Issue 75 - March by The Magdalen

THE MAGDALEN ISSUE 75 MARCH

DUNDEE’S FREE MAGAZINE

Sex: Why We Need To Be Educated How can we learn about Sex, assaults and Gender based violence

Politics in Our Pockets Looking at the politics of clothes in Western and Islamic cultures .

A Coffee Enema? A Latte Shite! No summary possible, this one you’ll have to read

A WOMAN’S PLACE

THE MAGDALEN

A NOTE FROM YOUR EDITOR IN CHIEF

This issue of The Magdalen is an odd one for me. Its subject matter is so varied and diverse yet its overarching theme, “A Woman’s Place” is one which brings back an omnipresent certainty painted by a million different stories: The place of women in our world is shifting. I, a male, will now edit a magazine telling you all about it. We chose this theme for a very practical reason: we wanted to explore the themes and issues of International Women’s Day without turning ourselves into yet another preachy student publication telling you to get woke. We are not about that. We are about telling stories and here in your hands is the product of a team of men and women of all different identities and expressions who show that there does not need to be an emergence of tribalism based on gender, race or creed so long as each one is open to telling and to listening to the experiences and stories of the others. I love that little factoid about the fact that Google searches for International Men’s Day peak on International Women’s Day. I think far from being a sign of ignorance, it comes from a place of insecurity. This month we, rightly, reflect on the role women have played in society and how that role is changing. When we question something as deepset as social hierarchy, it only makes sense that people would become anxious about their own. We must remember that it is not only manageable, but natural, for people to rebel against the

tide of popular change. We see this in our politics as well as our changing attitudes towards the thought processes of our peers. It is important therefore to remember that as we celebrate the day which represents a massive cultural shift and acknowledgement of previously disregarded voices, we must be equally ready to educate and accept those who are not ready to accept that change yet. This month, I would also like to welcome two new additions to our team. Helena and Neil are our new Creative Directors. The fantastic legacy left by Molly and Olivia has ensured that they are starting strong, and I hope you are as excited as we are to see what the next year brings. One more thing: This year, The Magdalen are really calling on you to get out and vote in the DUSA Elections. These candidates have put themselves forward to be your elected representatives. For those of you who pay fees: you are also paying their wages, and voting is the only way to make sure you don’t pay for something you don’t want. However, we will also say be careful. Just because someone is standing uncontested, it does not mean that they should automatically be elected. Reading some of the manifestos, there are some policies which need a lot more of your consideration before you vote. Make sure you know what you’re voting for. Murray Glen

MARCH

ISSUE

A NOTE FROM YOUR CREATIVE DIRECTORS

Hi everyone, we are excited to take over from Molly and Olivia as your new Creative Directors, we might have underestimed the amount of preperation and work that went into this magazine but we would like to think we pulled through in the end. We’re looking forward to using the Magdalen as a learning experience and working with some very talented students to create what is hopefully a magazine that’s got something for everyone. We would also like to give a big thanks to the editorial team and the writers that helped us transition into our new roles, you’ve all been a great help!

This month we are looking forward to the St. Patrick’s Day celebrations and the start of spring. As we get closer to the end of the term we are looking forward to what summer brings. We hope you enjoy the first Magdalen under our direction and we will see you again next month for the very last issue of the semester! Helena Lindsay Neil Connor

With our first magazine being set around such an important topic we wanted to capture a wide range of aesthetics and approach “A Woman’s Place” with a unique visual style and to direct something we can look back on and be proud of.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS 04

EDITOR IN CHIEF Murray Glen SENIOR DEPUTY EDITOR IN CHIEF Barbara Mertlova DEPUTY EDITOR Alastair Edward Letch

CREATIVE DIRECTORS Neil Connor Helena Lindsay PHOTOGRAPHY MANAGERS Domas Radzevicius Victoria Sanches ILLUSTRATION MANAGER Fraser Robertson

ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR Alexander Ferrier COMMUNITY EDITOR Sarah Jayne Duncan CREATIVE WRITING EDITOR Kiera Marshall CURRENT AFFAIRS EDITOR Mary Erin Kinch FASHION EDITOR Emily Fletcher

INTERNATIONAL EDITOR Maria Radeva LIFESTYLE EDITOR James Houston OPINIONS EDITOR Rose Kendall SCIENCE EDITORS James Dale John Ferrier COPY EDITORS Erin Campbell Beth MacLeod

WITH THANKS TO Claire Hartley VPCC

COVER DESIGNERS Domas Radzevicius Fraser Robertson

CREATED IN ASSOCIATION WITH DUSA

PRINTERS The Magazine Printing Co. www.magprint.co.uk mpc@magprint.co.uk

06 FEATURE 10 CREATIVE WRITING 14 QUIZZES & COMICS ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT

30 COMMUNITY 34 INTERVIEW 38 CURRENT AFFAIRS 44 FASHION 48 INTERNATIONAL 52 RECIPE 53 LIFESTYLE 58 OPINIONS 62 SCIENCE 68 WHATâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;S ON

CONTENTS

Feature - The Magdalen - March

Sex: Why We Need to Be Educated

hroughout my time at school, I received no sexual health classes. Everything I learned about my body and sex I learned from the internet. It was so severe that my school didn’t even run PSE or Sex Ed for the entire 6 years I went to high school; not once. The only thing I was taught is in modern studies and English when reading articles or stories about sexual assault is that “no means no” but it isn’t as simple as those three words... Over the years I’ve seen a change, a change in the way we express ourselves. The way we teach children and young people about sex and healthy relationships. With there being a plethora of television shows exploring puberty and how little young people actually know about Sex Education it’s clear that we do need to change. An article that was written by The Times also explored how Scots are conservative when it comes to teaching children about sex. The school curriculum does not focus in on how we teach children and young people the risks of unhealthy relationships. Many young women and men who are attending university for the first time will have experiences they would never have if they still lived at home. Many of them will experience an unhealthy and toxic relationship at least once at their time at university, or know someone who has. While with the phenomena of Netflix’s Sex Education, it was clear we are clueless about our own bodies and how to properly have healthy and happy relationships. The show illustrates how sex culture among teens today is just as complex as it ever was. The show is much more than just a show explicitly foregrounding sex. It teaches us much more than just sex: it touches on sex-

adjacent emotional issues, from acceptance, religion, rejection, separation and sexual orientation to name a few. It reminds me of a younger Sex and the City but with more relevant issues that face young people. However, due to the lack of education within schools it is evident that many people struggle with the concept of what is consent ? There has been a worldwide movement of men and women taking back control over their own bodies pushing to get people to understand what consent is. This can be seen even on the university campus with the Zero Tolerance campaign that DUSA is pushing. As well as making people aware of gender-based violences that occur to both men and women. Sexual assault

March - The Magdalen - Feature

“ [...] it was clear we are clueless about our own bodies and how to properly have healthy and happy relationships. ”

amongst students is growing and that female students are the most at risk of being targeted. Many women throughout Dundee have suffered with the shame and guilt of what their attackers did to them. Female students are most at risk, with 1,755 reported rape and 123 attempted rapes. Since 2015-16 there has seen a 5% increase in sexual crimes within Scotland alone. Young female students are the most at risk. Our naivety and lust for life allows us to only ever see the good in people. When moving to a new place for the first time, we are no longer sheltered by our parents about the bad in the world. Young people today are tackling the big question to what constitutes consent ? With our lack of consent education throughout our times in high school, it is evident that we don’t really know what actually counts as non-verbal consent. With this lack of consent based education allows many violations to be taken place within university campuses. Dundee University Student Union (DUSA) implemented a Zero Tolerance Policy, where the university pledged to try and tackle harassment of any kind. I went to a non-denominational state secondary school, where our sex education was scarce and when it was received it went as far as talking about why we need to treat others well as saying when we do not like something to say: “I do not like that”. There were no terms like: consent, healthy relationships, masturbation, or LGBT+ relationships were never spoken about. Schools are not equipped to deal with contemporary issues such as sexting, social media, pornography and the internet which all of these things are widely accessible to anyone at the

click of a button. It can be argued that sex has been romanticised by schools over the decades, it does not prepare students to be open with the idea of just enjoying sex for what it is but to only ever be monogamous to a single person to whom you’ll most likely end up married to. With this lack of sex education that I and many others received throughout school, it is evident that there is a need to provide awareness and more education to people. DUSA Exec have had the amazing chance to follow through for many years with promoting healthier and safer sex. With one-off sexual partners becoming more and more common, Dundee University and DUSA have started turning

Feature - The Magdalen - March

their attention to how better educate and provide contraception as roughly 54% of university students have regular unprotected sex. According to FPA, the sexual health charity, one in ten would not use protection when having sex for the first time. A third of men and women had sex prior to the age of 16. <It has been clear that we are clueless about sex, especially with there being a lack of development with teaching it within the curriculum that LGBT+ children are most at risk of being taken advantage of. While LGBT+ sex based education is increasing, it is still not at the point we need it to be to keep our young people safe. However, positively, this could all be about to change in November of 2018 the Deputy First Minister, John Swinney announced to the Scottish Parliament that Scotland would become the world’s first nation to introduce a LGBT+ inclusive education in the curriculum. This is to be fully implemented by 2021. Throughout my time at school, myself and many others will have experienced the same thing which is that, there is no education supporting young people in regards to consent and sexual relationships. I was told that you were to only ever be faithful to a single person and that sleeping around was seen as being a slut. These words still resonate with many women today, being called a slut for what you are wearing, to how many people you are speaking to, to how many

Design and illustration by Clémence Jaron

people you’ve slept with. I’ve never understood why people just accept others if they enjoy sex? However, with these experiences comes making mistakes and learning from them. Toxicity in relationships can lead to gender based violence, and the most occuring being sexual assault and domestic violence. Learning that being in a toxic relationship with either a partner or friend is something that is not good for your mental or physical health. DUSA along with the Zero Tolerance campaign and the Don’t be a prick awareness campaign where freshers were given cacti to make them more aware of the Zero Tolerance policy. They were to highlight the universities unacceptable behaviours, a lighthearted way to discuss a serious topic. Along with this the there was the Zero Tolerance support as part of the universities ongoing mission to provide

“ I was told that you were to only ever be faithful to a single person and that sleeping around was seen as being a slut. ”

March - The Magdalen - Feature

more support for students regarding sexual abuse, harassment and rape. There is also the End Gender Based (End GBV) Violence cards that will be handed out to staff members to help direct and support people who are experiencing violence or harassment. The End Gender Based Violence is an initiative ran by Fiona Drouet who lost her daughter Emily in a related incident. The cards, printed in pink as they were Emily’s favourite colour, will be handed out to to give people the basic information they need to tackle an issue such as GBV. However, it is to be noted that these cards are not to replace a first responder or bystander training. For a long time it was clear that dealing with sexual assault was an issue that we needed to fix but didn’t because of the taboo. Many women and men, not just within Dundee but across the country and worldwide are tackling gender based violence on a daily basis. Schools are trying or have implemented into the curriculum consent based education; teaching young boys and girls what sexual assault is and why it is unacceptable. It is clear that sexual violence and assault are serious issues, issues that haven’t been dealt with at the root level of their cause — in schools. The effectiveness of the Scottish Government’s new LGBT+ curriculum is yet to be seen but we hope it can make improvements.

As for now, however, combating sexual assault in university is left to the University, and it is clear more needs to be done in terms of consent based education.

For more information and help here are a few organisations that deal with gender based violence and sexual assault: Women’s Rape and Sexual Abuse Centre Dundee and Angus Mon- Fri 10am-12pm and then Wednesday 2pm-4pm on this helpline number: 0300 365 2001 Rape Crisis Scotland Helpline: 08088 01 03 02 NSPCC (For Under 18’s) Helpline: 0808 800 5000 (24 hours day) Women Against Rape Womenagainstrape.net Men Only Tayside Menonlytayside.com

Words by Sarah Jayne Duncan

Creative Writing - The Magdalen - March

AN OPEN LETTER TO

AND

FIRE

ice

At some point being in a woman’s place became about losing your independence and freedom. Being tied down and having to listen to endless dramas over and over again. But don’t chase me, if you’re just going to let me go. I climb mountains, I walk through fire and I can burn ice. I don’t hold back my feelings, because they are what gives me the rage and serenity to walk through higher walls.

I’m hugging the blankey around my waist in attempt to keep the ice away from my back. But also, from the words leaving your mouth like the kisses you left on my lips. I don’t want to hear it. I can feel my heart backing out already; this was not what I was prepared for. I can feel the water rushing through my head and as the effervescent waves become louder and louder. Where can I run to escape now?

