The Oxford Student - Week 5 Hilary 2022

Friday 18th February 2022

HT22, No. 3

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The Entertainment

No, you didn’t get blood on your precious Timothée Chalamet edition of the OxStu. Sweeeney Todd did...

Gen Z

Identity

Elsie Clark interviews a sigma male. What more do we need to say? Go read it. >:]

Reflecting on the Queen’s reign in the year of her Plati- [redacted] num Jubilee.

Richard Ovenden, Stephanie @une. francaise.en.angleterre, Elizabeth

SU ELECTION RESULTS: MichaelAkolade Ayodeji wins SU Presidency

by Andrew WANG Editor-in-Chief

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he Student Union announced results for their 2022 Annual Leadership Elections in a hybrid in-person/ online event at 21:00 on Thursday, 10th February. After a week-long campaign period, this year’s SU Election saw nearly 4,000 students cast nearly 30,000 votes in a for 6 Sabbatical Officers, 10 voluntary positions, and four charities in a parallel RAG ballot. Key issues during this year’s campaign included, as always, questions around how to improve the Student Union’s-

Poppy ATKINSON-GIBSON

Student Representatives will sit on Vice Chancellor Nomination Committee for First

by Jason CHAU Time

Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson interviews Xiran Jay Zhao, best-selling author of Iron Widow

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tudent representatives, including outgoing SU President Anvee Bhutani and Vice President Graduates Devika Devika, will be on the Nominating Committee for the ViceChancellorship (VC Nominating Committee) in a search for the successor to current ViceChancellor, Professor Louise

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News Editor

Richardson, whose term will end in autumn 2023 after which she will assume the presidency of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This will be the first time student representatives will participate in the nomination process in this capacity in centuries.

Read more on page 4

Illustration: Jonas Muschalski

News Editor

Kelsey Trevett

Timothée Chalamet Returns to Oxford for Filming on Willy Wonka Movie

Michael-Akolade Ayodeji

Timothée Retourné:

2 | Editorial

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

The

OXFORD STUDENT Editorial 5th Week

HILARY TERM 2022 EDITORIAL TEAM

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Editors-in-Chief Andrew Wang & Alex Foster Deputy Editors Agatha Gutierrez Echenique Dania Kamal Aryf Daniel Harrison Elias Formaggia Elsie Clark Jason Chau Jessica Kaye Sharon Chau News Editors Caleb van Ryneveld Poppy Atkinson Gibson Sara Hashmi Comment Editors Shiraz Vapiwala Peter Denton Deputy - Jonah Poulard Profile Editors Will Neill Features Editors Anna Davidson Deputy - Marietta Kosma Identity Editors Yi-Jen Deng Aarthee Pari Madi Hopper Pink Editors Agatha Gutierrez Echenique Green Editors George MacKay Kellie Tran Gen Z Editors Lydia Fontes (Style) Jen Jackson Deputy - Blane Aitchison Entertainment Editors Sam Wagman Deputy - Janita Hussain Food and Drink Editors Phoebe Anderson Kellie Tran Oxyou Editors Benedict Yorston Deputy - Laetitia Hosie Sports Editors Dániel Kovács Gaming Editors Stuart McCloughlin Columnists Alfred Dry Anvee Bhutani Charlie Buckley Nadia Awad Freddy Foulston Poppy Atkinson Gibson Sharon Chau

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Comment Gen Z

Police Reform, Political Trust, and Oli London, three very important topcis.

p.8

Elsie Clark interviews a SIGMA MALE and the only use of Papyrus you will likely ever see in a newspaper

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T

he day before this issue went to print I sat in the Café Nero above Blackwell’s behind a group of Timothee Chalamet fangirls crowded at the windows to see the famous chocolatier in the days before he made his famous chocolate factory and nearly murdered four children. They had a group chat popping off of various Chalamet sightings in the local area, tracking him down in photos and footage like the Patterson-Gimlin video of Bigfoot on a metric ton of spice and Marvellous Creations. They also all ran their own Instagram/Tumblr/ Twitter fanpages curating only the highest quality content for their rabid follower base.

If you’re wondering why my own Twitter following skyrocketed by a whole 11 around 1.15pm on Wednesday afternoon, now you know.

Truth to be told, I was pretty envious.

Here I was alone, writing quite possibly the driest tutorial essay yet on Alexander Pope’s thrilling satirical wit and verve, and in front of me was a community drawn together purely by their thirst for the Call Me by Your Name actor. Oxford as a place, I’ve found, doesn’t really allow much time for those moments to connect with people close to you. There are too many essays, tutorials, seminars, lectures; you name a time to meet two and a half weeks in the future and maybe you’ll be able to make it. But only for half an hour. And it’s a coffee, not a sit-down

We are always looking for enthusiastic students to be members of our Creative Team!!!

Join our illustrator group on Facebook to get create content for the OxStu!

From the Editors meal. And also, do you mind if I bring my laptop to finish off some stuff too?

At around 3pm on the same day I also got news that the article I was meant to be dropping on the front page this week couldn’t go ahead. So we replaced it with Timothee Chalamet. It’s been a difficult week. It was a pity, I guess, that’s showbiz; but it did get me thinking. Journalism – both by students and out in that big, wide, underpaying world – profits far too much on negative news. It’s always a Union scandal, or you need seven and a half lawyers involved to avoid getting sued. It can’t ever be fun, really; that’s the nature of the game. A game we all take far too seriously.

There was another, smaller article I wrote this week, simply to take a break from that *other* big article I was drawing up.

That *other* one was this big, I swear. You would’ve been jealous. But this smaller piece was 800 words on my favourite video game as a kid. It was a breath of fresh air and actually fun to write. Is it a good article?

Probably not. But sometimes these things don’t have to be. Sometimes you can just indulge your inner fangirl. Just don’t make a Tumblr.

Alex Foster,

St John’s College

It’s a weird feeling to have a vested interest in bad news.

Obviously, I don’t wish the worst for anyone, but if any of you stumble upon misfortune please let me know because at least someone will benefit from your misfortune. We can only run so many articles about new scholarships before people get bored, you know?

The most clichéed platitude of all time is that news is overly focused on negativity. But I think that’s an incredibly toxic mindset. People that are happy don’t need to see that other people are happy too. Our job is to inform you of what you need to know most, and to provide a voice to those who need it most.

Neither of these is particularly useful for people who already

have what they want. Bad news is usually much more pressing, and people who are happy are usually not the ones whose voices are being drowned out.

Plus, just think of how toxic instagram is - us sad people can only take so much happy news before we get salty, you know?

In any case, I’ve stayed up way too many nights in a row to write a quality editorial like my boss on the left over here. I can only take so many all-nighters in a row, you know?

I think we’ve run a half dozen articles on Timthée Chalamet at this point. If anyone can make me a collage of every single time he’s appeared in our paper this term I’ll buy them a drink or something. My instagram is @chhchhhch, dm me there.

Andrew Wang, St Benet’s Hall

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

editor@oxfordstudent.

News | 3

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Timothée Retourné: Chalamet to Return as Filming continues on Wonka Movie Poppy ATKINSON GIBSON News Editor

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Cont. from front page

ilming has resumed for the new ‘Wonka’ starring Timothee Chalamet in central Oxford. Warner Bros Studios’ newest film, based on Roald Dahl’s fictional character Willy Wonka were last in Oxford in mid December where technicians were seen working on the Radcliffe Camera, with a large crane and scaffolding.

14th of February to the 20th and that there would be some minor disruption including the blocking of some entrances and exits.

The Bodleian Libraries issued a notice last week stating that filming would commence from the

Whilst the Radcliffe Camera was fully accessible there were some temporary barriers constructed

As of the 14th of February the Bodleian Quad was only open to students, and those wishing to enter had to show their Bod card to members of security at each of the entrances.

at Catte Street and piles of fake snow could be seen dotted around the Radcliffe Camera square and the Bodleian Quadrangle.

Also seen in the Bodleian Quadrangle were signs saying “Pavlov’s Museum” as well as two green, old fashioned and apparently German phone boxes.

Catte Street was also lined with period pieces, most notably a series of period cars, accompanied by a large Warner Bros Studio’s set, lighting, and rigging truck outside Hertford College.

Members of security when asked about the film declined to positively identify the production as the ‘Wonka’ film but assured members of the public that this was part of ongoing filming.

Timothee Chalamet has yet to be spotted in Oxford, although a member of the crew advised that reporters return on Friday for a glimpse of the star.

cluding the live-action Paddington, and written by Horrible Histories and Ghosts star Simon Farnaby, is expected to release in early 2023. Starring Timothee Chalamet in the titular role, as well as Rowan Atkinson and Olivia Colman, the film aims to explore a young Willy Wonka and his adventures before opening the famous chocolate factory.

‘Wonka’, directed by Paul King, whose other notable works in-

SU ELECTION RESULTS RELEASED: MichaelAkolade Ayodeji wins Presidency Cont. from front page

Andrew WANG

1,107 votes, defeating runnerup Kelsey Trevett by 350 votes.

credibility and engagement among broader issues of sustainability, access, and welfare.

Jade Calder, with 1,816 votes, was elected over Domenic Suntrapak for VP Access and Academic Affairs, and Anna-Tina Jashapara (with 1,311 votes) won the race for VP Charities

Editor-in-Chief

Michael Akolade-Ayodeji won the election for President with

and Community in landslide victories, Grace Olusola defeated Natalie Thomas to be elected as VP Welfare & Equal Opportunities (1,243-789), and Ellie Greaves narrowly won the race for VP Women over Elizabeth Ryalls (580-443). Shreya Dua ran unopposed and is confirmed as the SU’s VP Graduates.

In addition to the salaried Sabbatical positions, students also elected three voluntary Student Trustees and seven voluntary delegates to the National Union of Students. The SU Election Results for Student Trustees are Uri Sharell, Serene Singh, and Daniele Cotton. The NUS Delegates for the coming year are Aditi Premkumar, Alexander Nowak, Anas Dayeh,

Ciaron Tobin, Mosopefoluwa Sarah Akintunde, Mundher Ba-Shammakh, Serene Singh.

Finally, students in this year’s election also voted on the charities for which Oxford RAG would fundraise in the coming year. The chosen charities are Oxford Pride, Oxford Poverty

Action Trust, Amnesty International, and Donate4Refugees.

The SU Election was run on a single transferable vote system.

A detailed breakdown of results can be found on their website.

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

4 | News

Student Representatives to Sit on Vice Chancellor Nomination Committee for First Time Jason CHAU

Cont. from front page

Deputy Editor

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tudent representatives, including outgoing SU President Anvee Bhutani and Vice President Graduates Devika Devika, will be on the Nominating Committee for the ViceChancellorship (VC Nominating Committee) in a search for the successor to current Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, whose term will end in autumn 2023 after which she will assume the presidency of the Carnegie Corporation of New York. This will be the first time student representatives will participate in the nomination process in this capacity in centuries.

Anvee Bhutani and Devika Devika, along with Vice President (Access and Academic Affairs) Safa Sadozai, are currently ex officio student member observers of the Oxford University Council, representing the interests of student in the University’s

Stephanie @une.francaise.en.angleterre

governance and planning.

Their selection in the Nominating Committee will allow them to have a say in the formation and planning of the next University administration.

Patten of Barnes, Chair of Conference of Colleges Mr Miles Young of New College, Professor Nandini Gooptu of St Antony’s College and Dr. Huw Dorkins of St Peter’s College.

As part of the nomination process, the Nominating Committee will recommend a named individual for the Vice-Chancellorship to the University Council. The Council will then submit the name of the proposed individual to the Congregation, the sovereign body of the University, for appointment. The search of the proposed individual has already begun, two years before the end of Professor Richardson’s departure, to ensure her successor is recommended to the Council in Trinity Term 2022 and will be ready to take up the position in late 2023.

The Committee has indicated that it is interested in hearing about “thoughts on the nature of the role of the Vice-Chancellor and on the background and qualities required of potential candidates for the role, given the likely challenges of the coming decade” from any member of the University community in its recruitment process. For anyone interested in submitting their views, they can do so by emailing the Chancellor and Chair of the Nominating Committee, at chancellor@admin.ox.ac.uk

As of now, the members of the Nominating Committee include the Chancellor the Rt Hon the Lord

More to follow on this story.

New College criticized for offering less than £19,743 for Stipendiary Lecturer position Andrew WANG Editor-in-Chief

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ew College was criticized for advertising an opening for a stipendiary lecturer in History with a stipend of only £19,743. According to the job posting on jobs.ac.uk, “the person appointed will be expected to provide tutorial teaching for 8 hours per week over the three academic terms, and to provide administrative and pastoral support for the cohort of undergraduate and graduate History students.” Outrage ensued as students and staff criticized the position, which generally requires a doctorate degree, as paying lower than even entry-level tasks with much lower barriers to entry: the Daily Mail noted the comparison of Amazon delivery truck driv-

Cont. from front page

ers, who earn £27,600 per year.

New College emphasized that the position is part-time, as it “only involves eight hours of teaching per week and some administrative and pastoral support.” However, former academic staff criticized this as failing to account for the extra time and preparation required per hour of teaching. Former lecturers estimated that each hour of teaching corresponded to “at a minimum a solid two hours of preparation and marking”. No estimate was given for time spent weekly on administrative and pastoral support.

According to the job description, the position also includes benefits such as “free lunch

and dinner at the common table when this is available, a research and book allowance (£960 p. a.),”and an entertainment budget (160 p.a.). No accommodation is provided. The position also qualifies for the Universities Superannuation pension Scheme (USS Scheme), in which the lecturer contributes 9.8% of their stipend to their retirement income, which amounts to just under £2,000. All included, the stipend is approximately equivalent to a yearly full-time salary of £31,546 at 24 hours of work per week and £21,632 at 35 hours of work per week.

The Oxford City Council has set Oxford’s living wage to £10.31 an hour or £19,836 per year. The lowest salary scale for academic-related staff is £29,614

without pension.

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

News | 5

University Announces New Award Aimed at Black and Mixed Heritage Students Jason CHAU

Deputy Editor

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he University has announced that it has set up a new award, known as the Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation Award, intended to “support excellence and ambition among talented UK undergraduates of Black African, Black Caribbean and mixed heritage by giving students the opportunity to focus on their studies without financial concerns and achieve their full potential.”

In its press release, the University said the Award will “offer targeted support to gifted students from low-income families” and allow the best students to thrive academically without financial worries. Award winners will be able to “use funds at their own discretion” and “have the chance to enjoy activities or experiences that are not covered through alternative college or University financial support programmes”. This covers extra-curricular activities, including buying equipment and sports kit, and supporting costs associated with undertaking in-

ternships during breaks.

All first-degree UK-resident undergraduate offer holders on any course of study are eligible for the award, with one-off payments made to three students at the beginning of Michaelmas term of their first year, starting in the 2022-2023 academic year for a three-year period. The aim is to offer these students the “flexibility to create the perfect environment to thrive during their first year at Oxford”, according to the University administration. It also fits with Oxford’s broader push to increase representation of Black students from the UK on campus and encourage more applications from the community. This complements the existing Oxford-Arlan Hamilton and Earline Butler Sims Scholarship, which is also targeted at supporting undergraduates of Black African and Caribbean heritage coming from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The award is named after Dr Ateh Jewel, an award-winning journalist, diversity advocate, public speaker and social media influ-

encer who has been specialising in beauty, social commentary and diversity campaigns for 20 years, and has been featured in Vogue, Financial Times, The Guardian, as well as BBC and CNN. She launched the Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation in 2021, focusing on helping Black and mixedBlack heritage students enter and thrive in higher education.

