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Yesterday’s Gone, Loyle Carner 

The story behind the title-track of this record is a good indicator of the rawness and realness prevalent throughout Loyle’s debut. Yesterday’s Gone, the final track, is named after a rejected song of the rapper’s step-dad’s musical project. Carner dedicates many of his songs to his late step-father, including ‘BFG’, one of his breakout tracks; a heart-wrenching rap over Donnie & Joe Emerson’s ‘Baby’. 

Such personal themes create a confident, cohesive base for the entire debut album. Carner discusses lust, loss, success, depression, alcoholism and his dreams in fifteen tracks, delivered in an understated tone with the backing of simple jazz progressions and broken piano chords. The stand-outs in this album are Loyle’s almost unfaltering flow and masterful lyricism. 

The 21 year-old rapper alternates between more up-tempo tracks, such as the opener ‘Isle of Arran’, and the popular ‘Ain’t Nothing Changed’, both of which discuss the hardships of growing up for a long time without a father, financial struggles and the pressures of the industry. ‘Isle of Arran’ is particularly poignant and a highlight of the album due to its vivid allusions to faith. Carner creates his father and God as a single entity, denouncing both and denying any faith in either due to events in his earlier life. Instead, he falls back into his own hands, and confidently assures the audience that he has himself and needs no one else. Carner’s attitude of getting on with things and approaching live head-on is evident in this track and later on throughout the album.

The album is balanced with a few slower, heartfelt tracks such as ‘Mean It In The Morning’ and ‘Florence’, accompanied with down-tempo backing tracks and modest jazz progressions. The entirety of ‘Florence’ is an endearing, yet hear-breaking, narrative of how life could be if Loyle had the little sister he had always dreamed of. 

Such light-heartedness acts in stark contrast, yet seamlessly ties in to the theme of coveting, in the following track: ‘The Seamstress’. Loyle bleeds out more truths in this song as he discusses his alcoholism and how his life is seemingly unravelling, but that a girl could possibly be the ‘seamstress’ and stitch things back together for him. Again, he lusts for something more in his life. 

Interspersed throughout the album are several interludes, and further glimpses into Carner’s life such as conversations with his mother, his producer and his best friends, ‘+44′, ‘Swear’, and ‘Rebel 101′. 

As a whole, Yesterday’s Gone depicts Loyle’s loyalty to his family and his unmatchable love for those close to him, as well as a very honest picture of his life, thoughts, and struggles as an up and coming rapper from South London. I’m excited to see where he goes. 

[izzystrousers-blog]

My first read of 2018 

Richard Falk’s 2017 insight into the Palestinian struggle is by far the best book I have read to date on the conflict. Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of Falk’s piece of work is his determination and his optimism, after addressing details of the Palestinian struggle, in the possible benign future in store for the oppressed peoples. 

One of the most poignant chapters of the book outlines a discussion Falk had with a certain French Ambassador, whose pessimism and complacency toward the Palestinian struggle shocked the activist. Falk argues that, in conflicts since the end of World War II, the ‘impossible’ has been achieved against all odds in legitimacy wars. The end of the Apartheid regime and the victory of the Vietnamese against foreign invasion are just two of the seemingly impossible outcomes of past conflicts. He also stresses the highly relevant role that civil society continues to play in the modern political climate; if we become apathetic then justice is even less likely to prevail in Palestine. The book ends with a poignant quote that highlights the possibility of hope in the dire situation:

‘We who are about to die demand a miracle.’ — W. H. Auden

Much of Falk’s ideology is inspired by his predecessor and obvious academic and activist hero: Edward Said, whose works he references throughout the entire book. I can only walk away having read this book feeling the same kind of admiration and respect for Falk that he himself feels for Said, to the highest degree. 

I would highly recommend this book for anyone, whether entry level or well-read about the conflict, who is eager to understand and unravel the situation in Palestine. On top of this, the reader will be encouraged to find solutions and to be politically active in hopes that we may one day witness the historic moment in which Palestine achieves peace and justice against oppression. 

[izzystrousers-blog]

The Woody Allen case

Just finished reading a very poignant article about the Woody Allen sexual abuse case and the Me Too movement. 

(https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2018/jan/15/why-should-women-apologise-for-working-with-woody-allen)

The article discusses the manner in which actors (such as Rebecca Hall, pictured above) apologise for being part of the problem in Holywood; in Hall’s case this is working with Woody Allen. This ‘grace and humility’ in her apology is then compared to men and their reactions to the movement, in Allen’s case worrying it will become a ‘witch-hunt’. 

Indeed, Woody Allen should be worried and the fact he has still not been boycotted by mass media or Holywood continues to perplex me. I remember reading the allegations made against the director by his step-daughter back in 2014. I then proceeded to staple the allegations on top of a poster of Woody Allen that was in my film classroom and demanded it be taken down. My technician helped me tear it down and together we replaced the poster with Céline Sciamma. 

I’m hoping this action will be mirrored in Holywood, both literally and figuratively speaking. Time will only tell, after the release of Allen’s up-coming film, if the world of production is ready to strip this director of his honours for the sake of morality and justice. 

[izzystrousers-blog]

Recuerdos de la Alhambra

The Alhambra, الْحَمْرَاء, located in Granada, Spain, has impacted and influenced the lives and culture of  many. Similar to what I discussed in my piece on The Parthenon, the Alhambra has evolved to suit different needs and religious identifies over the decades since its first construction in AD 889. Below is a brief outline of the rich periodical history of the fortress and palace:

AD 889 constructed as a small fortress from the remnants of Roman fortifications

Mid-13th Century Nasrid emir Mohammed ben Al-Ahmar renovates and rebuilds the palace

1333 Alhambra is converted into a royal palace by Yusuf I, Sultan of Granada

1492 Becomes Royal Court of Ferdinand and Isabella following the Christian Reconquista (partially altered into Renaissance style)

1526 Charles I and Charles V commission entirely new mannerist architecture for the palace but this was never completed

Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site, the Alhambra is a magnificent, yet unusual, example of Muslim art in its final European stages. The mood of the palace is supposed to embody ‘paradise on earth’. This vision is adhered to with symmetrical columns, reflective pools and fountains. Inscriptions of Ibn Zamrak’s poems are organised into geometric patterns along the ceilings and walls creating a repetitive, trance like cohesion. 