I look into those big, brown hazelnut eyes of yours. Dreamer eyes. Chocolate eyes. The kind I always had a weak spot for. It’s so cold in your living room, and

I should be a casual gal. I’m acting like a woman, but I should think like a man. I’m denying my sensations because those would just make me weaker, make me

Words by Lizzie Husum

sink into the salty water until I would almost disappear. Not having any higher expectations though, that is what any other human would do. But because I’m in a woman’s place, it would be unnatural to act naturally. But I know that my spirits are what gives me the fire to walk so many miles longer, so why should I be the one to discard them? Maybe I’m just fooling myself into thinking that this is how I want to be, because to realize the truth would mean that I would haveto start being honest with myself and actually be in a Woman’s Place.

March - The Magdalen - Creative Writing

I know this is the moment where I need to tell you this is as far as what my nature can handle. I’m done with compromising. Cause you do not want to leave imprints on my flesh, but the truth is you already have and I do not know how to detach them. I dream of your kisses and your hands stroking my bag. I don’t come over just for another shag, but because I want to look into those dreamy eyes of yours, and I want to run my hands through your silky-soft black hair. Why is it so hard to just admit to myself I am made of fire and ice and I dream of tender nights where you will want to hold me close

to your heart? I think it’s time to stop hiding. If you are really out-burned tired then this is not where I can keep my fire alive. I’ve had enough crashes and burns, and I am looking for something better where I can leave my thoughts in the air around you. I know my value in my place and my spirits is not something I will hide or pretend not to have. Do not suffocate my flame in your self-doubt and condescension. I’m allowing my breath to be free, allow my heart to exhale and inhale and if someone would suddenly walk all over it, the flame will burn brighter because I know I am fire

and air, I ice the water and it will not be left unnoticed. Because compassion and caring and embracement should not become such a negative thing. It is what breathes the life. I am made of fire and ice, I can leave a hurricane or an oceanbliss. But a woman’s place should not be about hiding and being scared of admitting what she wants. Because of stronger passions, overthinking thoughts and ability to easy attachment at times, it can be worthy to see the effect of such actions. The right attention, the right amount of caring and sharing. And that is not something to hide in cigarette smoke and whiskeyflavoured kisses.

Photography by Victoria Sanchez, design by Helena Lindsay

Creative Writing - The Magdalen - March

BEHIND THE MASK Am I a man, because of the sculptor? Are these flesh garments truly me, and what about this mask that’s covering my face? My personality changes as the seasons go by. I’m not anymore the five-year-old who was afraid of the dark, who couldn’t fall asleep without his mother placing her palm on the little one’s face. My identity is built on random facts absorbed from others, so is this really me? Why should one live in the cage built by others, in the cage that’s locked by oneself? Gender, ethnicity, and creed shouldn’t be something that’s limiting, these classifications, perceptions of oneself end up holding one’s destiny if we buy into these misconceptions. They should be released with time. Even the parts that colour and fuel our names should be let go of, washed away by the tides. When we’re holding onto these beliefs, we’re covering ourselves, our true self. Hiding behind a mask. Our very nature is to be free. So open your arms and let the wind blow through you. You’re you, and not the mask you put on.

Words by Daniel Pukkila, design by Neil Connor

March - The Magdalen - Creative Writing

a Stack of Pebbles I shall not bring flowers that as soon as I leave would perish. For the pebble I place will never die. Your memory and legacy shall live within me, for our bond will echo forever. Even though I’ll be unable to touch your face, hold your palms in my own I’ll visit from time to time, but the truth is that you’re always with me. As I walk up, year after year I’m reminded of the significance of our bond. It inspires me to live, keep on going: no matter how empty the roads are. See the world you left behind through my eyes. And as I visit the place where you rest, we can have a talk like back then. Your grave is soon a mountain of pebbles, I’ve been there again and again, as has everyone else. Your memory shall continue to live on, in and through us.

Words by Daniel Pukkila, design by Eryn Moreton

Quiz - The Magdalen - March

Which Ceiling Shattering Woman Are You? START HERE So you want to shake up the social order - how are you gonna do it?

1. By showing them that some things aren’t just for boys 2. By contributing work that is better than anyone else’s

2 Is recognition of your work important to you? 1. I am going to show them that my ideas are legitimate 2. The work is what’s important, who cares what platitudes I get

1 Margaret Heathfield American Software Engineer

Words by Dundee Quiz Society

2 Rosalind Franklin British Chemist

March - The Magdalen - Quiz

And what inspired you to take this path?

1. Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;m not going to let a man do a job I can do perfectly fine myself 2. I was brought up believing that I could achieve what I wanted

2 And what would you like to achieve? 1. The direct advancement of women in society 2. My dreams, regardless of my gender

1 Mariya Oktyabrskaya Soviet Tank Driver

2 Amelia Earhart American Aviator

1 Emeline Parhurst Brutish Suffragette

Design by Helena Lindsay

Comics - The Magdalen - March

Illustration by Dan Barnfield (above) and Leah Cameron (below)

DONâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;T SETTLE NO ONE SHOULD SETTLE IN AN ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP. RECOGNISE THE SIGNS AND KNOW WHERE TO SEEK SUPPORT WHEN YOU OR SOMEONE ELSE IS IN AN EMOTIONALLY, PHYSICALLY OR SEXUALLY ABUSIVE RELATIONSHIP

ISOLATING YOU FROM FAMILY AND FRIENDS BEHAVIOUR THAT UNDERMINES, INTIMIDATES, HUMILIATES AND DEGRADES YOU PHYSICALLY OR VERBALLY ABUSIVE TOWARDS YOU MANAGING HOW YOU SPEND YOUR TIME AND MONEY ACTING OVERLY JEALOUS, AGGRESSIVE, UNPREDICTABLE OR UPSET TOWARDS YOU PRESSURES YOU TO HAVE SEX MONITORING YOUR SOCIAL MEDIA, CALLS AND TEXTS MANIPULATION OF YOUR FEELINGS MAKING YOU FEEL LIKE YOU ARE ALWAYS WRONG AND EVERYTHING IS YOUR FAULT

IF ANY OF THIS APPLIES TO YOU, OR SOMEONE YOU CARE ABOUT YOU CAN SEEK SUPPORT BY CONTACTING STUDENT SERVICES EITHER BY DROPPING INTO THE ENQUIRY CENTRE ON CAMPUS GREEN, CALLING ON 25 (0$,/,1* (148,5<Î&#x2DC;'81'(( $& 8. $1' 7,7/( <285 (0$,/ Èº6833257

Dundee University Students Association (DUSA) Registered Scottish Charity No. SCO16047

Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - March

Review:

Glasgow Girls

irst performed in 2012, Glasgow Girls (based on true events), is a story still relevant today. It follows a group of school girls who battle against injustice when one of their own is cruelly torn from her home and threatened with deportation. It focuses on the plight of asylum seekers whose home countries had been deemed â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;safeâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; by the government. However, for many, return would mean death. It is set during the time of the dawn raids, where migration officers would force themselves

18 18

into homes and pull screaming children from their beds. They talk of a young boy who packed a suitcase every night, just in case they came for him. The Glasgow Girls campaigned against child deportation and the brutal removal of families from their homes. By doing so they managed to save their friend Agnesa, but the musical also highlights the story of a mother and young son who unfortunately did not receive the same fate. The scene describing the motherâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s thoughts as they were herded from the detention centre (an old prison) onto a bus, and then a plane, was one of the most hard-hitting in the show. It highlighted her residual hope that this was wrong and could not be

Design and illustration by Molly Porteous

March - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

happening. It showed her terror of having to return to the place she had escaped from years before. Despite mic problems early on and some points where the accents fell through a little, the performances were all impressive. Each character brought a different perspective to the story and evoked a range of emotions from the audience. The strongest link was the music. With songs written by several people, there was a wide range â&#x20AC;&#x201C; from Scottish folk to modern pop and rap. The diversity was refreshing. It was a hybrid of different genres, representing the multiculturalism we have in Scotland. There were also some incredible lighting and staging moments which were impactful and emotive.

This kind of theatre is so important as it challenges people to see things from a different perspective. In the current political climate education is essential. Ignorance is dangerous and destructive, and shows like this help to bring about change. Woven through the story is a crucial message of dispelling prejudices, of fighting for change and not giving up when things get tough. It tells young people, especially young girls, that they can make a difference. They just need to be brave enough to stand up and fight.

Words by Beth MacLeod

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Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - March

REVIEW:

STAN & OLLIE

Words by James Kirkpatrick

March - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

Recreating the lives of one of cinema’s most famous double acts was never going to be an easy task, but John S. Baird’s Stan and Ollie pulls it off with style, telling a quietly touching story about two legends in the twilight of their career together. The film hinges on Steve Coogan and John C. Reilly’s performances as Stan Laurel and Oliver Hardy as they embark upon a tour of the UK, waiting for finances to come through for another film. There is a real statement of intent and confidence in the film’s opening scene, showing the creation of Way Out West, arguably the duos most celebrated feature film. The confidence is clear from the long tracking shot, to the abundance of background details that true Laurel and Hardy fans will relish spotting. When we finally catch up with the leads at the beginning of their tour, it is clear their star has faded somewhat, performing to half empty music halls and unenthused audiences. These scenes cleverly illustrate the dedication both men had to their craft as their performances remain polished and energised despite the disappointment of the audience size. It is here that we see what made

Stan and Ollie really tick; Stan is dedicated to his work, constantly refining and writing new material to be used, both on stage and in the proposed film, meanwhile Ollie is simply keen to continue his work and to be adored by an audience, despite his failing health. This tension is kept largely in check and is only brought to the fore upon the arrival of Ida and Lucille, ‘the boys’’ respective wives. It is at this point that it becomes clear that the film isn’t merely about Stan and Ollie, the audience is in fact getting ‘two double acts for the price of one’ as pointed out by Rufus Jones’ smarmy promoter Delfont. This is an understatement as both Shirley Henderson as Lucille and Nina Arianda as Ida draw huge laughs as well as providing Stan and Ollie with their emotional grounding, bringing out all their desires and frustrations felt towards each other. Baird’s direction is assured and skilled, realising the onstage performances with a sound eye for physical comedy (an onstage highlight being the ‘Twin Doors’ routine) while also cutting straight to the sadness felt by both Stan and Ollie in their scenes together to create a moving yet uplifting portrait of two friends who will be remembered and loved for generations to come.

Design by Neil Connor

Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - March

Review: Red Dead Redemption II Defying the artistic consensus is rarely met with approval, particularly in the videogame industry, where contrary viewpoints often produce torrents of bile and impassioned online comments from petulant, foul-smelling man-children. This unseemly and putrescent phenomenon is best characterised as an expression of nerd fanaticism. Unfortunately, Steven Scaife, writer for Slant Magazine and the sole voice of criticism among a sizeable number of videogame journalists, had to face such an onslaught when he arrived at the conclusion that Rockstar’s latest release, Red Dead Redemption II, is not entirely perfect. If you’re feeling especially brave, you can read the seven hundred-odd comments that have been left by this swarm of maddened anoraks. The fact that they became so agitated by Scaife’s piece is made even more astounding when you consider that the overwhelming majority of critics are on their side. More interesting, however, is that audience scores are far more varied. The complex relationship that fanboys have with sacred pieces of art and fiction –often deemed so themselves –deserves some thought, but it is refreshing to see that Red Dead Redemption II has garnered a healthy mixture of praise and scepticism from players.

Design and illustration by Grace Neillands

Before release, Rockstar were condemned for the long hours that their workers had to endure, and the former’s role in “encouraging” such practices. However, while deplorable and unacceptable, it is easy to find the fruits. Victories have undoubtedly been achieved in emulating the Western epic in both appearance and with the core gameplay. Much like its cousin, Grand Theft Auto V, Red Dead Redemption II is an extravagant send-off for the current generation of consoles, showing what can be achieved with hardware that is supposedly on its last legs. A considerable amount of playing time will be spent on mountain tops, idly gazing across the far reaches of the map in a perpetual state of awe. The sheer size of the game’s environment is only amplified by its climatic and geological diversity,with seamless transitions from the snowcapped peaks in the North and the destitute deserts of the rugged South. In an effort to enhance realism and the player’s sense of immersion, the established formula for the series has been rewritten. Whereas the player had previously raced around from mission to mission, Red Dead Redemption II forces you to exist in the moment and appreciate the character’s wellbeing. No longer can you simply turn on your console, complete a challenge and

March - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

then switch off. Between missions you’ll need to find sustenance for the protagonist, Arthur Morgan, and his steadfast horse. In this regard, Red Dead Redemption II plays more as a survival game, even sharing similarities with Naughty Dog’s The Last of US, and is where it succeeds in bringing this savage, lawless world to life. It is perhaps not surprising then that such an ambitious ordeal also entails problems, and in their endeavour for verisimilitude, Rockstar have incidentally exposed the inherent limitations of the medium. Arthur will encounter a plethora of strangers during his journeys and a variety of seemingly impromptu events, forcing the player into interacting with the world, introducing wonderfully eccentric and often charming personalities, as well as the satisfying sense that this was unique to you. However, by the end, these encounters become tiresome, the illusion of spontaneity begins to wear off and the handful of dull, not-so spontaneous events and occasionally irksome side characters become more noticeable as the story grows interminable. Shorter titles tend to be victims of severe criticism and players will always demand value for money, but Red Dead Redemption II begs

the question as to whether length is the best way to gauge if a game is good or not. The story is more than happy to move at its own pace, but the rewards of finishing Red Dead Redemption II are far less tantalising once you’ve hit the 60-hour mark. That isn’t to say that no videogame should exceed 60 hours –it’s just that this one doesn’t warrant it. By the time you’re forced to watch the second slow-motion, sepia-coloured, saccharine jaunt back to camp, you get the sense that the game is a little too proud of itself. Thankfully, the final mission does bring a somewhat satisfying resolution to the laborious final act and is undeniably exhilarating even if it does, at times, pose more questions than answers. In spite of its beauty and scope, Red Dead Redemption II is fairly underwhelming, at least as far as the story is concerned, and is significantly more intriguing as a conduit for conversation. Rockstar, yet again, have managed to create a very loud dialogue about the technical capabilities of videogames, as well as the rules and fundamental confinements of the medium and the tenacity of religious fanboys. This conversation is, in my eyes, rather compelling, and it continues to be Red Dead Redemption II’s greatest achievement.