“I created the Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation because I believe the way to create true racial equality is to flood industry and culture with diversity and redefine what the default setting of power looks like” said Dr. Jewel, “I want to give rocket fuel to Black and mixed heritage students while they are in higher education as an investment in them and everything they will achieve for us all in the future”.

In a reference to history and literature, Dr Jewel added that “the days of Dickensian alms giving is over, this is about shouting and underlining that Oxford and seats of power are spaces for Black and mixed heritage students who in the past may have felt this was an institution not for them. Di-

versity is the win-win for society.’

the barriers that students face.”

Professor Martin Williams, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education at Oxford, also noted that he is “delighted” that Dr Jewel has chosen Oxford to set up the new Award, emphasising that the University “is committed to accelerating the pace at which we diversify our student body and are united in our efforts to remove

The Dr Ateh Jewel Education Foundation eventually hopes to expand the Award to other universities but is focusing on working with Oxford at the moment.

Consultation On Oxford River To Be Bathing Water Begins Jason CHAU

Deputy Editor

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ollowing Oxford’s application for the designation of Bathing Water status for the River Thames at Wolvercote Mill Stream, a popular site for swimming and other water activities, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs is now launching a national public consultation on the matter. If successful, the site will be only the second

river swimming area in the UK to receive official Government designation, according to a press release from the Oxford City Council.

The application was submitted by the Oxford Rivers Project, a partnership between Oxford City Council, The Rivers Trust, the environmental charity Thames21 and Thames Water.

This came after Thames Water was revealed to be releasing raw sewage in the river, which was met with protests by Oxford locals, many of whom frequently swim in the waters.

Many of the university’s colleges also use the river for rowing and punting.

The Cassington sewage treatment works, which is being conducted only 2 miles upstream of the bath-

ing water site and has been facing stern public backlash, is now under investigation for suspected incomplete treatment of sewage and ‘early spilling’, the act of discharging raw sewage to the environment before the treatment works are at capacity.

In addition, a water quality testing for harmful bacteria at the site carrier out last year also showed that after rainfall, bacteria levels there can rise up to 8 times the safe limit.

The applicants hope that the designation will improve the water quality and make it safer for swimmers, since the Environment Agency will be legally required to test the water quality regularly and clear signage indicating the water quality must be displayed once the site is designated, leading to a reduction of raw sewage discharges.

The application has generally been well received by the public in Oxford, with 96% of local people consulted responding in favour of a designation. There is also political support for the motion from Oxford City Councillors and the MP Layla Mo-

ran, who has tabled a debate on the issue in Parliament. In a statement, Councillor Mary Clarkson, Cabinet Member for Culture, Leisure and Tourism, Oxford City Council, express her delight on the news, saying that “If you are a fan of our rivers, then I encourage you to take part in the national consultation.”

Claire Robertson, the Thames21 Oxford Rivers Project Officer who submitted the application, said, “It’s even more self-evident that raw sewage discharges should not happen anywhere near this site”, adding that he hopes the application “if successful, will be part of the growing movement to clean up our rivers nationwide and accelerate investment by water companies to protect them as beautiful, precious natural places - not a place for raw sewage.”

The public can respond to the consultation on the DEFRA website https://consult.defra.gov.uk/ water/consultation-on-designationof-wolvercote-mill-str/ until March 2nd.

6 | News

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Latest Statistics Show Significant Increase in Youth Volunteers with the British Heart Foundation Dania KAMAL ARYF Correspondent

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he British Heart Foundation (BHF) recently announced that their charity has seen a surge in youth volunteers aged 16-24 throughout the ongoing Coronavirus pandemic.

Since September 2021, the charity has reported a 44% rise in youth volunteers – including those volunteering on-site, and those assisting with the BHF’s online sales via platforms such as Depop and e-Bay. Initial stages of Covid economic upheaval had significantly impacted the BHF’s income, and resulted in a loss of nearly 2,500 people no longer being able to volunteer and support local shops.

Despite recent months seeing an encouraging recovery in the charity’s retail sales, they are still urging many local communities to offer support by volunteering with their nearest BHF shop.

The charity is also particularly looking to recruit younger volunteers, and has been encouraging participation through the nationwide Student Volunteering Week,

which took place on 7th-13th February 2022.

Volunteers are able to participate in a wide-range of tasks suited to their own abilities – including merchandising, telephone and logistical administration, research and photography, or behind-thescenes tasks such as warehouse assistants or stock collection drivers.

“It’s fantastic to see a new generation of volunteers recognising the benefits of being part of our team. We welcome volunteers of all ages and it’s clear to see that our younger team members really relish learning new skills that can be used on their CV, to help them gain employment,” says Retail Volunteering Operations Manager, Sarah Boardman.

According to Sarah, volunteering hours are incredibly flexible, and individuals are able to commit according to their own schedule, and that volunteers are able to commit “just a few hours each week, or a few days.”

Emily Wright, a student volunteer from Manchester, says, “I love volunteering at my local BHF. There’s such a great variety of stuff to do, you couldn’t possibly get bored. I love being on the shop floor talking to all the customers.

The stock they get is amazing, it’s

like being in a treasure trove every day.”

“Reusing people’s unwanted things is (also) really important to me,” she continues. “I love fashion – but not fast fashion and the impact it has on the planet. So I feel that charity retail is doing something positive. It’s great to know the money we raise in the shop is going to a fantastic cause too.”

This year, the BHF aims to save around 71,000 tonnes of goods from going to waste, by selling 14,000 tonnes of preloved clothes,

and over half a million pieces of living room furniture. This will help prevent 135,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions being released into the atmosphere, while also raising funds for crucial research into heart diseases, stroke, vascular dementia, and diabetes.

For more information on how to get involved with volunteering for the BHF, you can visit https:// www.bhf.org.uk/signmeup or find your local charity shop via bhf. org.uk/shop.

“We are still in desperate need of volunteers as our shops recover from the pandemic. Volunteering at the BHF is a great opportunity to meet new people, boost your confidence, gain retail experience and help give unwanted items a new lease of life. Every hour given helps us raise funds to support those living with heart and circulatory diseases,” she continues.

University collaborates with BARBRI to launch scholarship

Jason CHAU

Deputy Editor

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s part of the effort to improve diversity and access to the legal profession, the University and BARBRI, the Dallas based legal education provider known

for its preparation courses for U.S. state bar examinations, have announced the launching of a Widening Participation scholarship aimed at supporting students taking the Solicitors Qualifying Examination (SQE), The SQE is a new route

for students of all backgrounds to qualify as a solicitor in England and Wales, replacing the Legal Practice Course (LPC).

The merit and needs-based scholarship, which will be available to the university’s

law students starting from the Autumn 2022 term, will give one student per academic year with a £5,000 third-year bursary and funding for the BARBRI SQE Prep course and assessment fees upon graduation.

The recipient will also serve as a BARBRI ambassador. It is the latest programme in the BARBRI Bridges funding initiative, launched in 2021 to improve inclusion in the legal sector.

This launch came amidst the publication of a recent analysis by the Institute of Fiscal Studies (IFS) conducted to evaluate universities’ contribution to social mobility, which recommended higher education institutions to do more to help graduates find rewarding careers.

In response to the announcement, the University’s Dean of the Faculty of Law, Mindy ChenWishart said: “With the launch

of the Widening Participation scholarship, we’re working to support our students beyond their university experience, preparing them for qualification via the SQE, [which will broaden opportunities for candidates from all backgrounds]”.

In his statement, BARBRI Senior Director of Institutional Partnerships, Chris Jorgenson acknowledged the intention of the SQE to help improve diversity, but added that this would not be achieved without the support of universities and supporters like BARBRI. “Realising genuine social change requires committed buy-in from stakeholders across the profession”, said Jorgenson, “Together we’re working to create a legal profession that is more representative of society today.”

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

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The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

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Editors: Shiraz Vapiwala, Peter Denton Deputy Editor: Jonah Poulard comment@oxfordstudent.com

Want to restore trust in politics?

Stop trusting politicians.

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Joshua Walker

rust in politics is declining. politicians is more dangerous for In December 2021, an IPPR democracy than not trusting them survey found that 63% of - if we blindly accept and believe respondents in the UK saw poli- everything a certain politician or ticians as “merely out for them- party says, we give them free reign selves”, compared to 48% in 2014. to do whatever they like without Many see this cynicism as linked being held to account. On the other with declining satisfaction with hand, trusting in politics is necesdemocracy, disengagement from sary for our democracy to functhe political system and willing- tion - if we don’t think the rules of ness to entertain radical outsid- the game are being enforced, why ers - in short, many fear this cyni- should we play at all? However, cism threatens democracy itself. trust in politics has to be based The recent scandal surrounding on the knowledge that if and when parties in Downing Street dur- politicians break the rules, they ing lockdown are held to accould be seen as count. Here lies yet another nail real threat After all, how are we the in the coffin of posed by the cursupposed to trust trust in politics, rent scandal. It is and by proxy our politicians when they a matter of public democracy. Afbreak the law and record that Boris ter all, how are Johnson lies; he then lie about it? we supposed to was sacked twice trust politicians from previous when they break jobs for lying. the law and then lie about it? What might cause people to give up their trust in politics is if he The answer is that we are not is not held to account. If Johnson supposed to trust politicians - emerges from this scandal with his and it would be a good thing if career intact, trust in the system’s we didn’t. There is an important ability to check politicians’ transdistinction to be made between gressions will be undermined. trusting in politicians and trust in politics in general. Trusting in The question this poses then, is

why is the system failing to hold In defending themselves against Johnson to account? This question the most recent revelations, the could be asked of countless other government has often asserted cases of political incompetence that the scandal is not a concern or immoralof most ordiity. Why has the nary people.

The only way that Poll numbers Elections Bill’s introduction of Boris Johnson will be would suggest voter ID laws, a but held to account is if otherwise, classic tool for they are likely his party deem him correct that this suppressing the votes of those more of an electoral anger will not without valid liability than an asset last. Our political forms of ID, been memories are repassed with litmarkably short, tle comment? Why was Priti Pa- and the next election is over two tel promoted to Home Secretary years away. The only way that Bodespite having been sacked by ris Johnson will be held to account Theresa May for breaking the is if his party deem him more of ministerial code, and why has an electoral liability than an asset, she remained there after hav- and that will only happen if they ing been found to have broken it perceive public opinion to be turnagain by an inquiry into bullying ing permanently against him. And allegations? Why were companies public opinion, especially of those handed multi-million-pound con- most likely to vote, is partisan. tracts during the pandemic based on their connections with politiThis brings us back to the idea cians? The answer is that politi- of trust in politicians, rather than cians can only truly be held to politics. You may be seething at account by public opinion. The the idea that anybody could conmedia and opposition will try to tinue to support Boris Johnson stir up the people, but if we remain after everything he has done… apathetic or uninformed, politi- but consider instead if the leader cians can do whatever they like. of the party you support was in the same situation. Would you

abandon them and decide to vote Conservative at the next election?

Or would you equip your partisan blinkers and start looking for any excuse to justify your continued support? We would like to think that we are paragons of impartiality, carefully looking over the facts and drawing our opinions from them, whilst the ‘other side’ wallows in tribal politics. But ultimately, we are all just as guilty of partisanship as each other.

Or to put it another way, we all put too much trust in politicians.

Political scandals are never going to end. There will always be some unscrupulous politicians seeking to profit at the taxpayer’s expense or cover up their illicit activities.

What matters is whether politicians suffer for these scandals. Not only does accountability matter for trust in politics, it should also theoretically discourage scandalous activity in the first place. But politicians will only be held to account if we are able to remove our partisan rose-tinted spectacles and accept when our political darlings have proven their unsuitability for high office. In order for trust in politics to be restored, we have to stop trusting politicians.

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

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It was an ignominious end for the Met Commissioner, jumping before she was pushed by Sadiq Khan just hours after publicly insisting she wasn’t going anywhere. But the fact that it came as a surprise to very few shows just how badly things got under Dame Cressida. Appointed to great fanfare in 2017 as the first female and first openly LGBTQ commissioner, she seemed to symbolise a force finally moving with the times. Yet, time and again, her response to the scandals that plagued the Met during her tenure was characterised not by open-mindedness to reform but by a seemingly blind loyalty to the force. Her trailblazing career suggested an outsider, both capable and willing to tackle the impenetrable web of vested interests in the Met. Instead, Dick has seemed like the ultimate insider, more interested in defending the Met than reforming it.

Dame Cressida was already wellacquainted with controversy long before her tenure as commissioner began. Infamously, she was gold commander in the operation that shot and killed Jean Charles de Menezes, an innocent man confused for a terror suspect. While expressing regret over the incident, she maintained that ‘If you ask me whether I think anybody did anything wrong or unreasonable on the operation, I don’t think they did’. It was this kind of inability to take responsibility for horrific police failings under her watch that would define her time in charge. Too often, Dame Cressida has chosen to talk about ‘bad ’uns’ and deny institutional problems rather than take responsibility.

These failings are almost too numerous to list: amongst them, the rape and murder of Sarah Everard by a serving officer with a history of sex-related crime; the breakingup of her vigil, where women were held down and handcuffed; the

SludgeG via Flickr

Met telling women worried about being improperly arrested to ‘flag down a bus’; the report over the murder of Daniel Morgan, which found the Met ‘institutionally corrupt’ and accused Cressida by name of obstructing its work; the inept police investigation into the murderer Stephen Port, found to be homophobic; the officers who took selfies with the bodies of Nicole Smallman and Bibaa Henry; and disproportionately issuing FPNs on black and minority ethnic Londoners. The damning IOPC report into an explicit culture of sexism, homophobia and racism at Charing Cross police station was the last straw for the Mayor.

The public, unsurprisingly, have long lost faith in the Met and its leadership. Any meaningful improvement of confidence in the police could not have been overseen by a commissioner irrevocably associated with a toxic culture she had once seemed to stand against.

The problem is that the path forwards – how to tackle an institutionally dysfunctional and discriminatory force – is still dismally unclear. First, there is the issue of her replacement. Home Office briefings made it quite clear it was the absence of possible replacements, not Priti Patel’s confidence in the commissioner, that secured her two-year extension. Neil Basu, long seen as the heir apparent, is disliked in the government for past comments about Boris Johnson.

Acrimonious briefings in the last few days between the Home Office and City Hall, who need to agree on a new commissioner, reveal a torturously divided political direction for the Met, which is answerable to both given its dual local and national functions. The next commissioner will have to balance their views with that of officers often on the other side of the debate, with the Police Federation recently declaring no confidence

Comment | 9

Cressida Dick had to go – but the real work on police reform still lies ahead in Khan over Dame Cressida’s resignation. There is also the issue of ‘partygate’, a mess partly of Dick’s creation, with the risk that her successor may effectively have to determine the future of the Prime Minister. Those in the frame would be forgiven for thinking the role was a poisoned chalice – three of the last four incumbents have been forced out before the end of their tenure.

However, this goes deeper than just leadership. Cressida Dick resigned after Sadiq Khan made it clear he had no confidence, not just in her, but in her proposals to reform it. Those proposals, we are told, focused in large part on the work of Louise Casey, the former Government homelessness tzar known as a capable and conscientious operator, brought in to reform the Met. The direction of the Met is therefore even more uncertain.

There might seem to be broad cross-party support for police reform, but in reality, that has meant little. Both Yvette Cooper and Priti Patel have been raising similar areas in recent weeks, including vetting processes and police misogyny. But Labour – perhaps understandably – has provided little detail, beyond the suggestion to include Violence against Women and Girls in the Home Office’s strategic policing requirement, which, while very sensible, is a limited measure. Meanwhile, Patel’s work has so far been to commission inquiries and send Her Majesty’s Inspectorate into the Met. There is certainly merit in allowing for proper investigations before pol-

icy starts being made – but many are justifiably worried that politicians are lacking ideas that can meet the scale of the challenge.

