It has certainly felt to me as though there has been more going on in Cambridge this term than at any other point whilst I have been at university, but I know this is not the case.

Being the Editor for this term has shown me how vibrant and varied student life and interests are here, and the place that a student newspaper has in capturing that and informing these interests. This week’s content

epitomises this: our Investigations spread (p. 4-5) reveals the way in which the University is portrayed by the national media, whilst particular articles in The Thursday Magazine interrogate the ways we express ourselves through fashion and theatre.

Applications are still open for next term’s editorial team, and I would strongly encourage anyone to apply if they want to experience Cambridge life through a paper which I know will continue going from strength to strength. I’d like to thank the whole team for staying keen, and especially Lili, Sophie, and Joanna for their unwavering dedication.

International Women’s Day: Why real feminism excludes nobody Molly Moss Comment Editor

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ne click on social media and, like many others, I had agreed to attend an event for International Women’s Day. The event, making banners for the upcoming ‘Reclaim the Night’ protest, was hosted by the ‘Tampon Society’. This seemed great – the fight to end period shaming is, after all, an important and ongoing task. But it didn’t take me long to think again. What about women who don’t menstruate? What about women who don’t have vaginas? While the event was well-intended, its label simply didn’t include everyone it should have.

Feminism shouldn’t be about supremacist ideologies, and it shouldn’t be about imposing particular ideas of equality onto women elsewhere.

Instead, it should be a dialogue between everyone continuing the struggle to fight for change. This year’s International Women’s Day theme #BeBoldForChange acknowledges exactly that. It points to the fact that, while we have a lot to celebrate, we still need to make the feminist movement bolder, more relevant and, above all,

intersectional. Women’s work is still constantly devalued in our society, and this is heavily exacerbated by the additional struggles of intersections such as class, race, gender, and sexuality. We need to realise that feminism isn’t about talking over women less privileged than ourselves.

After all, International Women’s Day has its roots in the struggles of working women at the turn of the twentieth century. Originally called International Working Women’s Day, the day commemorates Clara Zetkin and the struggles of workers in shirtwaist factories. Zetkin believed that feminism was only accessible to the upper and middle-classes, and that women at all levels needed to be empowered economically.

‘Women’s spaces’ often cater towards specifically cis-gender women only.

Brighton’s International Women’s Day planned to feature Germaine Greer, a woman who brands trans-women as monopolising males trying to invade women’s spaces. In the past Greer has projected her distorted idea of feminism, claiming that trans women are “some kind of ghastly parody” of women who will never experience

having a “big, hairy, smelly vagina”.

With her fake ‘feminism’ and blatant transphobia, Greer is a poor excuse for a feminist icon. Greer’s voice is representative of the largely white and middle-class second wave feminist movement of the late 70s and 80s.

Her disturbing trend of second-wave ‘feminist’ transphobia still lingers, and needs to be stamped out. Social revolution can only occur with the participation of all genders.

Ultimately, real feminism should exclude nobody. If your campaign for social equality is for a privileged few, or one ethnicity, religion, sexuality, ability, or region, then you are looking for privilege, not equality.

You are not a femininst.

International Women’s Day shouldn’t be about covering the voices of those less privileged than you. I am not black. I am a cis-woman. So I listen. A significant proportion of white women voted for Trump, and this is proof of what can happen when women don’t listen to each other and work together.

We need to make sure we include everyone in the push for social justice, and that we listen to each other. We need solidarity.

‘Dank’ vs ‘normie’: Memes are the universal language that we have been waiting for

Joanna Taylor

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riting about memes kills memes. By some definitions, a meme is officially dead once a think-piece has been written about it, but despite this, I wouldn’t be able to satisfactorily complete a column on what makes the millennial without bringing them up; I can only apologise for the cringeworthiness of using words like

‘dank’ and ‘normie’ out of context.

If Facebook is the millennial’s Domesday Book, then memes are our woodcuts: funny images, often with a small amount of accompanying text, which sometimes carry an underlying point. Like woodcuts they can be quickly made and disseminated to a wide audience — I’m not sure at what point memes went from obscure rage comics to the majority of my Facebook newsfeed, but now there’s no escaping them. Cambridge has its own meme page, for example, which inspired other universities across the country to begin their own. Memes have also appeared on the BBC, in US election campaigns, and in the Houses of Parliament, if you count dabbing as part of meme culture.

The definition of a meme is fluid: an image from Facebook, Reddit, or

Tumblr, a video from Vine or YouTube, or a screenshot of a Tweet or other post; it might even be applied to a person or something funny that has happened.

