The white paper: what you need to know and why you should be angry

In 2010, there was public outcry over the tripling of tuition fees by the Con-Dem government. 6 years later, we're under a completely Conservative government and the higher education White Paper has been published - if you thought £9000 a year was bad, it's about to get a whole lot worse.

Photograph: Stephanie Kalber/Demotix/Corbis

The White Paper allows 'inflationary increases in tuition fees for institutions that meet basic standards in 2017-18', and this is 'ahead of the introduction of differentiated caps in 2019-20'. This means that by 2018, some Universities will be able to charge more per year than others and by 2020, Universities that score highly in terms of teaching quality will be able to raise their fees to whatever they like. The discourse used makes it seem on the surface like the Universities that offer the best education will be rewarded, but really it's a neoliberal restructuring of the higher education system to benefit the elite and exclude those from poorer backgrounds. On top of the fact that maintenance grants have been scrapped, it isn't hard to see that this is is a purely ideological tactic. The way it's heading, someone from a poorer background would have to take out an extortionate loan to go to one of these 'better Universities' and when they come out the other side, they'll have a bomb of a loan to repay. Whilst they may come out with a degree from a prestigious University and be more likely to get a job, it is still unfair when you remember that those from richer backgrounds will be able to get the same degree from the same prestigious University, and be able to get Mummy and Daddy to pay it back and that's only if they take out the loan initially which people from richer backgrounds don't always have to do because they've got the dolla in the first place. 

This all plays into the Conservative's ideological warfare, it is the principle at hand that the Conservatives are only fighting for the privileged few. Just a few months ago, George Osbourne announced his budget which directly targeted the disabled. A few years back, Iain Duncan Smith introduced the Bedroom tax which directly targeted the poor. The Conservatives are slowly culling off the groups that don't affect them, it's reinforcing hierarchy, it's reinforcing inequality, it's neoliberalism at its worst and it is wholly unacceptable.

The rebrand

I've been absent from my blog for a few months and even when I was posting on here, I still wasn't posting regularly. I've been getting a bit bogged down with Uni deadlines and general socialising, and I've also wanted to change the direction my blog was going in. I said a while ago, I just wanted to talk about whatever the hell I want but I've still been feeling a little bit boxed in in what I can talk about, so I felt a rebrand was necessary.

What I like to talk about is politics, whether that be feminism (it's always about feminism) or the dipshittery of the Tories. I know not many people follow me on here for that, but I have really lost interest in beauty and fashion. I hardly ever go on Bloglovin' these days because that's basically all the content that was in front of me, I've only really kept updated with a handful of blogs. All I tend to read is articles because politics is what interests me more than anything. Don't get me wrong, I still love wearing makeup and I love shopping but I just wasn't feeling inspired to write about lipsticks anymore.

Enter 'one frank female'. Thanks for sticking with me over the past few years. If there are any political/feministy blogs you like to read, please comment down below with them as I'd really love to follow some!

15 songs y'all should listen to by The Smiths

The Smiths defined an era in the 80s, they created a musical safe haven for the awkward, the shy, and the socially aware. Iconic guitar riffs, basslines, racing drums, combined with poetic, melancholic, sarcastic lyrics - The Smiths are one of a kind.

The Smiths are one of my favourite bands - it was inevitable, I grew up with parents who are dedicated members of the Moz army. One of my friends when discussing me recently said I "don't go more than 5 seconds without thinking about Morrissey". This post has been in my drafts for a while because it's been ridiculously hard to decide what songs by The Smiths I would recommend to a newbie, but a lot of people have told me over the past year that they want to get into The Smiths and don't know where to begin, so consider this your starter pack..

DISCLAIMER: The song meanings I am talking about are my interpretations, if you interpret them differently obviously that's fine - Morrissey was often very ambiguous in his lyrics!

I say y'all over text to sound cool and casual, but IRL I'm not much of a y'all person - sorry to destroy your perceptions of me.

THIS CHARMING MAN {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song has so much going for it, right from the iconic introductory riff. This song is about a whole range of things. The most obvious theme being making a sexual debut (to use Laci Green's term) with an older man, but I think there's a lot more meaning to this song besides from sex. I think this song is also about wanting to start living and stop overthinking everything - like the line"why ponder life's complexities when the leather runs smooth on the passenger's seat?" sums up the song for me, and it's about the protagonist trying to enjoy life and live in the moment rather than over thinking.

