The Bestivals

San Miguel Primavera Sound Festival, Barcelona

30 May-3 June
Price: 190 euros (day ticket 80 euros)

Great music in one of Europe’s best party cities, Barcelona. The Primavera Festival is ever-growing in popularity. This year the line-up is incredibly diverse and includes Beirut, Death Cab for Cutie, The Cure, Yann Tiersen and Franz Ferdinand.

Benicassim, Spain

14-17 July
Price: 155 pounds.

This festival promises sunshine and one of the best line-ups of the summer, including The Stone Roses, Bombay Bicycle Club, New Order and
Crystal Castles.

Arras Main Square Festival, France

29 June-1 July
Price: 135 euros (day ticket 59 euros)

Located about two hours north from Paris, Arras may not be very well known, but I personally found it quite enjoyable last year. Performers this year includes The XX, Justice, Pearl Jam, Florence and the Machine, and Noah and the Whale. If you plan to stay there however, book in advance so you won’t need policemen to find you accommodation like I did last year.

Lollapalooza,Chicago

3-5 August
Price: Day ticket 95 dollars.

The Shins, The Black Keys and Justice: these are just a due to perform in this festival in the city that Ferris Bueller painted red.

Hurricane Festival, Germany

22-24 June 2012
Price: 135 euros.

An alternative music festival known for great line-ups, this year proves to be no different. Here you can enjoy the sounds of The Cure, Mumford & Sons, The Stone Roses, The Kooks, and my fellow Icelanders, GusGus.

Roskilde, Denmark

5-8 July
Price: 240 euros.

Since 1971, Roskilde has maintained a hippy-feel and always promises a good time.Björk and Bon Iver will be performing.

The Principal: Three Years On

Going into this interview, I did not know what to expect at all. To be honest, I was feeling a little intimidated by the task at hand; it all seemed very official. Questions had to be sent ahead of time to the Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Professor Louise Richardson, and I was told the Director of Corporate Communications, Niall Scott, was to sit in on the meeting. However, I soon discovered I had nothing to worry about, both were friendly, the atmosphere relaxed and warm, and after a quick introduction and a reference to the Masquerade Ball, which the Principal also attended, we dove into all my pre-submitted questions as well as a few additional ones.

Professor Louise Richardson, when asked about what she felt had been the biggest achievements since her installation as Principal and Vice-Chancellor on 25 March 2009, was very quick to stress that a Principal does not achieve anything on their own – rather it is a team effort. Looking back over the past three years, the Principal pinpointed successes in raising the University’s academic profile and performance in the league tables, hiring world class academics, attracting a higher caliber of students through higher asking rates, as well as successful diversification of the student body through the Gateway to Physics Program and the Sutton Trust. While the Principal did acknowledge that there is still a long way to go in terms of improving facilities, she noted that both the library and IT facilities have been improved dramatically. Among other things, the Principal stressed the University’s success in professionalising and structuring fundraising through a network of support with alumni, culminating in the 600th Anniversary fundraising campaign.

However, there have also been challenges on the path to achieving these goals and initiatives for the University. The Principal said: “the economic climate reduces funding from the government, it makes it harder to fundraise, so that has been a very serious impact on the realisation of our ambitions and the timescale we would have liked to have given ourselves.”

Yet, I would have thought the fee hikes would have helped compensate for this. The Principal, however, informed me that students are now merely paying the fees the Scottish government was covering previously. As such, the fees the University receives do not cover the cost of educating every student, which averages £11,772 per student per year.

Clearly money is needed for the University to function, yet I do not understand why it has to come at the cost of potentially excluding some people from attending university. So I asked Professor Richardson how she plans to ensure, as she said in her installation address in 2009, “Whether our students come from the highlands or the lowlands, from state schools or private schools, from Kirkcaldy or Katmandu, we must recruit the most talented students and we must ensure that they can afford to study here.” Richardson said that an additional £2.5 million has been committed to bursaries and scholarships this year, while 40% of the additional money from RUK (Rest of United Kindgom) fees is being put into scholarships. Moreover, the University is implementing a merit scholarship to the top 100 students irrespective of their nationality, and £16 million out of the £100 million target of the 600th campaign will go to scholarships too.