Words by Luther Codrington

Arts and Entertainment - The Magdalen - March

Review:

The global influence of Hong Kong film director, John Woo, upon the action genre as currently we know it cannot be overstated. When watching even the most creatively bankrupt gunslinging flick the modern film industry can roll off of it’s annual assembly line, Woo somehow continues to blast his way onto the screen via his innovative trademark— Gun Fu. Put simply, the term ‘Gun Fu’ refers to a style of cinematic gunplay that is choreographed to emphasise the shooter’s grace of movement, usually mixing spray-and-pray style shooting with the mobility seen in numerous martial arts in order to accomplish this. The result is a viscerally chaotic blend of muzzle flashes and flying bodies, which when finally imported to the West, acted as one of many inspirations for Keanu Reeves’ trench coat wearing escapades in a certain 1999 film. Given the title of this review, you might be scratching your head as to the significance of the above history lesson. Rest assured, I’ll tell you now that Kurt Wimmer’s 2002 sci-fi action film Equilibrium was second after the Wachowskis’ efforts to present Woo’s take on firefights to Western audiences— a fact which I feel is worth noting precisely because nothing else in the film is really worth noting. Set in the near future within Generic Dystopian City #3451, Equilibrium depicts a world ravaged by the destructive horrors of a Third World War. In the aftermath of this conflict, the ruling government concludes that war is caused not by a series of complex geopolitical motives, but rather the irrationality of human emotion, and thus administers a drug to neutralise emotion amongst the general populace. After an elite state enforcer known as Preston fails to take his dose one day,

Design by Fraser Robertson

Set in the near future within Generic Dystopian City #3451, Equilibrium depicts a world ravaged by the destructive horrors of a Third World War. he begins to discover his repressed emotions and soon works to destroy the very system he spent his life defending. As blood-pumping and enticing as this all sounds on paper, it hardly takes a critical eye to notice upon watching the film that its pacing is slow and its action is relatively sparse. This is true to the extent where I feel the film can be neatly divided into two distinct halves: the first where much of the previously described premise and general world-building is established, and the second where the narrative stakes escalate (along with the frequency of some fairly decent action scenes) as Preston takes the fight to his employers. This structure is yet another way in which Equilibrium evokes Woo, as John Woo’s own classic A Better Tomorrow is similarly composed, with a relatively relaxed first half culminating in an explosive second. While such restraint is appreciated however, Wimmer’s attempts at gradual escalation prove less skilful than Woo’s, resulting in a relationship between the film’s halves which cause them to clash rather than complement each other.

March - The Magdalen - Arts and Entertainment

Nowhere else is this clash more evident than in what is, by several miles around the world and back, Equilibrium’s weakest aspect—its characters. It’s not the lack of emotions which the characters display during even the most intimate interactions which I’m complaining about. In fact, given that the entire plot revolves around a human population who’ve been unable to emote since birth, the fact they mostly behave with as much feeling as a wooden chair on tranquilizers is completely justified. Rather, my issue lies with the fact that Preston’s emotional awakening and conflicted relationships with the other cast members that so dominates that snail-paced first half ultimately amounts to nothing. The awakening in question, where Preston slowly begins to emote for the first time is without a doubt the film’s peak, largely due to the way in which the effects of new emotional stimuli are seen to accumulate and erupt at a believable pace. Yet despite a good 40 minutes of touching surfaces, philosophising, and shedding tears over beauty for the first time, Preston’s inner conflict is not explored to its fullest extent before he’s thrust guns blazing into that rowdy second half, which in spite of it’s flashiness plays out like every other paint-by-numbers Hollywood action flick. In this sense, Wimmer has made not one film with Equilibrium, but two. One which harbours vague pretensions of belonging to the avante garde branch of sci-fi; then one which feels like a committee designed blockbuster.

Looking at Equilibrium, signs of it being a passion project are indeed evident. From the decision to film it in East Germany so that the architecture of buildings evokes a totalitarian aesthetic, to the film’s own version of Gun Fu known as ‘Gunkata’, which was (quite adorably) developed and choreographed by the director himself while performing stunts in his own back garden. Yet for all these points, its attempts to appear artsy as well as stylish and its run-of-the-mill narrative are a combination which doom it to mediocrity. Do you want to watch Christian Bale shoot people while wearing a fascist-inspired uniform? Do you want to see one of the films that added to Sean Bean’s lengthy list of cinematic deaths? Then you might like Equilibrium. If not, then I implore you to stick to John Woo and not waste your time. Equilibrium is a minor milestone in cinema history, but that’s all it will ever be.

Wordsby byJack JackLoftus Loftus Words

Community Arts & Entertainment - The Magdalen - The Magdalen - December - March

Review:

Velvet Buzzsaw Morf Vandewalt, Rhodora Haze, Mertilla Splude, Jon Dondon, Ray Ruskinspear. These are the actual names of the players in Velvet Buzzsaw, the latest Netflix original, and Dan Gilroy’s third film as writer/director. What’s worse than Gilroy’s blunt, failed satire, is the genuine hypocrisy one is faced with. For a film about the materialistic nature of the art world, Buzzsaw is littered with obvious product placement from the likes of Apple, Starbucks and Ray Ban. Now, perhaps there’s some ingenious meta-satirical aim here, although after sitting through all 1 hour 53 minutes of thin, ‘art world’ stereotypes, it’s hard to believe that Gilroy is capable of such subtlety. The opening of the Buzzsaw trailer pitches a film about a caustic art critic who loses his sight, a proposition which piqued my interest.

Words by Alexander Ferrier

Unfortunately, that film never materialises. Instead we’re given an experience equivalent to Gilroy repeatedly whacking us with an ‘ART IS CONSUMERISM’ inscribed stick. With squandered talent like Jake Gyllenhaal, Rene Russo, Zawe Ashton, Toni Collette, Natalie Dyer, and John Malkovich, Buzzsaw is hard to watch. The characters are so narrow, so one-dimensional, that working with them as a performer, and caring about their incredibly goofy deaths, is nigh impossible. To be curt, Velvet Buzzsaw is an aggressively stupid movie. A group of money-grubbing art dealers discover a treasure trove of supposedly disturbing, incredibly phoney-looking, paintings from Vetril Deace (yes, that’s the name they went with). Afterwards, this gang of yuppie scum find themselves at the mercy of artworks that come alive and take revenge, because commodification of art is bad, dammit! If Gilroy was self-aware,

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this film could be silly and fun, however, he isn’t, and it only achieves the former. Unfortunately, Buzzsaw seems destined to take the top monthly spot at r/iamverysmart. The painfully obvious commentary on uber-capitalist art dealers is weak and tiresome. Remember those ‘I put my glasses on the floor of an art gallery and these gonks thought it was art’ Tumblr posts? That five-second novelty is now a feature film. On a number of occasions, Buzzsaw, largely due to shoddy production design, lame cinematography, and awkward dialogue, looks like the first five minutes of a porno. Without ever reaching those base, primal thrills, Gilroy’s film is decidedly non-scary, and fails to utilise even the low-hanging fruit of cheap jump scares. Maybe Velvet Buzzsaw will find a second life on the Horror Channel, alongside Sharknado and Birdemic: Shock and Terror, this may be all it can hope for.

Design and illustration by Leah Cameron

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REVIEW:

BEAUTIFULBOY BEAUTIFULBOY BEAUTIFULBOY BEAUTIFULBOY

Design and illustrations by Carla Cassidy

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There is a moment in Beautiful Boy where freelance journalist David Sheff (Steve Carell) gently sings the eponymous John Lennon song to his son Nic. It’s a happier memory from when Nic was a young boy, juxtaposed with David’s experience nursing a now grown Nic (Timothée Chalamet) as he struggles with a methamphetamine addiction. It’s also the moment where any hope for a nuanced portrayal of addiction finally drowns beneath the stifled sobs of the narrative. You thought drugs were dangerous before? Wait until you see them ravage this beautiful boy. Based on twin memoirs from the real life father-son duo, the film shifts between various moments in Nic’s upbringing and his struggle with drugs in young adulthood. Carell plays David as concerned and hellbent on helping his son into recovery. “Not too long ago you were reading and you were writing, and you were on the water polo team. And look at us now!” he pleas during an early rehab visit. On top of all the talk of lost potential, saccharine flashbacks of a wide-eyed young Nic bonding with David are spliced in to amplify the seriousness of his plight. Cue the John Lennon track.

The cast commit to their roles, even if the results often fail to hit the emotions they should (though a climactic scene with Nic’s step-mother is a poignant highlight). The jumbled timeline may be in keeping with the exhausting, cyclical nature of relapse and recovery, but it stalls any emotional impact for what little stakes are at play. What could drive the sweet, handsome and promising Nic to take heroin and crystal meth? The film doesn’t quite know either, and any attempts to dig further ring hollow. David looks to Nic’s notebook for answers only to find creepy cartoons and ominous scribblings; following that he even tries a line of cocaine to feel the effects for himself. This is never mentioned again. The intentions behind Beautiful Boy are ultimately didactic: a title card at the end reveals drug overdoses as the leading cause of death for Americans under 50. “Help is out there,” it promises, but what of those who don’t have means to access? What of those who don’t have the money or support system that is so integral to survival? The Scheffs’ story is not an unmoving one. But neither is it compelling enough to warrant two hours of scattershot tugs at the heartstrings.

Words by Samantha King

Interview - The Community - The Magdalen Magdalen - December - March

Me, my Depression

AND I

epression is like the annoying little brother I don’t have. It’s the constant nagging away at me and the little things like always wanting to play and never having energy. In simplest terms, depression is exhausting. It consumes every aspect of your life, from the moment you wake up to the moment you go to sleep. It’s always there even when it doesn’t seem like it is. You will have good days where it feels like nothing can stop you, and you’ll have days or even months where getting out of bed is the hardest thing you’ll do other than showering. You lose all self respect for yourself and it is difficult. I lost my love for the life I was living, and that in itself was the hardest thing for me to accept -that I was now disinterested in everything I once loved. Going to university every day is difficult, it’s the times alone where you have a spare moment with your thoughts, thoughts of selflessness and disgust. I try to keep busy, busy

with university, busy with work, my friends, my family, but none of it seems to get rid of the thoughts. The university is pushing to improve and focus on mental health. The Nightline service, which provides students with a way to talk about the little things that are bothering them, is a great way for students to get things off their chest. But after seeing countless counsellors and medical professionals, talking to a stranger just feels like a burden I can’t shake. That’s why I appreciate the counselling service the university provides. It allows people who aren’t already seeking help to speak to someone if they feel that they need to. As cliché as it sounds, seeking help is always the most difficult step. It took me till breaking point to actually receive the help I deserve -even if I didn’t believe I deserved it. Another service that DUSA, along with the ISE, has promoted and offered is the “healthy body, healthy mind” project, which has allowed them to promote exercise and how it improves mental health.

