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Ella Feeley talks us through some of her top tips and tricks for managing overwhelming bouts of loneliness as a university student: Artwork by Innes Clark (IG: @Innesclarkillo). It is something we have all experienced. We can feel it in the isolation of our own spaces, or surrounded by our closest friends. Loneliness is a universal emotion that crawls under our skin and clings to us wherever we go. With a smile on our faces and a laugh in our mouths, we can simultaneously feel so isolated from others that our mind starts to convince us that we won’t ever feel otherwise. This does not mean all is lost, though, as there are things you can do to make yourself feel better. Although it can be a very sociable experience, being at university is no exception to feeling lonely. Meeting so many new people can be very daunting, and while for some it can go smoothly, for others it is their most difficult challenge yet. Loneliness at university can manifest in multiple different ways, from experiencing isolation due to difficulty making friends, to feeling lonely despite having met many new friends. The bottom line is: human beings need to connect with people, not just on a surface level, but we need to feel heard, seen and appreciated. Loneliness is simply the brain's way of pushing us to seek those connections we desire. So what actually is loneliness? Loneliness can be many, many things, but is often defined as a feeling or state of mind where one is sad because they lack friends or general company. This can be brought on by many things, for example: bad mental health (anxiety, depression), being surrounded by the wrong people, or if there are differences that make it hard for you to connect with others. Loneliness can also be a physical isolation, as when we feel disconnected and misunderstood by others, we often retreat into our own spaces for comfort. This can generally have the opposite effect and make us feel much worse. At the same time, you do not have to be physically isolated to feel lonely. You can feel unappreciated, detached or misunderstood by those close to you. Sitting in a room full of friends and feeling like you can never truly be yourself around them, or having something weighing on your mind that you cannot share even with the closest of friends, for example, can be extremely isolating. So how exactly can we identify if we are feeling lonely? There are questions we can ask ourselves to better understand if and why this may be the case: Do I have someone I feel close to and can be myself around? Are there people around me that I can spend time with and do I have things in common with them? Is there someone in my life who asks me how I am feeling and how my day has been? Do I feel different from others (for example, due to age, disability, ethnicity, money, political views etc)? Does this hinder my ability to join in? Is there an issue that I am struggling with but I can’t talk about? Once we identify why we might feel lonely, it can make it much easier to help ourselves feel better. While it is impossible to just switch loneliness off permanently (it is a normal part of being human!), it is important to remember that you are capable of making it better. Reaching out to people we feel we have things in common with is one of the best ways to combat loneliness. Even saying hello to that person that you might usually overlook can be hugely beneficial and could open up the opportunity for a conversation. While your mind may believe that you are alone, so many around you are feeling the same way, even if you can’t see it. Just as you don’t advertise your loneliness, neither do those around you. It is an inherent flaw in human beings to feel completely isolated in our own experiences, when in reality many of us are feeling the same way. In fact, loneliness is a lot more common at university than you think. With COVID-19 forcing many of us to isolate at different times in the last two and a half years, it has only amplified these feelings. The Student Academic Experience Survey of this year revealed that 23% of students experienced loneliness ‘most’ or ‘all of the time’ in the last year. That is almost 1 in every 4 students. Another 36% felt lonely ‘at least once a week’. While these findings are not surprising, it is still shocking to see them laid out for us in plain writing. For returning students who have experienced their first years of university through a screen, these findings ring particularly true. COVID-19 has been the source of a lot of loneliness, causing many to have great difficulty connecting with the people around them. Now with classes becoming in-person again it’s not just new students that will find this semester daunting. Walking into a room with people you’ve shared online classes with for a year or more and yet not knowing their names or faces is like being thrown in at the deep end before you’ve been taught how to swim. The work is familiar but the people are not. The time for “getting to know” classmates feels long past and there is already an initial isolation that is established. Doing your best to push past nerves is incredibly important in this instance so you can finally get to know the people around you on a more personal level. What then can you do to combat loneliness? And how should you go about improving your mindset moving into this academic year? The NHS has some really helpful advice available on how you can do this: Try talking about your feelings to a friend, family member, health professional or counsellor. You could also contact Samaritans, call: 116 123 or email jo@samaritans.org if you need someone to talk to; Consider joining a group or class that focuses on something you enjoy; you could ask to go along and just watch at first if you’re feeling nervous; Consider visiting places where you can just be around other people - for example, a park, the cinema or a cafe; Consider peer support, where people use their experiences to help each other. Find out more about peer support from Mind; Get advice and practical tips on looking after your mental health from Every Mind Matters; Try the 6 ways to feel happier, which are simple lifestyle changes to help you feel more in control and able to cope; Find out how to raise your self-esteem; Listen to free mental wellbeing audio guides. The NHS also recommends not trying to do everything at once and setting small goals for yourself, not focusing on things that cannot be changed, not comparing yourself to others (especially on social media), and not using vices to feel better such as alcohol, cigarettes, gambling or drugs (these have the opposite effect). Easier said than done sometimes, right? These are incredibly important to avoid though, as they can make things much worse. Some other helpful sources to check out are Headspace, which discusses in depth the feeling of loneliness and provides a short meditative exercise, and Mind, which discusses thoroughly how you can connect with other students at university. The most important thing to remember is that you are not alone. All around you people are experiencing loneliness and so it is vital that you don’t allow your mind to convince yourself that you are alone (this often ends in further isolation and thus you enter a vicious cycle). Your mind is a powerful tool but does not always have your best interests at heart, so doing what you can to help yourself feel better is incredibly important. As cliché as it sounds, you really are never alone and only you can make the changes that you want to see in yourself.

After a contentious talk organised by Edinburgh Life Society was disrupted by numerous individuals and student groups, Meher Vepari reflect on the messaging and implications of their campaign: Artwork by Mariam Tovmasian (IG: @tomwunderbar). Three weeks ago, a student-run ‘pro-life’ society organised a talk at the University of Edinburgh. I put ‘pro-life’ in quotation marks because the society and wider movement is not, fundamentally pro-life, but anti-choice. To be pro life is to value life and protect it in all aspects. And if an abortion protects a mother, then that is pro-life. Edinburgh Life Society is an anti-choice group. The talk took place in the basement of 40 George Square at 7.30pm. Most of the building lights were off, leaving us to walk in semi darkness. It was ominous from the start. The room itself was much fuller than I expected; I surveyed the crowd, spotting a row of people at the back holding protest signs and a group of FemSoc members. I was relived that the crowd seemed overwhelmingly non ‘pro-life.’ The Life Soc president introduced their speaker, Margaret Akers, an Edinburgh University graduate and current member of the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC). She began her talk by welcoming everyone and saying how happy she was to see so many new faces. But her voice betrayed the enthusiastic sentiment; she was very, very nervous. Perhaps because in the build-up to this talk, Life Soc received a huge amount of online backlash within the University’s student community. While neither EUSA* or the University of Edinburgh commented on the matter, FemSoc openly denounced the university for allowing the talk to take place on campus. The comment section on Life Soc’s post about the event was overwhelmed with voices of anger and rejection. She knew she’d be facing a rough crowd. On the SPUC website, under What We Do, you can find the core of their message, of their “VISION” as written themselves: A world where abortion is unthinkable. But they didn’t state this from the start – it took an intervention by student activists, heated discussion and relentless questioning until Akers admitted to being anti-abortion herself. Acker’s intial message was that many women are forced into having abortions, and the NHS doesn’t adequately screen for this kind of coercion and abuse. Backed up by numerous anecdotes and dubious statistics, this narrative was repeated throughout the evening by Akers and members of Life Soc. Activists and audience members questioned how banning abortion would end coercion, but their answers were vague and evasive. When probed on their support for the ‘pro-life vigils’ taking place outside abortion clinics, they claimed they had no involvement in the organisation. In Scotland and England the introduction of 150m buffer zones around abortion clinics, in which 'pro-life vigils' would be illegal to hold, has been debated in Parliament over the past few months. When someone brought up the fact that SPUC encouraged people to write to their MPs in protest against this proposed law, Akers replied casually, “I just don’t organise them, but I support them.” Throughout further debate on buffer zones and their 2012 homophobic petition against the legalisation of gay marriage, they insisted on sticking to the topic of the talk, an effort in vain as the rest of the room rejected this obliqueness. Despite Akers agreeing to “cede the floor to a wider discussion,” the answers that the room demanded about how banning abortion would end coercion and violence were largely evaded. As the conversation tumbled on, there was a word which stuck with me, one I don’t use lightly: insidious. The messages and ideals that SPUC and Life Soc propagate are, fundamentally, insidious. Their slides detailed the traumatic events of physical and emotional abuse pregnant people faced, with the aim of aborting their child. The emphasis was always on the fact that they were coerced and therefore banning abortion was a benign act to end coercion. This is blatantly nonsensical. If the issue is coercion, then why focus on abortion – should the emphasis not, rather, be on tackling the systems of coercion that continue to oppress and control people with uteruses? They deflected this question until it was finally stated by the society’s president that they viewed abortion as murder. They believe that from the time of conception, a foetus is a human life. And so they inadvertently admitted that the issue wasn’t about coercion, or about the violence pregnant people may be subjected to when stuck in abusive environments. They use annecdotes of trauma as a smoke screen to hide anti-abortion ideology behind. If these are true stories, then SPUC are utilising abuse in order to justify their generalised, scientifically disproven statements. If the anecdotes are fictionalised, then their entire sense of compassion for coerced people is simply a tool to further manipulate their target audience. Either way, this is a form of coercion. And it is abhorrent. And it made a lot of people in the room really, really angry. On top of spreading blatant misinformation - such as claiming most people are simply sent abortions “in the post” with no prior NHS official