Skip to main content

Day: 1 March 2016

Swastika defaces Manchester Exec candidate’s banner

Written by Marcus Johns on . Posted in News, Opinion.

A candidate in the University of Manchester Students’ Union Exec Officer elections has had campaign materials defaced with a swastika.

The candidate previously found one of their posters spoiled with “Shut Up” written on it, whilst others have been torn down. Two further banners were torn down and have also gone missing, with the candidate unable to find or recover them.

The swastika drawn in green ink appeared over the weekend. It was drawn onto a banner hanging on the outside of the Students’ Union’s Steve Biko building facing Oxford Road and the Manchester Universities and RNCM Catholic Chaplaincy building.

The banner was removed on Sunday night by Students’ Union staff.

The candidate told The Mancunion: “Students have resorted to vandalism and sabotage to express their dissent, which is completely wrong.

“I find it very unsettling that someone would feel it is acceptable to graffiti the Nazi swastika on a candidate’s campaign material. Ultimately, it’s an act of vandalism and libellous.”

Women in Media Conference

Written by Jennifer Sterne on . Posted in Lifestyle.

I recently asked a group of Year 9 students what their dream job would be; one responded “a journalist, but I won’t ever be one because my dad’s told me that journalism is just for men.” This unfortunately was not a shocking statement to hear. Far too often girls accept claims that some careers are “not for women” or at least not easily so, so think that it’s not worth the effort.

This was one of the driving forces behind the conception of the Women in Media Conference, a conference aimed at empowering women’s confidence in themselves and their ability to enter into their career, by hearing from the inspirational women who have created successful careers within the media.

In order to believe in their own possibilities, women and more importantly young girls need to have role models to model their own aspirations on. This was made far too clear by what 11-year-old Destiny told some Women in Media organisers: “I don’t want to go to university because there aren’t any famous women who have done that.”

Young girls can be easily convinced of the belief that journalism is just for men, as sadly it is a belief backed up by evidence. With only two female editors of national dailies in the country and no female heads of broadcast companies, to say it is a career “just for men” is not a huge jump to make.

This belief shouldn’t be so easily justified and that is what makes the Women in Media Conference such an important event. The conference was started by a group of women working within student media who, unfortunately, noticed the national trends of gender imbalance at a student level.

When first proposed it seemed liked a nice idea, but few of us thought it would take off quite like it has. In the first meeting we discussed perhaps getting a few local journalists down to the Students’ Union to talk to people working within our Manchester Media Group. But the conference has received previously unimaginable amounts of attention from speakers and students alike. Within the week, we will have students from across the country arrive at the Anthony Burgess centre to hear from women who are coming from as far away as Hawaii.

What’s more, the conference has managed to attract some of the biggest names in the industry, including Louise Court from Hearst Magazines; Helen Pidd, North of England Editor of The Guardian; Jane Bradley, Investigations Correspondent at Buzzfeed; Fran Yeoman, the Assistant Editor of the i; Shelley Alexander, Editorial Lead on women’s sport at the BBC; and Sam Walker, BBC 5 Live Presenter. With new people being added to the timetable all the time, the conference is set to be a weekend-long celebration of some of the most inspirational women within the media, a clear reflection that a career in this field most certainly isn’t restricted to men.

The weekend’s events will consist of three exciting panel discussions on: the rise of females’ influence in the media, invaluable knowledge that the speakers wish they’d known at the start of their careers, and feminism in the fashion industry. Alongside these discussions, there will be keynote speeches from Shelley Alexander and Louise Court. Students will also be able to take part in the various workshops on offer, including freelance journalism, commercial media, and how to play to and be proud of your strengths.

Ultimately, the conference aims to highlight that there are a plethora of successful females within the industry, and that equality within the industry is becoming ever closer. Until more women believe they can and will reach these positions of power, there will never be lasting change.

Hopefully the Women in Media Conference will be a step in the right direction direction, but it is just one step. We hope that its legacy is long-lasting, so that in our future as student journalists, and the futures of countless young girls around the world, gender never acts as a barrier to our aspirations.

Tickets for the Women In Media Conference are available to all—regardless of gender or student status. A weekend ticket costs £11, a day ticket £5, and a ticket for Friday evening’s live music & networking event is £3.