When the topic of her being the first female Principal came up, she smiled and said “I think it is a real privilege to be the Principal of the University of St Andrews. I am conscious of being a role model, and I’m certainly proud to have the opportunity to break through this particular glass ceiling and certainly hope that by the time you and your generation are my age, that there will be very few first female anythings.” In light of this, Richardson hopes to be looked back on as a very good Principal of St Andrews rather than just the first female Principal. She continued, “If you look at most professions, there is a pyramid structure and the closer to the top you get, the fewer women there are, [but] that is changing. It is changing far slower than people of my generation thought it would, and I look forward to seeing it change at an accelerated pace.”

When asked what a typical day entails for the Principal she said “One of the reasons… this job [is] so much fun is that there is no typical day, except that all days are long days – I usually work 16 to 17 hours a day.” The Principal explained her time is divided between recruiting academics over the phone, meeting with colleagues in the Principal’s office to plan the use of resources and revise policies, talking to other principals about the Scottish universities’ plan to react to government policy, lobbying the government on particular issues, meeting with students at open office hours, meeting with alumni and trying to fundraise. As for giving lectures on terrorism outside St Andrews, the Principal only accepts a few of the invitations she receives, and only goes if it is an advantageous place for her to promote the University and its reputation.

In terms of the Principal’s plans for the future of the University, she said she would like to see “ever higher academic standards to attract ever better faculty, ever better students, and to improve the facilities for them.” The Principal also emphasised the importance of protecting what is unique about the St Andrews experience. Richardson said “My own view is that we are roughly at the ideal size for a university. Big enough to be interesting, big enough to attract the best students and staff, and support their research, but still small enough to be intimate, small enough so that you can meet your professor in Tesco, whether you want to or not. Small enough that you can have friends from completely different parts of the University, the philosophers can know the physicists, and so on.”

As for herself, the Principal hopes to be able to teach a module in the department of International Relations, from beginning to end. Thus far, constraints on her schedule have prevented her from doing this, but Richardson indicated that there might be a possibility of pursuing this ambition after the 600th Anniversary celebrations. For, as Richardson said, “It’s a great way of being able to keep your finger on the pulse of the institution, to have a relationship with students separate from the relationship of Principal.”

When asked what advice she would give to any student wishing to be successful, the Principal said: “I worry a little, especially given the strained economic times, that students are feeling the pressure to narrow their focus prematurely. I would encourage people, especially at this stage in their lives, to take some intellectual risks, to pursue something because they love it, rather than because they think it will advance their career, because if you are working in an area you love you can work long days and it doesn’t matter, whereas if you are working on something, because you feel you have to, work becomes very hard.” The Principal added: “I think it is important to have an active, vibrant social life, but it is only when you look back on your university time that you realize how much time you actually had.” As such, Richardson concluded: “To me time is the most valuable resource we all have. Its finite, use it wisely, to do things you enjoy, things that you need to work on, but don’t waste it.”

There will undoubtedly be those of you who think that I was not critical enough in my questioning, or harsh enough in the post-interview write-up. Nevertheless, based on this very brief encounter with the Principal, I can say, in all honesty, that I think we should consider ourselves lucky to have Professor Louise Richardson at the helm of our University.

A Blonde’s Eye View

This town may be named after the patron saint of Scotland, but students from this country can seem like something of a rarity. In Freshers’ Week, my fellow students reeled off their faraway hometowns – “New York”, “Marrakech”, “Cape Town”. I would then offer my answer sheepishly: “Edinburgh”. “Oh! You’re from just down the road!” was the inevitable reply. Occasionally, this was actually prefixed by, “You’re the first person I’ve met who is actually from Scotland.” St Andrews’ diversity is undoubtedly one of its greatest assets, but sometimes being ‘the only Scot in the village’ can present you with some interesting situations.

Take going on a night out, for instance. In my experience, the main pick-up technique of the Scottish guy on the prowl seems to be latching onto your nationality; “Oh, you’re from Scotland, too… Can I get you a drink?” followed by a drunken attempt at a sleazy grin that just makes them look like babies with wind.

The logic behind this chat-up line seems to be that we must copulate in order to, as the Red Hot Chili Peppers would say, save the population. I somehow doubt that the SNP has a breeding programme up their sleeve. To be honest, I think Alex Salmond would not exactly appreciate the competition for food.