screening, and that legal and illegal abortions are effectively as safe as each other - the response to those who bravely shared their own personal experiences of abortion and miscarriage was blatantly disrespectful. The first to do so was one of the activists, who shared her recent experience of abortion and why groups such as SPUC and Life Soc make the decision so much harder for people in her position. The second person shared their story to disprove the claim that the NHS abortion services failed to screen people adequately for abuse. The third talked about their recent, unexpected pregnancy and subsequent miscarriage, and how crucial it was for them to be in a country where abortive services were accessible. Akers' response to each of these was to thank them for sharing, express how glad she was that this was their experience, but to reiterate that “most women” - or rather, “the women I’ve spoken to” - have had very different experiences. Her own research cited only one set of statistics, taken from a wider BBC study about reproductive coercion; the rest of her evidence was purely anecdotal. Not only does this study lack scientific evidence, which is massively problematic for a talk given in an educational institute, it also gave Akers no basis to disregard the stories that the activists and other audience members shared. At these points, they undermined their own arguments. When a pro-life student brought up “classical liberalism,” it was such an absurdly unrelated topic half the room couldn’t help but laugh. When the Life Soc secretary said that the people at ‘pro-life’ vigils who “do not shout, [..] scream or do any of these horrible, nasty things” also “might” hold up photos of dead babies, the irony was so obvious it was somewhat comical. I fundamentally believe everyone should have the right to access abortion should they wish, therefore I sometimes find it hard to believe how anyone, especially other women, can subscribe to anti-choice mentality. But, even if Edi Life Soc didn’t have the biggest membership, we have seen the huge influence of the anti-choice movement – one only has to look to the US, where abortion has been banned in 13 states and that is expected to increase, to be reminded of the dangerous influence these groups have. Political influence stems from ideological influence. Life Soc, SPUC, and the wider anti-choice movement, by seeking to remove this layer of bodily autonomy, are reinforcing the concept of a ‘woman’s duty’ to protect life at all costs; to sacrifice herself for her God-given purpose of childbearing, to suffer the burden of an unwanted pregnancy - all because bearing life is ultimately her duty. On a document intended to be used as “Written Evidence” against the introduction of buffer zones, SPUC claims that they “present an alternative [to abortion] in a peaceful and loving way”. They go on to state that – " The Court of Appeal decision on Dulgheriu cites the women who use the Ealing abortion clinic: "Some are children. Some are victims of rape. Some are carrying foetuses with abnormalities, even fatal abnormalities. Some may not have told friends or family … They may be in physical pain and suffering acute psychological and emotional issues both when attending and leaving the Centre." These are precisely the women to whom peaceful pro-life people offer help, and many accept that help. " This is a sickening statement. SPUC aims to eradicate abortion for everyone – through their vigils, they seek to monopolise people’s vulnerability. Whether the person is a child, a victim of rape, financially unable to provide for a child, or physically endangered by pregnancy – the message under all these layers of doctrine is that to bear a child is the woman’s duty. While they claim to be “peaceful”, their message is manipulative and harmful: they should not be given a platform to spread their regressive ideologies. As it became increasingly evident that the concern for coerced women was an insincere façade for anti-choice theory, it also became clearer how truly ingrained this ideology was amongst the pro-lifers in the room. In response to the activists’ message that SPUC and Life Soc were not wanted at the university, a pro-life student said, “This is our university too. You know that, right?” This phrase stayed in my mind. It was true, technically. Taking away an official platform is crucial, but doesn’t fundamentally change the fact that this ideology remains. Perhaps there is nothing to be done about this. But the most important thing is to ensure adequate education and access to abortions is provided for everyone. It is vital to tackle the systems of coercion, so that sex, contraception, pregnancy and abortion are truly always a choice for people, and anti-choice groups aren’t able to utilise someone’s trauma to advance their own agenda. If you believe that life begins at conception, and that abortion is murder, then don’t get an abortion. Simple. The right to choose is the right to freedom. Enjoy your freedom, and have the basic human decency to respect the freedom of others. *Following the event, EUSA held a vote, the outcome of which defined them as an explicitly pro-choice group. See a recent Guardian publication about what different stages of a pregnancy really look like. See @youthinresistance’s instagram for more information about the event and wider student activism in Edinburgh.

Amy Norton discusses the importance of taking time away for yourself amidst the stresses of university life and shares her top spots in Edinburgh for a peaceful solo trip out: Artwork by Sophie Pywell (IG: @S.louise.pywell). Scheduling quality time for yourself can sometimes feel pointless or even embarrassing. We hear a lot in the media about the importance of self-care, but with all the stresses and pressures of university life it isn’t always our top priority. I noticed recently that I spend practically all of my time stimulated either by technology or interactions with other people; I even go to sleep with music on. It’s difficult to disconnect and achieve a calm headspace, but for me a solo trip out is the closest I can get to it. You might be thinking that a peaceful self-date sounds lovely, but when am I going to find the time with all the work I have to do? It’s all about shifting our idea of what being productive actually is. Maybe it’s not about how much work you do, but how you balance the work you do with the rest of your life. University and working hard is important, but it is not as important as your own mental health and wellbeing. Doing things for you and removing yourself from your laptop every once in a while, is just as productive in my opinion. I want to share with you my top six spots in Edinburgh for a calm, wholesome solo trip for when things feel a bit much, or just simply because you fancy it. Most of these places pluck you out of the university bubble that we don’t always register how swamped we are in. Doing this is necessary and grounding, makes you understand that the things you’re stressing about really aren’t as life-or-death as you think. There is a bigger picture. At the end of the day, you aren’t just a student, you are a person living in a gorgeous city, so go and explore it! All these places are easy to get to and free, but all also have the option of treating yourself to a nice coffee. Dr Neil’s Garden, Old Church Lane: Located just next to Duddingston Loch, Dr Neil’s Garden (created by Drs. Andrew and Nancy Neil) is the perfect spot for some calm contemplation. It’s the place that inspired me to write this article because I think it’s the loveliest and you should all know about it. This gorgeous garden is open 7 days a week and is maintained through charity and public donations. I grew up in the Peak District, so being in nature is what makes me feel the most peaceful- cheesy but it’s true. When sitting on one of the many benches in Dr Neil’s Garden you cannot see any roads or evidence of city life at all. I sit and listen to the birds and the water, and it makes me feel like I never want to leave; it is so picturesque and beautiful year-round. They have a little community cafe, as well as stalls sometimes where you can buy fruit and vegetables grown from the garden. I cannot recommend it enough, so please visit and treat it with love. The National Portrait Gallery, Queen Street: I love a self-date to a gallery, and the National Portrait is my favourite in Edinburgh. Whether you have a strong interest in art or have no knowledge whatsoever, an hour in this stunning building is a good way to spend your time. It’s totally free to enter, you can just walk in and wander around without being bothered (although the staff are lovely if you do want a chat). I tend to eat the soup in the cafe if I’m there at lunch time, and not care about the fact that I am the youngest in there by about thirty years. The quietness of a gallery might be uncomfortable or intimidating for some people, and it’s totally fine if that applies to you. I just make sure to never put any pressure on the experience - there are no rules about how long you’re supposed to look at each painting. It’s up to you how you go about it; take ownership of the experience and you will see your self assurance soar. The Botanic Gardens, Inverleith: It always surprises me just how many people haven’t been to the Botanic Gardens. It’s a wonderful 70 acres of land that is well worth the walk (or bus) down into New Town. The gardens are free and open every day. I have been in all seasons now and can safely say it is gorgeous in all of them. Where Dr Neils is better for a sit down, I’d say the Botanic Gardens are perfect for a solo walk. I have been so many times and I’m sure I find a new route around it with every visit. They have multiple great cafes if you do want to grab a coffee, as well as an exhibition space in the central building. For somewhere so close to the centre of the city, it feels like the perfect escape. Waterstones Cafe, Princes Street: Although cafes aren’t necessarily peaceful in a quiet sense, they provide a warm and calm atmosphere that’s sometimes just as beneficial. There are so many cafes in Edinburgh that you could probably try out a new one every week for your whole degree, but I have to give a shout out to the cafe in Waterstones on Princes Street. In order to not fall into the trap of spending lots of money I have to avert my eyes as I climb the stairs to the second floor of the shop to get to the cafe. It’s worth the risk for what’s at the top. Arguably the most special bit about the cafe is the grand, rounded, floor-to-ceiling windows with stunning views of Princes Street Gardens and, of course, the Castle. It’s never particularly loud in Waterstones, so it’s a great place to relax with a book, and there’s plenty of them to choose from too! Stockbridge & Dean Village: Stockbridge is my favourite area of Edinburgh. There I said it. I am slightly biassed because I work there, but even before then it was always (and still is) such a treat to go. I like all the parts of Edinburgh for different reasons, but there’s something so lovely about the vibe of Stockbridge that sets it apart for me. Take yourself off for a date there on a Sunday and you won’t regret it. With plenty of great shops and cafes, there’s enough to keep you entertained for the whole afternoon. But you don’t have to spend money to have a nice time in Stockbridge, just walking around the beautiful streets is enough. I think Ann Street is the nicest, but I’m open for debate. Just off Stockbridge is one of the most picturesque spots in the whole city- Dean Village. A short and peaceful walk along the river takes you to this fairytale-looking scene that you can’t help but fall in love with. Sitting on a bench, listening to the river and people watching there is always lovely. Rainy Hall, New College: My final place on the list is actually a university study space that I have been gatekeeping, but I’m going to let you all in on it. Rainy Hall inside New College (Edinburgh University’s Divinity Building) is my favourite study spot simply because of the aesthetic. This Hogwarts-esque Hall has high ceilings, tapestries, oil paintings and stained-glass windows. What more could you want? If you’ve ever done a theology or divinity module, you’ll know that the New College staff are the nicest people and really add to the wholesome energy of the entire building. There’s really nothing intimidating about Rainy Hall, and this is why I love working there. This year saw the re-opening of the cafe attached, so you can grab a bite to eat there too. The only downside is that it’s not as warm as the library, so make sure to wear a decent jumper. That concludes my top six self-date spots in Edinburgh. So, get your favourite outfit on and schedule in some well earned me-time!

