Opinion

Tahseenah Khatun When I think of the future, I think of still having my loved ones around. My friends, my family. They’re all still a part of this vision I have of the future. But this vision changed around two months ago, when my mum suddenly passed away. There was a time when I thought my mum would be around forever. But now, I have to navigate a new reality without her. It’s been nearly two months since she passed, and I still have the image of her in the hospital in my mind. That was the last time I saw her in this world before she left. That image of her in the hospital, the state of her, has haunted me since. It follows me wherever I go, whenever it wants. It pops up when I least expect. When I’m in class, when I’m talking to a friend. Nothing triggers it, that’s the thing. It...

Ahh, the 2020s. So far an era of unprecedented pandemics, graphic global wars and crippling economic downfalls. Oh, and of immigrants. Namely individuals seeking improved standards of living in a new location on this shared planet. Their lives are none of our business, you might say. But, somehow, these individuals have become nothing but business, becoming one of the top concerns for people in the UK and around the world. Bizarrely, the ‘solution’ against them is, for many governments, a priority above economies, health, and wars. Immigration is a contentious topic but there are always reasons behind why people choose to become immigrants. For many people, what disturbs them is that people are ‘illegally’ immigrating, with many entering the UK via ‘small boats’ across the English Chan...

By Dorothy Banaityte Superficiality and obsession with beauty is often considered to be a modern invention boosted by the rise of Instagram posts, TikTok trends and celebrity culture. However, when looking back through time, society’s devotion to beauty runs deeper than just that. Going back to Greek statues or to the characters that we tell our stories about, physical beauty has always correlated to moral virtue and good character. How deep does our obsession with beauty truly go? In literature, traces of this idea can be seen everywhere. In our oldest piece of Western literature, Homer’s Iliad, only two characters out of the staggering couple of hundreds of those named are described as ugly. Incidentally both the characters are also presented to lack common sense and moral values,...

By Rhian Kille Tiktok is rotting our approach to interpersonal relationships and conflicts. Professional therapists and opinionated influencers mingle together through social media platforms, giving advice in instructive short form content littered with pseudo-therapy terms and buzzwords. How many times have you seen a video about how you should break up with your boyfriend because he’s a ‘narcissist’ or that has encouraged you to have a confrontation with a friend? How many times has it made you consider/go through with it? And how many times did it reaffirm to you that you are a victim in a situation, as opposed to considering someone else‘s experience?   It’s not a revolutionary idea that social media is widening gaps between young people in the ‘real’ world, but there ...

By Rhian Kille To be a woman on the internet is to witness the same pattern of events over and over again. You watch your beloved female role models be introduced to you through a wave of popularity, then eventually be torn down in a similar wave of controversy, criticism and “discourse”. The internet giveth, and the internet taketh away. Or does it? In the midst of watching this pattern repeat itself, I’ve found myself thinking about all of the emotions that this involves – the nuances and discomforts. What it means to be a role model has been deeply changed and complicated by the rise of social media, and its immediate and permanent modification to adolescence, becoming a significant part of coming-of-age. This world wide web of new relationships between inspiration and inspired, ...

By Madeline Baugh In the past 150 or so years, I think we can all agree that the feminist movement has done so much to help women all around the world.  From women gaining the right to vote, to gaining more independence over the decades, many big steps have been taken to ensure the liberty of women. But just how far have we come? Is it really a perfect world for women to live in today’s age? And how far do we have to go? Its roots can be traced back to The Women’s Social and Political Movement (WSPU) being founded in 1903 by Emmeline Pankhurst, with the women’s suffrage movement already existing for many years before. The core reason for this movement was to fight for a woman’s right to vote. Pankhurst believed that more action was needed to be taken in order to give women that...

By Eleanor Harvey A few weeks ago, I received a pretty enticing job offer. It came, as all the best things do, in the form of an unsolicited message from a random person on social media, in this case LinkedIn. This Mr A. told me he was looking for an ‘excellent freelance writer’ and that my profile ‘stood out’. I mean, obviously. The green flags kept on coming, from ‘no interview required!’ to a salary of ‘$15 USD per hour’. I was already totting up how I’d spend this generous amount, perhaps on moving to a country where dollars are legal tender, before I’d registered what the job actually was: to ‘join my team at Outlier, where we train AI systems—no AI knowledge required!’ Somewhat unexpectedly, Outlier is a real company, though admittedly one which has attracted several Reddit pa...

By Madeline Sidgwick - Editor-In-Chief Immediately climbing to the top of Netflix's streaming charts, the second instalment of Ryan Murphy’s ‘Monsters’ focused on ‘The Eric and Lyle Menendez story’. Upon watching the series, I began to question the morality behind creating entertainment out of a disturbing case of events. The rise of the true crime genre is not sudden; the popularity of ‘America’s Most Wanted’ beginning in the 1980s and the global phenomenon that was ‘Tiger King’ in 2020, gripped audiences globally. However, I begin to seriously question true crime more when actors, directors, and social media promoters become involved in the sub-genre that is the ‘recreation’ of such crimes.  Specifically, Netflix’s ‘Monsters’ series has presented audiences with the intricacie...