When I go home, my friends seem to think that I am living out a Gatbsy-esque lifestyle in this notoriously wealthy seaside town. Behind the occasional comments about how everything must be “so posh up there”, I see a glint in their eye that I know is egging me on to tell them about something terribly scandalous – snorting cocaine-covered caviar off of a purebred Shetland pony, perhaps. Sadly (or quite happily, in the case of the poor Shetland), my life is much less exciting than that.

The Scot will never be quite accepted by the rest of the student body or the locals, either. Encounters with international students can prove just as frustrating. “You’re Scottish – but I can actually understand you?” they ask in wonderment. I presume that they have let the one exchange they had with the slurring alcoholic when they got off the Edinburgh Airport Bus shape their entire perspective on how we speak – either that or they saw that Taiwanese computer animation on Scottish Independence. The dialogue consisted of gems such as ‘ah see you Jimmy’. The whole thing was really very unrepresentative – Scots rarely smash their heads through television screens in drunken rages. I personally like to save it as a party trick for Hogmanay and Burns’ Night.

I have also often gotten the impression that other students see us as feral adoptees, much like Heathcliff in Wuthering Heights. However, instead of worrying if we are going to hang any more dogs or run off with someone’s sister again (as in the novel), they are probably worrying if one of the uglier Scottish stereotypes is going to come out. Will we spontaneously become underage and pregnant? Deep fry every Mars bar in a five-mile radius? Although these are unfair characterisations (especially the pregnancy thing for men – we’re not that fertile), they are all too plain to see in the wary glare of some students.

Not so fast – you cannot opt out and be a local, either. Of course, they are not going to hold your nationality against you. Although many non-students do not have anything against those at the University, some have become embittered by a series of bad experiences with rowdy students. To them, all you will ever be is another pampered, over-sexed troublemaker who comes to their town for six months every year and proceeds to figuratively (and sometimes literally) crap all over it. While this description does cover many of my most prominent personality traits, some never seem to fully believe you when you explain that you are just as dismayed as they are that a student was fined for drink driving and beheading a pigeon, or drunkenly woke up their whole family at 4am. Considering the procession of intoxicated idiots they have had to deal with over the years, it is understandable, but yet another avenue of belonging has been closed off to Scottish students.

All this sounds quite depressing, but don’t head for the first bus to Leuchars just yet. Although there will be awful amorous advances and pretty pathetic preconceptions, you will meet wonderful people along the way. Love interests that you have more in common with than living within an hour of Linlithgow with, for instance. You will make friends from exotic locations who have no fear for the safety of Mars bars, and local people who don’t think you are going to murder any animals. Then you will rejoice.

Disclaimer: I have never literally crapped all over St Andrews.

The Last Days of Procrastination

It’s Sunday night, and it’s 10:28pm. I’m writing to you when, instead, I should be finishing the two essays I have due in for tomorrow.

What better time to start this blog, which is all about being a graduating senior. I’ve been making the joke a lot that, by writing this blog next year, an entire student body will be able to keep up with my homelessness. It’s kind of like signing up for one of those “life-alert” emergency buttons for the elderly, only instead of pushing the button, I’ll blog. And someone will clearly come to save me.

I fully recognise that The Saint cannot be held responsible for my well-being and that any and all persons are under no obligation to ensure that I don’t starve. I’m just relying on your consciences.

I’M SUPPOSED TO BE WRITING TWO ESSAYS.

So, what is it like to be a graduating senior? To be honest, it is really weird. I’m sure the experience is different for everyone, but it seems to have sent me spiraling into some sort of mid-life crisis (clearly I will die around forty). Every conversation I have with an adult inevitably leads to them asking me what I’m going to do after graduation, if I’m heading back to the States, do I feel ready to leave school. Every time I speak to my parents they regurgitate some variation of the following statement: “Well, I’m just so proud of you. You’ve done really well. You know not everyone could go to university and manage to complete it, despite the fact that clearly thousands of people do this every 3 – 4 years and we’re excessively commending you on what you may or may not know to be a weird if not mediocre achievement at best.”

And that’s not all. God, it feels good to have somehow broken into this zone of not having the only thing you and your other graduating friends talk about being…graduating. Some combination of denial and preoccupation with impending and yet trivialised deadlines has replaced that.

So there you go. I remember what it was like to be in first and second year, vaguely. In my mind, it’s roughly the equivalent of playing with my best friend on the see-saw in bright sunshine. I also remember last year, which was similar to this year only I felt I had purpose. I can completely sympathize with my third year friends right now who are applying themselves so vigorously to their work, and are so stressed. So justifiably stressed! They still have to struggle! They know how much this year means! They could still get a First!