The palace has exerted a copious influence over literature, mathematics, film and architecture. However, it is the Alhambra’s impact on music that has moved me to write this piece. In 1896 Francisco Tárrega composed ‘Requerdos de la Alhambra’ in Granada; directly translated to mean ‘Memories of the Alhambra’, the song is an advanced classical guitar piece.

Tárrega employs the tremolo technique, echoing the symmetry and repeated patterns of the structure. Tremolo is a classical technique wherein a single note is plucked consecutively to create the illusion of one continuous sound. The tremolo echoes throughout the entire piece in a trance-like fashion as the columns, the inscriptions, the tiles and the fountains are conjured up in one’s mind.

I visited the Alhambra seven years ago but the guitar piece is so true to its title that I am immediately transported back to the palace. Though when I listen to the composition, so tranquil and calming, my memory of the Alhambra no longer includes the bustle of tourists, packed to the brim as one of the top tourist destinations in Spain, but just myself alone in the palace. Thus, the musical composition provides me (and many others, I’m sure) with an experience one would probably never be able to achieve in real life, which is arguably one of the greatest aspirations of musicians old and new. 

[izzystrousers-blog]

Slowdive, Slowdive

22 years later, the legends of shoegaze return with an 8-track LP. The album is reminiscent of their past works yet brilliantly nuanced to create their most impressive release yet. It is most fittingly self-titled as Slowdive emerge after a worthwhile wait to embody perhaps the most authentic version of themselves yet.

The opening track of the album ‘Slomo’ is an emotional moment for any fan of Slowdive. The band burst into their familiar guitar driven melody accompanied by Niel Halstead’s dreamworld vocals, but with a certain folk twist reminiscent of his residency in Cornwall. The song fades out with echoing vocals of Rachel Goswell, a perfect nostalgic yet exciting beginning to the album.

Goswell and Halstead compliment one another throughout the remainder of the LP. The fourth track, ‘Sugar For The Pill’, is most likely about the two vocalists’ past relationship. The lyrics are markedly clearer as the instrumentals are toned down in this song, a progression from previous works of Slowdive. ‘Don’t Know Why’ is another track covering similar themes, and the pair continue to compliment one another as the song was written by Halstead though Goswell delivers the majority of the vocals.

On the topic of love, present and past, there is a certain mood of yearning prevalent throughout the LP. This is evident in the softer chords echoed by arpeggios and the light-hearted vocals of ‘Everyone Knows’. Later too, in perhaps my favourite track of the LP, ‘No Longer Making Time’. The lyrics are yearning for their interest / partner to join them in a faster-paced approach to love. The pleading lyrics ‘Cathy, don’t wait too long’, quite contrast those of ‘When The Sun Hits’: ‘Sweet thing I watch you burn so fast it scares me.’ 

Slowdive balance new tricks and comforting familiarities throughout their LP. ‘Go Get It’ is reminiscent of ‘Crazy For You’, a trance like song with a repeated lyric, accompanied by dreamy arpeggios. However, their sound and personality has grown as evident in the developments of their lyricism. There is something much stronger about the lyric ‘I wanna see it, I wanna feel it’ as compared to their past works. Pitchfork says: 

“The words evoke Iggy and the Stooges’ “Gimme Danger” in how they can be interpreted as a quest for spiritual, psychological, or sexual transcendence, depending on your mood.”

Perhaps the clearest break away from their older sound is the closing track, ‘Falling Ashes’. The song is paino-led, unheard of in Slowdive’s music thus far, and an exciting taste of what more is to come. 

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Die Fälscher, Stefan Ruzowitzky (2007) A film following Operation Bernhard, the largest counterfeiting operation in history. 

“The Counterfeiters, written and directed by Stefan Ruzowitzky, is a morally challenging twist on the long and honourable tradition of forgery movies.“

Not only do I particularly agree with this review, but one could extend the statement to apply it to the long and honourable tradition of historical films depicting the horrors of the holocaust. Ruzowitzky’s film offers a very different perspective from other fantastic films such as Schindler’s List, The Pianist, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas etc.

Instead, Die Fälscher portrays the lives of those who were considered “privileged” during the holocaust, but also the hardships that came with such a “privilege”. 

Technically too, the film is spot on. The acting, editing and filming all translate into an incredibly tense drama and the two hours or so of the film flew by for me. 

[izzystrousers-blog]

Mary Beard’s Women & Power

Professor Beard’s 109 page manifesto explores female silence and the male coded structure of contemporary society. As a classicist, Beard discusses the importance of learning from the ancient world when it comes to the subconscious gender issues still interlaced within modern society: 

“Thankfully, not everything we do or think goes back directly or indirectly to the Greeks and Romans; and I often find myself insisting that there are no simple lessons for us in the history of the ancient world. We really didn’t need the unfortunate Roman precedents in the region to know that modern Western military intervention in Afghanistan and Iraq might be a bad idea. The ‘collapse’ of the Roman Empire in the West has little to tell us about the ups-and-downs of modern geopolitics. That said, looking harder at Greece and Rome, helps us to look harder at ourselves, and to understand better how we have learned to think as we do”

Beard proves the importance of “looking harder at Greece and Rome” by drawing various parallels between modern society and ancient literary texts. The first example is Telemachus’ silencing of Penelope in The Odyssey - a supposedly vital turning point for his development from boyhood to manhood in the epic. This instance is compared to the silencing of women in public spaces, such as parliament, and the infamous ‘mansplaining’.

