2
<
ð&#x;Œ‘ð&#x;Œ’ð&#x;Œ“ð&#x;Œ”ð&#x;Œ•ð&#x;Œ–ð&#x;Œ—ð&#x;Œ˜ð&#x;Œ‘
>
FEATURES #notoriesnoterfs By Ross TANNER
POLITICS At Home: Jay Sutherland By David SILLARS and Charlie LYNCH Class War in Iran By Tom HALL
ART & PHOTOGRAPHY
ISSUE 03
4 8
The HottenT(HOT): Images of the Black, Female, Body according to Tayo Adekunle By Maya UPPAL, Art by Tayo ADEKUNLE
CULTURE
14
The queer cutting edge: Does the LGBTQ+ community need more radical films? By John TINNENY, Art by Yana DZHAKUPOVA Deri’s Reviews: strawbey + Pizza Crunch By Deri RONAN
20
GUM Journal
28 32 35
february
//
2021
3
SCIENCE & TECH So, what does the future hold for drugs? By Amara COELHO, Artwork by Ella EDWARDS Mercury’s in Retrograde By Meg TAYLOR
STYLE & BEAUTY How queer bodies go mainstream By Ruth UNDERWOOD, Artwork by Ella EDWARDS
CREATIVE WRITING In Review: glitterbawl By Julia HEGELE
Truth in Sleeplessness By Cameron COCHRANE Waiting By Caitlin SLAVEN
<
đ&#x;Œ‘đ&#x;Œ’đ&#x;Œ“đ&#x;Œ”đ&#x;Œ•đ&#x;Œ–đ&#x;Œ—đ&#x;Œ˜đ&#x;Œ‘
>
CW: Racism, Transphobia, Homophobia, Rape, Misogyny
#notoriesnoterfs:
Are you down for the struggle and a snuggle?
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
5
(he/they) đ&#x;Œ€ We spend hours refining our profiles on dating apps, figuring out how to present ourselves on the internet in the most desirable way. The weight of being perceived is heavy, so we work to perfect our profiles. We overanalyse and peer review our photos, Spotify songs, and Instagram bios - a multi-digital dating showreel. Social capital is key in dating apps: aesthetic is everything and you want to make sure that everyone knows you know it. Recently, a perfect bio adopts a political aesthetic. I am no expert in online dating; my Tinder and Grindr bios are “Pleaseâ€? and “Bottoms up and the Devil laughsâ€?, respectively. However, recently I’ve noticed a lot of (usually white) people delicately placing hammer & sickle symbols into their bio, mentioning their stances on issues such as trans rights and the climate crisis, all while co-opting the BLM Movement and casually dropping in quotes from the Communist Manifesto. While it has become more evident this year that the personal is political, has being actively political become hot? It is now more important than ever to be an advocate for minority groups and implement this into your life. According to the British Attitudes Survey conducted in 2019, there has been an increase of 37% in transphobic hate crimes; in the same survey only 41% said that they would be comfortable with a transgender person (who is a qualified teacher) teaching their children in primary school1. Black people have also seen a rise in discrimination: research suggests that this year 81% - up from 74% in 2019 - of Black people have faced some form of discrimination. These statistics are horrific and it is vital that both cisgendered and white people bare these in mind when dating. Quite simply, we must not tolerate our partners, friends and families discriminative views. Part of finding a compatible match is finding someone who interacts with and views the world in a similar way; your morals and values should align. So, if you’re willing to date a tory but don’t identify with the party, you may need to reevaluate your priorities. It’s necessary for all of us to be actively anti-racist and anti-queerphobic to achieve true equality dating someone who supports these oppressive systems is not helping anyone. If a man tells a woman he loves her but isn’t a feminist or identifies as an ‘egalitarianist’, he’s a misogynist and eats meat for a power-trip. If you plaster ‘no tories pls’ you vet out all the immediately problematic people and then you can find out if he hates women and is addicted to porn. However, when white people stamp ‘#BLM’ or ‘ACAB’ into their bio or those posh middle class kids proclaim ‘not a Tory’, there is often a sense of some desperate attempt to increase social capital through divulging into performative activism. Being an ally isn’t branding yourself with them and simply typing out your alleged support. Allyship involves a constant - internal and external - evaluation and subsequent adjustment to your interactions with the world. It is unlearning what you thought you knew and then relearning by listening, by challenging yourself and others, and by carrying part 1
https://www.bsa.natcen.ac.uk/media/39363/bsa_36.pdf, pp. 126
đ&#x;’–
6
<
feature
>
ISSUE 03
While it has become more evident this year that the personal is political, has being actively political become hot?
of the emotional labour that is necessary for change. Surely, the gravity of this cannot be compressed to a 500-letter bio? Reducing a political cause and movement to an aesthetic through dating is detrimental to a cause. You’re not only sexualising it but you’re diminishing its significance. It’s almost as if you’re allowing yourself to have ticked off ‘be anti-racist’ on your to-do list and complete it with a black square on your instagram account when this is simplifying the matter too much. A friend of mine was ‘wokefished’ (a term first coined by Serena Smith2) where a man pretended to be left to align himself with her. After expressing a couple dodgy comments they broke up and he admitted he was a Tory. But is branding yourself with a particular party other than the Tories enough in dating? Unfortunately, I know plenty of soft bois who would label themselves as Labour or SNP supporters but are complicit in and - will participate in - rape culture, and continuously dispel hate towards women and queer people. With the recent state of our political parties, the SNP electing a TERF as their equalities convener and reports of antiSemitism and Islamophobia in the Labour Party, would you want to be with someone who lives and breathes these parties? Perhaps there is an element of necessity in this though. It’s undebatable that if you are a Tory, you are supporting racism, homophobia, transphobia - you name it. You may not necessarily support the party or its members’ actions surrounding this, but you still give them the power to implement this and a platform to express these views. If you date someone who holds these views or aligns themselves with a party that does, then you are part of the problem. This is not to say that there is no place for political beliefs in a bio. Being a politicised person in dating can often mean that you are dismissed due to ‘preferences’ (And, of course, as we all know, preferences can be pretty fucked - you can have a preference to wear flip flops on a daily basis but that doesn’t mean it’s okay). For a Black person to have ‘BLM’ in their bio or for a trans person to have ‘no TERFs’ can be empowering because they really know and understand what it means. An aesthetic is here not merely adopted for self-branding - you’re living it; it can’t be reduced to social capital. This is simply setting a boundary of basic respect. As a queer man, I feel no need to make it explicit that I won’t date a Tory, with queer people, in general, swinging to the left. Our identities are automatically politicised and therefore our romances and encounters are too. That’s not to say right-wing LGBTQ+ people aren’t out there – I once did go on a date with a Tory. We met in a first-year politics seminar, a well-established breeding ground for 2
https://www.vice.com /amp/en/article/889daa/what-is-wokefishing-dating?fbclid= IwAR008941APyoXr-o_szRrSyGX2Zla_gJejIMdr061pB-ERKve5OfZ4BrjtQ
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
love, and after a couple of weeks of eye-flirting and limited conversations he slid into my DMs on Instagram & on my birthday (Happy Birthday to me) asked if I wanted to go on a date. In typical first year desperation, I said yes. We met at 4 pm on a Wednesday afternoon and he took me to the Wetherspoons he worked at, before proceeding to tell me how disabled people are ‘parasites’ of the state. Reader, we did not shag - or take things anything further in any way. However, there is a case that this increasingly polarises the left and right - that no change will come, that this is all exacerbating a pre-existing dichotomy between the two political spheres. The hard-vetting process the left has adopted is an indictment to its disunity. The left’s vision for change is so broad and varied that we often come into conflict. So is the solution to this to make us all think and believe the same things through dating? No, but having a consensus that racism shouldn’t exist is probably a good thing. But how do the right date? Surely they’re passionate about something whether it’s Priti Patel’s pipe dream of breeding sharks in the channel to reduce people crossing or shouting at poor people for being poor. Do they not care that their partner will align themselves differently, politically and morally? My right-wing 20-year-old cousin (yes, they exist) said ‘part of finding a life with someone is learning to accept differences in approach and opinion and loving them anyway’. While this philosophy is cute, don’t shag a Tory. Instead, talk with a Tory, discuss racism and transphobia and classism, listen to their perspective and educate them on those complexities that get them all hot and bothered - you know, how Black people and trans-folk and the working class are humans who deserve rights too. While I believe we should be talking and challenging in all corners of the social sphere, dating a Tory to then educate them is not a dynamic you want to establish through Tinder. You create a pseudo-mother-son relationship where you’re simply teaching and preaching, ending in some angst ridden argument. For many, myself included, online dating is often unfulfilling and full of disappointment - but the algorithms and attention draws us in. I cannot comment on whether there is a right way to construct yourself online, but respect and understanding is crucial if you choose to adopt a political aesthetic.