Ruth Stainer sits down with renowned location manager and assistant producer Rob Striem to hear about why creativity is so crucial within the film industry and the importance of waiting for the good stuff: Artwork by Ruby Tait (IG: @Rubyt.art). Rob Striem, a Native New Yorker who has spent almost all of his life living in Brooklyn, represents almost the pinocle of what it is to ‘make it’ in the film business. Having been in the industry for the best part of 30 years, initially starting out as producer on student film projects before transitioning into the realm of location manager for 20 years and working on a plethora of notable projects including, most recently, Steven Spielberg’s ‘West Side Story’. At present, he has now shifted towards the job of assistant unit producer, utilising his wealth of expertise and creative innovation to help him successfully forge a new career path. Sitting down with Striem in a restaurant in downtown NYC, his inherent passion and creative insights are undoubtedly apparent, and his zest and enthusiasm is immediately captivating from the minute our conversation begins. Striem attended Syracuse Newhouse School, graduating from the communications program with a degree in television, radio and film production. Though when going into the program he didn’t necessarily always know he wanted to be a filmmaker or even enter into the realm of film, “I knew I wanted to tell stories through the media”, he shared, “and the program was wide enough that it gave me the freedom to figure it out.” After taking the bold initiative to reach out to a film’s production office and ask if there was any interning work he could obtain, in 1995 he gained his first career gig, working as a location assistant for the film ‘Jeffrey’, directed by Christopher Ashley, a comedic adaptation of a stage play based around life in New York as a gay man during the AIDS crisis. Though he shares that parts of the process weren’t “necessarily my thing”, he still gained a great deal of valuable experience. “It taught me that whether I was conscious of it or not, through doing this work you could have experiences that are unusual or suddenly gain access to places that otherwise you wouldn’t have experienced. I came out of that and started to develop a skill and understanding of this process”, he remarks. “It was a job I didn’t even know existed in college” says Striem regarding the role a location manager. “As a producer of student film projects, it definitely was a component of my role but I quickly found myself involved in this department and film production. They were the crossroads between production processes and the rest of the world both on and of screen.” At 21 Striem had quickly caught the film bug and as one job seemed to lead to another, he never looked back. So, what exactly constitutes the life and job of a location manager? The role is “dynamic”, he pertains, with there two phases to the process: pre-production and production. “My life looked very different in each of those stages” he shares, “but one of the things is that it is always moving. You’re going through prep mode and shooting and then it ramps up again. It keeps it interesting for me, on a personal level.” Every job and every film or television production’s process is unique, dictated by the relevant production schedule. One of the greatest challenges of being a location manager, he shares, is just that: the tumultuous lifestyle and unpredictability it generates, alongside having to forcibly balance creativity with viability. “If you take a director to a place on a half-based notion and they fall in love with it and you can’t deliver it, guess what, nothing else is going to be as good and they’re always going to be comparing it to that. You’ve just wasted their time and a lot of creative energy, it’s like the kiss of death. It’s a bad place to be in”, says Striem. Indeed, no other job in the business, he shares “feels as difficult as this one”, almost primarily because almost every other job within the film industry tends to exist within the so-called production vacuum. In contrast, however, when it comes to location managers, in the words of Striem, “you’re just relying on the outside world, and it can get tricky.” “On paper, being able to always deliver a good location is one of the things that makes you good at hour job, but it is actually one of those things you have very little control over”, he states. Achieving a work-life balance in this ever-changing and tumultuous career also proves to be rather challenging, says Striem. “With the production schedule dictating your life, everything gets topsy turvey. You’re working days and nights and suddenly your life is driven by what you’re shooting every day.” Financial stability is also far from guaranteed, and though Striem has been a well-established member of the Director’s Guild since 2001, providing him with a pension, healthcare and other essential needs that many other freelancers struggle to obtain, the intensity and then subsequent lull that comes after shooting a big project can present anxiety. “You’ll work for an intense period and then take time off because you’re so burnt out but then all of a sudden the pay check stops. It continues to be challenging, but you know that’s part of the double-edged sword, you’re not reporting to the same desk job everyday. I’ve always feared and dreaded the desk job existence.” Managing family life with the role of location manager is, Striem shares, also a rather difficult task, aided, at least in part, by his intentional decision to choose a so-called “geographical niche”, namely the city of New York. However, this certainly comes with exceptions. In 2014 Striem worked as a location manager for “Spotlight”, a film directed by Tom McCarthy and shot in Boston that went on to win 6 Academy Awards. However, due to the long-distance shooting, the personal challenges it generated for Striem were rather great. “It was taxing on my family. The hours are long and there is very little consistency”, he shares. Indeed, managing this extent of financial uncertainty and stress as a freelancer in film is one which film producer and close friend to Striem, Steve Nicolaides, knows all too well. “Freelance in the film business is a total blessing and a total curse. It takes a special type of personality”, he shares. “If you have a family, mortgages, responsibilities (…) there’s no guarantee you’ll get another job.” The freelance life, though anxiety-inducing and financially promiscuous, is, however, he believes to be equally incredibly freeing. “The reward of this gamble is you eventually get to pick and choose what you work on, and with whom. Freedom is wonderful if it doesn’t scare the shit out of you.” So, how does Striem navigate such freedom and the ability to choose which projects he takes on for months at a time? West Side Story (2021) directed by Steven Spielberg, was the last project Striem took on as location manager before making his career shift, and when the call came through, for him it was a no-brainer. “It’s period, it’s musical, and it’s on this iconic scale so I knew it was going to be hard. There’s no world in which that’s an easy job, but we took it on aggressively and enthusiastically”, he expresses. His unwavering respect for Spielberg also played an unwavering factor, ‘Spielberg is the one wild card I cant say no to”, he says. Crucially, for Striem, the pay check is anything but the primary motivating factor behind making those judgement calls. Rather, a true vested interest and passion in the project he’s essentially about to commit his life to for the foreseeable future is far more vital. “I’ve kind of always, for better or for worse, hung back and put a lot of weight on the people I’m working with and the project. It’s hard work. For me, I’ve got to have a reason to get up in the morning and put myself through it, other than just the pay check”, he says with great sincerity. Burnout is, he believes, an extremely likely symptom of the intensity that comes with the freelance life of film, and certainly one he wishes to avoid. “I feel like for me burnout prevention was to not put myself next to assholes”, he states. “Don’t immerse yourself in something you don’t care about, because if you don’t care about it then eventually it’s just going to burn you out.” Though a balance between having genuine passion and interest versus the inclination and financial need to keep working is one that inevitably comes with difficulty, Striem remains secure in his intricate thought processes behind every decision. “I’ve always chosen my projects carefully and have no regrets”, he states with confidence. Though dabbling in the world of fast-paced television, namely working on the first series of American comedy television series Sex in the City (later returning for series 5 as a location manager in 2002 due to wanting to help represent the city of New York as a vibrant place after the devastation of 9/11), Striem always “held out” for the good movies, a deliberate choice. The fast pace shows in which you only get your script two weeks before you have to shoot resembling the likes of Sex in the City are a “crash and burn experience” as he calls it. “You’re compromising creatively and compromising yourself with the way you’re doing business. It’s all about finding a location fast so logistics drive the process. It’s a pace I didn’t like”, he proclaims. It is this deliberate decision to wait out for the good projects, or ‘the good stuff’ as he calls it, those that are able to light a creative fire and enable Striem to truly put work out with unparalleled passion and a vested personal interest, that led to him waiting so long before shifting from the role of location manager to assistant production manager. “The truth is, I had watched a lot of people pass me in the fast lane. Did I want to be doing those jobs that they were doing? Not necessarily, I was super selective. I didn’t want to step it up on some trashy thing. I wanted to step it up on the level I’ve been working which is probably why I’ve hung back”, he says. Now, Striem is working alongside Steven Soderbergh as a production manager for HBO Max but has still been able to hold onto the creative aspect he believes is all so important to his work, aided by their personable and trusted professional relationship. Furthermore, Soderbergh too shares in this emphasis upon creativity, something which Striem believes has helped make them such compatible professional working partners. “The creative part has been vital to his process for a long time. He’d be the first one to tell you”, he proclaims. As is becoming an evident theme for Striem when making decisions in this industry, hanging back and waiting for something he genuinely believes in and where his creativity is honoured is key, and the decision to eventually enter into the role of production manager was no different. “If I was to take the creativity out of it, I probably would have become a production manager faster. But for me I held onto it so when I got offered the role of production manager alongside Sodebergh it was something that I wanted”, he expresses. Indeed, Striem still continues to drive many of the creative and location-related conversations at HBO Max now, undoubtedly a testament to his unparalleled impact and the creative importance his mere presence holds within those rooms. Given Striem’s unparalleled wealth of experience, what advice would he give to young graduates hoping to follow in his footsteps? Well, first and foremost, “you have to ask yourself, is this something I really want to do?”, he says. Striem is adamant to stress that securing the role of location manager does not automatically ensure richness nor promise a secure place in the industry, so it really is crucial that you love what you’re doing. Moreover, creativity is, for Striem, an unquestionable asset. “As a location manager, you’ve got to be creative. I don’t care what anyone says”, he shares. “I know you’re scouting with a production manager and the director makes the ultimate choice, but at the end of the day everyone is choosing from what you present.” Ultimately, though, for Striem, a lot of what it takes to truly make it in this business is actually rather simple: the ability for one to be authentic, passionate and committed. Essentially you need to really, genuinely, care about what you’re doing. “Within the film world, there’s a personality type – we all dread boredom, and there’s a common sense thing that’s really hard to teach. People either have it or they don’t”, says Striem. From ‘Ocean’s 8’, to ‘Men in Black 3’, ‘West Side Story’ and ‘School of Rock’, one thing is for certain, Striem certainly has the personality type needed to do great things in film, and his decision to hold out for the good stuff continues to serve him rather well.

