Spotlight Recommends: Your Favourite Media Discussing HIV And Aids

Tick Tick Boom Set in the theatre district of 90s New York City, HIV and AIDs is an unwelcome and threatening backdrop in Lin Manuel-MirandaÔÇÖs directorial debut: Tick TickÔÇª Boom! Based on the semi-autobiographical musical by the late, great, Jonathan Larson (portrayed by Andrew Garfield), Tick TickÔÇª Boom! embodies the dread of getting old and running out of time, only emphasised by close friends who … Continue reading Spotlight Recommends: Your Favourite Media Discussing HIV And Aids

Contributing WriterDecember 12, 2022December 12, 2022

Love, Relationships

Financial Independence: What Does It Mean To Gen Z?

Financial independence ÔÇô the status of having enough wealth to pay for your living expenses for the near future without being dependent on others. But when it comes to being in a relationship, how should the finances be handled? Of course, at the end of the day itÔÇÖs down to what you and your partner feel most comfortable with, and only you know what works … Continue reading Financial Independence: What Does It Mean To Gen Z?

Contributing WriterDecember 9, 2022December 9, 2022

Unpacking The AIDS Crisis and The Continued Discrimination Against the LGBTQIA+ Community

The AIDS crisis gripped the world for most of the 1980s and 1990s, with an estimated 40.1 million people having died of HIV and AIDS by 2021. At the time, rather than being seen and treated as a serious pandemic that posed a threat to everyone, the perception of it was distorted to become a moral disease caused and spread by the LGBTQIA+ community. The … Continue reading Unpacking The AIDS Crisis and The Continued Discrimination Against the LGBTQIA+ Community

dominicbcDecember 1, 2022December 1, 2022

Last Night a DJ Ruined My Night: Profanity in Music

The ÔÇÿBitchÔÇÖ is a constant and repetitive figure within the music industry. Whether she is being denounced as a perpetrator of promiscuity, discarded as money-hungry and manipulative, or paving her way through life on her own terms, the message is clear: It always comes back to the Bitch. Listeners are now immune to a word that, may we remind ourselves, was originally used in the … Continue reading Last Night a DJ Ruined My Night: Profanity in Music

Contributing WriterNovember 18, 2022November 18, 2022

Is OnlyFans The New Uni Side Hustle?

In the wake of the cost-of-living crisis that is ever present in this country, people are struggling more and more to heat their homes, put food on the table and pay their rent, and it doesnÔÇÖt get much better for students here in the UK. Aside from racking up thousands of pounds in debt from tuition fees and various loans, students are also expected to … Continue reading Is OnlyFans The New Uni Side Hustle?

Contributing WriterNovember 11, 2022November 11, 2022

The Digitalisation of Modern Dating

Dating has long been referred to as a game, one with pieces and players and one that you need to learn how to play if you hope to find that oh-so-elusive stereotypical love story. Who makes the first move, when do you call, what can you share on the first date: all of these questions are based on long-standing inexplicable rules that the world of … Continue reading The Digitalisation of Modern Dating

dominicbcNovember 4, 2022November 4, 2022

Are We Replacing Sex Education With PornHub?

Content warning; sexual assault, domestic violence, sex trafficking Hands up; who here remembers their sex education in secondary school being unbelievably uncomfortable? Were you forced to watch a video that was made in the 80s, left feeling confused, with the basic understanding of how to put on a condom and that was it? ItÔÇÖs no surprise that sexual health classes continue to provide unsubstantial education … Continue reading Are We Replacing Sex Education With PornHub?

alanyasmithOctober 7, 2022October 7, 2022

The Ick: Is It Stopping People From Dating?

Words By Alice Moore The Ick – we all get it. Whether itÔÇÖs imagining them running for the bus, to getting food around their mouth while eating, itÔÇÖs becoming so much easier to get turned off by a partner for the smallest of things. This increasingly common gag has gained a high amount of traction on social media, but although it started as an internet … Continue reading The Ick: Is It Stopping People From Dating?

Contributing WriterSeptember 30, 2022September 30, 2022

Love, Relationships

What Is So Attractive About A Red Flag?

ÔÇ£Even a red flag looks pink when youÔÇÖre wearing rose tinted glassesÔÇØ – Me, after telling my friends how my newest crush leads me on and ghosts me for weeks before sliding back into my DMs like nothing happened. However, IÔÇÖm now aware that this situation is merely the real-life sequel of all the romance novels and movies IÔÇÖve devoured in my lifetime. My dawn … Continue reading What Is So Attractive About A Red Flag?