Practice what you preach and try, really try, not to shag a Tory x
7
8
<
politics
>
ISSUE 03
At Home: At the age of twenty, political activist Jay Sutherland is already a seasoned campaigner. His causes range from student advocacy to Scottish independence and the anti-cuts movement. He lives in the West End of Glasgow, but grew up in a small village in Ayrshire. Disenchanted with and constricted by small-town life, he embarked on a series of wanderings in pursuit of greater personal and intellectual freedoms. ‘I’ve always been drawn to cities’ he muses, ‘because whenever I would meet young people who grew up in cities or had moved there, I felt like they could express themselves more easily.’ The contradictions of living in the West End - a part of Glasgow with a firmly bourgeois identity - are not lost on Sutherland. ‘I mean I love the West End, and that it does feel quite bohemian. Sometimes I feel out of place because it’s a very middle class area. Like I’ve sat in some places and people just say the most middle class things you’ve ever heard in your life. But I need to also remind myself that people shouldn’t make you feel like you’re out of place. I mean, it’s up to you to feel at home.’ Encountering the city opened Sutherland’s eyes to different modes of living. When he was sixteen he travelled to Glasgow to protest an Arms Fair and stayed for the first time in a nineteenth century tenement flat. And I just really, like I fell in love with that and I said to myself - ‘one day if I can I’ll definitely move into a building like that. Because, it gave me such a sense of - who’s been here before me? What’s gonna happen now? It didn’t feel like it was just a plastic shell.’ With more contemporary buildings, he perceives there as being a sense of the impersonal due to a lack of continuity with the past. ‘I much prefer this house with its old windows - and like, you’ve got a real sense of character when you walk in the door’, he says, comparing the building he inhabits at present with the bland atmosphere of a student hall, with its inmates corralled into identical bedrooms. ‘I think also’, he continues, ‘that it gave me an example to live a different life, and I think a lot of working class people have been deprived of that. Because their economic situation has made them completely stuck in the one area. They’re not able to move and see different things that traditionally middle class people have always been able to do.’ Objects impart a sense of belonging and of identity. The anthropologist, Daniel Miller, sees the accumulation of objects within the home as a profound expression of that person or household which can provide access to an authentic ‘other voice.’ Sutherland’s ‘treasures’ function as markers of identity, but are also related to memories of places visited. He enjoys collecting mementos of his travels - ‘Even when I moved around a lot I would have a little bag of things from my travels that I would put in a corner, almost like a kind of shrine in a way that would remind me of where I’ve been and what I’m doing. It’s just these little memories that just remind me - I wouldn’t see these things if I stayed in the village at home. These are reminders of something that I’m doing right at least.’
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
9
Jay Sutherland by David Sillars (he/him) and Charlie Lynch (he/him)
photography by Patrick MacAlindon (he/him)
Inspired by Mediterranean culture, Sutherland sees a notion of community as central to his idea of domestic space. ‘To me, it doesn’t really feel like home unless there are like people sitting round having dinner. And it’s only through engaging with others that you can build a real sense of what home is. I think you need to build a community around your home.’ He is scathing, too, about the commercialisation of the public realm in Scotland, with limited opportunities for recreation and sociability outwith spending money. ‘Buchannan Street, for example, is just shops. And the only thing they have is the steps, and the council even wanted to destroy them to build more shops. Whereas if you go to Barcelona, the whole culture just shifts to what people want and what’s best for them instead of trying to make them buy things.’
10
<
politics
>
ISSUE 03
I think that it’s really depressing when people, nowadays - I mean what capitalism is pushing for is work to be the be all and end all of life. Capitalism wants work to be part of our
dreams dreams.
But establishing and maintaining a home in such an unpromising economic environment represents a huge and perhaps insurmountable struggle for many young people. ‘Sometimes when you’re in a situation where housing is so precarious it’s the last thing on people’s minds - where you create an aesthetic’ reflects Jay. ‘I’m probably gonna have to move out of this space very soon as well - like in the next year. So, to me it doesn’t really matter that I’m not gonna stay here forever as long as I can transport the same feelings that I’ve had in this place to another place, and gain new experiences in that one, it’ll be okay.’ Looking to the future, Sutherland aspires to having a home which is more stable, where he is not periodically uprooted and forced to seek new places to live. ‘But I feel like maybe I should be grateful for that as well’ - he considers - ‘because it’s only through moving from place to place that I’ve gained more experiences. So, I would just hope that I have the same opportunities that I did when I was very young. I didn’t maybe feel that I was very ready when I went into life at seventeen, moving to London. And I feel that every single day that passes I get more ready for new things like that. I hope to move to other places and see other things. And for a society to facilitate the growth of young people I think it definitely needs to move away from capitalism as an economic system. I think that it’s really depressing when people, nowadays - I mean what capitalism is pushing for is work to be the be all and end all of life. Capitalism wants work to be part of our dreams.’
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
11
12
<
politics
ISSUE 03
>
CONTENT WARNING: Discussions of race, death or dying, abuse, excessive or gratuitous violence.
Class War in Iran ( /
)
The Iranian government is in a state of total war. War not just between armies, but one which employs both political and economic apparatuses with the goal of decimating the opponent economically, physically, and ideologically. For over 40 years the Islamic republic has been engaged in proxy wars in a bid for dominance over its rival Saudi Arabia claiming countless lives across Africa and
As a result of US imperialism in the region and its support for Saudi Arabia and Israel, Iran has been forced into an unwinnable war of economic sanctions and state terrorism with a world superpower. Even following the Joint
the Middle East.