Patricia Köhring undertakes a brief investigation into smoking, vapes, and what is a very twenty-first century craze: Artwork by Alison Laing (IG: @alisonlaingart). The covid cough might be history but our lungs have not been left in peace. A new disease has come to town but this time around it’s welcomed with open arms. It is the era of the vape sovereign, and their ruling presence is infectious. In what seems like a mere year, the disposable USB-sized devices have taken over the streets, easily recognised by their fun bright colours and their users spotted through the mist of fruity vapour left in reminiscence of each puff. And no, these sightings are not solely confined to the thrills of nightlife, but the different bars- Elfs, Solos, Geeks- have become as common as dogs in the park. Cigarettes are around, and might forever be for all we know, but the emergence of the vape and its dramatic exponential growth is fascinating, if not surprising, to observe. Of course ‘the vape’ is not an entirely new phenomenon. Most of us growing up in the (20)10’s will remember a certain Matty Smokes and laughing at his attempt to ‘hotbox’ his car with a vape- ahh, don’t we miss the golden years of Cody Ko and his ‘That’s Cringe’ videos. We might then shamefully admit that though it was all slightly remote at first, beginning as a lame trend that the teenagers in America had going on, our own circles are now fully in tune with the vape hype. But when did everyone join in? At what point did the entire UK university scene succumb to what had previously been scorned and labelled a childish fad? Perhaps this is another one of those developments that we can blame on the pandemic. If we think reasonably about it, such an explanation makes sense. Young people were trapped in their homes, often with their families, for months- restless, frustrated, and likely, anxious at times. Social smoking could have turned into chain smoking if it weren’t for the disapproving parents or flatmates, but a vape and its potential for being puffed in sweet discretion without putting a foot outdoors, might have been an all-too attractive alternative. After the months of lockdown, in this scenario, it might then have continued into the current ‘life-returned-to-normal’ with a little help of addiction that the nicotine + fun fruit flavouring has shown to induce. Nonetheless, let’s not get ahead of ourselves; blaming this widespread craze on our unfortunate affiliations with the coronavirus seems a rather lazy resort. It cannot be that the only factor leading to our infatuation with the vape is the pandemic and its effect on us. The consumer might choose to consume, but they can also always be externally provoked to do so. In the case of the vape, there is the obvious social factor that we might touch on briefly to begin with. The device is easily shared at parties and elsewhere; again, not only can it be smoked indoors, but it is also less reluctant to burn out and hastily disposed of than the cigarette- which, in my theory, makes people more willing to share their nicotine. An extension of my dull and predictable verdict then; once a number of people who were more prone to the call of the stimulant began their descent, their friends inevitably joined what became the mass submission to the vape. The social dilemma of ‘peer pressure’ is nothing unheard of, so it is more interesting still, to turn to the inevitable contributions of businesses and the public sector to these smoking habits. Initially, I for one, thought of the disposable vapes as a vaguely illicit affair, something related to illegitimate trade; not quite the black market, but perhaps a slightly unauthorised good that the government was pretending not to acknowledge. As the devices started to increase their appearance in shop windows however, I realised that such an assumption might have been unfounded. ‘The Vaping Specialists’ group, VPZ, have become increasingly prominent and noticeable with their striking green shops and homogeneous line of products. Promoting themselves as the ‘No. 1 UK Vape Retailer’, the company has, quite ironically, announced their mission to spearhead “the fight against the nation's number one killer - smoking”. During an interview with The Scotsman last April, the director of the company, Doug Mutter, revealed a plan to open up ten new stores in Edinburgh alone for the purpose of expanding their conglomerate and tackling issues of unauthorised vape sales to minors- a practice which Mutter suggested that smaller businesses are infamous for. Lacking in scientific knowledge about the difference in the chemical compositions of vapes from bargain stores versus chains like VPZ, the message I conceive is merely that the product itself is endorsed by the public as long as it is elegantly commercialised and, probably more importantly, taxed. VPZ or not, the intuitive dilemma remains the same; smoking, no matter the form it takes, cannot be good for us. In 2017 the UK’s Department of Health and Social Care proposed a plan for the cessation of cigarette smokers for the end of 2022, and a long-term alternative that the NHS proposed were e-cigarettes. Contradictory to such preferences are the new research articles continuously released, that warn us of the various health consequences linked to vaping. Besides symptoms like a cough, shortness of breath and phlegm(gross I know), specialists in the US have found that e-cigarettes have in a number of cases resulted in more severe pulmonary illnesses such as “spontaneous pneumothorax, acute eosinophilic pneumonia, respiratory bronchiolitis-associated interstitial lung disease, hypersensitivity pneumonitis, organising pneumonia, and acute exogenous lipoid pneumonia”. Now, I am not entirely comfortable with the precise details of these various diseases, but anyone can agree that the prospect of developing even one of them is not appealing. Anyhow, to lighten things up a little, I decided to investigate the usage as well as the selling of vapes in Edinburgh a little further. Attending your average Edinburgh flat party the other day, I engaged a fellow student in a discussion about his vaping habits. The conversation proceeded as follows- Speaking to a fellow Elf Bar fiend: Q: So, how long have you been smoking for? A: It’s hard to say because I had my first cigarette when I was twelve [yikes]. So nine years. Q: How often do you use your vape now then? A: Haha, all day every day. Q: Did you transition from cigarettes? A: I smoked some during the summer but really I only smoke cigarettes when I’m really drunk. Q: What’s the appeal of the vape? A: It’s more of a habit. When I was at university yesterday and I didn’t have it I got very stressed. I was like I really need the vape to focus. Q: Are you planning on stopping? A: No. Not at the moment… I have partaken in a number of very similar conversations before and since, but the general consensus amongst vape users our age seems to be that a) vaping very quickly develops into a habit that is hard to get rid of (and half of the people I spoke to did not have plans to do so in the first place), b) that increased smoking is connected not only to drinking but also to work and stress, and c) that vaping is an enjoyable occupation with seemingly few repercussions for its users (price being one and health, though less blatantly so, being another). To make my pseudo-investigation more nuanced I also endeavoured to speak with a vape seller. After a late-night shift at the restaurant I work in, I decided to pop by my most frequented corner store on Lothian Road. Like most other shops of this kind, the store boasts a miscellanea of goods that might appeal to anyone at any time of the day; ranging from beverages to chewing gum, postcards and make-up wipes, but most importantly for this article- disposable vapes. I have entered this particular shop on many occasions and for various reasons, so with a certain familiarity I decided to strike a conversation with the shopkeeper. Fortunately, though potentially embarrassingly, he recognised me before I began my interrogation of his vape sales. Though the conversation betrays a casualness that refrains me from officially titling it a Q&A session, I shall keep insisting on the dialogue being structured in this way, with my speech marked by a Q and the shopkeepers an A (for continuity if nothing else). In Conversation with the keeper of Lifestyle Express: Q: Hi again A: Hi, which flavour [of Elf Bar] today? Q: Hmm maybe kiwi-passionfruit-guava? A: Yeah, that’s a good one. Q: Do you smoke these yourself? A: The Elf Bar? Yeah, all the time. I try a new flavour everyday haha. Right now I’ve got cotton candy. I think I might have tried them all by now. Q: So is the Elf Bar the most popular ‘brand’ of disposable vapes then? A: Yeah, right now for sure. Q: How many of them do you sell a day, roughly? A: I’d say probably ten boxes. Q: Oh right, how many are in a box then? A: Ten devices per box. So that’s 100 of them gone everyday. Q: It must be good for business in that case? A: Yeah, it gives us all the more reason to stay up late. You know, with all the people coming in at night wanting one. Essentially my reason for including this nocturnal ramble is to highlight two things: one, that the sale of vapes is a diversification which thus far has yielded only success for small businesses, and two, that The Notorious B.I.G’s slogan, “never get high, on your own supply”, has evidently been rebuked for this exceptionally addictive drug. As a final note, if you have managed to read through this entire article, thank you. I cannot pretend to imagine that I have communicated anything exceptionally illuminating, but hopefully this overview of a device, so incorporated in our lives today, has put into written words what many of us have already thought or heard about the vape and its undeniable prominence. Whether you vape or not, for now, it looks like the trend has turned into a commodity that is here to stay.