You’d be forgiven, too, for lacking confidence in the ability of this government to deliver serious public-sector reform given that the sum total of its policy output to date seems to be the words ‘levelling up’ and the crowdsourcing of post-Brexit deregulation to the readers of the Sun. Meanwhile, the Met’s performance continues to deteriorate.

Despite Covid, teenage homicide in the capital is at an all-time high, with traumatic impacts for schools and communities. In 2021, the Met only cleared up 5% of burglaries, a truly pathetic figure.

Dame Cressida’s stated aim was to tackle violent crime – and yet it is once again rising after the pandemic. At the same time, the former head of its black police association Janet Hills told the Times (paywall) that problems around the force’s attitude to race worsened during Dick’s period at the helm. And Priti Patel’s decision to reverse the limits placed by Theresa May on the use of stopand-search has meant progress in reducing its disproportionate use by the Met on black and minority ethnic people has been lost.

However, the Met is only the most egregious example of systemic failings in culture and performance across all our police forces. Nationally, rape prosecutions continue to decline, with the proportion halving over the last five years. Officers found to have

Johan Orly

behaved inappropriately are too often shunted to new jobs in policing. Lightweight Police and Crime Commissioners are failing to hold forces accountable. New forms of crime – online fraud chief among them – are leaving the police in their wake. Even the chair of the Police Federation is admitting the police has a national problem with sexism and discrimination.

The only suitably ambitious approach to tackle this is, first, a national statutory inquiry into policing, with a deadline within the year; this needs to be followed by wholesale reform led from the centre of government, not the police. Vetting of officers has to be toughened, and training overhauled. Officers must feel like they can raise complaints and thus challenge toxic cultures; serious consequences for misconduct must be enforced transparently. And, instead of hiding behind operational independence, forces must be held more directly and regularly accountable for their performance by ministers, MPs and local government, in conjunction with the communities they serve.

Theresa May famously told the Police Federation that ‘if you do not change of your own accord, we will impose change on you’. It is high time for government to adopt that approach. The police’s inability to tackle its internal problems threatens the essential model of policing by consent. Without serious reform from above, the police, whoever they’re led by, have no chance of regaining – or for many, beginning to gain – public trust.

10 | Comment

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Oli London isn’t Asian He doesn’t even know what it means Andrew Wang

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hat claims to be Asian but is actually white?

California rolls and orange chicken, perhaps, or practically every menu item at Panda Express. As the title of this article gives away, however, this question is referring to British influencer Oli London, a white British influencer who is a self-proclaimed ‘transracial’ Korean, and who recently suggested undergoing penis reduction surgery to be ‘100 percent Korean’. As an Asian man, it is little wonder that I am horrified at their existence. Yet putting aside my failure to overcome the problematic concepts of masculinity I’ve internalized, Oli London is still both symptomatic of and actively perpetuating the marginalization of East Asians.

When I first stumbled upon Oli London in late 2020, after a friend of a friend danced in one of their music videos, I laughed them off as a creepy but harmless and rather amusing anomaly. I could not have been more wrong. Since then, Oli London has only become more famous and more successful: they’ve gained millions of followers, released numerous singles to continue their musical career, and signed representation deals with prominent brands such as Paris Hilton skincare. And while Oli London themselves perhaps has not become any more obnoxious, their growing success is a condemnation of broader society. Oli London is profiting off of harmful Asian stereotypes, and their continued prominence is profoundly disturbing.

Oli London’s success is built entirely off of controversy, and provides very little to no value to society. Oli London is trans-racial: as a white person who was born and raised in a predominantly white country by white parents,

they nevertheless identify as harder to get promoted or enter Korean. They first entered the into leadership roles because of a internet’s field of view after ap- widespread perception that Asians pearing on Hooked on the Look, are submissive. Indeed, even with a documentary series that focuses the recent surge in popularity of on extreme cosmetic surgery, and East Asians in media, from BTS to various internet personalities and Anime to Shang-Chi, these issues media outlets picked up on Lon- have persisted. Modern society don’s bizarre story of undergo- has far from resolved the harmful ing dozens of cosmetic surgeries old-fashioned stereotypes about to look like Park Asian men; it has Jimin, a member instead twisted Oli London’s desire of the Korean it into a popular boy band BTS. to look Asian without fetishization. I London built went from being experiencing the on their viralundatestruggles of being Asian entirely ity with further able (Asian men TV appearances erases the voices of real are bad with on Dr. Phil and women, have Asians.

Botched, and resmall penises, leased their first etc.) to being pasingle in early 2019. Building off raded as some Kpop idol lookalike the media attention thrust into (I am not Korean). And as much as their lap, London quickly became I would love to look like a Kpop a popular influencer, and now star, I nevertheless feel the same has millions of followers across disgust whether society thinks YouTube, Instagram, and recently I’m submissive, disposable, and TikTok. Moreover, from marrying undate-able or submissive, disposthen divorcing a cardboard cutout able, and theirs to own. Oli Lonof Jimin to making ever-more of- don’s desire to look Asian without fensive claims about how they aim experiencing the struggles of beto mold their appearance to better ing Asian erases the voices of real fit regressive stereotypes about Asians. Their misinformed notion Koreans, London has managed to about what Asians generally look stay in the internet spotlight with- like, from weirdly slanted eyes to out much artistic talent or other smaller penises, sets us back to redeeming qualities. before the recent phenomenon of fetishization of Asian men.

There is no shortage of internet Perhaps most importantly, Oli’s celebrities who lack both talent obsession with adopting surfaceand self-awareness, yet Oli Lon- level identifiers such as physical don is much more sinister—their appearance or language demonpopularity brings real harms to the strates that they don’t consider Asian community. Discrimination Asian culture anything more than against us Asians is far more com- these surface elements. plex than the obvious instances of anti-Asian hate crimes that have As one would expect, Oli Lonheadlined media in the past few don has faced a considerable years. Oli London in particular fur- amount of criticism. As Sandra thers stereotypes that emasculate Song wrote, London “suddenly Asian men, with ramifications far deeming themselves ‘Korean’ is beyond just getting fewer matches incredibly offensive, especially on Tinder. Studies have shown since it effectively trivializes our that Asian men find it consistently identities because they’re sud-

denly ‘trendy’.” Often, however, London has been successful in distracting the media from valid and important criticisms towards claims of being attacked or discriminated against for their gender identity. In a post-surgery video, they conflated issues around self-identification typically used to explain the transgender experience with a valid justification for being ‘trans-racial’, remarking “If you’re trapped in the wrong body your whole life, you don’t understand.”

insistence on deeming themselves Korean makes their racial identity an inherent threat to the cultures and identities that they are trying to appropriate, and therefore invalidates their right to respect.

At the end of the day, while the mental burden of experiencing continuous hate must be immense, Oli London is not the only person who is hated for who they are— Oli London’s identity comes at the cost of the rest of ours.

As mentioned in the first paragraph, much of my recent indigOli is right to complain about nance towards Oli London was in death threats or gender-based regards to their comments about discrimination, of course. But the average size of Asian mens’ they are truly despicable for using reproductive organs. Of course, it this to distract from their racism. is an old trope that being sensitive While London may claim to be liv- about such insults is symptomatic ing as “they truly are,” this does of fragile masculinity. Yet the masnot exempt them from criticism. culinity of Asian men has been so As a general rule, it is wrong to persistently attacked, from the attack how someone identifies as disgusting portraits of the very it is an aspect of them that they first immigrants to the Western cannot change, but Oli London’s world to the desexualization of racial identity is different for two Asian men in Hollywood. Whether reasons. Firstly, this ‘racial iden- dick size is a problematic measure tity’ seems ingenuine. London’s of masculinity or not, the fact reobsession with looking like an mains that it has been so commonAsian man is a ly used to disparprime example age Asian men of fetishization If you want so badly to that it cannot be borne out of be Asian, you don’t need interpreted as nauseating steto try so hard to look anything other reotypes—their than racist. Oli failure to prop- like one. Try learning a London makes it erly understand little bit about us first. well known that the experience of they are non-bibeing Asian makes their obses- nary, a fact that is respectable and sion cultural appropriation, not courageous. But this has nothing to cultural appreciation, as much as do with their racial identity—and they may claim otherwise. Indeed, society cannot respect their racial London is appropriating not only identity without disparaging my a culture, but said culture’s entire own. identity, and further contorting it into some twisted version of their And Oli-if you want so badly to own fantasy. This simply is not the be Asian, you don’t need to try so behavior of a genuine attempt to hard to look like one. Try learning understand one’s supposed adopt- a little bit about us first. ed culture. Secondly, even if this is who London truly truly is, their

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

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Identity

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February2022

12 | Identity

Editors: Aarthee Parimelalaghan, Yii-Jen Deng, Madeleine Hopper Deputy Editor: Dania Kamal Aryf identity@oxfordstudent.com

The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee and the Legacy of Empire

Matt Holland discusses the dark and dirty legacy of the British Empire under the reign of Elizabeth II.

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hen Queen Elizabeth II first ascended to the throne on the 6thFebruary 1952, Winston Churchill was the Prime Minister, the foreign-born population of the UK constituted just 4.2% of the entire population and the majority of the British Empire was still intact, besides India which had gained its independence just 5 years earlier.

Rationing for bread and many other foodstuffs was still in place after the Second World War, owing to the economic frailties which afflicted Britain during Attlee’s premiership. Harold Macmillan’s grand housing plan was underway and would build 300,000 new homes in place of inner-city slums.

Discrimination towards women, ethnic minorities including the Irish was seen as part and parcel of the fabric of society, and signs could be seen in windows with rooms to let, listing requirements of “No dogs, no Blacks, no Irish”.

The death penalty was still a punishment used by the courts, although admittedly it was rarely issued for any but the most seri-

ous and heinous crimes and just a year into her reign, the Derek Bentley case would shock Elizabeth’s country so much that it would be one of the last cases of capital punishment used.

Homosexuality, between men at least, was strictly illegal and the moral shock surrounding its criminality would not be horrifically exposed by the Jeremy Thorpe case for another 20 years.

Abortion was a crime, and thousands of women and girls relied on backstreet abortion clinics in order to carry out their abortions. Schooling in this country was still governed by the 1944 education act, whereby secondary school education was strictly only available for the brightest kids who passed their 11+ exams.

The changes which were to occur during her reign were unsurprisingly incredibly unprecedented at that time, but then again so was the fact that the Queen would reign for 70 years.

While there is a tendency among leftists to view history as a se-

instance Thatcher’s Section 28 enacted in 1988 presented a large step backwards in teaching tolerance in children about homosexuality, by recalling funding from any schools that actively sought to teach homosexuality as part of their sex education.

ries of progressions towards a more tolerant and permissive society, there have been many forks in the road between 1952 and 2022.

Large-scale race riots would afflict Britain throughout this time, It would take until 1967 for such as the infamous Notting Hill homosexuality between men to riots, and racism certainly hasn’t become legal, until 2001 for the become a thing of the past even age of consent to be equalised, untoday. 54 years since Enoch Pow- til 2004 for same-sex couples to ell’s Rivers of Blood speech, our form civil partnerships and until society is still one where immi- 2014, just 8 years ago, for samegration is a politisex couples to earn cal football which the right to marry. both of the largest Discrimination parties like to kick towards women Marriage itself about through the provides an interand ethnic pacing of the game. esting case study minorities was for seeing the way Indeed, our cur- part and parcel in which society rent Government has become more of socieety. is taking steps to permissive and become tougher on tolerant. The Dismall-boat crossings in the English vorce Reform Act 1969 allowed channels and to increase their own couples to divorce if they had been power to strip non-British-born separated for more than 2 years, people of their citizenship, simply and removed the requirement for to save their own skins. couples to admit or prove fault in the relationship. Even despite this, Similarly, the path towards toler- the Church would fail to keep up ance towards sexuality has been with this greater permissiveness rocky in Elizabeth’s Britain, for towards divorce. Many people

would be rejected marriages by their local Churches even until quite recently, as my parents in 1990 were denied a Church marriage and were forced into marrying at a registry office due to the fact that my mother had already been married and divorced.

Most importantly of all these changes though, is the changes in our attitudes towards the Empire during the Queen’s tenure.

As we have seen the Empire was still mostly intact in 1952 and the years of decolonisation that followed were more pragmatism than anti-Imperialism. Yet now we live in a country that is mostly ashamed and guilty of our Empire, with a 2019 poll suggesting that only 32% of the public suggesting that they were more proud than ashamed of our Empire, a figure which would doubtlessly be lower now.

Gladly, we are country that no longer just looks at statues and believes that narrative that they feed us of these people’s greatness, but instead we look at a statue of Churchill and see him in all his constituent parts; War hero, great orator yes – but also just an imperialist and a racist.

Identity | 13

The Oxford Student | 18th February 2022

S.A.D. and Me In Defence of SunBeds

Madeleine Hopper reflects on how Seasonal Affective Disorder disproportionately affects people of colour and offers tips to remedy its effects.

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miss the sun. I suppose most people do - we’re currently in the gooch of the year, where it’s still dark around 5pm, and horribly cold, and restrictions mean more or less all the libraries are haunted by the icy winds of COVID prevention. So far, so normal, you might be thinking – no one likes the cold or the gloom, why am I reading this in the identities column? Well, although feeling a little down during the winter is probably a universal experience, it’s one that has a bigger impact on people of colour

SAD, or Seasonal Affective Depression is exactly what it sounds like – depression that gets worse during the winter, and clears up or disappears completely once the days start drawing out. They don’t quite know what causes it yet; at the moment the main explanation is that a lack of sunlight stops your brain from working properly (the hypothalamus, if you want to be specific). To be honest, it’s probably not helped by the way the our lives are so time-regimented under the current capitalist system; it leaves us with little opportunity to slow our lives down a little during the winter months (after all, preindustrialisation there just wasn’t a lot to do once you’d post-harvest and pre-sowing). Before clocks and time-sheets, people’s lives would be moulded around the changing seasons; in the winter, you would simply go to bed earlier and get up later. There hasn’t been any wide-scale research on it yet, but it would be interesting to see whether working from home – which for many has meant saving time by cutting the commute, allowing us to go outside more freely – has made an impact.

More importantly, SAD has a

disproportionate effect on people of colour. For one thing, we are more likely to suffer from Vitamin D deficiency, as it is produced in the skin by the action of sunlight: Non-white skin is less efficient at doing this. This deficiency is thought to be a factor in the development of SAD, as it produces extremely similar symptoms – fatigue, mood changes, lethargy. It is also found only in a very small number of quite specific foods, such as oily fish, red meat and egg yolk, so deficiency is actually super common, even in white people. Depressing as it is, in England our winters are so sunless that no-one, white people included, is likely to be able to produce enough Vitamin D from sunlight exposure during the winter, and this gets exponentially worse the darker your skin happens to be.

For some of us, missing the sun isn’t just a light-hearted gripe it’s another deficiency in itself.

So, how should you deal with these deficiencies ? The Vitamin D issue can be easily solved – just take a daily supplement (which the NHS website actually advises ‘everyone’ to do September through March). SAD, which you could argue is a sort of sun-deficiency, requires slightly more ingenuity to tackle. It’s a question of figuring out what works for you and what you can reasonably do in your dayto-day life, although maximising your exposure to natural sunlight should be the main goal. I have two main strategies for this ; both easily do-able, though one which you would probably not find on the NHS website. The ‘good’ advice : I like to try and work at the libraries where you get the most natural sunlight, i.e. any of the ones with big windows. Walking or cycling to or from them is another chance to catch some rays–and the best

libraries are the Vere Harmsworth, the Taylorian, and (the absolute holy grail) - the upper floor of the English Faculty, where the desks are directly in front of west-facing windows, so if you go in the early afternoon on a sunny day it genuinely feels like you’re catching a tan.

