Fashion Forward

Image: YouTube

If you’ve seen any of the looks from the New York City Met Gala this year, it was probably Beyonce’s Givenchy Haute Couture dress, Gigi Hadid in Tommy Hilfiger (accompanied by boyfriend Zayn Malik with a silver-plated arm), or Emma Watson in Calvin Klein. Otherwise, your timelines might have been filled with pictures of Clare Danes’ incredible light-up Cinderella dress by Zac Posen. It’s this dress that gives the biggest hint towards this year’s gala theme, Manus x Machina, which saw hand- and machine-made designs join forces in some of the most innovative couture of recent years.

The gala is the fundraising event for the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Costume Institute in New York City. This year, the Institute chose the theme of Manus x Machina to explore the way designers combine manmade and machine-made materials and designs to create haute couture and avant-garde ready-to-wear. The theme allowed for a unique take on a section of the industry that traditionally uses manual methods to create beautiful, intricately-detailed pieces that are as much works of art as they are fashion pieces. The ‘machine-made’ was a tribute to the extent to which machinery plays a part in society, and increasingly in art, and a challenge to conventional haute couture. The machine by no means takes away from the hand-made garments of tradition: rather, the meticulous design and planning that goes into each mechanic piece is as much a part of the creation of haute couture as any hand-stitched process.

So, how did the designers incorporate the machine into their work? Clare Danes’ dress is perhaps the most obvious example, with LED lights and 30 mini battery packs sewn into the lining of the dress, which was made from a hollow shell of custom-made Gossamer fabric to prevent the dress from becoming too heavy. Posen combined the most fundamental elements of modern technology – electricity and light – to bring a traditional fairy-tale Cinderella dress into the twenty-first century without altering its classical delicacy. Elsewhere, Marchesa designers and co-founders Georgina Chapman and Keren Craig worked with IBM’s cognitive computing system Watson to design a ‘cognitive dress’, worn by model Karolina Kurkova, that changed colour depending on the reaction it gained on social media – a reflection on the emotion and passion hidden behind the technological wall of social media.

Emma Watson’s dress by Calvin Klein and Eco Age was as much about contemporary issues as it was technology. Made from recycled plastic bottles, her look was a demonstration of the crossover between fashion and environmental sustainability – not the most fashionable of phrases – thanks to technology. In a Facebook post, Watson wrote: ‘Plastic is one of the biggest pollutants on the planet. Being able to repurpose this waste and incorporate it into my gown for the ‪#‎MetGala proves the power that creativity, technology and fashion can have by working together.’ The look may not have the visual effect that Clare Danes’ dress did, but its concept was arguably one of the most innovative of the collection – and has valuable practical resonances, too.

Looking further into the Met’s collection – there are plenty of photographs of select pieces online – it’s the use of plastic that stands out. But moving away from the recyclable to the more literally technological, 3D printing was also a major theme. In a video shot by CNN Style for the event, Andrew Bolton, Curator in Charge at the Costume Institute, explains: ‘3D printing has the potential to be as revolutionary as the sewing machine.’ Iris van Herpen was at the forefront of this experimental design technique, as with her museum show, ‘Transforming Fashion’, that debuted in Atlanta’s High Museum of Art from November through to May this year. The bone-like structures and intricate designs that result from the combination of such a technological innovation with fashion is an accolade to the ability of fashion to transform and be transformed by technology in turn.

This year’s Met Gala was not merely a collection of metallic, futuristic visual pieces. The thought and innovation that went behind the designs paid homage to the collective awareness of technology as a dominant force in our society – and what better way to do so than by weaving it into fashion? The gala also demonstrated the willingness of designers to engage with social and global issues outside the realms of ‘traditional’ fashion. Fashion can thus never be labelled as shallow when it is willing to address the need for sustainability, or draw attention to the effect of social media on our own psychology. As Apple’s Chief Design Officer Jony Ive explained, ‘technology and craft are not at odds, and much like beauty and utility, they go hand in hand. Often the result is more powerful for the combination.’

Originally published on Palatinate Online.

Batman v Superman: Review

Image: YouTube

‘Now, I’m no film critic,’ I messaged Rory, Palatinate’s Film and TV Editor, at one o’clock on Sunday morning, ‘but I just saw Batman v Superman, and it was shit.’

The beginning is promising. A stern-faced Bruce Wayne (Ben Affleck) looks on as a city is destroyed, blow by blow, by a combination of alien ships and the apparent cannonball that is Superman. It is a necessary and well-done glance back to Man of Steel that feels natural and seamlessly provides Wayne with a back story and a motive for his hatred of Superman. Less necessary, I felt, was the dream-like sequence playing out the death of Wayne’s parents. Assuming that most of us are familiar with Batman’s backstory, the scene adds little to the forward momentum of the plot. The name Martha is obviously significant for the film, but couldn’t the sentence ‘my mother’s name was Martha’, accompanied by sad eyes and clenched teeth, have sufficed? As for the rest of the scene, the bat sequence, and the shot of Wayne rising out of the underground cavern in a whirlwind of bat wings, felt cheap, tacky and overdone. It’s a dream sequence, yes, but I’ve seen such sequences done far better in other films.