Top Five: Female innovators in the fashion industry

Written by Talia Lee-Skudder on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

1) Anna Wintour 

It is impossible to write about the most influential women in fashion and not mention the editor-in-chief of American Vogue. Known for her iconic look and chilly demeanor, Wintour is a force to be reckoned with. Her 28-year reign as editor has seen her transform and reinvigorate Vogue into the powerhouse that we know and love today. It was Wintour who made the creative decision to feature celebrities on the cover, thus marking an end to the era of the supermodel. Wintour is also an avid advocate of new talent and, alongside the Council of Fashion Designers of America, has helped to create a new fund to support rising designers. In 2009, Wintour launched ‘Fashion’s Night Out’ which allows for the general public to shop and socialise with major personalities in the fashion sphere. Wintour had a vision for Vogue that encapsulated the essence of the modern day woman and this has assured the longevity of the most influential fashion magazine.

Photo: nadiathinks@ Flickr

2) Natalie Massenet

Perhaps not as widely recognised as Anna Wintour, Natalie Massenet is and continues to be an incredibly influential voice in the fashion industry. A journalist-turned fashion entrepreneur, Massenet is the mastermind behind the online shopping website Net-a-Porter and its sister site The Outnet. Styled in a magazine format, the website is the one stop shop for designer fashion online. Massenet is a modern genius in the fashion industry, she made designer clothes accessible to people all over the world and in doing so took fashion into the technological era and potentially a lot of women into debt. In 2013, Massenet took over the role of chairman at the British Fashion Council.

3) Victoria Beckham

What makes Victoria Beckham one of the most influential women in fashion is her transformation from a nineties popstar to noughties WAG and finally to a bona fide fashion designer. Long gone are the days of ‘Viva Forever’, this Spice Girl is now a style icon and Vogue cover girl who has taken the fashion world by storm. Launching her own line in 2009, Beckham’s label has gone from strength to strength with her classic designs being admired by celebrities and high fashion magazine editors alike. It is only now that she is a fully-fledged style icon that she can be forgiven for some of the questionable outfit choices of the late nineties and early noughties. That said, any woman who can persuade David Beckham to wear a sarong should be applauded for exceptional persuasive skills. It seems that, in fashion, Victoria Beckham has finally found her true calling.

Photo: Jakkrit Nooklaew@ Flickr

4) Naomi Campbell

One of the five original supermodels, Naomi Campbell has been ever-present in the modeling circle since the age of 15. She has adorned the covers of numerous fashion magazines and featured in many high-end campaigns. However, she is also notorious for her fiery temper and diva ways, which have landed her in court on many occasions. In 2008, she had to undertake 200 hours of community service for kicking and spitting at police after having a tantrum on an air plane at Heathrow… not quite the height of sophistication that has been synonymous with the other influential women who have been mentioned. Despite being a huge diva, verbally abusive and at times probably quite frightening, Campbell has also had a positive impact in the fashion industry. She was the first black model to appear on the cover of TIME magazine, Russian and French Vogue and the first British black model to feature on the cover of British Vogue. Campbell is also a passionate charity worker and has worked with Nelson Mandela. In 2005, she set up ‘Fashion for Relief’: A charity fashion show that raises funds for victims who have been affected by disasters or disease. Whilst Campbell’s behaviour is not always admirable, her influence in the industry is undeniable. Not only did she pave the way for subsequent black models, but she has also used her platform as a model to encourage charitable activism.

Photo: thecoincidentaldndy@ Flickr

5) Charlotte Tilbury

Charlotte Tilbury represents yet another aspect of the industry. Starting her career as a world-class make-up artist, Tilbury was a regular behind the scenes at fashion week and gained an elite celebrity following. In 2013, she launched her own make-up range and since then her popularity has boomed. No longer is her work reserved only for celebrities, her products are now a staple in the everyday woman’s make-up bag. Alongside her strong 100-product range, Tilbury also produces online tutorials to educate her customers on how to achieve the sexy smoky eye of the Dolce Vita palette or the Rock Chick look, inspired by her close friend and top model, Kate Moss. There is no doubt that Tilbury’s make-up range will continue to flourish in the future, leaving many of us make-up lovers lusting after her fabulous products.

Photo: PBunnieP@ Flickr

 

High-Fashion Hypocrisy

Written by Sophie Soar on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

Despite its roots in the late 19th century, the modeling industry began to form into what it is today in the 1950s. Fresh-faced and beautifully sensual women, such as the bee-hived Brigitte Bardot, draped in nautical stripes with a lick of eyeliner, sprung to celebrity. Soon followed brand names such as Twiggy, Joanna Lumley and Jean Shrimpton. These multi-talented beauties fast became permeated within the creative world: musicians fell at their feet; their bodies became artwork and muses to photographers; they snapped up acting roles, from Twiggy’s cameo part in The Blues Brothers, to Lumley’s iconic Patsy Stone in Absolutely Fabulous.

Inevitably, with their success and praise came scepticism and aloof uncertainty; the employment of women to promote products was still a foreign concept, and perhaps rightfully so when the job sidelines an individual’s personality to promote a product. Despite these powerful names and fierce characteristics, they were primarily and predominantly applauded for their appearance and figure.