Comprehensive Plan of Action signed under President Obama, the sanctions maintained and the war continued. In spite of the devastation that these conflicts have brought, Iranian imperialism continues to bare its teeth and seize victories. In 2019 they helped Assad retake most of Syria, and their Houthi allies made life increasingly difficult for the Saudi-led, Europeanbacked coalition in Yemen. Nowhere are Iran’s imperial tendencies clearer than within its own borders. Laying claim to the bodies and lives of women, workers, and ethno-religious minorities (particularly Kurds, Christian minority groups, and Afghan refugees). Their internal colonialism and hyper-exploitation of the country’s subaltern classes maintains Iran’s position as a low-wage, low-rights, semi-proletarianised state. One in which women perform countless hours of unpaid labour and state control is absolute. To
achieve and maintain these ends the government’s war is relentless: employing both impersonal neoliberal and brutal physical methods of control through all of the political, carceral, and economic channels available to them. Austerity, privatisation, and propaganda alongside forced labour, whippings, and execution. Resistance to an existence that is so characterised by violence from the state, capital, the international community, and even within your own home is met with an even more vulgar form of violence - one that seeks to punish rather than control, one under which your body is forfeit. In 2019, after decades of the regime being met with nothing but small acts of resistance, the nation erupted in protest. In response to unpaid labour, poverty wages, the treatment of political prisoners and striking workers, austerity, and a lack of access to food the Iranian working class hit back hard and organised in a way that left the regime disorientated. Between 2019 and 2020 a militant, leaderless uprising did occur, bucking the precedent set by the crushing of all opposition in 1979. The government wants to act as though none of this ever happened. But no amount of propaganda can extinguish the burning banks. Neither the scale nor the importance of what happened can be
The Iranian people have shown that they are not afraid. No matter what they say or do, a working-class, decentralised, self-managed revolt happened. They can never take that back. diminished.
GUM Journal
We can talk endlessly of the means of struggle, as we indeed should. Here, however, I want to shine a light on the meaning of struggle and the revolutionary emotions of hope and love, cultivated through the mutually caring relationships forged in revolt. In 2019, 4 female political prisoners, arrested for supporting workers in the 2019 May Day portion of the uprisings, in an open letter to fellow activists and civil society wrote that “[t]hese protests reflected the workers’ cry for their subsistence and were out of pain. They were protesting the situation that has more or less brought all of the wage earners, including us on knees to a dead-end. As part of this society that has been affected by the economic situation, we found the worker’s demand as ours and we
The writings of Iranian radicals and political prisoners betray the hope and love found in acts of resistance, even in the face of hopeless odds. The prisoners write
supported them.”
from their detention in Evin Prison: “Although we have seen only injustice up to now, despite our lengthy temporary detention and the probability of facing oppressive and unjust sentences teases our souls but the passion for life, the desire for freedom and the joy of being with our loved ones, fill our moments with hope. Like our brothers and sisters who seek equality and have been spending the dark days of prison with the same hope.” All four women have been sentenced to between ten and twenty years in prison. In response to those calling for such extreme demands as basic workers’ rights, the regime cracked down brutally on radicals killing hundreds and arresting thousands more, followed by show trials and executions targeted disproportionately towards the Kurdish ethnic minority. There were a number
february
//
2021
of mass shootings in Iran after the police had failed to contain the revolt, some leaving up to 100 dead. The bodies were piled onto trucks by the guards. These events open a new chapter on Iran’s history. Although they continue to be met with unflinching repression, the numbers in Iran calling and fighting for workers rights, women’s emancipation, educational freedoms, and an end to poverty only grow. International solidarity flourish around them demanding their unconditional release from political imprisonment and torture. Despite their show of force, the war they’ve waged on their own people may prove to be the war that they cannot win. On the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women in 2018, The Fashafoyeh “Greater Tehran” Prison Soheil Arabi wrote from his cell in wrote the following hopeful passage, for which he was beaten without treatment. “Humanity deserves the best. Speak of fighting violence against women! Of women’s struggle against oppression, discrimination, and violence by society…The discrimination that systems have taught us where women are men’s property and tools to serve them. This was the thought that had me ashamed of silence…Stand up and tear down the barriers, you warrior! I bow down to all those who stood up against gender discrimination and violence, particularly violence against women, and paid the price of cold, damp prison cells, at the foot of the gallows and
Rise up so that our children may learn humanity deserves the best.” under the lash of whips...
13
14
<
art & photography
>
ISSUE 03
Reclamation of the Exposition, Tayo Adekunle (2020)
CONTENT WARNING: discussion of racism, racial violence and images containing nudity.
The HottenT(H)OT: Images of the Black, Tayo Adekunle is a British Nigerian photographer based in Edinburgh. Her series ‘Vénus Noire’ and ‘Reclamation of the Exposition’ (2020), explore how black, female, bodies have been displayed h istorically alongside the social media influencer’s tendency to exploit the images of black features today.
GUM sat down with Adekunle to discuss the influences behind her work, why she uses her own body as a model and publicly displayed artwork. Your work often focuses on identity, whether it be your own, the history of black identity or contemporary identity. Is there a reason that this is a subject you keep coming back to? Yeah, I think I keep coming back to it as a subject because it’s something that I know and it’s something that – for a while – I was negotiating. Learning about black history helped me learn about and understand my own identity. I always like talking about stuff that I’m trying to understand about my own life or issues that have been affecting me; they seem to all be rooted in the theme of identity in some way.
Interview by Maya Uppal, columnist (She/Her)
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
15
Female, Body according to Tayo Adekunle In your most recent photography series, you explore the historical representation of black female bodies in art. What led you to the decision to use yourself as the subject for these images rather than models? I hadn’t actually intended on the works being self-portraits, I had just planned on creating some test shots using myself and then finding models later on. However, as the project developed it was clear that I was subjecting my body to the same things I was critiquing in my source material. The idea of doing that to someone else’s body made me incredibly uncomfortable. I could turn my body into a spectacle but turning someone else’s body into one didn’t sit well with me.
How did you decide how you were going to interact with the ethnographic postcard collages in the Reclamation series? Whether it be facing the image, mirroring their bodies or gazing back at the viewer? When I discovered Prince Roland Napoleon Bonaparte’s series ‘Boshimans et Hottentots’, I knew that I wanted to incorporate the images into the series and it took a while to figure out how. I liked the idea of inserting myself into the images acting as some form of solidarity - illustrating the link between how the women in those photographs were treated and how black women’s bodies are treated today. It took a while to figure out exactly how to use the images. I tried mirroring the poses in some way, showing this visual and historical link and I felt that worked well. In the images, I either wanted to be looking at the woman in the original photograph or to be confronting the viewer/photographer…daring them to sexualise these women’s bodies any further.
Art by Tayo Adekunle
16
<
art & photography
>
ISSUE 03
What led you to embrace photography as a medium? Were there other mediums you tried first, or has photography always been the most expressive form for you? I’ve always been interested in photography. For a while when I was younger, I did a lot of drawing and painting with my main interest being in portraiture. Even in that, photography was my starting point. I always wanted to take photographs that I could display alongside my drawings – not just using the photographs as reference images.