The dream sequences are, in fact, a large flaw of the film, as is the excitable use of special effects. I must admit, I didn’t hold much hope. It seems to be a common theme in recent films to go all-out on the special effects and save little for the imagination – with the exception of The Revenant, of course, which I actually quite liked. Batman v Superman fails on this point, as did Man of Steel before it. Both films see a promising plot promptly destroyed by destruction. Director Zack Snyder clearly loves a bit of drama, but the last half an hour or so of Batman v Superman is practically incomprehensible. Buildings, structures, even pieces of ground fly around the scene while the camera fails to keep up, resulting in a flurry of light, movement and sound that confuses the senses rather than indulging them in some high-quality action. I wasn’t entirely sure who dealt each blow throughout the sequence. And don’t get me started on the slow-motion effect, which Snyder seems to favour particularly for any scene that involves Gal Gadot’s Wonder Woman. For a character that should involve impressive depth and a pending film franchise to follow, she seems to spend a lot of her time standing in uncomfortable combat poses while the camera pans out to the wider action performed by the other characters.

The female characters deeply disappointed me. Amy Adams’s Lois Lane was promising as a fiery reporter, digging deep and asking the awkward questions. Yes, I thought. Here, finally, is a female action character that won’t descend into a damsel-in-distress act by the end. How wrong I was. There is a sudden switch in character somewhere in the film that removes any sense of power and impressiveness that Lane was instilled with, and replaces it with a stereotype. How many times does one woman need to be saved? Irritating, too, was the bathtub scene, necessary only to get a naked woman into the film, a requirement for any action film of late, or ever. If a man jumped into my bathtub with his dirty shoes on, no matter if he bought me flowers, he’d get a punch in the face.

Were there any positives? Yes, of course. Most bad films do have redeeming qualities, and this is no exception. Affleck makes a superb first appearance as a darker, more vengeful Batman: his character makes me excited for the new Batman film that fans are anticipating. The factory scene in which he rescues Superman’s mother from a group of baddies is potentially the greatest Batman sequence of any film, and definitely the most promising of this one. Contrary to Mark Kermode’s harsh review in The Guardian, I actually greatly enjoyed Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor: creepy, intriguing and slightly unhinged, he makes a great addition to an otherwise disappointing array of flat characters.

Overall, I wasn’t keen. I’d agree with Kermode on a two-star rating. Batman v Superman is a money-orientated blockbuster film that probably appeals visually to children because of its action-packed scenes, but to any fan of either franchise, fails to do justice to what could have been an incredible joining of forces between the two superheroes. It tries to do too much: setting up a new Batman film, a 2017 Wonder Woman film, and a new Lex Luthor character. It seems keen on bankrolling the DC Comics universe for a Justice League film that aims to rival the success of the Avengers franchise. If Snyder’s lack of success in combining Batman and Superman is anything to go by, it seems unlikely that a Justice League film will achieve this aim.

Originally published on Palatinate.

It Still Happens Here

Image: Jade Correa

Would you know where to turn if you experienced sexual violence? I suspect most people wouldn’t. I spend a fair bit of my time talking and writing about sexual violence, and for a long time I wasn’t sure where to go, either – to be honest, I’m still not sure I’m completely certain. And there’s another, more troubling question that links to my first. Would you turn to anyone at all if you experienced sexual violence? Do you trust that your claim would be taken seriously by your college, the University, even the police? I certainly wouldn’t be surprised if your answer to any of those questions was no.

It’s these issues, among many others, that It Happens Here Durham is trying to tackle as it works with the University, particularly the Sexual Violence Task Force. We’re a relatively new group, forming with only two members in 2012; we’ve only been a society for a year.  Nevertheless, we have huge aims for Durham. Our three key goals are for the University to have a transparent sexual violence policy, better signposting for those seeking support, and mandatory training for members of staff, particularly those whose jobs require a degree of pastoral care.

The first goal brings us back quite nicely to my original question. It is clear that sexual violence is happening at university at an alarming rate: the most recent NUS report on the subject stated that one in seven female students experience serious sexual or physical assault at some point in their university life. Of those students, a total of 14% report their assault to their institution or the police, with the remaining students not reporting because they felt embarrassed or ashamed, or were worried that they would be blamed. The impression I get at Durham in particular is that the lack of a clear sexual violence policy, or a guide on where to go, might also be a significant issue. With the stigma that already surrounds sexual violence, might it not be discouraging to have no clear idea of who to go to for help?

A clear policy is something that should interest the University and its students alike. As well as providing a better procedure for dealing with victims of sexual violence, it might too offer ways of dealing with the perpetrators. Unfortunately, we live in a country as a whole where it is often the victims who are uprooted from their university halls, or are forced to find a different route to lectures, for fear of meeting their attacker on campus. It should be the responsibility of each university to ensure that both parties remain separated during any investigation of sexual violence, and it should not be up to the complainant to take extra measures to make sure that this is the case.

Policies take a long time to make, and the controversies and the ins and outs surrounding sexual violence makes the process more complicated and time-consuming. But there is still more the university can do in the meantime. It Happens Here’s second goal – to secure better signposting for victims of sexual violence – is perhaps the easiest to achieve. After all, everyone has the Nightline number on the back of their campus cards, and it has its own little section on DUO and the University website. It takes some searching, but mental health resources, too, are quite readily available, with the counselling service in particular being advertised through emails. Why, then, do sexual violence resources not have this same status? Considering the impact it has on students’ wellbeing, their mental health, and their academic performance, surely it is in the University’s best interests to provide a couple of links, maybe even a few phone numbers?

That’s what we’re trying to do at the moment. We’d like to see a section on DUO with the contact details of Rape Crisis and clinics in the local area. Ideally, we’d love to run a poster campaign around the Student Union, the library and other University buildings with details of how to get help. In the meantime, our own website has resources for anyone who needs them, including much-needed details of how to help a friend.

