#but like. you can encourage people to explore and interrogate gendered life experience without being an idiot and assuming gender experience

[neverendingford]

.

[queermediastudies]

Infinite Diversity in Limited Combinations

Group #2

Madeline De Aguero

Analiese Schulzki

Amy Oh

Star Trek, depending on who you ask, is a silly sci-fi show for nerds, an inspiration for a passion in STEM fields, or a hopeful view of humanity’s future. Star Trek has attempted to represent minorities and diverse experiences for over 50 years. The original 1966 show, and its various incarnations, have had the unique ability to address controversial topics due to its futuristic setting. Metaphors for social issues can take on new forms to get past the censorship of the CBS overlords. However, the one topic Star Trek engages minimally with is queer sexualities. Star Trek debuted its first openly gay character in 2017’s Star Trek: Discovery.

Capt. Kirk and Spock share an intimate moment. (Star Trek V: The Final Frontier)

While, it is important to note the rewrite of original show character Sulu as gay, this decision came as an afterthought, and in a Star Trek timeline not of the original cannon. LGBTQ representation is a low priority for writing staffs who focus on how equality function within our society. This begs the question: why the critical engaged Trekkies haven’t asked for more? After taking a closer look as specific Star Trek episodes (from the original series, The Next Generation, Deep Space Nine, Enterprise, and Discovery), we have found that queer content exists within Star Trek, but they are visually based, not content based. Historically, Star Trek has been revered for its motto, “infinite diversity in infinite combinations”, while these ideals have led to intersectional portrayals of race, ability, and gender, Star Trek proves to have its limits as sexuality gets left behind. While Star Trek has been one of the most progressive franchises in film and television history, we argue that when Star Trek portrays queer interpersonal dynamics through images, the story of specific episode or film is augmented to tell as straight as possible of a story. When these images from Star Trek are taken out of context, a queer reading becomes the dominate reading.

Capt. Picard lays naked in bed next to the clothed omnipotent being, Q. (Star Trek: The Next Generation Season 6 Episode 15 Tapestry)

Source: https://www.netflix.com/watch/70178003?trackId=200257859

Captain Picard (Patrick Stewart) was injured in his fight against the Lenarians in The Next Generation, season 6 episode 15. The fight happened outside of the conference room where his artificial heart is failing. The episode continues on with the captain being stuck in a fantasy world where he is young again - a fantasy created by the omnipotent being, Q. The first impression behind this image before I (Amy) was introduced to the full series was that it was inherently queer. I saw the potential behind the image as being slightly queer as the man on the left, the naked one, seems to be pulling the blanket higher over himself while the other man looks at him. It is almost in a bashful manner that he is hiding his body from his friend. However, as I watched the episode, the true and ‘straight’ context came out. “While we acknowledge that homosexuals as well as heterosexuals can operate or mediate from within straight cultural spaces and positions-after all, most of us grew up learning the rules of straight culture we have paid less attention to the proposition that basically hetero-centrist texts can contain queer elements, and basically heterosexual, straight-identifying people can experience queer moments.” (Doty, 1997, pg 2-3).

One thing to note throughout the episode is the Captain Picard is in a ‘dream’ world where he is able to fix the mistakes of his past - anything that he felt guilty about. When we place the GIF back into the episode, the captain and his love interest when he was in his 20s finally make the move to be together - sexually. However, when the camera pans in the morning from the clothes to the naked captain, we can assume that the woman and captain had slept together. However, the captain wakes up next to Q. Here, we can take into context that the captain may have slept with the omnipotent being as he is the one controlling everything.

This is where we can note that Star Trek is inherently queer and “...marks a flexible space for the expression of all aspects.” (Doty, 1997, 3).

Doctor Bashir shudders as Garak places a hand on his shoulder (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 1 Episode 3 Past Prologue)

The character Elim Garak, a Cardassian, in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine in first introduced in the third episode of the first season. His guest staring role serves many purposes for the overall arch of the series, but in his debut episode, he was written to be a part of the “frontier” young doctor Bashir wants to explore. He is the only of his species living on the space station and rumored a spy for his government. Garak asserts himself in Dr. Bashir’s personal life from the moment he appears onscreen and when Bashir shares this with his colleagues, they laugh at his fascination with the station’s tailor.  While Star Trek’s alien races maintain varying cultural differences from western society, the vast majority are heteronormative. As Venzo puts it, “…queer people are positioned as the one group of  ‘aliens’ the Federation has little or no interest in encountering… the future itself is inherently heterosexual” (289). The queer interpretation of Elim Garak is unique to the Star Trek franchise, not only is the audience projection a queer reading onto the Garak/Bashir scenes, the actor Andrew Robinson was as well, “..I just tried to go as much against the grain, as much against human stereotype as possible. And especially in America, there is so much about sexuality that is outside the normative heterosexual category, that I thought really… I hope it really upsets people too” (Tremeer, 2017, para. 3). The writers of Deep Space Nine wrote against this interpretation, even giving Dr. Bashir a female love interest in the last season, but as writers digressed from Robinson’s acting choice, Robinson and the fandom engage with a deeper committed to a queer Elim Garak.

Jadzia Dax and Lenara Kahn practicing “science” in Dax’s quarters. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 4 Episode 5 Rejoined)

Jadzia Dax & Lenara Kahn are both Trills, a species that has symbionts living inside them, each symbiont hold multiple lifetimes of experiences as these symbionts are passed from Trill to Trill for hundreds of years. The Dax and Kahn symbionts were a couple in their past hosts. When they meet again for the first time in decades the sexual tension is immediately. However, in Trill society, it is forbidden for relationships to be re-established in new hosts. If they do re-establish a past relationship, they will be exiled from the Trill.  It is important to note that in their past host, they were a heterosexual pairing. On first look, one may think that there was groundbreaking queer exposure within a show from the late 80s early 90s, but in reality, this episode is a perfect example of context built to make the queer as straight as possible. In order for this episode to be made there had to be a way to interpret it as straight. With this specific episode in Star Trek, “offers a model of proliferation—of multiplications, hybridizations, disseminations—beyond and besides teleological, Oedipal conceptions of a linear track from past to future. Just, then, as queer theory helps us to interrogate television (with its typically still-overly-simplistic binary categories of “gay-straight,” “masculine-feminine,” “normal-abnormal,” “us- them,” and so on), might television help us think outside the binaries of queer theory itself” (Joyrich, 2014, pg. 5). These characters, although the storyline is misguided as a queer text, does something for the Star Trek universe which was show actual representation. There were far less representations on television of women being intimate and kissing one another, this episode if anything proved that it can be done. Like many queer break through texts, Star Trek not being the first, but continued to add the necessity to show LGBTQ charatcters and intimate moments on network television.