As someone who has suffered and is still suffering from depression, I understand how difficult it is for a man to step up and seek help. It can be an overwhelming step that sometimes doesn’t seem worth it. However, it is a step that should be taken. Your friends and family are with you should you decide to make the step; you have the backing of the entire university behind you. I hate my depression. The only thing I can learn to do right now is accept it for what it is and hope that when I find someone they accept it just as much as I do. Many people lie about their mental health, as if it’s ‘bad’ and that nobody is worthy of them if they have a mental illness. In fact, 1 in 4 people1live with a mental health condition in the UK alone, so we are bound to know, or even fall in love with, someone who has one. We need to destigmatize mental illness and show people it’s okay to live and love with one. Depression is dangerous, especially when you’re hitting breaking point and you get yourself into the dark

Words and photography by Jack Waghorn, with special thanks to Sarah Jayne Duncan

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tunnel and can’t see the light to get out; at this point we need people to guide us through. Although, they’ll never fully understand how thankful we are for their help and support. With the current male attitude towards mental illness it is evident that it will not just ‘go away’. An attitude towards issues like this among men is more to do with insecure masculinity and the fear of being labelled as weak. CALM -the Campaign Against Living Miserably -is a UK charity that was set up in order to combat male suicide. The single largest killer of men under 45 in the UK. The charity runs a series of events and other campaigns that aim to end the stigma of mental health amongst men and get men talking about their own mental health. Their ‘ask a mate’ campaign encourages men to simply ask their friends how they are doing. The campaign has identified that dialogue amongst men is one of the most effective ways at combating suicide.

This attitude towards male depression has been ongoing for a while, and one local brand looking to combat this is the clothing brand based out of the Dundee area: “A Solo Mindset”. One of their t-shirts available dons the slogan “Man Up: Support is Needed”, and that sums up the situation perfectly. Support is needed. Suicide is the single largest killer of men under 45 in the UK and around 75% of suicide in the UK are male. The time has come to stop this toxic attitude that seems to befall men in the modern world, one where the pressure to be ‘manly’ and ‘tough’ is constant. Constant to the point where speaking out seems to be the harder option. Support is needed.

Suicide is the single largest killer of men under 45 in the UK and around 75% of suicides in the UK are male. Design by Ellen Chestnutt

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Thinking Back,

How Did You Find the Year of Young People? 2018 was a year of joy and upset. We saw tide-pods become a snack, big purple men with overpowered oven mitts hitting the cinema screen and an endless supply of memes that have academics second guessing the course of humanity. We’ve had the luxury to observe advancements in science (I’ve got my eyes on you, Boston Dynamics, with your jumping robots that definitely won’t take over the Earth). We also witnessed terrible forest fires, earthquakes and hurricanes that dwarfed the political confusion of 2017. I can say with confidence that many of us are glad to see the end of 2018. Why are we reminiscing about 2018 in March? Clearly I must be living in the past..? Is there something still to reflect on? Yes, 2018 was Scotland’s first Year of Young People (YoYP): designed to celebrate the youth of Scotland; through countless

events, campaigning for social action and ‘loudspeakering’ the lesser heard voices of youth. Championed by the Scottish Government and managed by a myriad of organisations (within the 3rdsector, academic institutes, statutory bodies and local authorities), the theme of the year was set to establish positive change for young people. In hindsight, one can look back and reflect on how the ‘tokenistic’ elements of youth work and Government policy have been tackled. Where the language of past policy and approaches to youth work would establish young people as either an outcome or recipient of social justice, 2018 would aim to embrace young people within the process of change. However, one can question what impact this year has actually made on our society? While I do not hold all the facts, as a student journalist I can perhaps attempt to give you a flavour as to why this was important. As presented within

Words by Alistair Edward Letch

the Princes’ Trust’s Index report around March, a mass study highlighted that young people's happiness and confidence shown towards life prospects was at their lowest levels since the study was first commissioned. Moreover, 57% of young women within the study expressed that they felt as though they were not ‘good enough’ for their future prospects, by comparison to 41% of young men. From this insight, it is evident that we can no longer look through rosetinted lenses when we talk about young people, as subjective accounts would implore society to consider the brevity of issues that are punching our wellbeing as humans. Convinced? The fact that young people (including students) face hardships that are governed by factors that we have little control over. When policies are made to determine the support that exists for youth, it would unwise to not include the voice of young people within the documents that would steer the course of our future.

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To not be made vulnerable just because of our age, would be a first step. To shift society towards co-creating community resources with young people is another. However, it would be easy to proclaim that the YoYP was entirely beneficial for all young people. Factors like the age-based minimum wage (i.e. a 16 year old and 24 year old can have the same role, with a disproportionate wage within a job) or the reality that youth unemployment remains as a pressuring fear for our generation, still exist. However, the extent of the campaigning and efforts should not be limited to what hasn’t happened, yet rather should emphasise some of the things that could eventually lead to the development that we would aspire for.

Perhaps one of the first things to congratulate the YoYP for is for how co-design and cocreation of services alongside young people has become vital for organisations that engage with youth. Projects in Dundee, such as the Hot Chocolate Trust, Corner and Dundee Design Council have established methods of listening to young people and connecting their ambitions to the process of development. Hopefully, the trend of ‘rubber-stamping’ youth approval will dissipate in policy as a consequence. Through the efforts of the Communic18 and over 300 youth ambassadors across the country, the importance of working alongside young people has been recognized. However, this is not to be so easily forgotten as we step further

into 2019. To lose sight of why the year began, would be an insult to the processes that have occurred. Alongside this, there is still work to be done to tackle the injustices that face young people. With how busy the year was, it is clear that the injustices, social issues, hate crimes, ‘tokenism’, meritocratic educational agendas and millennial memes still exist to this date. I would encourage you to remember what happened... even if that means taking a quick search about YoYP. All the campaigning, thoughts for the future, belief in Scotland’s development towards becoming more for all of us; it cannot be forgotten. Hopefully, we will strive to remember the effort put into The Year of Young people, for the years to come.

Designed byHelena HelenaLindsay Lindsay Design by

Current Affairs Interview - The -Magdalen The Magdalen - March - December

Advanced Alumnus

For anyone, attending university is a chance to better yourselves. To experience, to learn and to be inspired. In 1868, nine women were accepted into university in the UK for the first time, setting the precedent that we have the right to an education as much as any man. So much has changed from that time. but there are still so many obstacles that our gender faces in both our personal and professional lives. However, in attending the University of Dundee we are so lucky in that we have a long list of female alumni whom we can all look up to, who have faced similar struggles but have also succeeded and become renowned in their professions, forging a path for future generations. Katie Kinch is one of these women. After moving from America to expand her career, Katie undertook a Post-Graduate Diploma in Orthotic Biomechanics and then graduated with a Masterâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Degree in Medical Imaging from the University of Dundee. Now she is working as an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner, developing better care pathways for children with cerebral palsy across the UK. Through this, she has been recognised for her work by being awarded the high honour of a Fellowship from the Association of Paediatric Chartered Physiotherapists. As it is International Womenâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Day, we wanted to ask her about her journey, how she has gotten so far and if she can pass on any life lessons to our readers.

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Hello Katie! Thank you so much for talking to us, it has been a real pleasure learning more about your career. Could you tell us what your average day as an Advanced Physiotherapy Practitioner involves? My job as a physiotherapist is to help children who have orthopaedic and neurodisability difficulties. It changes day to day as my career has evolved. Most of my work is in out-patient clinics based in Fife. Within the clinics, I assess, diagnose and review children with either general orthopaedic issues or those related to neuro-disability. In addition to my clinical responsibilities, I manage the vetting of referrals, clinic redesign, service improvement and audits. I also provide a leadership role for clinical education, training and service improvement to the Children & Young People Physiotherapy team. For several years I worked in a community-based role which was very different because it was working with children hands-on. As you said, you have worked in the same field for a number of years which is rare. What is it that you love about your job and what inspires you to carry on? My job is different every day and I have never considered changing my career. It has not been static. My qualification as a physical therapist has enabled me to work on three different continents with children and adults in a variety of settings. As with other health care professions, I think that physiotherapists will always be needed. It also

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never feels like work because I love children and enjoy getting to know families. By the age of 10, I knew that I loved children and wanted to work with them in order to make the world a better place. Personally, I have never met someone working with children who did not enjoy their job.

needed to be relevant, meaningful and worth it. In the end, the University of Dundee was amazing in helping me tailor my degree to suit my needs best.

Why did you choose to study Physiotherapy?

I have never felt that I had more obstacles within my studies or career than men who were also physiotherapists. Actually, I think it was more difficult for the men who chose physical therapy or similar fields as they were such female-dominated professions.

As well as the fact that I love working with kids, I knew I wanted to work within the medical field. However, I also knew that nursing was not exactly what I wanted. Growing up in the USA, medical school was not an option because fees are high and to qualify would mean studying for an additional four years. When I was in school, I visited a friend who had qualified as a Physical Therapist and was working at a children’s hospital. I visited the children’s hospital for a day and was hooked. I applied to Physical Therapy school the very next week. To enable me to practice safely and effectively, I needed to increase my knowledge and competencies. Postgraduate training is expensive. I knew that undertaking a Master’s whilst working part-time and looking after young children would take a great deal of time and commitment. I wanted to ensure that an additional qualification would give me more than just letters behind my name. It

Did you ever feel like you had to face more obstacles than your male counterparts?

Do you think enough is done to encourage young women to enter a STEM career? Physiotherapy started out as vocational programme last century and only later developed into degreecourse with a focus on science-based subjects. Although there are anatomy, biology and science components to the degree, physiotherapy is an Allied Health Profession and is not within STEM. It is so important to encourage young people from all backgrounds or genders to go into these subjects instead of splitting it into male or female job roles. Any young person should be encouraged to follow their abilities and aspirations. The career is not easy but just because something is difficult it does not mean that you should not try.

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Current Affairs Interview - The -Magdalen The Magdalen - March - December

Some may say that physiotherapy has more female representation than other professions. Do you agree and does anything still need to change? The Allied Healthcare Professions are mostly female dominated. This is probably because they were initially vocational programmes and more readily accessible to females when the profession was evolving. When I was growing up in the USA, there were cultural assumptions of what constituted women’s or men’s work. Women became the teachers, nurses, allied healthcare professionals that worked part-time and raised the children. Men became the doctors, lawyers, engineers who had the job that provided for the family. It is important that I clarify my experiences despite these cultural expectations. Although I may have felt discriminated against on occasion because I ‘was not a doctor’, I have also never felt disadvantaged due to my career choice or that I see it as a consolation. I am a physiotherapist because that is what I wanted to be and I was lucky enough to know that from an early age. I am very happy at how much this situation has evolved over the past 30 years. Especially in the last few years, the whole concept of gender has been completely redefined which is now being seen by young people under 30. The long term impact of this, in regards to how jobs and roles are defined, will be transformational. What would you say to people who are critical of women choosing to have both a career and a family?

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Having a career and a family is a difficult balancing act. I don’t think you can have it all. There are only 24 hours in a day, and as a result choices and priorities must be made. Without the support of my family, I would not have been able or willing to do what I did. As my daughters get older, they share the positive impact of watching me work hard to achieve what I have. This has been incredibly helpful during those times when it has been a struggle. My choice was always to put my family first and many other women have felt this way. The world is changing rapidly and women studying now will not so readily accept what previous generations did. Is there anyone who has inspired you or who you view as a role model? There are many people I admire in both my personal and professional life. It must be said that their qualities are all similar. All the people I admire are those who have never given up, who do not accept the status quo, who are determined and ambitious but, at the same time, do not relinquish their kindness and compassion. What has been your greatest achievement so far? Receiving recognition for my work has left me speechless -which does not happen to me very often! To be given such an accolade by my peers is truly an honour. I will work hard to live up to it. I love my job and I am very proud of what I have achieved. However, watching my two talented daughters -my family -grow into the amazing, resilient, kind and caring women they are becoming will always be my greatest achievement.

Words by Billi Allen -Mandeville and Rebecca Carey, Design and illustration by Betty Boo Onion

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Current Affairs - The Magdalen - March

Young and The Restless The

“Well, we’ve all got our own faded memories of our bygone hopes and our fears”

he above lyric and title of this article come from the opening of one of my favourite songs by the Scottish band, Tide Lines. Hopes and fears are things that we carry with us every day, even long after we have achieved what we so desperately hoped for or have overcome the fears that twisted within us. At university, we hope and fear for a great number of things, both related and unrelated to our degrees. Sometimes we hope and fear the same thing in one way or another. The hope that you will be able to achieve what you so desire with your degree, the fear that you will have to carry out that endeavour alone. Alone in the sense that no one like you has ever before done the thing you hope to achieve. Whether it be due to gender, race, religion, sexuality, ability, class, age or any number of variables, there are many situations where it is possible that you will be the first person like you. Chances are if you aren’t a straight, white, able-bodied, English-speaking, cisgender man, there are many positions out there in industries across the board that you are not able to see yourself represented in. That is not to say that said men are without barriers or discrimination, only that they possess an advantage from birth through historical patriarchal precedent. However, slowly but surely, things are changing. In the past five years we have perhaps seen more visible and expectation breaking changes in our world. This is particularly true for the world of politics. The most recent mid-term elections in America made headlines around the world for their record breaking demographic variation. Ceilings were shattered and entire communities were finally heard. I hesitate to use the phrase “given a voice”, everyone has a voice, it is not something that must be granted to them by an authority that has more often than not been an oppressor. To be able to watch the election unfold, particularly with the backdrop of Donald Trump’s presidency, was a privilege and an honour. Whether you live in America or not, seeing such varied and long-overdue representation in such a visible and influential position was inspiring.