Finally, our third goal is about training. It’s about raising awareness of sexual violence and how to deal with it within the integral structures of the university. We believe that mandatory training should take place for anyone in a position where they might be approached by someone who has experienced sexual violence. This way, it will help reduce the chain of people involved in a single enquiry, ensuring greater privacy for the victim and decreasing the delay. Our opinion is that education on sexual violence should form part of everyone’s initiation into the University, too: after all, we have to complete a plagiarism tutorial and sit through police safety talks, so why shouldn’t sexual violence deserve a slot, too?

There will always be the cries of ‘but I know what consent is! I am not a perpetrator!’ of course; but equally, most Durham students would know what does and doesn’t constitute a fire hazard, and we still sit through fifteen minutes of fire safety talks during Freshers’ Week. If not to teach students something new about sexual violence – although you’ll be surprised to realise how much more there is to learn – then such talks serve to raise awareness of the issue, at least. Consent workshops will never be popular amongst the entire student body – although the ones we have run over the past year have been happily successful – but a talk on what sexual violence is, and how not to be a perpetrator, can hardly set one back in life.

Since I joined It Happens Here, I have realised how much more the University still needs to do for sexual violence. I am proud to have been part of a campaign that has raised awareness over the past few years, following the ever-growing trajectory of wider media coverage and, lately, even gaining traction in our own student publications. It seems that the student body is finally waking up to an issue more dangerous than river safety, more prevalent than muggings in the street. The University should wake up too. If you have experienced sexual violence, or even if you know someone who has, then you already know that Durham is much less safe than it supposes itself to be. I hope that our student campaign, however small it may be, can continue to work with the University and the Sexual Violence Task Force to provide a safer and more reliable space in which to study and live.

For more information on It Happens Here and what we do, please find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter (@DU_HappensHere) or visit our website: www.ithappensheredurham.wordpress.com

Originally published on Palatinate.

Birmingham dad tells how son survived Brussels terror attacks

A Birmingham man is recovering in hospital tonight after surviving the Metro bomb blasts during the Brussels terror attacks which left at least 31 dead.

European Parliament worker Mark Beamish, 35, was stepping from a carriage at Maelbeek station when the explosives detonated, killing 20 people and injuring 180.

Incredibly, he suffered just minor burns and is one of four Britons now being treated in hospital in the Belgian capital.

The blast came just over an hour after two suicide bomb explosions at Zaventem Airport, which killed 11 and injured 81.

Passengers are evacuated at Maalbeek metro station.

Mark’s father David Beamish confirmed to the Birmingham Mail that his son was among the injured after the attacks by Islamic State terrorists. One Briton remains missing.

Mr Beamish, 66 and from Kings Heath, said: “Mark was stepping off the train when the blast happened but he doesn’t really recall anything about the incident.

“When I talked to him last he was in hospital with his wife and was suffering from superficial injuries like singed eyebrows and hair, but also has burns on his hands, vertigo and dizziness.”

Mr Beamish said Mark currently lives and works in Brussels for his job with the European Parliament, where he had been part of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy.

The dad added he was ‘quite calm’ knowing his son was in the care of medical professionals.

Bill Etheridge, West Midlands UKIP MEP, was also in Brussels at the time of the explosion and wished Mark well with his recovery.

He said: “I wish him well and hope that the injuries heal soon. I’m sure the trauma of being in the incident will take longer to heal.

“I feel great anger at the terrorists who carried out this barbaric act.”

He added about his own experience, “I was very fortunate as I wasn’t near the actual explosions.

“But it was a very tense atmosphere. We were all phoning friends and colleagues to tell them that we were okay.”

Sylvain Lefevre/Getty ImagesA view of bomb damage as passengers are evacuated from Zaventem Bruxelles International Airport after a terrorist attack on March 22, 2016 in Brussels, Belgium.A view of bomb damage at airport

The airport suicide bombers have been named as brothers Khalid and Ibrahim El-Bakraoui. The third man, seen next to the brothers in CCTV footage, is allegedly the Paris bomb maker Najim Laachraoui.

Ibrahim was revealed to have left a will on a computer in a dustbin n the Brussels suburb of Schaerbeek in which he revealed, “if I give myself up I’ll end up in a cell”.

The suspected maker of bombs used during the massacre in Paris last November, he is now being hunted over the central role he is thought to have played in the Belgian capital attacks.

Emergency rescue workers stretcher an unidentified person at the site of an explosion at a metro station in Brussels, BelgiumEmergency rescue workers stretcher victim from Metro station

Earlier this week, Belgian prosecutors said that DNA evidence had identified the Belgian national as being one of the accomplices of Abdeslam in the Paris attacks which killed 130 people at sites including the Bataclan Theatre and Stade de France.

Meanwhile, West Midlands Police have said the threat level for the region has not changed and remains severe.

Assistant Chief Constable Marcus Beale said: “Following this morning’s attacks in Brussels, our thoughts are with those who have been affected.

“The threat level for the West Midlands has not changed; it remains severe.

“We have appropriate police resources already in place at Birmingham Airport to provide a visible reassurance to customers.

“The situation will continue to be reviewed.

“The threat to the UK from international terrorism remains at severe as it has been since August 2014, meaning an attack is highly likely.”

West Midlands authorities have urged the public and businesses to be alert but not alarmed and report anything suspicious to the confidential Anti-Terrorist Hotline on 0800 789 321.