I probably can’t. I also probably can’t get a 2:2. I’m pretty much golden.

I may come off sounding like the biggest ass here, but it’s now 10:37pm and I still haven’t polished these essays (God I hope this blog is anonymous, or that my professors care as little for their students’ “lives” as I hope they do), and that’s just not like me. It’s never been me. But in my experience, University was like a slow roll away from academics towards…I don’t know, life? I want to be a writer (so many cruel comments, so little time), I want to read, and run all over the planet. All I can see right now is that world beyond. And I don’t know what I’m doing. I know that I really ought to buck up and ensure I have a stellar post-graduation plan. I’ve applied for a publishing course in New York, I’ve set up work placements in London, and…other stuff.

I’m trying not to give into the apathy of this semester, I really don’t want to act, or not act, on this blasé feeling and screw myself over, so that I slap myself like a disrespectful child in the supermarket. But I am used to going with how I feel. And right now I feel like, after graduation, after I chuck in these last essays and somehow manage to pull myself across the finish line of exams, I just want to live. And that means going somewhere, anywhere, that I find inspiring. Getting a job, probably at a bar (It’s what I do best. Master Bartender of Scotland, right here.). And screwing up more things than I ever could have imagined.

And there’s something kind of exciting in screwing up in ways you haven’t already imagined.

It’s now 10:44pm, and I will go on to finish these essays. I’ll do the footnotes, the bibliographies, and the double spacing. I will consult the English Style Guidelines as I have pathetically had to do with as much confusion and double-checking for the past four years. And when they’re in, I may have entered a new phase, equally weird. That’s what Senior Year is all about.
I hope you’re looking forward to it.

Follow the post-university adventures of Randy Jane and co. by visiting http://www.thesaint-online.com and clicking on ‘Blogs’.

The Beer Boom

In The West Port basement, Paul Miller of the new Eden Brewery unveiled a range of their new ales to the University of St Andrews Real Ale Society. This public tasting was an opportunity for Mr Miller to try out his beers on an impartial audience as they were tasted blind alongside some more established brands.

The response was overwhelmingly positive, society members favourably comparing some of the Eden brews to old favourites produced by much more established companies. Both The Falcon and The Clock (two of Eden’s darker beers) went down particularly well, and judging by how they were ranked in comparison, breweries such as Brewdog and Harviestoun would do well to keep a watchful eye over their shoulders once Eden gets fully up and running. Mr Miller’s aims to ‘make great and innovative beer, improve people’s perception of beer as a craft product and create a brand the town can be proud of’ are laudable indeed and will soon see him garnering a lot of support.

The location for this new venture will be the old paper mill in Guardbridge subject to approval, just outside of St Andrews. This has been the location of a distillery in the past and Mr Miller is keen to utilise the original water source that once went into producing whisky at the site for his beers. Indeed, although in recent years Fife has been something of a dry spot for breweries, this has not always been the case. As recently as the Nineteenth Century there were two breweries in the town itself.

After many years of a relative brewing drought, the occupation now seems to be coming back to the region. This year, Bob Phaff set up the St Andrews Brewing Company in Glenrothes while other relatively recent arrivals on the scene are Luckie Ales (Auchtermuchty) and the Fyfe Brewing Company (Kirkcaldy).

Mr Phaff couldn’t believe there was no St Andrews brewery in existence when he first arrived in the town and immediately jumped on the opportunity to set right this flaw. He cites the ‘great potential market’ of St Andrews as one reason to set up shop here and also mentions the proximity of Heriot Watt and their internationally renowned brewing institute as another beneficial influence. Although his choice to set up at this point in time has been somewhat coincidental, he is glad to have ‘timed it around a hopeful boom’ in Fife brewing.

The other most recent contributor to this boom also mentions the St Andrews market as being key to his choice to set up here. Mr Miller believes that the demographics of the town provide a ready-made audience for good quality, locally produced ale. His choice to set up now is more a result of patience than any conscious effort to join in the real ale revolution (his idea for a brewery in the area had been brewing for a while) but he is as keen to champion and grow the real ale category as he is his own beers.

As for the future of brewing in Fife, Mr Phaff is very positive and ‘can imagine five or six more in the next ten years, no problem’. As far as Fife and St Andrews brewing goes, the future is bright; the future is a golden ale with some hoppy notes.