Contributing WriterSeptember 23, 2022September 23, 2022

The Pornstar Penis is a Fa├ºade

By Craig Strachan Porn can be a maze of so many unreliable truths and urban myths towards sex. The howling, the non-existent pubic hair, and of course the raw sexual energy of the plumbing and pizza delivery industries. Whilst many of these might become obvious to us later in life, a lot of us discover porn from an early age of adolescence where we wouldnÔÇÖt … Continue reading The Pornstar Penis is a Fa├ºade

Hope DochertyMay 2, 2022May 2, 2022

A Letter to the One Who Hurt you the Most

TW: abusive relationships and sexual assault. Dear You, When I met you, I thought you couldÔÇÖve been the one. Yes, we were young- but I thought we had done everything right. We were still kids when we met. People would say we both had a lot of growing up to do, and I guess we thought we could do that alongside one another. I think … Continue reading A Letter to the One Who Hurt you the Most

Contributing WriterApril 26, 2022April 26, 2022

The Benefits of Outercourse

Outercourse is a word that most people havenÔÇÖt heard of ÔÇô itÔÇÖs a term used for sex without penetration. I remember asking my flatmates a couple of months ago: do you have sex without penetration? I was met with some judgement and a few harmless jokes, but thereÔÇÖs definitely a stigma surrounding the idea of penetration-less sex, which IÔÇÖve never really understood. I left with … Continue reading The Benefits of Outercourse

Contributing WriterApril 12, 2022April 12, 2022

Therapy: a New Wave

By anonymous TW: mentions of mental health that may be triggering. A few months ago, a friend told me she was seeing a therapist. It took me by surprise and I now realize how ignorant this was. I’d always seen her as a pretty level-headed, resilient, and emotionally unshakeable person though we really have no idea what is going on in another person’s head, no … Continue reading Therapy: a New Wave

Contributing WriterApril 12, 2022April 12, 2022

‘Planning’ Plan B

By Phoebe Bowers TW: SEXUAL ASSAULT & VIOLENCE They donÔÇÖt call it ÔÇÿPlan AÔÇÖ for a reason. For type A personalities, ÔÇÿPlan BÔÇÖ may seem like a frivolous option to rely on – I have even known people who have had no idea where to go or what they should say to require this pill that a lot of us feel so begrudgingly about. There … Continue reading ‘Planning’ Plan B

Contributing WriterApril 7, 2022April 12, 2022

The Big ‘O’ IsnÔÇÖt Always the Goal!

By Alice Moore For years, sex has been entirely based upon reaching the ÔÇÿBig ÔÇÿOÔÇÖ ÔÇô the orgasm. Sex was conceptualised as a competition with one goal only, and failing to make yourself or your partner reach this was essentially deemed as a failure; a waste of a shag. It goes without saying that this perception was (and still is!) highly patriarchal, predominantly focusing on … Continue reading The Big ‘O’ IsnÔÇÖt Always the Goal!

Contributing WriterMarch 8, 2022April 7, 2022

The Rainbow Test Tube

By Holly Chapman TW: homophobic laws, infertility. Where someone struggles with fertility and has to reach out for help when wanting to conceive, members of the LGBTQ+ community follow similar steps in their difficult journey towards parenthood. Unfortunately, their rights to conceive or have children in general, have been protested in the past. It was only in 1967 that The Sexual Offences Act decriminalized sex … Continue reading The Rainbow Test Tube

Contributing WriterMarch 7, 2022March 7, 2022

My Acne is Not Your Breakout

A couple of days ago I woke up to a small red dot in the middle of my forehead. It was teeny and virtually imperceptible from a two-metre distance. But of course, even with my less than 20/20 vision, there it stood, front and centre – a burgeoning planet in the midst of what looked like a dying constellation. I sighed and continued with the … Continue reading My Acne is Not Your Breakout

Contributing WriterFebruary 17, 2022February 13, 2022

Valentine’s Special: Your Editors’ Worst Dates

While it feels like the transition between 2020 and now has been a thousand years longer than it needed to be, dating post-pandemic has definitely taught me a lot! Regardless of having done all of my dates this year with individuals I met on apps like Tinder or Hinge, I can assure you the nerves that come with meeting a stranger for the first time … Continue reading Valentine’s Special: Your Editors’ Worst Dates

Contributing WriterFebruary 13, 2022February 13, 2022

Don’t Lie, You Met on Tinder

There is a strange shame in admitting you met your partner on Tinder. When I think about it there are only two real reasons (at least that I can think of) as to why this is the case: 1) You have to admit you were actively searching for someone romantically. 2) thereÔÇÖs a sense that you ÔÇÿfailedÔÇÖ the romantic game. What I mean by this, … Continue reading Don’t Lie, You Met on Tinder

Contributing WriterFebruary 13, 2022February 13, 2022

Friends…with Benefits

Can it work? I think we will begin at: are we still friends? Which is no. Not even acquaintances. We never talk anymore either, though IÔÇÖm sure many of you had already guessed that. I would love to say I hadn’t been warned of what I was getting myself into, but all my friends were disgusted with the contract (with added benefits) I had entered … Continue reading Friends…with Benefits

Contributing WriterFebruary 1, 2022February 13, 2022