Unearth

Grater Expectations

Issue 6 - Spring 2021 cheesegratermagazine.org

Map to Becoming A Feminist Unsex Me Here: Stripping Gender from Language.......................4 Unstoppable.................................................................................7 So It Goes.....................................................................................9 Breaking the Glass Ceiling...........................................................10 The Waves vs. the Sea...................................................................11 On the Front Line: Women and the Climate Crisis......................12 Unearthing Your Truth: Astrology Edition...................................14 the task of the translator..............................................................16 excavation....................................................................................16 You’re Just Digging Youself Into A Hole, Mate.............................17 Tinder Woes.................................................................................19 Book Review: The Perfect Nine....................................................20 The Beginning of Everything.......................................................22 Sustainable Tampons Don’t Sit Right With Me. Period................24 Grater Recommendations............................................................26 To Do...........................................................................................27 Letter from the Editors................................................................28

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unearth (v.)

1. to dig up out of the earth 2. to bring to light; to discover

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Unsex Me Here: Stripping Gender from Language

by Sophia Robinson It’s a Saturday evening in lockdown, and you suddenly find yourself lost in the depths of YouTube, watching a video of Ben Shapiro angrily assert that NEVER have the pronouns ‘they/them’ been used as singular gender-neutral pronouns in the HISTORY of the English Language. As an English Literature student who has had to suffer through literary works ranging from Chaucer to Beckett, you, of course, know that is nonsense. Then you begin to ponder: does the language we speak and does our linguistic experience inform our perception of gender and gender identity?

Being bilingual, I have recently tried to reconcile my linguistic and cultural experiences as a speaker of a gendered and non-gendered language. One of my languages, Russian, is heavily gendered—there are three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine and neuter. This grammatical gendering also extends to social gendering—I think, most heavily reinforced by the fact that adjectives and verbs inflect for gender in Russian, and so self-reference becomes deeply gendered. My other language, English, mainly has no grammatical gender (although Old English did)—it does not group nouns into masculine and feminine, nor do English verbs or adjectives inflect for gender. However, we do have gendered pronouns: he and she.

So whilst grammatically English is largely gender-neutral, it does have social gendering.

I spent almost 17 years of my life living in Russia and thus was constantly surrounded by the deep linguistic gendering. Reflecting on it now, I recognise that I instinctively attribute gender to everything around me: the table is masculine, the lamp is feminine, the window is neuter. If I must allocate everything to a gender, then I must also allocate myself and others to a gender. As a cisgender woman, this posed no issue to my personal gender identity: I am a woman, so I am classed into the linguistically feminine. I found it easy to understand gender so long as it fit into the binary—I never struggled to use proper pronouns for transgender people, nor to accept wholly and without debate their gender identity. But I did struggle to fully understand the concept of being ‘non-binary’. I respect it, I don’t question its validity as a gender identity, but I struggled to empathise with the experience.

My language is so deeply gendered on the binary, that my brain struggles to compute anything outside of that.

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So does language have that profound of an effect on our understanding of gender? Or is this just a convenient excuse for people who don’t want to respect gender identity (ahem Ben Shapiro ahem)? Language determinism is a theory that suggests that our cultural and personal experiences are deeply and inextricably affected by the language we speak. And with everything I’ve explained so far, it would seem to be a fair assessment. But bilingualism may pose a problem for language determinism. Whilst my Russianness clearly impacted my understanding of gender socially, it has to somehow fit in with my linguistic Englishness.

I have spent my entire adult life thus far in the UK, speaking predominantly English, and therefore English is my main mode of expression and self-reference.

Am I more willing to accept and be open-minded towards various gender identities and expressions, even if they fall outside of the binary, because of my Englishness?

Truth be told, I don’t know. In many ways, language is deeply connected to culture—our cultural experience is expressed not only through the physical such as food, dance, and music but also through language. Storytelling, for example, is a fundamental element of every culture, and of course, expressed through language. Every culture has its fairytales, myths, and folklore, passed down from generation to generation through the act of storytelling, through language. So when it comes to language determinism, or even the bilingual problem, you cannot solve it by just considering language. I am who I am, and I understand and experience the world as it is not just because of the languages I speak, but because of the cultures of which I am a part.