THERE IS A LIGHT THAT NEVER GOES OUT {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
This is one of the first songs by The Smiths I ever heard (I think the first that I actually paid attention to was The Queen is Dead which I'm gonna talk about down below) and it was actually played at my parents' wedding - I obviously wasn't there to witness that but my Mum was about 6 months pregnant with me so y'know I was listening to The Smiths before I was born, so it's got that emotional significance for me. I wholeheartedly think this is one of the greatest love songs of all time (right up there with Something by The Beatles or The Luckiest by Ben Folds). I just think the lyrics are bloody brilliant - "if a double decker bus crashes into us, to die by your side is such a heavenly way to die, and if a ten tonne truck kills the both of us, to die by your side, well the pleasure, the privilege is mine". I think the song's just about that honeymoon phase in love (I'm making it sound like I've experienced it but nah #foreveralone) and not wanting to be separated from your significant other because like all the feels.

HEAVEN KNOWS I'M MISERABLE NOW {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song also has a pretty iconic intro, I think the combination of chords Johnny Marr uses are just so satisfying to listen to and I quite like the bassline too (although, the best bassline in any song by The Smiths is hands down Barbarism Begins at Home - it's so good that there's a performance where Johnny Marr stops playing guitar to listen to it and dance with Morrissey). It's a sarcastic song about depression and not finding joy in anything anymore except for 'in the haze of a drunken hour' and the protagonist doesn't leave the house and questions their friendships and relationships with people. What I love about The Smiths and Morrissey's solo work, is that the songs tackle serious issues regarding mental health but in a relatable way with a catchy melody which I think is rare to find in music. Usually songs that are about depression are . . . depressing (great use of vocabulary, Bess) but The Smiths make songs about depression relatable to those suffering with it but the song's not slow or dull or boring like other songs on the issue, they're still enjoyable songs which I think is quite a rare thing to find.

THE QUEEN IS DEAD (TAKE ME BACK TO DEAR OLD BLIGHTY) {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
Now this was the song that got me into The Smiths. To be honest, this entire album was the start of the obsession with The Smiths. I first heard this song on my Dad's Jubilee playlist, we're not a pro-royal family at all and we went away for the jubilee weekend a few years ago so Dad made a playlist to listen to on the car journey, and this was on there (along with God Save the Queen by the Sex Pistols, obviously). This song is just epic. I hate that word because I think it got thrown around a lot to describe anything in 2012 but that's the only word I can think of to accurately describe this song. This song is essentially an anti-monarch anthem. It illustrates how the Queen symbolised national unity during World War I (that's why there's a war song in the introduction) and how the Queen is seen as a Mother in the UK, but how the whole system is archaic because the Royals are out of touch and don't care about the things that don't affect them. Simply put, this song is Morrissey calling for a revolution. I repeat, this song is epic.

PANIC {LOUDER THAN BOMBS - 1987}
This song was written around the time of the Chernobyl disaster because apparently Radio 1 DJ Steve Wright reported the Chernobyl disaster and then went right into playing Wham! which is obviously quite inappropriate, and the song doesn't have anything to do with people's lives. Marr said in a 1987 interview with NME: "'Panic' came about at the time of Chernobyl . . . The story about this shocking disaster comes to an end and then, immediately, we're off into Wham!'s 'I'm Your Man'. I remember actually saying 'what the fuck has this got to do with peoples' lives?' We hear about Chernobyl, then, seconds later, we're expected to be jumping around to 'I'm Your Man'." To me, this song is about not relating to mainstream music (because I'm such a hipster) because the songs that are constantly played in the UK top 40 or in the clubs don't say anything to me about my life. This song got me through High School when all my friends were listening to One Direction and I was the weird kid listening to the Pope of mope.

I WANT THE ONE I CAN'T HAVE {MEAT IS MURDER - 1985}
This song on a basic level is about wanting to be with someone but you can't for whatever reason. Morrissey often made his lyrics character ambiguous so they can be interpreted in so many different ways, for example a lot of people think specifically this is about a gay person being in love with someone who's not come out as gay. Simply put, it's about being driven insane because you can't be with the one that you want.