Artefact, Tayo Adekunle (2020)
17
Who has been the greatest influence on your artistic process? I have talked about the way black women are viewed and sexualised for a while in my work and I knew I wanted to continue making work about that subject. These pieces actually came directly from my research for my dissertation. I was talking about how the notions of black, female, sexuality were established historically and how this has continued into the present day. I came across Prince Roland Napoleon Bonaparte’s images and knew I wanted to make some work in response to them. As I continued researching my dissertation I came across human zoos and colonial expositions at natural history museums. Then I just started creating work that related to both colonial photography and the display of non-white bodies, as well as the issues both of those perpetuate.
18
<
art & photography
>
ISSUE 03
Your work comments directly on the Eurocentric narrative in historical art. Are these images purely responsive to an art’s history? Are they perhaps also comments on how the art world still views black female creators today? The artwork is a comment on both. My goal is to illustrate how the way black women – within and outside of the art world – are treated is rooted in historical western attitudes that have continued into the present day. Where Venus is used in western art history as the standard of beauty instead of a black woman, we can still see those same attitudes occurring today. Non-white women are a marginalized group in all parts of life. The work isn’t just commenting on how the art world views black female creators today but more so how the world – particularly the western world – treats black and other non-white people.
Your work allows us to think about the history of modelling, especially in your ethnographic postcards and your HottenT(H)OT images. Returning to the theme of an earlier question – I think it’s a very compelling decision to use yourself as a model, especially given that historically these women would not have consented to the photographs taken, and the way that they were displayed and observed. To what degree was the violence present in the way these images were made something you were considering? Yeah, it was definitely something I was always considering. I think it’s one of the main focuses of the work. I wanted to reclaim the ways in which those images and other colonial images had been taken. In those photographs, there was a lack of agency – the women are forced to pose in ways that allow their bodies to be studied as objects and sexualized. They did not get to choose how they were seen, and in what context.
Who is your intended audience? Who do you want to talk to when you create these series? Everyone! I hope there’s something in here for everybody. A black or brown audience can identify with the issues I comment on, whilst I hope that others can learn about a history we’re frequently not taught about. I aim to help everyone understand why they might think in the way that they do or why they are treated in the way that they are. If we understand the root of these behaviours and beliefs steps can be taken to address them and ultimately change them.
I think in the 21st-century we are witnessing the result of years of fascination with images of black women, appropriated by non-black women. Nowadays Instagram filters have been normalized and black femininity continues to be appropriated daily. Was this influential to HottenT(H)OT (2/2) - a piece in which you drastically digitally alter your figure? Yeah, so the piece was created in response to both Saartijie Baartman and Jean Paul Goude’s photograph of Kim Kardashian for the ‘break the internet’ issue of Paper magazine. Baartman was displayed as an attraction because of the size of her buttocks. What struck me was that the same body part for which Baartman and other black women have been ridiculed and criticised, Kardashian-West and other women on social media are celebrated. The work was also sort of commenting on this culture’s surrounding filters and the over exaggeration of body parts.
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
19
Do you think that living in a post-internet image heavy world is pushing photography forward? Or do you find that because we are so inundated with visual culture every day that it is hard to be visually progressive? I think that the world is being saturated with images, however, there is still definitely a space to create something meaningful. It’s definitely harder to create images that visually no one has ever seen before but that doesn’t really matter to me. I think just being able to create something that visually communicates the idea or subject you are interested in is what is important.
A lot of your work is very publicly displayed - what has the response been like to your work? Is the response different or similar to the works like Lady (1840) which were deliberately displayed amongst other works of art? It has been really rewarding to see people interacting with my work that has been displayed publicly, especially the pieces that were in the BLM Mural Trail; I’m seeing my work being displayed amongst other artists who have come together to spread an incredibly important message as part of a powerful movement. So, the responses to that have been encouraging - not only from an artistic point of view, but also from a cultural point of view as we see these pieces helping change the narrative surrounding black lives. With Lady (1840) – that was interesting. The piece felt like an intervention into a space where it really didn’t belong, and it was fun to do something like that and see how others responded to that. I feel like Lady (1840) was more subtle in its message, where both pieces are talking about similar things, and so in terms of response, it was interesting what people would take from the piece. Whereas, with History Not Fashion, the message is very clear and so I feel people have more of an immediate reaction to it.
Tayo Adekunle’s work is featured in an upcoming exhibition at Perth Museum & Art Gallery running from February to June 2021 in the Marshall Gallery. Curated by Saorise Amira Anis, the exhibition will feature four black artists and will offer an alternative picture of colonial relations to the one which is often projected by British museums, and will centre human experience in the story of colonial acquisition.
20
<
culture
Edge :
mm
Culture Editor (He/Him)
LGBTQ + Co
The Queer Cutting by John Tinneny
ISSUE 03
>
un
i ty
We’ve had Timothée Chalamet lounging about the Italian countryside and Cate Blanchett flirting with Rooney Mara over a department store counter during the holiday season. More recently we had an actual Christmas rom-com, Happiest Season, starring Kristen Stewart as one half of a lesbian couple. Queer cinema has made a lot of progress over the last decade or so, with a string of critical and commercial successes showing that LGBTQ+ stories needn’t be the risk they had been previously perceived as. As these films appear more and more within the so-called cinematic mainstream, do they maintain the radical edge they once had? Or are they in danger of becoming sanitised versions of queer lives, subsumed into a culture happy to accept them so long as they do not challenge the status quo? Go back a few decades and the idea that queer art of any kind, never mind film, could glean large audiences would have been ridiculous. Visual artists like Keith Haring and Robert Mapplethorpe are now renowned, even exhibited in the kinds of institutions which once rejected them. So in many ways it is heartening to see them get the recognition they deserve, even if it’s posthumous. But it can be a mixed blessing: an exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art of work by David Wojnarowicz was contested by activists for sanitizing his work and the AIDS crisis. There are many other examples of artists being repackaged and made into shallow representations of their actual selves and politics. Theresa May, former Conservative prime minister, with her own spotty record towards LGBTQ+ rights (though eventually supporting equal marriage rights), wore a bracelet covered with the face of Frida Kahlo, a bisexual Mexican communist. This shows how increased exposure carries the risk of queerness being lost, if not erased, in favour of superficial endorsements and fashion statements. When looking for a queer artist whose more uncompromising and radical attitudes serve as an example of what it means not to assimilate or be assimilated, one can turn to the work of Derek Jarman. Whether it be through a love triangle between Caravaggio and his muses, Shakespearean sonnets recited by Dame Judi Dench over ethereal stop motion imagery, or the colour blue filling the screen from beginning to end as Jarman narrates his own sight loss due to AIDS, throughout his work there is an unashamed treatment of queer lives and experiences as he pushes the limits of cinematic form in admittedly bizarre films.
