Are labels all that necessary? This is the question I have found myself asking throughout my journey in exploring what identity means to me. After being diagnosed with dyspraxia in primary school, I became aware that my difference between the other girls on the playground was not merely that I preferred football to cat’s cradle,…
Sport
More than just a ‘Bald Rugby Player’: Heather Fisher
Heather Fisher is a truly remarkable individual. Fisher earned her first international cap in rugby union in 2009, was a member of England’s 2014 World Cup-winning squad, went on to represent Team GB in the rugby sevens at the Olympics in Rio 2016 and, to top it all off, has also represented Great Britain in…
Books, Venue
Leaving a fictional character’s identity ambiguous: harmful or helpful?
Genuine representation in literature has been a debated topic for a while now. We all (hopefully) agree representation is important for the voices of minority groups to be acknowledged, heard, and related to, but the technicalities of carrying this out are often contested. When it comes to the explicit representation of identities, readers tend to…
Features
What feminism do you stand for?
I am a feminist. This is something I’ve said for years, but only recently have I realised the ambiguity of this statement, and had called to question what I actually stand for. I identify as an intersectional feminist, and was aware of the other branches of feminism, but am shocked at the degree of polarity…
Sex Survey 2019
Cucumbers and condoms
As a queer person, I’ve often wondered how my secondary school experience would have been shaped had I been provided with even a basic level of sex education relevant to my interest in kissing people that weren’t boys. Of course, access to good quality sex education is not limited to classrooms, but for most it…
Film
Identity: On screen
Identity, a gripping psychological thriller in its own right, offers an unusual insight into one of the most misconstrued mental illnesses explored on film. The film follows two seemingly unconnected plots – the trial of a serial killer and the mass killing of a group of ten people stranded at a motel. However, with a…
News
Comment: “Expansion is inevitable, but Norwich’s identity is indestructible”
As sad as it is, the impending threat of urbanisation is a palpable one nationwide and now it is the turn of Norwich to feel the tremors. This, I wonder as I sit aboard the top deck of the bus, peering through the steamed window at the rolling swathes of scenery beyond it. Of course,…
Global
Anonymous senior official sheds light on President Trump’s ‘amoral’ leadership
Donald Trump, the US President, has faced strong criticism from an anonymous senior member of his own administration, who published an opinion-editorial in the New York Times describing the President as “amoral,” with his decisions being “impulsive, ill-informed and occasionally reckless.” The anonymous author described how they are part of the “resistance” working to…
Travel
An overseas Chinese in China
Holidays to China always felt like I was travelling to a foreign land instead of returning to my motherland. I could never understand why my mother would always choose China as our annual holiday destination until now. As a fourth generation Malaysian Chinese, I find myself stuck in-between two identities: I am too westernised to…
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