THE HEADMASTER RITUAL {MEAT IS MURDER - 1985}
There was a time when this was my favourite song by The Smiths, and it's definitely one that I rarely skip when it comes up on my shuffle. As with all of the songs by The Smiths, I love the guitar part - I think Johnny Marr is the best guitarist in the world, I love the combination of chords in this song with the riff, it's pretty darn splendid. This song, to me, is about school in the 60s/70s where school really was quite brutal regarding the whole physical abuse thing, but I also think there's a bit of a fish out of water story going on in the song like I imagine all the kids in their uniforms accepting the education system the way it is and one kid seeing the clear flaws with it and wanting to break away ("I want to go home, I don't want to stay"). I used to listen to this song first thing when I was leaving school on a Friday afternoon, it's just really satisfying to go home for the weekend and listen to a song which basically shuns school. Also, Morrissey's yodelling is on point.

I KNOW IT'S OVER {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
I never used to be a massive fan of this song, in fact alongside Some Girls are Bigger Than Others it was one I always skipped when listening to The Queen is Dead album but I decided to give it a proper listen when my Mum said she preferred this song to This Charming Man - I still think that was quite a sweeping statement and not one I agree with, but it is now one of my faves. This song is the classic tale of unrequited love, in this case with someone who had never really experienced love and is now in a state of sadness and despair to the point where they feel dead ('Mother, I can feel the soil falling over my head') and they're trying to go about their lives as usual ('It's so easy to laugh, it's so easy to cry, it takes guts to be gentle and kind').

HOW SOON IS NOW {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}

Using two guitars, multiple reverb amplifiers, tremolo, syncopation, and a glass slider, Johnny Marr successfully created one of the most iconic song introductions of all time in this song. This song is about being shy ('I am the son and the heir of a shyness that is criminally vulgar') and feeling unloveable ('I am human and I need to be loved, just like everybody else does'), so much so that you're giving up hope that you'll ever find anyone. This song to me is biographical and one that I think most self-conscious, shy people will be able to relate to - this one is for us, guys.

SHEILA TAKE A BOW {LOUDER THAN BOMBS - 1987}
This song is one for those feeling the bitter winds of teenage angst and an anthem for non-conforming. 'How can someone so young sing words so sad?' suggests that the protagonist isn't satisfied with their average life and they want to break free, they want to grow up and find someone who loves them rather than being in education and trapped by their suburban family life.

WILLIAM, IT WAS REALLY NOTHING {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song is about being pressured into marriage, the protagonist is trying to convince their friend not to get married for the sake of it because we only have one life, so why rush into marriage? I also think it's about feeling trapped in "a humdrum town" and wanting to escape and live life beyond the expectations and norms of your hometown.

HAND IN GLOVE {HATFUL OF HOLLOW - 1984}
This song is about being in love and having this common egocentric view that your love is the best one out there. It's quite melodramatic and almost teenage-like especially with lines like "no I really don't know and I really don't care". It's also got a bit of a harmonica solo at the beginning at the end of the song and I always appreciate a bit of harmonica (I'm into 50s rock'n'roll, how could I not be?) as well as a nice riff throughout the song.

NOWHERE FAST {MEAT IS MURDER - 1985}
This song is an attack on consumerism and how we have new products thrown in our faces constantly, and this is all but bread and circuses to distract us from inequality. The rise of consumerism has resulted in the average Joe's morale being weakened, to the point where the protagonist doesn't care whether they live or die ("when I'm lying in my bed, I think about life and I think about death, and neither one particularly appeals to me").

BIGMOUTH STRIKES AGAIN {THE QUEEN IS DEAD - 1986}
This song is about speaking out of place or saying too much, it seems like it's autobiographical seeming as Morrissey has a tendency to say very bold statements and annoy a lot of people. The constant references to Joan of Arc make this evident because she was burned at the stake for saying what she believed, and Morrissey is jokingly comparing himself to her.

PRETTY GIRLS MAKE GRAVES {THE SMITHS - 1984}
It's the music over the lyrics that makes this song for me. I love the syncopation and the bassline in this. I believe the song is about someone pressuring the protagonist into sexual relations and not wanting to reciprocate which may be autobiographical as Morrissey identified as asexual at this time.



What's your favourite song by The Smiths/Morrissey?

My picture-heavy bullet journal set-up

A while ago I read a post from Lily Pebbles in which she said she had started a bullet journal, and since then I did a whole load of research on what it was and how to make one of your own, and for a while I didn't want to make one because I'm the sort of person who starts journals and planners and never carries on with them, but I think this time will be different..