If you know someone who was in Brussels at the time of the attack or has been affected by the incident please contact the Birmingham Mail on 0121 234 5351.

Originally published in the Birmingham Mail.

10 Ways You Know You're A Durham Student

1.) Anything longer than a five minute walk feels like a ten mile hike.

2.) You use an acronym at least once in every conversation.

3.) You’ve said ‘I don’t even care if I don’t get a first any more’ with the knowledge that you’re definitely lying.

4.) You’ve vowed never to step foot in Klute again, only to be found there dancing to ‘That’s Amore’ at closing time a week later.

5.) You’ve developed thighs of steel from all the hills you have to walk up every day.

6.) You’ve spent the entire day in your room because if you went anywhere else, it’d be too much effort to come back for lunch.

7.) At least half the people you see on the walk to your lecture are wearing stash.

8.) You live in awe of the few people who have completed a full-college bar crawl because you can’t even be bothered to walk up past Collingwood.

9.) You’ve blagged your way through a conversation at a law event just to get to the free food.

10.) You’ve met at least one person who apologises, unprovoked, for being from Hatfield. 

Originally published on Her Campus.

A Guide To Finding The Perfect Exercise For You

How are your New Year’s Resolutions going? Don’t feel guilty if they haven’t quite panned out as you hoped. Forbes estimated that only around 8% of people will see their resolution through the year: the rest of us will give up early on. In fact, the Independent even suggested that the average time for someone to keep their pledges is 24 days.

Of course, the most common resolutions are those involving exercise. The increasing popularity of female sport and gym-going means that women aren’t just doing it for the weight loss: gaining strength, age-proofing bones and improving mental health are three perfectly valid reasons motivating people to grab their trainers and go. So with all these things to motivate you, why is it that so many of us fail to stick to our exercise resolution?

The reason might be that you’re doing the wrong kind of exercise. That doesn’t mean that you’re doing the exercise itself wrong – although if you’re doing anything involving heavy weights, it’s important to always, always maintain good form – but rather that the exercise is wrong for you. Maybe you’ve taken up running, but the thought of pulling on your joggers at 6am on a cold January morning is significantly less appealing than cosying up in your blanket and going back to sleep. Perhaps you’ve signed up for spin class, but you can’t stand the instructor’s infallible enthusiasm as she tries to motivate you to push a little harder when all you want to do is burst into tears. But never fear. There are options out there to suit almost every lifestyle and every timetable: what follows is only just a few.

 

1)     Weightlifting

When you walk into the gym and take that first, deep breath of stuffy, testosterone-filled air, the thought of joining the guys in the weight section might seem unappealing – and even a little scary. But don’t worry. Most of the people there are busy focusing on mind-muscle connection, timing their rest periods or admiring their gains in the mirror – no one will notice when you try to pick up a weight that’s clearly too heavy for you. And if they do, it just shows that they’re not concentrating enough on their own training. Weight lifting is an all-round good egg in the exercise world: it burns fat, improves cardiovascular fitness and endurance, increases bone density and, of course, grows your muscles. And it won’t make you bulky. Repeat: it will not make you bulky. Google it.

Weight training is great if you want an all-round workout and like discipline and order when you exercise. It does, however, require consistency and commitment to see results, as well as a good diet full of proteins and fats (and those post-workout carbs). You can get a good session out of the gym in around 40 minutes: it just depends whether you’re willing to do that three or four times a week.

2)     Yoga

Another trend that’s picked up popularity in recent years, this one’s good for those who want to stay at home when they exercise, in the warmth – a very appealing factor in these winter months. There are, of course, yoga classes in all their variations if you want to be guided, or if you like working out with other people, but you can just as easily do it in your room. It requires very little cost, no expensive gear, and there are vast quantities of free yoga videos on YouTube and beyond that you can follow. And, despite popular belief, you don’t need to be flexible to do it. You don’t even have to be able to touch your toes. Yoga will improve your flexibility for you. It boasts a whole host of other benefits, too: lowering high blood pressure, decreasing the risk of heart disease, curing aches and pains and aiding depression and stress.

Perhaps the easiest and least threatening of the exercises on this list, yoga is a good way to increase your physical activity level, but you might want to take a minute to consider the spiritual and cultural history behind the practice. It’s a controversial topic, but respecting the culture from which yoga came is really important if you’re going to practise it, and it will open your mind to centuries of wisdom from its non-western foundations.

3)     Walking

Most people don’t really count walking as exercise, unless you’re doing it up Grey Hill with a book-laden rucksack on your back. It’s arguably one of the best ways to get moving because it comes so naturally to a lot of us, and requires little to no preparation. It’s a gentle exercise, which means your knees won’t suffer in the future like they do with running, and you can go absolutely anywhere with it. Reconnecting with nature is a big reason people take up walking, but it’s not just about that: taking some quiet time out of university life will help you clear your mind and connect with yourself, too. There’s other benefits as well: aside from the mood-boost you’ll get from any form of exercise, walking strengthens your heart, lowers disease risk, and boosts vitamin D levels from being outdoors. You don’t have to be seriously into it – try investing 20 minutes a day in strolling through the Durham countryside – but if you’d like to be, invest in a good pair of walking boots and set off with a map.