Kira Nerys as the Intendant and Ezri kiss. (Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 Episode 12 The Emperor’s New Cloak)

Source: http://www.agonybooth.com/star-trek-deep-space-nine-the-emperors-new-cloak-23468

The Emperor’s New Cloak comes in late to the Deep Space Nine, one of the final 25 episodes released of the series. In this episode, Quark and Rom are blackmailed into going to the mirror universe to save Grand Nagus Zek who has been tricked by the Intendant Kira Nerys who only wants a piece of technology that is available in the mirror universe. The mirror universe version of Ezri Dax was tasked to encourage Quark and Rom to go over to the mirror universe to Grand Nagus Zek, which proved to be very easy because Quark has feelings for his universe’s Dax. This epsiode was the first of the franchise that included a lesbian kiss without having some explanation of gender reversal or an experimentation between characters, rather confirmed that Intendant Nerys to be one of the first canonically open bisexual character in the Star Trek Universe.

The episode began with Quark’s creepy obsession with his universe’s Ezri Dax talking about how she has to feel the same way, praying to a figure to help along the process of her liking him, and claims ownership over her when Mirror Ezri shows up and says “you aren’t my Dax are you”. Mirror Ezri and the Intendant kiss as a reveal Ezri’s betrayal towards Quark, Rom, and especially Zek who had fallen for the Intendant. Quark’s creepy obession with Ezri aside, this episode while being revered for its inclusion of the momentary relationship between Mirror Ezri and the Intendant is rather problematic in their representation. First, Nana Visitor who plays the Intendant states she never intended for her character to be bisexual, it was just assumed and she attributed her actions to be confidence not sexuality which abruptly takes away queer value of this character. There is also the negative representation of the Evil Bisexual Trope. The idea of the Evil Bisexual Trope is that these characters are tricking the straight person into sexual situations and continues to vilianize the LGBTQ community.

Moreover, these characters were not lasting; Mirror Ezri made an appearance in this the final Mirror episode and the Intendant only had a five episode arc. Finally, the end of the episode although subtle with their suggestion of lesbians living the the mirror universe all of the male characters continued to harass Mirror Ezri by implying being together would “help her with her conscience”. Instead she leaves with another woman to get “debriefed” which the other characters find uncomfortable and want to leave immediately. Therefore, Star Trek implies that a queer universe exists within their world, but like most network television they just chose not to be apart of it.

Star Trek: Voyager explicit heterosexuality and rejection of any queerness reinforced throughout entire series. (Publicity shot)

Source: startrek.com

Star Trek: Voyager was the fourth live action Star Trek series and is the very definition of eliminating and alienating the entire LGBTQ community. Voyager has the classic elements that Star Trek prides themselves on which is the exploration and tribulations of humanity throughout circumstance and space. This series has been revered for their inclusion by having the first televised interracial kiss between Captain Kirk and Uhura in the original series and was thought to have pushed the boundaries once again by having the first female captain. “While Star Trek: Voyager was initially lauded for featuring a female captain, Kathryn Janeway, her WASPish, liberal humanist character is ultimately place in counterpoint with the simultaneously sexy/robotic human-Borg character Seven of Nine, who introduction to the series was thought to have attracted more viewers due to her sex appeal.” On one hand this specific series was set to celebrate difference but “reaffirmed the idea that humans, as opposed to aliens, are superior” which implied the same from ethnically diverse and LGBTQ characters. There is this idea in hollywood that you can’t have both meaning we deem diversity by one character to carry that entire load of the show and once you have the token diverse character that means they can continue to have straight white men carry the show. Voyager had their one, which was the lead character Captain Janeway who is a woman and two other racially diverse characters so they assumed they covered diversity which completely alienates other forms of representation specifically overtly even subdued queer characters eliminating them from this series as a whole.   

Sulu and his family as the first openly gay character represented in Star Trek. (Star Trek: Beyond)

Source: https://www.hulu.com/watch/1086789

Fifty years. That is how long it took for the Star Trek series to announce their first openly gay character and it came and went in the blink of an eye. In 2016 before the release of Star Trek: Beyond they made announcement that beloved character Hikaru Sulu will be the first openly gay character and every bigoted self proclaimed nerds were outraged because they felt as though this was coming out of nowhere and only trying to accommodate the political atmosphere of inclusion and partaking in the character assassination of a fictional character. Upon viewing the film, there is hardly any reason to be outraged because in true Star Trek style there was hardly anything to see. The only reference to Sulu being gay was he met up with his husband and daughter at the end of the film after rendering them and the members of the Enterprise safe. This moment which was acted well and and sincere felt as though it was an afterthought because it was. This reboot of the original series already had two films under it’s belt and wasn’t shown until the end of the film. Furthermore, the portrayal of the couple very much played into the heteronormative narrative of the nuclear family of being married and having children most likely to make it “family friendly” towards its audience.

When it was revealed that Sulu was gay, George Takei who originally played Sulu in the first Star Trek Series and strong LGBTQ advocate, did not appreciate the choice of Sulu being gay. In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter he said, "I’m delighted that there’s a gay character. Unfortunately, it’s a twisting of Gene’s creation, to which he put in so much thought. I think it’s really unfortunate." To quote Lynne Joyrich, “Dependent on viewer receptions as much as, if not more than, authorially performative productions, the mainstream itself might be thus realized, re-viewed, or remade as “queer.” This does not mean simply that queers can enter that arena and be included; rather, it means that the whole thing is exposed precisely as an arena act—one that is both overly familiar and narratively estranged, social and antisocial in its narcissistic niche, exaggeratedly positive but with alienating negativity in the way it makes a fantastical fetish out of the boringly banal.” To credit Takei, the setting of Sulu being gay feels like they are just dropping it in to be more inclusive and not to enrich the character of Hikaru Sulu.

Anthony Rapp and Wilson Cruz as the first openly gay characters in a Star Trek television series.

Source: https://www.vox.com/fall-tv/2017/9/22/16338658/star-trek-discovery-cbs-preview-showrunners-anthony-rapp

Discovery is the first Star Trek television show in 12 years. In that 12 years, society’s view of LGBTQ folk has changed dramatically. In the year leading up to the premiere, fans debated online how progressive this new show was was actually going to be. Discovery released a statement on September 30, 2017 saying that not only was there to be a gay character, played by Anthony Rapp, this character was to be in a relationship with the ship’s doctor, played by Wilson Cruz (McCormick, 2017). CBS’s decision to release this information months before the premiere of the series was deeply intentional, serving two purposes. The first, to spark queer viewership, a group now recognized as a target audience companies can profit off of. Secondly, the debut of Lieutenant Paul Stamets and Dr. Hugh Culber did not involve the common place gay tv introduction in which the audience is immediately informed through unrealistic dialogue that is solely meant to let the audience in on how progressive they are. Instead, they opted for a more subtle introduction. If they did not release a statement announcing this couple, it would not be clear they’re together until the end of the 5th episode of a 15 episode season when we see them brushing their teeth together before bed. Stamets and Culber are in interracial couple who have a loving relationship, their professional life is inseparable from their relationship, but they appear to navigate this well. If Discovery stays on this track and introduces more queer characters over time, Star Trek may have taken a turn away from the heteronormative. This shift, while exciting thus far, still has yet to definitively shy away from more current gay television tropes. We will have the wait and see what happens in the “future”.

Dr. Hugh Culber comforts his partner, Lieutenant Paul Stamets, in their quarters, much like Star Trek comforting queer Trekkies everywhere. (Star Trek: Discovery Season 1 Episode 5)

Source: https://startrek.blognook.com

References

Doty, A. (1997). Making things perfectly queer: interpreting mass culture. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.