The notebook I am using is an A5 squared Moleskine, which is was bloody expensive but I absolutely adore it and organising my life was something I wanted to invest in. I did have to research first whether Moleskine was vegan as I thought it was literally mole's skin, but I assure you it's not - I'm sure everyone else knew that but I'm stupid.

Firstly, I have an index - this is the core to the bullet journal, numbering your pages so you can refer back to them.

Following that, I have a key - again, another key (forgive the pun) to the bullet journal so you can clearly see what everything you've written means. I've also put a few post-it notes here so I can easily access some if I'm on the go and want to make a little note - I like using post-it notes to write little notes to myself that aren't important enough to make tasks out of but something I need to see.

After that, I have a page dedicated to questioning authority, the great thing about the bullet journal is you can be as creative as you want and just have filler pages like that where you can just do what you want, and I just happened to have some sheep stickers so it's nice to flick past that everyday and be reminded to question authority.

Then, I have a few lists I want to complete of 'albums to listen to before you die', 'books everyone should read', and 'greatest films of all time' because whilst I think I'm fairly cultural in terms of the art world, I definitely feel I should explore more and it's nice to have an easy to find list to refer to.

Next, I have about 30 pages with pictures of me and my friends, because I tend to forget I have friends and that people actually don't mind spending time with me sometimes, so I like having photos of me with them so if I do get into that bad headspace, I can try and dismiss it. Continuing with that theme, I have a page with a couple of photos of my family, and also a page dedicated to Owen Jones and when I met him, and when he tweeted me afterwards, because both of those events really made my life if not my 2016 at least.

After that is a double page spread dedicated to my favourite film of all time - Harold and Maude. There are so many amazing quotes in this film, and I'm not putting this at all lightly but this film has saved my life on multiple occasions. A lot of people put a page of inspirational quotes in their bullet journals, but I cringe when I see things like 'you can do it!' so I think this is as close as I'll ever get with that.

Finally, we get onto the actual organising kinda bit. So I've only been doing this since the beginning of March, but I have a rapid log page for March so I can put a few events and tasks in that need to get done that month, then I have daily spreads (at the moment, it seems to be 2/3 on a page because I keep migrating tasks - I am getting there with the organising promise!).

That is my bullet journal as it stands currently, I feel like this definitely won't last me the year but I'm loving doing it at the moment so I will probably continue it and buy another Moleskine once this one finishes! If you want to see more updates, I'm probably going to do these on my Tumblr which you can follow here.

Why Angela Davis is my political fave

For as long as I can remember, I have been proud to call myself a feminist. My Mum's a devout feminist and has never told me to afraid of the word 'feminism'. That being said, until the past year or two, I didn't feel wholeheartedly connected to the issues mainstream (white) feminism talks about.

Of course, I knew things like 'free the nipple' and letting girls wear short skirts and show their shoulders in school without being sexualised by male teachers were important issues, but I didn't feel like this mainstream feminism was particularly useful when it came to other forms of oppression. I didn't feel like this feminism was inclusive of other intersections, it became more and more obvious to me that this type of feminism didn't really fight for those who are oppressed because of their race or those who are oppressed because of their class. Becoming invested in 'SJW Twitter' definitely helped here and opened my eyes to the reality of white feminism and to the prospect of intersectional feminism. In short, white feminism is a branch of feminism focused on the struggles of primarily white and privileged women, this is basically liberal feminism which is centered around western ideals and liberalism doesn't really help the movement on a mass scale (but that's a topic for a different time). Intersectional feminism is a branch of feminism that encompasses all intersections because it claims that oppressive institutions are all intertwined, so the obvious one is sexism, but it also takes into account racism, classism, transphobia, homophobia, biphobia, ableism - you name an oppressive -ism and intersectional feminism is against that.

This is a picture of one of the walls in my Uni house - me and my housemate Megan adore Angela and wanted to order a poster of her, and then we received two in the post (at no extra charge) so we have two posters right next to each other, yep we cool.

So how does Angela Davis come into this? Angela Davis is one of the most famous intersectional feminists there are, just a month ago she said in an interview that feminism involves 'embracing but moving beyond gender'. In the 1960s, Angela Davis was a member of the Black Panthers, leader of the Communist Party in the USA, as well as being a member of the Che-Lumumba Club which was the all-black branch of the Communist Party. Being a part of groups like these meant she was not silent on classism or racism. She was (and still is) outspoken about classism and racism in the Suffrage movement, which we're told liberated all women when actually WOC were exploited by white women to push forward the movement. She's also spoken out about sexism in the Civil Rights movement and other socialist movements which resulted in the oppression of women being pushed to the sideline. Angela Davis also emphasizes the importance of women's rights being looked at globally in order for women to form 'a united, multiracial, antimonopoly women’s movement in order to aid oppressed women throughout the world'. 

