Motley - Volume XV - Issue #2 - Change

THE PROBLEM WITH “PANDEMIC PUPPIES”

A HUMOROUS TAKE ON AMERICAN CULTURE

TIKTOK’S HOLD ON THE FASHION INDUSTRY

VOLUME 15, ISSUE 2 OCTOBER 2021

Editorial Staff Stephen Moynihan

Hannah Emerson

Stephen is an award-winning journalist with a keen interest in current affairs. He is currently in his nal year of a BA in philosophy and politics.

Hannah is a third year medical and health science student who feels that this section of motley is tting for her due to an over abundance of opinions she feels af icted with since birth.

Maxwell Callanan

James Kemmy

Max is a second year digital humanities student.

He spends most of his spare time writing, drawing and making funky little board games.

James is in his third year of government and political science in UCC. He is interested in a wide variety of musical genres and the power of contemporary lm and ction to highlight pressing social issues

Conor Daly

Sarah Collins

Conor is a nal year Arts student and was a member of the current affairs team last year as a staff writer. He is an almost award winning poet and journalist with hopes of removing the almost in the near future.

Sarah is a third year Government and Political Science student. Along with having her own graphic design business, Sarah also runs a fashion, beauty and lifestyle blog and she is a huge lover of all things fashion related.

Deputy Editor-in-Chief

Features & Opinion Editor

Graphic Designer

Entertainment Editor

Fashion & Beauty Editor

Current Affairs Editor

Online Team Online Edito Social Medi

Kevin Quan Erica Shell

Deputy Editors Current Affair Features & Opinion Entertainmen

Contributors

Natalia Gawla John Hunte Shruti Rajagopa

Cathy Hogan, Kate O’Riordan, Katie McCarthy, Luca O’Halloran, Philip Brennan, Roisin Dunlea, Ronan Keohane, Sam Golde

Photographers

Staff Writers

Jack Murph

Jessica O’ Brie

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This publication is made from 100% recycled paper. Motley welcomes letters from from readers, emailed to editor@motley.ie. Motley is published by Motley magazine, The Hub UCC, Western Road, Cork. Printed by City Print Limited, Victoria Cross, Cork. Copyright 2021 Motley Magazine. All rights reserved.

Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is strictly prohibited. All efforts have been made to ensure that details and pricing are correct at time of print. Motley magazine does not take responsibility for any errors incurred.

This magazine can be recycled either in your green bin kerbside collection or at a local recycling point. Images provided by Unsplash.com, Pexels.com, Pixabay.com. Vectors provided by Vecteezy.com and Freepic.com.

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Meet the Motley

Emer Walsh Editor-in-Chief

While the theme for Issue #2 was decided in the late summer, an alignment of the stars would have it that this month has been full of immense changes. In addition to the further lifting of almost all COVID restrictions in time for the Cork Jazz Festival, our campus has witnessed a visit from Dáil Éireann and the launch of UCC’s rst oncampus SHAG Week since the pandemic’s arrival More important, however, than all of these changes combined, is the devastating changes that we have seen in the living standards of UCC’s own student body.

editor@motley.ie

By now, we have all been made aware of the tragic outcome of the UCCSU’s rst Food Bank since its reopening. Given everything we have already gone through, the need for a food bank should have been unfathomable in and of itself. The day the food bank emptied within the rst 50 minutes of its operation was perhaps our college’s darkest day.

All of this combined with the audacity of our elected representatives to organise a meeting on our campus, while our community begs for protection from exploitative rent increases and the highest tuition fees in Europe - pleas from students that cabinet refused to acknowledge while on campus Not to mention Tánaiste Leo Varadkar's now infamous “One person's rent is another person's income” quote.

Incredible how his argument opposing rent freezes perfectly explains the exact reason why they’re necessary.

One thing has been made crystal clear - Ireland’s young people are being left behind.

This particularly open-ended theme was chosen in part to pay homage to the changes that we as students have experienced in the past year and a half as we move forward into a new era. Within these pages, you will nd a witty yet informative breakdown of how fashion trends have evolved as a result of pop culture, an insightful look at a changing Ireland within the context of the famous John Boyne novel “The Heart’s Invisible Furies,” a deepdive into our changing perceptions of a night-out as a result of government restrictions, and a fascinating examination of Ireland’s changing electorate and what this could mean for our country’s next general election.

The pitiful inaction by the government to combat these growing issues, (added to all that was robbed from us during the pandemic) demonstrates the further isolation of an increasing proportion of the electorate by our current coalition. I only hope that this isolation is not forgotten upon our next visit to the ballot box.

To reiterate words from last issue’s editorial: to ensure the magazine’s role as a comfort for students both near and far, the inboxes of the Motley staff are always open and your thoughts and submissions are invariably welcome.Don’t be afraid to have your say.

With all that said, I am very proud to present to you the sensational work produced by the incredible student’s of Motley for Issue #2 (Change).

On that note, I wish you the utmost enjoyment as you ick through Max’s beautifully designed pages of Issue #2.

See you next month x

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Siri, play ‘Changes’ by David Bowie & Butter y Boucher

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From the Editor

Inside Motley October 2021

Current Affairs

Features

Entertainment

Fashion & Beauty

Editor-in-Chief Emer Walsh shines a light on the Hunger strike of Nadim Hussain and its signi cance within an Irish context.

Kate O’Riordan explores Greenwashing and questions if capitalist problems can be remedied by capitalist solutions

Philip Brennan offers a an in-depth review of new album “The Game”

by Irish artists Mick Flannery and Susal O’Neill

Fashion Editor Sarah Collins looks at how technological innovation has revolutionised the fashion and beauty industry

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A Century of Hunger: Nadim Hussain and the Modern Fight with Traditional Means Fo owing 101 years since the death of Cork Mayor Terence Macsweeney, Motley’s Emer Walsh looks at our city’s most recent case of Hunger Strike and how the legacy of our revolutionaries is forced to live on in the 21st century.

Last month, Asylum Seeker Nadim Hussain, who has been living in Ireland for three years, received a letter from the International Protection Appeal Tribunal (IPAT) which recommended Mr Hussain be refused a declaration as a refugee along with subsidiar y protection status Having rst arrived in Ireland in 2018

following the killing of both his parents in anti-Muslim riots in the Indian state of West Bengal, Mr Hussain has started a life in Ireland, working throughout the pandemic as a security worker in a hospital.

The now thirty-four year old has been living in a Direct Provision centre located on Kinsale Road, Cork where on October 13th 2021, he began a hunger strike in an e ort to gain permission to stay in Ireland.

In the rst week of his hunger strike, Mr Hussain was o ered no update concerning his permission to stay in the country. His condition quickly deteriorated, with Mr Hussain experiencing stomach pains, excessive vomiting and risk of kidney damage.

No direct contact was made to Mr Hussain in the rst week of his hunger strike from the Department of Justice after continual pleas from both him and his supporters for Minister of Justice Heather Humphreys to intervene on the matter In a statement given to Motley Magazine, Solidarity TD Mick Barry expressed his concern for Mr Hussain’s safety before stating, “It seems to me that the Government are trying to stare him down on his hunger strike.

The Movement of Asylum Seekers in Ireland (MASI) also expressed concern, stating it “would urge the Minister for Justice to expedite the Section 49 review process with a view of granting him permission to remain.”

The Abolish Direct Provision Campaign also expressed their solidarity with Mr Hussain in a statement arguing that “His case is in accordance with the Geneva Convention” due to his life being at risk if he was to be deported Mr Hussain’s protest mirrors that of e orts made by Azwar Fuard and 27 other residents, who began a hunger strike as a means of protesting the substandard condition of their accommodation in the Skellig Star Direct Provision Centre in the Kerry town of Cahersiveen on the 28th of July 2020.

The hunger strike lasted three days and was halted by then Minister for Justice Helen McEntee’s announcement that residents of the centre would be moved as soon as space could be found elsewhere.

When asked why he started a hunger strike, Mr Hussain told reporters that

he was inspired by Irish hunger strikers and their goal of freedom, explaining that this strike was “for [his] freedom.

Echoing the hunger for independence demonstrated by those who defended this country from British colonialism, the ght of Nadim Hussain and other asylum seekers to remain in Ireland and have access to adequate living standards reveals the existing shortcomings in the protection of human rights by our own government Forty years on since the H-Block Strike of 1981 in which ten Irish republican prisoners starved to death, Mr Hussain’s protest appeals to the values of Irish society and forces witnesses to consider the similarities between revered historical revolutionaries and modern day asylum seekers.

T h e d e m o g r a p h i c o f s o c i e t y ’s m o s t vulnerable has changed throughout the past century, but what remains everlasting is their need for freedom

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A Dog is not just for Lockdown, It’s for Life As we begin to emerge on the other side of Covid-19, Deputy Current A airs Editor Natalia Karolina Gawlas discusses the lonely mid-pandemic and busy post-pandemic e ects on animal shelters and their inhabitants.

with the ageing of once small puppies saying in a statement, “We also envisage there could be a large increase [in surrenders] as people in o ces start to go back to work and as puppies reach that adolescent stage,” she said Shelters around Ireland such a s Deel Animal Rescue in Co. Limerick and Coolronan Animal Rescue in Co. Meath have had to close their doors as they simply cannot t more animals

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owners and their discontent

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since its emergence in March 2020, keeping people locked in their houses or within their designated areas, proving to make an ordinary person's life considerably more lonely on a day-to-day basis.

According to a Humanities & Social Sciences Communications journal in 2020, owning a furry friend has many benefits to our mental health, assisting our ability to cope with stress and isolation during a global crisis. As our dogs (or any other pet for that matter) became our companions during a time of loneliness, their added company helped us to deal with the challenges of the pandemic, especially when we had little else to turn to for comfort.

However, the clearing up of shelter cages once lled with animals longing for homes was but a temporary phenomenon, one with an immense reverse e ect. To some, the commitment of a pet only suited for a short period. With more recent easings of restrictions following our latest lockdown, people are increasingly eager to leave their houses.

But what happens to that loving fourlegged companion when their best friend is no longer at home all the time?

Animal rescues and charities have reported increased dog surrenders since April 2020. Dogs Tr u s t P R a n d co m m u n i c a t i o n s manager Corina Fitzsimons has expressed concern about the number of dog surrenders increasing as schools and on-site employment returns after lockdown. In the beginning, the dog surrender was welcome, ensuring dog safety and care without the abandonment aspect in unsafe conditions.

However, as the restrictions eased, concerns rose. Fitzsimons also relayed her anxieties about some

The pandemic resulted in three major lockdowns

into their care and expenditure.

Owners are bringing in their beloved pets because the responsibilities of life and work override the responsibility of an animal. Co. Cork has had a substantial rise in dog surrenders due to the surge in

‘pandemic puppies’ , leaving minimum capacity for emergency surrenders only.

At the beginning of the pandemic, headlines were beaming with positivity for dogs and other pets getting the deserved love and care, being cherished as they acted as their owner’s main companions.

It may be noted, that with shelters being closed for a certain amount of time at the beginning of the pandemic, people’s desperation led them to buy puppies f rom breeders instead of adopting when possible. This left many grown dogs out of the equation of a possible loving family, as a large majority of p e o p l e w a n te d p u p p i e s , o f te n forgetting older surrendered dogs However, to shine a bright light on the older forgotten dogs, there was a notable increase at the beginning of the pandemic in adopting the older, traditionally lesswanted dogs, suiting many people stuck working remotely.