Harry Styles in Don't Worry Darling may have been aesthetically pleasing but was he the right choice? Ruth Cullen takes a closer look into the reasons why Hollywood uses non-actors in some it's the biggest blockbusters, the market forces at play and the influence that fanbase culture is having over the media: Artwork by Kate Granholm (IG: @Katesartthings). Heading into an evening viewing of Don’t Worry Darling, Warner Bros.’ newest star-studded psychological thriller, I took note of the scepticism I had for the lead male actor, Harry Styles, as the film poster loomed above me. Many would have few complaints about being able to watch Styles on the big-screen for two hours; I was not so sure. I will happily admit that I enjoyed the movie, including Styles’ part in it, but his performance has garnered largely negative reviews. Many take particular fault with the fact that Styles’ weakness left so much of the work to the female lead, Florence Pugh, who is thanked for carrying the weight of the acting. The imbalance between the two highlights an inescapable fact: Styles was not made for this. He certainly fulfils his purpose of attracting a younger demographic, those who know and love his music and who maintain that he can probably do no wrong. He fits the casting call of a conventionally attractive male to create the idealised aesthetic of America in the 1950s. He, crucially, attracts attention from the music-focused portion of the media that normally would neglect the film industry, and the tabloids and twitter threads have taken full advantage of the off-screen drama that is too speculative for an explanation. But this is definitely not the first time something similar has happened. 2021 saw Lady Gaga’s second highly acclaimed film with House of Gucci, following A Star is Born, Taylor Swift’s feature alongside Margot Robbie is on the horizon with Amsterdam, and Will Smith’s Academy Award for Best Actor in King Richard obscures the fact that he was a musician first, winning a Grammy long before any award for acting. It has been proven that some individuals do have the talent to fulfil multiple roles in show-business. Some musicians can act. Some actors can make music. But to utilise the fame of an individual in one field as justification for their use in another, does not guarantee a happy ending, as many argue Styles’ role in Don’t Worry Darling proves. So why is it that Hollywood continues to reach for non-actors when they have swathes of hopeful actors lying in wait for their big breaks? High profile roles such as these are snapped up by celebrities, arguably because they already have a name in the media, a PR team, and pre-existing fans that will follow their every move. Undoubtedly, the economic benefit of a minimum guaranteed audience from the world of music-centred fanbases must be a drawing point, but it begs the question, do directors and casting directors prioritise the revenue of their film above the quality of acting? And how much power does the ‘fandom’ movement have? Die-hard fanbases are not a new phenomenon, but social media has certainly accelerated the development of a subculture, where ‘fandom’ has become a collective noun extending beyond the devoted fan pages of Instagram. It has the power to take fans to where their idol goes, including into a movie theatre, regardless of the fact they started liking them for their singing. None of this is to say that this is an invalid reason for going to see the movie. I like Harry Styles as much as the next 20-year-old British female with a Spotify subscription, but he is not an actor, and the level of his performance cannot deny that. Nonetheless, I paid for my ticket, I enjoyed the movie, and recommended it to my friends. My knowledge of Harry Styles’ music made me do exactly what the casting directors wanted me to do, pay for the privilege. Even if it was not the best performance in the world, the use of a pre-existing celebrity from outside of Hollywood expands the film’s demographic, increases publicity and in doing so, gets more people into the cinema. In this way, Styles was a success. The use of non-actors definitely plays into the debate about viewership, media attention and income. On the one hand, it is the decision of the directors and casting directors in every instance, but on the other, it is not as if Hollywood has run out of idolised, high-profile actors that wouldn’t attract a similar demographic, as in this case, Shia LaBeouf would surely argue. So, it is a conscious decision to include someone outside the regular gene-pool of actors, and make this statement about the importance of tapping into different fanbases and corners of public awareness. However, there is a fine line (see what I did there?) between casting someone with the right look and developing their acting skills in time and including them as a cameo that doesn’t always pay off, as Cher flying into Mamma Mia 2 in a helicopter very memorably shows. There are many underlying forces to trends like these, and I’ll admit that I’m patiently waiting for Don’t Worry Darling to make it onto Netflix, but there is a lot to learn here about celebrity status, fan culture and what the media thinks we’re all gullible enough to buy into…which, not-so-coincidentally, we will often happily buy into.

News Editor Lucy Osborne discussses how the chaos in the House of Commons in the wake of the mini budget ultimately led to Liz Truss' sensational resignation, followed by a leadership contest between Rishi Sunak and Penny Mourdant: Artwork by Zoe Brown (IG: @Zoe_r_art). Despite bonfire night not being for a fortnight, Liz Truss’ premiership has gone up in flames. Here we are again, awaiting the third Prime Minister of the year. After the shortest term in office ever, Liz Truss resigned on the 20th October 2022 after 45 days. But what orchestrated this spectacular fall into chaos? The beginnings of disgruntlement amongst the conservative party was instigated by Kwasi Kwarteng’s mini-budget proposal.One of the most criticized points of this budget was the 45% higher rate of income tax abolished for England, Wales and Northern Irish tax payers. The firing of Kwasi Kwarteng was particularly shocking; Kwasi and Truss have been compared to having perfectly matched ideologies. This however, was merely the first spark of the fire that burnt Liz Truss’ respect to the ground. The home secretary’s resignation encouraged a barrage of online abuse towards Truss’ leadership. Suella Braverman resigned due to a leaked email, deteriorating Truss’ diminishing respect further. The resignation letter brutally spotlights the conservative’s lack of faith in Truss to deliver her manifesto: “It is obvious to every one that we are going through a tumultuous time. I have concerns about the direction of this government. Not only have we broken key pledges that were promised to our voters, but I have had serious concerns about this Government's commitment to honouring manifesto commitments, such as reducing overall migration numbers and stopping illegal migration, particularly the dangerous small boats crossings.” The evening before Truss’ resignation (19th October), was a vast melting point of chaos and alleged bullying. Chief Whip, Wendy Morton was speculated to have quit late afternoon but then was seen entering Downing Street early this morning. It is shatteringly embarrassing that the Prime Minister and other senior members of the cabinet were completely ignorant to the status of the Chief Whip role overnight. The eve before her resignation also brought contention over a voting on fracking. Speaking to the BBC, Labor MP Chris Bryant alleged that this voting session was verging on bullying and the chaos was inexcusable. Chris Bryant spoke to the BBC and alleged that this voting session was verging on bullying and the chaos was inexcusable. This vote was to determine whether MPs would have a say on the Government’s fracking plans (already a highly contentious issue due to the rising threat of global warming). The physicality of this shocking behavior is particularly concerning, he stated: "I saw a whole swathe of MPs effectively pushing one member straight through the door. I've seen photographic evidence of one MP's hand on another,". How can we possibly trust a government that treats both their opposition and members of the party in a manner not far off a bully in a playground? And so at 13:30 on Thursday 20th October 2022, Liz Truss stepped out of Number 10 Downing Street with her husband at her side. The appearance of her marital partner confirmed the whole country's suspicion of a resignation speech this afternoon. Unlike Theresa May’s resignation speech, marred with emotion and disappointment, Truss seemed to almost feel a sense of relief. She is now able to pass the baton over, for someone else to clear up the spooling mess of UK politics. Thus, the whole country is looking to Rishi Sunak once again. On Monday 24th October Rishi Sunak won the tory leadership contest. The formidable but inexperienced Penny Mordaunt has failed to trump Rishi; but it is with a sigh of relief at least that Boris Johnson is not having his encore; I am not sure that the country could survive another party gate. Despite the new Prime Minister now waiting in the wings, it now appears far more than a new Conservative party leader and Prime Minister will be required to settle the extreme internal divisions within the party. Which leaves the final question, will the conservative party manage to cling on in government or is a general election imminent?