I largely base my feminism on the likes of people like Angela Davis, people who are unapologetically anti-Capitalist (for a while, I was scared to say that I agreed with a lot of communist/anarchist ideals because you automatically get shunned as a fascist apologist - again, this is another topic for another blog post) and people who include POC, most importantly black people (again, colourism - different topic that I shan't go into detail about now), and encompass all of these issues into their feminism - this is the basis of my feminism, and as it is Women's History Month, I'd like to thank Angela Davis for being a big figure in helping me further my feminism, so thank you Angela - you tha real MVP.

Coconut oil - more than just a meme?

If you've been on the internet long enough, I'm sure you will have seen the coconut oil memes (exhibit A) but does coconut oil deserve the holy grail title it's been given? I take my memes seriously and have had coconut oil recommended for my type of hair for a long time so I thought I'd buy a £2.50 tub from Aldi just to give it a go (mans isn't going to spend £10 on a tub, all about that Aldi life).

The verdict is... it's pretty darn good! The first time I used it, though, I made the mistake of using it as my conditioner in the shower which in turn made my hair very crispy the day after, after a few of days of ridiculous crispiness it did go down and was just soft and textured, but I thought I'd mention this as something to bear in mind. I now put it on before washing my hair so I let it sink in a bit and then remove it with shampoo, then condition as usual, and this means my hair is textured and soft by the next day. I also like to use coconut oil to give my hair more volume by rubbing it in at the roots and teasing my hair a bit with my fingers.

So it works pretty well on my hair, but I had also heard it worked as a good makeup remover so I thought I'd test this out too, and I have to say, again, it works really well! It dissolves the makeup and then I wipe it off with a cotton pad, and if I'm feeling lazy I'll just leave my face after that because the oil residue does enough to moisturise my face, but otherwise I'll go and carry on with my makeup routine and do another couple of cleanses. I quite like this because it means I'm not really using chemicals or parabens or any of that nasty stuff on my skin and I think it's good to give your skin a break from all of that once in a while. Furthermore, since using coconut oil when removing my eye makeup, I've noticed my eyelashes have grown quite a lot. I'm not sure whether it's just coincidence but they just seem to be growing a lot faster than they used to, which is a plus.

Overall, coconut oil is definitely worth the hype in my opinion, and I only tried out a couple of its uses. I probably wouldn't go for the expensive tubs though when it's so inexpensive in Aldi, but each to their own!

Have you tried coconut oil?

Self-care, no cringe included

I usually take self-care tips with a pinch of salt, I know using a bath bomb isn't going to magically make me feel joyful and emerge with a newfound respect and appreciation for life. To me, at the core of it, self care is doing the stuff you should be doing anyway but you may have forgotten to do it while your mind is feeling dark and foggy. For me, this means taking a shower, taking the rubbish out of my room, changing my clothes, brushing my teeth, etc. etc. etc. - all very basic things, but when I'm in a dark spot these everyday, mundane tasks become near to impossible and it takes a lot of effort for me to do them.

The past couple of weeks for me have been quite focused on self-care, the past few weeks have been busy and eventful, and not necessarily stressful but they have left me feeling a bit overwhelmed and trapped. So I did a big tidy of my room, I changed my bed sheets, I've been trying to eat throughout the day, I've tried drinking more water, I've been more organised with my Uni work, and to top off everything I went for a long walk by myself with my music and The Hunger Games (finally finished reading it, found a really lovely spot overlooking Brighton with a pond and everythang), and I'm not feeling overwhelmed with everything anymore, I'm at a good point where everything's chilled and I feel in control.

I'm not sure what point I wanted to put across here, but I think self care is important and I hope you're all taking care of yourself. Whether it be the basic things that you may be finding difficult to do, or whether it be the cutesy Tumblr-esque self care things (which I appreciate too, I'm not at all dismissing those methods!). I know I've never made self-care a priority, but it has majorly improved my mental health recently taking myself more into consideration so I just wanted to remind you all to take good care of yourselves in a non-patronising, non-cringey kind of way. Take it easy, you've got this.