Sadly, this silver lining is overridden by the current situation in which dogs are now being returned to shelters. Dogs Trust had a total of 1,429 surrendered dogs from January to August of 2021 alone - already a considerable number in comparison to the entire year of 2020 in which 1,331 dogs were surrendered. Due to a phenomenon of excessive breeding in a high-demand period, many people now cannot cope with the puppies they paid a large price for, either from health issues that came from the breeding process or behavioural issues. As owner's spend longer durations away from the home, separation anxiety can become an issue for dogs that became accustomed to their owner’s constant presence

Often, a dog’s being is not taken into consideration prior to purchase or adoption, leading to the now commonoccurring surrendering of pandemic pets. After the rollercoaster ride of 2020 and 2021 with the boom and downfall of puppy demand; one can only hope that owners come to understand that

a dog is for life, not just for lockdown.

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The Times They Are a-Changin’: Ireland’s Relationship with Multinationals (MNCs) Final year Law and French student Katie McCarthy looks at Ireland’s changing views on MNCs and what this means for future business.

2021 has brought many unexpected things, one of them being the change in Ireland’s remarkable softness on large corporations. Almost 1,000 multinational companies have chosen Ireland as their strategic European base due to our ‘probusiness environment’ and ‘attractive taxation rates.’

Ireland has previously had one of the lowest corporation tax rates in Europe at 12.5%. Companies have also been able to avail of a 25% tax credit against research and development costs. However, recent developments would suggest that the times are indeed a-changin.’

While some heed Ireland’s status as a quasi ‘tax haven’ as encouraging entrepreneurial spirit, injecting vitality into the economy and providing employment, others hold a more negative perspective. Speaking earlier this year, Nobel Prizewinning economist Joseph Stiglitz, went as far as to accuse Ireland of ‘stealing revenues’ from other countries One such example of this is the Irish Data Protection Commission (‘the DPC’) imposing a signi cant €225m ne on WhatsApp for data protection breaches. This ne represented a more than four-fold increase in the €30-50 million ne that had been proposed in a draft decision issued by the DPC in December 2020. This was surprising given that, in its 2021 report on the enforcement capacity of data protection authorities, senior fellow at the Irish Council for Civil Liberties, Johnny Ryan stated that Ireland was the ‘worst bottleneck’ for enforcement of the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR). Unsurprisingly, WhatsApp was less than pleased and is appealing the decision Ireland’s lessening favour for the large corporation was all the more evident in the raising of the corporate tax rate to 15%. While this is not a gargantuan increase, it is surprising given that our low corporate tax rate was previously clung to for dear life.

Are we right to take away a chunk of Ireland's ‘competitive edge’ when it comes to attracting inward investment?

Indeed, Business Editor at RTE, Will Goodbody has pointed out that, if workers can be sourced from all over the world and the corporation tax rate is no longer an advantage, Ireland could face the prospect in which ‘a number of its trump cards are gone.’ It will be interesting to see if Ireland is truly committed to ‘change for good’ or if this is merely a case of empty virtue signalling.

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That said, these reforms only apply to rms that have a turnover of €750 million or more. This still carries signi cance, however, as this applies to approximately 1 2 0 0 c o m p a n i e s c u r r e n t l y i n Ir e l a n d . T h e Department of Finance estimates around €2bn in lost tax income in the short to medium term. Also, a softening of Ireland's decades-long tax advantage is sure to show up de ciencies elsewhere, as noted by Reuters correspondent Padraic Halpin. These de ciencies may include but are not limited to, the lack of a ordable housing and the high cost of living Furthermore, Facebook has recently given permission to some sta previously based in Ireland prior to the pandemic to locate themselves permanently in a number of other European countries, which may also be a matter of concern for Ireland. It seems that being based in Ireland soon won’t be all it was cracked up to be. If other MNCs follow Facebook’s lead, the impact will be hard to ignore.

What does all of this mean? Will these changes give rise to Ireland becoming a more hostile place for MNCs and lead to a ‘corporate exodus’, or are these supposed ‘crackdowns’ simply for show with no teeth behind them? Could this sea-change in the Irish approach make it harder to win multinational investment into the future?

The new change to California law aimed at making “stealthing” illegal While laws and social attitudes towards consent globa y are sti in the process of improving, Current A airs Editor Conor Daly looks at how the state of California is a step ahead of the rest.

Please note that this article makes reference to consent and rape. Read at your own discretion.

If the word “stealthing” in the above title is causing some confusion, know that you are most de nitely not alone. Indeed, the term itself was unknown to me prior to writing this However, unfortunately, many will know what it is even if they never knew there was a speci c term to describe it. Stealthing is the act of

removing a condom during sex without the knowledge or consent of the other person involved. Despicable is another word that could be used to describe this behaviour. Presumably, it could also be explained using slightly more colourful language Of course, this new legislation is a positive thing. Enhancing people’s awareness of consent and how important it is can only be good. However, one is inclined to question how we reached a place whereby there is a need for such legislation. The fact that it is seen as a necessary legal deterrent to address this issue is concerning and slightly sickening. It is of course a form of sexual battery, to use American terminology, as it is a sexual act that is done without consent. So, legally classifying it as such and punishing perpetrators for this seems only fair.

Consent is something that we can all learn more about. In the context of sexual relations, saying yes to one thing does not give implicit consent to something else. Consent should be given at every stage and both parties must also respect the fact that consent can be revoked at any time. Just because one person initially gave their consent does not mean that the other person is then entitled to have sex with them. Similarly, in the context of the new legislation in California, just because someone has agreed to have sex does not mean they will automatically be okay with the other party removing their condom.

Additionally, consent within a relationship is just as important as a scenario in which two people sleep together once and never see each other again. The idea that being in a relationship automatically

implies consent is a sense of entitlement that has the potential to produce considerable damage. There is a vast amount of trust involved and trying to take advantage of someone when at their most vulnerable is something that does seem criminal. Looking at it from this perspective makes it quite clear why these measures have been introduced in California.

While the government of California has faced huge criticism in the last year or so due to the governance of the state, it’s hard to see how people would be able to disagree with this new legislation being introduced, apart from groups who oppose the use of contraception in the rst place One would hope that stealthing is not as big of a problem here in Ireland as well, but such

wishful thinking is unfortunately mirroring naivety.

This country has been rather liberal in terms of lawmaking in recent years, including the gay marriage and abortion referendums. Regardless of where you stand on these issues, they are legally liberal attitudes that have given Ireland the reputation of being a relatively open-minded nation. In that vein, adopting a similar law to the one introduced in California could perhaps be something that is introduced in years to come. After all, a law that would protect people against vile and coercive behaviour seems like something that is universally positive.

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The Changing Shape of the Irish electorate With many of the Covid-19 restrictions being removed last week and government approval ratings leaving a lot to be desired, Current A airs Editor Conor Daly looks at how young voters are changing the Irish political landscape.

In the last election, 2020, there was a surge in support for left-leaning parties in this country.

The movement, empowered predominantly by younger voters, was publicised on social media in the days and weeks leading up to the vote.

The “vote to the left” m o v e m e n t s w e p t t h e c o u n t r y, predominantly because of the anger and frustration of young voters at Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil. A bit like the 2020 US presidential election, it was a case of “we know what we don't want”. Neoliberal economic policies which have been creating instability across many aspects of public life have been a real bone of contention among v o t e r s o f a l l a g e s . Yo u n g e r generations, however, feel as though they have been disproportionately a ected and therefore have become disenfranchised with the governance of Ireland’s two primary political parties.

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The rental crisis, the homelessness crisis - which are of course interlinked - as well as the state of the healthcare system are but a few of the common grievances held by the electorate.

Ireland has one of the largest health budgets per capita of any country in Europe and yet, even before the pandemic, it seems that there were always prolonged waiting periods for appointments, operations, etc. unless private healthcare is something you can a ord.

In recent years, Ireland was found to be above the EU average in terms of unmet needs for medical care. This dubious statistic is thought to be linked to this two-tiered health system in the sense that people who don’t have health insurance are often on waiting lists for periods that are disproportionately long relative to their medical needs The HSE budget for 2021 increased by €3.5 billion to roughly €20.6 billion and the 2022 budget just weeks ago saw this rise further to €21 billion. For the sake of clarity, that’s an increase of around €400 million.

As of 2017, health spending in this country was somewhere in the region of one fth above the EU average.

The argument is that for a nation that spends so heavily in this department, the results of this should be more easily identi able.

You could go on and on with statistics about what can be improved and what needs to be changed. The same could be done for the issue of housing, rent prices, mental health services and so on and so on.

Unfortunately, there is no quick fix, and the pandemic has likely delayed any possible reform of the health system or any other sector. The quandary of the government is almost always the distribution of funds.

The basic idea is that if they had an extra billion euros lying around, they could have six or seven di erent departments looking for €200 million each. Who do they say no to? And how can they justify it

Every government in almost every democratic countr y has such problems.

People understand that to a certain extent. However it becomes very hard to ignore when the money is coming out of your pocket, or in some cases, never getting to your pocket in the rst place While it is possible to feel aggrieved on behalf of someone else, the feeling o f b e i n g d i r e c t l y i m p a c te d b y government action or inaction is often where popularity ratings start to plummet Fo r e x a m p l e , M i c h e á l Martin and Leo Varadkar were in UCC to discuss the national development plan earlier this month.

Two days later there was a food bank, organised by the UCC Students Union,

running out of food and turning students away.

T h e t w o a r e n’t n e c e s s a r i l y interconnected, but it certainly re ects poorly on their government A lack of regulation in the r e n t a l m a r ke t a s w e l l a s a perpetuation of increasing rents by allegedly attracting vulture funds into the country is a factor in students, and many others, not having enough money to live This is but one of the reasons why the shift to the left we saw in the last election is likely to be repeated and exaggerated in the next election. Recent opinion polls show that Sinn Féin’s surge in the last election has continued, with their relentless game of opposition politics making them the most popular party in Ireland.

Young people and college students are groups that Sinn Féin has been really targeting, both in the last election and for the next one, jumping on the #taxtherich sentiment which has become popularised among this demographic.

Speaking of which, politicians like Alexandria Ocasio Cortez and Bernie Sanders in the US have made this type of politics more fashionable in recent years.

People feared socialism for a long time because of the ideology’s association with Soviet Russia, Cuba, North Korea and so on. However these American gures make it a far more attractive proposition. The idea of increasing taxes on the high earners is something that always comes into debate surrounding fiscal policy. Not to say that i t ’s t h e w r o n g approach, but it can be a slippery slope.

As a young voter, it can have great short-term bene ts. These additional funds might allow the government to provide more accessible healthcare, education and public transport.

However, when these graduates leave university and attempt to climb the corporate ladder, if they so wish, the top of that ladder may now be far closer to the ground. In other words, why spend years working to be the best in your eld if that increase in income is cancelled out by disproportionate increases in income and wealth taxes?

Wo u l d a S i n n F é i n government lead to a mass exodus of people close to retirement fearing that years of hard work could amount to far less than they had planned for due to wealth and pension taxation policy? Would more young graduates and professionals emigrate to a country where taxation serves as less of a barrier to employment and progression This is not to say that the current coalition in government has all the answers. It has been shown on many occasions that the

two main parties often abuse their power while the Green Party seem to have no real ability to contribute as a collective, rather operating as a group of individuals with no real guiding principles There is much to think about, particularly with Leo Varadkar set to take over from Micheál Martin as Taoiseach in 2023. But the real question is, who will succeed him?

Will Fine Gael be able to muster enough young voters to retain the Dáil or will Sinn Féin nally get a chance to run their own government and see things from the other side?