In the 1970s, out crept curvaceous Californian creatures who fast established the supermodel standard. With this new hierarchy came the competitive side, and the career of the elite few rapidly developed as the Eighties fast approached: pay checks volumised in correlation with the hair and its collection of icons. Linda Evangelista famously said ‘I don’t get out of bed for less that $10,000 a day’, placing a price on beauty and cultivating girls’ aspirations to a career based on objectification and voyeurism.

The early Nineties fell upon the fashion industry, bringing with it grunge and denim, platforms and plaid, Naomi and Kate. The two brought with them a revolution in the fashion industry and weight fell off the runway almost overnight. Moss’s stick-like figure and angular features were coined as ‘heroine chic’ and modeling became less associated with the powerful, healthy woman and more with drug taking and the emaciated form.

By the end of the Nineties, the grunge, heroine chic had passed, but the demand for skinny sex appeal resided, unsatisfied, along with the ever-increasing paychecks. Recently retired Gisele Bündchen remains the highest paid model to date: from September 2012 to September 2013, Gisele earned around $42 million, whilst her male counterpart in status earned an estimate of $1.5 million. The industry has changed immensely since its infancy, but the female dominance in the industry retains a strong hold.

Alien, emaciated, prepubescent, the industry today tells a very different story to its establishment in the late Fifties. The current casting requirements immensely contrast the soft-edged cover girls of the decades before, and weight regulations remain a dirty, whispered echo in the casting room.

The industry is not a healthy one, with overt sexualisation of the teenage form, rife inequality between male and female pay, and a morbid obsession with weight. The image of the model has led us to disregard the anonymous majority as clothes hangers, while the leaders firmly dominate.

Despite this, we still love our favourite models and follow them religiously on social media. As a result of their cult following, they use their Internet personalities as a means of promoting the ideological lifestyles more closely associated with their predecessors of the Fifties; perhaps indicative of the industry heading in a full 360. Their status is cleverly manipulated by the industry to speak to the masses, but therein also lies hope still for equality; it fuels optimism for the next generation of models and their powerful input on society.

Treasure Trove

Written by Elena Gibbs on . Posted in Food & Drink.

Levenshulme.

Where?

Let me consult my coffee-stained map, my crumpled set of clues to find the stash of risen loaves, chunky jam preserves and malty sourdough crusts.

X marks the spot halfway between Stockport and Manchester city centre, a 15 minute train ride or an exhilarating 20 minute cycle.

Amongst a narrow high street filled with daytime traffic and open shop displays with an abundance of plastic goods lies the little white box filled with stools and tables, counter and kitchen.

This modest little box is rather like Pandora’s; its relatively small appearance bears no match to its ability to stock the majority of Manchester with artisan bread. It is a gold mine of molasses and apple bloomers, rosemary polenta bakes, and floury croissant knots. Where Pandora’s box opens to reveal a world evil, the wooden door of Trove pumps the air with the irresistible smell of Britain’s staple carbohydrate, the same food that was used to feed the five thousand in Matthew 14:13-21, the food that every bread appreciating non-coeliac in Manchester ought to have tried.

Any Manchester foodie reading this will no doubt be familiar with the omnipresent menu tag ‘supplied by Trove’. Common Bar, Takk, Fig & Sparrow, and 8th Day Co-op are just a few of its proud pioneers.

But as for the source itself, could it match up to memories of that first bite of oil-brushed sourdough on the pan-fried chorizo, shrimp and avocado sandwich a la Common, or the taste of the diced wholemeal boule dipped in olive and balsamic on a friend’s balcony in summer? Trove did not disappoint.

A bustling Sunday proved the patience of the staff as I unintentionally arrived half an hour late (due to unforeseen bike circumstances) to the lunch date. Despite an unwavering supply of potential new custom, my comrade managed to anchor the table with a strong black coffee.

Food arrived in 15 minutes in three variations: eggs benedict, salmon and scrambled, and parsnip hummus with shitake mushrooms on rye and fennel. Bread is the focal point here, but gluten-freers needn’t panic as daily specials, salads, soups and vegan breakfasts are also available.

I like baked bread and I cannot lie. Photo: The Mancunion

The hummus on my sandwich was top-notch, very parsnipy. I devoured it whilst placing order number two of a cardamom 83% salted dark hot chocolate creamed with almond milk. Our server warned that this was not the done thing, and couldn’t promise it would work. But oh, did it work.