2012 US Presidential Summer Outlook

With the remaining Republican Presidential rival dropping out last week, Mitt Romney is now the undisputed Republican nominee for the President of the United States. President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney have now launched full-scale attacks against one another to energise their respective bases in order to build up their funding and ground operations. Over the course of this summer,two key areas that could play major roles in the outcome of the presidential election are the economy and the makeup of the Electoral College.

Reactions to the economy remain the most important barometer in assessing the outcome of this election. Historical precedence shows that the summer economic lull generally hurts the incumbent. The summer is characterised by high petrol prices and unpredictable job numbers due to shifts in part time employment. Romney and the other Republican candidates have repeatedly railed against Obama on rising petrol prices which are sure to increase due to summer travel. Additionally, Americans will not find any mortgage relief this summer as real estate values continue to decline. Romney said, ‘It’s still the economy, but we’re not stupid’ last week, making a jab at Obama who has consistently argued that the economy is improving and will continue to improve if the President is given another term. Undoubtedly, the state of the economy this summer will play a pivotal role in whether or not people feel as if they are better off than they were four years ago.

While the economy will likely play into Romney’s favour, the makeup of the Electoral College plays into Obama’s hands. Key areas that will be important in this election are the Mountain West, the Rust belt, Virginia, North Carolina, and Florida. In the West, Obama is expected to pick up Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico and potentially Arizona due to his support for immigration reform and criticism of Arizona’s new immigration laws. Obama’s immigration policies have the potential to also help him in Florida due to its large Hispanic population. Romney’s hard-line stance against amnesty will make it difficult for him to gain the support of Hispanics. In 2008, Obama struggled to attain the support of white working class voters who constitute an important voting bloc in the Rust belt. Polls have Obama doing well in Ohio and Pennsylvania, but if Romney can succeed in making this election a referendum on the economy he can outperform Obama in both of these swing states. Lastly, economic and social issues will play a major role among Virginia and North Carolina voters who are traditionally moderate. Recent laws in Virginia threatening women’s reproductive rights are likely to hurt Romney, whereas his status as a moderate governor is likely to help him. These two states will definitely play major roles in deciding the outcome of the general election.

Despite the fact that the campaign is already in full swing, the economy and how the campaign develops in key swing states will without a doubt be the most important issues to watch throughout this campaign cycle.

The Graduate

This week : Physics

Physics was invented by Professor Stephen “Hawkman” Hawking in 1992 following a coke-fuelled party in which Hawking bet Alec Baldwin and Snoop “The Quantum Physicist” Dogg that he could predict the flight path of a paper aeroplane thrown from the fifth floor window of a Hollywood Hilton with absolute precision. Using nothing but the back of a napkin and the sinister forces of Mathematics, Hawking launched the aeroplane straight into a passing bin lorry and used the money from the wager to found the University of Oxbridge. By the year 2000, Hawking was a respected physicist and author, having written such great titles as A Brief History of Time, A Timely History of Briefs and My Briefs are History, the latter of which knocked Peter Higg’s Bosons and Particles and S**t off the Amazon Bestseller list. Despite a flourishing academic career, Hawking still found the time to raise his son, pro-skateboarder and obscure ‘90s video-game fad Tony Hawk. In recognition of all his achievements, Hawking was given a permanent chair at the University of Space.

Nowadays Physics is mainly concerned with embarrassing Chemistry by reducing it to Physics, which is why there is such a rich tradition amongst Physics students of teasing chemists. This tradition dates back to 1669, when Isaac Newton defeated father of Chemistry Joseph Priestley in a game of Scrabble using the word “quantum”, and then made disparaging remarks about the size of Chemistry’s mother. In the 21st Century Physics is very much the sexy science, and as such receives more funding than any other academic discipline, except Hairdressing. Physics departments receive so much funding that they are able to conduct large-scale experiments, as in the case of the famous doomsday machine the Large Hadron Collider, which is currently the largest Scalextric set in existence. Designed by Dr. Victor von Doomenhausen, the machine consists of a series of tubes along which elementary particles, Maltesers or other small objects can be fired at immense speeds, and is powered by billions of hamsters. Dr. von Doomenhausen stated after its completion: “It’s finally ready. Soon all will know the name of Dr. von Doomenhausen.” Scientists hope to one-day use the data gathered from the LHC to build a working Death Star

If you work hard then you may someday help construct such a machine. Therefore, there is a real risk that you may end up going down in history as the first person ever to destroy the world. Whatever field of physics you end up working in, be it scalar, vector or spinor, you will likely get the persistent, troubling feeling that none of what you are doing will really impact the world much at all. In this respect you have much in common with Philosophy students.