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It’s a fairly simple strategy, just disagree with everything the government does and agree with what the electorate is complaining about.

The result of this is that Sinn Féin is looking increasingly likely to be a majority party in the next government.

To do this, the party would most likely have to form a coalition with the remaining left-leaning parties like the Social Democrats, People Before Pro t and possibly Labour. Mary Lou McDonald and Sinn Féin as a whole seem to have been preparing for this with an increasing leaning towards leftist economic policies in recent years It's hard to say for sure where Sinn Féin actually stands as a political party apart from the fact that it is not centrist. Their ties to terrorism and the provisional IRA, which they have tried so hard to cut in recent years, have not helped with this ambiguity. Howe ver, their manifesto from the last election would imply they are now a leftleaning party

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The announcement of equal pay for the Irish women’s national footba team is a landmark achievement for women’s sport. Current A airs Editor Conor Daly looks at how this came to be and the work sti to be done.

It would appear that we are living in an era of highly successful Irish athletes, and female athletes are at the forefront of that success. The amount of coverage that women in sport garner has never been higher and it is continually increasing year on year.

People, on mass, are starting to

Ho w e v e r, t h e r e m u n e r a t i o n o f athletes has proven to be a more nuanced case. Some female athletes, including former UFC champion Ronda Rousey, have

questioned the concept of equal pay for female athletes,

acknowledge female athletes

instead implying that equitable pay is more realistic.

This would mean that the earnings of all athletes would be directly proportional to the amount of money they bring into their respective industries. This perspective has proven to be controversial as it would still see women being paid less than their male counterparts.

The reality is that women’s sport is at a di erent point in its growth trajectory than men’s sport. It is perhaps even unrealistic to think that it could be developed enough in such a short time or for it to be economically viable for women to be paid the same. This of course does not imply that female athletes don't deserve to be fairly compensated for their work or that they don't work as hard as their male counterparts. The answers to those questions are rather unequivocal. It just means that the stages of development are totally di erent and that this is one of the primary reasons for the pay disparity Of course, women have long been denied opportunities in sport and this is a huge factor in terms of why the development of women's sport is currently lag ging so far behind.

and take them on their merits without constant unnecessary comparisons to their male counterparts The 20x20 campaign of increasing participation attendance and increasing coverage of women’s sport by 20% by the year 2020 was hugely successful. Although these gures weren’t exactly hit, partially impacted by the pandemic, the overall e ect has been hugely positive and has changed the landscape of sport drastically in a relatively short period.

The campaign focused on increasing visibility for female athletes in the hope of inspiring the next generation, with the powerful tagline of “if she can't see it, she can't be it” Equal pay for equal work is a movement that is sweeping across nearly every industry, not just sport.

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The progression of Irish female athletes and the global movement towards equal pay

Historically, gender-based inequality has been a huge barrier for female athletes but in recent years, those barriers are being slowly but surely lifted The issue comes with commercialisation of female sport to the point where the income garnered from such, increases enough that female athletes can begin to close the pay gap on male athletes.

This change is beginning to happen and female athletes are starting to reap the bene ts. British tennis sensation Emma Raducanu is one of the most recent examples of this. Her win at the US Open in Flushing Meadows in September earned her around £1.8 million and also brought in a higher viewership than that of the men’s nal. This only goes to show that the market is already there.

Tennis is a sport in which women have garnered signi cant coverage for decades, thus, the

pay disparity is quite literally years ahead of soccer or rugby, which are relatively new in terms of covera ge in mainstream media. For example, former world number one Naomi O s a k a w a s f e a t u r e d i n Fo r b e s magazine top-earning athletes of 2021 and is considered to be the highestearning female athlete ever.

This serves as an example to other female athletes that there is money out there, and with the right investment, there could be more women on this list in years to come.

Just recently, in August, it was announced that the Irish women’s national football team would be receiving equal pay from the FAI a huge decision from an organisation that is desperately seeking to rebrand itself amidst years of controversy. This equal pay agreement is a far cry from the debacle back in 2017, when the team publicly announced that they occasionally

had to resort to changing in public toilets and were in some cases sharing tracksuits for their trips.

The US women’s national team who are the reigning world champions have been campaigning for equal pay for years in what has been a very public negotiation.

They even brought the US soccer federation to court and led a lawsuit which was subsequently dismissed by the judge, however, an appeal has since been lodged in the case.

There was public opposition to the proposition of equal pay which goes to show that even looking at how much progress there has been, there is still much to be done in terms of levelling the playing eld. But more recently, the US soccer federation has o ered identical contracts to their male and female players in an attempt to equalise world cup payments. This is the primary concern of the women's team having won the last two iterations of the World Cup back to back and with the men’s team being relatively average.

It is for this reason that the decision of the FAI is so signi cant. Equal pay, particularly in a sport that is so commercial, is hugely progressive and it sets an example for other countries to follow.

It i s a l s o a r a t h e r revolutionary move in the context of women’s football as a whole.

Now including Ireland,

there are just a handful of football federations in the world who pay their male and female international players the same amount of money.

Ireland is not the rst country to implement such a scheme, but it’s not yet a hugely populated group.

England, Brazil, New Zealand, Au s t r a l i a , a n d No r w a y a r e currently a host of other international teams that have equal remuneration policies for their international players. It’s still a relatively small list, but the fact that there are any names on the list shows that change is happening and things are going in the right direction Radical change always starts with a few small but signi cant steps. Ireland and the FAI have now taken one of those steps. In doing so they have provided an example for other countries to follow and have also shown young girls that their e orts are not worth less simply because of their gender

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Greenwashing: A Capitalist approach to Climate Change In this timely piece, Kate O’Riordan looks at the phenomenon of Greenwashing among large corporations and Green Capitalism.

In response to the detrimental impacts of climate change, Generation Z has spearheaded much of the global climate action movement, as seen in the Extinction Rebellion Movement and Greta Thunberg’s school strikes that sparked a global movement.

These recent events furthered the rise of environmental consciousness and conscience in society, leading to a greater demand for sustainable practices and policies from governments and corporations to a t te m p t to co m b a t c l i m a te change’s harmful impact on our planet. This new eco-conscience in consumers created a new market for companies to target with greenwashing campaigns Greenwashing is the deceptive intentional marketing strategy that creates a false impression that a company is selling eco-friendly products, to appeal to the growing eco-consciousness of consumers.

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The term “washing” in this context implies the glazing over of the unethical and not so eco-friendly practices of a company to focus on one minute speci c less harmful counteracting activity, that they do for the sake of the environment seemingly rather than pro t. The aim of greenwashing is to cultivate a sustainable or eco-conscious brand image using vague buzzwords, such as recyclable, sustainable, organic, energy-e cient, biodegradable etc.

Companies that use these phrases more often than not, do not have the most sustainable business practices and only see the rising ecoconscious and

climate change movement as a new market to tap into to satiate the demand for more sustainable goods, as being ecofriendly is just another trend. Many companies try to distance themselves from their own detrimental environmental impact by engaging in such greenwashing tactics.

Cr e a t i n g h i g h l e v e l s o f emissions, waste and unethical labour, many companies are a far cry from the sustainable image that they market.

Fast fashion brands are the most notorious culprits in this marketing tactic, whilst contributing to 10% of global carbon emissions annually according to a 2019 World Bank report.

A agrant example of greenwashing is, H&M’s line of clothing called their ‘Conscious Collection’, which claimed to use recycled polyester and organic cotton which weren’t certi ed. They also advertised that the clothing line had a ‘reduced impact’ on the environment, omitting any speci c statistics. The retailer was called out on their va gue langua ge by the Norwegian Consumer Authority for providing ‘insu cient’ information about their sustainability claims.

Furthermore, H&M is the secondlargest fashion retailer in the world and has extremely unethical labour practices, making the word ‘conscious’ in their eco-collection, quite ironic to say the least.

Operating sustainably under a fast fashion business model is nothing short of a colossal paradox.

In falling down the rabbit hole of identifying examples of greenwashing, large multinational oil companies provide the most shocking cases of the phenomenon.

The Shell group of petrochemical and energy companies is one of the biggest o enders when it c o m e s to c a r b o n e m i s s i o n s , emitting 70 million tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere annually. On Twitter, Shell dared to post a Twitter poll asking; ‘What are you willing to change to help reduce emissions?’ with the option of “o set your emissions, stop ying, buy an electric car, or choose renewable electricity.”

This only demonstrates a

shameless lack of selfawareness of the oil corporation that failed a carbon o set tree planting campaign and continues to pro t from burning fossil fuels.

T h e l a s t o p t i o n t o ‘c h o o s e renewable energy’ is truly laughable, as renewable energy, the obvious choice, would be a serious pro t de ator for Shell. Millions are spent annually on strategizing various campaigns to create the illusion of eco-consciousness, to announce piecemeal projects that promote sustainability and to release vague targets.

It's important to note that green capitalism and greenwashing are not synonymous concepts, as green capitalism involves the belief that economic growth and sustainability can coexist, using levers of the market to x the damaged environment.

Green capitalism is a win-win to many politicians and corporations as it enforces the appearance that a company cares about the environment whilst maintaining pro ts and achieving economic growth. This brand of capitalism is a relatively uid concept that attempts to use fewer natural resources from the biosphere, which sounds appealing but is much di erent in practice than it is ideologically.

There are many arguments in favour of this eco brand of capitalism, as it promotes investment in renewable energies, the creation of more eco-friendly technology and is seen as a step in the right direction towards a more sustainable future However, the paradoxical nature of green capitalism is that corporations who monopolise on the sustainability movement view economic growth and expansion as an ultimate agenda rather than making greener choices and using less of the planet’s dwindling resources. Green capitalism is a myth and capitalism, the driver of industrialization, is the creator of much of the destruction to the planet so it seems illogical to deem a different brand of it as a solution.

There is also an issue with the market contorting ecological problems so they t into some specific sort of profitable f rame work whilst neglecting unprofitable areas, such as transport technologies and systems that could yield more sustainable progress for society and the planet Another rebuttal to green capitalism that is commonly used as a get out of jail free card, is the phrase:

‘there is no ethical consumption under capitalism’, which traditionally refers to labour and ethics in production and consumption, is still relevant to the debate on climate change.

Firstly, it reduces the argument against greenwashing and the borderline false advertisement that attempts to manipulate consumers.

It is impossible to live under a capitalist system without participating in it to some degree and a black and white view on consumption cannot achie ve change.

Moreover, the narrative of how to attain environmental sustainability to combat climate change is often one that attributes responsibility to individuals rather than large multinational corporations, environmental laws, and government policy that can enact much more substantial change rather than a campaign to turn o the tap when you brush your teeth. Ultimately, the frame of individual responsibility in response to climate change deflects accountability f rom companies, which is why we see a lot of pseudo-empowering language in various marketing campaigns.

One central takeaway from the debate is that although

we are somewhat powerless as individuals, we can be more mindful of our consumption choices while also remaining critical of greenwashing a s a m a r ke t i n g t e c h n i q u e .

Consuming less is always optimal, yet the act is still necessary. Due to financial constraints, accessibility, and other barriers, sustainability can seem almost unfeasible at times. Starting small, reducing, reusing, repairing, recycling are the steps towards individual sustainability.

The website Goodonyou.com has a robust ranking system for ethicality and sustainability of various companies and fashion brands and is a valuable resource to identify environmental impacts.

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Jessica O’Brien shines a light on Ireland’s arts sector and its need for protection as we continue to emerge om the post-Covid era.