“In a world devoid of emotion, when a dream is a dwindling spark” Through youth, religion, race and sexuality, the new class of congress is more representative of modern America and our modern world than ever before. Even five years ago, such change may have seemed like a pipe dream, but not anymore. In the wake of Donald Trump’s election to the presidency, record numbers of people from across marginalised groups put themselves forward to become active in the political process. Either by running as candidates or working behind the scenes. Every level of government has seen changes through this, it isn’t just Congress. In a county in Texas, 19 black women ran for judge seats and they all won.

“We promised we’d run with the recklessly young and the restless, run for the rest of our lives” The judges of Harris County are admirable and more than worthy of the praise they have attracted, but it is understandable how that could have been lost in the chaos during an election night of firsts, shock wins and welcomed losses. However, just in case you’re not aware of the results, here are some of the, very many, record breakers.

The US Government is (finally) starting to be more representative of national demographics, is the UK next? One can only hope. All I believe I can say is, hard as it may be, if you don’t see yourself being represented, do what you can to make sure the next generation doesn’t have the same problem.

Design by Lisa Dyer, Illustrations by Cait Maxwell.

March - The Magdalen - Current Affairs

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: Youngest Woman Elected to Congress

Perhaps the most well known new Member of Congress, her active Twitter and Instagram accounts have provided a never-before seen insight into the workings of the government. Her policies may lean far to the left of the Democratic Party, which has drawn the ire of many towards her but she consistently stands her ground and gets on with the job. Her youth may be heavily criticised by some but for others, it is one of her biggest personal assets.

Lauren Underwood:

Youngest Black Woman Elected to Congress Underwood originally studied as a nurse in university and went on to receive an MSc in Nursing and a Master of Public Health from John Hopkins University. From this she moved to work in Department of Health and Human Services under President Obama. She ran on a platform advocating for the Affordable Care Act, something which she helped develop. Her health care and STEM background also make her a standout in Congress.

Ilhan Omar:

(One of the) First Muslim Women Elected to Congress and First Hijabi Omar and Rashida Tlaib are the first Muslim women to serve in Congress but Omar is the first choosing to wear the hijab. She is also the first naturalised citizen from Africa, the first non-white woman to represent Minnesota, the first Somali-American and the first refugee elected to Congress. A long list of firsts follow her name but surely her presence will ensure that there will be many more people like her to come. Her policies include free university education and criminal justice reform. Words by Mary Erin Kinch

Current Affairs - The Magdalen - March

Politics in Our POCKETS On the surface, dress codes may not appear to be a deep issue, some might believe it to be trivial. However, to ignore the societal pressure put on women to dress a certain way has detrimental effects on a woman’s idea of self-worth. Clothing alone always comes across as unimportant, but when you consider the fact that as a society we link the value of a woman to the outfits she wears, that is when it moves from a non-issue to a grievous one. This is not about fashion sense or style, but rather the obligation for women to cover up or to dress down. This is a global issue and is not limited to the west or the Islamic world. As we’ve seen with the recent #MeToo campaign, sexual harassment against women is a worldwide problem, and dress codes have a role to play. Before we get into the way in which dress codes influence female self-expression, I want to touch upon a more serious issue. Rape culture and the fact it is ruining women’s lives. Societal

Words by Lujain Beruwein

attitudes towards female dress codes encourage and validate rape culture. We must realise that men commenting on what they think is acceptable for women to wear, is a message. It is a direct message, from men or whoever gave this unsolicited advice, that they are sexualising you. Sexualising you probably without your consent might I add. We like to think this is an exaggerated view but it's not. Those who give such advice, presumably, don’t even realise that is what they are saying. Regardless, that is the subconscious message they are sending. Dress codes exist solely to control female sexuality. To make them conform to society’s perception of what a woman should be. If we started making demands on what we think men should wear, there would be genuine upheaval. We know this from the Gillette advert and the backlash that followed when men were called out for not supporting women. If that is not a testament of how fragile toxic masculinity is then I don’t

You may have heard of women wanting clothes with pockets. We definitely do. But really, we just want to wear what we want.

March - The Magdalen - Current Affairs

know what to tell you. Before this goes any further, I shall unequivocally state that I don’t have a problem with masculinity. Wholesome masculinity is fine. Toxic masculinity is named so for a reason. Toxic. Personally, I have experienced Western and Islamic culture. The common assumption that dress codes don’t apply in the western world is farcical. Booty shorts and crop tops are celebrated in the name of liberation. Surely, pressuring women to show their bodies is equally as bad as forcing them to cover up? Western dress codes suggest that a woman should show off her body even if she does not want to. Of course, this observation has its limitations, we are still offended by female nipples even though science tells us that they are not genitalia. We support female liberation here in the west but not too much, evidently. And if you think a woman cannot possibly feel constrained by her “choice” to

show off more skin, just ask a hijabi who is living in a western country about her experience. We continue to push misconceptions about women who wear hijab, we assume they are coerced into making such decision, even if they tell you it is a personal one. However, I do not intend for the Islamic community (of which I am a part) to get it twisted and assume I am totally defending them. We have our problems too. As I said, pressuring a woman to cover up is equally as bad as forcing them to dress down. I do not believe every woman is forced into wearing the hijab, that is a notion I actually reject, but the pressure for women in the Muslim world to cover up is there. I have felt this pressure personally, from both sides. Perhaps that’s one of the downsides of being a child of immigrants, you have to deal with societal expectations from both your cultures. Mainstream media does not help this matter either. We

are constantly fed images of supermodels in bikinis -that is the dream apparently. Surely, there are women living in the western world who don’t enjoy dressing like that all the time? Perceptions of Islamic clothing are also worrying. Visions of burkas and abayas pop into our heads. We seem to forget there are many different subcultures within the Islamic world. Fifty countries are considered to be Muslim majority countries, each with their own version of modest clothing. All in all, I want to highlight that I am not arguing in support of either side. We need to eliminate harmful dress codes and leave the choice up to women. Whether they decide to show their skin or cover it, that’s their choice. It is really not a radical idea. As women we have proven ourselves time and time again. We pay our rents, establish careers, pay our taxes, and we are contributing members of society. What makes you think we cannot decide for ourselves what we want to wear?

‘We pay our rents, establish careers, pay our taxes, and we are contributing members of society. What makes you think we cannot decide for ourselves what we want to wear?’

Design by Helena Lindsay

Current Affairs - The Magdalen - March

Gender Pay Gap: Not a myth F

or the first time in 2018, all UK-based companies with more than 250 employees were under legal obligation to disclose their gender pay gap data for a publicly available government database. Yet, according to The Guardian, approximately 1,500 of the concerned firms failed to meet the deadline, consequently facing court actions in the form of unlimited fines and public pressure arising from “naming and shaming”.

‘The subject examines a deeprooted societal problem.’ What is gender pay gap? Important to note is the difference to equal pay, which is a legal requirement under the Equality Act 2010, whereby it is illegal to pay men and women differently for the same work carried out. This includes complete pay and benefits package, i.e. pension schemes and access to any other benefits, company cars, or performance-related benefits. The last mentioned must also be submitted as part of gender pay gap data under the most recent law. So if legal actions ensure the two genders are paid

Design by Molly Porteous

equally for equal work, what does gender pay gap measure? The subject is more complex as it examines a deep-rooted societal problem, assessing wider aspects contributing to unequal earnings of men and women. Reasons for its existence are ascribed to inclination of women to be hired into parttime, rather than full-time work (often attributed to householdrelated stereotypes), industry dominations (where it persists that higher-paying jobs such as management roles are dominated by men, while women occupy majority of leisure and caring sectors), or societal constructs such as childcare circumstances. Childcare is obviously a broader issue, needing addressing on social, as well as policy levels, but it stands true that gender pay gap intensifies significantly for groups aged over 40, which is partly explained by females leaving workforce to care for children. If we can arrive at an agreement that gender pay gap is present in today’s society, we can also assume that the next logical step is moving onto measuring it in a way as all-encompassing and accurate as possible, in order to be able to account for it to as large a degree. Currently, the official figure of gender pay gap standing at

17.9% is based on average hourly pay in both full and part time employment, excluding overtime hours. Variations in reported percentage across sources is often because some operate with median average, while others use statistics derived from mean average, but statistically, median figures prove to be more representative of the genuine experience. In that way, the total of 10,014 employers were analysed following the submissions deadline last April, revealing that nearly eight out of ten companies paid men more than women on average, and there was no single sector where salaries would average at higher sums for female than male employees. Indisputably, pay gap doesn’t affect only gender; statistics show inequalities depending on ethnicity, (dis) ability, and controversially, age. Focusing on the effect of age, another research (Wonkhe) found that pay gap can be noted throughout an individual’s career, hence expected graduate salary – therefore one taking effect already at university, if not before, provided it might affect one’s higher education choices – was £3,325 less for women than men. Carrying out a broader analysis of graduate salaries, the researchers found that even nursing – a subject

March - The Magdalen - Current Affairs ‘Nearly eight out of ten companies paid men more than women on average’

dominated by females – paid men approximately £2,000 more in their first year post-graduation. Adding all figures together, last year’s Equal Pay Day fell on 10 November, meaning that effectively from then until the end of the year, women were working for free relative to men because of gender pay gap. There is limited official data available to analyse the impact of belonging to more pay gap affected minority groups, but speculations are easy to be drawn about the increased severity when basis for discrimination are combined. Savethestudent.org were able to identify the worst affected groups depending on ethnicity among females, with Pakistani, Bangladeshi and Black Caribbean women ranging lowest.

‘Talking more openly about our salaries can help as part of our bit that we can contribute.’ Of concern to us students, universities in the UK average at 18.4% pay gap, that being nearly double of where the national average lies. University of Dundee was among those failing to submit their data, similarly as Dundee University Students Association. DUSA, however,

provided their report in 2017, showing 12.2% lower mean hourly rate for women than men. In the case of the University of Abertay, no data was provided in either of the past couple of years, Dundee & Angus College alike. To wrap this up pointing you in a more a philosophical direction, certain political theory believes that the only way to achieve a just society is to reconstruct it from its very core. In this belief, men have had the power to structure social institutions preserved to this day in a way suitable for them, and these constructs are so deeply rooted in us that they manifest already when learning a language (i.e. the ratio of expressions having positive : negative connotations to respective genders), and peak when inequality of opportunity arises as a result. So gender pay gap may, in this respect, be a fairly minor, specific issue to tackle, but simultaneously, it may be such one that actually can be tackled. Better education and awareness are among the Actions Plan of the government in closing gender pay gap, as is increasing transparency and implementing fairer recruitment strategies. And indications have been made about how talking more openly about our salaries can help as part of all of our bit that we can contribute.

‘The official figure of gender pay gap stands at 17.9%’

‘Universities in the UK average at 18.4% pay gap’

‘DUSA provided their report in 2017, showing 12.2% lower mean hourly rate for women than men’

Words by Barbara Mertlova

Fashion - The Magdalen - March

You Don’t Need a Personal Style Personal style is an often talked about subject. Articles upon articles tell you how to achieve your ultimate personal style, how to stick to it without straying from the you that you portray to the world, and how it is the most important goal the average clothes-wearer can aim towards. Clothes can be an incredibly powerful tool. They can boost your confidence, act as visual expression of your ‘true self’ and can help you adapt to different situations. I have written about this myself, in this publication. However, sometimes they are just clothes. Despite what publications want to tell us, it doesn’t really matter what you wear, as long as you are happy with it. Maybe to some this will sound a bit obvious – ‘Who doesn’t know they can wear whatever that want?’ you may ask – but I firmly believe that we all feel, to some extent, that we need to fit into certain roles. We often declare ourselves to others and feel like we must replicate that image for eternity. We are a society determined to squeeze ourselves into boxes. Visual cues are the easiest method of deciding whether you will gel with someone or not, and we all enjoy telling people about the things we love. Clothes are one of those things. I have been asked a few times before how I describe my style and I often recount a vague list of words such as ‘casual’ (which actually means ‘I wear jeans every day’) or ‘colourful’ (which actually means ‘I don’t like wearing black on my days off work’) or ‘quirky-I-guess?’ (which actually means ‘I hate the word quirky, but people often tell me I wear quite bold items that they wouldn’t think would look good but actually I’ve managed to pull it off’). In short, when we try and sum up our personal style into a few buzzwords we end up describing ourselves with words that don’t truly encapsulate our personalities. We are excluding the nuances of our self-expression. There is another layer to this constant search for categorisation. Often in blogs or magazines, the people who have an easily recognisable style are considered more put-together, more self-assured and perhaps even more mature. And sadly, these ‘accomplished’ people often look down on those who don’t have a certain ‘look’. I don’t think that

not being able to add descriptors to your fashion sense means you are a less proficient human. In fact, I think it’s great to allow yourself the freedom to experiment. I understand that having a defined personal style means that shopping and dressing can become a much more efficient process. It’s why the ‘Capsule Wardrobe’ is such a huge craze right now – having a streamlined amount of clothes means less hmming and hahing at the eruption of clothes on your bed, and you can keep track of what items you do actually wear. When shopping, especially online, you can add filters to your search to find the exact items you are looking for. When getting dressed in the morning, it’s simply a case of picking two or three pieces out that are basically guaranteed to complement each other. My counter to this is – doesn’t that take the fun out of shopping and crafting an outfit? The words ‘experimenting with fashion’ may make you think of a peppy changing montage in a teen rom-com, but it’s simpler than that. It is trying something new when you feel like you’re in a rut or saving your ‘special’ clothes that may not reflect your everyday style for special occasions. Buying an item that you wouldn’t normally buy doesn’t mean it is uncharacteristic or a faux-pas, it simply means you have decided that you want to wear it. The way that you dress yourself is fluid, it differs from day to day, from season to season, from occasion to occasion – you get the idea. Furthermore, we all grow up. We may hold certain interests throughout our lives, but we’re never going to dress exactly the same as we did when we were 12. It is not a bad thing to have a personal style, but I do think that too much emphasis is put on defining ourselves. While being self-aware is an important skill, I feel like there is far too much pressure put on us to declare ourselves a certain way, only to feel like we have betrayed our ‘true selves’ when we stray from that path. In short, it’s cool to know what you like, but it’s even cooler to accept that what you like is going to change over time.