Gender expression, mainly through pronouns in English, and through verb and adjective inflections in Russian, is social—we express genders because they represent our part of society. In Gender Trouble, Judith Butler theorises that gender is performative, and it should follow that pronouns as a form of gender expression are also performative, right? You act as a woman, you perform womanhood, and so you refer to yourself as such and the world (ideally) refers to you as such. The same goes for any other gender expression.

Not only is gender performative, but language is kind of inherently meaningless. Words only mean something because we decide they do. ‘She’ only refers to a woman because we collectively agreed on it and ‘he’ only refers to a man for the same reason. So when people shout “‘THEY’ IS A PLURAL PRONOUN”, they ignore the fact that language is a social

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construct with no intrinsic meaning beyond its societal context. So ‘they’ is a plural pronoun, and also a singular gender-neutral pronoun, not because it has an inherent, unchangeable meaning, but because we decide that it is. It really is as simple as that. English was gendered and then, through a complex series of historical events, it ended up losing its grammatical gender and only retaining the pronouns. However, as a language, it is just as meaningful as any gendered language. The grammatical genders in Russian mean nothing outside of their grammatical context the moment we acknowledge that language is a construct. Therefore, even though my experience of a gendered language affected my perception of gender, my deconstruction of the significance of language broke down those gender views.

It is difficult to accept something for which we have no language. When we cannot articulate a social experience, we class it as taboo, unnatural and wrong. When we didn’t have adequate language for various members of the LGBTQ+ community, we classed them as the ‘other’— something that exists outside of the norms for which we have developed language. When you’re a Russian speaker who doesn’t have the verb and adjective flexibility to accommodate non-binary people, you reject the whole identity as inarticulable and thus invalid. When you’re an idiot who has no basic understanding of the grammatical functions of they/them pronouns and their historical usage in the English language, you feel vindicated in rejecting the notion of that pronoun as a gender-neutral singular one, and thus vindicated in your rejection of any identity which doesn’t fit your binaries.

But once you remember that we decide what language means and how it is used, that we have the ability to reclaim and transform language, to invent new words, to abandon old ones, you realise that we have the fluidity to express any gender whatsoever. All it takes is simply agreeing on that usage. Lacking language to express a certain identity is not a good enough excuse for rejecting it when that language can be created.

Language only determines who we are as much as we allow it to.

If we change our language to fit the needs of real people, instead of demanding they change to fit our language, we might, perhaps, come closer to living in a better society.

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Unstoppable

by Eleanor Corney

To be a woman is to be beautiful, To be reliant, To be emotional, To see ‘La Vie En Rose’ To be submissive.

To be a woman is to have no confidence, To be prompt, To be strong, To be a pessimist, To be weak.

Expectations, Expectations of femininity are out of reach.

You must be this, you must be that, Don’t be too much of this, though Tone down on that.

“Put some more makeup on, you need to be beautiful!” They say, “Take that makeup off, this is hardly natural.” They taunt, To be a woman is to face constant scrutiny.

I was 7 when I first took the shining blades to my hair.

I was 7 when I was first called ugly, Boyish, Unladylike, Disgusting.

As I cut off my hair, I wiped clean the remnants of my femininity;

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It was no longer something I had to live with, It was something I had to reach, To reach, I laced pink bows in my hair to prove my womanhood.

I had to work; To work twice as hard to be paid half as much, To prove I am worth the praise, To prove and to justify my mere presence in a male-dominated sphere.

Femininity is not a one-size-fits-all approach.

You do not have to fit a description to be a real woman, To be a woman is to be diverse, To break boundaries, To reach new realms, To be loud, To be quiet, To be unique, To be magical, To conform, Or to not conform.

To be a woman is beautiful.

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So It Goes

by Mel Benedichuk, in collaboration with The Writers’ Society “That’s just how it is, no need to get mad. They’ll stop eventually,” Annie said to me as she walked me home from school, a group of guys I never talk to screaming my name as I passed by them. “It’s just school bullshit, you won’t even remember any of that three years from now,” Annie continued. She is at uni, she probably knows things. She knows the nasty kids pass. She knows that acne fades away. She also knows how to fix it with foundation and concealer.

I turned around, but not to look at the laughing faces behind me. I’d punch each and every one of them if I could. I’d etch their names with my very own nails onto the bathroom walls.

I thought that was what they deserved. All, except one. My friend. Keyword: friend. I glanced at him, making eye contact before turning my head quickly around to face the street ahead. I didn’t want to look.