The Arts have always been a vital part of our lives, but during Lockdown it became even more evident that life without music, lm, literature and live events lacked colour. This was felt more than ever as we all desperately watched pirated movies together on Zoom and relistened to podcasts and albums back to back. Filmmaking was for the most part put on hold, and new television was tricky to film, so we all re watched… ‘Friends,’ for some reason I nally got to be in a theatre for the rst time in three years on October 16th, and it was like all the waiting and isolating I had done up to that moment was suddenly worth it; This grand nale that could only be compared to an epic movie ending. The lights, booming music, a live band - all of these now foreign concepts were just freely happening before us, and it was glorious.

The actors at times looked close to tears, which I understood.

After all, it was they who

worked twice as hard as most people to get back to their jobs.

It is undeniable that the arts and those who work in the sector have always been treated with a certain amount of derision. Acting and performing, for example, are often not seen as ‘proper’ jobs.

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The Importance of the Arts - It’s Necessity in Today’s Fast Paced-World

Over lockdown, a par ticular ad campaign in Britain for Cyber First went viral for its hy pocrisy in suggesting that those employed in the arts take the time to retrain in s o m e t h i n g m o r e ‘c o n c r e t e ’ o r ‘sensible’ whilst simultaneousl y awarding £275 million in funding to struggling arts venues and organisations. The image of a ballet dancer called Fatima (whose next job “could be in cyber and she just didn’t know it yet’’) perpetrated the idea that the arts were being unreasonable in expecting to get back to work, and those involved should simply up and retrain.

C o n s e q u e n t l y, t h e a d campaign went viral in an infamous way, causing social media uproar and many passionate tweets from in uencers professing their newly unwavering support for the arts, which lasted for about a month until the topic was once again deemed irrelevant It is not the rst time the arts has been portrayed as a hobby rather than the livelihood of millions of people, and it is de nitely not the rst time the arts have been portrayed as something trivial compared to sport.

On August 22nd the All-Ireland Senior Hurling Final took place with a crowd of 50,000, with thousands travelling across counties to watch and stand maskless in close spaces as dance studios with social distancing measures remained closed International professional sport continued, as did GAA matches and training while theatres with half capacity remained closed

My brother went back to basketball and footbal l while I watched a noiseless and bu ering dance class on Zoom.

I will never understand the blatant lack of respect the general public and the government treats the arts community with. When con ned to your homes during lockdowns, our music soothed you to sleep, our books passed your endless days, our lms became your nightly routine and writing became your lifeline during your darkest days of quarantine. Yet, how easily we were deemed as replaceable once restrictions were lifted The arts are irreplaceable.

Everybody unintentionally consumes at least one aspect of the arts a day, whether it is music, simply viewing art or reading a newspaper. Everybody forgets that behind every article of clothing they wear, there is a designer.

Everybody forgets that not every member of a theatre is a performer, but rather a backstage hand, a c h o r e o g r a p h e r, a t i c ke t b o o t h operator and more.

I have yet to dance again and that fact remains every time I see an overcrowded pub. I spoke at the Glucksman about the importance of the arts when I was fteen and I will continue to speak about it for as long as it needs to be said

The world needs the arts, and you do too, even if you don’t realise it yet.

In this piece, Róisín Dunlea examines the e ects that urban growth and development is having on the cultural identity of Irish cities.

In 2018, Cork City Council used a quote from poet Thomas McCarthy as part of its campaign to promote and celebrate business development in the centre: “[a] city rising is a beautiful thing”.

Development was relatively well received at the time, w h e n r e s i d e n t s we r e h a p p y to s e e a n i n f l u x o f multinational corporations building and opening o ce spaces Leeside, thereby providing employment for thousands of locals at a time when the e ects of the nancial crash a few years prior continued to cast their shadow. In the current context, however, it seems that attitudes towards the changing skylines of Irish cities have soured The Sextant pub, built in 1877 at Albert Quay in Cork and listed in the National Inventory of Architectural Heritage, was demolished in 2020 to make space for a residential building. Putting aside what one can only imagine the extortionate cost of living in such a building would likely be, the blind optimists among us could argue that at least a pub which had shut down a year before its demolition would be used for accommodation purposes during the worst housing crisis modern Ireland has ever seen; despite the loss of a historic and formerly successful venue, perhaps such a change would be for the greater good. As of October 2021, plans to build a residential building on the demolition site have been abolished, and developers have announced vague intentions to construct yet more o ce space there instead. It seems this particular cultural sacri ce was in vain More recently, there has been uproar regarding plans for the modi cation of two sites of cultural signi cance in Dublin to make way for the development of new hotels: the famous Merchant’s Arch, leading from Ha’penny Bridge to Temple Bar; and the Cobblestone, a popular traditional music venue dating back as early as 1850.It seems that the announcement of these plans was the last straw for supporters of culture and the arts after what has already been a fraught 18 months for all things creative.

At the time of writing, a petition to ‘Save the Cobblestone’ has garnered over 30,000 signatures.

As has come to be expected in these situations, developers and city councils alike continue to defend projects of this variety by highlighting the bene ts that increased hotel capacity in the capital would have for the tourism sector and for the economy in general. This attitude raises many questions: what will attract these allimportant tourists to our country if Irish culture continues to be undervalued and diminished? Secondly, a query that has been raised countless times on social media in recent weeks, who should take priority when these decisions are made? The residents and citizens who live here, work here, and value the historical signi cance of their surroundings, or tourists who visit for a long weekend in March With that being said, it would be unreasonable and unfair to suggest that tourism should be left completely out of the equation. The sector su ered 150,000 job losses in 2020 and is still only beginning the path to recovery. No one is suggesting that every archway and every bar in Ireland should be considered precious enough to be preserved at the expense of income and jobs for thousands of people. The issue taken by most critics of such plans is that the construction of hotels and o ces seems to gradually be taking priority in the eyes of developers and governmental bodies alike while ordinary citizens struggle to nd suitable housing, and the preservation of culture is put on the back burner.

A reconsideration of priorities seems to be in order. This problem certainly appears to be very Dublincentric at the moment, but

it would be naïve of us Corkonians to believe that our city will be the exception to the trend of hotel domination. Way back in 1913, W.B. Yeats proclaimed that “romantic Ireland’s dead and gone”.

If we don’t tread carefully now, we might run the risk of dancing on her grave.

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Stuck Between a Hotel and a Hard Place Cultural loss for economic gain in Ireland’s growing cities

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By Stephen Moynihan

The implementation of a

Universal Basic Income (UBI) has the potential to change Irish society, and the lives of Irish people for the better. UBI is de ned as a universal, unconditional, periodic cash transfer, with the payments set at a level high enough to ensure an individual can live a life of dignity To understand what is special about UBI it can be helpful to think of it as an alternative to the typical means-tested social welfare systems observed in Ireland. Although, one should keep in mind that typical social welfare style measures could theoretically supplement UBI in a society that chooses to go down that route. The key factor is that UBI comes rst, ensuring a digni ed income for all before the standard welfare measures could kick in Under a typical social welfare system, individuals are subjected to intrusive means-tests in order to secure income. The arbitrary nature of these means -tests and the regimented structure they assume means that individuals’ unique circumstances cannot be taken into account. Such bureaucracies are rigid and impassionate, and that’s the only way they can function.

The bureaucrats look at the eligibility criteria, look at the information in front of them, and if the latter doesn’t satisfy the former, then, as far as they’re concerned, the claimant is out of luck

Many students will be only too familiar with this notion in the labyrinth of SUSI, and the stress involved in answering hundreds of questions ranging from your mother ’s maiden name to your father ’s nance lease payments.

While SUSI is not part of the social welfare system per se, the arbitrariness of such systems is neatly captured by how much of a di erence your family home being 46km vs.

43km from your college makes to your grant income. The answer is between €450 and €3540, in case you were wondering UBI bypasses such issues. It is not a question of who is eligible for UBI, because every citizen is. It doesn’t matter whether an individual’s spouse or partner is working, whether an individual inherited a family home i n t h e p a s t y e a r, o r a n y o t h e r condition which can be grounds for disquali cation in a means-test. The UBI payment is universal and guaranteed, regardless of one’s individual circumstances Secondly, a query that has been raised countless times on social media in recent weeks, who should take priority when these decisions are made?

The residents and citizens who live here, work here, and value the historical significance of their surroundings, or tourists who visit for a long weekend in March With that being said, it would be unreasonable and unfair to suggest that tourism should be left completely out of the equation. The sector su ered 150,000 job losses in 2020 and is still only beginning the path to recovery. No one is suggesting that every archway and every bar in Ireland should be considered precious enough to be preser ved at the expense of income and jobs for thousands of people.

The issue taken by most critics of such plans is that the construction of hotels and o ces seems to gradually be taking priority in the eyes of developers and governmental bodies alike while ordinary citizens struggle to nd suitable housing, and the preservation of culture is put on the back burner.

A reconsideration of priorities seems to be in order. This problem certainly appears to be very Dublincentric at the moment, but it would be naïve of us Corkonians to believe that our city will be the exception to the trend of hotel domination. Way back in 1913, W.B. Yeats proclaimed that

“romantic Ireland’s dead and gone”.

If we don’t tread carefully now, we might run the risk of dancing on her grave.

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How Universal Basic Income Could Revolutionise the Irish Social Safety Net

How we see a Night Out Sam Golden re ects on the importance of socialisation and how the covid-era has forced us to consider the true importance of a good night out.

In the last decade, the fixated idea of a night has almost become a cross between cultism and ancient tradition.

Whether it be the Monday Club or a weekend bender, the basis of a night out on the town has remained the same. It would generally consist of meeting friends for pre-drinks followed by a group pilgrimage to whatever club or bar was on the agenda.

I think the prospect of any type of socialising now (especially for students) has been changed in a particularly interesting way. In our current transition to the post-covid era, it looks like we have really changed our tune when it comes to what we perceive and value on a night out.

Before the pandemic, we relied on large night clubs and venues as the foundation to a good night out. Knowing that there will be a large contingent of people attending the likes of Havanas or Voodoo Rooms pulled us towards these lively nightlife areas.

As we continue to re-enter a post-pandemic society, it wouldn’t be too assumptious to say we have become a little more self-su cient - almost autonomous in crafting a good night out.

Although more planning is needed nowadays, it seems this has coincided with an increased appreciation for what socializing is. At the end of the day we are social creatures and generally long for human interaction. It makes sense that after several months of seeing a limited number of people that we would convert into this mindset of caring more about seeing others.

I couldn’t count how many forgettable nights I’ve had on Washington Street prior to the pandemic, but since September, there has been no lack of dull stories to dissect while hungover the morning after an eventful evening on the beer. The saying that

“you don’t really miss something until it's gone” is very applicable in this setting The hype surrounding a night out on the town is still there and probably always will be there regardless of whatever restrictions remain. But the point I am trying to highlight is that our behaviour has di ered. Time has a lot to tell, but I estimate that this new found appreciation will be enlightening to us

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A Change of Scenery: an Irish Perspective in the USA Niamh Browne takes a humorous look at the social di erences she encountered when she moved to Chicago for Erasmus.

After three lockdowns, I, along with the rest of the country, entered into the new normal.

I was exhausted, miserable (or at the very least mentally fragile) and bored. Most importantly, above anything else, I was bored. Bored bored bored out of my fucking mind. No TikTok co ee, no jackbox TV game and no amount of online purchases could stave o my boredom. The monotony of life had taken its toll. Every day seeing the same three faces, the same unreal zoomsphere, and going on the same 5K walks. Excellence may be a habit, not an act, but I was ailing.