GUM Journal
art by Yana Dzhakupova Editorial Artist (She/Her)
february
//
2021
21
22
<
culture
>
ISSUE 03
increased exposure carries the risk of queerness being lost, if not erased, in favour of superficial endorsements and fashion statements. Compare all this with films like Call Me by Your Name, which despite its gay content and lush style, deals with a fairly conventional coming of age/first love story. It lacks any explicit sex scenes, and you can see where the radical edge is missing. This isn’t to completely dismiss the film or many others like it, as the saying goes; ‘you can’t be what you can’t see’. While it may seem very deterministic on the surface, it does reflect the power of seeing oneself represented in lead characters with full lives and agency, in a media landscape that reduces LGBTQ+ individuals to sinister or tragic figures. But it is worth remembering how these films have been successful by being inoffensive in other ways, and even reinforcing other problems of representation. A lot of films like CMBYN which have focused on white cisgendered men are about as cutting edge as spoons - the most blatant example being Stonewall. This is a film which depicts the first brick-thrower at the eponymous New York bar, and subsequently the figurehead of the world’s biggest movement for LBTQ+ liberation as (you guessed it) a white cisman. This effectively erases the contributions of black trans women like Marsha P. Johnson in the retelling of this historic event, amongst other historical inaccuracies. Beyond this, the dearth of period dramas about queer women (Carol, Portrait of a Lady on Fire, The Favourite) which centre wholly on white characters do nothing to remedy the absence of POC queer characters in mainstream cinema. Films focusing on queer Black characters like the Oscar winning Moonlight have thankfully sought to buck this trend. However, it becomes clear that as queer cinema diversifies, it can still end up repeating the structural biases against, and erasure of, other marginalised groups, rather than showing any kind of solidarity or breaking new creative ground. There is the argument that LGBTQ+ audiences deserve a wide range of films reflecting the multiplicity of our varied lives. Plus, when we go to the cinema, it isn’t always in search of thought-provoking films that challenge us. Whilst sometimes we simply want to switch our brains off and enjoy some escapism for ninety minutes or so, there are also times when we should be pushed to sit up and pay attention. In resisting assimilation into society’s standards around how we should present ourselves, and how we accept the lacking representation of others, there is not just creative potential for artists on-screen but for all of us, off and beyond it. Progress has been made, but also remains to be fought for on a variety of fronts, due its ability to push us outside of our comfort zones, ask us questions, and remind us of the importance and value of difference. This radical edge is something that we should always keep in mind.
24
r
<
e
culture
v
ISSUE 03
>
i
e
w
You Won’t Fall for Anyone The new single You Won’t Fall for Anyone by strawbey is the ultimate alt-pop Christmas treat we all needed! Released on 19 December, the single expounds Ruben Pope’s (aka strawbey) distinctively grungy dream-pop with the production talents of Josh Ager and Jake Raywood – who have previously worked with numerous acclaimed artists such as Beabadobee, No Rome & Beaux. Robin Schmidt, who is Grammy-nominated and has previously worked with Wolf Alice & Pale Waves, culminates the tracks artistry in mastering it. Now available on Spotify, the single develops from the eminent play pretend E.P, which was released earlier this year. You Won’t Fall for Anyone conserves strawbey’s niche grunge-pop sound by incorporating synths to a weighted guitar, guiding a late 90s texture, reminiscent of bands such as Wheatus, into the contemporary dream-pop scene. Lyrically, the single evolves towards a deeper level of introspection, affirming strawbey as a brave and uncontrived writer.
strawbey has acquired an abundance of accomplishments in the last year, including features on 6 Spotify Editorial Playlists (Fresh Finds, Spooky, Lo-fi Indie, Dreampop, Evening Indie, and Counter), surpassing 20,000 monthly listeners on Spotify alone and securing a spot on the LGBTQ+ Top Records of the Year for BBC Introducing Norfolk’s Pride Playlist. A few months back, I was lucky enough to interview Ruben about strawbey, his inspirations and plans – you can access the interview through the link below. Over at GUM we are massive fans of everything strawbey has released so far and are excited to see where 2021 takes him!
https://www.glasgowuniversitymagazine.co.uk/strawbey-interview/
:
GUM Journal
r
e
february
v
i
e
//
2021
25
w
:
Twelve Month Seasonal Depression Exemplifying their prowess as pilots in the Glasgow’s post-punk rock scene, the new single ‘Twelve Month Seasonal Depression’ by Pizza Crunch hits listeners with the musical scorning we all need. At the end of last year, I interviewed the band to learn more about the single, their music and upcoming plans – the full interview will follow this review. ‘Twelve Month Seasonal Depression’ was produced by Chris Marshall of 7 West Studios. Lyrically, the single embarks on a cynical exploration of the hardships and letdowns of lockdowns, pandemics and as Ewan, the band’s vocalist describes it, 2020’s ‘perpetual shiteness’. It neatly costumes these lyrics with a lively riff, ensuring the track doesn’t lose any of its verve and wit. Only recently, the four-piece Glasgowbased band gained recognition on BBC Introducing for the release of their debut single ‘Fade’. While writing has been a hobby of the band members since their early teens, they attribute attending gigs as being the true motivation behind forming the band. As for their emblematic name, they do admit to having chosen it simply because they wanted something with Scottish connotations, and that
it was a tie between Pizza Crunch or ‘something even worse’ (suggestions as to what this might have been are more than welcome !!). As team players in the Scottish music scene, the band are animated about discussing what the country’s music has to offer. They draw musical influences from Jesus and the Mary Chain and admire Declan Welsh’s lyricism greatly. However, they highly recommend listening wider to an abundance of accomplished Scottish artists within the indie-punk scene – namely Pleasure Heads, Gallus & Walt Disco. The band are working hard on a new single and hope to release it before the ‘end of this calamitous year’. Ahead of this, they will continue writing and recording until live performances become less of a pipe dream, and more of a reality, in the not too distant future. Conclusively, Pizza Crunch leave our readers with some hard to swallow, yet nonetheless medically substantiated, guidance: ‘Our health advice is listening to Pizza Crunch rather than eating them’.
26
i
<
n
culture
t
e
ISSUE 03
>
r
v
FULL INTERVIEW
I’d like to start by asking a little about how the band came to be/give you a chance to introduce all the band members. Ewan - Guitar/Vocalist. Nathan - Lead Guitar. Nico - Drummer. Craig - Bassist When did you all decide to pursue a career in music? Have music and writing always been hobbies of yours? I think for me personally basically when I first saw videos of bands playing live and picked up a guitar. I think playing gigs and making songs seemed more realistic to us all when we started going to gigs and playing with other people. Writing became a hobby of mine pretty early when I was about 14/15 and got into Dylan and Neil Young. Your new single Twelve Month Seasonal Depression seems very fitting for this almost year long life pause we’ve experienced in 2020. I was wondering if you could share a little about what the single means to you? It was written in January this year just sort of about the idea of looking forward to the prospect of summer then summer being a bit shit then looking forward to Christmas and that also being shite and that kind of cycle. I think everyone suffers from a mental health problem at some point, thankfully any I’ve encountered haven’t been too severe, can’t imagine what that’s like. But yeah, I think sort of poking fun at this feeling of perpetual shiteness was
i
e
w
:
14/10/2020
the intention. And as a happy accident the riff Nathan wrote is quite summery and happy which is quite a nice contrast to the lyrics. What was the creative process of the single like? Was it written/produced during lockdown? So it was written around New Year, Nathan wrote all the music and the riff and I squeezed the lyrics in over the top. I had the phrase “twelve month seasonal depression” written down and wrote the lyrics around that idea. Production wise, all four of us got some basic recording equipment and we tracked it in our respective bedrooms. We then sent it to the wizard Chris Marshall of 7 West Studios and he made it sound good for us. Do you think growing up in Glasgow/ Scotland and making music in the country has influenced your sound at all? Over at GUM we are proud champions of the quality Scottish music scene and would love to hear if you have any local artists, you’d like to give a shout out to! Love talking about Scottish music. Nathan and Nico are both from the Glasgow area and Craig and I are from Inverness. I think we more have a love for Scottish music as a whole, you know Jesus and the Mary Chain, Orange Juice, Primal Scream. And then recently the Glasgow indiepunk scene is amazing. Declan Welsh, Pleasure Heads, Gallus, Walt Disco are all current bands worth checking out. As for
GUM Journal
it influencing sound, certainly Inverness hasn’t influenced me but classics from Jesus and the Mary Chain will have influenced our sound and brilliant lyricists like Declan definitely help inspire lyrics. What can we expect next from Pizza Crunch? Do you have any plans you can share? We will get a new single prepped for release before the end of this calamitous year. Yeah to be honest, until gigs exist again about the only thing we can do is write and record so we will keep cracking on with that. We can’t wait to play our songs live; we haven’t played either since they’ve been released. Finally, as I’m sure all the Glasgow University students will be dying to know, how did you come to call your band after the glorious creation which is the Pizza Crunch? Love the enthusiasm with this one! We needed something quick and wanted something with Scottish connotations. It was between that and something even worse, so we decided on that.