Which is fitting, because the other thing I do to stave off SAD is use tanning beds. I know what you’re thinking – that they’re melanoma city, horrible, evil contraptions that should’ve stayed in 2005 where they belong. And I’d like to make it clear that I absolutely

would not recommend this to anyone white – please just buy a light box instead, I really don’t want you suing the OxStu if you tan yourself into jerky. I’d also like to make it clear that it isn’t from a place of vanity – if the only reason you’re doing it is to bronze up, that’s probably also a bit dicey. Disclaimers aside, though, I would (tentatively) recommend it if you really struggle with SAD. The person who recommended it to me was actually my dad - which I like to think adds something to the fact that it’s for mental health. The main problem with trying to up your sun-intake naturally is that we live

in England - there simply isn’t a lot of it about. So, naturally, you have to cheat a little bit. Chances are that if you have enough melanin to be at higher risk of SAD, you probably also have enough that the occasional (and I mean, say, three times a term at the absolute maximum) sunbed might do you more good than harm. Sunbeds have a terrible reputation, and one that is largely absolutely fair. But, in terms of SAD, I’d say there is a case to be made for using them – for medicinal, rather than recreational usage.

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Features Recovering from 16 | Features

Editors: Anna Davidson, Marietta Kosma (Deputy) Deputy Editors: Jason Chau, Will Neill features@oxfordstudent.com

Anorexia

CW: Anorexia, Mentions of Hospitals Anonymous

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ating disorders are very deceptive. I used to read all those clichés about your eating disorder being your ‘best friend’, a ‘comfort blanket’ and struggle to see how anyone could ever think that. But those very same ‘clichés’ are the bitter truth - an eating disorder CAN be a diet gone wrong, a ‘diet’ which can evolve into the ultimate slippery slope to total self-destruction and misery. You struggle to make rational decisions. This is known as ‘starvation syndrome’ - something that reassured me, in that it was a medical condition with a concrete name. Remember, if you have an eating disorder, you are unwell, you do deserve treatment and you can get better.

The fall

The media As much as recovery accounts on social media can provide a positive community, they can also make your struggles feel invalid. Unfortunately for me, the latter was the case. All eating disorders are valid - hold on to that. Why not steer clear of social media and instead focus on activities which make you feel more like you. For example, although I found bedrest very challenging, it was a great way for me to focus on recovery and learn to be at peace with myself.

Social media, particularly TikTok, can also thoroughly glamourise eating disorders. Hospitals, contrary to the depiction of

My eating disorder started when I was 16, primarily fuelled by a lack of body satisfaction and major traits of perfectionism. I am not going into detail about how much weight I lost, or my lowest weight but I can “ tell you it was a terI rifying period in my thought it was too life. hard, too confusing, too Over the next 3 years, I got more and abstract... Recovery more unwell and realis hard, sure, but it ly resisted treatment. only gets easier.

This is where I would Isn’t maintaining like to point out the benefits of medication in (anoan eating rexia) treatment. Of course, SSdisorder RIs (Selective Serotonin Reuptake harder?

Inhibitors), also known as antidepressants, are not for everyone.

Talk to your doctor and then give them a chance, is my advice.

them on the app, are not places where you lip sync to songs or do cute dances with new friends.

Hospitals are always noisy. Hospitals are mind-numbingly dull.

Hospitals are lonely.

The rise

In early 2022, I had given up on recovery. I thought it was too hard, too confusing, too abstract. This was one of the worst decisions I have ever made. Recovery is hard, sure, but it only gets easier. Isn’t maintaining an eating disorder harder?

Recovery is confusing - it is not black and white and there is no one who can do it for you. This is where specialist eating disorder services can guide and support you.

Recovery is abstract - it is not the same for anyone but that is the beauty of it. ‘Abstract’ is not synonymous with ‘bad’; ‘hope’ is abstract, ‘peace’ is abstract, so too is ‘contentment’.

My recovery is not complete. There are still storms but there are always rays of sunshine afterwards. Through talking, medication and proper nourishment, I am recovering every day.

Anorexia gets weaker, less powerful and more insignificant and I get stronger, happier and much more free.

Agatha Guitierrez Echenique

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hat do we mean when we say that the study of classics ought to be either restructured or eliminated completely in search of education reform in conformance with the values of justice and reconciliation?

For one thing, it could mean that what advocates of literary reform want is the cessation of the study of certain classics – i.e., they wish to prevent school-age children from engaging in what is considered as harmful literature. Literature that contains racist, misogynistic, or homophobic viewpoints could be viewed as harmful literature and therefore it could contaminate the epistemic formation of school-age children. The desire to ban controversial literature from the eyes of school-age children, can be perfectly reflected through a metaphor concerning disease and the immune system .

In the same ways in which we try to limit a child’s exposure to a bad disease until their immune system is fully developed, so we limit a child’s exposure to controversial literature before their epistemic development is complete. Perhaps,

when a person’s immune system is fully developed (when a person has gone through the proper education in critical thinking), then we may expose them to virulence (to the so-called ‘bad’ ideas).

On a purely theoretical level, there seems to be a great deal of plausibility in the rationale of banning specific classics from being studied by school age children.

But, to truly test out whether this theoretical framework (represented by our disease and immune system metaphor) actually works for its purposes – that of actually achieving values of justice and reconciliation in our education reform – we must look to its practical applications, judging the viability of our theoretical framework from these applications.

I want to examine two separate cases. The first is that of schools in Burbank, California. The school district, voicingconcerns about racism, banned Huckleberry Finn, among other books such as To Kill a Mockingbird, Of Mice and Men, The Cay, and Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry, from being included in class curricula on September 9th, 2020. It is undoubtedly true that Huckleberry Finn includes instances of racism as the n-word is present over 200 times in the book. But anyone who wishes to ban Huckleberry Finn for being a racist book has clearly not read-

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

On Classics and Identity:

Features | 15

Can the Field Survive?

the book (or at least, wasn’t paying understand Twain’s prose, and attention to their teacher). Huck by then, one would hope that the befriends a slave and chooses to education system has had ample free him against his own religious time to inculcate values of equalconvictions because he does not ity, justice, and reconciliation feel that his newly made friend is to students, so that when they inferior on the basis of the color of come across language that does his skin. In other words, the book not conform to the ways in which is about the complicated relation- it is now acceptable to speak (as ship that a young, white Southern they undoubtedly will, not just in man has with established religion literature, but also when they en(and his feelings about his own sal- gage with other groups who may vation) when these conflict with not share the same norms), they his own nascent moral conscience will come to recognize that these and his duties as words are not the Jim’s friend. The worst ones when book features it comes to the racism because it The book features representation of is about racism, racism because it the shared values not necessarily community, is about racism, of because it is a racjustice, etc. not necessarily ist book.

Let’s examine because it is a In that sense, a different case, then, our theothen, wherein racist book. retical framework the author is supwould have to be portive of somerefined in a way ] thing racist. Can to have an eye for the nuance of we ban the study of Rudyard Kithe thematic or moral message of pling’s “The White Man’s Burden” the literary piece we are engaging for example? The poem is urging with. What is the author actually the United States to make the trying to say? In other words, we Philippines a colony as a means should be doing a literary analy- of ending the Philippine-American sis, by engaging with classics in war. Surely one could think that an English class, with a professor. there’s nothing to be gained from Huckleberry Finn is not written exposing children to such clearly at a kindergarten reading level. infantilizing, nationalistic warPresumably one would need to time poetry that glamourizes the be in high school to be able to all-powerful white man as the sav-

iour of the poor, hapless Filipino, or is there? I would say that I’m not quite so sure. It is true – there is no “deeper” moral lesson about racism and colonialism in Kipling’s work, unlike in Twain’s works. Kipling was racist. But there’s still something of value in learning about how different people think and express themselves in poetry.

Mediums like poetry express the sentiments that actual people had and supported. To deny the study of such work is to deny that racism and colonialism have been present throughout human history. It may be unpleasant to look at this, but we should not shy away from studying reality merely because it is unpleasant. In seeking to purify curricula, we run the risk of negating facts and creating a narrative wherein people have never gone wrong and, consequently will never go wrong. Kipling’s works, and works like his, are a warning for our generation that there is something going wrong in our collective consciousness Undoubtedly we wouldn’t expose younger children to Kipling, but Kipling just like Twain isn’t written for kindergartners. But do we consider – and here I will drop the annoying word “children” and get at the heart of the matter – teenagers to be so obtuse, or teachers so inept, as to be incapable of recognizing something

wrong, or to be incapable of teach- classics” but instead “expanding ing norms, respectively? If so, I the range of classics to include a think we might have something variety of viewpoints that aren’t else to worry merely Eurocenabout – not just tric” then I’m all reforming the Kipling was racist. for it. education sysWe should seek But there’s still tem to conform something of value to clearly delineto the values what is the in learning about ate of justice and purpose of trying how different reconciliation. to include in the Specifically, we people express canon authors might have to from any backthemselves in scrap the entire ground. Otherpoetry. educational prowise, we may ject if we considrun the risk of er teachers and tokenizing cerstudents to be quite so obtuse. tain authors. It is often the case But perhaps by reforming the that, for the purposes of creating educational curriculum, we do an appearance of political cornot mean that we wish to remove rectness, academic institutions the classics altogether from class- will throw in authors of various rooms, but rather expand the na- backgrounds into a course without ture of what the classics are. What understanding how or why these we typically consider as “classic” authors in fact contribute to diverworks are the works of white, sifying thought and challenging a male European or American writ- Eurocentric narrative. We should ers. such as Twain, Kipling, Tol- intentionally seek out underreprestoy, Huxley, Tolkien – and the list sented groups to get as complete goes on and on. To this day, more a narrative of history as we can. than 80 percent of popular novels The remedy is not to stop teaching are written by men. Reading lists certain subjects which we concontinue to be, to put it bluntly, sider “too white,” but instead to embarrassingly undiverse, even in ensure that teaching occurs in a topics that invite representation conscientious manner– that is to of non-male, non-white authors say, with an eye to the values of (such as African studies). If what justice and equality. we mean by “restructuring classics” is not “eliminating certain

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Columns | 17

snmuloCColumns Campaigning 101

It’s been hard for me guys, it’s been really quite difficult. I know there are literally people dying, the Very Reverend Kourtney Kardashian delivered that pearl of wisdom during one of her sermons. But it’s my dissertation term and I’m running low of vim and joi de vivre. I’ve been swiping lazily on Tinder hoping my true love might jump out at me and luckily for me, someone did pole their head out of the parapet onto the No-Man’s land that is my love life.

His name? Dear readers, I’m an absolute tease and will not be revealing that because I did get in trouble for that last time. The angry Instagram message was probably much deserved but still knocked me off my high horse.

I’ve been reduced to a sad looking donkey.

Anyway, we matched. He’s at Lincoln. I agree, it is a bit of an irrelevant one but I can’t be too choosy – I’m from Benet’s. You know the drill, bit of chatting and then a meet up. I immediately liked the sound of him. He wanted to meet me in the harsh daylight and not surrounded by pints to dull the pain of the potentially dull conversation. It was bold, it was brave. He had set a bar and blow me if I wasn’t going to meet him and pick up the gauntlet.

And so, we met at the Independent Café opposite Christ Church. A very cutesy little place. The man had good taste.

He rocked up in the depths of winter wearing a pair of baggy jeans, very much the “I stole these from a dumpster but I’m making it chic” look, a cheque shirt rolled up to the elbows complete with a pearl necklace and …. A Gillet. It was approximately 2 degrees and I was bundled up in my chunky boots, two pairs of socks peeking out at the top, a thick jumper a scarf and, naturally, my college puffer, for the Oxloves. I wasn’t wearing a hat luckily, it does nothing for my hair, but I was wearing fluffy gloves and earmuffs so bore a striking resemblance to a cross between the Michelin man and the toddler of overly protective

agoraphobic parents. Naturally he didn’t recognise me until he messaged me to say “I’m outside” at which point my phone pinged.

His eyebrows shot up. Not a great start, he was clearly at least a little disappointed. He went in for a hug anyway but was unable to get his arms around and I couldn’t move because of all my layers so it looked like he was trying to kidnap the overly large toddler that was myself. There was a pause.

We went inside and got the drinks; he ordered a “Macha latte oh rahhhh” and an Earl Grey tea for me. Those who know me know I am a staunch English Breakfast Tea girl but was informed by my date that, “English Breakfast Tea is so dutty, honestly the herbal infusions of Earl Grey will blow your mind.” And with a sidelong glance and potentially an almost imperceptible wink, “Trust me”.

I went to sit down at a table, divesting myself of my layers but was met with, “Oh right, yah, no, for sure. I thought we could like, you know, go and like experience nature. You know like breath in the air.”

I slurped my Earl Grey for a moment.

“Yeah sure.” This meant getting fully layered up again. As soon as I started this process I could tell he instantly regretted the suggestion but to be fair he waited patiently.

We set off for Christ Church meadows, sipping and slurping.

He asked me what I was into and what were my New Year’s resolutions. I said I’d just got into yoga and was feeling very Zen. Before I could expand he chipped in; “Oh rahhhh. I looooove yoga. I just love how like you can be so in tune with like… your body. Like all bodies are just so… you know… wow.”

I conceded that they were.

He continued that in his gap yaaaah (alarm bells could be heard in the distance, I don’t know whether it was my judgement or the police sirens of the nearby station) he had gone to Thailand and trained as a yoga instructor. He said that since then he really felt like he could live forever, because

with Poppy Atkinson Gibson whatever shit he put into his body, the type of shit was not specified but judging by the AmEx card, it was expensive shit, his spirit would live on.

“That’s nice” I said.

He continued that he being vegan was really environmentally friendly. I tried to offer some counter arguments about oat milk production and so forth but he wasn’t really listening. His sparkly green orbs glazed over and his chiselled jawline was going at a million miles an hour. At one point he was ranting so vociferously his curtain bangs fell into his face, he brushed them away with a swat of his hand.

I realised I had completely tuned out, when I tuned back in again he was saying; “The vegans are having a vegetarian haggis tonight. On Thursdays they always do a special dinner, but it’s like, if you’re going to be vegan like do it properly. I fucking hate that. I’m totally plant based myself you know.”

I did know. He had mentioned that.

He was so furious at this idea he threw his coffee cup down.

I suggested he pick it up and shrugged saying it was made of paper and would decompose with a “get with the programme” kind of look, he was wearing a Gillet after all. I gulped.

We had finished our rotation of the meadows and I said I had to get back to the library because of an impending deadline. The fool!

It’s my dissertation term, there is no deadline until the final deadline, which he would have known if he’d taken a moment to listen!

Anyway, he didn’t go in for a hug goodbye and we went our separate ways.

I mooched around a bit and after he had gone round the corner I dashed back into Christ Church meadows to retrieve the coffee cup. It lay there, all forlorn looking and I picked it up, whispering “I’ll put you where you belong” and threw it in a nearby recycling bin. Meta really, don’t you think?

A lot of being SU President is listening to issues faced by students in a variety of areas.

Just this morning, for instance, I was listening to a student who was keen to ensure her college paid a living wage to all staff. Other conversations I have had lately include students looking at providing free menstrual products in their college toilets or those looking to better amplify scholarship opportunities that exist across the University.

The solution to most of these problems is campaigning.

Especially when wanting to make sure every student gets the most out of their university experience as is possible, a key part of this work is done by the campaigns. They are responsible for lobbying the University and university bodies to make changes on issues relevant to underserved demographics.