Beard continues to apply such logic to the latter section of the book, wherein the public response to women in power is discussed. During the US presidential election, Trump’s supporters created an image of him superimposed on a statue of Perseus slaying Medusa (Hilary Clinton). Here, Beard highlights the parallels consistently used in popular culture - women in power ought be feared and silenced, like Medusa was in her ancient context. 

What sets Professor Beard’s work aside from so many contemporary feminist pieces published daily is that she offers solutions:

“You can’t easily fit women into a structure that is already coded as male; you have to change the structure.” 

Professor Beard concludes that women need to be restituted on the inside of power, but on top of that, ‘power’ itself may have to be redefined. To do so, Beard believes we ought to start thinking of power as an attribute rather than a possession. 

[izzystrousers-blog]

Singapore’s religious festivals

(Photo by Nguan)

A self-reference post about the religious festivals of various communities in my home town for the past 12 years.

January / February — Chinese New Year

Also known as the Spring Festival, 春節, falls on the first day of the first lunar month in the Chinese calendar. Traditionally, the festival was a time to honour deities as well as ancestors.

Families in Singapore celebrate with reunion feasts, new year visits, exchanging hongbao, gifting Mandarin trees (symbolising prosperity), and visiting temples. There are traditional Lion and Dragon dances and all of these celebrations culminate on the 15th day of the new year as the Spring Lantern festival. In Singapore, two days after the Spring Lantern Festival, is the Chingay Parade which features traditional dancing.  

Popular themes of the festival are good fortune, happiness, wealth, and longevity.

January / February — Thaipusam

A festival celebrated by the Tamil community on the full moon of the Tamil month of Thai. The name of the festival is a combination of the words Thai and Pusam, a star, which is at its highest point during this festival.

The festival commemorates the occasion when Parvati gave Murugan a spear so that he could vanquish the evil demon Soorapadman.

In Singapore, devotees begin their procession at the Sri Srinivasa Perumal Temple in the early morning, carrying milk pots as offerings or attaching kavadis or spikes pierced on their bodies. The procession continues for four miles before ending at the Sri Thendayuthapani Temple.

March / April — Good Friday

A Christian holiday commemorating the crucifixion of Christ and his death at Cavalry.

May — Vesak Day

Vesak Day is the most important annual event for the Buddhist community - the full moon day of the fourth lunar month. The festival commemorates the birth, enlightenment and final nirvana of the Buddha.

Temples are decorated with Buddhist flags while lights and shrines are adorned with flowers, fruits and various other offerings. To celebrate, there are vegetarian food fairs public talks, and hymn singing. Acts of generosity, known as dana, are observed by organisations and temples during this time.

October / November — Deepavali

Also known as ‘the Festival of Lights’, Deepavali is the most important festival in the Hindu calendar. It spiritually signifies the victory of light over darkness, good over evil, knowledge over ignorance, and hope over despair.

Festivities usually span over five days, but the celebrations culminate on the dark night of the Hindu Lunisolar month.

To celebrate, people dress up in their best clothes and light diyas, lamps and candles, both inside and outside their homes. They then participate in family prayers, puja, typically to Lakshmi who is the goddess of fertility and prosperity. After puja there are fireworks and a family feast including mithai, sweets.

June — Hari Raya Puasa

This day, literally ‘the day of breaking the fast’, marks the end of Ramadan for the Muslim community. The festival marks the end of the 29-30 days of fasting; Muslims believe that they are commanded by God, as mention in the Quran, to continue the fast until the last day of Ramadan.

November / December — Hari Raya Haji

This festival marks the end of the Haji pilgrimage to the holy city of Mecca. An animal is sacrificed and divided into three parts: one share is given to the poor, the other to relatives and friends, and the final is retained to the family.

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The tales of the Parthenon

Complete in 432 BC under the Periclean building scheme, the Parthenon immediately evokes the memory of classical antiquity, of the birth of democracy and of Athena polias. The temple remains to be the centerpiece of Athens and it is what continues to encourage floods of tourists to the Acropolis every year. But the interest of the Parthenon does not end with the demise of the classical Greek period, contrary to what many of said tourists might imagine. Though we may assume that the Athenian citizens in 5th century Greece knew a great deal more about that cultural treasure than we do today, the successive centuries after the classical period tell a much more complex and intriguing story of the influence and importance of the Parthenon.

The temple structures that had previously occupied the Acropolis were destroyed in the Persian invasion of Athens in 480 BC. Highlighted by the disparity between the date of the destruction and the erection of the Parthenon (432 BC), the ruins were left as a stark reminder of those who had lost their lives in the brutal invasion. Pericles, a prominent and influential statesman, in 440 BC decided to restore the pride of the Athenian people, beginning with the Acropolis. The patriotism of the Parthenon is easily detectable by the temple sculpture. The metopes depict various tales embodying the message of heroes (the Athenians) conquering barbarians (anyone who is not Athenian, be it Amazonians, women, giants, centaurs etc.) The finished product was the largest structure in mainland Greece, made completely out of marble, adorned with the most ornate temple sculpture of its time. Pericles was surely successful in restoring pride to Athens.

Not many know that by the final decade of the 6th Century AD the Parthenon was largely defaced of its ‘paganism’ and converted into a Christian church in honour of Virgin Mary - Parthenos Maria. During this transition the orientation of the building was altered to face towards the East, and Greek artwork depicting gods was either remodeled to appear Christian or destroyed. It is interesting to imagine what more of the Greek world one could piece together had these ‘renovations’ not occurred.

The next life of the Parthenon was born in 1456 with the Ottoman Turk invasion of Greece. In this period the Parthenon transitioned from a Catholic church to a mosque. It is rumoured that Mehmed II introduced this conversion as a punishment against a Greek force who had plotted against Ottoman rule. The mosque remained intact and, despite the changes in decor, the facade of the Parthenon would not have baffled a Greek person in 5th century. It was not until 1687 during the Great Turkish War that the Parthenon underwent its greatest damage. During a Venetian invasion, the Ottoman forces used the attic of the Parthenon to store gunpowder, which inevitably blew up and destructed a great part of the temple structure that results in the puzzle-like display of the pediment in the British Museum today.