Joyrich, L. (2014). Queer Television Studies: Currents, Flows, and (Main)streams. Cinema Journal,53(2), 133-139. doi:10.1353/cj.2014.0015

Aroeste, J. L. (Writer). (1968, October 18). Star Trek: Is There In Truth No Beauty? [Television series episode]. CBS.

Venzo, P. (2016). To boldy go where we should have gone before: Symbolic annihilation and queer interventions in the Star Trek texual universe. Queer Studies in Media & Popular Culture,1(3), 285-295. Retrieved October 5, 2017.

McCormick, Joseph Patrick. “Get Ready! Star Trek: Discovery Is about to Debut a Gay Couple.” PinkNews, PinkNews, 30 Sept. 2017, www.pinknews.co.uk/2017/09/30/get-ready-star-trek-discovery-is-about-to-debut-a-gay-couple/.

Tremeer, Eleanor. “Exclusive: 'Star Trek's Andrew Robinson Talks LGBT Representation & What 'Discovery' Must Do To Move Forward.” Exclusive: Why Star Trek's Andrew Robinson Played Garak As Pansexual, Movie Pilot, 4 Aug. 2017, moviepilot.com/p/exclusive-interview-with-star-trek-ds9-andrew-robinson/4336798.

Wenz, J. (2014, March 27). Deep Space Nine: The Gayest Star Trek. Retrieved October 5, 2017, from http://the-toast.net/2014/03/28/deep-space-nine-gayest-star-trek/.

[khalilhumam]

Through the Orientalist looking-glass: An interview with Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi

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New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/through-the-orientalist-looking-glass-an-interview-with-moroccan-artist-lalla-essaydi/

Through the Orientalist looking-glass: An interview with Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #2, 2009. 71 × 88 in 180.4 × 223.5 cm.

Moroccan artist Lalla Essaydi, 64, is well known for her dazzling, multidimensional staged photographs, which in spite of their simplicity, masterfully capture and challenge the complexities of social structures, women's identities and cultural traditions.  Essaydi‘s artworks not only reinvent visual traditions; they also “invoke the western fascination with the odalisque, the veil, and, of course, the harem, as expressed in Orientalist painting.” “My work speaks primarily in terms of Moroccan identity, but visual identifiers such as the veil, harem, ornate ornamentation, and sumptuous color also resonate with other regions in the Muslim and Arabic worlds where the place of women has historically been marked by limited expression and constrained individuality,” Essaydi said in an interview with Global Voices.  Raised in Morocco, Essaydi has lived in Saudi Arabia and France and is currently based in Boston. She has exhibited at the National Museum of African Art in Washington, D.C., the Art Institute of Chicago, the Fries Museum in the Netherlands, among others. Essaydi is a poet of architecture, the female body, and color. Where letters overwhelm her composition, the bold presence of women and the veiled apprehension in their eyes disrupt all equations of beauty. Excerpts from the interview follow.

Moroccan artist, Lalla Essaydi. Photo courtesy of the artist.

Omid Memarian: Over the past two decades you have been creating striking artworks that conceptually challenge social structures and comment on power and authority. How did you find and develop this visual language?  Laila Essaydi: My approach to art in general, and my relation to Islamic art in particular, is deeply rooted in my personal experience. As a Moroccan-born artist who has lived in New York, Boston, and Marrakesh and who travels frequently to the Arab world, I have become deeply aware of how the cultures of the “Orient” and “Occident” view one another. In particular, I have become increasingly aware of the impact of the Western gaze on Arab culture.  Although Orientalism most often suggests a 19th-century European vision of the East, as a set of assumptions it lives on today: both in the gaze of the West and in the way Arab societies continue to internalize and respond to that gaze. In its early form, Orientalism was a literal “vision,” finding expression in the work of Western painters who traveled to the “exotic” East in search of cultures more colorful than their own, I have used it as a point of departure in much of my own work—in both painting and photography. The imagery I found in Orientalist painting has resonated with me in tricky ways and ultimately helped me situate my own experience in a powerful visual language. In my photography, I explore this space, whether mental or physical, and interrogate its role in gender identity-making, while engaging with centuries of cultural heritage and artistic practices. For instance, my images of women, embedded in Islamic architecture, recognize and represent an alternative to similar spaces, as imagined for women, in painting and photography, from within the Arab and Muslim worlds. My fusion of calligraphy (a sacred art traditionally reserved for men) and henna (an adornment worn and applied only by women) similarly reproduces artistic traditions and practices common in everyday life in Islamic cultures while transgressing gender roles and the boundaries between private and public spaces.

Lalla Essaydi, Harem #1, 2009

OM: You were born and raised in Morocco, spent 19 years in Saudi Arabia, moved to Paris and studied there and finally landed in the U.S., studied, and lived there. How has this geographical path impacted your art, your perception of women, and their presence in your photos?  LE: My work is inspired by personal history. The many territories that converge in my work are not only geographical ones but territories of the imagination, shaped, above all, by childhood and memory—by these invisible influences. My work cannot be reduced to Orientalist discourse. Orientalism has given me a lens through which to focus on the converging territories of my work and through which to see more clearly the influence of Western imagination in the Eastern ways of conceptualizing the self. At a more personal level, my creative practice is a means through which I can reinvent and position myself in different times and cultural contexts. At the same time, I also celebrate the cultural richness of Morocco, the Middle East and North African countries. Although I tend to think of my work as, first and foremost, being about the experience of women, I would say that these elements are also significant. They do not happen incidentally but are part of the inherent qualities that I bring to my vision and my work.

Lalla Essaydi, Bullets Revisited #37, 2014.

OM: How did earning a BFA and MFA from Tufts University and the School of Museum of Fine Art contribute to your career and artistic transformation? Was the education something you expected? LE: I enrolled in the Museum School because I wanted to return to Morocco and be able to pursue my hobby with greater knowledge and skill. Instead, I found my life’s work. I learned that some of the most important things in our lives happen unexpectedly. We take a class in painting and discover an entire new world at our fingertips: waiting to be grasped. We take a class in painting and find art history, and installation, photography and so much more. We look for a glass of water and find an ocean, calling to us. And we answer the call.  I never dreamed I would spend seven years in this environment, immersing myself in everything the School had to offer, and learning more than I had ever imagined was possible.   This was, and is, a school of artists, designed by and for artists: where students are free to choose what they want to learn. It only offers elective modules, and there are no mandatory classes. When we realize the riches that are available, we want to absorb everything. At first I was overwhelmed. I was one of those students who roamed the corridors of the School late at night, peering into the empty rooms, with their silent trappings of whatever medium was taught there.  Eventually, the School taught me a second lesson. With all these opportunities and this great array of artistic riches, with this enormous freedom to choose, comes responsibility. Responsibility first means discipline, and setting priorities, followed by learning new skills and techniques. And then comes self-direction, as we learn and understand new ways of thinking about art, and the ambition to do something important with our lives.   My career offered me something else, something I did not expect. This very public environment offered me a private space, something I had never had at home. It offered me a space where I was free to express my thoughts in private, without the inhibiting knowledge that they were available for all to see. This enabled me to explore and bring to the fore aspects of my own interior life I hadn’t even known were there. While I knew that creating art is an intensely personal experience, I also learned that it happens only with the help of a lot of gifted and dedicated people: people who teach and guide, people who encourage and nurture, people who inspire you to keep reaching to create what is excellent and beautiful and true. You can tell, I loved the School. 