Design by Olivia Sharkey, photography by Emma Richardson

March - The Magdalen - Fashion

Words by Emily Fletcher

Fashion - The Magdalen - March

PINK SUITS AND

One Girl ‘s Journey

Moving into the workplace after university is scary for lots of reasons. There’s the expectation of self-sufficiency, the lack of meme humour appreciation, and the realisation that 9am starts don’t kick off five minutes after the hour. But one of the most anxiety-inducing questions when I started my first Proper Graduate Job was – what do I wear? I was no stranger to the working world – throughout uni I waitressed, bartended, worked in retail and telemarketed. However, at these jobs I had a uniform, or at least a dress code, to tell me exactly what I could and couldn’t wear – particularly as a woman. Now, don’t get me wrong, I understand the equalising power and aesthetic unity of uniforms and dress codes. I never had a problem with wearing prescribed clothing to work – I enjoyed how little I had to think about what I was going to put on. But when the time came to embrace the full-time yo-pro lifestyle I’d been working towards, I realised, after all this time straining to ‘wear what I want’, I had no idea what I wanted. My sense of style had been on the bench so long she had forgotten how to get in the game. I scoured the employee handbook for restrictions, cast sneaky glances at the women leaving my soon-to-be professional home, scrolled endlessly through #workplacefashion and… was even more confused. A wild variation of ‘dark jeans and a nice top’, dresses Miss Honey would wear, sensible black-on-black, chic woollens with Doc Martens, and high-end tailoring rotated through the revolving office doors. My feed swam with a million different #officelooks. The possibilities for what I could wear were endless. So, I thought about what I should wear.

Design and illustration by Zoë Swann

You only need to watch the first few episodes of Mad Men to remember not so long-ago women in offices were defined solely by their femininity, and dress standards were made to emphasise that. High heels, pristine hair, a full face of makeup and ‘something pretty’ was the unofficial uniform of secretaries, assistants and looked-down-upon typists everywhere. Thankfully, Western society has (largely) moved away from the infantilising notion that women should be seen rather than heard. But ingrained notions of professionalism face a tension between ‘performatively pretty’ and ‘powerfully plain’; combined with third-wave feminism and a desire to preserve individuality, this can make getting dressed for your new job very… well, political. It has been necessary in the past for women to abandon their femininity to get ahead in our society. I live in a position privileged enough that instead of rejecting my femininity like I would have had to do in the past, or blanketing it with unisex, unicolour, uni-personality uniforms, I can incorporate it into my professional style. This realisation may seem obvious or trivial, but for me it was a huge step in gaining confidence through self-expression. For the first time in my working life, I was free to be both a worker and a woman. I’ve never been so excited by clothes in my life. It all clicked when I saw my pink suit. I’d always wanted a trouser suit and a shiny new grad job was the perfect excuse to buy one. When I saw this obnoxiously bright pink one, I swear my vision tunnelled and a chorus of angels sang out in my head. (Who knew you could have a spiritual awakening in Topshop?) Putting on that suit made me feel like exactly the person I wanted to be at work. It was comfortable, inherently professional, and unabashedly girly.

March - The Magdalen - Fashion

FEMINIST DILEMMAS to Working It

I’m pretty sure I could conquer the world in that suit, with time to re-apply my lipstick and get home for dinner. I wore it on my first day and got some Looks, but it made me feel so good I didn’t care. Months later, my colleague Lyndsay told me when she saw me that day she thought I was going to be like Baby Spice. She clarified: ‘But you’re actually more like a weird, pink Batman.’ That’s the feeling that everyone should have at work. Crafting an outfit for work to make myself look whatever ‘good’ means to me that day has given me a sense of pride in myself as a worker and a feeling of agency over my identity in the workplace. I love to work, and now getting dressed has become a part of work. I don’t have a consistent style, but I wear exclusively things that give me that pink-suit feeling, and I think I work better for it. For so long in my head, a woman dressing up for work seemed like service to others – and historically, it was. But now when asked why I dress up so much to go to work, I have my answer: Because I deserve to. Don’t we all deserve to go to work feeling like a weird, pink Batman?

Words by Rebecca Baird

International - The Magdalen - March

Global Engagement

f you had the chance to go around campus in the last week of March in 2018, you were probably able to have a taste of the whole world. The Global Week 2018 was an amazing event exploring cultures, providing students with opportunities to meet new friends and learn new things. Building on this, we have something bigger and better in mind. We are presenting you with the biggest Balkan party to come in place of The Global Week Balkan Night 2019. Whether you want to become more engaged with the Balkan culture or just enjoy an awesome experience of a night out, this is definitely the place for you. A collaboration and lots of teamwork between majority of the Universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s international societies are just around the corner, and we are ready to celebrate with you no matter if you are from the Balkans or not! To heat up the dance floor, we have a troop of Bulgarian national dancers who will perform on stage during the event. The greatest surprise of this year, however, is that we will be having a live singer - Tedi Eroteeva. She will perform Bulgarian, Greek and Macedonian songs for the first time in Scotland. We promise you a spectacular show which will include music chosen by all involved societies. So, do not be afraid that you may not know any of the songs - it is guaranteed to be something there for everyone. Alongside that, we have many surprises planned for the night, so weâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;ll always have you occupied with something new throughout the whole themed party.

Foreshadowing the event, our society has the Martenitsa giveaway happening at the beginning of March. This is connected to a Balkan holiday, which we celebrate by putting on bracelets with white and red wool to symbolise health for the upcoming year. The Bulgarian society will be giving out flyers and Martenitsas detailing the whole story behind the holiday. With these bracelets, you will be able to get a one-pound discount for the tickets of the Balkan night and of course to brag to your friends about your amazing new accessory. Lookout for people with flyers and smiles on their faces everywhere on campus! Every societyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s role is to make students in Dundee feel as this is the right place and time for them to flourish in their interests and pursuits. We hope this night may give you all that, as well as spectacular memories to look back at.

Words by Alexander Arnaudov, design by Molly Porteous

21 MARCH MONO, THE UNION

DundeeBulgarianSociety

March - The Magdalen - International

“The freedom that women have today, comes from the effort put in throughout the 19th century.”

The common goals united women from different countries in pursuit of feminism and suffrage movements. Perhaps the most remarkable achievement to-date was when New Zealand, Australia, Great Britain and the United States accepted voting rights for women. Women broke free from the old familial and social order and presented themselves as intellectual enough to participate in the political life. And thanks to that, female generations of today have more role models than ever before.

Independence? Actually, even today, there are still iron barriers which prevent women from achieving gender parity in politics. In many countries, women are vastly underrepresented in government; Saudi Arabia only allowed female politicians to stand for elections for the first time in 2015. Women earn less on average than men and have fewer business networks. They are still impacted by social norms and dogmas. Examples of gender inequalities can be seen everywhere from the European Parliament, which consists of 63% men, to EU Member States such as Bulgaria, Estonia and Hungary, where men comprise of 80% of the national parliament. And the list goes on looking beyond the borders of Europe. Women’s role in public life should be greatly appreciated, although we still need to fight for a more equal world. The painful shift from people living in closed communities without rights for women, who now stand arm to arm to the men and lead political parties is a major achievement of the 19th century.

POSSIBILITIES

The freedom that women have today, comes from the effort put in throughout the 19thcentury. The laws of the most European countries did not recognize women as adults. Only the rules of Industrial Europe (1859 -1914) allowed them to have a life outside the household. Some universities even opened their doors for female students for the first time. Women used this newly-gained advantage to make teaching their first professional career, which gave rise to other job opportunities. This may well have been considered to be their ticket to economic and political independence.

We all have heard about Angela Merkel and her crucial role in Germany. Another good example of a female leader is Christine Lagarde, who has had to navigate the Eurozone debt crisis and the effects of Brexit. There are many women who have left everlasting traces on the political scene. Would this have been possible without women’s fight for

THE ERA OF

Women have gone through a difficult path to gain political and social independence. Nowadays, they successfully run businesses, teach and own properties. Women can open a bank account in only a few hours. Can you imagine not having these opportunities?

Words by Maria Radeva, design by Helena Lindsay

International - The Magdalen - March

The Power of Language A woman’s place in literature

A good piece of writing is able to make you feel represented and understood. A good writer, in the same sense, takes a walk in your shoes and shares their world with you. The way in which we define the power of language is the key to establishing a connection between viewpoints and a society, where a place is reserved for every thought and opinion. However, on the list of Nobel Laureates in Literature, there are only 14 women compared to 100 men. Does that mean that women haven’t found their place in literature, yet? For some people the answer to this question may concern topics such as gender or identity, religion, political climate or even prejudice. But this is not the case! Every person deserves to be able to express their point of view on a topic. Regarding the 21st century, literature has come a long way in making the problems of our society known and dealt with. This is seen in many different forms – for example, comics. Modern technologies have given us different ways of coverage and allowed us to move away from physical copies to electronic books and articles. This has become more relatable and known to younger generations. When global problems - such as petrol export - became an issue, and military

Design by Olivia Sharkey

interventions in the Middle East took place, we saw emerging contemporary graphic novels that shed light on the social unease. In this controversial time, an aspiring comic writer Marjane Satrapi became famous worldwide for her graphic novel Persepolis. This is the first time in history that we get an insider’s point of view in such a way, on how her daily life changed during a time of political unrest and conflict. Sometimes the truth is not as it seems, and we need a wider perspective to be able to conclude what is historically right and how events unfolded. Persepolis gives us a distinct narrative and story of coming to age. This is, in a sense, similar to every growing individual, in the way their own worldview is formed. What resonates the most with the public is that the novel goes over topics such as human rights and being free in every sense of the word. Not only this, but it also helped establish a new medium of creativity – the comic book as something that is worth shifting our focus and interest to. Following the same thread of creative development, the author Marjane put her work into animation and created a movie out of her comic books. Her animations are one of the first serious attempts in creating thought-provoking content via

December - The Magdalen - Lifestyle

digitised drawing. The way she puts her work into life is what gives us new opportunities to revive our interest in modern literature. Another topic that is worth mentioning is the feminist lens which plays a crucial part when we put world literature on the spotlight. One of the most critically acclaimed authors – Margaret Atwood, is particularly famous for her novels dealing with the women’s point of view. The Edible Woman and The Handmaid’s Tale are examples of the unique ways in which social realism is established and explored in literature. The dystopian tale about women being enslaved for reproductive purposes in The Handmaid’s Tale gets a Netflix adaptation - one which is yet another medium for presenting the important topics upon which Atwood touches in her work. She has proclaimed herself to be a ‘bad feminist’, but judge for yourself from one of her famous quotes; “Women’s rights are human rights because women are human. It’s not a hard concept.” She becomes the reason of much public debate about a woman’s place in literature in a positive manner without putting labels or gender conforming stereotypes. Confronting a debate in which

one of her colleagues was accused of sexual assault, she chose to support his work. From this, she faced media backlash but also created a space in the media that concern human rights. Statements like that help us understand the social context in which society functions – meaning that it is underlining a focus on the humanitarian core concept values. Reflecting back on how history develops and taking into consideration all the hardships in which our culture strives, we should always keep in mind the issues of rights and freedoms. Finally, coming back from a medieval time where all actors in plays were male, we step forward into a modern society containing a positive feedback loop where women influence literature in what one may describe as an equal manner. This being a definite step into the world becoming a better place. With the upcoming holiday that we have in March, The International Women’s Day, we have yet another opportunity to celebrate the values that are the most important - being unique and being human. Noteworthy, celebrating all the amazing women that work in every sphere of employment and their respectable contributions.