I couldn’t take all these words off me, I couldn’t unglue unwanted eyes off my back, I couldn’t hush those voices. He was only my friend! No, not a date. Why don’t you listen? Not a date, hear me?

Blue. Pink. Purple. Yellow. Blue. Pink. Pants. Skirt. Whatever! Why does it matter? Why does it matter what I see in the mirror if all I’m talking about is a ride in the skatepark, a jam session during lunch break, a short game of basketball played in the schoolyard? Things that friends do—why do you care? Skirt, tights, a cloud of perfume, a little stain of rubbed-off mascara.

Pants, shirt, a budding beard, untied and grass-stained Nike sneakers.

“Guys, guys! Make teams! Girls there, boys here.” And again, I see you looking at me from the other side of the gym. Will there ever come a day when we’ll get to play on the same team?

Same game, same time, just you and just I, no pink and no blue, no locker room talk, and no nasty gossip. Please?

No pink and no blue. I’ll keep digging the ground in the schoolyard, fourth-grade-treasurehunt-style until I unearth the map to the place where you and I will be one. Teammates. No pink and no blue. When high school’s over, I hope you’ll at least still be my friend.

When it is all over, I’ll erase all those boxes I penciled around us in math class inside a notebook whose cover looks like a glitching TV. When it is all over, I’ll erase all these boxes that they drew around us with a finishing ballpoint Bic pen. There is no pink and no blue, or if there is, that’s surely not all there is to it.

Skate park tonight after school? Maybe the screaming school guys won’t be there…

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Breaking the Glass Ceiling

by Deveshi Malhotra

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The Waves vs. The Sea

by Julia Smith, in collaboration with The Writers’ Society

Pestering the sea the waves smashed their heads against the H2O molecules.

Dividing the jarring balloons, They would part them for a bit, And mosaically the waves stood there victorious apropos.

The watery bits red hot rot pointed at them like ghouls And called them hysterics, demonics, toilet rapists, buffoons.

The molecules then would unite ha ha oh, ha ha oh.

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On the Front Line: Women and the Climate Crisis

by Ella Ticktin-Smith

It is widely acknowledged that climate change does not affect everyone equally. As global warming undermines livelihoods and displaces populations worldwide, it is the marginalised groups in society who will feel these changes most acutely. Despite remarkable progress in women’s rights over the last century, the structural inequalities and prejudices faced by women around the world continue to threaten their ability to respond to the impacts of climate change.

As women are particularly vulnerable to poverty, it is easy to see why this might be the case. When extreme weather events like droughts or forest fires strike, it is the poorest communities who find it hardest to recover from the loss of homes, livelihoods and natural resources. In fact, the UN has suggested that up to 80% of climate refugees are women. It goes without saying that those most at risk are women of colour and indigenous women, highlighting how, as ever, gender intersects with issues of race and class.

There are many more reasons why women appear to bear the brunt of climate breakdown. As the primary caretakers in many families, women are often the first to go hungry during times of food shortage, as they sacrifice their own diet to prevent other family members from becoming malnourished. In rural communities, women also shoulder the responsibility of collecting water and energy resources—a task that becomes increasingly time-consuming as climate change makes these resources harder to locate. In many cases, young girls have to miss school in order to source water, while others are forced to drop out of education entirely.

The ways in which climate change exacerbates existing inequalities can be stark.

Crucially, on average, more women die during natural disasters than men. Often, this is because they haven’t been taught how to swim, or they fear leaving the house unattended. Women are not just at risk from the natural environment—catastrophic events also result in a rise in gender-based violence, human trafficking and exploitation.

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It is therefore unsurprising that as governments continue to fall short of their environmental targets, and the climate crisis continues to escalate, many women have taken matters into their own hands.

For example, the 26-year old Oladosu Adenike is a climate activist and eco-feminist from Nigeria, who began advocating for action on climate change during her time at university. As well as using community activism and journalism to spread awareness about the effects of global warming in Africa, she also founded ‘I Lead Climate’, a pan-African youth movement devoted to raising awareness about the impact of climate change in conflict zones.

Yet, unsurprisingly, environmental activism can be a dangerous pursuit. Disha Ravi is a 22-year-old Indian climate activist, who in 2019 co-founded the Indian Fridays for Future movement. Her own family has felt the effects of climate change first hand: her home city of Bengaluru is predicted to run out of water within years and her grandparents were farmers who repeatedly struggled with the effects of global warming. Having helped to organise school strikes across India, Ravi has been a key figure in the Indian environmental movement in the last few years, recently expressing her support for the Indian farmers’ protest. In February 2021, after she shared a protest ‘toolkit’ on social media, Ravi was arrested and placed in the custody of Delhi Police without a lawyer, having been charged with criminal conspiracy and sedition.