Lalla Essaydi. Les Femmes du Maroc: La Grande Odalisque, 2008

OM: Women and their private space in the Arab world are central to your series “Harem” and other work. Where did this curiosity and focus come from and sow has it changed over time?  LE: My work reaches beyond Islamic culture as it also invokes the Western fascination with the odalisque, the veil, and, of course, the harem as it is expressed in Orientalist painting. Orientalism has long been a source of fascination for me. My background in art is in painting, and it is as a painter that I began my investigation into Orientalism. My study led me to a much deeper understanding of the painting space so beautifully addressed by Orientalist painters in thrall to Arab décor. From its terrific prominence in these paintings, this décor made me keenly aware of the importance of interior space in Arab/Islamic culture. And finally, of course, I became aware of the patterns of cultural domination and predatory sexual fantasy encoded in Orientalist painting.  Memarian: Your artworks incorporate multiple layers, a beautiful and colorful layer on the outside, and inviting mixed layers of calligraphy, henna, ceramic, and also models. The latter rests on the edge of cliché, but it also creates a lively and mystical visual labyrinth. What is it like to navigate this fine line?  Essaydi: It is important for me that my work be beautiful. While it is received very differently in Western and Arab contexts, its aesthetic is appreciated in both. More critical for me, however, is that the photographs achieve a balance between their political, historical and aesthetic content, as well as make a statement on art. But the fact that I have sometimes been critiqued for, on the one hand, perpetuating expectations and stereotypes rather than refuting them and, on the other, for exposing that which should remain private, indicates that responses to my work are highly subjective, context-specific and likely culturally informed. Tempered by the ambiguity of the work’s literal meaning, perhaps defaulting to the most accessible and intuitive reaction: perception of the stereotype. Nevertheless, with deliberate subtlety, my work introduces alternative, challenging perspectives on canonical 19th-century Orientalist paintings. As a female artist from the regions depicted, mine is an historically repressed voice that “complicates any neat framing of the canon.” Drawing on similar visual devices, I try to engage it in an unfamiliar and uncomfortable dialogue, and re-situates the Orientalist genre in the history of art.

Harem Revisited #34, 2012

OM: In a 2012 interview you said that your models “see themselves as part of a small feminist movement.” While “freedom” is one of your main concerns, and many of your works seem to reconstruct traditions, how does this contradictory formula have such a liberating result?  LE: My work may seem to “reconstruct traditions,” but in fact I am trying to create a new understanding. The liberating result comes because in many ways, performance is an intrinsic element of my photographs, evident in the figures’ careful composition, in the physical act of writing and, more importantly, in the intensity of the sitters’ embodied presence that also renders them subjects rather than objects.  Through writing, I lay bare personal thoughts, memory, and experiences that belong to me and the women featured as individuals within a broader narrative. Though my work speaks primarily in terms of Moroccan identity, visual identifiers such as the veil, harem, ornate ornamentation, and sumptuous color also resonate with other regions in the Muslim and Arabic worlds where the place of women has historically been marked by limited expression and constrained individuality.   While my work evokes the region’s traditional aesthetics and social practices, I insert a dimension that complicates them: a personal narrative that takes form in the written word. In volumes upon volumes of text, these women voice critical reflections on and interrogations of memories, all captured within the space of my photographs. At the same time, I write about historical representations of Moroccan, Arabic, Muslim, and African women. To understand my work, then, one must examine long-standing preconceptions held by diverse peoples over time, as well as by myself.

Lalla Essaydi, Bullets, Jackson Fine Art. February 3 – April 15, 2017

Written by Omid Memarian · comments (0) Donate · Share this: twitter facebook reddit

[foursprout-blog]

Single Women Are Happier Than Society Thinks They Are – According To Research

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/single-women-are-happier-than-society-thinks-they-are-according-to-research/

Single Women Are Happier Than Society Thinks They Are – According To Research

Ayo Ogunseinde

While it’s wonderful to be in a happy and healthy relationship, the misconception that women who are single cannot thrive or be happy alone is one that needs to be dismantled, pronto. These stigmas only encourage women to get into toxic relationships without taking the time necessary to heal. They place undue pressure on young women to settle just in order to have a partner rather than waiting for one who truly fulfills their needs. They also deter women who are simply happier being single from accepting themselves fully without a sense of guilt or judgment.

Society depicts single women as people who are missing something from their lives. Rarely do single women get the luxury of being seen as freedom-loving, joyful, fulfilled and complex as single men are. Unlike single men who are praised for being lifelong bachelors, single women are usually asked, “Why are you still single?” and instead interrogated about their romantic prospects until the end of time. Their achievements, social networks, passions, hobbies and personalities usually take a backseat to conversations about their relationship status, which is lauded as the end-all, be-all of their lives.

Research, however, suggests that single women are no less fulfilled than those who are coupled. In fact, in some cases, they are happier. Here are the findings:

1. Turns out, single women are happier than they’re stereotyped due to the very nature of what relationships require of them.

Heterosexual single women were found by a new report to be happier than heterosexual single men and were less likely to venture out to find a relationship even while single (Mintel, 2017). The reasons? Despite progress towards equal rights, women still continue to do more emotional labor and domestic labor in relationships. They also tend to have more alternative social networks than men to look towards for support such as healthy friendships.

Being single is less likely to “harm” heterosexual single women in the sense that it might provide some freedom from the emotionally laborious task of being in a relationship – and no matter what, single women know how to utilize their support networks to fulfill their social needs.

2. Single people are more resilient and resourceful due to the fact that they had to be.

This is especially true in terms of how they use their solitude. They are much more confident overall in doing solo activities – which allows them to develop a sense of independence that enriches all facets of their lives.

Since they don’t overly rely on anyone else to get any of their needs met, they have a heightened sense of self-determination and are more likely to experience a sense of continuous growth and self-development. Harvard-trained social psychologist Dr. Bella DePaulo (2013) writes:

“We hear all about how single people are supposedly at risk for becoming lonely, but little about the creative, intellectual, and emotional potential of solitude… We are told that single people do not have the intimacy that married people find in their partners, but hear only crickets about the genuine attachment relationships that single people have with the most important people in their lives.

Missing from the stacks of journal articles is any sustained attention to the risks of intensive coupling—investing all of your emotional and relationship stock into just one person, “The One”—or to the resilience offered by the networks of friends and family that so many single people maintain.”

3. It can be just as healthy to be single – literally.

Single women can be just as psychologically and physically healthy, if not more, than their coupled counterparts. In fact, many of the studies on marriage praising its resulting life satisfaction are biased towards emphasizing those who stayed married, rather than those who later divorced or became widowed. People who stayed married actually only had a slight increase in happiness shortly after marriage due to a “honeymoon effect,” which after a few years reverted back to their original level of happiness before the marriage.

Meanwhile, those who got divorced reported increased life satisfaction after the initial despair (presumably due to their exit and healing from a toxic relationship), though they were not as happy as they were prior to getting married in the first place.