Women’s rights are human rights because women are human. It’s not not It’s hard aa hard concept. concept.

Words by Alexander Arnaudov

Recipe - The Magdalen - March

•2 sausages •red onion, sliced •yellow pepper, sliced •1 tsp plain flour •200g chopped tomatoes (from a 400g tin) •1 beef stock cube •1 tbsp balsamic vinegar •Olive oil •Salt and pepper

Grab a casserole dish or a saucepan, and fry the sausages in a splash of oil over a medium heat until cooked through and nicely browned on the outside. Remove the sausages from the pan, cut them into chunks, then return to the pan along with the onion, yellow pepper and another splash of olive oil. Season well and fry off for a few minutes until the onions are soft and starting to colour. Add the flour and stir for 30 seconds, then add chopped tomatoes, crumble in the stock cube, add balsamic vinegar, and just enough water to cover the ingredients. Simmer for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally, until the sauce is nice and thick, then remove from the heat and serve.

Words by Taylor Dewar, Design by Detta Carfrae

March - The Magdalen - Lifestyle

D U R F C S E A S O N

The semester began with 4 weeks of preseason fitness preparing for the first league games in October. A new coach joined our ranks as well as a high influx of first year students; these first 4 weeks also work to get to know new team members and improve chemistry between existing members. The 1XV were returning from the back of a successful season, only losing one game and narrowly missing out on promotion, courtesy of not picking up enough bonus points. However, the start of this season has been mixed, winning just two of the first six league games. Plighted with injuries of key players the Christmas break couldn’t come soon enough and we are hopeful of finishing the season on a high. So far the 1XV have been undefeated this semester after claiming two respectable wins over Herriot Watt and Aberdeen. The 2XV were relegated last season and hope to bounce straight back up. The high input

S O

of talented first years has greatly helped this feat; with many injuries in the 1XV, the 2XV’s team is often different each week, but they have managed to adjust comfortably. The 2XV won their league in record time on the 13th February. With a couple of games left to play this presents a perfect opportunity to blood some of the young talented freshers. The 3XV come back from a relatively successful season last term, finishing third in the league. In terms of fielding teams each week, the 3XV has the last pickings. The fact that the 3XV have fielded full teams for the last three years is a huge success and shows growth of the club. They are currently having a successful season, sitting in second place behind our own 2XV. The 2XV and 3XV are on track for a successful season, hopefully the 1XV can finish strong this semester and cause some upsets on the way.

F A R

Our three annual social events of first semester were very successful. The beach party is the first event just a week after Freshers week, a joint party with the lady’s hockey club always drags in big crowds from both ends. Next is the St. Andrews pub golf; which involves teams dressed in golf gear making their way round certain pubs in St. Andrews with specific instructions this year there were over 50 members in attendance. Last of the semester is our Christmas dinner, this year it was at the Boozy Cow for the first time. A record attendance of 65 members made for a hugely successful event. This semester we look forward to our ball we are the only University club to organise our own ball that includes a night stay outside of Dundee. Last year it was Perth, and before that Stirling. Organisation is still in the works for this, but it is often a sell-out event on our social calendar.

Words by Marcus Farnworth, design by Neil Connor

Lifestyle - The Magdalen - March

THE BREAKDOWN:

IN RUGBY As a male-dominated sport, rugby is often regarded as belonging to the boys. The physicality and risk of injury have stigmatized the rugby pitch as being offlimits to women and girls. However, as we enter 2019 participation in women’s rugby is on the rise. I am here to tell you why that is a wonderful thing.

The satisfaction that comes with putting your body on the line is immense. It has long been misconceived that being big, butch and aggressive is what comprises a successful female rugby player. This is an archaic stereotype that needs to be challenged. Women’s rugby is a sport that continually defies these preconceptions and is notorious for inclusion and intersectionality. There is a place for everyone; a celebration of every body type. The very nature of the sport disregards what players look like and instead focuses on what the body can do. A diverse range of players with a breadth of different abilities is needed for a team to succeed. The strength and power of the forwards, combined with the speed and

agility of the backs, is what is required to score tries and win games. Without a range of sizes and skills on the pitch, the whole team would fall flat. Rugby allows women to liberate their physicality. To celebrate and praise each other for their strength, prowess, and assertion. This is empowering in a society that often fails to see positivity in women exhibiting these traits. The satisfaction that comes with putting your body on the line is immense. You grow to enjoy being covered in mud, the frozen fingers and the bruised limbs - you wear them as a badge of honour. The resilience and gratification that comes from picking yourself up and bouncing back makes you feel tough. It gives you grit. Rugby provides an opportunity to develop many other personal attributes, such as confidence, endurance, communication, sportsmanship, teamwork, and bravery. Much like any other team sport, rugby builds a sense of camaraderie. The bonding that takes place both on and off the pitch brings with it life long friends. A team that can win together is good, but a team that can lose together and still celebrate the joy of the game is something else. Women’s rugby is finally beginning to receive the recognition it deserves. Funding from the Scottish Rugby Union is currently divided equally between Dundee University’s men’s teams and their women’s team, giving them the equal support and funding that they deserve.

March - The Magdalen - Lifestyle

FEMALE ATHLETE

E T E L H T A On a larger national scale, the Women’s National Development League has come into creation as “a programme designed to meet the needs of new and developing women’s clubs and players in Scotland”. The aim is to provide the necessary support that will help expand female participation in rugby within this country. As a massive win for women and rugby, in 2016 the SRU signed Jade Konkel as their first ever professional female rugby player. Furthermore, in 2018, Scottish Rugby raised the number of contracted female players to eight, hopefully setting the precedent for the future. Fairly remunerating female athletes for their time, commitment

and skill, is imperative in ensuring equal sporting opportunities. This change is both welcomed and significant, as it is pivotal for creating the strongest Scottish national team possible. On campus, we do our best to reach out to potential new players. We aim to challenge stereotypes, create opportunities and an inclusive environment for all. One of the most wonderful things about our team is that we are always welcoming and looking to get more girls involved. So if you’re a seasoned pro who has already fallen in love with the sport, or a complete novice who is just curious, we would love to share our passion for rugby with you. Words and design by Zara Elmi

55 55

Lifestyle - The Magdalen - March

THE PRIDE OF DUNDEE International Women’s Day was first marked back in 1911 by Austria, Denmark, Germany, and Switzerland, with over one million men and women attending the rallies that were held across each country. Those participating sought equality for women in important matters, such as ending discrimination in the workplace and granting women the right to vote. Across the

years, International Women’s Day has grown strength to strength. On the 8th of March, in over one hundred countries, people come together to celebrate the social, economic, cultural and political achievements of women, while also calling to action the acceleration of gender parity in modern day society. Dundee is a city rich in diversity, and one that does not forget those who have helped build

Words by Andrew Forbes

and shape it into the unique place that it is today. While men have contributed to the city’s prosperity and sustenance, in equal measure so too have the women. The Women’s Trail has been established in order to commemorate the remarkable women of Dundee who have played an important role in

its history. If one decides to travel the trail, they will find themselves walking through Dundee in search of the twentyfive plaques that are spread across the city’s landscape. Each bronze plaque is dedicated to an individual woman and inscribed on each you will find the given woman’s name, occupation and lifespan. Readers may wonder what these particular women achieved in order to be recognised as influential figures

March - The Magdalen - Lifestyle

in the city’s history. Aligning with the aims of International Women’s Day, the trail does not commemorate one specific type of woman, but instead celebrates achievements in varying parts of society. This variation in occupation and achievement is testament to women’s ability to prove pivotal in any task they set their minds to. Emma Caird is one such woman who is commemorated for her insurmountable generosity. She spent the last ten years of her life donating to the completion of the Caird Hall (hence the name), the Dundee Royal Infirmary and gifting the Belmont Estate as a rest home for soldiers. Ethel Moorehead is another woman commemorated. Ethel was a fine artist and founded and edited for one of the major art journals of the 1920’s. She is also known for being an unrelenting suffragette and smashed windows, even attempted arson, in her stand against male authority. These two women highlight the diversity of achievement that is present along

the trail, which includes artists, trade unionists, social reformers, suffragettes, a shipyard welder and a marine engineer.

If you’re interested in following the trail, then you will want to know where it begins and where it ends. The Women’s Trail official website provides such information, with digital maps of Dundee available that have flags attached to indicate the different plaque locations. Furthermore, modern technology has it that an app has also been developed to aid those following the trail. Not only are the different plaque locations displayed in the app for you, but it will also guide you along the quickest routes from one plaque to another. If

you wish to enhance your trail experience, there has also been a book published called Dundee Women’s Trail: Twenty-Five Footsteps Over Four Centuries (found on the website http:// dundeewomenstrail.org.uk). The book provides extensive detail on the different achievements of these commemorated women, and for only seven pounds will give you a greater appreciation of the history and achievement behind each plaque. If you are planning to celebrate International Women’s Day on the 8th of March, then why not celebrate it by spending an afternoon venturing through the city and learning about these great women who have come from this special place.

Design by Neil Connor

Opinions - The Magdalen - March

One’s Place

There’s not a single human being who isn’t struggling in some way, struggling to find where we fit in this massive puzzle. We try to find our place: in our families, jobs, in society, and with so many, ever-evolving identities, sooner or later conflict is due to emerge, either with people around us or the different facets that we have adopted.

We walk through life searching for answers and trying to reach the goals we set ourselves, so it’s no wonder misery manifests through time. Questions like “Who am I?”, “Am I good enough?” and “What’s my purpose?” cause so much agony to their beholders. And the funny thing is, it’s all self-inflicted. We push and challenge ourselves, searching non-stop, until one-day we break down. Perhaps we like to suffer. There is no other explanation to why so many are miserable in a world that offers endless possibilities. We try to get ourselves heard by others by any means. Maybe that’s the reason almost everyone is posting pictures, videos, even thoughts, for the world to see. We’re battling for attention, sticking our faces into the chaos and rarely stepping back. More and more people are falling into depression and losing hope for life. Destruction seems inevitable. The media and even the entertainment

we consume is focused on the end, instead of the possibilities of a new beginning. Nowadays, life isn’t felt like a positive thing -a thing of grace and joy -but it almost feels like being pushed through a meat grinder. Birth, education, fighting others like a dog just to get a job and then die away. People are losing their curiosity and the unique way a child sees the world, which actually is the cure to any problem. As children we don’t really worry, we aren’t even aware of the notion of needing to fit in. We just are. Everything has beauty and is interesting and most of all, nothing can harm us. It’s only when we grow that questions, goals, and stresses arise. The world is changing now more than ever before. Battles are taking place all over the globe, but fighting others will achieve nothing. Even after blood has been spilled and tears shed, a feeling of uneasiness will live within -until we come to terms with ourselves. Until we accept ourselves and release the need to be recognised by others, we’ll be nothing more than slaves and servants of the people we acquaint ourselves with. One finds his place when he allows himself to just be. It’s as simple as that. There is nothing to achieve, nothing to find or accomplish. Simply experience life.

Words by Daniel Pukkila, design by Robbie Kieran

December - The Magdalen - Opinions March - The Magdalen - Opinions

I Didn’t Think Guys Were Creepy until I Travelled Alone in the USA Amongst the plethora of women’s rights articles, feminist Instagram pages and activism blogs I read, I am often surprised by the frequency of minor incidents that women report like catcalling and inappropriate or degrading language. Until recently, my attitude was ‘well, this is clearly an issue for a vast number of women and, whilst nothing of the sort has ever happened to me, I’m obviously going to be supportive of women who have to deal with this and hope for change’. In the last year however, I travelled alone in the USA and realised that a lot of the social media I consume regarding women’s rights and similar issues actually come from the USA. In the UK, I have never been catcalled, I have no recollection of random strangers ever offering me lifts and, despite sadly viewing casual groping in pubs and clubs as almost a given on a night out, I’ve never had to deal with a guy who won’t take ‘No’ for an answer. You can choose to believe that this is because I’m not particularly cat-call worthy or that it’s just not as obvious a problem in the UK.

When travelling in America I expected that, also being a Western country which has made substantial steps towards gender equality, I would feel just as safe travelling alone in the USA as the UK. But no. During the week I travelled solo in the USA last summer, I was offered lifts by men on their own (and only ever men, and only ever on their own) well over a dozen times. This included a man who, upon seeing me leaving my motel room, got back into the car he was climbing out of, drove around the block to cut me off at the entrance of a carpark to ask if he could drive me anywhere, and a man who offered to pay for my hotel room whilst standing at a reception desk which proffered posters warning how to spot the signs of human traffickers on the back wall. Miraculously, nobody gave me a second glance after I met up with my male travelling companion. Both countries have ways to go in terms of equality and attitudes but when it comes to media stories vs personal experience, I think maybe, here in the UK we’re slightly more respectable than screaming tabloid newspapers will have us believe.