She has now been granted bail.

There are many more female activists, ranging from the clean water-advocate Autumn Peltier from the Wikwemikong First Nation to the youth climate-striker Greta Thunberg in Sweden. Plus, alongside these campaigners are the millions of women worldwide who are having to adapt to the challenges posed by climate change on a daily basis. Neither is this a new phenomenon: many communities have been struggling with issues like environmental degradation, species extinction and pollution for decades.

For many of us in Britain, it can be easy to forget that the climate crisis hasn’t taken a break—especially when COVID-19 has unsurprisingly dominated headlines for the last year. Yet for many people around the world, this is a reality that is impossible to forget. So, let this be a clear reminder that while the battle for a safer, green world may be long, we owe it to ourselves and to each other to keep on fighting.

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Unearthing Your Truth: Astrology Edition

By Maddy Black Lockdown is the perfect time to bravely look inwards and confront your demons, whether you’re terrorised daily by existential dread or genuinely enjoyed Emily In Paris. It’s ok babe!

Societal regression is sooo in right now. We’re in a collective flop era and there’s a gorgeous sense of community in that. Lockdown has given us the opportunity to consolidate what we care about and want to do when hugging your mum isn’t punishable by guillotine, and that’s a silver lining! Wow, I just sprained my Achilles tendon making that reach. Anyway, sometimes, to unearth your true self, you need to look to other planets. If finding solace in vague spiritual truths helps you to cope then that’s a certified slay. Because here’s the thing—the future is ALWAYS unprecedented (put it on a H&M t-shirt am I right gurliez). So although we can’t lay claim to any kind of spiritual authority, we thought we’d take a guess at how each star sign is dealing with the whole apocalypse sitch.

Aries: The idea of the pandemic wasting your prime years is really starting to get to you. But the truth is that your prime years will actually last well into your thirty, flirty and thriving era.

Usually the life of the party, you’re probably bouncing off the walls right now, and the desire to be impulsive could not be more strong. Maybe ask some boys on Tinder why we can’t print more money to blow off some steam?

Taurus: Everything’s going pretty good apart from that festering Amazon addiction… Do you really want to put money into the pockets of people like Jeff Bezos? He looks like he hasn’t registered an emotion since childhood. That man has the face of a smooth, smooth egg. Grow up and support an independent bookstore.

Gemini: You’re very horny right now. That’s all I’ll say.

Cancer: The loneliness is hitting some harder than others, but for you, it’s being starved of romance that’s the clincher. Unfortunately, that dream has to be put to bed. Unless you’re playing tonsil tennis through two pieces of synthetic fabric, newsflash sweetheart—you’re morally bankrupt. Take a long hard look in the mirror and unless you see Shailene Woodley in front of you, drop the main character dystopia fantasy.

Leo: Oh my god, sending you all the love in the world. Attention seekers have become one of the most marginalised communities during Covid and I want you to know that your struggle is absolutely valid. Being cooped up is your idea of hell—but don’t worry! I promise people haven’t forgotten you exist just because you haven’t posted on your Instagram story in five days.

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Virgo: Well it’s definitely not possible to impose order on a pandemic stricken world by buying pastel coloured highlighters…. or do you know something we don’t? Either way, try not to get too caught up in your relationship with control.

Libra: Life is starting to feel like Britney’s conservatorship—old white men telling you what to do on the daily, and you can’t help but think that by the time we get out of this the knees might not even let you slut-drop anymore… Suddenly you’re thinking—do I even want to go back to normal life? The kind of indecisiveness that usually plagues you on the daily is now making you feel uncertain about The Great After, but in reality it’s that same cautious nature that ensures the path you will eventually take is a steady one.

Scorpio: You’re usually a little intense, so throw three lockdowns in and you’ve got a recipe for chaos. Remember to take one day at a time! Negotiating all those different lockdown ambitions and plans can be mentally draining—I’m talking about the umpteenth business plans you’ve got written down in that daily planner you bought to try and girlboss-ify yourself.

Calm down. It’s time to stop watering that little seed of a thought ‘Maybe I should get into the stock market’ and focus on hydrating your bod instead. In fact, this is officially a Drink Water checkpoint.