The myth of “marital superiority” is clearly one that looks better on paper than in real life. In general, those who were happiest before they were married remained that way after marriage – which suggests that marriage itself was not the sole conduit for that joy.

“If you are not already a happy person, don’t count on marriage to transform you into one. If you are already happy, don’t expect marriage to make you even happier…finally, if you are single and happy, do not fret that you will descend into despair if you dare to stay single. That’s not likely either.” – Dr. Bella DePaulo, Singled Out, How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, Ignored, And Still Live Happily Ever After

In addition, the reported health benefits of marriage that have been lauded are not necessarily due to the marriage itself. DePaulo (2013) points out that marriage gives one access to more than a thousand federal benefits and this advantage leads to better health care. However, research indicates that single women can lead healthy, active lives as well. One Canadian study of more than 11,000 people revealed that lifelong single people had better overall health than married people, while an Australian study of more than 10,000 single women found that they had far less diagnoses of major illnesses, had lower BMIs and were less likely to smoke than married women.

So Now What?

It appears from these findings that it is the social stigma of being single, rather than being single itself that is the problem. Since women are socialized to derive their self-worth from their relationship status, many single women can feel affected by societal pressures and judgment to evaluate and compare their lifestyles to their married friends, coming away feeling ‘less than’ even if they love their careers, are financially abundant, and have thriving social lives. This pressure can be so immense that otherwise happily single people may feel coerced into sustaining toxic partnerships that actually make them unhappier long-term, just to achieve a sense of “normalcy” in their societies.

This is especially true in cultures where young women are pressured to get married and marriage is considered an integral part of their social status. Even if they have nourishing, fulfilling lives, single women may feel that this pressure and judgment detracts from their overall sense of joy. They may feel excluded from events and holidays that extol coupledom, or feel shamed by their peers who perpetuate these pressures. However, as this stigma lessens, the possibility of leading a satisfying life regardless of one’s relationship status becomes that much more powerful and accessible. That’s why it’s so important to continue to dismantle the harmful stereotypes of what it means to be single and celebrate singlehood just as much as we celebrate marriage.

Regardless of whether or not someone plans to have a serious relationship in the future, the fact of the matter is, a period of singlehood can be a fruitful time for anyone no matter what their gender. Singlehood is a life-saver in that it grants individuals the creative space to develop their dreams, to explore the world and to build their identity without the interference of another person – something they may not be able to do without as much duress if they do choose to be in a relationship in the future. The ability to be successful, independent and joyful no matter what your relationship status is should be seen as a gift and an asset, not a curse.

Read more of Shahida Arabi’s articles here.

References

DePaulo, B. (2013, May 08). Are Single People Mentally Stronger? Retrieved August 27, 2017.

DePaulo, B. M. (2007). Singled out: How singles are stereotyped, stigmatized, and ignored and still live happily ever after. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Girme, Y. U., Overall, N. C., Faingataa, S., & Sibley, C. G. (2015). Happily Single. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), 122-130. doi:10.1177/1948550615599828

Luhmann, M., Hofmann, W., Eid, M., & Lucas, R. (2011). Supplemental Material for Subjective Well-Being and Adaptation to Life Events: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi:10.1037/a0025948.supp

Mintel (2017). Single Lifestyles UK – consumer market research report (Rep.). Retrieved here.

[foursprouthappiness-blog]

Single Women Are Happier Than Society Thinks They Are – According To Research

New Post has been published on http://foursprout.com/happiness/single-women-are-happier-than-society-thinks-they-are-according-to-research/

Single Women Are Happier Than Society Thinks They Are – According To Research

Ayo Ogunseinde

While it’s wonderful to be in a happy and healthy relationship, the misconception that women who are single cannot thrive or be happy alone is one that needs to be dismantled, pronto. These stigmas only encourage women to get into toxic relationships without taking the time necessary to heal. They place undue pressure on young women to settle just in order to have a partner rather than waiting for one who truly fulfills their needs. They also deter women who are simply happier being single from accepting themselves fully without a sense of guilt or judgment.

Society depicts single women as people who are missing something from their lives. Rarely do single women get the luxury of being seen as freedom-loving, joyful, fulfilled and complex as single men are. Unlike single men who are praised for being lifelong bachelors, single women are usually asked, “Why are you still single?” and instead interrogated about their romantic prospects until the end of time. Their achievements, social networks, passions, hobbies and personalities usually take a backseat to conversations about their relationship status, which is lauded as the end-all, be-all of their lives.

Research, however, suggests that single women are no less fulfilled than those who are coupled. In fact, in some cases, they are happier. Here are the findings:

1. Turns out, single women are happier than they’re stereotyped due to the very nature of what relationships require of them.

Heterosexual single women were found by a new report to be happier than heterosexual single men and were less likely to venture out to find a relationship even while single (Mintel, 2017). The reasons? Despite progress towards equal rights, women still continue to do more emotional labor and domestic labor in relationships. They also tend to have more alternative social networks than men to look towards for support such as healthy friendships.

Being single is less likely to “harm” heterosexual single women in the sense that it might provide some freedom from the emotionally laborious task of being in a relationship – and no matter what, single women know how to utilize their support networks to fulfill their social needs.

2. Single people are more resilient and resourceful due to the fact that they had to be.

This is especially true in terms of how they use their solitude. They are much more confident overall in doing solo activities – which allows them to develop a sense of independence that enriches all facets of their lives.

Since they don’t overly rely on anyone else to get any of their needs met, they have a heightened sense of self-determination and are more likely to experience a sense of continuous growth and self-development. Harvard-trained social psychologist Dr. Bella DePaulo (2013) writes:

“We hear all about how single people are supposedly at risk for becoming lonely, but little about the creative, intellectual, and emotional potential of solitude… We are told that single people do not have the intimacy that married people find in their partners, but hear only crickets about the genuine attachment relationships that single people have with the most important people in their lives.

Missing from the stacks of journal articles is any sustained attention to the risks of intensive coupling—investing all of your emotional and relationship stock into just one person, “The One”—or to the resilience offered by the networks of friends and family that so many single people maintain.”

3. It can be just as healthy to be single – literally.

Single women can be just as psychologically and physically healthy, if not more, than their coupled counterparts. In fact, many of the studies on marriage praising its resulting life satisfaction are biased towards emphasizing those who stayed married, rather than those who later divorced or became widowed. People who stayed married actually only had a slight increase in happiness shortly after marriage due to a “honeymoon effect,” which after a few years reverted back to their original level of happiness before the marriage.

Meanwhile, those who got divorced reported increased life satisfaction after the initial despair (presumably due to their exit and healing from a toxic relationship), though they were not as happy as they were prior to getting married in the first place.

The myth of “marital superiority” is clearly one that looks better on paper than in real life. In general, those who were happiest before they were married remained that way after marriage – which suggests that marriage itself was not the sole conduit for that joy.