4)     HIIT

High Intensity Interval Training – the painful one. I’m half joking – but if your fitness goal is to up your cardiovascular fitness and burn fat, this is the one for you. It can take as little as ten minutes to get your heart going with a HIIT workout, and it’s adaptable: you can run, swim, cycle or row using HIIT, depending on your preference. HIIT basically involves alternating short, high-intensity bursts of exercise with low-intensity activity or rest. For example, you might sprint for one minute, walk for two, and repeat seven or eight times. The most intense version of HIIT is Tabata, a four-minute workout involving bursts of 20-second intense exercise followed by ten seconds of rest. It’s not for the faint-hearted, and you might feel like you’re going to die, but it’s quick and efficient – ideal for those who want to get it over and done with as soon as possible. As well as increasing your fitness, a Tabata workout can burn more fat in four minutes than an average hour on the treadmill.

If running hasn’t worked, or you can’t stand the sight of yourself in a swimsuit and goggles, pick something else. It’s as simple as that. The exercises listed above are four of many different varieties open to you depending on your preferences – whether you like to be alone or in a group, outside or inside, dressed in the best Nike gear or wearing your paint-stained joggers, there’s something out there for you. Don’t be put off if your chosen sport isn’t working. It’s still early, and you’ve got a whole year to go. Pick your poison and commit ten minutes, forty minutes, even two hours to it a few times a week, and you’ll develop an enjoyable habit you won’t want to kick once 2016 is up.

Originally published on Her Campus.

Don't Get Me Started On... People Who Hate Valentine's Day

I like Valentine’s Day. The soppy cards, the heart-shaped balloons, the general feeling of love all around… and, of course, the half-price chocolates that hit the sales in the aftermath. There’s genuinely something for all in the capitalist enterprise that is February 14th, whether it comes in the form of a new lingerie set from your beloved, or a basket full of Thornton’s and Ben & Jerry’s the week after. So why do people hate Valentine’s Day? Is it the kissing? The public displays of affection? The effect it has on your waistline after filling up on half-price treats?

It’s difficult not to scoff at people’s bitterness about the day. After all, your Valentine doesn’t have to be your partner. Maybe you want to celebrate with your closest university friend over a bottle of wine and a shared tub of ice cream. Or maybe you could send your mum a card, just to let her know you love her – after all, have you never received a Valentine’s gift from her in your early teens? And ultimately, there’s one very special person you should be celebrating with whether you’re single or in a relationship: yourself. You’ve carried yourself through relationships, through break-ups, through the Tinder dates and the Klute romances – you deserve to show yourself a bit of love more than anyone else. Valentine’s Day isn’t just for couples, so if you’re feeling bitter about that pair who hold hands in lectures, or the couple on your corridor whose constant giggling you can hear through the wall, just remember: you can celebrate it your own way, too.

Or perhaps it’s the mass consumerism that you’re not keen on. Are you the type of person who despairs at the Christmas decorations infiltrating shops in September? Do you steer clear of major cities when the January sales descend on high streets around the country? It’s understandable, then, that you don’t like Valentine’s Day. Even I have to admit it goes a bit too far, sometimes. What happened to old-fashioned love notes and flowers fresh from the florist’s? The unfortunate fact is that people don’t have time for that any more. Not everyone can afford to rustle up a bouquet of roses for the same price as a week’s worth of food. That’s where the allure of the consumerist market comes in: cheap and cheerful teddy bears, fake plastic flowers and heart-shaped balloons now do the trick just as well as the authentic gifts do. And after all, just because the shops are full of them, it doesn’t mean you have to buy into them. If you want something more authentic, on a budget, why not write a love letter? Take your partner on a picnic? Stay in, veg out on the sofa and watch something romantic on TV? Valentine’s Day doesn’t have to be as commercialised as it’s made to be on the high street: you just have to be creative and willing to branch out a little bit.

I know Valentine’s Day isn’t everyone’s cup of tea. Some people might associate it with bad memories: others might have broken up with their partners a few days before. In that case, maybe it’s worth retreating a little and making the most of the time on your own. Buy a bath bomb and run a bath; order a takeaway and watch your favourite film for the fiftieth time; if you’re feeling brave, you could even treat yourself to a meal out at your favourite restaurant (it feels better than it sounds, I promise!). Or, if you need some company, grab your best friends and make a night of it. Valentine’s Day isn’t just for the couples – it’s to celebrate all kinds of love between all kinds of people, whether it’s mother and daughter, a group of best friends, or yourself. What’s the use of feeling bitter on such a love-filled day? Grab a Ben and Jerry’s and celebrate however you want to.

Originally published on Her Campus.

Meet Durham University's Netball Captain, Katie Boon!

Photograph: Katie Boon

Have you ever thought about having a go at netball? It’s a popular female sport at Durham University, with regular training hours and a lot of commitment: the university team train five days a week, and there’s also the regular games to take into account, too. This week, we spoke to Katie Boon, a third year Geography student and the captain of Durham University Netball Team, about her experience in Team Durham and her expectations for the sport in the future.

Katie started playing sports at a young age, encouraged into it by her parents, who had also encouraged her two older brothers to take part in sporting activities. “By the time I was old enough, it made my mum’s life easier if I was taken to any activity they were involved in, and so that was the start of my sporting career.” Early on, she played football, cricket, netball and hockey, as well as swimming and gymnastics, before settling, at university, on netball. “I made the decision to remain in team sports as I enjoyed it, it gave me a reason to escape from academic work, it was a chance to bring out my competitive edge, and, more than anything, it gave me the opportunity to meet different people and personalities.” Taking a break from her academic studies seems to be a key reason for her involvement in sport, as she stresses: “I can safely say I am not sure what I would do if I didn’t have sport to escape from the stress of university work.”

