Thursday, June 4Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Tag: royal holloway

The Journey to Self Love
News, Opinion

The Journey to Self Love

Surely we have all heard the myth about how you can’t love somebody else if you don’t love yourself. As much as self-love is something everyone needs to work on, healthy relationships can actually become a solid foundation for your journey towards self-love.  When in a romantic relationship where there is good communication, genuine friendship and companionship, intimacy, sex and affection can become a source of confidence and reassurance. When it comes to sex or intimacy a majority of people find it hard to be naked in front of their partners, it is very common to feel uncomfortable with nakedness for a variety of reasons (like traumatic experiences, purity culture, beauty standards and body dysmorphia) that usually come in hand in hand. Healing your relationship with your body a...
This is Insanity Radio
Culture & Literature

This is Insanity Radio

Kinga Stusik happened upon Insanity Radio by chance. After posting her successful application to Royal Holloway on social media, she was asked to come on air for results day 2021: ‘They offered me a radio show that day.’ For the last few months, she has been hosting a dedicated film show, Kinga On Film, on Wednesday afternoons.  Also Head of Community Outreach, Kinga curates activities that connect Insanity Radio to the wider community: ‘I make sure your voice is heard!’  Insanity Radio is the campus station for Royal Holloway and the community station for both North Surrey and Berkshire. It has twenty to thirty thousand listeners a month and offers industry standard training to nurture the next generation of broadcasters in all aspects of media. Anyone can get involved. Will...
The Third Policeman Review: An Insoluble Pancake
Culture & Literature, Literature

The Third Policeman Review: An Insoluble Pancake

You know when a little kid tries to explain something scientific even though they have no clue what they’re talking about so they start spouting absolute bullshit? ‘The Third Policeman’ is that conversation on steroids. The novel, published posthumously by Flann O’Brien, is stocked full of complete and utter nonsense. That being said, it is one of the most fantastical novels I’ve ever read and I cannot recommend it enough.  ‘The Third Policeman’ is, by its own definition, “nearly an insoluble pancake, a conundrum of inscrutable potentialities, a snorter”. The storyline, which is semi-impossible to understand, follows O’Brien’s unnamed protagonist (but who for convenience names his own soul ‘Joe’) through a cyclic hell following his death. The novel is stocked full with eccentric c...
Everything You Need to Know About the 64th GRAMMY Awards
Culture & Literature, Music

Everything You Need to Know About the 64th GRAMMY Awards

It’s awards season again! Those whose Spotify Wrapped lists were graced with the likes of Billie Eilish, Doja Cat, Lil Nas X, and Olivia Rodrigo may already know a bit about the nominees for the 64th GRAMMY Awards. But if that’s not you, never fear: here is everything you need to know (more or less) about this year’s Grammys. The Grammys is the most prestigious music award ceremony in the world, recognising brilliance every year across almost all genres of music (seriously – there are eighty-six categories). The four main categories are record of the year, album of the year, song of the year, and best new artist. These groups are typically dominated by pop music, and this year is no different, with Taylor Swift nabbing a second consecutive album of the year nomination (she won last yea...
ERICA OSAKWE: ‘I CHANGED THE LAW’
Features, News, Opinion

ERICA OSAKWE: ‘I CHANGED THE LAW’

Trigger Warning: the following deals with themes of domestic abuse. Domestic abuse is defined across government as any incident of coercive, threatening or controlling behaviour, violence or abuse between those aged 16 and over who are or have been intimate partners or family members, regardless of their gender or sexuality.  It wasn’t until Summer 2021 that the Domestic Abuse Act was introduced, creating the first ever statutory definition of domestic abuse in Britain. The bill was rushed through in response to increasing domestic violence reports since the onset of Coronavirus. In other words, it took a pandemic for British politics to formalise its definition of domestic abuse in law. This lack of consolidation only serves to feed the tragic reality that one in ten offences ...
Creative Writing

ET EGO BRUT

REBUTTAL I remember you magenta and idle, hiding in plain sight a fidget of rats in a man-suit. Did you not think I would notice?  You tremble in polyester and I have no pity for the moths like you - they know what it is they do I imagine you taut and xeroxed stretched out on linoleum  your saline drip defunct  chewing on consonants like coaxial cables your world in laminate left-slant font 
Creative Writing

i am

i am, as a man and asian and cognizant and selfaware and godfearing and afraid and angry and hellbent,incapable of romance, affection, love, lust, touch, being capable of not having being capable in anything of worth,and i blame it on myself and see that my hands are the things that push everything away. i am, as a fragment and chinese and broken and malay and unbending and terrible and aware and tumultuous,capable of belief, faith, friendship, telling someone to the face that they mean a lot to me and that i cannot in fact live without them,and i am in fact lying to them and see that my tongue is black with sinuous twisting lies. i am, as a white orchid and a yellow marigold and a red spider lily and a yellow chrysanthemum and decaying,incapable of thinking trust as a rock in an oc...
i probably just need to get laid and stop being so fucking dramatic
Creative Writing

i probably just need to get laid and stop being so fucking dramatic

im, quite aware its fairly unhealthy to think these thoguhts  but dear god we are made like you  but dear god i can see the purpose you gave us  plain in the way you make blood vessels break  in the way the human body deteriorates in the way im,  quite aware perhaps too aware of how you make it satisfying to give in to baser instincts and pleasures  i was never raised particularly religious  but i said prayers to you every night till that one time my mother told me god is perfect and then she  cried at the door and told me to be strong till she came back and i was left with the plate of macaroni  no one else but me liked but i liked it because it was my mother who made it and i would always say i  loved her to her ...