“If you are not already a happy person, don’t count on marriage to transform you into one. If you are already happy, don’t expect marriage to make you even happier…finally, if you are single and happy, do not fret that you will descend into despair if you dare to stay single. That’s not likely either.” – Dr. Bella DePaulo, Singled Out, How Singles Are Stereotyped, Stigmatized, Ignored, And Still Live Happily Ever After

In addition, the reported health benefits of marriage that have been lauded are not necessarily due to the marriage itself. DePaulo (2013) points out that marriage gives one access to more than a thousand federal benefits and this advantage leads to better health care. However, research indicates that single women can lead healthy, active lives as well. One Canadian study of more than 11,000 people revealed that lifelong single people had better overall health than married people, while an Australian study of more than 10,000 single women found that they had far less diagnoses of major illnesses, had lower BMIs and were less likely to smoke than married women.

So Now What?

It appears from these findings that it is the social stigma of being single, rather than being single itself that is the problem. Since women are socialized to derive their self-worth from their relationship status, many single women can feel affected by societal pressures and judgment to evaluate and compare their lifestyles to their married friends, coming away feeling ‘less than’ even if they love their careers, are financially abundant, and have thriving social lives. This pressure can be so immense that otherwise happily single people may feel coerced into sustaining toxic partnerships that actually make them unhappier long-term, just to achieve a sense of “normalcy” in their societies.

This is especially true in cultures where young women are pressured to get married and marriage is considered an integral part of their social status. Even if they have nourishing, fulfilling lives, single women may feel that this pressure and judgment detracts from their overall sense of joy. They may feel excluded from events and holidays that extol coupledom, or feel shamed by their peers who perpetuate these pressures. However, as this stigma lessens, the possibility of leading a satisfying life regardless of one’s relationship status becomes that much more powerful and accessible. That’s why it’s so important to continue to dismantle the harmful stereotypes of what it means to be single and celebrate singlehood just as much as we celebrate marriage.

Regardless of whether or not someone plans to have a serious relationship in the future, the fact of the matter is, a period of singlehood can be a fruitful time for anyone no matter what their gender. Singlehood is a life-saver in that it grants individuals the creative space to develop their dreams, to explore the world and to build their identity without the interference of another person – something they may not be able to do without as much duress if they do choose to be in a relationship in the future. The ability to be successful, independent and joyful no matter what your relationship status is should be seen as a gift and an asset, not a curse.

Read more of Shahida Arabi’s articles here.

References

DePaulo, B. (2013, May 08). Are Single People Mentally Stronger? Retrieved August 27, 2017.

DePaulo, B. M. (2007). Singled out: How singles are stereotyped, stigmatized, and ignored and still live happily ever after. New York: St. Martin’s Griffin.

Girme, Y. U., Overall, N. C., Faingataa, S., & Sibley, C. G. (2015). Happily Single. Social Psychological and Personality Science, 7(2), 122-130. doi:10.1177/1948550615599828

Luhmann, M., Hofmann, W., Eid, M., & Lucas, R. (2011). Supplemental Material for Subjective Well-Being and Adaptation to Life Events: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. doi:10.1037/a0025948.supp

Mintel (2017). Single Lifestyles UK – consumer market research report (Rep.). Retrieved here.

[vileart]

What If Dramaturgy Told You: Pauline Mayers

Northern Stage at Summerhall 2017, The Mayers Ensemble (UK) and West Yorkshire Playhouse present  WHAT IF I TOLD YOU Theatre/dance crossover explores personal boundaries and histories, directed by multi Fringe First winner Chris Goode Fringe first-timer Pauline Mayers is used to people making assumptions about her based on her gender, background and skin colour; it’s been happening all of her life. But she’s defied those expectations at every turn, tearing up the narrative that society tried to impose on her. Last year Pauline hit a crisis point. Perhaps not that unusual for a woman in her mid 40s, but a pretty big deal when it happens to you. She didn't know where her life was taking her, had no sense of where she’d come from. She was at a crossroads but couldn’t see where the routes led. So she looked back thorough her life and thought about how her experiences may relate to others. Listings informationVenue: Army@The Fringe in association with Summerhall, Venue 210   Dates: 11-26 Aug (not 14, 21) Time: 17.00 (60 mins + 60 mins Koan: What If You Told Us) Tickets: £12, £10 (preview 11 Aug £8, £6)    

Venue Box Office: 0131 560 1581  www.summerhall.co.uk 

What was the inspiration for this performance?

There wasn’t a point of inspiration. Actually, around the time of making the show, I hit a moment of great uncertainty and apathy. Although I’ve been involved in the arts for many years, as a dancer and choreographer for dance and theatre companies across the UK, I felt I had nothing to show for it. I was unemployed, hitting my forties and I literally didn’t know where my life was going. The constant feast and famine nature of what I was doing had finally taken its toll and I wanted out. I was also tired of the way people appeared to judge me and what I do based seemingly on my appearance rather than my experience or talent.

Being a highly trained professional performance maker with over 25 years of experience who happens to be a woman with black skin, I felt, more often than not, that I was seen as someone who followed others rather than a person more than capable of leading a team of artists to create shows for both the public and fellow peers alike.

I initially trained as a dancer at the Rambert School in London, taught at the Royal Ballet School, danced for several high profile dance companies, created whole dance shows in community outreach programmes, taught and ran my own dance and theatre residencies, danced internationally, I could go on. Yet somehow the idea of me being a choreographer and theatre maker wasn’t quite believed.

This has been the case throughout my entire career. In fact, when I first expressed the thought of being a dancer at the age of thirteen, my school teachers sought to dissuade me from doing so saying that the profession wasn’t for me and instead sought to encourage me to be a secretary instead - which I ignored!

Looking back over my time in the arts, I realised I was spending a lot of my time having to explain and defend who I am and what I do and although my work was very much in the public arena, somehow I wasn’t. I was tired of having to seemingly justify my very existence in the performance arts world. So, I decided to retrain as a counsellor.

I took an introduction to counselling course with the intention of completing my training within five years. What If I Told You (WIITY) is a way of expressing my frustrations at being judged by my appearance. I feel judgments are being made subconsciously all the time and it’s causing nothing but fear and anger across the UK and has done across the decades. But the question is, where has this idea of judgement based on skin colour come from?

WIITY seeks to interrupt this antagonistic way of being by creating time and opening up a space which enables audiences to listen and reflect on why this keeps happening. It was also meant to be my final hurrah, a way of saying goodbye to the arts world, and leave with some sort of legacy to say I was here and I contributed.

However, since it’s initial conception, it’s become like my calling card, a stated intention that I will continue to make work as the Mayers Ensemble. It’s become a reminder that there will be high and lows and that is just the nature of the arts. What I must do is to focus on the work I want to make. Ultimately, the arts is literally in my DNA, I can’t help but to continue.

Is performance still a good space for the public discussion of ideas? 

Absolutely! Until technology came along, public discussion was exactly how human beings exchanged ideas.

The Silk Road, a main trading route from the African continent through to China and Japan was also where ideas of art, culture, religion and spirituality, maths and language were being exchanged through public discussions. This way of introducing and interrogating ideas has been slowly eroded over the centuries.