Katie has been playing netball since her first year at Durham, and she never planned to run for captain of the team. “There was a large element of fear of being able to juggle a sport that trains every weekday, my degree and also responsibility for fifty girls,” she says. “However, after deliberating with the previous Captain, it was clear I was going thrive in the role and gain great satisfaction out of leading DUNC. In the end, it was an opportunity I would have been silly to let myself miss out on and I have no regrets in my decision.” When asked how she juggles captaincy and a degree, she’s very clear that “organisation is the key.” She also praises the rest of her team: “Without a reliable network of executive committee, captains and friends my job would be a lot harder.” What does she enjoy most about her role? “Seeing the hard work of the girls’ pay off and the influence that my captaincy has had on that. For me, it has been great to get to know all the girls on a personal level. As training times differ amongst the squad, the role of captain has initiated a level of involvement with all teams and individuals.”

Moving on to wider issues, I ask Katie how she thinks her sport is received in comparison to popular sports like men’s football. “When you include college netball as well as university netball, we are the largest participating female sport at Durham. This means our sport is well known and talked about amongst the Durham scene.” She feels that socials are a big part of the team’s integration with other sports. “Throughout the year we have joint socials with other sports, and this has definitely helped us become more integrated with these teams and give them an insight to what we dedicate to netball and contribute to Team Durham.” She adds: “recently, another male sports team has approached us with interest in playing a charity netball match, so there must be a level of acceptation for our sport if they are willing to join in themselves!”

When asked about whether she thinks women’s sport is becoming more popular, Katie’s answer is positive: “women’s participation in sport is definitely more prominent in the media these days.” She recently did an internship at a company that organised sports leagues, particularly netball. “It was incredible to see how this company could enable women of any ability to continue playing or return back to a sport they may have given up years ago. There is definitely an element of fear and embarrassment amongst women when getting involved in sport compared to men, but the growing companies which promote beginner team sports encourages women to get involved, making it more popular.” She adds, “I would like to think prejudice against women’s sport is lessening. However, I do believe there will always be an element of prejudice that exists. “It is an aspect of our sporting world which will continue to lessen with time as new generations are born into a society where female sports feature more greatly in the media. However, I don’t think it is something we will ever fully eradicate based on the history of male sports.”

Katie had one final comment for anyone considering joining the sporting world. “If I can give any advice, it is that all girls should get involved in some sort of sport, whatever it may be. No matter what ability you are, there is always something out there to suit you and there will be another girl just as nervous as you are to step out of their comfort zone and try something new. Put in the work to find what suits you and just go for it - I promise you won’t look back.”

Originally published on Her Campus.

Treat Yourself!

It’s finally Friday, which means a number of things. One, it’s the end of the week: there’s a whole two-day stretch of lie-ins and college brunches to enjoy. Two, it’s the last weekend before the end of term, so you can bet that the students of Durham will be out in the streets in hoards. And three, most importantly of all, it’s Treat Yo’self Friday – not quite a national day of celebration yet, but I’m willing to bet it will be soon.

What is Treat Yo’self Friday, I hear you ask? Well, quite simply, it’s the day of the week where you can buy that Toffee Nut Latte with whipped cream and tons of sprinkles in a Grande cup – maybe even a Venti! – without feeling guilty for the extra couple of pounds you’re spending. It’s a day where you can eat that piece of cheesecake from Sweet Tooth that you’ve been dying to order for weeks. Or maybe it’s just a day where you treat yourself a little bit better than you normally would – maybe you moisturise your legs after your shower, paint your nails, put on some makeup or spend extra time on your hair. The thing about Treat Yo’self Friday is that giving yourself a bit of extra care is such an addictive feeling. Eventually, TYF will overrun into Saturday, then morph into a full-weekend thing, and so on until it’s Tuesday afternoon and you’re adding items to your Topshop basket in the middle of a lecture because why not? It’s Treat Yo’self Tuesday! You deserve to buy yourself some nice clothes!

So without further ado, here’s some inspiration for this Treat Yo’self Friday. You’ve worked hard this term – reward yourself for it!

1)      Take a bit of time out of your day to give yourself a mini-pamper session. Grab your best shower gel and take a hot shower, and don’t forget to slick on some moisturiser afterwards. Cut and file your nails and paint them in the most Christmassy colours you have – Christmas music playing loudly in the background is optional, but definitely recommended. Pull on your favourite clothes, dry your hair and try out that new style you’ve been watching YouTube tutorials of, and put on as much makeup as you want – you can definitely pull off the smoky-eye look in your afternoon lecture, I promise. Adding some extra care to your daily routine makes you feel amazing for the rest of the day!

2)      Buy yourself that jumper you’ve been eyeing up in New Look for weeks. Sometimes you just feel that magnetic pull towards a certain item of clothing, and you shouldn’t fight it. It’s rare to find love at first sight in clothes shops these days, so grab that jumper while you can – before it disappears from the shelves and you’re left reassuring yourself that there’s plenty more jumpers in the sea (but none quite like that jumper).

3)      Take yourself on a date to a coffee shop. This one’s a bit nerve-wracking, and it does take some confidence, but buying yourself a coffee and a piece of cake and settling down to read a good book or simply get lost in your thoughts is a great way to connect with yourself. Make sure you treat it like a date: get dressed up, put on your favourite lipstick and pay yourself compliments (maybe not out loud, though).

4)      Treat yourself to an underwear set. If you can afford it, maybe even one that isn’t in the sale. Underwear is one of life’s greatest joys and you certainly don’t need to save your best underwear for a date. Don’t you find that wearing a matching pair of underwear gives you an uncanny sense of having your life together? A new underwear set will add to that feeling. Promise.