We stayed at Trove for two hours, basking in the low bulb lighting and heady fumes of yeast and caffeine. An earl grey and prune scone, lavishly accompanied by the liquid form of the first ingredient, kept us happily floating ashore as the rest of the customers sailed away.

‘Dursley you great prune’. Photo: The Mancunion

The bell tolled 4pm, and we knew it was time to move off. With full tanks, we put up our masts to battle the endless Manchester gale, so enchanted by the spell of Trove that we forgot to loot any treasure.

 

Trove

1032 Stockport Rd,

Manchester

M19 3WX

What do we expect of women in modern society?

Written by Perisha Kudhail on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

As the evolution of expectations has shown, women have never had it easy when it comes to looks. From the heroine figure of Twiggy to the big booty of Kim Kardashian, there’s always something that is desired and even expected of us. From looking hot at work to looking smokin’ hot outside work, it seems like an endless wheel of expectation.

It appears that we have become more tolerant of natural beauty, but is natural really what we think? The last time I checked, natural beauty didn’t mean a sea of fleek eyebrows and contouring, and it appears that without these make-up tricks, we are not as desirable. Social media has made it possible to trend a new look, resulting in investments of new products and new expectations.

It is slowly becoming clear that the expectations that are placed on women are actually judged by women themselves. If a woman has missed a hair wash day, it won’t go unnoticed. We are our own critics and we constantly compare ourselves to the women around us. If you go out, you’ll scout out who you’re going out with to gauge what to wear. Interestingly, social media has allowed us to become more expressive with how we dress and look, but that doesn’t equate to no judgement. We still hold a certain judgement to women who don’t even fulfil the basics.

The basics have become a lot more than simply having a good skin day. The basics have become hair removal, good skin, good hair, good make up, good outfit, and a spritz of fragrance. With this checklist becoming the basic expectation of women, it makes us wonder if there really is such a thing as a natural woman? With dating apps like Tinder and Pof, where first impressions really do count, it seems that we are expected to get full marks in the basics checklist and even more.

No one expects women to look like movie stars, but there are certain expectations in certain scenarios (even when it comes to celebrities, with their lives being photographed every second of every day). Has the standard expected of normal women increased? Social media allows us to check out celebrities’ looks and even replicate them, but it seems that we still advocate a more natural look (we just need make-up to achieve it).

Fashion and fluidity

Written by Rebecca Thomas on . Posted in Fashion & Beauty.

Nowadays, there is a growing consensus that having two distinct gender camps, ‘male’ versus ‘female’, is a bit silly, really: The yin-yang model is gradually being replaced by a rainbow variance, and it is increasingly acceptable to wear what speaks to you without worrying which section of the shop it appears in. Fashion is one way in which this antiquated binary thinking has been performed, but there have been times in which the difference between men’s and women’s fashion has been less obvious, and when trends we would recognise today as being the preserve of one, were reversed.

Contemporary fashion is understood to have started around the 1300s, and was solely for men; paintings from the time only depict men’s fashion, reflecting the gender hierarchy and the importance of showcasing wealth. The ideal shape was an inverted triangle, with voluminous upper body and slender legs, covered in ornate buttons and detailing.

Ornamentation and fashion gradually crossed genders, and signs of wealth, such as the fur tippet scarf of the 1600s, were adopted from men by noblewomen. Fashion was for the rich, and men and women wore clothes that referenced one another, with heavy ruff collars and lace, while various political fluxes determined how flamboyant, or conservative, fashion displays were.

Make-up was also worn by both men and women throughout history, with the aligned desire for pale skin, which they achieved with white lead paint. In the 1770s, young men would go on their ‘grand tour’ of Europe, and were hugely concerned with their appearances; their wigs mirrored those of aristocratic women and they carried effeminate handbags, which were later carried by women.

Heels were initially worn by men, with a noblewoman, Catherine de Medici being the first woman to wear them, in the 1530s, to compensate for her short height. Louis XIV, the King of France, in the late 1600s, was renowned for wearing intricate heels, with the fashion for heels worn by both men and women vanishing upon the onset of the World Wars.

The big rise in the divergence of male and female fashion came in the early 1800s with the rise of the ‘gentleman’: men dressed in practical wear to compete in sports, and the flamboyance of previous centuries was rejected. It wasn’t until the beginning of the 1900s that the practical wardrobe began to be worn by women, brought about by women’s suffrage movement and the beginning of World War 1. Important icons such as Coco Chanel and Marlene Dietrich contributed to the acceptance of women in masculine dress, such as trouser suits.

Today’s increasing liberation from gender-rules grew across the last century, with gender-bending icons like David Bowie to thank. The emergence of gender-neutral catwalks and Vivienne Westwood’s recent gender-neutral campaign, show just how far fashion has progressed in the last century.