there are only a few things that make me feel at home, and you’re one of them. i know it’s surprising coming from me. it must seem like i forgot about you for the past ten years of my life when i was away from you, flirting with and getting to know other countries. but trust me when i say that you’re always in my heart. though you’re mostly corrupt, not sustainable in your habits, and there’s an extremely long way for you to go to be up to the mark with regards to your inclusivity and respect, you’re still always in my heart. here is why:
The Future of Travellers
I feel a deep pain for the youth of today, who will definitely not have the same opportunities to travel and explore the world in the way I got to. They’re never going to experience what it was like to live in the middle of nowhere in Asia. No bars on your Nokia brick and the only way to contact home was on a crackling line for a penny a minute, a 45-minute walk into the nearest village or by letter, 3 weeks after sending.
What is unclear about the word no?
There is a lot of stimulation in the modern world, demanding our attention and competing for our focus. The option to say ‘no’ is always present but when we do, it is all too often ignored. Ignored by algorithms designed specifically to pretend to listen, but which actually discreetly disregard our less convenient answers.
Doctors Are People Too: Discrimination in Healthcare
So, what have you all been unlearning this month? I’ve been working on a few things, mostly regarding productivity and self-worth. There’s always going to be something you’re getting wrong, and that’s alright!
“Back Aff Ya Spooky Witch”: A Brief History of Scottish Witch Trials
The title of this column is a reference to an oft-quoted line from a 2007 episode of Scottish sitcom Still Game. I’ve considered that this might be a slightly niche reference for the vast and varied Clitbait readership, but I thought it was funny. Anyway, this is about Scottish witches…
Remembering modern medicine as a colonial production: do we still need to be reminded that health is political?
During my undergrad in biomedical sciences, I was let down by the lack of societal context on our courses. More than lack – at times it seemed like a deliberate absence that was incomprehensible given what I was learning outside of lectures. Things became particularly interesting and disappointing when we came to the module on global health and infectious disease, where lecturers and students alike were given free rein to voice their unqualified opinions about the health of developing countries – needless to say, both groups were mostly white and from the global North…
CB Recommends: Black Scottish Artists
Black artists have traditionally been marginalised from the mainstream conversation, despite their respective brilliance. Since the majority of our team is based in Scotland, we thought we would shift focus and shine some light on some of our favourite Black Scottish artists…
How ‘Portrait of a Lady on Fire’ Demands Us to Unlearn the Male Gaze
In 1975, Laura Mulvey published her seminal essay ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ which used a psychoanalytic lens to argue that cinema is written, directed and shot from the perspective of male visual pleasure within a patriarchal framework or as she then coined the ‘male gaze’…
Clitbait’s Recreate Art Series – The Statue of Liberty
Here is the gallery for our second recreation in our recreate art series! For those of you that don’t know, we have decided to invite the Clitbait community to join us in recreating a piece of art for each of our monthly themes! Since this month’s theme is independence, we have decided that the recreation will be the Statue of Liberty!
Fuck Fatima’s Next Job
In the latest instalment of Tory fuckery, the government in collaboration with the CyberFirst released their first advertisement in what was intended to be a long running campaign to promote cyber security jobs. The ad’s release was timed in conjunction with Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak’s suggestion that artists retrain and find other careers.
Times Two: Short Story
The air is heavy with weed and sweat, mingled with the stench of Absolut Raspberry and some other cheap vodka you bought from the corner shop. Music is blasting from the TV as the four of you sit on the floor. Your back’s leaning against the sofa, your knee just lightly brushing his thigh…
How often do I truly leave my comfort zone?
The discomfort has been omnipresent; on a global, national, societal and personal level, COVID-19 has interrupted every area of our lives. There are many factors that can affect our vulnerability to the virus, like income, age, profession, homelife etc – factors which should be arbitrary but unfortunately are not.
Independence, Money, and Henrik Ibsen
When I hear the prompt ‘independence’, I am reminded of a holiday in Hungary when I was nineteen. I had gone with a boy I barely knew after a holiday romance the month before. We travelled from Prague to Vienna to Budapest: on our first day in the Hungarian capital I realised I couldn’t use the euros I had from Vienna, and so set about finding a cash machine.
Clitbait Recommends
A while ago, we reached out to a few of our favourite feminists for their feminist recommendations for books, films or albums. As predicted, we received brilliant and inspiring submissions. Have a scroll down to check them all out!
Break the taboo: on sexual abuse, hypersexuality, and cultural stigma
Sexual assault, despite now being spoken about more, is still seen as a taboo topic, particularly within the South Asian community. To talk about assault is to first realise the behaviours encouraging and condoning this act of violation, but the conversation often ends before it can even begin…
Independence: Why private schools play no part in a just future
The algorithms that decided both the SQA and A-Level results have further exposed the class divide in our education system. It is past time we re-think private education. British education is a two-tier system. There are those who can afford to pay for the education they deserve, and those who cannot…
‘Women have been set back decades’: pandemics and personal independence
It’s been two months now since Scotland moved into Phase 3 of lockdown restrictions, and pubs, shops and workplaces are beginning to reopen. I recently started a new job, and received a long policy email about how to fight COVID-19 in the workplace as part of my starter pack. Unfortunately, not every woman has been given this privilege: experts have found that women in the workplace have been set back ‘decades’ by the effects of lockdown…
The Brown Girl Guide to Moving Out
Recently, a friend of mine moved out from home. For context, she’s British Bangladeshi, from a somewhat traditional and religious household, wherein women are made to live under the tyrant…
Why the ideas in de Beauvoir’s ‘Independent Woman’ remain relevant today
71 years ago, Simone de Beauvoir concluded her foundational work The Second Sex by discussing the then status of ‘The Independent Woman’. Her existential feminist thought was crucial for the wave of feminism that followed and today her understandings of independence remain pertinent and needed…
Black Women’s Maternal Mortality Rate and the Five X More Campaign
THE SECOND MONTHLY COLUMN OF ‘LEARNING WITH LUCY!’: The maternal mortality rate for Black women in the UK is five times higher than that of their white counterparts. The Five X More campaign is fighting to change that…
The Partition of India: on fearing the word ‘independence’
Manvir, our brilliant Arts and Culture editor, unpacks the deadly legacy of the partition of the Indian subcontinent…
Sex, Religion and Culture
A beautiful and painfully honest account of navigating sex as a brown muslim woman and the culture that surrounds it…
Meet the CB team: Georgie Robertson
Meet the Clitbait Team: an interview with Georgie Robertson, our Graphic Designer…
Meet the CB team: Elsa Pearl
Meet the Clitbait Team: an interview with Elsa Pearl, Creative Producer…
Meet the CB team: Olivia Scher
Meet the Clitbait Team: Society & Community Editor…