But there was hope, a thing with feathers - Erasmus was on the horizon and I had made my mind up to go to the most exciting place I could think of: America.

Good, bad, and straight-up ugly, America has been described in recent years as a developing country with a Guccibelt.

Nevertheless, I wanted to go. For all its aws, the one criticism you can never lay at the feet of America is that it’s boring. I moved to Chicago about 8 weeks ago, so while it is early days, and I am not blind to the raging injustices in this city - I want to talk about my favourite changes since I moved here.

1 - Money This one is not all that radical, but American money is more fun than euros. Single dollar bills are so damn convenient. Not only that, they make me feel richer when I have ten dollars in singles than a ten-dollar bill. The humble quarter is also another gem, allowing you to count out change e ciently and also- to wash your clothes

2 - Romanticising your life This is potentially an annoying thing or a wonderful thing depending on your perspective, but Americans are so damn peppy. A trip to a bookstore is suddenly an ‘outing’ or instead of continuously getting invited to the pub, you get invited to pumpkin patches, and apple picking. The wholesome ‘pep’ that imbues the lens of American life is in equal parts charming and annoying but I wouldn’t change a thing.

3 - Dating Culture I don’t know how any dating apps are in business in the US but I truly believe Americans are missing the chemicals responsible for embarrassment. The woman at the bank, a bartender in a bar, a man in a park, a girl in a train station have all approached me to ask me out. There is simply no shame. Whereas, in Ireland, you sleep with your friend at a house party and then grab an awkward co ee after, Americans ask people out before they have had sex with them.

4 - Bars in Supermarkets I believe this to be a Chicago only thing, but yes, it’s exactly how it sounds. In supermarkets here, there is an area where you can stop with your shopping cart mid-shop for a cold one with the boys

5 - E- invites This one is so cute. Americans make little digital invites for their parties with graphics telling you where and when to be there.

6 - Compliments Ok, this one is hard to explain, but basically the entire country is like the girl’s bathroom in a nightclub. Every day I leave my house, I’ll get some compliment from a stranger ranging from gems such as “slamming out t” to “I love your hair” to “that’s the best out t I have seen in weeks”. I understand that this may feel weird or invasive to some, but I don’t mind people commenting on my clothes and out ts, and long as they don’t mention my body. I think catcalling is predicated on the objecti cation of the body, but compliments are based on appreciating the qualities of a person’s style or personality

7 - Legal weed This one speaks for itself

8 - Beer This is potentially sacrilege, but I think they might have better beer than us. What they lack in creamy beamy they make up for in other regards. The city of Chicago has over 160 independent breweries, the island of Ireland has 90.

While you might have to put up with a few bearded men in annel, you can buy some of the best bags of cans with the lads here.

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‘In the Game’ Album Review Phi ip Brennan o ers his take on the new co aboration record om two unique Irish talents

‘In The Game’ is a new collaborative album

These tracks tell a heart-breaking yet constr uctive stor y with the protagonists taking us on a walk through the stark graveyard of a romantic relationship.

Lyrics on songs such as Are We Free? are the equivalent of storming out and slamming a door mid-argument. “Tell me when you’re ready to be never satis ed” rasps O ’ Ne i l l , w i t h p a l p a b l e a n g e r resonating throughout the track.

I would argue that O’Neill’s

by prominent Irish artists Mick Flannery and Susan O’Neill.

O ’ Ne i l l i s a s i n g e rsongwriter and multi-instrumentalist from Ennis, Co. Clare and a relative newcomer to the Irish music scene, d e s p i te a n a p p e a r a n ce o n t h e television contest ‘You’re A Star’ back in 2006. After listening to this compelling album, I hope to explore more of her material in the future. On the other hand, Blarney native, Mick Flannery is one of Ireland’s most acclaimed singersongwriters, having been previously honoured with Meteor and Hot Pr e s s a w a r d s . T h i s p r o j e c t i s Flannery’s fth full-length release In The Game is essentially a themed collection of songs exploring the troubled relationship between two ctional characters.

The musicians accompany listeners in the journey down the tunnel of love and showcase their stormy, tumultuous relationship over 14 powerful tracks.

uplifting and grounded vocals are the unique selling point of the album, ha ving garnered comparisons to those of gigantic female artists like Adele, Amy Winehouse, Janis Joplin, and Stevie Nicks The ltering lyrics of These Are the Days uncover the lies that accompany love; “it was better to learn a hard lesson and go, than never to tr y and never know”.

Furthermore, Love You Like I Love You is an attempt to salvage the remaining fragments of a relationship, with the gospel-driven chorus yearning “when you love you as much as I love you, you might see the light. When you love you as much as I love you, you might be alright”.

The protagonists attempt to rebuild their love and make their relationship work. They need each other and require the warmth of connection compared to the cold atmosphere that has emerged between them. Flanner y describes Chain Reaction as a song that focuses on the expression of gratitude by the protagonists.

This LP is a perfect example of change, with the central theme subtl y weaved throughout. The album tells the story of coming together and falling apart, a universally relatable situation to most listeners. The highs and lows of the game of love are depicted with great skill by the musical pairing here.

Fu r t h e r m o r e , this collaboration communicates the raw space in which the human condition can leave one most vulnerable.

He states that the song is about the central characters “being grateful to each other just by being who they are”. The pair o er their characters a feeling of redemption on songs such as Baby Talk where they openly discuss their unique relationship and love for each other.

Meanwhile, the protagonists show sorrow and despondency in the lyrics of the title track In The Game“Oh darling, what would ha ve happened if only we’d had a good run”.

Whether on the seductive, bluesy opener Trouble or the haunting album closer Ghost, O’Neill and Flannery o er a fresh take on the traditional romantic album. They change their formality and produce a record of emotional diversity. This change helps in comprehending and digesting the album, showcasing that love is not a simple linear process. Overall, this album is a delightful and unpretentious listen. These artists have created something new by being themselves in the mind of someone else.

In The Game urges us to dig deep into our souls.

Consequently, we nd ourselves rejuvenated if not redeemed.

Insecurities and other vulnerabilities are poignantly explored across the album, with disarming honesty. As O’Neill ultimately notes, “music always puts you into vulnerable situations, especially if you’re writing lyrical content about love, from the heart”

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ENTERTAINMENT

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The changing roles of Quasimodo in The Hunchback of Notre-Dame

by Shruti Rajgopal

“Time flies and man is stupid.”

The classic novel written by Victor Hugo begins with these infamous words. There is no immediate reaction as to why Hugo uses this phrase. It dawns much later to the reader when they realise the complex roles played by Quasimodo, better known as the Hunchback The king of fools – there is no way one can forget the celebrations around the cathedral of Notre Dame, where Hugo introduces his much-beloved character, Quasimodo. In this scene, he is crowned as the king and people carry him around the streets.

Although people objectify him for his looks, Quasimodo neither refrains nor reacts to the way he is treated. He keeps up with the pretence of the festivity and allows people to rejoice in their celebrations.

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Quasimodo maintains a mundane and constant image throughout the book, he moans and groans in response to the duties assigned to him by Claude Frollo.

However, there are a few places and people who incite a range of emotions that he begins to express The ying buttresses of the cathedral were revolutionary for the period in which it was built, however, the campanile is where the reader rst obser ves Quasimodo being himself.

Though this does not seem like a change in the persona portrayed, ringing the bells is what makes him joyous.

It is the only place, in the whole of Paris, where the hunchback feels like he is being heard, where he is treated for the person he is. This tower is the place where he allows himself to be vulnerable.

Not only does it change Quasimodo’s behaviour, but also ensures that one can emote and express in any space and receive a response that proves to be a s s u r i n g . Wa l l s d o h a v e e a r s a n d Quasimodo reiterates this thought as he shows a sense of camaraderie with the bell tower and with the resonance of the bells.

unlike being treated as the king of fools, as the mob treated him.

Come to think of it, there are two things to note here,

Quasimodo not only shares his vulnerable place with a complete stranger such as Esmeralda, but his own behaviour changes with her, could it be because of the background, or the situation itself that dawns on him to treat her di erently?

This is the part in the book where the reader realizes how he not only lets her con de in him but also develops an amicable r e l a t i o n s h i p w i t h h e r.

Although she is

destined to the fate chosen b y C l a u d e Fr o l l o , w h o himself falls naught to the gargoyles moulded in the gothic cathedral and meets his death, her perception of the hunchback changes with time While Quasimodo withers away in pain and desperation at the loss of his onl y human f riend, Hugo’s words, “time ies and man is stupid”, ring a bell of how Quasimodo changed as he understood the atrocities committed by Frollo. However, the mob around the cathedral failed to notice the animate Phoebus, breathing and walking in esh and form, whereas the innocent were placed on the guillotine.

Hugo ha s captured the change acknowledged by the character, though his compassion could not avert the decision taken against the innocent.

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As the book narrates the turmoil Esmeralda encounters, ambushed by the betrayal caused by Phoebus and torn by the evil plans of Claude Frollo, the character of the hunchback gradually grows on the reader.

In this phase, the hunchback religiously follows the imperative orders of Claude Frollo without questioning whether they are right or wrong. Here, Quasimodo seems lost in veneration to the older Frollo, his respect for Frollo is immeasurable as someone who raised him as a child. He puts no mind to the banal punishment that Esmeralda is sentenced with and carries it forth without impediment However, there is a striking moment when Esmeralda nds refuge in the campanile, and her only contact with the outside world is the hunchback.

As the stor y progresses, Quasimodo begins to react to the turmoil Esmeralda goes through. He stops believing what Frollo suggests and gradually starts helping Esmeralda.

She in turn begins to see him for the person he is,

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A Short Story by Shruti Rajgopal

It w a s a d e c a d e s i n c e M r Pumkinhead lost his wife. She allowed her husband to decide on an engraving that would best describe her life to him. As a columnist, he cherished her memory by continuing to live in it rather than move ahead with his life. He came to the graveyard each day, at noon, with his dog, Hodge-Podge. He had taken Pumkinhead as his pseudonym, his real name was Paul Austen.

His works were meant to cheer his readers, who were living in a world filled with pain and darkness. He wanted people to rejoice and chuckle about the smaller things in life. Hence, from his youth, he began to write stories that brightened people’s days. He took it upon himself to spread happiness through the little things that he noticed in his every day Once he married Marian, all his content revolved around her daily chores. Running around the house caring Hodge-Podge.

This brought about a sense of lively avour to his writing style and content.

However, he slowed down once she was interred in the ground. He continued to write for the same paper in his town and it still involved her, but somewhere it neither made him happy nor his readers.

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The Bone that Changed Everything Gradually, his writing style turned to a tone of melancholy, which was surprisingly applauded by his readers. Some people sent him letters of endearment and owers, which he never bothered to read or acknowledge.

Somehow, he did not notice the change in his writing, his content nor the praise he received from his readers. The loss made him lose track of the world he was living in, to the world his now dead wife belonged to One afternoon, while he was sitting by Mrs Pumkinhead’s grave, he was reading the daily news. Although he lived in a techsavvy world, he chose to buy his newspaper from the stand, right across the graveyard every day, a practice he refused to change.

He spent an hour reading the paper. During this time, HodgePodge wandered a little and came back and kneeled by his master.

After an hour or so, the duo would throw a ying kiss to the tombstone and circumambulate the route they had taken inside the graveyard.