february
//
2021
27
28
<
science
&
tech
ISSUE 03
>
CONTENT WARNING: DRUG USE, DEATH, MENTAL ILLNESS
From the boiled brew of the San Pedro Cactito the use of opium poppies since the Neolithic Age, humankind has been getting high for longer than iron has existed. Throughout history the purpose of drugs have been in a constant state of flux; many now heavily restricted narcotics once tiptoed the balance of medicinal and recreational classification. The staple family brand Coca-Cola initially launched with two key ingredients: cocaine and caffeine. Likewise, heroin, arguably now one of the most infamous street drugs, was a goto prescription for those suffering from Tuberculosis. So, what does the future hold for drugs?
In the UK specifically, the introduction of the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1920 saw the criminalisation of many recreational substances. However, this ruling did not extend to medical usage, with doctors being able to prescribe medical cannabis up until 1971. Cannabis is made up of more than 120 cannabinoids, these are naturally occurring compounds responsible for the drug’s effect. Cannabinoid THC increases dopamine production in the brain and is responsible for creating the sensation of being ‘high’. While cannabinoid CBD, although not psychoactive, has the ability to reduce inflammation. Cannabis proves a useful treatment in pain management of chronic conditions, one highly noted case being that of Billy Caldwell, a young epilepsy sufferer who had his cannabis oil, used for managing seizures, confiscated. This brought current laws surrounding both cannabis and its potential medical value under severe scrutiny. The positive implications of drug legalisation, whether recreational or medicinal, are evident across the globe. In the Netherlands, drug policy divides substances into binary categories, ‘soft’ and ‘hard.’ Any substance branded ‘hard’ is then prohibited. Data collected from within the Netherlands suggests this policy seems to be working; a study found the vast majority of young people had not tried ‘soft’ drugs, implying their open availability and easy access diminished any sense of appeal. In Portugal, the drug strategy implemented in 2000 changed the possession of illicit
BY AMARA COELHO
(she/her)
GUM Journal
february
//
29
2021
substances from a criminal to a civil offence. The ensuing years then saw stabilisation of the opioid crisis accompanied by dramatic drops in problematic drug use, overdose deaths and incarceration rates.
Th
e
s po
it i p v e m i
g
f ca o t i o ns
icinal,
ss ro ac
n e d t i a re ev
ru d
r recr e a he t i
o r m e
d
th
gl
e
Across the pond legality isn’t so black and white; cannabis laws in the US vary state by state with the vast majority remaining opposed to its consumption. Regardless, the newfound cannabis culture continues to garner support. The movement currently champions the backing of Miley Cyrus, Rihanna and even Morgan Freeman. The first cannabis café in the US only launched in 2019, yet as it stands, current economic forecasts reveal the legal marijuana industry is projected to rake in billions of dollars over the remainder of the decade. The threemillion-dollar venture boasts a menu of the usual junk food juxtaposed alongside a range of cannabis-infused goods, edibles and prerolled joints. They’re not alone in the game; in the U.S. alone, over 2000 cannabis dispensaries are in operation, all parading their latest strains in glassfronted display cabinets. Yet beyond the initial appeal of these shiny businesses, there’s no guarantee that the quality of the product is better than that of street weed, with any product from dispensaries often being far more expensive due to additional tax.
on a l
li
ali g le
tion, whe sa t
Yet regardless of any legal status, the potential benefits of illegal drugs persist. In one study, MDMA was used in conjunction with counselling to treat sufferers of posttraumatic stress disorder. The result: a severe reduction in PTSD symptoms with many of the patients no longer meeting the clinical requirement for diagnosis. The controlled usage of MDMA did not lead to any further drug abuse after the experiment. Likewise, the FDA-approved ketamine nasal spray has also proved extremely useful in helping alleviate the symptoms of treatment-resistant depression. Its effectiveness is attributed to how rapidly the mechanism behind it operates.
o b e.
In short, the future of medical drug development lies in the government’s hands. The alteration of the current legislation has the exciting potential to repurpose recreational substances into new medicinal treatments. In a recreational sense, sufficient education of drug usage coupled with rigorous drug testing could reduce drug-related deaths. By no means is this an easy or cheap task, and this won’t resolve the issue of illegal drugs altogether, but it’s a start, and that’s something.
ART BY ELLA EDWARDS
Editorial Artist (she/her)
30
Mercury’s <
science
&
tech
>
ISSUE 03
in Retrograde
Astrology has been around for thousands of years, originating in Ancient Greece as a remedial combination of stargazing, geometry and philosophy. Popularity bloomed during the New Age movement of the 60s and 70s, as the Western world relinquished their minds to a newfound spiritual order, astrological belief took centre stage. Even today, with horoscope apps by the thousands and Tiktok views by the billions, the presence of astrology remains deeply rooted in society. Yet is there science behind this growing endeavour? In short, no. Despite multiple experiments testing the legitimacy of astrological signs, there remains little, if any, proof for their validity.
However, whilst there is no science proving that astrology determines personality type or that our future lies encrypted in the stars. There is evidence that horoscopes can have an impact on one’s day to day life and perception of the
by Meg
Taylor
(SHE/HER)
world. One explanation for this is offered by the Barnum Effect, by definition: the tendency of people to accept generalised statements as accurately defining their personality, relationship, or life situation. This notion is exemplified in the, admittingly genius, case of James Randi, the supernatural skeptic. Randi paraded as an astrologer on air, reading random horoscopes whenever someone phoned in, the radio segment skyrocketed in popularity as listeners began to find supposed ‘truth’ in his predictions. Randi started to rake in a small fortunenot surprising considering astrology’s popularity brings with it booming financial prospects, as it stands today the ‘mystical services’ industry is valued at more than $2.2B. Only heightened in the age of advanced technology, where the availability of more in depth information has allowed the pseudoscience to gain popularity at unprecedented speed. In recent years astrology has even infiltrated the fashion market, with zodiac patterns scaling every inch of any Urban Outfitters shop floor.