Words by Rose Kendall, Design and illustration by Leah Cameron

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RUNNING FOR EMPOWERMENT This is my confession. I am guilty of procrastination in the first degree. Trust me, I will use any excuse in the book to avoid university work, to not answer important emails but most of all to avoid the gym, or you know, exercise of any kind really. I wish I was exaggerating when I tell you that I once had a fullon nose bleed when I went near a treadmill. If that isn’t a sign that I am anything short of allergic, then I don’t know what is.

“I am genuinely so passionate about the centre and their work; I would honestly do anything to support them... even run.”

Words by Rebecca Carey

Yet, I am running a half marathon in July. It sounds like the punch line to one of my Dad’s corny jokes but there it is. Black and white and cemented in print. You might be sitting, drinking your coffee in Liar, wondering why this girl would risk her fragile health like this? That’s a darn good question, reader. There is no sane reason to explain how I have got myself into this situation. To shed some light on this, I need to go further back. Running might as well be a foreign language to me, I have never understood the fascination. It might be a skill that I will never fully master, but I am fluent in female empowerment and I strongly believe in doing my bit to make our community a better place to live in. After I abseiled 160ft off the Forth Rail Bridge for Barnardo’s last year (and survived!), I realised I needed a new project, a new challenge. However, it could not just be any charity or organisation. Now, it might have been my life flashing before my eyes, as I was clinging on to the Forth Bridge for dear life, but I came to a realisation; I needed to find something new that I wholeheartedly believed in and that I had to fight for. However, it couldn’t be easy. I had a little bit too much fun at the abseil, it had to be something I really needed to work for.

March - The Magdalen - Opinions

Truthfully, I didn’t have to look far. I stumbled across the Dundee International Women’s Centre quite by accident, but I was blown away, as I hope you will be. DIWC is a truly heartwarming place, a multicultural gem, hidden around the corner from Baxter Park. It is easy to forget, as students, how isolating living in an urban environment can be. We are so fortunate that we have access to a wealth of societies that we can get involved and participate in. It is harder still to accept that this kind of social exclusion and marginalisation can exist in a liberal and modern city like Dundee - the place we call our home. However, without DIWC, this would be the case for so many women from a whole range of often excluded ethnic backgrounds. It is only through the centre that they have found a place to belong.

yoga, cycling to gardening. There is something for everyone to get involved in. As if that was not enough, DIWC goes one step further. It provides a platform for these marginalised women to integrate with the wider community but also to empower themselves. I mentioned that the centre prides itself in being open to women from all backgrounds, which includes women from over 60 countries. We must remember that this means women from all walks of life, even those who have seen the darker side that this world has to offer, including conflict and extreme deprivation. They are in search of a second chance. DIWC gives them the opportunity to rebuild their lives through education and employment training. They can learn a language while their children are being looked after in the centre’s creche.

DIWC is the living embodiment of the principles it prides itself to follow: “Engagement. Education. Self-Empowerment” and the staff and volunteers that I have been lucky enough to meet over the last few months take this responsibility extremely seriously. The centre fosters a safe and encouraging haven that accepts all women, of all faiths so that they can come together, socialise and share their experiences. They strongly believe that no woman should suffer alone, creating a community through a host of recreational activities, from cooking to

I have observed this incredible place and the good that it does on a daily basis. I have seen the smiles of women who believed in themselves, who were empowered and who were having fun. I cannot stress enough how much we need more centres just like these, how we need to value DIWC and the work they do for the women in our community that need it the most. I am genuinely so passionate about the centre and their work; I would honestly do anything to support them…even run.

Design by Neil Connor

Section - The Magdalen - September

Coffee Enema?

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A Latte

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Ius constituto quaerendum ad, ad sed animal fabulas, maiorum iudicabit mel id. Aperiri democritum necessitatibus vix no, pro no libris accumsan, vis in pertinacia abhorreant. An latine necessitatibus nec, no alia commune menandri his. Ius ne oblique dignissim concludaturque, ne mutat malis affert mei. Ex cum docendi tractatos.

Shite!

illustration and design by Emma Turbitt

March - The Magdalen - Science

A coffee enema is a type of colon cleanse used in alternative medicine. How can you take a subject like that seriously? Well a regimen of daily vitamin supplements, pancreatic enzymes and frequent coffee enemas is currently being evaluated for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. There is even a brand of specially blended organic coffee that is marketed specifically for enemas. No shit! (Although, in this case, yes shit). Alternative medicine proponents claim coffee enemas “detoxify the liver and kidneys” as well as reduce cancer pain, among other benefits. So, perhaps the coffee enema isn’t a latte shite after all. Shoutout to any Dundee-area coffee connoisseurs, perhaps you should develop enema varieties of all our favourite brands. Starbucks own range of speciality enema coffee “Starbutts” is sure to be a hit! The mind boggles. Now before you get too excited and begin pumping coffee up your butt, let’s consider the evidence substantiating the health claims. Scientific literature can be home to some extraordinary claims, but such studies often cite poorly conducted research. In this case, the researchers responsible for the pancreatic cancer study gave up on trying to randomise participants between various conditions, effectively abandoning reliable experimental methodology. The single-armed, non-randomised case-cohort study is littered with ethical breaches, bias, limitations, and lacks any explanation of rationale or justification for the research. The researchers show little to no critical appraisal of the available evidence which, from a clinical science perspective, is virtually criminal.

After careful review of the available evidence, there is no satisfying medical, scientific evidence to support any positive health claim for coffee enemas. However, there is evidence that the process can result in sepsis, severe electrolyte imbalance, colitis, internal burning, rectal perforation, even brain abscess or heart failure. The perception that alternative medicine is not harmful, or even beneficial, needs to be confronted with hard evidence once and for all. Only then can patients - like the hopeful cancer patients taking part in the coffee enema study - make a truly informed decision regarding the use of these untested, unproven, baseless and pseudo-scientific regimens for therapeutic purposes. While there are many avid coffee drinkers out there, my advice to you is to put your coffee where your taste buds are. Coffee enemas really are a latte shite!

John A. Chabot, Wei-Yann Tsai, Robert L. Fine, Chunxia Chen, Carolyn K. Kumah, Karen A. Antman, & Victor R. Grann (2009). Pancreatic Proteolytic Enzyme Therapy Compared With Gemcitabine-Based Chemotherapy for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer, Journal of Clinical Oncology.

Words by James Dale

Science - The Magdalen - March

Does Religion Impede Scientific Success and Development?

“Give a man a fish and he will eat for a day; teach a man how to fish and he will eat for a lifetime; give a man religion and he will die praying for a fish.” - Anonymous Most of us are familiar with religion to some degree - “God is real, because the Bible is true, because it is the word of God, because the Bible said so, because...” As the Western World becomes more and more secular, and the discoveries in evolutionary biology and cosmology shrink the boundaries of faith, the claims that science and religion are compatible grow louder. Science is focused on rational, logical things. We often construe “science” as the set of tools we use to find truth about the universe, with the understanding that these truths are provisional,

rather than absolute. In contrast, philosopher Daniel Dennett described religion as “social systems whose participants avow belief in a supernatural agent or agents whose approval is to be sought.” The Abrahamic faiths of Judaism, Christianity and Islam certainly seem to fit the bill. The conflict between science and religion is clear when you consider that both religion and science rest on “truth statements” about the universe – claims about reality. The concepts of religion differ from science by additionally dealing with morality, purpose and meaning, but even those areas rest on a

Design and illustration by Gosia Kepka

foundation of empirical claims. You can hardly call yourself a Christian if you don’t believe in the Resurrection of Christ, or a Muslim if you don’t believe the angel Gabriel dictated the Qur’an to Muhammad. Without supporting evidence, Americans believe an astonishing number of religious claims: 74% believe in God, 68% in the divinity of Jesus, 68% in Heaven, 57% in the virgin birth, and 58% in the Devil and Hell. Why do they think these are true? Faith. In contrast to the methods of science, religion adjudicates truth not empirically, but via dogma, scripture and authority – in other

March - The Magdalen - Science

words, through faith. In science, faith without evidence is a vice, while in religion it’s a virtue. While science has had success after success in understanding the universe, the “method” of using faith has led to no proof of the divine. How many Gods are there? What are their natures and moral creeds? Is there an afterlife? There is no one answer to any of these questions. All is mystery, for it all rests on faith. The conflict between science and religion is a conflict about whether you have good reasons for believing what you do: whether you see faith as a vice or a virtue. Some argue that religion once promoted science in the past, inspiring questions about the universe. But in the past every Westerner was religious, and it’s debatable whether, in the long run, the progress of science has been promoted by religion. Certainly, evolutionary biology has been held back strongly by creationism, which arises solely from religion.

It is true that there are historical instances of organised religion, and religious practitioners, being hostile to science on theological grounds. For example, since the birth of their movement, Young Earth Creationists have rejected almost the entirety of the geological and life sciences because they conflict with a literal reading of the Bible. The Intelligent Design movement has similarly dismissed Darwinism, which is the bedrock of the modern life sciences. According to Intelligent Design, the universe is too complex to have formed on its own, so an even more complex “God” must have created the universe. Which begs the immediate question, “Who designed the designer?” Despite that, the response to this is an example of special pleading: creationists assert that every being needs a cause, but God is an eternal presence which did not need a cause. No evidence for this has ever been presented for peer review, or critical analysis of any kind. Scientifically speaking, the precise problem with intelligent

design isn’t that it’s necessarily a religious idea; the problem is that you can’t do anything with it. It doesn’t give you the basis for further inquiry and discovery. Since the founding of their movement in the late 19th century, Christian Scientists have rejected science-based medicine in favour of faith healing. When it comes to critical-thinking and logical-reasoning, science clearly has the upper-hand. At some point religion decided thinking was not its thing, and decided to let other people do that for them - blind faith is apparently sufficient. What is not disputable is that today science is practiced as an atheistic discipline. Faith and rationality are two ideologies that exist in varying degrees of conflict. Rationality is based on reason and facts. The word faith often refers to a belief that is held with lack of reason or evidence substantiating it. As facts become increasingly important for the welfare of our species and our planet, people should see faith for what it is: not a virtue, but a defect.

Words by James Dale

Science - The Magdalen - March

Flat Earth or Flatlining Brain Activity?

Okay Scotland, you are loved... but we have to talk! What’s with all the ‘Flat Earth’ signs all along the east? There’s “Flat Earth” spray painted on the way to Edinburgh from Dundee. Sadly, the Flat Earth model is gaining popularity -or at least more vocal proponents -via the Internet, especially on various nutcase-enabling platforms like YouTube and Reddit. The online resurgence, coupled with celebrity endorsements, has seen the Flat Earth theory enter into genuine scientific debates around the globe (or across the flat disc).Meet the people questioning science! Even typical Young Earth Creationists who think it’s 6,000 years old are unlikely to go so far as to say it’s not round. The “evidence” Flat Earthers provide is not just entirely circumstantial, but generally pulled out of their

Words by James Dale

[bleep]. Few can explain why a conspiracy might exist -why scientists might go to such great lengths to create false evidence -but that hasn’t impeded them from advocating a Flat Earth.To believe in a Flat Earth is to assume that NASA, leading governments and the entire scientific community are part of a major conspiracy to delude everyone, that the Moon landings never happened, and that NASA spends most of its budget on fabricating evidence rather than actually exploring space, for whatever reason. Most of physics, would go out the window as well. And that’s not even half of it. Not only would NASA and the scientific community need to be in on the conspiracy, but all the world’s amateur astronomers too (who have no connection to NASA at all). Essentially, every astronomer,

March - The Magdalen - Science

physicist, and scientist in the past few thousand years would have to be in on it. So, the question remains: why is this a theory that still persists in 2019 in the face of science, and all the evidence to the contrary? According to psychologists, conspiracy theorists often feel somehow special; while most of the population has fallen for a false rhetoric, a conspiracy theorist has risen above it; they have this special knowledge -a special insight. When the community comes together, views are mutually reinforced. However, this “special insight” is a denial of the expert view, and years of scientific progression: “the world was created divinely, evolution is nonsense, vaccinations are harmful, news is fake!”Thankfully, while the Flat Earth Society is still around, they remain little more than a tiny fringe group. If you are a Flat Earther, please find the edge, and jump off.

“This world is full of idiots strategically distributed so you can meet at least one per day” Paulo Coelho

Design by Lauryn Shankland

1st March - 1st April

WHAT’S ON

14th 1st DUSA ELECTIONS RESULTS PARTY

2nd -16th DUNDEE WOMEN’S FESTIVAL

8th JAM UNPLUGGED

GREAT GATSBY NIGHT W/ DUNDEE UNI BIG BAND

23rd CRAFT BEER DISCOVERY 2019