Jack Tomms is completely unqualified to make any claims about academia

Bunga Bunga or Bust

Picture a sweaty basement, a pair of gyrating escorts disguised as nuns, and a 74 year old Italian man watching silently and receiving sporadic lap dances. This image is of Silvio Berlusconi enjoying one of his ‘Bunga Bunga’ parties. Whilst the mental picture is certainly disturbing, I cannot help but marvel at the shamelessness with which the ex-Prime Minister of Italy flaunts his sexual behaviour.

In 2009, like a testosterone fuelled teenager, he was recorded boasting to entrepreneur Gianpaolo Tarantini of his sexual potency in managing to sleep with eight women in a night. Today we see Berlusconi’s attitudes to sex have hardly changed.

Countless women have testified as to the nature of his ‘Bunga Bunga’ nights, incriminating photographs have been uncovered, and most of the public are convinced of his involvement. Yet Berlusconi still shows no remorse. In court, he described these parties as ‘elegant evenings’ which gave women, who are ‘by their nature exhibitionists,’ the opportunity to perform little shows for his entertainment.

Berlusconi is currently on trial for paying an under-age Moroccan dancer, Karima el-Mahroug, also known as ‘Ruby the Heart Stealer’ for sex. His involvement with the young girl was exposed when he tried to get her released from prison through claiming she was the niece of Hosni Mubarak, the then-Egyptian President. The officer who received Berlusconi’s call said that it was obvious the girl was actually Moroccan and he was aware that her father was a farm worker in Sicily.

From afar, it is easy to laugh. On some level Berlusconi’s appalling behaviour is refreshingly ridiculous. Especially when he is juxtaposed with the anxious politicians of our country, desperate to please and terrified to offend, who spend lifetimes polishing their public images.

One can only roll their eyes at his response when faced with the underage sex scandal. He commented that ‘it’s better to be fond of beautiful women than to be gay.’ The complete absurdity of this assertion makes one wonder how this man managed to remain in politics for so long. He is, however, the longest serving post war Prime Minister of Italy, has won three elections and founded his own party, Forza Italia.

When asking your average Brit how they think Berlusconi managed to keep power in the face of sex scandals and corruption charges, I expect their answer would involve phrases such as ‘he’s a personification of machismo,’ and an ‘Italian stallion.’ You would hardly expect this of a vertically challenged man with hair plugs. However, perhaps there is an element of truth in this. Writer and journalist, Roberto Saviano, said, “He fascinates Italian people with his smile, his women, his bluntness which says, ‘I am a man who enjoys life. What’s wrong with that?’’

He is undoubtedly intelligent with an inexorable energy (in and out of the bedroom). Additionally, as a super-salesman, he must have an ebullient charm. How else could he have worked his way up from being a crooner on a cruise ship to owning a media empire, a football team and a publishing house?

Despite a relentless flow of well-founded indictments, Berlusconi managed to win the majority of Italian men and women’s votes three times over. Perhaps we will never fully understand how, but it can in part be put down to a magnetic impertinence. After all, would you ever hear a Tory MP commenting, as Silvio did, that “The left has no taste, even when it comes to women” ?

Masculinism – from both sides of the gender spectrum

Lewis Kopman on being a man and a feminist

Feminism is not about female empowerment. At least not anymore. It is about liberating gender from sex. About allowing women, but also humanity as a whole, the freedom to determine their own narrative. To not be confined to a life in which their actions are pre-determined by society. Frankly, the problem with masculinism is not that it is a movement to empower men, but that it works within the confines of a dated and violent ideology. In order to be a man, I have to aim for some masculine utopia.