The attempts to preserve the structures of the Parthenon in the years that followed resulted in the highly divisive debate between Elgin and Athens. This debate continues today as the question remains - should the marbles be returned to Athens, or will that be rewriting history, or lead to further destruction, or less visitors? The argument is endless but, most importantly, the history of the Parthenon should not end with the downfall of classical Greece. The tale of the Parthenon lives on up until today. The Parthenon is no longer just a treasure of Athens, but has touched and affected many to this day.

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To what extent did Spartan women benefit from being more "liberated' than their Athenian counterparts in Classical Greece?

The Oxford definition of "liberated" is someone who is "free from social conventions, especially those concerned with accepted sexual roles" (Oxford University Press, 2016). While Spartan women are so often regarded as liberated due to their freedom to own land and their access to education, something which was unheard of in Classical Athens, it must however be considered that their fundamental role remained the same as their Athenian counterparts - to bear children for the perpetuation and cohesion of the city state (Dougherty, 1991) (Breu, 2005). This essay thus intends to explore the areas of Greek society wherein Spartan women are so often considered "liberated" and to infer whether or not they actually benefited compared to their Athenian counterparts in various sections of society.

Education, marriage, sexual relations, religion, literature and the city state itself are all areas of the respective societies in which the two cohorts of Women are able to be both compared and contrasted. The general public consensus regarding Spartan Women leads one to believe that they were inherently more liberated in all mentioned areas of society; generalised statements regard the issue of gender in the Classical period as distinctly black and white - Spartan Women were liberated, Athenian women were not, despite the fact that neither groups of Women were fully liberated in the modern definition of the word. One online source claims that 'Spartan women had equal rights (to men)" (Hello World Civ, 2016); a statement that has questionable walidity given that it is a fairly basic blog post, directed at those who know little about the classical world and look to generalise in a more accessible and colloquial manner in order to increase their audience which probably targets a younger audience - an irrelevant source for this essay. Rather, scholars have come to consider the drawbacks of being a Spartan woman; Professor Mary Beard of Cambridge University argues that "what we think we know about Sparta suggests that it is a different form of oppression, not liberation" (Beard, 2016).

Indeed "what we think we know" is an integral part of Professor Beard's statement - A.W. Gomme, a professor of ancient Greek at the university of Glasgow and fellow of the British academy, argues that "there is, in fact, no literature, no art of any country, in which women are more prominent, more carefully studied and with more interest, than in tragedy, sculpture, and painting" in Ancient Greece (Hadas, 1936). Despite this, the architects of said tragedy, sculpture, painting and literature were almost always men; modern day scholars are in this way forced to perceive the Greek women they study through the tainted vision of their male counterparts, or to attempt to identify with women from two thousand years ago - an arduous task at best.

Regarding Sparta in particular, the Historian's issue becomes even more prominent given that their civilisation left almost no art behind - rather, one is left with an outsider's perspective of Sparta, which was generally regarded as alien by the rest of Greece. (Hughes, 2015). It is perhaps due to this very element of mystery that women in Ancient Greece are so heavily studied as scholars search for new ways in which they may be able to decipher how the women themselves felt in their respective civilisations. Recently for example, curse tablets have surfaced as an effective way to reveal the advice that women would seek from the gods, allowing the historian to explore the thoughts that women had about themselves and they way in which they were perceived by men (Scott, 2009). The judgments of Classicists based off of archeological evidence such as this are certainly more valuable to this essay title - they have no purpose of simplifying the ancient world but instead look to delve into the complex issue of gender and the constraints regarding gender that both societies of women were faced with and are therefore hugely reliable and apt for study.

As modern advances allow research to improve, the issue of Spartan "liberation' and their benefits as Women becomes all the more interesting and increasingly debatable; this essay will explore, in particular, the Spartan Women - the "unknown "and the "alien' civilisation - in Comparison to Athenian women and will look to conclude whether or not the prior actually benefited from their "liberation' in their alternative city state, or if what is so often regarded as liberation was actually just another form of oppression.

The City state

It is most frequently argued that Spartan women benefited due to their liberties within the city state that allowed them to be outspoken and active political personnel. This can be contrasted with the situation in Athens, which can best be summarised simply by a method of language - the term polites translates to "citizen' and can only refer to males whereas the rarely used feminine version of the noun, politis, refers to women only in relation to a male citizen (Cole, 1994). This denotes the rather non-existent role Athenian women played within the state - while they were not even allowed to be named in public, Spartan women were the only Greek women "whose statements were worthy of quotation" (Cole, 1994) (Pomeroy, 2002. pp.47). Plutarch's Sayings of Spartan Women (in which exemplary Spartan mothers' statements are documented) is a contemporary, and therefore extremely valuable, piece of evidence regarding this liberty: One Spartan Woman, Damatria, hearing her son was a Coward, was reported to have killed him, "She a Spartan lady, he a Spartan youth" (Sayings of Spartan Women, 241.1).

The fact that Spartan women were deemed Worthy of quotation by their male counterparts certainly exposes a liberty unheard of in Athenian culture; the Women were in this way at least given something of a political voice which would have then benefited their quality of life within the city state. However, it could be argued that the Sayings of Spartan Women didn't truly give the women a voice the sayings were rather limited to that of elite women, acting more as a moral guidance for the male soldiers of the city than a celebration of Women (Cole, 1994). Various other examples from the Sayings go to show this:

A Spartan Woman Who killed her son who had deserted his post declared: "He Was not my offspring... for I did not bear one unworthy of Sparta" (Sayings of Spartan Women, 241.1).