Some meme pages categorise memes into two groups, dank versus normie, and crown a ‘meme of the month’ from each one, almost as if they have the urge to track memes’ progress and make sure old memes aren’t forgotten in the fast-paced turnover of the internet. This demonstrates a divide between two categories of people who, prior to memes, might have been called something like jocks and nerds

by Americans, whose language is now the language of memes.

Dank memes, which are frequently based on in-jokes and lateral thinking, might allow nerds to feel somewhat superior to their normie counterparts but now, as ever, these labels aren’t really

useful. Different memes simply reflect different senses of humour: some are deeply ironic, others existential and self-consciously depressing; some convey social or political opinions, some are deliberately offensive whilst others are ‘wholesome’, some employ anti-humour or are simply absurd.

Thus memes reflect millennial culture, from political persuasions to our vibrant subcultures. So it is telling that one of the strongest trends amongst memes is selfdeprecation, something certainly true of Memebridge, with inadequacy and essay crises featuring, in addition to ‘when everyone else is n, but you’re x’ style memes.

Through these, millennials express the unnecessarily heavy pressure we’re put under to achieve or conform to certain social expectations, laughing

at ourselves for our laziness and love of food, puppies and nights in. Some even discuss mental health issues such as depression and anxiety, or troubling political events such as Brexit or Obama and Biden leaving office, offering comic relief and public discussion of things not always talked about in a way that fits young people.

Whilst Facebook and Instagram usually lend themselves to imagecontrol and pretending we all have perfect lives, memes admit we don’t — and surely there’s nothing more comforting than being tagged in a meme about procrastination or inadequacy that 20,000 other people have liked. They might only fuel that procrastination further, but memes can be validating as well as entertaining and are inclusive of all millennials, and our senses of humour.

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The Cambridge Student • 09 March 2017

Sport

Cryptic Crossword

by Cameron Wallis

1

6

5

3

4

2 14

13

7 12

8

10

11

9

Across Across Down 1. Shatter nape extremely fast. (9) 2. Program 1. Shatter nape extremely fast. mixes (9) celebrity photographers. (3)1. Moving under gravity, concealed ball is ticking.

7. City camoußaged in landÞll on, do nothing. (6) 2. Program mixes celebrity photographers. (3) (9) 8. Protein-Þlled journey. (4) Donkey inside Next part is stew. (9) golfer hides Norwegian musician. (4) 7. City camouflaged in 9.landfill on,Chief do Executive. nothing.

(6) 3.a Lucky 11. Adjective peeper hears Þrst personÕs past will. (4) 8. Protein-filled journey.

(4) 4.

Serrated, dangerous situation. (5, 4) 12. A cabbage is a confused leak. (4) Opening a clothes company.

9. Donkey inside Chief14.

Executive.

Next part (3) is a stew.

5. Parisian girl is single, then ring after eight. (7) (9) 6. Accent takes heart out of common epitaph. (2) Down 1. Moving under gravity, concealed ball is (4) ticking.

11. Adjective peeper hears first person’s past will.

10. (9) Sounds since island. (3) 3. Lucky golfer hides Norwegian musician. (4) 12. A cabbage is a confused leak.

(4) 13.

Twelve nitrogens screwed up on the leg. (5) 4. Serrated, dangerous situation. (5, 4) 5. Parisian girl (3) is single, then ring after eight. (7) 14. Opening a clothes company.

Mixed netball cuppers: Competing for the finals Lili Bidwell

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as Sunday dawned grey and drizzly, college mixed netball teams warmed up for a day of intense netball. All were competing for a position in the finals.

Mixed netball is an interesting version of the game, whereby there must be three players of each sex on court at each time. Having boys playing the game means that it is perhaps not as serious as ladies’ netball: the boys take advantage of their height to lob the ball across the court. Despite being a non-contact sport, the rules a likely to be slightly more lenient in a mixed game. This is because of the team dynamic and the fact that very few boys have grown up playing netball in the way that most girls have.

Nevertheless, Sunday’s tournament proved to be an exciting one for spectators. The teams were split into five groups: A, B, C , D, and E. However,

due to the unfortunate weather, the Jesus netball courts were deemed unsafe for use and consequently group D’s matches have been postponed.

The cuppers tournament works in such a way that the eight best teams will go through to the finals.

These comprise the winner of each group, in which teams play a round robin of matches, as well as the three highest runners up out of the whole competition.

The matches were fiesty and competitive, which was reflected in the results. The winners were as follows: group A: Downing 1; group B: Trinity; group C: Corpus Christi; and group E: Emmanuel 1. The top two confirmed runners up are Robinson and Caius.