5)      If you can afford it, and it’s something you like, why not take yourself to a night at the theatre, cinema or art museum (to name a few)? I’ve done this numerous times this term, and there’s something really nice about stepping off the train in Newcastle, walking through the doors of the Theatre Royal and feeling smugly cultured as you ascend the stairs to the cheap seats in the Gallery area. If you can’t quite stretch to a show, why not have a day out in Newcastle shopping, or going to one of their many art galleries or museums? Most of them are free and you’ll feel just as cultured, and less out-of-pocket to boot.

This is not a definitive list of ways to treat yourself this Friday, but it might inspire you to think of some of the things you like doing best, that you don’t perhaps do enough. You’re pretty special and you deserve to treat yourself as well as you’d treat others, so go forth and rejoice in luxury this Friday. And Saturday. You might as well extend it to Sunday, to be honest. It is the last weekend of term, after all.

Originally published on Her Campus.

#firstworldproblems? More like #globalproblems

Photograph: Tony Webster via Flickr

It’s winter right now in the UK and everyone’s a bit chilly. It’s really annoying, actually, because one minute we’re turning up the central heating and donning our dressing gowns, and the next we’re opening the windows, gasping for fresh air, because we’ve overheated the house. Sigh. It’s so difficult to heat our homes to the right level, especially when the insulation in our walls is already doing such a good job, and we still want to watch television and switch on our lamps to make the living room look nice and Christmassy. All that electricity amounts to quite a bit of heat, you know? Eventually we just leave the heating on and get the electric fans out, and the temperature evens out nicely.

I mean, really. Never mind the fact that nearly 1.3 billion people don’t have access to electricity in the world. The other day we had a power cut for a whole hour. I missed my favourite TV show, and my microwave popcorn never progressed to anything more than rock-hard kernels because the electricity cut off ten seconds into the heating time. I had to chuck them away and grab a bag of ready-made popcorn instead. #firstworldproblems, am I right?

Well, no. Not really. The #firstworldproblems concept is a bit of an issue, actually. It encourages the idea that while us westerners are civilised, sophisticated creatures, juggling our cash-stuffed wallets and our controversial red Starbucks coffee cups while trying to fish out the keys to our London apartments, the rest of the world is living in the dark ages. Posts such as “my phone ran out of battery with an hour left of this lecture to go #fml #firstworldproblems” seems to suggest that smartphones and their frustrating habit of running low on juice at the most inconvenient of times, are only ever possessed by the citizens of Paris, London, New York and the like. That’s most likely the reason for some of the hostility against Syrian refugees over the past months. If I had a pound for every ‘But they have smartphones! They can’t be suffering that badly!’ comment I’ve heard since this summer, I could transport people to Syria with their smartphones and see if they stick with their ignorant comments after that.

The main issue with #firstworldproblems, then, while it’s founded in goodwill and an attempt to highlight the inequalities of the world, is that it tends to further the ‘us versus them’ narrative already too prevalent in society. It creates such a strong picture of developing countries as ‘alien’ that when we see photographs of refugees using smartphones, we’re outraged that they’re real people. The comment section of papers such as the Daily Mail draw in the particularly ignorant: ‘V signs, sunglasses and selfie sticks?! For persecuted, terrified refugees they’ve really mastered the art of looking cool. Wonder if they’ll be posting those pics on Facebook later?!’ It’s as if those from the Middle East aren’t allowed to look or act like our young people. Never mind that social media sites like Facebook are crucial for those contacting family back home: the West has done such a good job at the ‘us vs. them’ narrative that we just can’t imagine a group of non-Western youths owning a pair of jeans, let alone a smartphone with internet access.

I use the Middle East as an example because of the coverage it has recently received, but the argument made here is just as resonant for sub-Saharan Africa, for example, or any other part of the developing world. We should never, of course, ignore the reality that in that area of the world, for example, one person in four is undernourished; or that two thirds of the population of Asia go hungry on a regular basis. We should simply remember that while these really, really important issues exist, we should not be treating citizens of developing countries as ‘others’. We’re all humans, at the end of the day. At the same time as one person tweets a picture of their Starbucks cup lying on the floor in a pool of coffee with the hashtag #firstworldproblems, another person in Kenya spills their tea in a Java café and sighs, frustrated. While a businessman on a conference in London jokes about ‘white people problems’ with a raised eyebrow to the receptionist when he can’t connect to his hotel’s WiFi, the CEO of a company in Iraq resists punching her laptop screen for the same reason. #firstworldproblems are not confined to the ‘First World’, and nor does a ‘First World’ exist.

Originally published on The Global Panorama.

It Happens Here: 16 Days of Activism

Have you heard of 16 Days of Activism? It’s a campaign fighting gender-based violence, founded by the first Women's Global Leadership Institute in 1991. Now, the UN General Secretary’s UNiTE to End Violence Against Women campaign is leading the way with this year’s event, ‘Orange the World: End Violence Against Women and Girls’. The theme this year is education, something of the utmost importance in our university setting. That’s why It Happens Here Durham is launching their own campaign in the university to support it.

It Happens Here Durham was initiated over two years ago by Betty Smildzina and Fiona Smailes, two Durham University students, as a sister campaign to the Oxford It Happens Here. Since then, it has lobbied the university to change its sexual violence policy and support system, run awareness and fundraising campaigns, and led successful consent workshops in colleges. This year, it is fighting for a more transparent and student-supported policy, mandatory training for staff, and better signposting for sexual violence resources. Run by students, for students, and made up of survivors and those who have worked with them, It Happens Here Durham provides a growing platform for students to voice their opinions and concerns about the way sexual violence is dealt with here in Durham.