Another, whose son had fallen at his post said: "Let the cowards be mourned. I, however, bury you without a tear, my son and Sparta's" (sayings of Spartan Women, 241.2).

The sayings underline an obvious trend - exemplary mothers who refuse to tolerate their sons' cowardice in war. Anne Haward argues that Sparta was a "constitution suited to a state constantly at war" (Haward, 1996. pp. 14). This judgement is given weight due to her work having been backed by a wealth of archaeological evidence analysed in her published book: From Penelope to Poppaea, which is highly esteemed among scholars and universities. Haward is a qualified classicist and specialises in the field of gender studies in the ancient world. Thus, it can be inferred that, because Sparta revolved around the constant prospect of War, the Sayings of Spartan Women were less a means of liberating women by giving them an important voice, but were more a method of training their young men to be brave so that they would not be publicly humiliated by their own mothers.

Despite this, it could be argued that Spartan Women benefited from the liberation in the state which gave them the ability to own land and acquire their own wealth, a rather convincing argument suggested by the Classicist Breu, who concluded that, by the 4" Century BCE, Women owned two thirds of Spartan land in an article of his posted online. (Breu, 2005). This line of argument is similarly supported by Sarah Pomeroy, a distinguished professor at inter College and author of several books focusing on gender politics in the ancient world, claiming that Spartan women were among the most liberated in the ancient World due to their ability to own property and acquire wealth. In this way the role of women evolved into something that didn't just rely on being retained to the home; Spartan women could become landlords and, given that agriculture dominated the economy, they had the ability to acquire a personal wealth equal, or more than, that of their male counterparts (Pomeroy, 2002). This judgement can be solidified by recent archaeological excavations, exposing a Wealth of the gold and silver jewellery belonging to women, dedicated to the sanctuary of Artemis Orthia. (Pomeroy, 2002).

This strong economic role that women possessed in Sparta once again acts in considerable contrast to that of their Athenian counterparts - who feared most that they might be divorced by their husbands, upon whom all their financial safety rested. Indeed, this appears to be a section of society in which Spartan women almost inarguably did benefit from the liberty of being allowed to control their own land. However, it must be considered how accessible this was to all Spartan women - Pomeroy also states that these privileges were confined to the elite Women of society, once more suggesting that the majority of Spartan Women may have faced the same sort of realities as their Athenian Counterparts and these "liberties' were confined to the upper classes. Pomeroy, best known for being a professor specialising in women's history in classical antiquity with both a Masters and a PHD in Classics, has also written seven academic books and won three academic awards, one of them being the City University President's Award for Excellence in Scholarship in 1995, her historical argument is in this way both reliable, convincing and relevant to this question. (Pomeroy, 2002).

Pomeroy also suggests that "Because of their influence and authority in society as a whole, to study Spartan women is not only to learn women's history, but also to have a more complete knowledge of Spartan history" (Pomeroy, 2002, pp.91). This argument is incredibly valid given that the judgement is based on a wealth of Contemporary literature and artefacts, analysed in her scholarly book Written for Universities and lecturers. It is indeed evident that Spartan Women held influence within their society - they were important for the perpetuation of the state and developed their own moral Code of what it was to be Spartan. However, to claim this is liberation from which they benefitted would be incorrect. The City State Was still wery much a man's World, where in Spartan Women could not take part or Voice their own opinions and so they could not fully benefit as females in the state-fundamentally, they had no say (O'Pry, 2012) Kay Opry, a distinguished classicist and lecturer based in the US, thus challenges Pomeroy's argument, acknowledging that the higher classes of Spartan women perhaps possessed more freedom in their city state, but it fundamentally remained as a man's World seeing as they played no active role, just as was the situation in Athens. A convincing argument due to the authors' analysis of a variety of contemporary sources such as Aristotle's Spartan Women. Moreover, their access to land without the 'safekeeping" of men certainly acts in contrast to the Athenian laws, but to use this as an argument to claim that all Spartan women benefited from this liberation Would be incorrect- this was an area of society in which only royal or elite Women may benefit, who are just a small section of the society as a whole. Thus, the city state in Sparta certainly presents differences to their Athenian counterparts but no outstanding, beneficial sense of "liberation'.

Education and upbringing

The fact that Spartan women received any sort of education at allis indeed extraordinary in the context of the Ancient world. In fact, Aristotle believed that it was for this very reason that Sparta went to ruin, which is a useful, albeit shocking, insight into the male attitude towards women in Ancient Greece (O'Pry, 2012). "Sparta was the only polis where the training and education of girls was prescribed and supported by political authority" (Pomeroy, 2002. pp. 75). Spartan girls were trained in mousique (singing, dancing and playing musical instruments) in contrast to Athenian women, whose greatest source of education was found in the art of weaving - scholars have thus come to conclude that women in Sparta did benefit due to the accessibility of an education, something that always has and always will be beneficial to the individual.

Spartan Women would have benefited from this liberty as it resulted in a healthier community - it's hard to separate education from sport in ancient Sparta and so it is no coincidence that the first woman to compete (and win) in the Olympics was Cynisca, a Spartan Woman (The Greek and Roman Civilisations, 2015). These women were in this way physically advanced due to the education which Athenian women had little access to - Aristotle claims that the Athenian equivalent was the exercise they got from Walking around the house, completing their chores (Pomeroy, 2002).

This unheard of education that the Spartan women received is what drew in critics of their state in Classical Athens; Plato (and Aristotle (Stevenson, 2009) for example, claim that, despite their physical education, Spartan women still possessed the same inferiority as other Greek women in defending their own country - suggesting they did not benefit from this liberty. However, Plutarch in his Moralias (Pomeroy, 2002) argues otherwise, claiming that Spartan women would have been able to defend themselves if they had to, suggesting that the main goal of the Spartan education for girls was to make them able to defend themselves and their children when their male counterparts were away at War. Biased as they are, these contemporary resources from ancient politicians and philosophers are invaluable to the study of gender roles in the ancient world - to discern how the male counterparts perceived both Athenian and Spartan Women is vital in assessing whether or not they intended the treatment to be "liberating" or simply beneficial to the male population.

