Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image description: A pride flag flies above Balliol College. Image credit: Balliol College Facebook page For the first time, Balliol College is flying a pride flag for LGBT History Month in its entirety. This has followed something of a prolonged battle between past student representatives and the college’s powers-that-be. To many students within and without […]
Continue Reading
Image description: Player characters from The Adventure Zone: Balance. Image credit: “The Adventure Zone” by Nicholas Kole is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Like many of my peers, I’m hungry for queer stories that aren’t exclusively about being queer. Coming-of-age and romance stories, while great on their own terms, are not my favourite genres, and I have little hope […]
Continue Reading
Image: Hijras in Laxman Jhula. Image credit: “Hijras in Laxman Jhula” by Quixosis is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0 India has a complex relationship with the trans community. Historically, trans people have occupied a unique space in rituals; yet they still fight for basic human rights today. Many people in the West are not aware of India’s intersex and […]
Continue Reading
When I was twelve, I started at my relatively small secondary school, after moving with my family down to Newcastle. Anyone who’s been the ‘new kid’ knows that in the package of the experience is an obsession over the things we think make us weird. I was considerably overweight until I reached my late teens, […]
Continue Reading
Last Thursday, I attended a philosophy reading group which aimed to unpack the term ‘queer theory’ and the implications of such a term. In summary, queer theory explores how LGBTQ+ narratives are created and perceived in the culture of heteronormativity. Stephen Turton, an English DPhil student, led the discussion by dissecting Michael Warner’s 1991 article, […]
Continue Reading
Images: Publicity graphics posted by @interunilgbt on Instagram. Image credit: Charmaine Kok I’ve always resented the feeling that my existence is a political act. Coming out is a white-hot kind of dangerous in an environment where allegiances can be very efficiently defined by terms like ‘pro-gay’, ‘ex-gay’ or (heaven forbid) ‘a practising gay’. When your […]
Continue Reading
Upon arriving at Oxford, I was initially tentative about dipping my toe into the water of the LGBTQ+ ‘scene’, as it were. As a closeted and very awkward fresher, I assumed that I would continue down the path which I had precariously followed for the previous years of my adolescence, i.e. attempting to deflect all […]
Continue Reading
Image description: A pride flag hangs above a building in Oxford. Something dawned on me while I was watching the BBC interview with Plaid Cymru leader Adam Price during the recent election. Why, in 2019, was a politician’s sexuality still worthy of discussion? Too often, LGBTQ+ people are viewed more as representatives than as individuals. […]
Continue Reading
As culture and society have evolved within the west, so too have attitudes towards the LGBTQ+ community. In response, media depictions of Queer people and Queer stories have become increasingly prominent. While my natural inclination is to endorse this, I feel we must be cautious that representation does not become erasure. As a historian, perhaps […]
Continue Reading
Those of us who exist within the Queer spaces of social media will no doubt have been confronted with the ‘rainbow poppy’ controversy. It brings with it the toxic and all-too-familiar dog whistles of ‘I’m not homophobic but…’ and ‘I don’t care what you identify as, just don’t shove it in my face’. But why […]
Continue Reading
Image description: a pad of paper, pen, mug, and laptop placed on a desk. I’m sure that most of us, LGBTQ+ people especially, have been pretty disappointed by the way a show or book has turned out at some point in our lives. Maybe your favourite character died, or didn’t get the spotlight you wanted […]
Continue Reading
Image description: a photo of the entrance to Examination Schools, with the doors closed. Last Friday saw A Woman’s Place UK (WPUK) holding an event within Oxford. Their presence was not just in the city, but in the university. Specifically, in Examination Schools. I have all my lectures in Exam Schools. Last year, I took […]
Continue Reading
Image description: the interior of a church with empty pews. Disclaimer: this is my experience of Christianity and of people of faith who I have interacted with – I believe that no one is inherently homophobic because their religious beliefs. People are often surprised when I mention I am a Christian (or Agnostic) – usually […]
Continue Reading
Image description: a shelf of several textbooks arranged according to colour, creating an appearance resembling a rainbow. It’s Michaelmas term, and this means that the time has come for Just Like Us to run their annual recruitment drive for the LGBT+ Ambassador Programme for students aged 18-25. It also means that it has been an […]
Continue Reading
Image description: My boyfriend and I at Wadham Commemoration Ball 2019 The life of an Oxford student can, at times, create a certain disconnect with the world outside. For me, my link to home is my partner, James. From the beginning, our relationship has been closely tied to my Oxford journey: our first date was […]
Continue Reading
Oxford Pride this year was the first Pride I ever attended; I’ve been firmly in the closet around my family for a variety of reasons, and couldn’t take time to go to my local parade without them knowing exactly what I was doing. So, for me, attending Pride this year felt like it was going […]
Continue Reading
Image description: Three generations of a Chinese family “I couldn’t make any sense of it. I couldn’t get over it. That precious son of mine, what happened to him?” These were the confused words of Hao’s mother, fat teardrops sliding down her face. “When I had my son, I loved and treasured him. Plus I […]
Continue Reading
Whilst my escapades with you have not always been riveting, and often not positive, the bizarre social dynamics of this bubble we live in has broadened my perspective on casual sex. In coming to this university, I felt that I was equipped with enough experience to sleep around and ‘sow my wild oats’ as my […]
Continue Reading
Image Description: Naomi Wolf. On Thursday, Blackwell’s hosted a ‘Philosophy in the Bookshop’ talk with Naomi Wolf to promote her new book Outrages. Her recently-published work explores the life and work of John Addington Symonds, a queer English poet who fought for gay rights through persistent expression of his homoerotic experience, and more poignantly, tormented […]
Continue Reading