Opinion

Helen Nicholls What do I mean when I say a person is autistic? Well, according to the OED, autism is defined as “a      neurodevelopmental condition of variable severity with lifelong effects” and is characterized by “difficulties with social interaction and communication, and by restricted or repetitive patterns of thought and behaviour.” However, the way that autism is perceived in wider culture is often like that of Sheldon from the Big Bang Theory (white, male, awkward and well… annoying). Before I talk a little bit more about autism, it is important to explain what I mean by ‘neurotypical’. Being neurotypical means that the individual is not affected by a developmental disorder, such autism or dyslexia. Don’t worry if this is something you are unfamiliar with, be...

Elizabeth Ajao This morning I met with my first private therapist. Having worked hard enough to wriggle my way out of my overdraft, I could afford to splurge £50 on her. I selected one from an online list of specialists on Harley Therapy and met her via Zoom less than 24 hours later. I’ve suffered with my mental health for several years. I tried counselling at school, I found myself with the matron more times than I can count, and the pastoral care staff seemed to have me on constant watch. There was never anything seriously wrong with me. I had friends who had been hospitalised several times, others suffering with eating disorders who would push food around on their plates and disappear to the bathroom just seconds after finishing dinner, and others who were slapped with countless ...

Elizabeth Ajao Chineke! Junior Orchestra is a youth orchestra made up of Black, Asian and minority ethnicity musicians between the ages of 11 and 22. Their aim is to create opportunities for ethnically diverse players with a focus on the work of ethnically diverse composers. The orchestra performed a medley of famous music arranged by Black composer, Ben Burrell. This consisted mainly of popular Black music by Beyoncé, John Legend and Lil Nas X, surrounded by well-known, White classical music. It cannot be left unsaid that the orchestra themselves were wonderful. They played with poise, attitude and craftsmanship well beyond their years. However, the performance exposed bigger issues at play in the Britain’s Got Talent bubble. When an orchestra made up of BAME young people takes...

When I was in secondary school, I was fully, unequivocally convinced that fate had done me a misjustice and placed me in the wrong location, at the wrong time. I was theatrically melancholy, constantly reassuring myself that I was the chosen one. At the time I would have been devastated if someone had told me that I was really just another rebellious teen, hopelessly in love with the idea of messing up. How unoriginal?               But in all seriousness, did I think I epitomised woe? Yes. Did I think I was the only person in the Republic of Ireland with enough cop-on to see what a rotten place it was? Absolutely. Anyone who threatened this notion was immediately demoted to my ‘Trying to Ruin my Life’ list. I refused to ...

2020 has given us all a time to reflect. With the media feeding us a large amount of our information in the modern world, it is important to discuss how every single person is represented. Netflix released a documentary this year titled ‘Disclosure’ about trans representation in film and TV from the perspective of trans people. The documentary highlights the problems with the representation of transgender people throughout history, and the double-edged sword that comes with this. Whilst it feels like a victory to see a transgender person on screen and in mainstream media, it is not always that simple. Executive producer of the documentary and Emmy-nominated actress, Laverne Cox, comments that “a few people are elevated, and the majority of people are still struggling.” Inaccurate represen...

Izzy Smith Instagram is a force for good in many ways. It connects friends separated by distance and time, offers a far-reaching interactive platform for many businesses, and provides people with access to instant sources of inspiration, from cooking to workouts to ‘#studyspo’. In spite of these positive attributes, Instagram is notorious for its reported lack of body diversity. For many users, the explore page in particular is a fast-track ticket to insecurity, with every other row featuring unattainable weight goals and tanned ‘Insta models’ posing with a cocktail on a tropical beach somewhere in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Although it can often feel like the case, it would be wrong to demonise these girls or blame them for making the majority feel inadequate and ‘less than’....

About a month into lockdown, when most of us still naively hoped that the UK would return air-sharing, stranger-bumping liberties to the people by summertime, a beacon of distraction came in the form of the BBC/HULU adaption of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. Here we were, holed up in our houses, becoming acquainted with the two-metre rule when we did venture out (most likely to a titillating Tesco’s; full of people who also hadn’t left their house for weeks). Grocery trips substituted for night clubs, bars, brief encounters and quaint cafes. For a while, grocery stores became a hub of excitement and fear in equal measures. ‘I’m off to Sainsbury’s’ was a boast that could incite jealousy. Marianne and Connell pulled us through such desperate times. The show shed light on modern Ireland, on m...

Lockdown provided us with many dramas and arguments on social media, but one that stood out was JK Rowling and her controversial, transphobic tweets. The allegations against Rowling came about after she criticised an article for using the term “people who menstruate” when describing how the world can be more equal post-COVID-19. Her views and actions drove many to label her as a ‘TERF’ (trans exclusionary radical feminist). With this in mind, is it possible to enjoy her work whilst knowing her beliefs?  Across all creative outlets, actors, authors, artists, singers and performers are ‘called out’ due to things they have said and done. This begs the question of how much of their work we should appreciate and celebrate knowing these facts. Some might argue that names like JK Rowling...

*Trigger warning: upcoming theme of eating disorders* Lockdown was a humane and democratic move by governments, and in the UK alone it is estimated to have saved tens of thousands of lives. However, it wasn’t without issues. People were ordered to stay safe at home in order to remove them from the highly contagious virus. This meant that most people’s old daily routines were redundant: we had to adapt to a whole new way of existing in society.  It’s no secret that people struggled to adjust, especially in the early months of March and April. But imagine if that routine was the only petrol fuelling your brain? With little warning, it’s stolen from you, and there’s nothing you can do about it but stay at home and wait for an update. Without that routine, people with eating disord...

When I think of the term ‘cutlets’, I think of meat. I think of blood-dripping, mouth-savaging meat. I don’t like meat, don’t eat it, but I like the word cutlets. And I don’t think it should apply specifically to meat cutlets…what’s wrong with using ‘cutlets’ as a cringey little life metaphor? Is life not a long slab of meat, or tofu, or whatever your preference is? Is it not sectioned into parts, stages, or as I prefer to say, cutlets? When we enter a new stage of life, we sever ties with the stage before. Sure, we cling on to people, and memorabilia, but we are kidding ourselves if we think that the sever can be undone, that we can return to the old stage. Life is not like a chopped-off thumb…there’s rarely a doctor to seamlessly stitch one decision to the next, one cutlet to the ne...