Is tape collecting making a comeback?
Not-so-secret: as a youngster, I was a huge VHS bootlegger. My family life revolved around television and movies. As soon as something from the big screens hit Best Buy and Circuit City, we had a...
Category: Culture
The Vladimir Putin guide to dumping your boyfriend
We’ve all been there. You used to love him, but now all he does is annoy you with his endless rants about the new Star Wars (we’ve been over this a thousand times — FINN IS ABSOLUTELY A GOOD...
Can we all calm down about sex ed?
The UK’s current sex education curriculum for schools was last updated in 2000, before we had ever heard of camera phones, Facebook or YouTube. It’s a different world, so an update of schools’...
An Orwhalean Dystopia: The Cultural Significance of Japanese Whaling
Whaling has been a major part of Japanese culture for well over 1,000 years. In times gone, an old Japanese proverb spoke to the efficiency of the practice: "There's nothing to throw away from a...
A UK plastic straw ban would be a disaster
I’ve recently got very into eating yoghurt. It’s fruity and fresh and tasty and I can’t believe I didn’t eat any for years, but they were so associated with diet culture that I couldn’t...
Don’t implicate all cis lesbians in your transphobia
When Sheffield Pride announced a few months ago that its parade was going to be a celebration and not a protest, there was widespread outrage. They had completely misunderstood the history of Pride...
Whose Pride?: Expanding Diversity in “Far From the Tree”
The premise behind Emmy Award-winning Rachel Dretzin’s Far From the Tree is both simple and profound. Based on the 2012 bestselling book Far From the Tree: Parents, Children, and the Search for...
‘The Endless’: Can you find comfort in the UFO death cult you left years ago?
“The Endless” asks one burning question: what would make you travel back to the UFO Death Cult you escaped from a decade before? Surely Jonestown and Waco were warning enough? Is life in 21st...
How Rap is Breaking the Stigma Around Mental Illness
Halfway through his song “DNA,” Kendrick Lamar sampled a recording of Fox News commentator Geraldo Rivera saying, “This is why I say hip-hop has done more damage to young, African Americans...
Civil partnerships for all! And can we abolish marriage while we’re at it?
This week, the UK’s Supreme Court ruled that opposite-sex couples should have the right to have a civil partnership as well as marriage. This has been a controversial ruling that has been resisted...