Currently Oxford SU has five representative campaigns: Women’s Campaign (WomCam), LGBTQ+ Campaign, Disabilities Campaign (DisCam), Class Act Campaign and the Campaign for Racial and Ethnic Minorities (CRAE). These work alongside our two intersectional campaigns: International Students Campaign and It Happens Here (IHH).

There is always scope to start new campaigns within the SU and receive funding and resources so long as they are substantially different from the existing campaigns and do not overlap too heavily.

More information about this is available on the SU website.

Have you ever thought “that would be a cool thing for students... but I wouldn’t know where to start”? In some cases, the cause you’d like to campaign for is something smaller which you and a few friends can just work on as a project as o p posed to an ongoing

campaign. Oxford SU wants to make it as easy as possible for any student at the University of Oxford to turn their ideas into reality and as such we help with planning projects, presenting them to Student Council and getting initial funding.

An example of a project some students started over lockdown, for instance, is Walk in My Shoes (WIMS) which was a project designed to provide an online, digital platform for students from a wide-range of BAME backgrounds to voice their experience at Oxford University and their various colleges. The series is made up of personalised videos exploring the students’ life back at home, expectations of Oxford, positive and negative experiences since coming and thoughts and suggestions to improve the experience of BAME students. Effectively, this platform gives a voice and creative control to students who are often left out of conversations directly concerning them. WIMS budgeted to spend most of their money on an SD card and some filming equipment and with a bit of planning support from the SU, their project has continued successfully into this academic year.

Starting a project is very easy as it only requires three steps.

In addition, you’ll get support from our Student Engagement staff team, funding, a space on the Oxford SU Website, Social Media support and promotion, and lots more.

1. Come to the SU for a meeting with our Student Engagement Team where we’ll discuss your idea 2. We’ll help you put together a project proposal document with a budget and plan 3. Pitch your project at Student Council and get started making project a reality!

On the whole, getting involved with causes and things you care about in Oxford is easy enough as long as you know where to look and your first point of contact and, in all likelihood, one-stop-shop is Oxford SU.

Anvee’s Corner with Anvee Bhutani

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

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16 | Columns

s your best friend Chloe dating your Dad? Want to find out who you have to blow to get a column in the Oxford Student (looking at you, Anvee…)? Wondering which planet in retrograde is making you want to douche with concrete and walk off a pier? Mystic Rusty is here to help.

Rusty Kate is Oxford’s premier cumfilled crossdresser, known for turning looks, tricks, and straight men seven nights a week. She’s decided to take time out of her busy schedule as Mexico’s ugliest woman to give you her unearthly predictions. Mystic Rusty is also available for readings over the phone (reach her at 0300 123 7123) for the reasonable cost of £6.99 per minute, plus your standard network charge. Just make sure to clarify which service you’re requesting – she uses the phoneline for a variety of purposes.

Now let’s delve into the world of the supernatural, sorcery, and syphilis for February 2022…

18 | Profile Editor: Will Neill, Jessica Kaye profile@oxfordstudent.com

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

In Conversation

with Jon Bromwich , Executive Producer for British Youth Music Theatre

“

Jessica Kaye talks to Jon Bromwich, Executive Producer for BYMT about the theatre, the pandemic, and young performers.

B

ritish Youth Musical Theatre (BYMT) are currently holding auditions across the country, including Oxford, looking for young performers to join their company. I spoke to Jon Bromwich, BYMT’s executive producer about the challenges of holding auditions amid coronavirus restrictions and how BYMT are working to expand their reach across the arts.

How has the pandemic impacted the ability of young performers to showcase their talent?

The people that I feel sorriest for are third year students graduating from drama school, many of whom missed their final year showcases and the industry was pretty well moribund at that time. So the impact will probably have been greatest on them. Still, the disruption to the cultural industries has been so extensive that pretty much

everyone has been affected.

What have been the biggest challenges for BYMT as a result of coronavirus restrictions on theatre performances and in person shows?

With most of our productions taking place across the summer we were forced to cancel the whole of our 2020 season and move all production activity to Summer 2021.

This meant that we were effectively trying to deliver two years worth of programming in 2021 and led to our largest ever season with over 700 young people aged 11 to 21 on residential courses. We created a COVID-19 charter to give ourselves the best possible chance of avoiding outbreaks of infection; all participants had to test in the days leading up to the courses and, once admitted, weren’t allowed to go anywhere off site. It was a very creative lock in! In the end this was

successful and, of the 22 courses run during July and August 2021, we were able to deliver all but one.

In terms of access, what have been the hardest things to overcome for young performers?

The biggest challenge for young people has been the detrimental effect on confidence of the successive lockdowns and varying restrictions. In addition, many families were affected financially and this meant that a number of young people were unable to pay for course fees as they might have done in the past. Having said that we certainly experienced a bounce back effect with demand for places on many courses exceeding our capacity to deliver.

It was immensely gratifying that so many people wanted to get out and make theatre again.

What is the most challenging aspect of doing so many auditions all around the country?

Our annual auditions are pretty well oiled now and the only real challenges are likely to be bad weather preventing our creative staff getting from one venue to another. In the past

Kelsey

The people that I feel sorriest for are third year students graduating from drama school, many of whom missed their final year showcases and the industry was pretty well moribund at that time.

we have had to avoid major snow falls in Scotland and railway lines being washed away in Devon. It keeps us on our toes!

How does auditioning online vs in person impact the way that you are able to assess the ability of applicants?

The most difficult thing about online auditions is drama practitioners assessing group work, the interactions of the performers. This is much less easy to do online. However, musical directors have found vocal assessment to be almost as good as it is in person and, perhaps to our surprise, choreographers also felt that they were able to make accurate assessments. One of the advantages of the BYMT way of working, however, is that we don’t cast individual roles in our auditions. We assess young people and, if they are successful, we allocate them onto projects. The detailed casting is then done in the first 48 hours of each project. Still, in principle, we would always prefer to audition live, if only because all our auditions are group workshops lasting 3 hours – all the songs and dance routines are taught in the room.

How important is it to you that performers are given a way into the industry at a young- do you think it’s necessary for everyone wanting to get into the arts to pursue formal training?

I think that formal training has become more important over the years. 40 years ago, many actors and technicians in the industry were able to start with ‘on the job’ training; but today formal training is more of a necessity. We may have lost something by this and there is an argument that some “ drama school training is overly formal and stifles creativity. On the other hand, some performers do make their way into the industry without training and are very successful.

Finally, what are you most looking forward to about the upcoming auditions and especially the audition taking place in Oxford?

I always love auditions. The great joy of be BYMT is suddenly spotting an unusual talent, a raw talent that perhaps you hadn’t expected.

And it is subsequently very gratifying to see many of those talents making their way professionally in the industry, as I do almost every time I look through a West End or National Theatre programme.

We have had some superb performers come through the Oxford auditions and I look forward to seeing many more this year.

BYMT are holding auditions in Oxford on the 13th of February.

More info about auditions and other work that the company do can be found on their website.

Profile | 19

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Profile

An Interview with Dr. Amir Pichhadze Marietta Kosmo Features Editor

intense expressions and gestures, have the effect of invoking a powerful and intense mood and emotions.

The circumstances and roots of these conveyed expressions are unknown, universal. These images capture an almost timeless, albeit melancholic, expression of the human experience.

T

hroughout this academic year, members of the Oxford community and I have been enthusiastically following the numerous artwork contributions that Dr. Amir Pichhadze, an Oxford alumnus, has been making at different university newspapers. In response to numerous requests, I took the opportunity to interview Amir over zoom to discuss his art work and recent 2021 spring collection which can be viewed online. I take the opportunity to share and reflect on his art and contributions at Oxford.

Tax Discussion Group, the Center for Global Higher Education, the annual Oxford-Cambridge Exchange, the IBFD’s annual Postdoctoral International Tax Forum, among others.

He also made numerous contributions as a writer for university based newspapers, such as his commentary on the role of tutorless tutorials in Higher Education, his reflections on the path towards peace in the Middle East, his book reviews, and his contribution to 2021’s Holocaust Memorial Day, in which he identified powerful examples from Jewish history. Amir served as Treasurer for Dr. Amir Pich- “....it is amazing to the Oxford Unisee that the work versity Canadian hadze, an inquisitive and insightful you do will always Student Society. scholar with inIn addition to prohave an impact terests and capaducing impactful on the causes you research, Amir bilities in a wide range of sub- dedicate your time is an exceptional jects, such as the to. It is an incentive visual artist. Durlaw of taxation, his studies of to further evolve ing higher education the visual arts at and share.” systems and art York University, among others has Dr. Ken Carpenter just completed an –who at the time MSc in Education (Higher Education) was the Visual Arts Department at the University of Oxford. Yet, he has Chair and President of the Internaalso been engaged with numerous tional Association of Art Critics - said other social and scholarly activities. that “in the history of the Visual Art For example, he represented some Department we have not previously of his academic research at numer- had an occasion like this where a stuous forums such as the Cambridge dent has shown the particular kind of

ability that Amir has shown. We are very proud of Amir!.” At Oxford, Amir has been a frequent contributor to the creative teams of the universitybased newspapers Cherwell and The Oxford Student.

When asked about his artwork, Amir said: “I used my time at the University of Oxford to do the things that I’ve always been interested in, because I think that it is amazing to see that the work you do will always have an impact on the causes you dedicate your time to. It is an incentive to further evolve and share”.

Amir’s artworks, which were commissioned to accompany and complement students’ writings, have added much to these students’ publications. The artworks provided relevant and masterfully executed imageries, added layers of meaning to the publications, while also invoking emotions and inspiration on their own. They expose that existence of multiple selves in a singular entity.

For example, to accompany Katie Kirkpatrick’s poem titled ‘hand/face/ space’, Amir created a scene of universal darkness within which he revealed, like constellations in the sky, images of grieving women. The contrast created by the brightly colored outlines, along with the women’s

These are just some of Amir’s collection of artworks. In his spring 2021 collection, Amir debuts some of his abstract paintings, which were inspired by the artworks of his father, master artist Jacob Pichhadze. Made using the pastel medium, the paintings take their audience through the journey of flowing shapes ‘Either way, the that are filled with painting, through vibrant colors.

To accompany Thomas McKeown’s comment titled ‘Great Thunits imagery, style, Asked about his berg’s Spitting Imand technique age Sketch and the next steps, Amir powerfully Problem with Poemphasizes his litical Satire,’ Amir interest in conconverys the featured a surretinuing to pursue intesntiy and alist oil painting his lifelong philancomplexity of of faces. Do these thropic interests. humanity.’ images represent He tells about the physical and the tradition of psychological dihis father, Jacob versity that distinguishes individu- Pichhadze, of using his art to raise als from one another, or is this the funds to support different social diversity which is inherent in each needs, such as helping refugees, as individual? Either way, the painting, well as charities of different kind. In through its imagery, style, and tech- previous years, Amir was likewise nique, powerfully conveys the in- involved in organizing such fundraistensity and complexity of humanity. ing campaigns, such as his art exhibition at York University which raised To accompany Gbenga Chester- funds for student scholarship. Amir man’s article titled ‘Moloch’, Amir is keen on continuing with this path. shared another surrealist painting of a powerful man emerging from The University of Oxford is known the dust of the ground, a powerful for attracting talented and engaged creature emerging from the void. The students from all over the world, and emergence of this figure from the this year’s cohort was no exception. dust of the ground is a strong pres- Amir, among so many others within ence in a background of absence. Yet Oxford, is a source of inspiration and from the clouded background some pride to our Oxonian community. supernatural hand erupts. Its gesture His work is worthy of attention as is captured just as it lays a finger on he has accomplished to create new the man. The intentions of this super- audiences of people that do not necnatural hand are unknown. Either essarily have anything in common way, the man is submissive. With yet are connected through his art. its head down, it waits for its faith.

Emotions are messy and do not easily fit into words, they are cloud-like.

The Oxford Student | Friday 18 February 2022

20 | Green

Green What Does an Environmental Rep Do? Editors: George Mackay, Kellie Tran Deputy Editor: Elias Formaggia green@oxfordstudent.com

In Conversation With Dan Bowen Dan Bowen and Elias Formaggia

T

he JCR is one of the main characters of Oxford colleges.

Having no involvement with the committee whatsoever, the responsibilities of its members mostly remain unknown to me and many others. However, they are clearly doing something: bops, Halfway Halls, and welfare Schemes don’t simply appear out of nowhere. With this in mind, and in the light of the damning climate rankings of Oxford colleges by the Climate League of Oxford and Cambridge, I was interested to speak to my college’s own Environmental Rep. Dan Bowen is a sporadic tute partner of mine and the college’s focal individual concerning issues of climate and the environment; in this conversation, Dan outlined the responsibilities of his role as E&E Rep, as well as some of the steps colleges can take in order to minimise their impact on the environment and become more green.

How have you enjoyed your time as E&E rep?

What has the role involved?

concerns are taken seriously.

A recent example was having the pleasure of having Chantelle Nicholson, recipient of the green Michelin star for efforts towards sustainability, visit college and help prepare an entirely plant-based menu for lunch and dinner in Hall.

This event encompassed many aspects of what I enjoy about being the Environmental Rep: many students asking to try out plant-based menus got to see this being taken on board and implemented by the kitchen; the Sustainable Food Committee arranging to have these visitors share their knowledge with staff at the college, and finally with me sending a survey to students and staff to understand the college community’s opinion of the experience.

Not only are there wide networks within college, but also within the SU, as Environmental Reps from multiple colleges get to meet for the E&E Rep conferences and share ideas, successes and difficulties, and receive support in making an impact in their positions.

Oxford colleges are notoriously difficult when it comes to change, has this affected your time as E&E Rep? What steps do you think they should be tak-

ing?

It is important to note that there is much more that colleges, including Queens, can do to reduce their environmental impact. Major changes within colleges are very much needed to ensure real and drastic improvements are made to minimise environmental impacts.

Examples include the changing of heating systems and windows as well as reducing off-site emissions.

On the other hand, it is important to understand why change does take time to come into effect at institutions, especially institutions like Oxford. With many buildings or sites here at Queen’s being listed, it makes implementing changes to infrastructure or physical systems on site very difficult, with many certifications, plans, expenses and many more technical aspects each needing to be carefully detailed and planned. It is true that colleges as a whole are still not the most receptive to change or recommendations being made from outside groups or organisations. Of course, colleges are themselves independent, and often enjoy exercising their autonomy, so have no obligation to adhere to new strategies, such as the new Sustainability Guide created by the university.

Firkin via Openclipart

The collegiate system at Oxford is at the heart of what makes the education here so excellent; so, of course it is understandable why this system needs to be preserved, but it would not be too much of an issue for colleges to adopt more of a collective approach and be more receptive to suggestions made from outside of their college, or even the university.

Being the Environmental Rep for Queen’s has been a real highlight of my time here as a student at Oxford.

I have worked alongside many college officials and committees which has allowed me to see the concerns of students not only be taken into consideration but actually implemented within the college to reduce our environmental impacts. However, with this insight also comes an understanding of the complex regulations and traditions of colleges as a whole, and frustration is very much a core part of the role too.

For the college, Oxford, and other universities to progress as leading educational bodies at the forefront of tackling the climate and biodiversity crises, it is crucial that they listen to suggestions made by students, take criticism seriously, and make radical change to some of the traditions that may be impeding our ability to tackle issues that extend far beyond college walls. daily sunny via flickr

I love being involved at college as the Environmental Rep. It is both an

enriching and involved role allowing me to work on a wide range of different committees and with a number of college officials. This has involved being on the Carbon Committee that looks at the college’s overarching carbon emissions and possible reductions that could be made within college; on the Sustainable Food Committee that investigates ways to reduce environmental impacts and ensure food is the most sustainable it can be at Queen’s.

