University – Page 4 of 12

21Mar

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

Features, News, Opinion

One More UCU Strike…

How effective is the Strike action in creating the change it seeks? An Interview with James Smith The end of March will see the disappearance of professors from classrooms once again. Not because of the COVID-19 pandemic, but because of industrial strike action from the UCU (University and College Union). As a third-year student my university experience has been impacted by both the strikes and COVID resulting in an unexpected minimal amount of time spent on campus. In my first year there were extensive strikes which some students joined in on. Then COVID struck in March, disrupting the entirety of that year. Now, we are partly back to campus with both covid and strikes interrupting simultaneously. Professor James Smith, the UCU representative within the English department here at...

1942 Recipe: Eggless Sago Pudding – Vintage Cooking (The Student Version)

4Mar

By Leah EdwardsNo Comments

Lifestyle

1942 Recipe: Eggless Sago Pudding – Vintage Cooking (The Student Version)

Women’s magazines from the 1940s are riddled with wartime propaganda. Whilst their husbands, brothers and fathers were fighting overseas, women learnt to effectively hold down the household under wartime restrictions. This isn’t to say that women of the 1940s were exclusively homemakers; there are plenty of ads in the February 1942 issue of Woman that suggest otherwise. There’s even an old Tampax advert with the slogan “Women are winning the war of freedom”, with a picture of a woman in full uniform at work on an army tank. Some other ads shouted about the importance of friendly consumerism of household items. An advert for Parozone (a solution that sterilized clothes in cold water) has the bold slogan, “SAVE FUEL”, a subject Ruth Morgan talked about in her section, dubbed, ‘BARG...

The Rise in Spiking (and Not Just as We Know it)

28Feb

By Beth McCowenNo Comments

News

The Rise in Spiking (and Not Just as We Know it)

What is Spiking? Drinks being spiked on nights out has been an issue for years. According to Better Health, drink spiking is putting alcohol or drugs into somebody’s drink without their knowledge or consent. It is illegal and is often related to other crimes like robbery and sexual assault. As women, we instinctively cover our drinks, never leave them out of our sight, don’t take drinks from strangers, and take every other precaution possible to keep ourselves and our friends safe. In late 2021, there was a frightening development in spiking. People are now being spiked not through drinks, but through injections. Incidents have mainly been reported in Nottingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Edinburgh. This type of spiking carries additional risks because dirty needles can carry infections ...

Repeating History? | ‘Munich’ and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

27Feb

By Accalia SmithNo Comments

News, Opinion

Repeating History? | ‘Munich’ and Russia’s Invasion of Ukraine

Netflix recently released 'Munich: The Edge of War', a film adaptation of Robert Harris's book. It centres around the Munich agreement, Chamberlain’s attempt to ensure peace in Europe via the negotiation of the Sudetenland in Czechoslovakia. With Vladimir Putin’s Russia waging war on Ukraine, reading this book felt very apt for me, and terrifying. Looking up from the pages to hearing the news at the moment felt like I hadn't left the world of the book at all. Europe is facing one of the largest attacks since World War Two, leading to many people referring to the current events as the prelude to world war three. This is not the first recent Russian threat to Ukraine, but it is it’s most unjustified, violent and daring. Missiles and helicopter attacks began on Thursday resulting in...

6Feb

By Max FlemingNo Comments

Creative Writing

The Boogieman

He is always watching Waiting Wanting to come out Wanting to suffocate You They don’t see him Stirring The pot of pain That brews inside Me Hiding him away from Them He isn’t welcome In the eyes of Others I love him yet hate Him I want him but Want him to go Away He is me and I am him Together Not by choice But by birth Unfortunately. Image: Photo by Josue Michel on Unsplash

Queer at Royal Holloway: Interviewing our LGBT+ Community

31Jan

By Bridget OSullivanNo Comments

Features, Lifestyle

Queer at Royal Holloway: Interviewing our LGBT+ Community

University is often considered a place to ‘find yourself’. Most students have come straight from A-Levels, from the cliquey savagery that defines one as ‘popular’, ‘unpopular’, ‘weird’, ‘edgy’. In my experience of a small-town, back-arse-of-nowhere all-girls’ school, these categories trumped any personal identity. University, on the other hand, is all about individuality. Sometimes it’s almost like a game of ‘who can be the MOST unique, quirky, fucked-up of them all?’ Those kids who ran the social hierarchy in school (you can detect them because they adamantly claim that ‘popularity wasn’t a thing in their school’) have to re-adjust to this new ecosystem, leaving many 18-year-olds to essentially start again. Of course, many have been grappling with their identity long before university, m...

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby! Top tips for a comfortable uni experience

31Jan

By Jessica WattsNo Comments

Lifestyle

Let’s Talk About Sex, Baby! Top tips for a comfortable uni experience

For many, this article might seem like a toe-curling embarrassment to read. The title alone might have been enough to bring a flush to your cheeks or you might feel the need to slam this page closed to protect yourself from the prudish judgement of nosey passers-by. Whatever it got you thinking is absolutely fine, but sex is everywhere, whether you choose to partake or not. At uni, sex is such a hot topic, to the point where it may feel as though ‘everyone and their nan’ is ‘doing it’, but don’t forget that not everybody has sex, not everybody wants sex, and not everyone is ready for sex at the exact same time. We’re all humans, figuring it out as we go along. Virgin or sex-veteran, it doesn’t matter; what matters is how comfortable you feel in yourself and around other people. If you ...

31Jan

By Madelaine GrayNo Comments

News, Opinion

A Litany of Insults

Why women never seem to win in the world of casual sex. Modern society has undeniably done a lot for the rights of the ‘fairer sex’. The right to vote, first and foremost. The right to own property. The right to open a bank account, to work outside the home, to enter any career we may choose. And of course, the sexual revolution went some way to reducing stigma around premarital sex, decentring the myth of virginal purity. With that came the right to choose – in the form of access to birth control, as well as freedom to terminate unwanted (or unviable) pregnancies. Despite all of this, it is clear to many that in contemporary sexual culture, the odds are still strictly not in our favour. There is a litany of insults directed at women, and the way they choose to navigate the world...

31Jan

By Elena-Teodora ChiujdeaNo Comments

News, Opinion

The Taboo of Virginity

University through the Eyes of a Virgin Over the years, a stigma has been attached to virginity. Whilst the 1960s praised the idea of innocence and purity, particularly amongst women, we now feed off sexual empowerment and diversity. Yet, we still live with this irrational thought: ‘I must be the only virgin on campus’. Not true. We are the generation that is having less and less sex; 18.9% of 18 to 24-year-olds were sexually inactive in the early 2000s whilst in 2018 it was reported that 30% of students and young adults were not having sex. So, isn’t virginity amongst students more normal than abnormal? Why are we avoiding sex like the plague when we are such a sexually aware generation? The logical answer might be the Covid-19 pandemic that forced students to live at home l...

31Jan

By Cecilia Munoz FernandezNo Comments

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...