“Despite the potential for a mass outbreak looming over our heads, Josephine Butler students, and Durham students writ large, have shown a true resilience and a fighting spirit.” Jessica Pabon, a Butlerite fresher, discusses lockdown anxieties, homesickness and enjoying university life during a pandemic.
Walk into any newsagent and you will immediately be faced with countless newspapers and magazines vying for your attention, their headlines reporting stories of ‘Beyoncé’s astonishing post-baby weight loss’, Kelly Osbourne’s ‘drastically slimmer frame’ and accusations that Miley Cyrus, Demi Lovato, Selena Gomez and other Disney tween celebrities are literally starving for attention. When, however, was the last time you saw a headline alluding to a male celebrity having an eating disorder? Contrary to what popular media would have us believe, the prevalence of eating disorders in the male half of the population is far from uncommon. In fact, despite…
Equality; it’s simple…right? The scientist’s head spins with equations, the arts student begins to recall the plights of peoples and the law student inanely quotes legislation. Leaving the equations aside we might suggest that equality is simply treating like people alike; not an unreasonable assertion, certainly not a bad starting point. This idea, known as formal equality, is commonplace in government policy, the workplace, the classroom and elsewhere. Formal equality prevents the worst excesses of discrimination and recognises that humans (by virtue of being human) should be treated with the same amount of dignity and respect. Thus in segregated America,…
Hollie has agreed to provide the BSJ with a first-hand insight into her own personal experience of anorexia nervosa. There is a negative stigma that pervades the public perception of eating disorders – one which suggests that a disorder of this type is somehow within the control of those who suffer from it. This has resulted in the trivialisation of very serious issues of mental health experienced by a significant amount of the population. This article aims to challenge this ignorance, and to discuss the reality of living with, and recovering from, anorexia. I know very little about the ‘scholarly’…
This year, over 11 million viewers tuned in to watch the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Paralympic Games[1], introducing disability awareness into the forefront of mainstream media like never before. Internationally, Britain is one of the forerunners for disability provision; and although attitudes are changing and becoming more positive, there is still an immense lack of understanding about mental and physical disabilities. According to the NHS, over 10 million people in the UK are registered disabled- 770,000 of whom are children. Of course, the term ‘disabled’ covers a vast range of mental and physical impairments; the Equality Act 2010[2]…
In 1973, psychologist David Rosenhan published a paper documenting a study that was to radically change perceptions of the diagnosis of mental illness. The study, named “On Being Sane in Insane Places”, recorded the experiences of eight clinically sane participants, who gained entry to psychiatric hospitals by reporting that they had been hearing a voice in their heads saying “thud”. Participants, after being admitted, were subsequently instructed to act as normal, and report no further auditory hallucinations. What occurred thereafter would have serious implications for the mental health system of that time. All of the pseudo-patients were taken in, and…