Oxford's biggest student newspaper, produced by and for members of the University of Oxford, since 1991.
Image description: a black and white photograph of a group of women wearing ‘stop the ERA’ badges ‘Feminism is doomed to failure because it is based on an attempt to repeal and restructure human nature.’ Ah, I can almost hear you thinking as you visualise the scene. We’re at a Trump rally, or a Fox […]
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Image description: woman receives face massage with a towel around her head as her skin is moisturised In amongst the controversies of the past few weeks, there has been growing fury over the re-opening of beauty salons and clinics. The guidance for the beauty industry in the pandemic has not been received well by those […]
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The drag queen Trixie Mattel, otherwise known as Brian Firkus, is the winner of Drag Race All Stars Season 3, but also a confessed, obsessive Barbie doll collector. Firkus’s love for Barbie started when he was young. As a gay boy from Milwaulkee, he wasn’t allowed “girl toys,” but was fascinated by the tanned, blonde, […]
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Image description: Alyssa Milano, leader of the so-called “sex strike” Alyssa Milano, a feminist activist and actor, recently prompted a heated online debate after proposing a “sex strike” to combat new abortion laws. The so-called ‘heartbeat bill’ passed in Georgia plans to prohibit abortion once a foetal heartbeat can be detected. This can be as […]
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Image Description: Marsha P. Johnson, her boyfriend, Joseph Ratanski, and Sylvia Rivera in parade, 1973 The Oxford Student recently interviewed Henna Khanom, one of the co-chairs for the Oxford SU LGBTQ+ Campaign. For any people who don’t know them, they are the political and activist arm of the university’s queer community. Henna is also a member […]
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St Edmund Hall has withdrawn for reconsideration its 2019 Rebecca West Prize for Writing after suggestions that its title “excises race” by focusing exclusively on gender. The question originally read “The Return of the ISIS Soldier’s Wife: What Role Does Gender Play in Culpability?”. In a statement on their website, Teddy Hall said this year’s title […]
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At the age of just twenty-three, London-born Scarlett Curtis has already done a lot of things. As the curator of Feminists Don’t Wear Pink (and other lies), a collection of essays written by various women, herself included, on what the F-word means to them, one might be tempted to label her a writer. As a […]
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Made in Dagenham is alive and, most prominently, relevant. At a time when theatre seems to lean towards the escapist, this musical provides us with a (true) story about the issue of equal, or unequal, pay. Everything in this production is well thought out. The musical itself, set in 1968 and concerning the troubling pay […]
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Image Credit: Universal Pictures. Description: Mike Myers’ mask in Halloween. The recently released Halloween is the eleventh film in the much-maligned franchise and the second reboot, so when production was first announced back in 2017, it is safe to say that I kept my expectations in check. For once though, such cynicism proved unnecessary. General […]
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If you haven’t been to the Michael Pilch theatre before, allow me to set the scene. It is a small space, a black box studio and somewhat dimly lit at the best of times. The audience rows go only three rows back; it is the most intimate of performance spaces. It is also a genius […]
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It is difficult to fault Lucy Kirkwood’s NSFW, a play that probes the depths of misogyny with an astute awareness of the painful sexism that journalism perpetuates, but also of the human action behind it. TheatreGoose’s production of the show at the Pilch treats its subject with flawlessly executed precision, wit and sensitivity, unpeeling layers […]
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Looking back at the first Avengers film, it is sometimes hard to believe how much the Marvel Cinematic Universe has changed. In the six years since 2012, Marvel Studios has produced thirteen more films and a franchise that is unlike anything cinema has seen before. Perhaps even more shocking is how much the women of […]
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How it feels to be a bad example of a good feminist. First and foremost, being a feminist means believing in gender equality; but being a good example of a feminist is so much more. To be a feminist role model means being a ‘strong, independent woman’; one who stands up for herself and for […]
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When a tutor starts blurting “trigger warning” at every possible interval, what are you supposed to think? A female account of a boorish use of trigger warnings which were callous and contextually sexist. We all know the story of Lot’s daughters rather well; his angelic guests were threatened by a mob, so Lot offered them […]
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A recent Twitter challenge to “describe yourself like a male author would” has gone viral, with women satirising the sexual objectification and tired clichés found in much of contemporary fiction. The challenge was instigated by Whitney Reynolds (media personality and television talk show host) in response to a tweet from Gwen C. Katz, who had […]
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Sometimes, I feel like feminism has not fully completed its role – or even worse, that it has barely touched some areas. Despite the fact that sexuality has become less of a taboo than it used to be, I think that there has been much less progress when it comes to women. Young women still […]
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The Faculty of Philosophy’s recently announced measures to ‘feminise the curriculum’ have angered some quarters. Critics appear particularly taken aback by the call for a 40% target for female representation on our reading lists. The move has been dismissed as ‘virtue signalling’ (see the initial OxStu article here), a claim which suggests the department’s support […]
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October 2017 was a month that certainly took the world by storm. It was a month in which a popular social media tag revealed the full magnitude of a scandal that shook society to its core. In the aftermath of the New York Times’ illuminating investigation into widespread accusations against film producer Harvey Weinstein, few […]
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Oxford University’s Local Delegacy exams, first set for school-leavers in 1857, had more riding on them than simply grades: the top candidate would also be offered an exhibition scholarship to the university itself, either at Balliol or Worcester College. On calculating the results for the papers of 1873, there was no doubt as to who […]
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