Alessandra Messeri discusses the Italian coalition that won the last election, its historical facist roots and how history may be repeating itself: Artwork by Innes Clark (IG: @Innesclarkillo). ‘History repeats itself’. A cliché statement, but in the case of Italy’s political history it has never rung truer. Benito Mussolini’s Fascist Party took power in October 1922, and, on 25 September 2022, almost exactly 100 years later, Italy elected to parliament its most far-right coalition since then. This coalition is composed of three parties: Giorgia Meloni’s ‘Brothers of Italy’, Matteo Salvini’s ‘League’, and Silvio Berlusconi’s ‘Forza Italia’. Together, they collected a total of 44% of votes. This is enough to form a Government in Italy; coalitions rarely get more than 50% of the vote as it does not have a two-party political system like the UK. Brothers of Italy (Fratelli d’Italia or FDI) was by far the biggest party in the coalition, collecting more than half of those votes. It promotes a strong anti-immigrant, anti-gay marriage, anti-abortion, and pro-traditional family ideology. While it is usually classified as a centre-right party, several international news outlets have labelled it as ‘post-fascist’ due to its origins and extremist rhetoric. Thus, Giorgia Meloni’s party is impossible to ignore, and with the rise of the extreme right in Europe evident in Poland and Hungary’s governments already, it is certainly cause for concern. The official FDI party was founded in 2012, but we can link its beginnings to the end of World War 2. The Fascist party was dismantled after the fall of Mussolini in 1945, with article 12 of Italy’s post-war Constitution forbidding the re-forming of any Fascist party. However, in 1946, a group of ex-Fascist Party members founded the ‘Italian Social Movement’ (Movimento Sociale Italiano, or MSI). Its leader, Giorgio Almirante, was the editorial secretary of the Fascist Party biweekly magazine La Difesa Della Razza, which is Italian for ‘The Defense of Race’ (1938-1944). The party was essentially a neofascist group and is where FDI’s roots can be traced back to. In 1994, following a corruption scandal which completely transformed the Italian political scene and caused the disappearance of many political parties, MSI members united with other right-wing politicians to form the National Alliance (Alleanza Nazionale or AN). It was briefly absorbed into the now defunct ‘People of Freedom’ right-wing party between 2009 to 2012, after which it separated again and renamed itself ‘Brothers of Italy’, with Giorgia Meloni being elected as its leader. Calling the party post-fascist based on its origins alone may seem futile, because, as we have seen, the party has gone through many changes since the creation of the MSI. Meloni now vehemently denies any accusations of her or any of her party members being fascist apologetics. In fact, Giorgia Meloni has recently made efforts to reassure both Italy and the international community that her party’s ties with Fascism are long gone. In August, she shared videos online in Italian, French, and Spanish, affirming that she and her party have ‘handed Fascism over to History’. However, many have been sceptical of her statements and it isn't difficult to see why. Her party’s slogan, ‘God, Fatherland, and Family’, terrifyingly echoes mottos used by Mussolini during his over 20 year long regime. Her party’s symbol, an Italian Tricolour flame, is the same as the one that was used by the MSI. Perhaps most importantly, a 2021 undercover investigation by an Italian news outlet showed footage of FDI party members exchanging Nazi salutes, pro-fascist comments, as well as an array of sexist and racist jokes. While Meloni has since sacked some of those individuals, worries of fascist nostalgia linger, and rightly so. Meloni herself has a complicated history with Fascism. As a girl, Meloni was a very active member of the youth wing of the MSI, even taking some leadership positions. In a 1996 French interview she even stated that ‘Mussolini was a good politician’, and that ‘everything he did, he did for Italy’. Moreover, she has repeatedly shown support for authoritarian leaders such as Hungary’s Viktor Órban. She describes herself as ‘a woman, a mother, and a Christian’, promoting herself as a strong, anti-establishment leader who values tradition. She has vowed to lift Italy out of the crisis and defend it from the ‘extreme left’, immigrants, and what she has described as ‘gender and LGBT ideology’. FDI’s entire branding relies heavily on Meloni’s image, not unlike what we have seen and currently see in authoritarian governments both present and past. Thus, while Meloni and FDI are now not outwardly supportive of Fascism, their actions and history undoubtedly prove otherwise. Their attempts to distance themselves from fascist ideology are contradicted by their firm stance in favour of intolerance, arguably the cornerstone of fascism. They have created a political formula by which they can still abide by their far-right ideology without being branded as neo-fascists. Meloni’s position as a woman arguably helps in this endeavour, as the FDI can hide itself beneath an apparently ‘progressive’ agenda while still securing conservative votes. How can we be misogynists or fascists? Our leader is a woman! The mainstream media is targeting us! This is clearly and worryingly a winning strategy, having secured widespread support in only a short number of years. As an Italian citizen myself, I cannot hide my anxiety over this situation. In a country infamous for its political instability, the battle seems to be not between who has the best or strongest ideas, but between who can shout the loudest. I haven’t lived in Italy for many years now, however, in my opinion, Giorgia Meloni’s win is not surprising; an unstable country with an unsatisfied population where nothing seems to ever get better is the perfect breeding ground for extremism and intolerance to flourish. While this is by no means my desired outcome, I would be naïve if I said that the previous governments, albeit certainly not extremist, caused much positive change for Italy, especially for those in lower socioeconomic and marginalised groups. As Mark Twain once said, ‘History never repeats itself, but it does often rhyme’. I can only hope my worries will be somehow proven wrong.

Teddy Woods reviews The Hen Collective’s artist of the month, Angharad Franziska, as she navigates her recent autism diagnosis, gender identity, and Welsh identity through her powerful body of work. By purposefully employing Welsh language in her auditory and visual art, Angharad conveys her experience of being neurodiverse in a nuerotypical setting to the presumed English-speaking audience. Artwork by Kate Granholm (IG: @Katesartthings). The Hen Collective, a femme led artist collective dedicated to platforming femme, women, and non-binary artists, has launched their 9th solo exhibition since their founding in 2021. Currently hosted at the female-run cafe, August21, the Hen Collective provides opportunities for non-male artists in an overwhelmingly male-dominated art world. This month, their artist in the spotlight is Angharad Franziska (she/her), a Welsh artist who explores gender performance, neuro-diversity, and Welsh language/culture through poetry, visual art, and auditory composition. Forgoing the standard Q+A format of previous Hen Collective opening nights, Angharad, a recent university graduate and fresh postgraduate student from South East Wales, opted instead to recite her poetry alongside a sound installation of distorted noises of wind, breathing and whistling, footsteps, and sheep from a childhood home-video. The themes of this reading, a collection of poems titled “Gwlana”, were well-reflected in the series chosen for the displaying collection at August21: language, landscape, identity, memory, process, and attachments to home. These poems, which repeatedly circled back to the phrase meddylu meddala gad ifi gwlana, highlighted attachments to one’s ‘true home’ and the inability to convey cultural euphemism into an English-speaking context, exploring how this relates to Angharad’s experience as an autistic woman. The juxtaposition of Welsh and English in her bilingual art and poetry mirrors Angharad’s experience as a neuro-diverse woman in a neuronormative world; “speaking Welsh is how my brain speaks. Speaking English is the way that a neurotypical world speaks.” This disconnect between Welsh and English is well represented in the inability to clearly define meddylu meddala gad ifi gwlana in English. Meddylu, a word combining both to woolgather and to think into one word, and gad ifi gwlana (let me woolgather), both hold cultural memory which cannot be expressed with the same nuance in a different language. This theme is a cornerstone in this current collection at August21, with meddylu meddala and gwlana popping repeatedly as the title of some of her wool-art installations incorporated into her poetry and mixed media works. Undeniably, the ideas behind the powerful phrase meddylu meddala gad ifi gwlana are rooted deeply in Angharad’s art practice. Described as at times “a frantic thing with an obsessive need to get out and write something down,” the core of her artistic method lies in a desire to “process quite an overwhelming world." Angharad illustrates her motivations and artistic process; “I’m always trying to make sense of stuff and pick things apart. Whether that’s by thinking or having, like, an actual material, like something physical that you touch and pick apart and weave or whatever, you know, it's a similar process even though it’s happening inside my head or in my hands.” Applying this across mediums, Angharad has created a collection rich with emotional vulnerability as a means of processing her diagnosis, gender identity, and Welsh heritage. Issue No.8 of the Hen Collective’s monthly Zine featuring her work, alongside Hannah Cash and Agnes Roberts will be for sale at The Blunt Knife Co, while the pieces installed at August21 are available for purchase. While the vibrant opening night of this exhibition may have passed, you can still view her short film, “Gwlana (Wool Gathering),” made in connection with The Hen Collective for this exhibition, further discusses the themes of nature, wool, and neurodiversity in her practice. Angharad’s displaying collection beautifully illustrates how she navigates neurodivergency in a neurotypical world through her Welsh experience in an English-speaking world. This body of work will be exhibited until the 26th of October at August21 in Morningside.