The final two spaces will be confirmed once group D have played: the winner of that group and the third highest runner up will proceed to the final.

SOPHIA PONTE

6. Accent takes heart out of common epitaph. (2) 10. Sounds since island. (3) 13. Twelve nitrogens screwed up on the leg. (5)

Sudoku

by Thomas Prideaux Ghee

Cambridge half marathon: Runners dominate the city TCS Sports Team

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Solutions from Volume 18, Lent Issue 3

n 5 March, thousands of dedicated runners took to the streets of Cambridge to compete in the Cambridge Half Marathon. In spite of the wet and windy weather, there were over 8,000 competitors. Some 5,000 of these intrepid runners were from Cambridgeshire, making this a fantastic local event.

Contributing to the local aspect of the race, the Mayor and Sheriff started the race at 9:30am. The brave runners then set out on the 13.1 mile course, which took them past some of the most scenic buildings in Cambridge, before circling out via Granchester and Trumpington and then returning back through town to finish at Midsummer Common.

The winner of the race had

previously also won the races in 2015 and 2016: Aaron Scott, who completed the course in 1 hour and 8 minutes, just 2 minutes shy of the record.

Tracy Barlow was the fastest female runner, finishing just 8 minutes behind Aaron Scott.

Many of the people competing were doing so in aid of charity; for example, a fellow of Christ’s College, Professor Nick Gay turned 60 on the day of the race, which he completed to raise money for Cambridge Street Aid. The race has gained support and competitors since it was founded in 2012, with One Step Beyond Management taking responsibility for organising the course every year.

The event could not have taken place without so many dedicated volunteers to help on the day.

20

09 March 2017 • The Cambridge Student

Sport

LILI BIDWELL

Netball mixed cuppers

Teams compete for a place in the finals → p. 19

www.tcs.cam.ac.uk/sport

XANTHE FULLLER

Jesus ladies team happy with the result

Ladies hockey teams battle it out in intense game Medwards and Jesus women end a competitive game with a 3-all draw Lili Bidwell

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n a hockey league game on Sunday, the women’s teams from Medwards and Jesus gathered on John’s pitches to battle it out in the drizzling rain.

The match began with a push back from the Medwards team, who immediately pushed forwards in an effort to get the ball near to the Jesus goalie. The Medwards women had fielded the full eleven players, while Jesus were down to just nine girls, including the goalie.

Nevertheless, the Jesus team were strong in defense, managing to prevent the opposition from scoring in spite of the amount of time that Medwards managed to spend down their attacking end of the pitch. There were several strong saves from the Jesus goal keeper; nevertheless, the Medwards girls were placing the defense players under a lot of pressure, especially with the sheer speed

Both teams came back stronger than ever in the second half

and force with which they hit the ball.

The first goal of the match was scored

by Jesus, who after a lovely run up the pitch finally managed to whack the ball into the back of the net.

The Medwards girls then became even more fiesty, determined to equalise as soon as possible. After having had possession near their attacking goal for a large portion of the match, they were at last able to score a goal, despite the strong effort from the Jesus goalkeeper.

As the game progressed, with Medwards defensively lining up across the pitch every time Jesus had a pass from the sixteen line, the Jesus team managed to break through this defense and make the most of the empty pitch behind, sprinting towards the goal. A foot on the Medwards side gave Jesus a short corner, which they made the most

of, rushing in and aggressively scoring their second goal.

The first half of the game ended with another short corner, with Jesus attacking again, however the Medwards team succeeded in clearing the ball before the Jesus attackers scored a goal.

The teams then had motivational talks amongst themselves, both sides determined to make this second half count. As the sun began to intermittently shine through the grey clouds above, this pathetic fallacy boded well for the Medwards ladies team.

As the second half began, both teams came back stronger than ever. Medwards did well to finally convert some of their shots into goals, scoring two fairly early on in the second half.

This advance in score, now 3-2 to Medwards, scared the Jesus girls into

action; they were fiercly competitive and extremely driven to gain back their lead.

The teams were pretty equally matched which was making for a very good game.

Jesus had discussed tactics and were making use of a deep defense player to pass back to, and also trying to lift the ball over the sticks of the Medwards defensive players. This new approach did indeed pay off, allowing the Jesus team to get the ball into the back of the net, following a highly impressive and energetic run from the centre forward.

Nevertheless, this sixth goal of the game was scored fairly late, close to the end of the game, and the match soon ended with a score of 3-all. An eventful game, with both teams well-matched and both capable of having won, neccesarily accepting a draw as the outcome of this competitive game.