Through Plutarch's assessment, for example, the real reason for Spartan education can be discerned and that was to protect the state in times of danger rather than to liberate Women and give them equal opportunities to men. Despite the ulterior motives of the men who prescribed Spartan Women with their education, it is undeniable that they would have benefited from a healthier and more fulfilling lifestyle accessed through the training of mousique. Though to claim that the male intention was to "liberate' Women and to ensure they benefitted would be incorrect as they still lived in a society dominated by the prospect of war and Women seemed only to be included as an "afterthought, or in the context of the actions and events of men" (O'Pry, 2012).

Sexual Relations

Sexual relations and marriage rituals are perhaps the most valuable means through which a historian might assess how much ancient Greek Women benefitted in their respective societies. Through the analysis of sexual relations, the way in which both factions of Women were regarded by their male counterparts seems to become clearest - in both societies they were inarguably identified by their wombs: objects of mass production for the cohesion of each city state.

The sports that Spartan girls partook in, briefly discussed above, have an inexplicable (and perhaps surprising) link to sexual relations within the state. The Spartan girls trained nude and were subject to public scrutiny from an extremely young age; some historians argue that the nude training encouraged homosexual relationships amongst the girls (Breu, 2005). This same emphasis on sexual appearance and appeal surfaces in the excavations of ancient Laconian mirrors which display a convex disk that allow the face, neck and cleavage to be observed. This society, where babies were taken by their maids daily to the shrine of Helen at Therapne so as to pray that they would not grow up ugly, acts in stark contrast to the Athenian society wherein women were to remain veiled at all times (Pomeroy, 2002). As opposed to Athens, "abundant fertility" (Pomeroy, 2002, pp.72) was very much encouraged, and it has been argued that both men and women partook in homosexual relationships to ensure of this (Hughes, 2015). 

At face walue, the difference between the two societies may appear similar to a modern feminist debate over sexual liberation and the female ownership over her own body. In fact, Helena Schrader, a non-fiction author and History graduate from Hamburg university, concluded that Spartan women were evidently more sexually liberated and they inarguably benefited from this - perhaps because Sparta is what seems most progressive' or most similar to a modern day society; various sources seem to enforce non-contextual judgements onto information in such a way. Schrader dubbed Spartan women as "scandalous" (Sparta Reconsidered, 1993) because of their promiscuous sexual behaviour, though this ideology is heavily disagreed upon by various other Classicists such as Anne Haward, a lecturer in Classics and former Head of Classics at New Hall School, who instead perceives the sexual relations in Sparta as no less oppressive than those in Athens, recent scholarly research has questioned just how sexually liberated one can truly consider Spartan Women, and this is most evident in the different marriage rituals, a much more convincing and reliable scholarly argument.

Contemporary accounts of the Athenian marriage rituals denote a total focus on procreation; Soranus' Gynaecology highlights that "Women are married for the sake of children and succession, and not for mere enjoyment" (MacLachlan, 2012, pp43). The ritual was an act of female submission to the man, who had the task of "curbing' his wife's "crazed' sexual promiscuity as a woman and instead ensuring that she would bear legitimate, preferably male, children (Breu, 2005). In Xenophon's Oeconomicus, he outlines the way in which to "train' a new bride which is extremely valuable in assessing what men wanted out of their Women: he claims that the proper age was 15 or less so as to ensure she was a person who knew and saw as little as possible - the main objectives of the man were to ensure she would bear children and, otherwise, she must remain discreet and not speak. (Strauss, 2004). 

However oppressive these values in Athenian marriage were, the Spartan marriage rituals illustrate a violent alternative that would have harmed Spartan women even more than the conservative rituals and expectations in Athens. The marriage ritual itself in Sparta mimicked, and sometimes genuinely was, a capture and rape - the girl would be carried off in men's clothing with her hair cut short and she was left to await her husband in a dark room where he would appear to force violent sex upon her, she would then be left in the room and was unable to appear publicly until she fell pregnant (Haward, 1996).

Though both marriage rituals were horrifically oppressive in their respective terms, the Spartan ritual in itself illustrates a violent male culture that objectified Women and utilised them to their own disposal to an even greater extent than in Athens. One source argues that "It is highly significant that Spartans condemned violence inside marriage, and understood that sex with a child is abusive." (Sparta Reconsidered, 1993). This conclusion was reached by the fact that most Spartan girls were married off when they were eighteen compared to the Athenian Women who were coveted in marriage around the age of 14-however this argument loses almost all validity due to the fact that the Spartan women were subject to multiple cases of rape and violence even if they were older. Instead. Sparta was a violent city state that revolved around a mentality of war and rape and that is highly noticeable in their marriage customs which were much more oppressive than those regarded in the Athenian customs.

Thus, increasingly, Classicists have come to conclude that the Spartan state was not beneficial and liberate towards women in terms of sexual relations and marriage, but was merely another form of oppression - seemingly much more violent than the quiet, conservative oppression of women evident in Athens (Beard, 2016). Mary Beard's view on the topic has been a particularly reliable source for my research; as professor of Classics at Cambridge University and perhaps the most notable Classicist of the 21" century and the author of best sellers such as SPQR and producer of Meet the Romans, her insight provides a relevant and contextual view on the situation. My personal correspondence with Professor Beard allowed for the opportunity to discuss in-depth how Spartan women were particularly oppressed in terms of sexual relations, thus providing both highly relevant, reliable and current information and judgment. On the contrary, Spartans were raised knowing that they would only be worth something if they were beautiful to the men who would later subject them to violence and rape for means of proCreation.