Sagittarius: Sags are famously globetrotters, so we reckon you’re probably looking at a map of Florence and drooling all over your harem trousers rn. Absolutely fair enough, but have you ever considered that true freedom comes from within… ok your eyes are rolling into the back of your head. Nvm. Capricorn: How’s your diet of 5 different forms of media at once treating you? At this point you’ve had to evict all your core memories to make space for yet another Tiktok dance. Linear thought? We don’t know her.

Aquarius: ‘I actually…don’t even mind lockdown that much’—You (March 2020). Now? Honey, it might as well be Eat Out To Help Out the way you’re eating your words. Though you’re usually the independent type, the pandemic has made you more appreciative of the important relationships and communities in your life.

Pisces: Hey babe. I know you’ve been weeping your sexy little eyes out to those montages that your phone randomly makes from The Before Time, but I need you to stop. Feeling Absolutely Everything™️ might be your favourite hobby, but there’s too much going on right now.

Here you have it, folks! Do what you will with these but remember, at the end of the day, you decide your destiny, not some stars, planets and part-time student astrologers.

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the task of the translator

by Lilia Ikonomova

bent over backwards, why do i reach to pull countless women from the pyres of history hungrily claiming their anger and grief poised on the edge of an impossible leap through the cracked faded paint of canvases to wage their wars and argue their defense? am i running after my reflection in a murky mirror or hushing the outrage of my sense of righteousness? or is my heart beating itself into a trance to say i am here i have seen you i can hear i am the echo of your screams.

excavation

by Lilia Ikonomova

the vault of my skull is a cave ceiling disturbed by reflected flashes of light mistaken for bethlehem stars. the prophets drawn under them animal-headed, draw only the dark and are soon painted over. their only exposure to the air of the eye would be as unforeseen as a bulldozer bucket of bones and ritual gold. only then will the whisper-mould uncover their gospel.

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You’re Just Digging Yourself Into A Hole, Mate

by Ananya Ashta

Some digs...and stuff. Was I supposed to use Harvard Referencing for this article?

Consider an archaeological dig. There, you find the burial of a warrior with all the weapons needed for the afterlife and a gruesome head injury which serves as a résumé of his battles. Sounds legitimate? It is, except for one tiny detail. This hypothetical Viking warrior is real. Originally discovered in the late 19th century the remains of this mighty warrior were re-examined 130 years later, and the pelvic bone suggests that it is in fact a woman.

Cue the academic community scrambling to hypothesise that this may be a ceremonial burial and other general reluctance to accept that a woman (gasp) could be a warrior (what horror).

Fine, when new findings come to light, they do tend to be examined again.

But this fits into the worrying trend of having to cross-check everything a woman has an interest in that is vaguely traditionally masculine.

This lovely lady had an interest in smiting her foes. Would you want to reanimate her and ask her if she can name five components of a chariot?

Can’t we accept that a woman can be responsible for something?

We do exist you know. History is not a stream of time characterized by the actions of men with women pitching in now and then. Accept that the evidence points in the direction that the Viking warrior has the pelvis of a female. Accept this theory.

It can be addressed later. We can reject it. Later. Why must there be endless questions and “Yes but...” and “We aren’t really sure”. Behind every man stands

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not a woman but his shadow. Why should a woman have to stand in that shadow?

When we ask this hypothetical man to move aside so we may ask the woman, the light remains trained on him!

Why can’t we just accept that someone who was female can do this? We once accepted the existence of witchcraft. We accepted that this skeleton is that of a man because of its manly burial objects like weapons! Why do you think that just because the skeleton has been revealed to be female, the deadly paraphernalia signifies her to be a “ceremonial warrior”? It’s like saying that the best a woman can be is an honorary man.

The issue with the tale of this burial is that the minute the skeleton was proven to be a woman, scholars suddenly doubted whether she could also be a warrior.

They conjectured that surely, she could not have fought in wars and fared the seas to faraway lands. Surely, the Vikings also treated their women as inferior, but the question here is not about the gender norms of the Vikings. The question is why these theories are studied under new rigour and are often passed off as chance.

We know how probability works. Kind of. This is not how probability works.

Not every discovery that was thought to be created by a female is an accident.

You cannot keep this null hypothesis then require an overwhelming amount of evidence to refute it. Sometimes, no amount of evidence is enough to challenge that claim.