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
WHAT’S YOUR SIGN? THE CLICHED PICKUP LINE IS STILL (tragically) IN USE, A HEART TAILED ARROW SHOT BLINDLY INTO THE INBOX OF ANOTHER TINDER MATCH. The generality of horoscopes means we can identify patterns in them that relate to our life, so we look to them to know what to expect from ourselves and those around us. Because our brain is seeking knowledge, studies show that horoscopes can actually alter our perception and even modify brain direction to align with astrological prediction. On a neurological level confirmation bias can also take hold, the tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and recall information in a way that confirms or supports one’s prior beliefs or values. Felicity Carter explores this process, in an interview with the Guardian, she discusses leaving her job as a psychic after realising that clients were claiming she made extremely specific predictions when she had not: “It dawned on me that my readings were a co-creation – I would weave a story and, later, the customer’s memory would add new elements.” Customers would look for consistency in their own life to match what Felicity had said, then would add those consistencies to her prophecy, making it possible to live in the world they anticipate.
So, if astrology is generalised, with no true scientific backing except our brain desperately seeking patterns, why is it so popular and loved? The answer is in the question, our brain is seeking these patterns to bring us reassurance and guidance in a world where, now more than ever, chaos runs wild. Everyone wants to know what the future has in store... in fact this knowledge is essential for our survival. People tend to turn to astrology in times of stress, in 1982 a small study conducted by psychologist Graham Tyson found that “under conditions of high stress, the individual is prepared to use astrology as a coping device even though under lowstress conditions he does not believe in it.” Astrology provides people with a sense of order and insight to the future (however generalised) that they just can’t get on their own. Will my relationship last? Will money come my way? What does the future really hold? The answers most long to know despite any varying depth of astrological belief. If scientific validity determined the belief in astrology then it would be culturally irrelevant, but it’s not. Put simply: the presence of astrology provides comfort, direction and a sense of guidance in an otherwise disorderly world.
31
32
<
style
&
beauty
ISSUE 03
>
CW: Discussions of transphobia and homophobia
How Queer Bodies Go Mainstream
by Ruth Underwood (they/them)
art by Ella Ottersbach-Edwards (she/her) When I was growing up queer, I had no place to go, so I sat in my room and watched videos of Leigh Bowery. Bowery always amazed me because, not only was he decked out in balaclavas and tights; he was also just on his way to the shop or going out for afternoon tea. He took the negativity from the way he was perceived day-to-day and created outfits that as an amalgamation of it. Bowery became the blueprint for guerrilla-style club kid attacks on the heteronormativity of the fashion world and was ultimately co-opted by the industry he was criticising. Then, in 1994, Bowery died of AIDS. Though Bowery gained a level of notoriety that many queer people couldn’t, the problematics of his livelihood as a queer person were still largely ignored. This article will explore why these two societal perspectives can co-exist so easily, and the problematic role capitalism plays in this.
When Andy Warhol died, New York went into a frenzied panic that the fetishism of partygoers – the space that transcended the boundaries between the civilian and the superstar – would die with him. Bohemians were pushed out by wall street personalities on account of astronomical rent prices, and everything that once existed on the fringes became a mainstream phenomenon. James Truman, writing for an article on the cultural milieu of the club scene in the early 90s, stated ‘I have an intuition that downtown is dead as a subject.’ Finally, in 1987, the year Warhol died, ‘The Village Voice ran a cover article by its night life correspondent, Michael Musto, declaring downtown dead.’ All hope was not lost, however, because Michael Alig* and his band of dressed up queers arrived on the scene and completely transformed downtown. Looking at the cultural loss of downtown’s subcultural influence, Alig and
GUM Journal his friends criticised the excessive and hierarchical celebrity culture of downtown in the 80s, by dressing up in ways that were as excessive and offensive as possible. What they did not anticipate, however, was that they would become part of the phenomenon they were criticising. Rather than offending, they were seen as inviting, and they reinvigorated the excitement of downtown, becoming celebrities in their own right. Sure, people couldn’t tell all their friends they’d seen Andy Warhol snorting a line anymore, but they could tell everyone they’d seen Jennytalia, or James St James, or Desi Monster. Ordinary queers, previously unheard of and uncared for, became the talk of the town, of the century.
february
//
2021
The club kids’ legacy at the club nights they hosted became so extensive that being seen became their jobs. Furthermore, nobody wanted to see the same costume twice, so designing the clothes that they were seen in became their careers. They were transformed into full-time designers, makeup artists, and models. The club kids were catapulted onto the global stage. This, I believe, can be put down to two factors: (1) people wanted to look at them, and (2) people wanted to look away from them. What invokes desire is often the same phenomenon
33
34
<
style
&
beauty
>
that invokes fear, and this is what provokes fearmongering. Feared and loved, the club kids scored primetime TV notoriety from shows such as Geraldo, The Phil Donahue Show and, of course, The Joan Rivers Show. Decked out in lycra, wigs, and 2-inch false eyelashes, the club kids address questions from grey-haired polo-check members of the audience, mostly on the subject of ‘will my son become a transvestite* like you?’. Nelson Sullivan’s footage reveals the club kids being arrested after their usual outlaw parties, which involved them taking over establishments such as Dunkin’ Donuts, Burger King, and even the Metro, in swarms. Meanwhile, Amanda Lepore was selected for makeup commercials in which she was tasked with revealing as much skin as possible. Maybe James Truman was right, ‘the biggest problem the area faces is that it is hard to be alternative anymore…How do you stay on the edge, when the edge is mainstream?’ The club kids’ fashions were seen as beneficial and ripe-for-picking by the fashion industry because popularity and excitement sells, and for this reason they were widely co-opted and became mainstream and inaccessible. The D-I-Y roots of the club kid movement were soon spotted and bought up by the market. BodyMap, the pioneer designer duo of club kid fashion, once selling out a stall at Camden Market, were soon selling to Bloomingdale’s. Reaching notoriety, BodyMap were able to access magazine editorials. Adhering to their brand, their editorials were characterised by queer aesthetics. One features two club kids dressed head-to-toe in a medley of prints and adorned with children’s artand-craft objects, including pipe cleaners, shells, and cardboard stencils, while another features a lycra jumpsuit with the belly and shoulders cut out. Styled in a way that takes gender as something that is malleable, allowing the models’ genders to be unformidable, BodyMap’s shoots are
ISSUE 03
a testament to what their cis-het viewers found unnerving, and what culminated as their queer counterpart’s livelihoods. Although the popularity of the club kids was co-opted by the market economy and the fashion industry at large, the queer roots of the movement were continually detested. The industry’s method of overcoming this was ignorance. Though queer fashion was adopted into the mainstream, the importance of queer livelihood gained no recognition. In the ten years of the club kids’ rise to fame, little to no pro-LGBT legislation was passed. Though laws were passed allowing civil partnerships, debate concerning same-sex marriage continued and largely did not progress, and transgender individuals were continually ignored. Though many transgender club kids were shown on primetime television, which proved to be beneficial to the networks that hosted them, when the same individuals were arrested following outlaw parties, they faced discrimination from the police: transgender women were put in cells with men, and vice versa. Though prominent club kids, such as Leigh Bowery, were caught in the AIDs epidemic and subsequently died, the epidemic was largely ignored by government officials. Reagan argued that they were ‘only getting what they justly deserve’. Market popularity is not always a sign of success for the communities that inspire those fashions. Though the club kids gained mainstream notoriety, their work was largely co-opted, and their livelihoods were continually discriminated against. Though many profited off queer fashion in its glory, the mundane suffering of the individuals that inspired it, the parts of their lives that were not sensational, were left undiscussed and uncared for. A whole generation of queer people left behind.