An hour had passed, Mr Pumkinhead was done reading and right when he was about to do his usual ritual, he noticed that Hodge-Podge was not back yet. He called out to the dog, but there was no sign of the fourl e g g e d c r e a t u r e . He w a l ke d around the cemeter y, taking di erent routes,

halting by a tree here and by another grave there.

Suddenly, he came to a stop – the dog was nicely seated by a grave, licking a bone that he found. Mr Pumkinhead breathed a sigh of relief.

He went and gave the dog a big hug and lifted the puppy for the rst time in years. When he carried the dog, he caught the words engraved on the tombstone where the dog found the bone – Thank you Mr Pumkinhead, your columns were cherished by my son. The shift in your style of writing gave him the strength to look at life each day as it passed and to endure the pain that his body caused Right below the engraving was a poem written by the columnist which was published as an obituary for his w i f e . At t h a t m o m e n t , M r Pumkinhead thought about how his life had changed in the last few years. Although he became a writer to bring happiness among his readers, he realized that his changed style wa s accepted whole-heartedly by them and helped them in their lives, just what he had aimed for years ago.

He was glad Hodge-Podge made him walk through a di erent route and found the bone where Mr Pumkinhead re-evaluated the meaning of change that a grave loss had caused

Motley Entertainment Editor James Kemmy revisits a modern literary classic that i ustrates Ireland’s evolving social attitudes

“What’s wrong with you people? What’s wrong with Ireland? Don’t you want each other to be happy?”. “No,” I said, nding my country a di cult one to explain.

“No, I don’t think we do”.

So goes a passage in the midsection of John Boyne’s monumental 2017 novel ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’.

A tale of shame, loneliness and redemption spanning seventy years and four countries, this novel is a masterclass in emotional complexity and societal observance. Opening in 1940s Goleen, West Cork and concluding in the celebratory midst of the 2015 same-sex marriage referendum, ‘Furies’ portrays the painful and alienating experience of growing up in a nation that is opposed to your very existence Boyne’s prota gonist, Cyril Aver y, retrospectivel y narrates his unconventional life story from inside his estranged mother’s womb through to his elderly years with a profound lucidity and striking tenderness. Brutally cast out from her rural village at the age of sixteen for the cardinal sin of unwed pregnancy, Cyril’s mother subsequently moves to postwar Dublin and is forced to give her son up for adoption in a display of all-too common social stigma. From the outset of the novel, the institutionally ingrained dogma of Catholic Ireland is starkly illustrated whilst Cyril’s personal circumstances give rise to struggles of identity and selfworth.

Boyne’s stylistic approach includes the e ective use of seven-year jumps to convey the passage of time, documenting his prota gonist’s e volving jour ney through many formative and devastating experiences. Beginning with his childhood in an eccentric but a uent home setting where he is constantly reminded by adoptive parents that he is “not a real Aver y”, to the chronic awkwardness of institutional education under the priesthood, to his lonely adolescence, the quintessential Irishness of Cyril’s experiences is both amusing and troubling. Moreover, Boyne’s side characters are incredibly charismatic and dot the story with a comedic wit and lightness that is needed to counterbalance the predominantly heavy subject matter.

At the very heart (excuse the pun) of this prose, however, is the poignant story of an ordinary gay man attempting to assert himself in a country that is so utterly hostile to him in various ways. Boyne, who is gay himself, has spoken candidly about the institutional abuse he experienced at the hands of the Catholic Church as a child, and it is undoubtedly this sense of injustice and anger that has compelled him to craft such a personal but socially aware novel.

Throughout ‘Furies’ Cyril endures seemingly endless instances of torment and humiliation- from his unreciprocated adoration of childhood friend Julian Woodbead, to his closeted and selfenforced marria ge to a female acquaintance.

Moreover, complex social issues such as misogyny, violence, and sexuality are dealt with throughout in a distinctively raw and unglamorous manner as Cyril longs for a sense of home and connection. While the setting of the novel’s middle section departs from Ireland to The Netherlands and New York res pe cti vel y, th e confli cti ng memor y of the protagonist’s home country looms large in his mind. Despite the brutality and homophobia that he su ers, Cyril deeply wants to believe that Ireland can become a more decent, inclusive place that does not exile people based on small-minded prejudices.

The instinctive need for human connection is a theme that seems to run throughout all of Boyne’s novels, from ‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, to more recent releases like ‘A Traveller at the Gates of Wisdom’, and ‘Furies’ is no exception to this. From the outset, Cyril desperately looks for meaning in others yet is often found wanting- demonstrated by his adoptive parents' detached demeanours and the promiscuous but ultimately meaningless results of his romantic pursuits.

Ye t , t h e m o s t i n te r e s t i n g relationship of all here is the protagonist’s one with his own country- a connection that tortures and frustrates him but simultaneously endows him with a sense of hope and pride. Despite all the trauma and hardship throughout, Boyne’s ambitious magnum opus ultimately closes on a profoundly uplifting note, illustrating his protagonist’s return to a more tolerant, open-minded and ultimately changed Ireland.

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Sin and stigma in a changing Ireland: John Boyne’s ‘The Heart’s Invisible Furies’ Review

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A need for change: What Carl Honore’s “In Praise of Slow” and encoded symbolism in Turkish music teach us about the effects of Western cultural hegemony Ronan Keohane explores two distinct examples of Western hegemony and its damaging e ects

*Please note that this article makes reference to eating disorders. Read at your own discretion*.

Living slowly through all aspects of life is a concept that would be expectedly laughed at in this modern age, in a world where free-market capitalism has become the dominant ideology structuring our society and our everyday lives. We live in a class system where the wealth divide is continuously increasing with wealth greatly de ning our level of privilege and opportunities.

The “slow movement” is a cultural phenomenon that strives to slow down our fast-paced lifestyles; this has risen in popularity in recent decades. In our modern world, being highly busy and productive is widely admired to the extent where “hustleculture” is a widespread phenomenon and “productivity porn” has become somewhat of a modern a iction.

Upward social mobility is considered a commonly-held goal in life, consistently reinforced ever yday through advertisements and the media which often (by means of highlighting a wide range of common insecurities) highlight personal inadequacies as a marketing tool to manipulate buyers into purchasing Throughout Carl Honore’s b o o k “ In Pr a i s e o f S l o w ” , t h e workaholic nature of nations such as the USA are remarked upon, citing how a typical American lifestyle centres around employment where millions of inhabitants live on the outskirts of busy cities and

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spend huge amounts of time in cars commuting to and from work.

In the early 1990s, national legislation was passed whereby Dutch employees were given more autonomy over their working hours, resulting in a more exible contract and enabling more time for personal activities that are not centred around consumption and work.

Consequently, it was found that Dutch people had more time for personal hobbies, socialising and studying, yet the Netherlands still maintained high levels of economic prosperity.

What is not remarked upon quite as much as I would have liked in this book is the in uence of Calvinism on Dutch culture, and more speci cally

its emphasis on hard work.

In addition to this, something that could ha ve been interesting to explore is how Dutch colonialism a ected the work cultures of their colonies. The main example cited throughout this book is the example of American work culture, which is intriguing due to America’s in uence on many countries in the world at large, this ultimatel y implies a cultural American colonialism. This book, however, drew important attention to the fact that many aspects of this modern quick-paced lifestyle originate in America, with the US’s in uence thus spreading this example elsewhere.

Western hegemony is important to discuss as it ultimately

misguides the rest of the human populace into normalizing a dominant s u p e r p o w e r. S u c h h e g e m o n y ultimately becomes a presumption rather than seen as an example open to contestation by other nations.

Modern globalization almost entirely centres around western mass-media influence and international organizations which de ne the standards that other nations, regardless of cultural di erences, are obliged to live up to ie The World Bank, The World Trade Organisation etc.

The fundamental lack of cultural relativism furthermore leads to international Americanisation and the constant material yearning for “more” is a major issue that our society is plagued with. High-paced mass production, w o r ke r exploitation, and mass-consumerism at the hands of a wide array of

big businesses ultimately harm us on an individual and societal level, not to mention the damage done to our environment which has now not only become normalized but unattended to. It is high time that these cultural norms are re-evaluated and hopefully changed.

What do the kidnappers in the video represent? Many aspects of the music video point towards America. The captors symbolically wear clown makeup representing how the American entertainment industry has spread throughout the world.

After the release of this music video she was criticised harshly because she was shown eating or suggesting to eat during Ramadan (when the music video was lmed), however, this was possibly deliberate symbolism because it could represent a sort of inner con ict associated with being

A young and popular Turkish singer named Aleyna Tilki has become a gure of controversy throughout the Middle East. Hailing from Turkey, she was only 16 when her breakout music video “cevapsiz cinlama” reached over 500 million views on youtube.

Turkey is often referred to as “the bridge between east and west” - it has acted as a focal point in the silk road, alongside its largest city, Istanbul, which essentially shaped its modern identity.

The pain of being in a nation so torn is a theme that is played within Tilki’s music video “Yalnız Çiçek” which translates to ‘lonely ower’. Throughout this music on the one hand she is being told to fast and refrain from video various cryptic messages and suggestive imagery are eating food, as fasting is one of the 5 pillars of Islam, seen which ultimately refer to this pain.

“What’s wrong with you people?

Boyne’s stylistic includes Moreover,side, complex social issues as however on the the western American junksuch food This song is originally by theWhat’s singer Yıldız Tilbe who approach wrong with Ireland?

Don’t you e ective usethe of seven-year jumps toto look misogyny, violence, and sexuality aremanufactured beautiful is mass-produced mostly wrote Arabesque andwant folkeach songs. In the song, other to be happy?”.

“No,” I said, relationship nding convey the passage documenting with throughout exported throughoutdealt the world for pro t in a distinctively lyrics refer to a self-destructive between the of time, my country a di cult one to explain. his prota gonist’s e volving jour ney raw and unglamorous manner as Cyril Many scenes in this music video show the singer and somebody else, lyrics such as “Sarardım soldum “No, I don’t think we do”. through many formative and devastating l o n g s f o r a s e n s e o f h o m e and placement of unhealthy American food in various hasretinle” which mean “I became pale with your So goes a passage in the experiences. Beginning with his connection. While the setting of the bathroom xtures, drawing a correlation between such longing” “Kavrulup yanarım benchildhood yine” which midsection and of John Boyne’s monumental in an eccentric but a uent novel’s middle section departs from f o o d s a n d e a t i n gIreland d i s o rto d eThe r s - Netherlands l a r g e l y a We s te r n translates “I Heart’s becameInvisible scorched and burnhome again”setting refer to 2017 novel to ‘The Furies’. where he is constantly and New phenomenon.

This is because many people with bulimia how badly this relationship has a ected the lyricist.

A tale of shame, loneliness and reminded by adoptive parents that he is York res pe cti vel y, th e confli cti ng consume meals bathrooms or near toilets In interviews and press Tilki ahas redemption spanning seventy years releases, and “not realoften Aver y”, nervosa to the chronic memorin y of the protagonist’s home becauseeducation after binges, self-induced regularly referred to herthis music video as being four countries, novel is a masterclass awkwardness of institutional country looms largevomiting in his mind.

Despite occurs. in emotional complexity and societal under the priesthood, to his lonely the brutality and homophobia that he observance. Opening in 1940s Goleen, adolescence, the quintessential Irishness su ers, has Cyril adeeply to believe that Overall, Turkey long wants history of being West Cork and concluding in the of Cyril’s experiences in is both amusing become more uenced by manyIreland other can cultures duea to its decent, unique celebratory midst of the 2015 same-sex and troubling. Moreover, Boyne’s side inclusive place that does into not exile people geographical position.