What performance can do is introduce its audience to different ways of thinking, creating both time and a space to reflect and, if encouraged, to discuss what people may be thinking or feeling in response to what they have seen. Having some counselling skills and knowing that some of the content of the show is harrowing and uncomfortable, What If I Told You has a second half called Koan which is a Japanese word with one definition being “public thought” and it’s exactly that. Led by the brilliant poet and activist Khadijah Ibrahiim, it’s a space where the audience has the opportunity to discuss some of the themes of the show in a safe space, where what happens in the room stays in the room and won’t be expressed elsewhere.

How did you become interested in making performance?

I’m intrigued by hearing voices and seeing stories that I wouldn’t usually see or hear. I’m interested in giving voice to those who may not otherwise be heard. My own struggles of making myself heard has led me to give space to others who may be experiencing similar things. A lot of my earlier collaborations gave voice to exactly these kinds of stories.

For example, ‘Promised Land’ with Red Ladder Theatre was the story of Leeds and its football club told through the eyes of the Jewish community, ‘Burmantoft Stories, an outdoor, site specific show I directed for the West Yorkshire Playhouse, asked audiences see the vibrancy and beauty of the Burmantofts area of Leeds by shining a light on the stories of the talented individuals who live in the community. Burmantofts had been dismissed as an area of high crime and unemployment when in fact it was no different to any other inner city area. Indeed Hackney, where I’m from was also seen as such and that demonisation can have a demoralising effect on the communities that live and work there. It’s the unveiling of different ways of expressing the human condition that I’m curious about.

Is there any particular approach to the making of the show?

To be honest, the only approach I took was to enable audiences to walk with me in my world, to feel a little of the everyday struggle I have to contend with, and to finally own my story and express it in the way I want to express it.

Does the show fit with your usual productions?

Not at all. In fact it’s a major departure from anything I’ve done before. WIITY is conceptualised, written and performed by me. It’s the first time I’ve written a solo show and I worked with theatre maker Chris Goode as director, someone I both trust wholeheartedly and enjoy making work with.

I joined Chris Goode and Company as a collaborator initially and we’ve worked together on many projects over the years. It’s also the first time I’ve used performance to find the intersection between theatre and dance, and how to interact with face to face with audiences.

What do you hope that the audience will experience?

I hope audiences will experience something they will never forget. And I hope my show is a catalyst for a small shift in how people think about skin colour prejudice and that they begin to be open to seeing skin colour prejudice as a ideology that should remain in the past.

What strategies did you consider towards shaping this audience experience?

The only strategy I considered was to enable the audience to feel some of what I’ve felt, to spend some time in my shoes.

What if I Told You is Pauline’s way of telling her (his)tory as a black woman, a dancer and choreographer. It’s a story of universal truths and contradictions that we can all relate to. She invites her audience to spend an hour playing together to challenge boundaries, personal histories, gender and skin colour, carefully balancing dance and theatre and dispensing with traditional barriers between performer and audiences.Along the way the story of James Sims, cited by some as the ‘father of modern gynaecology’, weaves through Pauline’s own. Sims bought then operated on, black female slaves, without anaesthetic, believing that black bodies didn’t suffer pain in the way white bodies do. Many of Sims’ methods and discoveries are still used today.‘A thought-provoking and powerful piece of work’ The Culture VultureIn the second part of the show, Koan: What If You Told Us the audience is invited by poet, playwright and activist Khadijah Ibrahiim to share thoughts and ideas inspired by the show.What If I Told You is written and performed by Pauline Mayers and directed by Chris Goode. It was developed at West Yorkshire Playhouse and is a co-production by The Mayers Ensemble and West Yorkshire Playhouse.The show is performed at Summerhall’s newest space, The Army Reserve Centre on East Claremont Street EH7 4HU. Pauline Mayers trained at the Rambert School and is a theatremaker, choreographer and dancer. She has performed in contemporary dance companies and taught choreographers across the UK and internationally including Janet Smith & Dancers, Diversions Dance, Phoenix Dance Company and The Ensemble Group. She has also worked with theatre companies such as Tell Tale Hearts and Red Ladder.Chris Goode is a writer, director and performer described as ‘one of the most exciting talents working in Britain today’ (Guardian). His work includes four Fringe First award- winning shows: Neutrino (with Unlimited Theatre), Kiss of Life, Monkey Bars (Traverse) and Men in the Cities (Royal Court and Traverse).

Venue: Army@The Fringe in association with Summerhall, Venue 210   

Dates: 11-26 Aug (not 14, 21)

Time: 17.00 (60 mins + 60 mins Koan: What If You Told Us)

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[lsesu]

A working class conversation: A general discussion addressing class issues at university, within students union's and intersectionality from Busayo Twins

As you may know, one of my priorities this year was to shed light on the experiences students from low socio-economic backgrounds face during their time at a Russell Group university such as LSE. 

Although there hasn’t been enough open dialogue on the matter it is unfortunate that the wider political debates on this topic have managed to tarnish the appeal for further exploration. Unique to Higher Education and more specifically Russell Group universities there tends to be an outright denial that vestiges of one's socio-economic (dis)advantage can exist or persist once you’ve accepted your place at a prestigious university. It has often been suggested that by virtue of being at university the concurrent issues faced by a demographic are suddenly cancelled as they instantly reap the benefits of Higher Education in its totality. Such hazardous assumptions can be innocent but still all the more dangerous. Not understanding the experience of working class students is one thing but to put your own assumptions about them above legitimizing their own concerns about their own welfare is quite insensitive. To me, it’s very interesting that despite the government recognizing the prevalence of socio-economic disadvantage (through university Access Agreements etc.) on campus some students would still opt to refute these claims. Whether there is an outright rejection or an attempt to undermine the complaints made by those in question, the very fact that class is a protected characteristic yet receives no student representation [i.e. SU Executive committees] at LSE or only several elsewhere is very alarming. Furthermore, given that the more privileged students will not lose out by introducing a class related or social mobility officer, there must be some sort of unconscious prejudice active here. 

It is understandable that  because low income students are often a minority at certain universities that naturally the issues they raise may overshadowed by other issues, they may not be taken as seriously or there may not be effective channels for them to voice their concerns. Many of their peers may not even be aware that university can be an alienating place for them and so for these reasons it may be helpful to briefly walk you through some of the issues at hand.  In regard to LSE and other Russell Group universities, the least their respective students’ unions (SU) could do is to ensure that they have an elected student officer whose primary remit it is to tackle elitism and represent the interests of low-socio economic/working class students. The universities themselves have often failed and continue to overlook the experiences of the aforementioned and seem not to care about changing things institutionally. I doubt these universities even care that they miss out on talented and overqualified applications just because they are known for their overbearing elitist and expensive environments. Until things change at the top, Students’ Unions must be proactive in putting these things on their university’s agenda whilst ensuring that working class students have a seat at the table i.e. represented by a committed student officer. This should go beyond Students’ Unions (at some point) and be part of greater national student movements.

Let’s continue…

The C word

*Many non-white communities in Britain do not refer to themselves as working-class but recognize that their socio-economic background reflects this term. This does not mean that non-white communities reject the sentiment but culturally they do use it for reference* 

Most of the time one cannot talk about class without people rendering the term obsolete or ineffective. Using the ‘C’ word makes you some sort of a neo-Marxist, where somehow all your claims of a working class identity falls victim to the weaknesses of communism debate. The concept of social capital also makes class a grey area, especially at university because social capital is supposed to counteract, or at least mitigate, the entire burden of your income or neighbourhood grouping. 