Izzy Mein explores the problematic nature of the world's captivation with one of the brightest stars of Hollywood's Golden Age, Marilyn Monroe, in the wake of the recently released film Blonde: Artwork by Alison Laing (IG: @alisonlaingart). One of our most enduring pop culture icons, Marilyn Monroe, has once again been rendered on screen, in the recently released Blonde, directed by Andrew Dominik, and starring Ana de Armas as Marilyn, or as the film would have it, Norma Jean (Monroe’s real name). Much like the other enduring screen stars of her time, such as Audrey Hepburn or Elizabeth Taylor, Marilyn is remembered as one of the brightest stars of Hollywood’s Golden Age. But, while Hepburn and Taylor remain enduring icons of film, fashion and celebrity, their pop cultural status is significantly lesser than Monroe’s, who is iconic in the truest sense of the word: her legacy is so intertwined with image and iconography to an extent that almost nobody else’s is. Clearly one thing that differentiates her from Hepburn and Taylor is her tragic death at a young age. Dying young forever froze her in amber as the sensual blonde bombshell, the apex of the 1950s pin-up, an image she would never age from. But unlike, say, Grace Kelly, another Hollywood star who died tragically young, our culture continues to be obsessed by Marilyn Monroe and her legacy. Marilyn’s life has been depicted onscreen dozens of times in the last half-century, and has been the subject of countless books, both fiction and non-fiction, proving our relentless need to mythologise someone who died so tragically. But what is it about Marilyn specifically that keeps us coming back? Her natural comedic timing? Her alluring, seductive voice? Her multiple marriages? The conspiracies theories surrounding her supposed suicide? Perhaps it is our inability to reconcile the fact that a woman who brought such joy to the screen could have been so deeply unhappy. This is the paradox of Marilyn, and the focus of so many of the interpretations of her: the chasm between the real Norma Jean, and the legend of Marilyn Monroe. Blonde proves to be an encapsulation of this problem, and while the film makes a point of saying that Norma Jean is the real person, and Marilyn is merely a constructed façade, it does not care about Norma Jean, only Marilyn. The opening frames of Blonde highlight everything that is wrong with it. They depict what is perhaps the most enduring image of Marilyn: standing over a subway grate, her white dress billowing around her waist while hundreds of cameras flash. This is the superficiality of Blonde, interested only in the sensational, only in the image, re-treading what we already know of her, but in a way that is more graphic and violent than has been done before. Ironically, it is the film’s director, Andrew Dominik, who manages to unknowingly articulate the problem with our morbid fascination with Marilyn. When asked in a recent interview about why he chose not to depict Monroe’s civil rights activism, her resistance to the anti-communist witch hunts that plagued 50s Hollywood, or the fact that she blazed a trail in the industry by starting her own production company, Dominik replied that those things were not important to him, as ‘that stuff is not really what the film is about. It’s about a person who is going to be killing themself […] Now to me, that’s the most important thing.’ Dominik does not care about Marilyn’s life, filled with immense talent or passion for social justice , only her salacious and mysterious death. Obviously, it’s unfair to suggest that Marilyn’s life was as cheerful as her films, and it’s also true that she suffered from depression and ultimately took her own life. She was clearly someone who suffered a lot of pain and trauma, but Blonde is not just brutal, it’s downright misogynistic. The film posits that being abandoned by her father before she was born was the central wound in Marilyn’s life, and the cause of all her misery. Blonde takes a deeply sexist view of her life, depicting her endless search for a man to save her, and within her cultural legacy, Dominik casts himself as that man. He says this is his attraction to Marilyn, believing that he ‘could have saved her somehow.’ Marilyn is robbed of all agency in this film, which begins by showing her physically and emotionally abusive childhood, and goes on to viscerally depict repeated rape, domestic abuse, and endless sexual harassment, eventually portraying her as a delusional, emotionally unstable drug addict. While these events may have been true to her life, Dominik’s deliberate choice to show them so graphically is nothing more than trauma porn, and an entrenching of the ‘little girl lost’ image Marilyn has come to occupy in the popular consciousness. Perhaps even more disturbingly, the film seems to want Marilyn to reject her talent and ambition for motherhood, framing her decision to have an abortion as something she has been pressured into by studio heads. ‘I killed my baby for this?’ she asks herself after watching Gentlemen Prefer Blondes, one of her best remembered films, which is dismissed by Dominik as being about ‘well-dressed whores.’ Later on in the film, during a subsequent pregnancy, her unborn foetus starts to speak, and castigates her for having had an abortion. In a political moment where reproductive rights are so under threat, particularly in the U.S, with the recent reversal of Roe vs Wade, the film’s determination to punish Marilyn for not being a mother is extremely troubling. Blonde is an adaptation of the Joyce Carol Oates novel of the same name, a novel that self-identifies as a fictionalisation of Marilyn Monroe’s life. The film, similarly, claims to be fictionalised, but at this point in our myth-making, 60 years after her death, even distinguishing between fact and fiction seems redundant, as it all becomes part of the same legend. If this film is fiction, why does it have to be so brutal? Why can’t we use art to correct the wrongs of history, or at least to reframe it, putting the emphasis for once on Marilyn’s genuine talent and incredible achievments? This is what a new documentary, Reframed: Marilyn Monroe, aims to do, putting a feminist lens on Marilyn’s story. Dominik claims that to examine her life from a feminist point of view is ‘a mistake,’ proving he cares little for Marilyn herself, and only wishes to subject her to more torture. The graphic depiction of this woman’s suffering does not accomplish anything. Blonde’s obsession with the mythos of Marilyn seeps into its graphic violence, glamourising her trauma and fusing it with her legacy. Some of Blonde’s most effective sequences actually occur when Marilyn is at her happiest, for example, in the immediate aftermath of her marriage to playwright Arthur Miller. Ana de Armas portrays her in these moments with a vivacity and joyfulness which are so compelling, it makes it even more frustrating when Dominik’s cruel vision triumphs. This may well have been his intention, but it’s just another example of the film’s disinterest in showing Marilyn’s life as anything but violent and hopeless. Marilyn Monroe is undoubtedly one of the most iconic figures of the twentieth-century, maybe of all time, but our ongoing cultural obsession with her is more than a little disturbing. Blonde’s determination on painting such an unrelentingly bleak picture of her life confirms that we have no interest in either Marilyn or Norma Jean, only in watching a famous woman endure untold pain, an audience perpetually captivated by female anguish.

Frances Roberts gives some insightful tips and tricks on how to navigate readjusting to familiar after life affirming adventures on your year abroad: Artwork by Sophie Pywell (IG: @s.louise.pywell) I recently returned from Melbourne, where I spent 5 months on a semester abroad placement. I travelled to some of Australia's most celebrated attractions, made friends from all over the world, and gained a new-found sense of independence by moving as far away as possible, completely on my own. While I was excited to return to Edinburgh, it has been challenging to readjust to a life without koalas and a constant need for suncream. I know I am very much not alone, so here are some tips and tricks to celebrate and harness your year abroad experience, rather than letting the sadness of it ending get you down. 1. Rediscover your city and beyond… One of the many things I loved most about my study abroad placement was the passion and motivation you have to explore your new surroundings. Whether that be a cafe in your neighbourhood or a trip to a national park in a hire car, you develop this incredible sense of the infinite opportunities for adventure. It is natural to feel a sense of loss for this now that you are back in a city that you may feel you know inside out. However, there are so many great places in Edinburgh and beyond which are so accessible by public transport. Maybe a weekend trip to the Highlands during term time might feel a bit ambitious? But start small and you will be amazed at how your feeling towards the city shifts. Is there a bar or pub you’ve never had a pint in? Try an art gallery you’ve never wandered round, a beach you’ve never swam at, or an area you haven’t explored properly. Plan ahead to sample one new experience each week. A city that you thought didn’t have much new to offer, might just surprise you. 2. Connect with new communities Embracing new opportunities doesn’t have to just involve visiting new places, as creating new networks through a sport or hobby that you’ve never got round to can be a really fulfilling way to spend your final year at university. Whether it’s writing, producing, learning a language or coaching a sport, the opportunities really are endless. It also gets you to start thinking about life post-university and will make your CV stand out in the crowded graduate job market.The richness and diversity of groups and societies to get stuck into is a unique aspect of universities, and Edinburgh is certainly no exception. Having a role in a committee is a great way to confirm your commitment to something, helping you to feel a greater sense of achievement at the end of the year. It also expands your social networks, as you are much more likely to feel a stronger bond with people if you are all members of the same team working towards similar goals. Here are a few groups that are still recruiting for their committees: Enactus Edinburgh, Sanitree, The Rattlecap, Archeology Society, Literature Society. 3. Share Your Stories Telling your flatmates, friends and family about your experience can be a great way to relive moments from your year abroad, whilst reconnecting with those who went away somewhere else or stayed in Edinburgh. Last week, I had a photo sharing evening with some friends who went to Spain and Jordan during their years abroad; It was amazing to be given a glimpse into their experiences whilst also being able to become slightly lost for a moment in my own nostalgic feeling. Having some time to reflect on the life-affirming intensity of your experience is vital in order to process everything and come to terms with the new person you have become. If you have friends who didn’t go abroad, it’s easy to feel worried that a sharing session might leave them feeling deflated about their own experience staying in Edinburgh, but invite them to share something too! Whether that’s some new places they discovered last year or somewhere exciting they went on holiday over summer, it is really important to make it feel like everyone has something to contribute. This is a great way to reconnect, and create closure from one experience so you can fully embrace the year ahead. Sharing your stories with prospective exchange applicants can also be really rewarding and there are opportunities for this at ongoing information sessions this semester. 4. Plan your next adventure Looking ahead to the future instead of focusing on the past can be a great way to channel your enthusiasm into something productive. Applications for the University of Edinburgh’s Go Abroad Fund open in March and are a perfect opportunity to continue your passion for new experiences overseas, whilst not having to stress about covering the costs. If you’re unsure where to start in terms of finding global work or volunteering opportunities, My Career Hub is a good place to start. And if you’re thinking about continuing your study by doing a masters, there is also the possibility of doing another exchange as part of your course, an option definitely worth considering. 5. If you're still struggling, seek support If you’ve got to this point in the article and you’re thinking, ‘that’s all well and good but I just want to be back on a beach in Costa Rica drinking Sangria,’ then I would strongly suggest reaching out to either friends or the University for support. The reality is, returning to your home university will be a major adjustment and an entirely personal journey. There is no set amount of time that this can take, so don’t feel any pressure to rush into slotting back into normal life. Your year abroad adventure will have undoubtedly changed you as a person and it can be strange fitting back into surroundings and routines which have remained largely the same. Sometimes dynamics will have shifted too so if this is something you’re struggling with, my tips above about embracing new opportunities could be really helpful. If you still feel like you need a bit of extra guidance, the University counselling service is a great place to start, with four sessions offered a semester. I have used it myself and I had a really positive experience. Finally, the Study and Work Away team also have some great tips on their website and are holding a welcome back event over the next couple of weeks. You can also get in touch with your exchange coordinator if you are looking for further advice.