These experiences and many others have allowed me to engage in discussion with the head staff at Queen’s, and many more teams and officials than I can possibly list. This is a very rewarding college role to undertake: I’m able to contribute to discussions in this wide range of college activities in order to reduce local environmental impacts and improve biodiversity where I live.

Another thing I have found that as Environmental Rep I’m truly able to make the voices of environmentallyminded students heard. My peers have frequently brought concerns and ideas to me about possible actions or considerations that they want college to take on board. And, due to the large volume of committees and discussions I’m involved in , I am able to raise these points made by students and make sure that their

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

21 | Pink

Editor: Agatha Gutierrez Echenique oxstu.pink@gmail.com

Iron Widow by Xiran Jay Zhao: A Review Jessica DeMarco-Jacobson Section Editor

M

echas, aliens, East Asian mythology – all set against the epic backdrop of medieval China. This isn’t the summary of some fever dream, but instead the synopsis of Iron Widow, a historical-sci-fi queer YA debut novel that refuses to be pigeon-holed into categories, much like its protagonist.

Canadian author Xiran Jay Zhao is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Iron Widow series and Zachary Ying and the Dragon Emperor. They are a first-generation Hui Chinese immigrant from small-town China to Vancouver, Canada. They are non-binary.

Iron Widow follows a fictionalized Wu Zetian, the only woman to rule China as empress in over 3,000 years of Chinese history. Giant bug-like aliens called Hunduns threaten human survival. The world is, quite simply, a terrible place for women at the moment.

Zutian’s sister was murdered by the country’s misogynistic, patriarchal military system, which pairs men and women to fight the aliens in qi-powered transforming mecha suits called Chrysalises.

And Zutian wants revenge.

The Chrysalises are based on East Asian mythological creatures such as nine-tailed foxes and phoenixes. The two pilots for each Chrysalis bond their qi through heterosexual sex. The male pilots are seen as celebrities, their life-threatening battles against the Hunduns live-streamed like football matches.

Meanwhile, the female pilots must serve as concubines to their male counterparts.

Zutian’s desire to avenge her sister is the catalyst for the novel. The 18-year-old decides to join this system to accomplish her vengeance by becoming a concubine-pilot.

She is paired with Yang Guang, the star pilot who Zutian believes murdered her sister. Zutian unintentionally kills him while connected to Yang Guang’s consciousness inside the Chrysalis.

Oops. Kind of?

The government then decides

to pair her up with a disliked, alcoholic, criminal pilot named Li Shimin who just so happens to be the most powerful in Huaxia. They take advantage of their bad reputation to fight against the Hunduns and the corrupt government. Zutian’s childhood love, Gao Yizhi, makes a reappearance in her life and a certainly unconventional love triangle ensues.

In an e-mail interview with Zhao, they say that they based the world on their personal experiences of misogyny and racism.

“Basically, all my nightmares [were] dialed up to 11,” said Zhao.

“The rage helped me push through the writing of the story.”

When asked about how they approached writing the LGBTQ+ themes of the novel, Zhao said the following concerning the depiction of polyamory in Iron Widow.

“I didn’t write Iron Widow expecting it to be something groundbreaking,” said Zhao. “Polyamory is so normalized in fandom circles that it wasn’t until later that I discovered how rare it is in traditionally published young adult books.

I was just tired of YA protagonists whose main inner conflict is which male love interest she should choose in the end, so I wanted to write one who defied this expectation and is extremely pragmatic about romance.”

“I

hoped to show that you don’t necessarily have to bind yourself with society’s golden standards for romance and relationships,” continued Zhao. “Through clear communication, the Iron Widow trio enter an arrangement that makes them all happy…The story of Iron Widow is all about shattering rigid gender binaries and gender roles.”

Further, Zhao expressed that they wanted to add to the number of sci-fi novels written by authors of colour.

“I always wished more of us would tackle sci-fi as well, especially sci-fi that takes influence from pre-colonial societies, the way the Roman Empire inspires sci-fi all the time,” said Zhao. “I guess Iron Widow is my entry to this!”

Zhao commented that the most rewarding part of writing their debut novel was weaving together precolonial Chinese culture and sci-fi technology.

“I was especially pumped when writing the mecha battles and imagining how the mechas would be designed after Chinese myth creatures,” said Zhao. “The hardest part was how the overarching plot wove together…I knew the events that I wanted to happen, but it took me a few tries to express the logic of how they connected.

Brainstorming solutions with my beta readers helped a lot in this regard.”

One of those beta readers was Francesa Tacchi (xe/xem/xir). Tacchi is a neurodiverse, queer Italian author of the upcoming fantasy novella, Let the Mountains Be My Grave (May 2022), which is focused on Italian partisan resistance and Italian mythology. Xe is also a contributing writer for Transmogrify!

(June 2023), a YA anthology where trans people claim the central stage in fantasy stories. Commenting on Iron Widow, Tacchi said “I feel like Iron Widow really scratched an itch when it comes to power fantasies for abuse survivors.”

“We have a lot of books, especially YA, where characters (often female) deal with the aftermath of abuse and grow from there,” continued Tacchi. “But it’s always done in a very palatable and nonthreatening way. Iron Widow is

Pink

unapologetic in its portrayal of a survivor’s rage and it is something that is oh-so-needed.”

Tacchi felt that Zhao portrayed bisexual and polyamorous relationships were portrayed “in a very natural way.”

“I also liked how the author dealt with the topic of forced femininity in a patriarchal society,” said Tacchi. “The way femininity is weaponized by a patriarchal society, but at the same time, it’s also created by it. I felt like the whole Chrysalis thing is a strong metaphor for how gender roles and the gender binary itself are arbitrary and arbitrarily enforced.”

Iron Widow is the kind of book that makes you want to stay up late to finish it (which is exactly what I ended up doing). It has excellent world-building that shows rather than tells. Zhao’s style of writing is simply electric.

My one, very minor criticism is that some of the writing in the first 20-30ish pages in the book felt a bit awkward. In particular, I felt the dialogue about butterflies and gender was forced. I’m in no way against discussions of gender in books, but I just felt like this one specific dialogue wasn’t done very well.

Otherwise, Zhao discusses gender in an interesting way. I appreciated having a strong-minded and bodied woman as the protagonist and the feminist nature of the plot. It steered from the previous #girlboss way of writing women protagonists in YA novels (especially dystopian ones like Hunger Games or Divergent). Instead, Zhao discussed gender, misogyny, and feminist themes in a nuanced manner, which I really appreciated.

Zhao said that they recommended aspiring writers within the LGBTQ+ community to write about stories they want to see in the world.

“For Iron Widow, I just let loose and threw all the things I liked together,” continued Zhao. “And that ended up being the book that got me a book deal at last. You can’t go wrong, being true to your tastes.”

In short, I feel like Iron Widow is a groundbreaking YA novel. I can definitely see a live-action film adaption being made within the next few years. I would definitely recommend it!

Cover art by Ashley Mackenzie; cover design by Terri Nimmo from Penguin Random

House Canada. Photograph of Xiran Jay Zhao courtesy of Xiran Jay Zhao.

22 | Gen Z

GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE Elsie CLARK EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z What does it really mean to be a male? I found myself askGEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN sigma ing this question last week whilst Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE swilling a glass of wine and conEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z templating the deeper meaning N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z of human existence (that’s how GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN I’m telling you it happened anyZ GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE way). But once the idea of such investigation struck, I found EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z an that my soul would not rest until N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z I had an answer.

GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE Searching on Urban Dictionary, EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z every journalist’s most trusted N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z source, I found a plethora of difdefinitions for the term GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN fering ‘sigma male’, an edited selecZ GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE tion of which I supply below: EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z 1. The sigma male accepts that GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN he does not need power over Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE others as the alpha male desires, rather needs only power to EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z but control himself and preserve N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z his own autonomy from others.

GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE 2. sigma males play by EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z their own rules. no one elsN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z es [sic]. not even their own.

GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN 3. A term used by beta males Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE (redditors and discord mods) EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z that places them at the top of N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z the “social hierarchy” chart, GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN when in reality they’re the lowZ GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE est 1% of the male population.

EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z Here we can clearly see which N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z definitions have been written by GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN the sigma males themselves, and Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE which by their detractors. HowEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z ever, having read them I was no N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z more illuminated as to what sigma GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN male-ism truly entailed than beZ GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z ‘Sigma male is a label N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z that has been entrustGEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN ed to me for my many Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE deeds and labors.’

EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z fore. Searching on YouTube, I endGEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN ed up in a sigma male video spiral Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE that culminated in me watching EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z a meme entitled ‘Marco Pierre N Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z White’s Sigma Male Grindset’. I gone far into the depths - but GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN had not far enough.

Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z The term ‘sigma male’ first exN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z ploded last summer, with Google GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN searches for the term peaking in Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GE July 2021 (naturally this article being published to capture the EN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z GEN Z is zeitgeist, right as the meme is exN Z GEEDITORS: NZ GEN Z GEN periencing a plummeting decline).

GEN Z LYDIA FONTES GEN Z Aside from jokes about bitcoin, GEN Z BLANE AITCHISON Z GE incels, and toxic masculinity, I still EN Z G JEN JACKSON GEN Z N Z

Getting into the grindset: an interview with a didn’t really know what being a sigma male was actually supposed to mean. To find out, I was going to have to do more than armchair journalism: I had to speak to a sigma male myself.

Enter stage-right my interviewee of choice: Matthew Cooke, a 4th year at Christ Church who agreed to be questioned for this piece not minutes after trying to explain to me ‘the deep masculine urge to run into a flagpole’. In return for his insight, I promised I would photoshop his head onto a statue of ripped Icarus, the results of which can be seen at the centre of this page (Matt, I hope you’re happy).

I began by asking him a basic ques-

tion: what does it mean to be a sigma male? The response was typically elusive: “I don’t identify as a sigma male as such, sigma male is a label that has been entrusted to me for my many deeds and labors,” he said. “Just as Hunkcules strangled the fearsome Nemean lion or cleaned that particularly large stable, I too have committed many feats of superhuman ability.”

His opaqueness here is frustrat-

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Sigma Male

ing but entirely expected. Through further research, I have learnt that the self-identifying sigma male shirks authority, resists direct questioning, and is insistent on following his own path beyond the domineering world of the alpha. Rather fairly, the internet has asked whether the ‘sigma male’ label is just an easy way for the incels and loner men of this world to make themselves feel better, pretending that they are part of a different (and superior) subsection of humanity that everyone else is just too beta to understand. I asked Matt what he thought about this, and the pervasive jibe that sigma males are sad incels who

‘can’t lose their virginity because they never lose’. He replied with a ‘your mum’ joke and avoided answering the question.

So far, my venture into Geddes Memorial Prize-worthy investigative journalism was not going too well, and I was beginning to regret selecting only one interviewee for the project. However, my subject

redeemed himself in his response to my following question, where I attempted to get to the bottom of the ‘grindset’ concept. What does this even mean, I asked, and is it relevant to sigma male-ism?

Matt first pointed me towards a quote whose authorship he claimed for himself: ‘motivation is what gets you started, habit is what keeps you going’. ‘“After all, every dead body on Mount Everest was once a highly motivated person,” he points out, morbidly but accurately. “The grindset is merely the manifestation of habits designed to achieve a goal. Whether it be waking up at 2:30am to get in 4 workouts before most people have awoken or consuming boiled chicken for breakfast, lunch and dinner, these habits are what get the results.”

I have lain eyes on the very rice cooker in which Matt boils his chicken. He also keeps such a large stack of tuna cans in his room one of his friends voiced concern that he might give himself heavy metal poisoning. However, his unceasing commitment to becoming the Icarus statue given flesh is one I respect, even if it baffles me. I continued the investigation of the grindset with a question about bitcoin, and whether it is as crucial a part of the sigma male identity as the memes have led me to believe.

Matt’s answer, in true Ron Swanson fashion, was, “if you’re not stockpiling gold and silver, you’re doing it wrong”. I note this down, vowing to sell my non-existent ethereum and dig a hole in the college quad for my piggy bank at the next available opportunity.

I asked if the creation of a thirdparty identity opposed to the al-

Elsie Clark

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022 pha/beta binary is useful to men generally, or if it just confines them to yet another box. Matt opposed my line of questioning, pointing towards the diagram given opposite and asking how the depicted hierarchy “wasn’t perfectly clear”.

I still think there’s a case to answer for the connection between toxic masculinity and the emergence of the sigma male identity. Part of the reason the movement (if we can call it that) has been so mocked on social media is because it is seen as just another way for men to claim that they’re different, and mark out as superior habits which are generally laughed at (gym bulks, bitcoin, lonerism, etc). I would like to know how many self-proclaimed sigma males really do sit outside of the hierarchy ‘by choice’ as Matt’s diagram claims.

Not too much on my interviewee, however. Matthew Cooke is after all a man who eschewed seeing England play in the Euros final to go to Pure Gym, because ‘it will be quieter when everyone’s watching TV’ and he doesn’t care about football. Although this seemed mad to me, I had to admit grudging respect for refusing to follow the herd.

But on the other hand, to humble him a bit, it should also be noted that Matt has turned Siri off on his phone in case it’s listening, and refuses to wash his hair with shampoo except before haircuts. In his own words: “washing one’s hair was invented by the shampoo industrial complex to peddle snake oils and quack remedies”. It is really annoying for us shampoo users, aka sheeple, that Matt’s hair looks quite good and so I can’t make fun of him for it.

To swipe or not to swipe?

I

f you’ve been lucky enough to find yourself young, single and carefree for any significant period during your time at Oxford so far, you will no doubt have felt the irresistible pull of the dating app. Especially if you spent any time in Oxford under lockdown, unable to achieve a sweet organic meeting-in-real-life story, or even to drunkenly kiss strangers in a club, online dating apps really were the only option – unless, of course, you chose to search for that special connection within your own college, and we all know how well that goes…

Writing this on Valentine’s Day, as my Instagram feed is once again overrun by the annual avalanche of sickening couple-posting, I am moved to reflect fondly on my own, largely unsuccessful, forays into dating in Oxford which have, and I’m not ashamed to admit it, been largely characterised by The Apps.

The Apps in my experience have been comprised of the big three, Tinder, Bumble and Hinge. I must

admit that I have never sampled the Oxford dating scene on OkCupid or Plenty of Fish – so perhaps am writing this article from a position of ignorance. I have used all three – and I’m not ashamed to admit it (once more for luck) I’m not ashamed to admit it. I can tell you from experience however that there is absolutely zero benefit of having more than one app at the same time. They are all filled with the exact same people and the only thing you could possibly gain by downloading more than one at a time is the excruciating scenario in which you match one person on three different apps in the same day, revealing you both as pathetic swipe addicts and spoiling any potential mutual respect or admiration in one fell swoop (ok, maybe I am a little ashamed).

While these apps are supposedly designed for meeting someone new, few pleasures rival that of seeing somebody you already know on Tinder. Whether it’s that beautiful but elusive course-mate that you’ve made lingering eye-

contact with in the faculty library, or whether it’s stumbling across an acquaintance who has always seemed sweet and mild-mannered but who has inexplicably filled his profile with aggressive topless selfies – it’s all part of the fun.

The sheer number of profiles you can view and interact with in a short space of time on these apps has revolutionised modern dating around the world. In a small city such as Oxford, especially when you are mostly pursuing other students, all of whom cram themselves into one of three tiny nightclubs every Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, this quickly presents itself as a problem. In fact, if you spend enough time swiping, you could quite easily cover most of Oxford’s population. This becomes particularly obvious whenever you set foot in Atik/Plush/Bridge and instantly recognise at least three people on every floor from Tinder/Hinge/ Bumble and spend the whole night avoiding eye contact and trying not to think about the awkward

GenZ | 23

Lydia FONTES Editor

coffee date you spent together, or that overly keen message you sent which was met with cold silence.