You won’t even let a skeleton rest in peace without tearing her up over her credentials.

P.S. Dear reader, you may still have questions and may try to point out inconsistencies between this burial and others. The long response to your concern will be emailed to you in two weeks’ time depending on whether I care enough to research. The short response would be a bouquet of old flowers because you’ve just reinforced my point.

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Tinder Woes

by Ella Ticktin-Smith

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The Perfect Nine: The Story of the Original Feminists

by Riddhi Kanetar Mother Earth. Motherland. Mother-tongue. The land which we inhabit, the nation from which we descend, the culture that we speak, is distinctly feminised. Although the nation-state is a relatively modern social construct, these tropes have predated the ideological advent of nationalism. Indeed, Ngugi wa Thiong’o’s ‘genre-bending epic’, The Perfect Nine, is a testament to the potency of women, both as the founding figures of a primordial cultural tradition, as well as the embodiment of strength.

Ngugi is a revered figure in the post-colonial canon, and this book exemplifies why.

He seamlessly amalgamates cross-cultural literary traditions, from Kenyan Gikuyu to classical Homeric, to construct a unique body of work. Although it is labelled as a novel, The Perfect Nine reads closer to an epic, due to its distinctly rhythmic verse.

In doing so, Ngugi has privileged an oral mode of storytelling that is native to Kenya’s own literary history. Like many traditional epic poems, this one starts by narrating the origins of Kenya’s tribes: Ngai, the creator of the world, offered the rich lands of Kenya to Gikuyu, the first man, and Mumbi, the first woman. The two then had ten daughters—known as ‘The Perfect Nine’, or according to Ngugi, ‘the original feminists’.

But these women are not just the daughters of Gikuyu and Mumbi. Throughout the narrative, Ngugi is consciously shaping their own individual identities. When 99 suitors arrive to seek the hands of these women, they are sent on a journey to prove themselves. But contrary to fairy tales, wherein the socially-conditioned prince thinks it is his sole responsibility to save the princess, it is the Perfect Nine who outperform their suitors. Their valour is unmatched and emblematises the strength of the Gikuyu people, from whom Ngugi is descended.

No one weaves allegory quite like Ngugi. He invokes many tropes from Kenyan mythology, particularly through the allegorical references to the monsters that the Nine encounter, to represent the struggles that the Nine face in their journey. Yet what I found interesting was the modern resonance of these ideas. The Nine face ogres; they face crocodiles; they face lions—all of whom symbolise certain sociocultural vices in a modern nation. Ogres, in much of his work, are portrayed as acolytes of materialism and greed. Ngugi knew the challenges posed to a nation by capitalism, and particularly

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neo-colonialism. Their encounter with these figures thus serves as a proleptic warning to the Kenyan people, and a reminder of the Perfect Nine’s resilience against these iniquities. He slowly embeds a message of collective empowerment to his readership, subverting the status quo through his symbolism.

In Decolonising the Mind, Ngugi asserts that: “How people perceive themselves affects how they look at their culture, at their places, politics and at the social production of wealth, at their entire relationship to nature and to other beings.”

His literary craft is therefore not just a retelling of Gikuyu folklore, but an act of resilience against the cultural hegemony imposed upon the Kenyan people. By writing this epic in Gikuyu, his mother-tongue, Ngugi is reclaiming his own language, and rejecting the colonial tongue, in order to regain a degree of self-representation. Indeed, by rewriting the story of the Perfect Nine in Homeric verse and then retranslating his original Gikuyu version into English, Ngugi is asserting the position of non-European art forms within the wider cultural canon. He deftly undermines the sole dominance of the Western epic tradition above the Kenyan folkloric one.

“I believe that my writing in Gikuyu language, a Kenyan language, an African language, is part and parcel of the anti-imperialist struggles of Kenyan and African peoples... I want (Kenyans) to transcend colonial alienation” (Decolonising the Mind, 28).

This book is not just a narrativization of Kenya’s rich history, but a medium through which his readership can feel energised. Entrenched in the linguistic fabric of this novel is a staunch sense of anti-imperialist feminism, one which illuminates the primordial strength of Kenyan women throughout time.

“Language carries culture, and culture carries, particularly through orature and literature, the entire body of values by which we come to perceive ourselves and our place in the world” (Decolonising the Mind, 16).