NOTES:
* This article does not support looking up to Michael Alig! You may look up to other club kids however – I suggest James St James, who now films makeup tutorials on Youtube. * Hey, if you are reading this, please do not use the word “transvestite” to describe a trans person, ever!
GUM Journal
february
in Review:
//
2021
35
by Julia Hegele, Columnist (she/her)
glitterbawl by Lizzie McC
Quipping, ferocious, and perpetually brilliant
glitterbawl hangs like a Rembrandt in a motel lobby: washing holiness and sanctity in the plastic light of the everyday. The sheer force of this collection will astound you. Like the tightly grasped organ on the cover page, Lizzie McC’s prose siezes the heart and squeezes, delivering 14 of the most genuinely stirring pieces of the year.
36
<
creative
writing
>
ISSUE 03
Rouge and ruin and rhubarb wash the reader in gritty ice and force feeling into portions of the skin left untouched in our sanitized year. It is self, it is searing, it is suddenly history (Hendrix and his second death at the hands of a powercut ) and then just as impactfully, memory. McC builds cathedrals of the typical, supping a communion across plastic and chairs, eye to eye with strangers, with the reader themself. glitterbawl relishes in the typical, bringing reverence to a shared glance, religion to a late night snack. The work is auditory. The repetition and rich illustrations of words evoke the breath of song, the shared gasp of contact, the heaviness of existence all in one.
The work is tangible. One can feel the violence, the closeness, the tuberous nature of the poems as they tumble into their conclusions. muse blues stands alone as a devastating but profoundly delicate piece of reflection: a searing blue flame dancing warily on the edge of one’s own autograph. The possibilities of selfdestruction, the perilous winding of fame and immolation, perfectly buoyed between the thrashing seas of history and today. Blunt silver haircuts and working till you bleed, an ode to the vogue of capitalism’s succubus (not the woman, but the world). Do we choose a fleeting spark that will leave us charred and poisoned, or do we consign ourselves to the persistent hot ache of mediocrity? One of many questions posed through the frilless yet decadent musings of McCreadie’s work.
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
37
In an approach that makes me burn with happiness, glitterbawl has no room for textual analysis, physiatric evaluation, or morality policing. It toys with tenants of power with ease, a force that makes typical descriptions of strength look weak. The work refracts onto itself to blisteringly assess components of critique, culminating in an astounding repartee between cadences that allows the reader to trust the piece deeply. It seems to sense one’s preconceptions and works immediately to address and dismantle them. It drags notions of who or what you’re dealing with through the dirt, obfuscating stereotypes and toying with tropes easily assigned to those who produce and consume poetry. glitterbawl is one step ahead of you, stealing the words from your tongue with a practicality rarely seen in the decadent world of contemporary free verse. glitterbawl makes you ache for action, I pin my hair up nicely in pace with the second poem, I greedily sip my own Finnieston water when it’s mentioned: the personality of the work makes you ache for involvement, for the reciprocal acknoledgmement of its incredible relatability. This poetry moves. Some poems feel like a skid over black ice, laughing shakily with the stranger down the street, sharing vulnerability. Some are swan dives into self sustained power, one wants to see red, wear red, be red, coughing up rose petals and dust and feeling regal and wild. Vitally, the movement goes somewhere. There is a definitive curve in tone and pacing that keeps the reader bound to prose. It radiates and then collapses in its own heat, a brilliantly calculated conflagration of pace. read the manual compacts the ashes of the previous poem’s inferno, soft, dark, and impossible to remove from clean hands. The implicitness of boredom and unfulfillment move cyclically as the reader’s own satisfaction peaks in awe of the work’s structure. The piece ends in reverence just as it began, but the sanctity of this poem came second to the rush of familiarity I felt when descending the stairs of the tight, dry, salt mine, the same one I’d toured three years prior. The cheekily licked wall, the pocketed rock, the crane of ten heads arching towards the salt chandelier in the bowels of Krakow. Days before reading this collection I had looked at that rock, imagined the day within those dry corridors, and forgotten all about it. And yet here it is again, the simple, striking conclusion to an exuberant work of poetry. glitterbawl is that remembrance. That uncanny, incredible, undeniable evocation of something you thought only you had seen or felt. However there is no co-option of the experience, only an increase to its sentiment. Be it a salt mine in Poland or the off-chance encounter with the Son of God, we have moments in our lives that feel isolating, personal, aloof to collaboration or description. glitterbawl collects this ephemera, copies it down in words, and reflects back to the reader the very emotion that was once only theirs. It rushes like honeyed wine out of the pages, sticky and sweet and utterly intoxicating- I expect to find this piece cloying the air of my room and staining my pillows for weeks to come. It is not easily forgotten or broken from and I personally see no issue in an addiction to its prose.
38
<
creative
writing
>
ISSUE 03
GUM Journal
february
//
2021
39
TEAM Editors-in-Chief: Graham Peacock, Lara Delmage Editorial Coordinator: Ella Field Features Editor: Eilidh Akilade Politics Editor: Tom Hall Culture Editors: Cain Mckendry, John Tinneny Art & Photography Editor: Eilidh Wright Science & Tech Editor: Tiarna Meehan Style & Beauty Editor: Daniel Castro Creative Writing Editor: Lillian Salvatore Copy Editors: Ophelia Hazzan, Rosie Shackles, Ioulitta Triantafyllou Columnists: Bianca Callegaro, Beatrice Efimov, Lucy Fitzgerald, Julia Hegele, Kieran Mehta, Deri Ronan, James Taylor, Alice Millar Thompson, Ruth Underwood, Maya Uppal Graphics Coordinator: Nilanjana Mannaraprayil Editorial Artists: Charlotte Docherty, Yana Dzhakupova, Ella Ottersbach-Edwards, Rosie Stobbie Graphic Designers: Zachary Czerwiński (print), Raquel Fonseca (Journal) Digital Media Coordinator: Abigail Whelan Website Manager: Janika Popova Social Media Managers: Gabriel Purcell-Davis, Aisha Patel Business Operations Coordinator: Lucy Nicholson Advertising Manager: Larisa Hamilton Events Managers: Hannah George, Jade Harries
WORDS:
Ross Tanner David Sillars Charlie Lynch Tom Hall Maya Uppal John Tinneny Deri Ronan Amara Coelho Meg Taylor Ruth Underwood Julia Hegele Cameron Cochrane Caitlin Slaven
ARTWORK: Patrick MacAlindon Tayo Adekunle Yana Dzhakupova Ella Edwards Raquel Fonseca