This has continued modernity marriage referendum, ‘Furies’ portrays characters are incredibly charismatic and based on small-minded prejudices. as it currently struggles internally due to notable the painful and alienating experience of dot the story with a comedic wit di anderences that The needasfora human ideological haveinstinctive developed direct growing up in a nation that is opposed to lightness that is needed to connection is a theme that seems to run result of these wide ranges of in uences.

-your an very emotional response where hostage and kidnap existence counterbalance the predominantly heavy throughout all of Boyne’s novels, from Undoubtedl y, the contemporar y issue of victims develop attachment captured Boyne’sanprota gonist, towards Cyril whoever subject matter.

‘The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas’, to America’s expansive cultural in releases uence islike a profound them.

This draws the question: Who is the real captor in Aver y, retrospectivel y narrates his At the very heart (excuse the more recent ‘A Travellerand at pressing theme withinofthis musicand video andisone this video? unconventional life story from inside his pun) of this prose, however, is the played the Gates Wisdom’, ‘Furies’ no that provokes majorexception thought. to this. From the outset, Cyril estranged mother’s womb through to his poignant story of an ordinary gay man

stuck between the eastern and western world;

a depiction of “Stockholm syndrome”

elderly years with a profound lucidity and striking tenderness. Brutally cast out from her rural village at the age of sixteen for the cardinal sin of unwed pregnancy, Cyril’s mother subsequently moves to postwar Dublin and is forced to give her son up for adoption in a display of all-too common social stigma. From the outset of the novel, the institutionally ingrained dogma of Catholic Ireland is starkly illustrated whilst Cyril’s personal circumstances give rise to struggles of identity and selfworth.

attempting to assert himself in a country that is so utterly hostile to him in various ways. Boyne, who is gay himself, has spoken candidly about the institutional abuse he experienced at the hands of the Catholic Church as a child, and it is undoubtedly this sense of injustice and anger that has compelled him to craft such a personal but socially aware novel.

Throughout ‘Furies’ Cyril endures seemingly endless instances of torment and humiliation- from his unreciprocated adoration of childhood friend Julian Woodbead, to his closeted and selfenforced marria ge to a female acquaintance.

desperately looks for meaning in others yet is often found wanting- demonstrated by his adoptive parents' detached demeanours and the promiscuous but ultimately meaningless results of his romantic pursuits.

Ye t , t h e m o s t i n te r e s t i n g relationship of all here is the protagonist’s one with his own country- a connection that tortures and frustrates him but simultaneously endows him with a sense of hope and pride. Despite all the trauma and hardship throughout, Boyne’s ambitious magnum opus ultimately closes on a profoundly uplifting note, illustrating his protagonist’s return to a more tolerant, open-minded and ultimately changed Ireland.

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How does technology play a part in the future of fashion?

Fashion Editor Sarah Co ins takes a look at the continua y evolving relationship between fashion and technology and what this means for the progression of the industry as a whole.

The fashion industry as we know it today has a very long demonstrated history of pushing boundaries.

Designers are constantly thinking of the future and how they can keep up with their customers and t a r g e t m a r ke t . B r a n d n e w technologies and shifting client trends will continue to alter the fashion world in the years ahead, resulting in massive levels of innovation. Technology o ers a great ability to not only alleviate many of the pre-Covid di culties that the industry encountered, but also to make the sector more robust, viable, and wiser in the p o s t- C o v i d e r a w e a r e n o w entering As we know, the industry is responsible for 10% of the yearly global carbon emissions. By 2030, it is predicted that the fashion industry's greenhouse gas emissions will have increased by well over 50%. This is far from sustainable.

Te c h n o l o g y, therefore, has a signi cant part to play in reducing the industry's environmental impact.

T h e Fa b r i c a n t , f o r instance, a digital house brand based in Amsterdam, is a brand that only manufactures digital clothing with the goal of demonstrating to the globe that clothing does not have to be physical to exist.

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The Fabricant is the rst digital fashion rm creating unique and captivating non-physical 3D clothes and fashion storylines.

The concept that fashion should spare no data and stimulate only the imagination is one of their key ideas.

The brand believes that the online fashion world will provide fresh new alternatives whilst also encoura ging sustainability and minimizing the fashion industry's detrimental environmental consequences.

A digital supply chain will help save the planet while also increasing production speed, making it a win-win situation for businesses looking to become more ethical while maintaining l o w c o s t s . To m m y H i l f i g e r declared in November 2019 that by the year 2022, the company would be entirely digital. The PVH-owned firm will only employ 3D design to produce, manufacture, and sell samples from its Spring 2022 clothes lines forward, following a two-year transition.

When it comes to data, shoppers used to wear whatever designers came up with. Those days are long gone, and brands now rely on data to better understand their customers' likes, track their buying habits, and produce items that match their needs.

The evolution of fashion is data-driven: brands can produce items that customers are most likely to buy by harnessing data on buyers patterns

Numerous retailers and brands including the likes of Miu Miu use analytics to forecast trends' emergence and decline. Climate, colour choices, social media trends, and political movements are all factors in data analytics. The advantages of integrating data in fashion are various, ranging from only making items that customers would really wear to minimizing waste and matching the appropriate customers with the right items of clothing.

Data also aids in the smooth operation of businesses, allowing them to develop and manage supply and demand. Fashion forecasting has always been seen as a sort of an art form, however, with the advancement of analytics in the world today, it has slowly but surely evolved into a science.

The way designers create and produce collections is much simpler now,

- Illustrations by Cathy Hogan -

both in terms of looks and delivery, largely due to reforms brought about by the pandemic. Previously, many labels produced at least eight collections every year, resulting in an overabundance of runway shows and increased stock arriving in stores months before buyers were ready to wear them. We used to see swimwear arriving in Penneys in February and winter stock coming into H&M in August. The industry has since evolved for the better and has changed to two main seasons per year: spring/ summer and autumn/winter Day after day, mobile technology is also advancing at a top speed. Mobile commerce is the supreme digital mechanism, from Instagram shopping all the way down to Apple pay. It has not only in uenced our day-to-day lives, but it has also become one of the fastest and strongest-growing segments of the eCommerce industry. Apple and Android Pay, which are continually evolving with new technology such as ngerprint and face detection, is already the primar y method of payment for shoppers online. Two out of every three millennials prefer to purchase online instead of in-store. This leaves us with the question of how real-life stores will be impacted by the continuing rise of technology Technology is a tool that will open so many more doors for the fashion industry in the years to come. We are living in the digital age where designers and brand owners need to step up and take advantage of the digital world before it is too late.

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TikTok Has Changed The Game For The Beauty Industry Motley’s Sarah Co ins takes a look at the Beauty and TikTok and how this co aboration has altered the industry since the pandemic’s inception.

TikTok was rst launched back in 2017, however, it took a pandemic and a wealth of additional time at home for it to truly explode into what it is today. Users of the platform had increased by 85.3 percent to roughly 100 million in 2020, with over 1 billion people using the app every single month this year.

On the video-sharing app, there seems to be a community for every single one of us, but the beauty side of TikTok has had a particularly memorable year. Anything from smaller drugstore brands to lifechanging makeup and skincare secrets have become popular on the platform thanks to the For You Page and ability for almost any video to go viral within just a number of hours.

Even though many beauty brands have struck gold on TikTok, CeraVe, Deciem (Also known as The Ordinary) and L’Oreal have exceeded even the highest of expectations.

TikTok truly is a brand new space for s k i n c a r e a n d b e a u t y l o v e r s to congregate, create and consume content with the ability to garner vast attention.

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The co-founder of Deciem Nicola Kilner openly stated that “The love we have received as a result of TikTok over the past year has been phenomenal”.

The Ordinar y, a budgetf riendl y skin-care and makeup company that came on the market back in 2016 has received notable attention on the platform, with The Ordinary AHA 30 percent + BHA 2 percent Peeling Solution being a fan favorite. Kilner admitted that sales of the product increased by more than 200 per cent per year CeraVe (a personal skincare fav!) is a dermatologist-backed, budget friendly skincare company that debuted in the United States back in 2005 and has only recently made its way to the Emerald Isle.

Until 2020, the majority of the brand's sug gestions came f rom dermatology clinics.

CeraVe’s Global General Manager Penelope Giraud said that “This has been the beginning of a new adventure with this incredible platform who brought to the new generation the possibility of understanding better what skin care is all about,”.

The global giant has declared that the brand saw an increase of 89% in sales last year and that the platform h a s w o r ke d w o n d e r s f o r t h e i r incredible business, “This has shifted the pro le of our consumers, who used to be people who came mainly through doctors and the doctor’s o ce.”

W h e n L’ O r e a l c r e a t e d a c c o u n t s o n Ti k To k f o r t h e i r numerous beauty brands, the best way they grew and gained followers was through collaborating with content creators on the app. Just recently, L'Oreal revealed that it was teaming up with TikTok on its trial commerce feature, allowing people in the UK to order Garnier and NYX Professional makeup items directly from the app.

This is going to be game changing for TikTok as well as L’Oreal along with the beauty market as a whole.

The secret to achieving stardom for beauty brands on TikTok appears to be a result of a mix of both education and accessibility.

Roughly 62% of TikTok users are between the ages of 10-29 years old, hence, the most successful brands are going to be those that are a ordable, but it also seems they must be backed up by science, a factor that today’s youth particularly value. Skincare gurus and well-known dermatologists on the app have made acquiring and comprehending sophisticated beauty knowledge easier than ever before.From a marketing perspective,

TikTok is the place to be at the moment, and it is not disappearing anytime soon. Video content seems to be the future of posting online, and as Nicola Gilder said, “In an era where information is so abundant, people are able to share online whether a product really worked for them or not through organic, user-generated content.”

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Illustrations by Cathy Hogan

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Illustrations by Cathy Hogan

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By Jessica O’ Brien

In the last two years, fashion has seen a huge change with the return of the beloved 70s ares, 90s street fashion and the splash of colour we saw all throughout the 80s. I have loved watching every aspect of fashion change and go from a dreamy cottagecore fantasy to the return of gothic culture - and we have all been inspired, perhaps unknowingly, by popular culture. That’s right, not one trend that has surfaced has come out of the blue, it has cropped up around us on our television screens, in your favourite lms, on social media, and of course, the pandemic has had a huge impact on how we dress and why.

So why does no trend happen by accident? Firstly, I’d like to bring the monumental impact of Billie Eilish’s music career to the table and her powerful stand surrounding body image that has left an imprint on fashion forever

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How Popular Culture Influences Our Fashion

Billie Eilish and Taking Back Power 19 year old Billie Eilish gained public attention back in 2015 with the success of her single, ‘Ocean Eyes,’ when she was only 14 years old.

Suddenly thrust into the spotlight at such a young age, she focused solely on her music and sound rather than trying to gure out Hollywood’s elite fashion scene.Her unique baggy hoodies and sweatpants sets became synonymous with her name and forged her own place in modern fashion.

Eilish was praised for her reasons for wearing baggy clothes so as not to be sexualised, especially as she was still a child and in the public eye. Her reasons for this drastic fashion statement were sadly proved to almost be necessary when in 2020, paparazzi shared images of the singer in a tank top - and body shamers and ordinary, every day Twitter users went above and beyond to completely tear her apart Eilish of course, took this vile hatred and turned it into her own success.

As part of her ‘Where Do We Go?’ World Tour in March 2020, she released a visual spoken word piece titled ‘Not My Responsibility’, which would later become a track on her 2021 sophomore album, ‘Happier Than Ever.’