The Perfect Nine is an expression of this. Gikuyu, as a language, not only carries culture but becomes culture. Through this mode of linguistic self-representation, Ngugi asserts the autonomy of the Kenyan people, a feat which is especially liberating in a postcolonial age.

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The Beginning of Everything a haiku trio by Kaitlin Beranek

you are half-mother sperm are not seeds’ twin it’s false equivalency not a lone maker

why are we only ever flowers? undetermined sprout start with no expectation allowed to become

a seedy truth men bloom like bruises step on dandelion cracks any way, we thrive

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Sustainable Tampons Don’t Sit Right With Me. Period.

by Elliot George

It’s 2021, and we know that the most effective solutions to the climate crisis don’t lie with individual consumers. Sure, we should all do our recycling, avoid fast fashion if possible, eat less meat—you know the drill. But, as ever, the real onus is on governments and corporations to take action on climate breakdown.

Nonetheless, there are plenty of ways that we are being encouraged to live more sustainable lifestyles, not least when it comes to menstruation. In the last few years, reusable period cups, sustainable sanitary pads and non-plastic tampons have all grown in popularity—and rightly so. Like many of my friends, I feel a twinge of guilt each time I put a plastic tampon applicator in the bin, knowing that it will likely end up in landfill, where it will stay for around 500 years.

Arguably, I’m the perfect consumer for a plastic-free tampon company. I’m a ‘woke’ 20-something student who cares about climate change and menstruates on a monthly basis. I’ve been involved with environmental activism, I follow sustainability-themed Instagram pages, and armed with the feminist mantra that women are incredible, courageous and strong, I’m not afraid to put something new up my vagina.

The problem is, I just can’t get on with sustainable period products. Don’t get me wrong—I know there are people out there who happily use period cups, cardboard tampons, reusable applicators and all sorts. In fact, I’m in awe of those who do, because for me, and for many other women I’ve spoken to, it can be downright unpleasant. Period cups range from mildly uncomfortable to quite frankly agonising, while cardboard tampons can be awkward and even painful to use. Meanwhile, although sustainable sanitary pads are an excellent development, they’re often expensive and difficult to find in many supermarkets. Admittedly, I’m yet to try reusable underwear—although at Grater Expectations

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around £20 pounds a piece, they once again come in at the pricey end of the spectrum (especially as you’d need multiple pairs to get you through the week).

Of course, these are relatively trivial problems in the grand scheme of things, and I know several women who have had more positive experiences of these products. However, it just seems to me that, once again, women are losing out. Periods are already a rubbish time of the month for a whole host of reasons, not least because period pain, which can be genuinely debilitating, still isn’t taken seriously by employers, partners, and so on. So why should we have to make the experience any more difficult for ourselves? And why should I have to put myself through increased discomfort when politicians ignore climate activists, governments neglect emissions targets and companies like Coca-Cola, Pepsi and Nestlé make ‘zero-progress’ on reducing waste?

In fact, while women are having to change their routines, forfeit their comfort and pay (even more) for period products, politicians and business leaders continue to act as if climate change isn’t happening. In the UK, the government has repeatedly ignored its own commitments to Net-Zero by 2050, barely mentioning the environment in the latest budget.

Meanwhile, fossil fuel companies continue to push for profit even as forest fires, droughts, floods and other extreme weather events displace millions across the globe. What’s more, these companies will happily pin the blame on consumers, with BP even tweeting a link to an individual ‘carbon footprint’ calculator.

To summarise: I’m sure in time, as sustainable period products improve, I’ll be able to happily use them. Truly, I look forward to that time. But for the moment, I’d like to see politicians and CEOs take some serious action concerning the environmental and ecological crisis before I attempt to insert another misshapen rubber cup.

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TO READ: Encounters by Toety Heraty ‘The subject of Toeti Heraty’s poetry ranges from human encounters in an age of conceit to the confessions of an ever-restless soul.

Many of Heraty’s poems give voice to the emotional struggles and disappointments of women. They show a clear feminist influence, yet their method of confronting the patriarchy is not always direct. Instead, Heraty quietly questions the complicity of a world that represses women. A whole spectrum of emotions reveal themselves in Heraty’s poetry; but if there is a unifying theme, it is the constant need in life for discovery and encounters. In turn, her poetry is about the strong human need to analyze and speak of one’s state of mind.’— UH Press

TO WATCH: Little Women (2019) and The Tale (2018) Little Women is a feel-good classic, remade for the fourth time by the talented Greta Gerwig, and reimagined from a modern feminist’s POV. It explores the stories of four sisters with differing ambitions but alike in their spirit and determination; Little Women will serve as a reminder that female allyship is the strongest weapon we have against patriarchy.

