The MAGAfication of Minaj
Nicki Minaj, the queen of rap, once dominated headlines for good reason. In the 2010s, her fame was untouchable, supported unwaveringly by her fanbase, collectively known as ‘barbz’.. Some fourteen years ago, an adorably tutu-ed Sophia Grace Brownlee and her cousin Rosie sang Super Bass with all
What is Sydney Sweeney’s deal?
Not to be that person, but the first time I saw Sydney Sweeney on screen was in the 2019 arthouse film Clementine. She plays a young, frivolous girl who strikes a brief and homoerotic friendship with a woman who’s retreated into the wilderness. The film is, to my best recollection, an unsatisfying
Oxford: a place for lovers?
What makes a city feel romantic? Oxford, certainly, looks the part: honey-coloured stone, lamplit and cobbled lanes, churches, and spires—as much a living film set as a city, and directors have long agreed. From Brideshead Revisited (2008) to Saltburn (2023), Oxford has been a backdrop for romanti
England had no Empire.
I went to the Ming Tombs on a scorching summer’s day. On the outskirts of Beijing, between the mountains of White Tiger and Red Phoenix, lay buried the 13 Emperors of the Ming Dynasty. Tomb is too humble a name, really. They are cities for the afterlife, complete with gates, walls with batt
All-American Authoritarianism
Last month, Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and his wife were seized by American special forces and flown to New York, to face criminal charges which included allegations of narcoterrorism and drug-trafficking. Despite Trump’s precedents, this case is novel, and particularly startling
Clavicular and the Post-Political Right
Internet personality Clavicular wants you to know you’re subhuman. The twenty-year-old, whose real name is Braden Peters, is the most prominent influencer in the ‘looksmaxxing’ space online and has garnered more than 305,000 followers on Instagram in the process. Motivated by the goal
So you’ve caught feelings…
It’s a fact of statistics that (for most of us) the body counts of our sexual partners will be higher than our own; someone who sleeps with a lot of people is more likely to have slept with you. Those same sweet nothings, which may have seemed so touching and honest at the time, have […]
Faux-Bohemianism is obscenely boring.
If you want to break the mould, resist the system, do so. But vice-signalling and aesthetic rebellion won’t shatter the fundamental inequalities that faux-bohemians fail to confront. Universities and cities around the world are beset by a litany of issues, from affordability to stu
A play to remember? The Glass Menagerie: Pre-Show Interview
The Glass Menagerie, Crazy Child Productions, Keble O’Reilly, 4th-8th February Pre-show interview We meet in an out of the way room in Keble College where, tables swiftly shifted to the side, one part of the ‘vast, hive-like conglomerations of cellular living-units’ (so Tennessee