The video pretty much broke the internet - a video of Eilish shedding her many layers of clothing while she spoke in a VoiceOver

‘Some people hate what I wear Some people praise it Some people use it to shame others Some people use it to shame me’ She goes on to say

‘If I wear what is comfortable I am not a woman If I shed the layers I'm a slut Though you've never seen my body You still judge it And judge me for it Why?’

ashy neon pieces and thick, chunky trainers that wouldn’t be out of place in Billie’s huge collection.

During the pandemic, Billie took much deserved time to rest and heal her injuries and began to nish production on ‘Happier Than Ever.’

Fans speculated over what her new hair colour would be, what new sound she would have.

What nobody guessed would happen, was her earth shattering 2021 Vogue cover, where she reappeared with bleach blonde hair, and dozens of old Hollywood inspired corsets and lingerie. After becoming an adult, she had nally taken back the abusive power and the hold the public had over her body - and she dressed however she wanted. She truly now does look Happier Than Ever.

Billie’s Vogue shoot inspired a whole new range of corset fashion and a 360 turn to nude colours and muted jewel tones. But she wasn’t the only artist planning a fashion revolution.

Taylor Swift and Cottagecore: Taylor Swift is not new to the music scene, or to having iconic and distinct new eras of style and music. However, nobody could’ve expected Swift’s epic surprise release of her 8th studio album, ‘Folklore,’ announced a mere 11 hours before it’s debut on July 24th, 2 0 2 0. Fo l k l o r e s a w S w i f t i n a completely di erent music style of soft indie pop and touching emotional ballads - but how can we forget ‘Cardigan?

One of the most popular songs on the album, ‘Cardigan’, inspired the nation to start crocheting again and to get into long oaty dresses and run barefoot through the elds. Swift, like the businesswoman she is, began to sell copies of the cardigan from the music video for $49, and it’s not hard to see why they sold out and became such a hit. During the pandemic, and still during the time of the album’s release, we were all very much still in lockdown and stuck inside of our homes.

The combination of Taylor’s dreamy and evocative Folklore and the creative talent of people dressing as fairies on Tiktok was the emotional x we all needed.

It was the freedom we all so dearly craved, to live in the countryside where all was peaceful and we could just be outside and one with nature.

When shops did open again, long oral dresses and skirts were all the rage, with speckled bandannas and delicate jewellery. It made coming out of lockdown seem even more like a fairytale Taylor wasn’t nished though. She was also prepared for the winter season with the release of Folklore’s sister album, ‘Evermore’ on December 11th of the same year.

Similar to Folklore’s charming indie sound, the album was hit after hit once more, with her work being described as ‘pure poetic lyricism.’ One reviewer Joyjeet Gupta hit the nail on the head: ‘both Folklore and Evermore are such weather-complimenting albums, it's really commendable.

When Folklore was there to soak in all the summer heat, now you have Evermore to make your winter warm and cozy.’ So despite another level 5 lockdown that Christmas, our spirits were lifted by Swift’s timeless storytelling, and had us all in chunky knits, sweater vests and boots that early Spring, in a sea of warm toned oranges and browns, combatting the cold and dim mornings.

(Everyone say thank you Taylor Swift.)

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(And now, a quick re round of appreciation to everyone else and the works of art made over the last two years that have made modern fashion what it is today!

- Olivia Rodrigo’s ode to 90s cult classic lms like ‘Clueless’, and her extensive chunky boot collection that can be seen all over campus!

Good 4 her - Tiktok’s liberating fashion trend of women dressing more androgynus by shaving their heads and brows, trying radical and whimsical eye makeup looks and bringing back plastic beaded jewellery! The app also has brought gothic culture to the forefront with bold eyeliner and snatched corset waists - and it is incredible to see women dressing as bold as they want wherever they want - you guys look INCREDIBLE - The tote bag has inspired a whole new range of reusable and sustainable fashion which we love to see - Mask Wearing means a hearty goodbye to foundation and full out glam and hello to our Lockdown bushy brows, dewy skin, faux freckles and ‘Euphoria’s’ eyeliner in uence And nally, fashion today would not exist without popular television series’ on Net ix, where we all spent a considerable amount of time the last few years - dreaming of Aimee from ‘Sex Education’s’ 70s ares and knee high boots, the 80s blazer uniform of the students in ‘Elite,’ and the dramatic and grungy style of E y and her classmates on the 2000s series ‘Skins.’

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Honorable Mentions

Are we running out of ideas when it comes to how we dress?

Luca O’Ha oran te s a story of change in the fashion industry and asks where this drive for innovation has gone in the 21st century?

Fashion trends in today’s world are heavily influenced by the social media we consume on a day-to-day basis with the changeover in trends occurring at a much faster pace now than ever before. The problem is not that we are short on clothes in any way, shape or form, in fact, we produce far too much clothing.

What is interesting, however, is that we are completely running out of new and innovative fashion ideas as a whole Technically, we should not have had the return of 2000’s fashion trends for at least another few years, yet it has already been and gone.

When we look at the items of clothing worn by people today, it is very much a mixture of trends we saw a lot back in the 60s, 80s, 90s and 2000s, with whatever personal touch individuals like to add to make their out t their own.

We can hardly go back to the style of dressing in the 1920s but it is very unclear how we can move forward. It leaves us to wonder where our creativity and innovative thinking has gone in the fashion world at this very moment.

No change of style will ever be as dramatic as the move from the corsets of the 1900s to the gorgeous apper-style dresses we saw in the 1920s. From a tight, restricted item of clothing to a free-flowing, empowering dress, this progression in the fashion world is still the most substantial change seen to date

But where is this energy in the 21st century?

We have seen incredible progress in so many areas of our modern lives, with technology now at an all-time high, and so I dare to ask, has the fashion industry really been left behind and what should we do to move forward into the future

With fast fashion currently at its peak, vintage clothes are so easily replicated at a cheap and fast pace, making these returning trends accessible to everyone. Though these trends may hang around for a while, it still leaves us with the question of what does this mean for the future of fashion?

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What it means to be resilient in times of change & uncertainty

By Cleidi Hearn “The Only Constant in Life Is Change.”

- Heraclitus.

We could learn a lesson or two about change from the Greek philosopher Heraclitus. He believed that everything is in flux and no man ever steps in the same river twice, for it is not the same river, and it is not the same man. How profound is that? In fact, it strikes me as oddly modern for a man who was born around 540 B.C. The truth is that change is one of the few certainties in life. Throughout history, every now and then, we experience pivotal changes that shake the very fabric of society on a worldwide scale. In my lifetime, COVID has been by far the most dramatic event that has triggered huge changes in our way of life. I believe it is safe to say that – unless you live alone in a desert island - every human being on this planet has been somehow affected by it.

I can pinpoint the exact day COVID brought chaos into my life in a significant way. One evening I was attending a lecture at UCC and the next morning the university was closed.

Just like that.

I still remember vividly the feeling of bewilderment. As a university student, my daily routine was organised around campus life and suddenly it was no more.

How does one cope with such disruption? In one word: resilience.

Being resilient means to be able to withstand adversity and recover from life’s setbacks. It does not mean that you are immune from the pain caused by it. It means, that you have the ability to bounce back in spite of it.

I know what you are thinking: it is easier said than done. Personally, I have found resilience through the sense of community awakened by our shared uncertainty. People say that during hard times we can see the best of humanity. I think it is quite true. It has been heart-warming to see the effort of universities, including UCC, to support staff and students to get through this disruption. When we got hit hard by grief and fear, the power of solidarity gave us some comfort.

Resilience is one of the core values that UCC has been nurturing on students through the Graduate Attributes Programme.

UCC’s commitment to empowering students with a resilient mindset really paid off during this difficult time. The Graduate Attributes Programme has always encouraged us to improve ourselves and our community. By developing resilience, we are better equipped to overcome the challenges ahead.

The aftermath of this collective trauma has forever changed how we operate in the world. As Heraclitus would say, if he were still alive, things will never be the same. COVID has shaped new behaviours from our heightened sensitivity to hygiene to the way we learn and work. We had to adapt and stay flexible in order to carry on.

Being resilient also means to be open to new opportunities during hardships. Disruptive times are ripe for innovation. The global pandemic has led to a surge of new technologies that have enabled us to continue our daily activities. The transition to online and hybrid learning, for instance, has triggered an openness to new possibilities in education. Remote work is also creating new opportunities for people living in rural areas. The decrease in pollution and environmental damage experienced during lockdowns changed our perception of sustainability.

This is a very interesting time because we are still in the midst of this shift.

We do not know yet how life will evolve in this unchartered territory of a post-COVID world. What I do know for sure is that we will come out stronger on the other side. The shared experience of lockdowns, grief and loss have strengthened our resilience.

Although we cannot prevent drastic changes disrupting our lives, we know that we can handle whatever comes our way.

For some practical ideas on how to develop your graduate attributes scan the QR code below:

If you have some ideas on how to develop your graduate attributes and values, please get in touch! graduateattributes@ucc.ie ucc.ie/graduateattributes

CHANGING THE FACE OF MEN’S HEALTH - MOVEMBER Deputy Current Affairs Editor Natalia Karolina Gawlas elaborates on the phenomenon of Movember and what University College Cork does for men’s health through adaptation of the Campaign.

For as long as memory serves correctly, UCC has been a strong advocate for the Movember campaign, leading the month of November as an opportunity to fundraise and spread awareness on men’s health, including testicular cancer, prostate cancer and men’s suicide.

Men’s health can often be overlooked in today’s society, with stigma surrounding men’s mental and general health. A gender imbalance can be present in healthcare decision making regarding males, as many experts express concern over the male domination in a health crisis.

Even throughout the pandemic,

if a male contracted Covid-19 he was 25% more likely to die [according to the Society of Actuaries in Ireland Report] Since men amount to almost 50% of the population of the Island of Ireland, surely they deserve their own health focus on gender speci c health needs [as per the Men’s Health Forum in Ireland 2021]. An organisation like Movember works in resolving some of these leading issues,

creating an open space not only to discuss and deal with these issues, but have an enjoyable time while supporting the cause.

UCC Movember is a collaboration largely between the Student’s Union and the UCC Cancer Society, naturally alongside Movember and their representatives.

Not to mention the large amount of aid and collaborations with various UCC societies and entities, which all come together for the entirety of the Month to support a worthy charitable month-long event. Evidently so, considering last years gure of €46,181 raised by the Movember campaign, with €1,936.40 raised by the UCC Cancer Society alone through running various events.

Figures speak volumes when it comes to the amount raised, but it is dif cult to set aside the factor of spreading awareness and knowledge, which supersedes the monetary value.

This November 2021, the planning has began months in advance, with plenty of events to hype up all men (and women) in supporting Movember. The main, and one event that occurs on a yearly basis is growing a moustache in aid of Movember, or at least trying your hardest to grow one!

After all, the cliche saying does say that it is the thought that counts.

This of course does not exclude the ladies, despite their lack of moustache growing abilities, women of UCC will run a certain amount of kilometres throughout the month to support their peers. The organising bodies of UCC (Student’s Union & Cancer Society) are also hoping to shed a light on further, generally avoided, issues this year;

men’s sexual violence is often avoided from a victim perspective a n d i t ’s t i m e t o c h a n g e t h a t perception. Men can too, fall victims of sexual assault, an issue often disregarded in a gender imbalanced society.

Movember supports men, like we all should.

Keep an eye out on various social media of organising bodies to keep updated on the Movember campaign and to get involved! @uccsu & @ucccancersoc

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