The Tale is a harrowing and wise story of childhood sexual abuse. When Jennifer, a successful journalist in her 40s, finds a story she wrote when she was thirteen, she revisits her past to reconcile and remember the truth of her time at the horse riding camp. In light of the social media storm of #NotAllMen and scathing female harassment statistics, The Tale will help all understand the weight of this problem. Trigger Warnings: Sexual Assault, Grooming.

TO FOLLOW: @i_weigh (Instagram) ‘I weigh’ is a social media movement launched by Jameela Jamil, a body-positivity activist and actor, which asks us to weigh ourselves in terms of our achievements and inner qualities rather than the flesh on our bones.

Grater Recommendations from us to you!

Grater Expectations

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To Do...

by Anonymous Dear Diary, I had a lot on my mind today. My tasks were trapped in the blue lines of my notepad. Never-ending. Still, as the rays of the sun warmed my naked arms this morning, I knew I needed a slow start.

My breakfast was healthful, and it tasted like a much-needed hug. Nibbling on a sweet slice of peach, I couldn’t help but wish that I was a tiny frog sunbathing on a heap of maple leaves.

There are so many impressive things I want to do.

My greatest accomplishment today is that I wrote and recorded a beautiful song. A cup of Earl Grey tea to my left, my notepad to my right, and the cosmos of music at my disposal. I straightened my back and began to play around with my keyboard.

Amongst the limitless combinations of keys, scales, instruments and chords, I discovered a sound that resembled the feeling I get when I look at a warm-toned sky.

I suppose it’s Mother Nature that makes me feel safe on Earth, my beloved blue home.

When I took a short break, I stared at my olive tree and stretched my arms before replanting her into a larger flowerpot. I curiously observed the dirt underneath my nails. How does a grain of sand compare to a lone star? I imagined escaping the nest that is my planet. If I could, where would I go? Neptune? A far-away moon, perhaps? Or a separate galaxy entirely?

I drew my attention to my song again. When I listened back to it, the knot I had felt in my mind finally unravelled.

In the evening, I decided to check the news: ‘The Percentage of Women Working in Each Political Party’. As I looked at yet another disappointing and disproportional bar graph, I was reminded that I will have to make extraordinary efforts to succeed.

I didn’t get to cross out a single job on today’s list.

I stared out of my window at the infinite sky, peppered with starry sprinkles.

Today, I’m just glad I exist.

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Hey guys, gals, and nonbinary pals, Thank you so much for joining us on this journey. Whether you’re here for the hard-hitting commentaries or light-hearted listicles, we hope this issue left you optimistic and thinking about life beyond: beyond the pandemic, struggles with women’s safety, or making tomorrow’s lunch.

We have enjoyed every minute of creating Grater Expectations for you this past year and hope to see you return next time. As always, it would not exist if not for you, so we sincerely thank everyone involved, from readers to contributors to committee members. Our aim is to provide a zine bursting with feminist creativity and, dare I say, fun, and we hope that this issue provided both.

As we dig deeper for the strength to make it through (hopefully!) the last lockdown of this pandemic, take heart that this too shall pass and we are but a speck in the universe.

We better stop before things get too cheesy in here.

Sincerely yours, Kaitlin & Rusheen

Grater Expectations

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Grater Expectations is a feminist zine under UCL’s investigative magazine The Cheese Grater.

Through exposé, poetry, art, and more, Grater Expectations aims to inform, entertain, and satisfy your appetite for feminism.

Send in your submissions or any questions for the next issue: zine@cheesegratermagazine.org

UCL Cheese Grater Magazine Society President—Rob Davidson Editor-in-Chief—Sophia Robinson Investigations Editor—Riddhi Kanetkar Humour Editor—Ella Ticktin-Smith Online Editor—Adam Bloss Graphics Editor—Maryam Badghisi

president@cheesegratermagazine.org editor@cheesegratermagazine.org investigations@cheesegratermagazine.org humour@cheesegratermagazine.org online@cheesegratermagazine.org

© Students’ Union UCL, 25 Gordon Street, London WC1H 0AY. Views expressed herein are not necessarily those of SU UCL or the editors.