Religion

State religion was perhaps the area of both societies wherein women held their greatest influence and liberty. In Athens, Women would attend and officiate over one hundred festivals. Some, like the festival of Demeter, were exclusive only to women and females of all ages had the opportunity to participate directly in the rituals of the festivals - for example, the first three days of the thesnophoria festival saw Women performing rites to ensure that the autumn crops Would be successful (Haward, 1996) (Cole, 1994). This demonstrates a sense of authority that the Athenian women would have received from their active role in religion; an important sense of duty that they lacked elsewhere aside from the pressure to have children.

Similarly, Spartan Women would participate alongside men in the hyacinthia festival, wherein their training in the art of mousique would be displayed as they would sing, dance, Weave and even race on chariots alongside men (Pomeroy, 2002). Once again, this active role that Spartan women possessed in religion highlights almost all other areas of society wherein the direct participation of women was lacking - most notably, the political section of the city state.

As "liberating' as state religion may appear however, the reason for such active female participation in rituals and burial must be analysed before one may even argue whether Spartan or Athenian women benefited from religious activities more. In both societies, it was believed that Women should play a more active role in religion due to their links with child-bearing and fertility (Haward, 1996). Thus, what may originally be interpreted as a liberating sector of society that allows Women to forget about their fundamental role within the state, becomes clear as a reaffirmation of the firmly bound gender roles in both societies. This is a point that brings one all the way back to the introduction - Spartan and Athenian societies were immensely different, but the fundamental role of women remained the same and that can most effectively be regarded through their increasingly "liberated' role in religion.

One may argue that the two divinities of Athens were women, which surely suggests an empowering position, however scholars have come to conclude that it is no coincidence that the most important divinity, Athene, was completely defeminized - the goddess of wisdom and War, a masculine endeavour represented by her chastity (O'Neal, 1993). Through the chief divinities of Athens, men reaffirmed the strict roles for women and their value as wombs only as well as the sentiment that their sexuality must be curbed.

In similar fashion, the Spartan cults reaffirmed the society's harsh emphasis on female beauty and fertility - evident in the fact that the local divinities were Eileithyia (the goddess of childbirth) and Helen, who was renowned for her beauty (Pomeroy, 2002). One religious tale reflects the violent nature of sexual relations in Sparta - Castor and Pollux, two Spartan heroes, captured and married Hilaeria and Phoebe, two Women fleeing from them, their rape and marriage thence became a "mythical archetype" for the Spartan Wedding ritual (Pomeroy, 2002). Thus, Spartan religion reflects the oppressive and violent nature of the society towards Women as a whole and only reaffirms the argument that what Spartan Women faced was not any sort of new wave liberation, but a very different form of oppression.

Therefore, it is undeniable that an active role in religion was accessible and encouraged for both Athenian and Spartan women (perhaps even more so Spartan), something which many less valuable sources have assumed means they were inherently liberated, but it is impossible to ignore that in both societies religion only reaffirmed the oppressive gender roles that they were so tightly bound to; so while women might have benefitted from the more active role, the sentiment that they were no more than their wombs remained consistent. Thus, Spartan women perhaps benefited at face value from a more active role in a certain part of society, but in the long-term the religious cults only reaffirmed what prevented Spartan women, or Athenian Women, from being "liberated" in the first place.

Mythology and Literature

Contemporary Works available to classicists nowadays explore primarily Athenian ideals regarding women. Homer's Odyssey, for example, presents the "perfect Athenian wife' through the character of Penelope - she remains loyal to her husband for twenty years, obeys orders from her son in Odysseus' absence and is talented at Weaving (Haward, 1996). Any representation of a Spartan woman in ancient mythology and literature is through the perspective of an Athenian (or somewhere with similar ideals in Greece) and therefore taints the Historian's vision - just as almost all mythology and literature is also written by men. Helen of Sparta in mythology for example is a representation of all things Spartan - beauty and War. In Aeschylus' Agamemnon the Chorus certainly strike up fear regarding the figure of Helen; they claim her name, meaning "death", is entirely appropriate (Haward, 1996). This is evidence that a historian cannot know what a Spartan Woman was truly like - only that she was disapproved of by the rest of Greece.

Perhaps the tenuous hold that Historians have on Spartan women, due to a lack of mythology and literature Written at least by Spartan men, is what leads so many to reach the judgement that, just because they were different from Athenian women, they were more liberated than them. Hence why the title of this essay reads: 'more "liberated" - the liberation was what, at face value, appears to be but assessing in what way they benefited from this leads one to conclude whether or not this was "liberation' at all.

Conclusion

As stated in the introduction, to assess whether or not Spartan women were liberated, one must first assess whether or not they benefitted in the sectors of society wherein they are commonly believed to have been liberated. In the city state, a "voice" in politics was tenuous at best - a small percentage of exemplary women gained a voice through the Sayings of Spartar Women, but this was for the most part inaccessible to the common woman. Aside from this, they played no active role in politics. Similarly, the economy did not exclude Spartan women as in Athens and they did have the opportunity to acquire wealth, though again, this liberty was only accessible to the royal Spartan woman.

The more active role that Spartan women possessed in Education and Religion initially suggests a liberate society, but on closer inspection these sectors of the city state only reaffirm the idea that Spartan Women were primarily important to men for looking attractive to ensure they would have children for the cohesion of the state, and so while women may have benefitted in the short-term from these more "active' roles, on a grander scale it only solidified the very sentiment that caused their oppression. (Dougherty, 1991).

The fact that Spartan women enjoyed no sort of liberation and only another type of oppression is further evident in the study of sexual relations in the state. The sexual climate Was Wiolent and revolved around the idea of rape and capture when regarding Women - those who argue that Spartan women benefitted because they were married off at an appropriate age as opposed to the 14-year-old Athenian bride fail to recognise that Spartan women were set up for public scrutiny from the very day they were born (Pomeroy, 2002). This culture of violent sexual relations and the objectification of Women can be seen in its epitome in the Spartan marriage rituals - there is perhaps no clearer sign that Spartan women were subject to oppression just as all other women in Greece were, only in a different fashion (Harvey, 1984).