This, is the idea, at least in part, behind masculinism. Defined generally as the idea that men and women should work to seek equality among the sexes, while still retaining their respective masculinity and femininity. In other words: separate, but equal. The movement is a reaction to a perceived victimization of men, masculinity, and ‘male’ sexuality. This idea, the victimisation, I have no problem with. I think that it is all too true that men are often perceived as rapists, or joyously callous and promiscuous. But the answer is not to tell men that they should all fight for the masculine gender and become ‘real men’ again. The idea stinks of the homophobic idea that some men have been ‘feminised’ by society, and are thus less manly. This is not to say that a man must be feminine to be gay, but the idea that men should return to their ‘natural’ gender is inextricably linked to the act of sex between a man and a woman. Many masculinists would say that in striving for sexual equality, some of the ‘fundamental’ differences between men and women have been blurred. These differences, as described by Eliezer Sobel, writer for The Good Men Project, are what make “desire, lust, and hot sex.” This idea though leads to definitions of masculinism and feminism that are dependent on the other: in order to be masculine, you must desire what is feminine, and vice versa. Masculinism and feminism, then, immediately become heterosexual genders. This is not necessarily a problem in itself, although perhaps gender should not be confined to a binary system. The issue is that when the movement so closely associates masculinism with what a man ‘should be,’ gay men immediately become thought of as unmanly, rather than just un-masculine.

Now, I firmly believe that men have in some ways been victimised by the system (at least in most Western, Judeo-Christian ones). However, these victimisations are largely the result of our own doing, our desire to protect the ‘weak and naive women.’ This has resulted in male rape being extremely difficult to prosecute, men shouldering a much greater burden of the military, male human trafficking remaining a relatively ignored and unknown phenomena, etc.. Again, these problems arose from men’s expectations and assumptions about women, and by attempting to once again ensure that gender roles are encouraged and expected by society. The movement is actually undermining its own efforts for equality. In other words, Masculinism has failed to realise that the inequality among men and women throughout history has not only been based on sex, but gender as well.

I will repeat what I mentioned earlier regarding feminism: it empowers and protects everyone. Feminism is, at its heart, a movement of liberation; the liberation of people from the expectations of society. Masculinism, while it has good intentions, is wrong about what true empowerment looks like. I believe that all men should be allowed to be masculine, all women allowed to be feminine. I also believe that everyone should allowed to be both or neither, and that none of these qualities are truly what make you a good man, or a good woman. But, then again, I am a feminist.

Sophie Patterson-advocates free people and free speech

Women are no longer fighting for the vote or struggling to the same extent to climb the career ladder, but they are contesting representations of women in media and advertising and supporting our right to wear whatever we choose without fear of sexual assault.

But what about the men? Since the Britpop scene of the 90s, the rise of the ‘bloke’ and magazines like Zoo, with the parallel popular portrayal of men in media as blundering buffoons, something has changed. Popular movements like ‘Movember’ and a return to old-school tailoring are indicators of a resurgence of traditional male values, and a reclaiming of more rights for the gender.

Websites like The Good Men Project seem, mostly, to accept the feminist movement as necessary, but also question its effect on male identity. Many articles address the confusion that men feel about women’s need for a sensitive and thoughtful partner, who can also be a “bad boy” in the bedroom. Most of these groups gather multidimensional points of view on what is means to be a modern man: in their words, “we let guys be guys, but we do it while challenging confining cultural notions of what a ‘real man’ must be.”

My first reaction to masculinism was “HELL YES”. What could possibly be wrong with men trying to be “better husbands, brothers, fathers and sons”? I’m not going complain if the guys in the library start looking like Don Draper. Besides, self-reflexivity is always a good thing. Indeed, the limits of male identity are often circumscribed in different ways from female identity as men must negotiate their way between macho ideals and offensive gay stereotyping. Many will likely argue that masculinism is a superfluous and unnecessary distraction from the more urgent inequalities that feminism seeks to right. However, the “let’s-sort-this-out-first-it’s-more-important” argument is never valid because nothing will ever be sorted. We do what we can.

Despite this, I do have a few qualms. I find some other sites like The Art of Manliness a little problematic, despite their lightheartedness. It looks to the past to “uncover the lost art of manliness”, featuring articles such as How to Shave Like Your Grandpa, Stop Hanging Out with Women and Start Dating Them, and A History of the American Bachelor. The founder states that he wants to address the refusal of his peers to grow up, those who have “lost the confidence, focus, skills and virtues that men of the past embodied.”

Why does masculinity apparently reside only in the past? This suggests that something is fundamentally wrong with gender constructions and relations in the now, and prescribes a narrow definition of manliness as the perfect model, one that leaves no room for alternative sexual and transgender interpretations of, well, just being a human.