At university because the UK is an advocate for capitalism it has affected the way we are even taught economics. Capitalism normally acts to celebrate the individual and removes the sense of community economics and experiences. Again, the exploration of a class impact is pigeon-holed into Marxist theory and so is rarely revisited in 'mainstream' economic thought and so the case for class is left behind. 

In addition, society buys into the idea that upward mobility is the primary aspiration of all and so as long as you are on an upward trajectory (i.e. at a top university) little attention should be given to immaterial wellbeing, community and non-financial consequences. It is true that those from disadvantaged backgrounds would like to be relieved from societal and gov't policy burdens however their reasons for applying to university can range from 'seeing the world' to further pursuing their interest in learning and contributing to intellectual debates. But with additional pressures from outside and within university, the learning environment becomes less inspirational and more daunting, more stressful and sometimes for of an opportunity cost i.e. risk.

‘Catching up’ becomes your reality instead of excelling and outperforming your better equipped peers. Although everyone finds university challenging, it is obvious that pre-university gaps and the differences between people's experiences can become more prominent. There is opportunity to try and understand each other, and provide help where needed but when voices are being muffled by status quo elitism; campuses become a breeding ground for micro aggressions. Even students who keep to themselves or are drawn to those with similar life experiences, you do question whether it is really, entirely out of choice or subtle campus conscription. 

P.S. Interestingly as exhausting as it is trying to validate the working-class concept, there seems to more of a 'silent' agreement of what it means to be 'middle-class' despite it being so loosely defined. Again, this shows that how the working-class name is less appealing (for many reasons) and how the middle-class category is often a glorified benchmark in UK society. 

There's not just one working class experience. Intersections exist.

There will be students from low socio- economic backgrounds who don’t necessarily feel victimised by elitism. They may reflect on the opportunities they utilised to their advantage and encourage others to ‘work hard and reap the benefits’. This is a valid point and very logical. However, something I will touch on next in greater depth is, not all experiences are the same nor are all opportunities open to everyone. The issues facing low socio economic students are layered.

Remember the word ‘intersectionality’? Different genders, classes and races (the list goes on) have different experiences with structures and institutions, and because someone’s identity can encompass more than one of these social categorisations it is no wonder why people from the same social groupings can have varying experiences. More obvious to us, is that people are generally just different. They will have different views despite having similar experiences. This is a more scientific argument but for now we can accept that - people respond differently to different situations and so no one narrative will perfectly suit anyone. Saying this, there are very general experiences that people from certain groups share despite it being to different degrees. Therefore, when exploring class we should not reject it but understand that because of intersections and social capital, such characteristics are more fluid - evident but fluid. Any attempts to homogenise the ‘working-class’ experience allows critics to treat the nuance between and within classes as a tool to reject the existence of class or generally, disadvantage in the UK. Denying class won’t make it go away but will make it more difficult to understand the nature of the complaints made in its name. Just like in race relations, it is not for those who do not experience institutional racism to determine how much it affects people and whether their points are valid enough. Just as it is not for the heterosexual to validate homosexuality. There is an element of narcissism and privilege attached to those who use their own experience to dominate a discussion or enter a conversation without an open mind. Do we really enter discussions about class to understand it or to point holes wherever an opportunity arises?

Let’s return back to intersectionality where class is one of the categories highlighted alongside race and gender. Intersectional feminism is a movement that appears to have really taken off on university campuses in the past three or four years; with many arguing that it is the correct feminism not a sub branch of it. So, I wonder if class is taken as seriously as intersectionality claims it to be. Race is an extremely sensitive subject, not least because of the historical acts of genocide committed against groups of people which has evolved into present day oppression, discrimination and persecution.  There are people who believe that racism no longer exists or isn’t as prevalent in the UK as they look towards the chaotic American society. There will be those non-White people in the UK who even support these claims but it is much more difficult to deny racism when you’re a low socio economic non-white person living in an inner-city neighbourhood, that is always subject to police interrogation; or if you are a child of a professional or even an immigrant who constantly has to hear their parent complain of office micro-aggressions, lack of promotion or racist insults.

You may be neither, some or all. The idea is that your socio-economic background shapes the way you experience and view life. Race wouldn't be the complete story, nor would gender, nor would sexuality and nor would age

Furthermore, if you are the only non-white girl in your class trying to explain how feminist debates focused solely on the gender-pay gap of Forbes listed CEOs are very 'privileged' conversations people may not understand your angle. They may interpret this as not understanding feminism rather than putting it into perspective and widening the debate. In addition, you may be someone who appreciates the sentiment behind veganism but can't afford such a diet when you have to save pennies for the electricity or gas key. Again, lack of participation in this movement should not be seen as disinterest in the environment or ignorance. There’s a class or socio-economic narrative that isn’t always given appropriate or contextual consideration. We are all living contexts and we cannot be separated from them or their contributions erased. People should not prioritize the impact of identities but respect that all social categorizations have the potential to impact an individual’s experience in very powerful ways. It is better for us, as students and as people, to allow each other to bring our different identities to the table, not to compete but to appreciate the different narratives at play. Let people advocate for themselves whilst others provide a welcoming and open minded environment to facilitate understanding and progress.

For example...

So what exactly are these complaints? What are these experiences? Well, they vary by and large and affect some others more than the rest. The experience of one person will not necessarily be that of others yet no one experience is less important than another. Some people face more than one ‘disadvantage’ and so measuring the impact of class becomes so vital but so difficult. However, there can be no doubt that your socio-economic background plays a key role in any experience and so the inability to accurately measure it should not take precedence over acknowledging its effects. 

Below are just some of the experiences and obstacles students from low socio-economic backgrounds face at university:

1.     General ill-preparedness for the transition (often from a state school) to an elite university

2.     Unfamiliar teaching styles and methods 

3.     Contributions made in class undermined by more privileged experiences, opinions discredited or can't relate to text

4.     Unfamiliar with services and resources at their disposal or reluctant to ask for help to avoid appearing useless

5.     Teachers that don't understand background pressures that can affect academic performance 

6.     Feelings of inadequacy and academic inferiority 

7.     Peers mocking their accent or style of speech (i.e. colloquial, slang, Non-London accent etc.)

8.     Financial hardship 

9.     General social isolation and exclusion

10.   Anxiety

11.   Depression

12.   Stress 

13.   Lack of representation within the higher echelons of the university or students' union 

14.   Over exposure to (harmful) gov't education policies without committed university staff protecting their interests/welfare 

15.   Lack of access, support or networks to enter or explore key industries of interest

16.   General disregard for how class/socio-economic background intersects with their other identities i.e. race, gender, age, disability etc. 

17.   Lack of dialogue about class and the impact of one’s socio-economic background on their university experience

There will be many more issues that I haven't mentioned, many more experiences and probably many more areas to explore. I just wanted to produce an almost 'introduction to the working-class debate and experience' for those who may not understand or would have been sceptical previously. 

I hope that you all read the blogs put forward by students at the LSE to gain insight into their experiences.

Thank you.

Busayo Twins

General Secretary of London School of Economics (LSE) Students’ Union