And when all your friends are single and dabbling in the apps, Oxford suddenly becomes a hostile environment with awkwardness at every turn. My friends and I have recently had to stop our regular visits to one Oxford pub, previously a favourite, after one of our number was suddenly and brutally blocked by its kitchen manager after a Tinder date. When it becomes impossible to visit Cornmarket Pret without frantically whispering, “Oh my God that’s *****! Hide me! Hide me!” to your long-suffering friends, you know you are doing Oxford dating right.

If you’ve somehow managed to stumble across the modern miracle of meeting your soulmate in-real-life in Oxford, then congratulations. I hope you’re very happy. However, when it all goes wrong – as love inevitably does – don’t be too proud to press that download button.

Trust me, you’re missing out.

Thus our interview concludes.

What have I learnt from it? In all honesty, I don’t really know. The Geddes Prize is no closer in my grasp, and in reading back the past paragraph I seem to have lionised the life philosophy of a man who boils chicken in a rice cooker and actively enjoys rowing. Even though sigma maleism makes no sense to me, I’m glad it does to him, at least.

The interviewee stipulated that, in return for answering my questions, I pimp out his rowing finsta. I do so incredibly reluctantly here: @m2_for_footship .

Daisy Greenwood

GAMING

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

24 | Gaming

Editors: Stuart Mcloughlin Deputy Editor: Elias Formaggia oxstu.culture.games@gmail.com

Xenoblade:

a retrospective

Alex Foster relives losing himself in the open-world RPG Xenoblade Chroncicles 3

Alex Foster Editor-in-chief

W

ednesday’s Nintendo Direct closed out not with Mario Kart news, or a new Zelda trailer, but an announcement for something altogether different. Opening with a figure playing a melody on the flute, it was the British voice musing on ‘the way of our world’ over glistening vistas that confirmed it: Xenoblade Chronicles 3 was officially on its way

Yet this initial reticence from Nintendo of America arguably propelled Xenoblade to greater heights. The European branch of Nintendo decided to shoulder potential losses, and the result was fantastic. Instead of American voice actors in the cast as usual, the English localisation chose to use classically trained British actors instead.

This meant we had the charming swordsman Dunban played

by Rufus Jones, an actor in BBC series W1A who was nominated for a Perrier Award at the Edinburgh Fringe.

Similarly the acidic princess Melia was voiced by Jenna Coleman, who starred in Doctor Who as Clara Oswald and Victoria as er, Queen Victoria. The British rather than American voice cast lent the production a charming quality that other RPGs lacked, and the talent among the theatrical and television actors meant heavy scenes were given gravitas the usual voice acting-exclusive actors could only attempt.

The British rather than American voice cast lent the production a charming quality

Being given a sequel and pride of place in the Nintendo Direct marked a momentous ascent for Xenoblade’s Japanese role-playing game series. After all, it had been only ten years since North American fans launched Operation Rainfall, a campaign to get the original Xenoblade on the Wii localised for American audiences after Nintendo had refused. At the time they cited how series like Xenoblade were simply too niche to warrant a full, expensive English localisation.

It certainly helped that the actual game was fantastic.

Released in 2010 in Japan

and 2011 in Europe for the reliable but graphically functional Nintendo Wii, Xenoblade blew every other RPG on the system out of the water. Featuring vast, semi-open world areas like the Gaur Plains or Eryth Sea, that were bigger than entire other game worlds, made the game feel truly revolutionary. Similarly the plot, while still in the fairly standard trope of ‘travel the world and kill God at the end’, felt weighty with many dramatic moments stretching out over its fifty hour plus playtime, all punctuated by a truly fantastic, timeless soundtrack.

Playing Xenoblade as an elevenyearold, waking up at godforsaken hours in the

mornings before school just to get killed by another boss in the Makna

Forest, is one of my treasured gaming memories growing up. I spent over a hundred hours traversing the lands of the Bionis and the Mechonis with Shulk and his party.

On returning to the game during the third lockdown via the Switch’s Definitive Edition I reached that same area in twenty-five hours, and got lost in its world all over again. The game truly is vast and, for once, the Wii felt like a Playstation 3, Xenoblade triumphantly surpassing similar games of the time, like Final Fantasy XIII. The game was universally acclaimed on release, scoring 92 on Metacritic: a game Nintendo of America didn’t want to take a chance on was a massive hit. After being published in the US a year after Europe, Xenoblade gradually began to be enshrined in the Nintendo canon of big releases. Its main character, Shulk, became a playable fighter in Super Smash Bros in 2014, and a semi-sequel, Xenoblade Chronicles X, was released for the Wii U in 2015. It featured the series now-staple vast openworld areas, with a suitably dramatic plot and great music. But it was on the release of a direct sequel, Xe-

noblade Chronicles 2, in 2017 for the Switch, that Xenoblade truly became the Nintendo RPG series par excellence. Again localised by Nintendo of Europe, this time with Welsh, Scottish, and

It certainly helped that the actual game was fantastic.

Irish accents included, the game sold more than two million copies by the end of 2019, due both to similar glowing acclaim and its publication on the massively popular Nintendo Switch system.

Personally I find it more of an acquired taste than the original, but there’s no doubt Xenoblade 2’s battle system is incredible. A rerelease of the first Xenoblade in a Definitive Edition sold another 1.5 million copies, further cementing the series’ status as Nintendo’s flagship JRPG franchise.

With Xenoblade Chronicles 3’s September release on the horizon, it has never looked brighter for the series. A far cry from the struggle to get it released in the US more than ten years ago, the future truly belongs to Xenoblade and, arguably, it will be Reyn time for a while longer yet.

The Oxford Student | 18th February 2022

Editors: Benedict Yorston Deputy Editor: Laetitia Hosie

OxYou | 29

OXYOU

Oxyou.oxstu@gmail.com

How to defeat your tutor in passive aggressive email wars Milo DENNISON

W

e’ve all received that email from a tutor, the one that politely suggests you perhaps ought to consider submitting your essay that was due two and a half weeks ago or it might not be worth turning up to your tute. Normally appearing in your inbox optimistically early in the morning after you’ve spent the night in Bridge, most of you will have read between the lines and appreciated that your tutor was a step away from providing the plot for the next, particularly gruesome, episode of Inspector Morse.

However, as all good therapists (oh all right, mine) will tell you, you have to break the cycle. Doing so is easier said than done though: after all, you do still have to work with your tutor so telling them quite what you’d like to do with their essay title isn’t really an option. Instead, you must follow the age-old tradition of students everywhere and engage in passive aggressive email warfare.

Not so fast, I hear you cry, and you’d be quite right. Engaging in verbal combat with some of the smartest academics in the country is no mean feat. Whilst a simple “as I told you last week” might have sufficed at school, you’re

playing in the big leagues now..

One of the easiest techniques to perfect is the standard guilt-trip. Being Oxford academics, your tutors will inevitably be just as late marking your work as you are in submitting it. Whether it’s a problem sheet that you submitted before the vac or a collection still sat unmarked in the corner of their office in 5th week, it’s all ammunition. However, you can’t just call your tutor out on it, or you’ll receive a long email detailing the various committees they sit on, how much time they have to spend on research, and how unimportant they think you are. Instead, you have to take the feedback angle: “I was so keen to find out how I could improve on my last essay that I thought I should wait to see what you wanted me to work on” is all but guaranteed to win you sympathy.

Not only does it point out the hypocrisy of your tutor without explicitly naming it, but it also paints you as a conscientious student who only cares about doing as well as you can in your degree (not that any Oxford student is actually conscientious).

For one or two of you though, this just won’t do. For whatever unfortunate reason, you’ve drawn the short straw and have ended up with that rare breed of tutor who not only expects you to be on top of your life but is also on top of theirs. They

BEST OF THE ROAST : WEEK 5 FIESTA Rordon GAMSAY

BREAKING: STUDENT JOURNALISM

With the arrival of fifth week has come an 83% decrease in the quality of student journalism, paired with a 17% loss of section editors’ will to live. With the Ukrainian saga dragging on longer than a Lord of the Rings film, and the post views on yet another puff-piece on Walter the Cat finally dipping into mere double figures, writers are being faced with the need to be original again.

One section editor commented: “I put a content call up last week, but I’ve had fewer texts back from it than I

have from my messages to my ex last Thursday night. Like, what’s the point anymore? Maybe I’ll just throw in the towel and go and do something totally pointless like student drama. I hear even basic logarithmic knowledge isn’t required to become a BNOC in that scene.”

pretty ████ ██ ███████ so there’s a silver lining at least

With real news thin on the ground, the various blogs and newspapers of Oxford put their efforts into their annual attempt to make people care about the Union rejects’ SU Presidential Candidacies. With name recognition percentages lower than Eurus Miliband’s, those efforts appear to have been about as successful as Cressida Dick’s last decade. Still, the post-election party was reportedly

WOW: STEM STUDENTS HAVE LOVE LIVES

Hopefully, Christ Church has another scandal soon, lest dozens of budding Rupert Murdochs are unleashed on the rest of Oxford life much to everyone else’s chagrin.

Whilst most humanities students, who can rely on their Daunt Books tote bags and obnoxiously large scarves to achieve the ultimate mysterious look, manage to secure a date in Common Ground, the same cannot be said for mathematicians - or so we thought.

As part of his monthly volunteering

will set them off on a rant about how much more important their subject is.

Chime in and agree, whilst nodding along enthusiastically, and with a little luck your tutor will have forgotten why they were ever annoyed at you in the first place.

So, next time you receive one of those emails from a tutor, don’t sit back and accept defeat. With a little email trickery and a willingness to unleash your inner Karen, you can subtly roast your tutors and remind them just why they offered you a place to start with.

Poetry Corner : Ode to the First Bop

by Jonah Poulard

On an eve such as today, A fresher went into the fray.

Plush was the setting, The outfits upsetting,

Decked in frog attire,

Attracting much local ire,

He danced all night,

And did not feel all right, For drinking their poppers,

Will earn you a run-in with coppers,

He remembered not his misdeeds,

And woke up with many needs,

The most pressing of which,

Was to go to the Dean.

project, Rordon Gamsay, a trained peer supporter, undertook a few welfare walks with STEM students to check in.

Some were upset, yet most were indifferent. “I once went on a date with a girl and gave her a very clear and unbiased explanation as to why we shouldn’t get vaccinated against COVID”, revealed Humphrey, a third year at Teddy Hall. She tried to tell me that I was wrong, which was just funny - I mean, babes, I literally do Earth Sciences, so like, I know more about this than you ever will.

Anyway, ever since that I’m just not interested in dating. If she’s not antivax I don’t want her”.

Image Credit: Maximilian Bühn via Wikimedia Commons

At this point, most of you will have had the standard Oxford reaction: panic, try and remember the last time you handed in a decent piece of work (year 12 usually), write 2000 words of unintelligible garbage to be attached to a grovelling email full of

regret, and promise yourself you’ll be more organised in the future. One trip to your college bar later you’ve forgotten all about it, and the hideous cycle continues for the next 3 years.

send your essay feedback within minutes of you sending it in and collections are tucked neatly into your pidge two day later: trying to guilt trip them just won’t fly. If you find yourself in this sticky situation, there’s only one way out: pit your tutors against each other . There’s nothing an Oxford academic likes more than moaning about their colleagues in other colleges and departments, so exploit this weakness to deflect your tutor’s irritation. This can be particularly effective if your degree includes multiple subjects: telling your tutor that one of your other tutors is asking for too much

Although most of the interviewees shared this anti-Valentine sentiment, Gamsay was shocked to discover a new species during his expedition: an emotionally available physics student.

“Actually really looking forward to it this year!” shared John from St Anne’s. “My girlfriend and I are going out to eat”.

Baffled at the mention of what sounded like a functional relationship, Gamsay has had to take a few days off work to recover. Indeed, the discovery of this strange phenomenon has taken many by surprise. Our dear Rordon will be back soon to update us on the issue.

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

oxstu.culture@gmail.com

Cow Review: An Ode to Consciousness,

Enter tainment

Editors: Sam Wagman. Janita Hussain (Deputy)

26 | Entertainment

Empathy, and Story-telling.

Hannah Williams

D

irector Andrea Arnold is known for casting people with no prior screen experience in her films. Katie Jarvis, who starred in Arnold’s 2009 film Fish Tank, was selected after one of Arnold’s casting assistants saw her arguing with her boyfriend in an Essex train station. Sasha Lane was cast in American Honey after Arnold spotted her on spring break with friends. Similarly, in her new film Cow – Arnold’s first foray into documentaries – our protagonist, some cows, also have no screen experience.

The similarities with the rest of her filmography do not stop there.

Arnold is fascinated by loneliness and captivity. Her films often have very loose, minimal plots, and are not dialogue-heavy. Instead, the films make extensive use of visual storytelling. Dread is also a sensation commonly felt when watching an Arnold film. Cow is, in many respects, an ode to the power of visual storytelling. It holds the audience captive with our bovine protagonists to the extent where any external language – heard from farmers nearby – seems almost always redundant.

The documentary gets up close and personal with an adult cow, Luma, and follows her through a few months of her life on a dairy farm as she lives a cycle of impregnation, occasional grassmunching, birth, gut-wrenching separation from her calf, depressive post-separation episodes and impregnation again. We see her mourn and cry for her baby calves; we see her refusing to eat her food and gazing longingly into the distance after separation; we see her lost calf struggling to suckle upon an artificial udder; and we see her own udders bursting with maternal milk that’s instead collected for human consumption.

Abrasive humanity and submissive bovinity clash loudly and con-

sistently throughout the film.

Whether it’s through the branding and battering cows receive from the farmers, the violative vet examinations that they are subjected to or the almost offensively saccharine music that the farmers play while they are milked, the audience is trapped in the cow’s perspective. One wishes that one could just bat the humans away whenever they so much as manhandle a cow. Arnold’s camera becomes a manifestation of humanity’s inability to leave these creatures alone. Luma herself bats away Arnold’s camera at times.

A particularly poignant scene very early on depicts Luma’s calf, now separated from her mother, being stroked on the head by one of the farmers. At last, a moment of tenderness from human to cow. However, we then begin to glimpse, from the bottom of the misleadingly sunny and intimate frame, an ominous iron rod held by the farmer’s other hand. Soon it becomes clear that the farmer was not caressing this forlorn calf, but rather feeling for the root of its horn in order to debud her (prevent her from growing horns).

We are then forced to witness this painful procedure, performed without anaesthetic, and the intense stress it causes to the calf.

The exploitation of these creatures – and their innocence and powerlessness in the face of such exploitation – is glaringly clear throughout. This renders the frequent comments made by the farmers – such as calling the cows ‘girlies’ or rejoicing at how the cows ‘dance’ around in a hollow attempt at humane sensitivity – completely sickening and tonedeaf. These attempts to ‘cuteify’ these creatures are condemned by Luma’s equally furious and melancholy gaze.

The film doesn’t try to provide these creatures with any false sense of humanity in order to trick us into empathising with them. We are forced to accept and empathise

with pure, unapologetic bovinity.

Arnold doesn’t exploit the cows’ cuteness to make us realise the atrocity that is the way farms treat animals: the truth speaks for itself. For example, we may think that the newborn stumbling calf at the beginning of the film is our protagonist, as if we were to follow her life in a quasi-coming-of-age manner. However, it is actually the mother cow – placenta, udders and all – whose life we follow in relentless detail.

But do not think that Arnold puts all the blame on the people working on this farm. Not even 5 minutes into the film, the audience is faced with a shot of Luma, in which she stands looking directly into the camera and moos in an accusatory manner. The moment is haunting.