Another thing: I have no problem with masculinism on its own – in the words of Voltaire, ‘I do not agree with what you have to say, but I’ll defend to the death your right to say it’ – but it shouldn’t necessarily be equated with feminism. As one commentator suggested, feminism is an ‘ism’ because solidarity is crucial to making it happen: “movements are for power. Men still have that in our society.”

I also completely disagree with the common idea in masculinist forums that feminism has taken something innate away from men regarding their primal instincts or sexuality. Why is it not possible to respect a woman as a human being and want to have crazy good sex with her at the same time?

Finally, the idea that masculinism is necessary to balance out feminism gives the wrong impression of feminism’s aims.
I agree with Rebecca West in seeing it as “the radical notion that women are people.” Why should this weaken or deplete male identity and potential? Feminism is an exploration of the fluidity of sexuality and gender boundaries: if masculinists want to add to that exploration, I welcome them.

Interview: Louise Richardson on the 600th Celebrations

Last Monday I sat down to chat with our Principal and Vice-Chancellor, Dr. Louise Richardson, about more or less everything St Andrews. We talked about a typical day in the life of the Principal, achievements and challenges, teaching, fee hikes and much more. Here is what the Principal had to say about the Kate Kennedy Club, Kate Kennedy Fellowship, and, more importantly, the 600th Anniversary celebrations.

In regards to the recent moves by the Kate Kennedy Club to allow female membership, the Principal said “I am absolutely delighted that the Kate Kennedy Club has voted to accept women and I look forward to seeing female members of the club. And then I look forward to the town and the University, and the club collaborating together on the Kate Kennedy Procession, which is such a wonderful occasion, and it seems to me that everybody of this community needs to have ownership of it, not just a small group.”

“One of my objections to the Kate Kennedy Club, was that I felt that no small group has the right to arrogate to themselves exclusive ownership of our traditions, so I certainly hope and imagine the Fellowship evolving in a different way, but also celebrating other traditions.”

When asked about the 600th Anniversary celebration,the Principal really lit up and you could tell she was genuinely excited about the festivities, both in terms of the history and celebrations, but also what it could potentially contribute to the University of St Andrews. Here are the top 5 events the Principal is looking most forward to:

Papal bull bike relay

The event, which is one of the Principal’s personal favourites, will involve six teams of six people cycling 60-70 miles per day to retrace the route of the papal bull, which conferred university status on St Andrews in 1413. The route, which was plotted by a student of the history department interning at the Principal’s office, will trace the path of the Papal bull from Peñíscola, Spain, where Pope Benedict XIII was living when he issued it to St Andrews. The university will provide the bikes and the Principal has volunteered the Principal’s office to be the first team. Richardson said,“I hope we get teams of students and staff, people from different parts of the university, volunteering to create teams”. The plan is that the final team will cycle into St Andrews on September 13, 2013, the day of the bigacademic celebration of the 600th Anniversary.

St Andrews float in Lord Mayor of London’s Procession

This coming November the Lord Mayor of London is being installed in a televised procession, and the University of St Andrews has been invited to have a float in the parade. There will be a competition among students and staff to come up with the best representation of St Andrews. The winner will be flown to London to partake in the event. Richardson suggested this might be a wonderful thing for the Kate Kennedy Fellowship to get involved with.

‘Ever to Excel’ film premiere

The film commissioned on the history of the University of St Andrews, is narrated by and stars James Bond himself, Sean Connery. The film is a part of gala event to raise awareness and funds for the university.It will premiere on May 16 and May 19, in New York and Los Angeles respectively. A screening will take place in St Andrews on May 24.

St Paul’s Cathedral Carol Service

On December 20, 2012, St Paul’s Cathedral in London will host a carol service to mark the 600th Anniversary of the University of St Andrews. The event, organized by the London alumni club, is expected to boast the carol service of all carol services.

Academic celebrations of the 600th anniversary

On September 13 and 14, 2013, honorary degrees will be given to leading figures around the world. The celebration will also include a procession through the town, which will be modeled loosely on the 500th celebrations, as well as a concert with specially commissioned music. On the second day there will be panels of experts talking about their fields in addition to a major summit on the future of the university.

Details on how to apply for the bike relay and the decoration of the float will be announced in due course on the 600th events website.

Read the full interview in The Saint, out Thursday, May 3, where Principal Richardson discusses her role at the university, fee hikes, teaching, student advice, challenges, achievements, and the future of our school.