They’ve got a lot planned for 16 Days of Activism. Following the lecture by Annie E. Clark and Andrea L. Pino, founders of EROC (End Rape on Campus), on Wednesday, It Happens Here will be publishing a review of the event along with an interview with the speakers. After the success of their earlier workshops, the group will be collaborating on a consent workshop with Durham University Feminist Society on December 1. They are also promoting an event hosted by CRIVA (Centre for Research into Violence and Abuse) on December 7 at St Hild & St Bede with US-based activist and educator Tony Porter. Additionally, they aim to publish a survivor testimony and an interview with Nicole Westmarland, co-director of CRIVA, on their website.

In the wider community, organisations have been ‘oranging’ the world for the past week leading up to the official beginning of the campaign yesterday. World monuments have been lit up in orange, including Niagara Falls and the UNESCO site Petra. Communities have been encouraged to colour their neighbourhoods orange in any way they can with the hashtag #orangeurhood. People are being encouraged to engage with their government, to question the current policies and attitudes around education and gender violence, and to make changes to their own behaviour, however small. It Happens Here Durham is only one piece of a worldwide movement against gender violence, but using the knowledge and tools from their own campaigns, they are joining the fight against gender-based violence not just for these sixteen days, but for the entire year.

Originally published on Her Campus Durham.

Why rape jokes are never acceptable

Last year, I wrote a blog post about rape jokes. It was a response to the most recent of many jokes my housemate had made over the year. At the time, it received some positive comments, and it seemed like people were relieved to see something written to try and address the issue. Unfortunately, though, the post hadn’t reached the person I wanted it to in the way I’d hoped. My friend spoke to my housemate the day after the post, and he was confounded by it. He didn’t see what the issue was, and anyway, he said, “it’s not like anyone in the house has been raped.”

There was the issue. He’d made an assumption about the environment in which he was making the jokes, based on no proof except the fact that no one had disclosed an experience of sexual violence to him personally.

It was clear that the arguments in my blog post hadn’t hit home. I linked to an article that described the effects of rape jokes on potential rapists, which has gained more and more relevance in the wake of studies like the one in Violence and Gender in 2014. With a significant proportion of people admitting that they would force someone into having sex, as long as the term ‘rape’ wasn’t used, it’s clear that jokes trivialising sexual violence could have an effect on more people than we might initially expect. After all, contrary to popular belief, rapists are not distinguished from ‘ordinary’ men by long black coats and an evil-looking disposition. Indeed, they are ordinary men. They are fathers, sons, brothers, friends and housemates. They are potentially people in the vicinity when you tell a rape joke. And by telling that joke – which trivialises and mocks the very act of violating a person’s basic human right – you are telling people that rape isn’t a serious subject, and that people can get entertainment out of it. In this sense, rape jokes – and jokes about all aspects of sexual violence – validate the thoughts of potential rapists, and can even empower them.

This argument doesn’t even begin to take into account the effect of these jokes on survivors of sexual violence. With a 2010 NUS report showing that 1 in 7 female students are subject to serious sexual or physical assault, and a 2015 report by The Telegraph asserting that 1 in 3 have endured sexual assault or unwanted advances, it seems obvious that jokes about sexual violence are deeply inappropriate on campus. One cannot make the assumption that no one in the vicinity has suffered sexual assault in some form with these statistics in mind. To that end, it seems obvious that making a joke that can have a profound effect on someone who hears it is morally wrong.

At this point, I can hear the cries of protest. “Jokes are meant to offend,” they’ll say. “You’re just being too PC! If jokes weren’t offensive, they wouldn’t be funny!”

I can think of lots of jokes that are funny without being offensive. The one about coral being stressed about current affairs is one of them. But without getting into the philosophy of joke-making, there’s an obvious reason not to make rape jokes. They are not just offensive, but they are potentially triggering for survivors who hear them. They demean those who have suffered sexual violence and trivialise their experience. They reinforce the rape culture that dominates university campuses around the UK. They are rooted in an aggressive and violent culture that normalises rape, diminishing the responsibility of rapists and the need to tackle such behaviour. It has been shown in studies that ‘dark humour’ is used by law enforcement officers to desensitise themselves to the scenes they witness as part of their job. This desensitising effect is the same in the case of rape jokes, but the agenda is very different. Rape jokes are not used to help people cope with emotionally taxing work, after all. Rather, they help to increase insensitivity to survivors and their families, thus contributing to the endless cycle of victim-blaming that pervades on and off campus.

If you’re not convinced by the arguments above, at least consider what making rape jokes means for you. Offensive jokes are often seen to represent the attitudes of the person making them towards the subject, even if that isn’t true. So while you don’t condone rape, what other people are hearing is that you do, and not just that: you find it funny. So if not for the survivors who might be triggered by them, or the potential perpetrators who may be empowered, don’t tell rape jokes for the sake of your own reputation. Think about what you’re promoting.

If you’re interested in reading further, more coherent articles about the effect of rape jokes, the links below are interesting:

A Scientific Case Against Rape Jokes

The Enjoyment of Sexist Humor, Rape Attitudes, and Relationship Aggression in College Students

A Visit to the Rape Room: Who Sees Humour in Sexual Assault?

Originally posted on It Happens Here Durham.