Luma, our angry protagonist, is talking to us, willing us to enter her gaze for the next hour and a half.

The film reaches a bit of a lull two thirds of the way through, as Arnold lingers a little too long on the cows’ outdoor activities and provides us with one too many cinematographically-luscious but indulgent shots of the English countryside. The result is that the narrative feels a little lost.

Despite this, Cow mostly achieves the marvellous feat of keeping the spectator utterly transfixed on the painfully mundane daily life of a captive cow. The film’s cyclical structure pays respectful homage to the tortuous cycles of Luna’s life.

The rare moments in which these creatures have a taste of freedom, whether it’s in their gleeful frolics out of their barn into to a freerange field or simply them glancing up and seeing sky as opposed to roof, are nothing less than glorious. The film’s structure, coupled with Arnold’s cinematography and daring editorial eye, allow us to see this dip in the film’s pacing as a mere blip in an otherwise gripping narrative.

The film appeals to our capacity to understand beings fundamentally different to ourselves.

Youtuber and vegan activist Alex O’Connor (otherwise known as the Cosmic Skeptic) gave a short introduction to the film at the screening I went to. He spoke, among other things, of how animals are fundamentally different to humans because they do not possess the capacity for language. Language, he explained, has always been crucial to social change and the oppressed’s defeat of the oppressor.

Animals, therefore, rely solely on their oppressors’ understanding of their situation to fight their cause.

And they are completely passive in this fight. But this speechless film demonstrates that language is almost redundant when it comes to animal rights. People need simply to see the atrocities of farming to understand that what we do to animals is utterly inhumane.

More broadly, this film highlights society’s ambivalent relationship with nature. We fly in planes or ride in trains over the fields in which the providers of our milk and meat rest. We internally anthropomorphise creatures in an attempt to connect with them. The film, however, allows us to live, for an hour and 38 minutes, in nature itself. It isn’t necessarily a film with an overtly vegan agenda: it wills us only to look and understand. As Arnold herself said in an interview with TheFilmStage, ‘Our view of nature is a very romantic one— it’s very sort of pastoral. […] So I thought: instead of the romance, what about the reality? Not like some of the real intensive reality, but just a consciousness, to show a consciousness’. It is nature’s pure, spontaneous existence that Arnold wishes to capture, not our human perspective on it. Perhaps this is why, although our charismatic protagonist is granted a name by the farmers that exploit her, the film is not titled ‘Luma’, but rather, respectfully, Cow. Image Credit: Andrey Niqi via pexels.com

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2021

“They All Deserve to Die”: Sweeney Todd Review

Entertainment | 27

Abigail Stevens

CW – Graphic violence, rape, cannibalism.

Spoilers ahead!

D

oes anyone escape the corruption that festers in every corner of the world? Stephen Sondheim’s musical Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street, with book by Hugh Wheeler, features a depraved cast of characters and a chilling plot. The show is a psychological thriller which takes the audience on a spiralling journey to the darkest parts of Victorian London.

As an avid musical theatre and Sondheim fan, I was eager to see 00 Productions’ rendition of Sweeney Todd. Directed by Imogen Albert, the show was a faithful and striking production with phenomenal cast, sets, and costumes. Albert has taken Sweeney Todd for exactly what it is: an opportunity to portray wickedness and obsession to the point of absurdity with a delightfully grotesque mixture of horror and humour. I greatly enjoyed this production and noted only a few instances where minor changes could have improved the show.

The musical tells the story of esteemed barber Benjamin Barker, who after being wrongly imprisoned and exiled returns to London under the name Sweeney Todd to enact his revenge on the judge who sentenced him and raped his wife. After deciding that “everyone deserves to die”, Todd begins to dispatch the various patrons of his barber shop, all the while hoping that he will eventually meet the judge. Abetting him is shop-owner Mrs. Lovett, who bakes the flesh of Todd’s victims into meat pies and serves them to an unsus-

pecting public.

In any production of Sweeney Todd, it is essential that the chemistry between the demon barber and his partner in crime is on point. Maggie Moriarty shines as Mrs. Lovett, delivering a stellar performance rife with dark humour. While Daniel McNamee is commendable in his performance as Sweeney Todd, succeeding in showing Todd’s vicious and tormented nature during his solos, he was overshadowed at times

by Moriarty. However, I thought they worked well as a pair; I particularly enjoyed watching them in the number at the end of act one, “A little priest”. In this performance, the two delight in plotting future murders and indulge each other in a series of puns about the different professions who will be made into pies.

Todd’s violence is spurred by his grief over losing his family to the evil Judge Turpin, played by Noah Radcliffe-Adams. Radcliffe-Adams portrayed Judge Turpin as rigid and formal, while Declan Ryder opted for a more outward and jovial persona for Beadle Bamford, Turpin’s right hand. Ryder’s approach to his character was winning – the Beadle’s outward familiarity with the other characters grated against their obvious dislike of him, which created believable tension on stage.

In contrast with the many corrupt characters are Todd’s daughter Johanna, raised by Judge Turpin in near isolation, and her love interest Anthony. Johanna and Anthony, played by Hannah O’Sullivan and Cormac Diamond respectively, are naïve characters, and O’Sullivan and Diamond’s bright, clear voices suited

these characters well.

Other noteworthy performances include Molly Jones, who stood out as Toby, a boy who works for Mrs. Lovett. Jones portrays Toby as happy and energetic, but switches to a deranged and despairing persona with ease, following Toby’s mental breakdown at witnessing Mrs. Lovett’s death. Gracie Oddie-James was also excellent as the Beggar Woman/Lucy, who frantically tries to tell the rest of the cast what horrors hide behind the doors at Mrs. Lovett’s pie shop, only to be ignored.

Ollie Kurshid memorably brought life to Pirelli, a barber who competes with Todd for the public’s attention and becomes his first victim.

While Pirelli is always portrayed flamboyantly, Kurshid still put his own unique spin on the character, emphasising his paranoia at being found out as a fraud and losing his fame.

The lead actors’ performances were complemented and enhanced by an outstanding ensemble and production team. Sweeney Todd requires a large ensemble and orchestra with many overlapping voices and instruments to properly capture the dramatic nature of the show; the recreation of Sondheim’s composition was made possible by Isaac Adni’s musical direction. The lights highlighted the characters’ internal struggles, and the set was breathtaking, capturing the macabre atmosphere of the show while also servicing the staging.

The one change I would’ve made to the production design was to make the oven door of the pie shop bigger.

If Sweeney Todd’s weapon of choice is the razor, then Mrs. Lovett is asso-

ciated with the oven. This is why, in the original show, Toby slits Todd’s throat after he throws Mrs. Lovett into the oven to be burned alive. In this production, this set piece was gorgeous, with ghostly orange light and smoke pouring out when it was opened . It was also a unique piece of lighting throughout the show, and the glow in the background served as a morbid reminder of the truth behind the pie shop’s financial success. I was looking forward to seeing how the oven would be used in Mrs. Lovett’s death and wondering how Moriarty was going to get through such a small door. The answer: she doesn’t. Todd slits her throat like the rest of his victims, which missed a big opportunity to use such a beautiful set piece.

Sweeney Todd is a show that mixes violence and obsession with farcicality so that the audience can enjoy the more gruesome aspects of the show while also questioning the truth of human nature. Are all people inherently evil? Who would they become if they lost everything? The overall direction and production design of this adaptation of Sweeney Todd was faithful to what the show was intended to be, and I look forward to 00 Productions’ next project.

Image Credit: Promotional materials from Oxford Playhouse Blood stains from pngall.com

FOOD&DRINK

Food od & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink

28 | Food and Drink

Editors: Phoebe Anderson, Kellie Tran Deputy Editor: Dania Kamal Aryf food@oxfordstudent.com

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Za’atar Bake: Review

Beatrice Munro shares her thoughts on Oxford’s local Palestinian eatery that reminds her of home.

B

efore we begin, I must make a confession. I adore Palestinian food. In fact, Palestinian food is my speciality.

I was taught to cook by my Palestinian Tata (Arabic for Grandmother) and I adore the culture, cuisine and attitude to eating that runs through Palestine. Cut me and I bleed tahini. So, a visit to Za’atar Bake, a Palestinian restaurant on Cowley Road, was basically a rite of passage. Scouting out middle Eastern restaurants is vital. I need to know where I can get my next Fattoush fix.

Za’atar Bake offers a plethora of choices for the discerning inquirer.

Entering the restaurant, you are met with Palestine: baklava and various syrup-soaked treats are proudly displayed, Arabic music plays and punters recline on Bedouin-style cushions. My guest and I were ushered to a table where we had front-row seats to watch the magic of the enormous stone kiln at work. In and out of the oven went platesized pita, majestic manakeesh (flatbreads) and main courses, each encased in traditional clay pots. It was a joy to see the chefs at work, deftly maneuvering the contents of the oven with a gigantic wooden pole.

Now, just to determine what I wanted out of that oven.

I lied. I already knew exactly

what I wanted. Although the main courses were infinitely tempting, I yearned for mezze: the quintessential Palestinian meal. Whether for breakfast, lunch or dinner, mezze is always the answer. We ordered falafel, za’atar and spinach manakeesh, hummus, baba ganoush (burnt aubergine dip) and the salad of the day, which much to my delight, turned out to be Fattoush (bread salad). To accompany this feast, we each tried the homemade mint lemonade.

I was slightly icy, like a raita, but was wonderfully refreshing, and provided a vital counterpoint to the richness of the meal.

Unbeknownst to us, both the hummus and baba ganoush also came with enormous pita. So, we dramatically over-ordered.

But, being left with extra is never a problem for a student, so returning home with a bag of pita under my arm rendered me especially smug. The mezze itself was astounding. First came the manakeesh (flatbreads).

Each dish came as it was ready, straight out of the oven opposite and onto our table. I watched as the breads went in, and as they emerged, glowing with heat and awash with olive oil. The za’atar manakeesh was thin, perfectly done, with just enough bite to be satisfying, but not too much to border on pizza territory. The

spinach manakeesh resembled the traditional spinach parcels my Tata delivers to me as Red Cross Aid in fifth week. At Za’atar Bake it was bespeckled with sesame and nigella seeds, and drizzled with sour pomegranate molasses. The spinach itself was tart and piping hot, yet balanced by the mellow pastry. It is beside the point to state that it did not last long.

Next came the hummus and baba ganoush, causing a pitarelated epiphany. Nevertheless, the dips were fascinating. The hummus was not what I expected. It was presented as a scoop, adorned with cumin, fresh parsley and of course, pickled radishes. It was a hearty hummus, not quite the smooth, silky spread I had envisioned. As my Tata always critiques my hummus, it could have done with more lemon and garlic. But my ability to make my own hummus at Oxford is zero, so beggars cannot be choosers. Hummus misgivings were much made up for by the baba ganoush, of which we ordered the spicy version. Served in a brown clay pot, this dish embodied Palestinian cooking.

Basking in olive oil and sumac, shoveled with pita, the slight heat of the chili intertwined with the creamy burnt aubergine, it was a revelation. I cleaned up the dish very neatly with fingers and pita.

The epitome of mezze eating.

Needless to say that the Fattoush and falafel were of similarly high quality. The lettuce of the Fattoush was brilliantly crisp: none of this wilting, lacklustre nonsense. The tomatoes were sweet and mellow, in contrast to the acidity of the sumac and molasses. The eponymous bread was crunchy and not overly oily: a common shortcoming of Fattoush. A brilliantly executed dish.

The falafel were hot and fresh. One could smell the parsley and chickpeas wafting from the bowl, and the accompanying lettuce, pickles and tahini completed the dish.

In all, Za’atar Bake was a resounding success. It is a slight trek out of the centre of town, but one you will be copiously rewarded for. It would be a brilliant introduction to Palestinian food for the complete beginner, and aspires to reach the lofty heights of the learned critic.

Returning home with pita in tow, how could I not love this place?

After all, cut me: Do I not bleed tahini?

Food and Drink | 29

The Oxford Student | Friday 18th February 2022

Amateur Wine Review: Dominio de Tares ‘Baltos’ Mencia, 2018

by Bailey CAMERON

A single variety of Mencia from Bierzo, Spain.

A smooth, medium-bodied red with rounded tannins and notes of liquorice and fennel.

Food pairing suggestions include cheese, vegetables, pulses and pasta.

This wine can be purchased from the Oxford Wine Company at a price of £13.50

Some Thoughts on the Humble Mozzarella Stick, and a Review of Pizzeria Trattoria Mario’s Version Caitlin Ross offers a very analytical insight in defence of

R

ecently I had a friend tell me he didn’t like mozzarella sticks. We were in Pizzeria Trattoria Mario, an authentic Italian pizzeria in Cowley which I had enjoyed before, and I noted with some glee that there was “Deep Fried Mozzarella” on the specials menu as an appetiser. When I was met with pushback from my friend, I was appalled. How could he not like mozzarella sticks? If you are someone who eats cheese, the golden, crispy, melty mozzarella stick with a side of tangy dipping sauce is by far one of the most enjoyable ways to enjoy the dairy delight. I confronted him, asking why on earth he was against us ordering such a tasty treat. What qualm could he possibly have with deep fried cheese?

Surprisingly, his answer had a point. He explained to me that he truly did enjoy the concept of mozzarella sticks, and recognised the massive potential they held to be a delicious Italian menu staple. However, he found most fell short of their potential. Far too often one orders mozzarella sticks looking forward to this conceptual pinnacle of cheese, and is given a greasy, sad excuse for deep fried

an all-time classic appetizer.

cheese.

They’re too dense, not crisp enough, or simply just have an off taste about them. And as much as I hated to admit it, he was right.

While it didn’t stop me from ordering them, I too agreed that far too often mozzarella sticks fall short of the delicious standard.

In discussing this crucial topic, we identified a few key factors that make a good mozzarella stick: good, well cooked cheese, a respectable level of crispness and crunch, simple yet tasty flavour, and a sizeable cheese pull when snapped in half. Hoping to test our variables, we ordered a plate to share.

Upon receiving it, we began our inspection. The first thing we noticed was that Mario’s had swapped out the more common marinara dipping sauce for a sweet chili one. Although different, we both agreed afterwards that it was just as good if not better. But the sauce was not what we were here to investigate- it was the stick. The first variable we were able to test was the crispiness. In this area, Mario’s excelled.

The coating was thick, but not ridiculously so, not greasy, and

The cheese in question also passed with flying coloursMario’s is an authentic Italian establishment, and the cheese within these sticks reflected that.

Not overly greasy or dense with a delicious mozzarella taste, in this aspect too Mario’s created a fantastic stick. The cheese pull was where things got iffy – we were unable to produce more than a meagre pull when tearing these sticks apart. However, a third friend pointed out to us, this could well be because the innards were pure mozzarella and not mixed with another stretchier cheese, so we made an allowance for Mario’s performance in that section.

So, in that sense, Mario’s

scored a 2.5/3 on the mozzarella stick rating scale.

However, the overall deliciousness of the quality, well-crisped stick paired with the tangy sweet chili sauce gave this stick a perfect score in my heart. My friend too was swayed from his mozzarella stick suspicion by Mario’s take on them, and we both agreed that the risk had paid off.

All in all, a successful endeavour, and I now present to OxStu’s readers our mozzarella stick assessment rubric- use it wisely.

And to any mozzarella stick nonbelievers – try Mario’s version, and then we’ll talk.

Food od & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink Food & Drink

The wine has been aged in American and French oak barrels for 6 months.The wine is aromatic with wild berry and spice on the nose.

FOOD&DRINK

The grapes have been sourced from vines over 40 years old with a low production and at an altitude of 400-600 metres.

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