Research goes to prove that this is an issue still heavily debated by Classicists - many continue to argue that "Spartan women were in many ways among the most liberated of the ancient Greek world" (Zuckerman, 2000) whereas others conclude that Spartan women simply faced "another form of oppression" (Beard, 2016). The issue faces such great debate due to the, at times, tenuous evidence that remains of Sparta. A variety of sources have proved to be of varying relevance to the topic titleoversimplified websites lack evidence and depth to prove their claims that Sparta was a new wave state for Women's rights whereas other, more academic, sources sometimes lack the currency to assess in enough depth the different civilisations, as more recent excavations have prowed extremely helpful to the study of Women.

The more relevant and current academic resources agree with the thesis that Spartan Women were not liberated. Areas of society wherein Spartan women did perhaps benefit, on a larger scale, only reinforced the gender roles that lead to their oppression- their education was to make them better wives and child bearers, their role in religion similarly stemmed back to their fundamental position as wombs for the state. Just because the Spartan society was so different from Athens does not mean that their women were liberated relative to in Athenians; Spartan women faced oppression in Greece just as all women did - but the oppression correlated to the alternative Way in which Sparta functioned.

[izzystrousers-blog]

The Ooz

With the release of The Ooz King Krule remains an enigma. Within the 19 song LP Krule wanders in and out of the spotlight - he bleeds out in one song and the next we are met with his isolated lyricism and persona once more, keeping the listener wanting more and more.

Biscuit Town immediately presents the listener with the jazz progressions reminiscent of 6 Feet Beneath the Moon but we are soon met with a less familiar beat, both in the percussion and Krule’s vocals. What I immediately gauged was a more self-assured artist. Archy discussed the struggles and frustration he faced with writer’s block leading up to the production of the album in a recent interview. Biscuit Town’s tone comes across as a big “fuck you’ to all the factors that got in the way of Krule’s creativity.

My personal favourite song from the album, The Locomotive, is a haunting glimpse into Krule’s tortured soul. The first verse is tense up until the lyrics ‘I’m alone, I’m alone’ - Krule lays it out plainly and simply as he feels it and the rest of the song bleeds out with humble truth, pain and a certain longing. The fluctuation of Krule’s vocals (tenderness transitioned to intense pain and frustration) and the guitar in this song accompanied with the steady bass is a perfect depiction of the train of thought he faces daily.

The Locomotive fades into the heavy bass line of Dum Surfer. This is perhaps the best example of Krule’s transition from tenderness and honesty to isolating himself once more and remaining a mystery throughout the album. Krule is frustrated and filled with overwhelming determination in this song. It is easy to draw a parallel between A Lizard State and Dum Surfer - the familiar fierce vocals and heavy guitar over the saxophone scales vouch for this.

Slush Puppy is a heart wrenching glimpse into Krule’s struggles as his raw  vocals contrast with the more tender voice of Okay Kaya. The song builds into a painful crescendo as Krule screams ‘Nothing is working with me’. And, though the song is brought to a softer close, there does not seem to be a complete resolution to his outcry as the final chord lingers on.

‘Sublunary’ is derived from Greek astronomy and refers to the space beneath the moon that holds no specific law of physics. An obvious reference to a common theme throughout his career, particularly 6 Feet Beneath the Moon, Krule discusses the persistence of his dissociative feelings.

Lonely Blue is a song of longing. Again, one can draw a similarity to Baby Blue from Krule’s debut LP: ‘I could’ve been someone, to you’. The clear difference with Lonely Blue is the more advanced jazz rambling of Krule’s vocals  which are now more aged, and tortured with this, utilising disparate tones. King Krule appears older and wiser, though notably more troubled in Lonely Blue.

Drawing a parallel between Sublunary and Cadet Limbo, the latter creates a metaphor of Archy’s relationship between a woman and himself, a cadet floating along completely obsessed with the woman and their relationship together. Krule is living a dream-like paradise in this song: ‘I don’t ever wanna leave this night’ ‘has it been this long?’ he asks in disbelief as he’s spent all this time orbiting his lover’s waist. Cadet Limbo is a simple tale of a totally love struck person who is begging not to come down - a contrast to the previous song and the post-punk song, Emergency Blmp, that follows.

The non-sequential lyrics in the introduction of Czech One are an ode to the mishap of thoughts and daydreams that run through Archy’s mind during a commute. A plane is one of the few places one can be utterly alone with their  own lucid thoughts, hence the dreamlike piano run throughout the song and the rambling monologue that is Archy’s gentle, sleepy vocal progression throughout the song. “I can’t sleep at night, no never sleep at night, but she still sits in my dreams.”

Archy says: “The Ooz for me represents … your sweat, your nails, the sleep that comes out of your eyes, your dead skin. All of those creations that you have to refine. That’s where it comes from: It’s kind of about refining the subconscious creations that you do constantly.” The title track is another intimate glimpse into Krule’s personal situation. The final line, “It’s cold by the fire” reflects his unrequited love.

King Krule wrote Midnight 01 (Deep Sea Diver) during the fourth month of a depressive episode. The listener is drawn back to themes prevalent in songs such as Ocean Bed and Border Line in 6 Feet Beneath the Moon wherein Krule refers to himself as a “deep sea diver”. By this the artist means he longs to swim down into a “pool of darker times” as some sort of comfort and an abandonment of everyday life in response to his state of mind. Krule samples a song from ‘It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia’ in this song; a TV show he became obsessed with during said depressive episode as a coping mechanism and some sort of human contact.

The album, mysterious as it has been up to this point, concludes in a comforting fashion with the familiar sound of Archy’s older song La Lune. While Krule has explored new themes and new sounds and has grown exponentially since his debut LP, he remains the very same boy we have familiarised ourselves with, but one we never know too well.

“See I was raised to the moon”