María López Panalva discusses the damaging and othering implications of the recent online 'Clean Girl' trend. By outlining its historical links to classism and Whitewashing, alongside exposing an undercurrent of mental health performativism, the trend starkly resembles a modern day take of the Madonna-whore dichotomy: Artwork by Innes Clark (IG: @Innesclark). If you are active on TikTok, which lets be honest, if you clicked on this article you most likely are, you’ve probably seen the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic all over your For You Page. But for those who are lucky enough to not know, who are the so-called ‘clean girls’? and why does it seem like everyone is talking about them? If you are a ‘clean girl’, your alarm goes off at 5 am and before the rest of the world has even woken up, you will have done yoga, meditated, journaled, carried out a 10 step skincare routine, drank your organic green smoothie, and maybe even gotten a workout in at the gym. Obviously you do all of this while looking flawless in your gymshark set, slicked back bun, and gold hoops. Your go to makeup is extremely natural, as if you were wearing nothing at all. You definitely follow Matilda Djerf on instagram. Oh, and you always carry a claw clip around with you. Let us start with the name of this aesthetic. ‘Clean’ is certainly an interesting adjective to describe the concept that these girls encapsulate. Their obsession with ‘clean’ eating, with doing just the right amount of exercise necessary to curate the perfect body which they must then dress in a very specific way; a chic style which is both attractive, yet modest and dignified. The idea of being the best, most palatable version of yourself, in order to fit into the very exclusive category of ‘clean’: a pure, idyllic Madonna figure of the perfect woman. This is not only a look (one which is reserved almost exclusively for the skinny, rich, white girlies), it is a lifestyle. One which in theory champions independence and wellness, but in reality is not only exhausting, but entirely unsustainable. Someone check up on the clean girls because no amount of journaling and meditation can make me believe that they are emotionally stable, let alone happy. The ‘Clean Girl’ is the Gen-Z Version of the Girlboss: The ‘clean girl’ is not new. She might sound familiar to you, as she is almost identical to ‘that girl’; another earlier aesthetic that became viral over lockdown, or maybe it’s because of the fact that these girls are a repackaged gen-z version of the millennial girlboss. These archetypal figures almost emulate machines designed to optimise efficiency and thrive in the capitalist system whilst also epitomising increasingly insidious western beauty standards. Worse, they market their lifestyle as ideal, healthy and most dangerously, attainable. They sell the idea that you can become better at life, through glow ups and the concept of building your own reality. They present themselves as feminist icons, the image of success as a woman and yet, they are nothing but the female version of finance bros. ‘Clean girls’ are the product of hustle culture, glorifying hyper productivity and yet, the social media aspect adds an explicit layer of performance. Through the clean girl we are able to see how women are “trapped at the intersection between capitalism and patriarchy.” Why are we actually aiming to wake up at 5am? Why do we wear makeup while we work out? Are we actually doing all of these things for ourselves, or because it is what is expected of us? Is it inevitable that to be considered successful within this capitalist framework, we need to appeal to the male gaze? And who is even entitled to this image of success? The ‘clean girl’ aesthetic is inherently classist, sharing the sentiment of Kim K’s “it seems like no one wants to work these days, get the fuck off your ass and work!”, or Molly Mae’s “we all have the same 24 hours in a day.” Only, instead of hustling to be CEOs or successful lawyers, they are “hustling to be the most optimised version of themselves”. In order to become mentally healthy and happy (which will in turn make you more productive) the only thing you need to do is meditate everyday and do your skincare routine and fill in your gratitude journal and on and on it goes. In this way, self care turns into this one-size-fits-all checklist of chores. But most working class people do not have the time to meditate for an hour, let alone being able to afford the products required for an extensive skincare routine. And, as surprising as it might seem, even if you do everything on this list, it is not guaranteed to cure your depression or grant you emotional stability. Buying the Leuchtturm 1917 or the Rose Inc. Skin Enhance Luminous Skin Tint Serum Foundation (which is 36 GBP!!) may look like a one way ticket to nirvana but… it’s not. In this way, ‘clean girl’ exemplifies the way in which mental health has been shifting away from a clinical mindset into a performative, consumerist one. The pandemic of mental illness that has become rampant in the 21st century is thus belittled, and seen as an issue that one can buy their way out of, or ‘fake it til you make it’. This mentality only exacerbates the problem and leads to a sense of guilt, after all anyone can do these things, ‘if you wanted to you would’. (For a visual representation of what I’m trying to convey watch Kat’s storyline in 02x02 of Euphoria). The Clean Girl and Whitewashing: It is impossible to critique the ‘clean girl’ without talking about the way the aesthetic has appropriated black and brown fashion. Hence, the aim of this part of my article is to amplify the voices of those people of colour that are much more qualified to speak about these issues than I ever could be. The ‘clean girl’ signature style is made up of subtle, scandinavian-inspired looks, which are elevated by gold hoops and slicked-back hair. However, haven’t those been a key part of black and brown culture since the 90s? As Kaysia Elaine explains, athletic wear, gold hoops and slick buns have been considered undesirable and ‘ghetto’ until co-opted by the overwhelmingly white ‘clean girls’. Yet, this is not the first time something like this has happened. If we look at the forms of wellness that LA girlies and other followers of this aesthetic venerate; such as yoga or meditation, we will learn that they do not actually belong to white hippies. In fact, yoga can be traced back more than 5000 years to the Indus Sarasvati civilisation in Northern India. On the other hand, meditation as a concept has been present through multiple different cultures but its earliest mention occurs around 1500 BCE in the Vedas (a body of ancient Indian religious texts). It is not until the 20th century and the rise of a fascination (and consequent fetishisation) of Eastern practices that were viewed as ‘exotic’ that these practices have gained traction and have become extremely popular throughout the West. In her discussion of the ‘clean girl’ aesthetic, Taylor Cassidy talks about how white people have time and time again stolen from different cultures and rebranded it as their own for their benefit (and often profit). She then goes on to say that in order for the look to become a form of appreciation, its creators and pioneers should be credited and celebrated. Hence, a much more diverse view of the ‘clean girl’ should arise, placing the people of colour who made this aesthetic possible at the forefront of its movement. In conclusion, the ‘clean girl’ is a seemingly benign internet aesthetic, a role model that teaches young women how to be healthy both physically and mentally. However, the undercurrent of the movement is certainly a lot dirtier and requires urgent redressing. Ultimately, they embody the ideal of a white capitalist and patriarchal society, subsequently othering those who do not fit into the mold, and, ultimately categorising them as dirty in a modern take of the madonna-whore dichotomy. Bibliography: https://i-d.vice.com/en/article/epzna7/tiktok-clean-girl-aesthetic https://momentum.medium.com/the-clean-girl-aesthetic-is-a-problem-but-its-only-one-part-of-a-bigger-problem-576a9c7c1c96 https://fashionjournal.com.au/life/that-girl-tiktok-trend/ https://medium.com/writ340econfall2020/the-commodification-of-suffering-ae1343c6592c