In her own words, Stella ‘dismantled’ the Union Jack as the basis for her creations, and created a kit with a distinctly and self-consciously contemporary design. It is, in fact, the first time in many years that the British flag has had any prominent positioning on the national kit. When Kelly Holmes won her two gold medals she did so with only a small Union Jack emblem on the corner of her shorts. But the use of the flag’s design, despite it being the core feature rather than simply an added ‘stamp’ to the perimeter of an item of clothing, has left many angry at the untraditional twist developed by team McCartney. The ‘dismantling’ of the flag has involved removing the red from the design, instead replacing it with various shades of blue. Many have questioned what place turquoise has amongst the standard triumvirate of red, white and blue, claiming that in her bid to modernise or ‘redefine’ the Union Jack, Stella has made it unrecognisable – bland, even. However, Stella responded to this sort of criticism by pointing out that there are several countries with a red, white and blue flag design. Therefore she wanted to make something bold and instantly recognisable, to lessen any confusion about whether that’s an American athlete you’ve accidentally been cheering for instead of home-grown blood. Whilst the colour scheme may have been altered, the kit’s overwhelming focus on the design of the flag – each piece focusing on a different segment of those tell-tale intersecting lines – is the perfect assurance that you haven’t been accidentally lending your support to the French (sacre bleu!)

As for the ‘red’ issue (or lack of it), personally I cannot see the problem; red has not been completely eradicated from the kit design, as some of the more irate criticism would have you believe, rather, it is incorporated in places where it will be most prominent. Particularly among the track athletes who will wear slips with their competitor numbers pinned to their front and back, the red collars will be nicely visible above the controversial all-blue flag. Then again, my personal opinion doesn’t really matter, but I do feel that it is worth pointing out that there was even less red in the last Team GB Olympic kit, but I can’t remember an outcry of similar proportions. Maybe it has more to do with Stella’s celebrity designer status (what does she know about creating athletic wear?) or perhaps even her celebrity father status (surely the only reason anyone pays her any attention in the first place is because her dad was a Beatle). I’m not going to go into a discussion of Stella’s fashion credentials, but whether her dad is Paul McCartney or Paul Potts, I doubt it’s going to have much of an impact on her talent as a designer. Sure, being the offspring of pop royalty may well be the equivalent of walking through an automatic door as opposed to a revolving one in certain aspects of life, but Stella has been well-regarded in her own right for many years now. I don’t think the fashion world is so lenient that they would allow someone to coast on parental coattails for such a long period of time. Furthermore, Stella has been branching out into sportswear since 2004, with several successful collections in collaboration with Adidas. Why shouldn’t an athletics kit be desirable as well as practical? This is what the athletes will be hoping for, and Stella clearly has a working knowledge of both.

Confidence is the key to a successful performance, and if a sportsperson feels confident and comfortable in what they’re wearing it will allow them to focus on other (arguably the more important) aspects of their competition. Stella said she worked closely with the athletes when creating her designs, and questioned whether they thought that looking good enhanced their performance, the answer to which was an emphatic ‘yes’. Sir Chris Hoy’s personal request was simply that she make him “look cool”.[1] Designing the Olympic kit involved creating almost 200 separate pieces tailored to various events, plus the training and presentation kits. The varied designs on each item (half a flag here, the corner of a flag there) allow for individuality between specialities, but many of the athletes feel that Stella has created something that also allows them to look part of a team. There is a great sense of unity and shared identity amongst the collection. The undisguised use of compression suit technology on some of the outfits has raised eyebrows – not least because it looks a bit like the X Factor logo has been placed slap bang in the middle of Phillips Idowu’s jump suit – but this is an important piece of material used across many disciplines, initially adapted from Olympic swimsuits, which aids power and progression. Whatever you think about how it looks, it has its purpose (and does not denote that Simon Cowell will be sitting at the end of each race with a giant red buzzer before him).

For me, the biggest question regarding the debate surrounding the kit is why does it matter to us? The way many have complained you’d think they were being forced to wear it themselves. Ultimately, what really matters is that the people wearing the designs are happy with it, and for the most part that seems to be the case. Surely it is more important that the person inside the kit is representing their country as best they can, rather than the logo on their vest. This, again, may be personal bias due to the fact that I really love the collection and the substantial incorporation of the flag. The only problem I have with the lack of red throughout the design is that red is a proven psychologically important colour in sportswear. It is why Tiger Woods always wears a red polo shirt on the final day of competition. Though, it is worth noting that unfortunately not even his shirt was bright enough to distract him from his personal problems off the golf course for the best part of 18 months. Thus proving that the most important part of a piece of kit is not whether it features traditional or contemporary design or utilises the national colours in the ‘appropriate’ way, but all comes down to the psychological and physiological well-being of the athlete inside.

The whole team was really good fun and I got to hang out with a few of them during the time that they were staying. I was a complete novice to the sport, so it might be prudent to give a brief summary of the happenings on the pitch: the team consists of 12 players and a match lasts for 90 minutes. Each match is split into 8 minute “quarters” and the aim of the game is to score goals. There is one point awarded for each goal, and the average score is between 50 and 100 goals per match. The game is fast, aggressive and incredibly brutal; it is more popularly known as “Murderball”, which speaks for itself, really.

Wheelchair rugby was given a test-run during the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta and was awarded full medal status at Sydney Games in 2000. One man who has been on the team since then is Captain Dave Willsie. He has been playing wheelchair rugby for 15 years, a member of Team Canada for fourteen, and Captain for most of that time. He’s pretty good at what he does, though he doesn’t like to admit it. He enjoys the hard-hitting, fast pace of the sport and is quick to praise his team and the great dynamics within it. Team Canada is ranked as one of the best teams in the world and, although Dave claims that he doesn’t feel additional pressure in this regard, he recognises that once you have tasted gold, nothing else is good enough. It is this intrinsic pressure that drives all athletes at this level, but he apparently never gets nervous on the pitch. Ironically it is not extreme sports that phase him, but everyday personal doubts during his day job as a building designer back home. I am admittedly not the most experienced at conducting interviews, but I did also manage to discover that he loves spoof zombie movies (whereas I would pick Dawn over Shaun any day), would want Mark Wahlburg play him in a film of his life, and would have cheese fondue as his last meal on earth. Oh, and if he were an amphibian he would be a toad. He’s in it for the fairytale, and the girls, apparently.

Another member of the team who I spoke to was ‘T-Bone’. Whilst he admitted that he did enjoy a good steak, this nickname in fact comes from his signature move on the pitch: pile-driving the sides of other players’ chairs at high speed. Yikes.

T-Bone, or Trevor Hirschfield, has been playing wheelchair rugby since 2002 and has been on Team Canada since 2006. He got into playing during his time in rehab, having always been drawn to high impact sports. We chatted mostly about food (no surprise to those who know me), and travel. The team have been all over the world, but he says that his favourite places have been Australia and New Zealand. He told me that before big events they often train in places with similar weather in order to acclimatise, so when they were preparing for the Beijing Olympics they were training in Australia. What a drag that must have been.

Andy Van-Neutegem is a High Performance Director of the Canadian Wheelchair Sports Association and one of the team’s official representatives. I managed to grab a few minutes with him at a training session and learned that Andy is one of our own but moved to Vancouver Island several years ago. As a professional Ice Hockey player he is well-equipped to deal with the pressures of working with a team for such a high-impact sport yet admits that this was his first experience of disability sports. Despite this, he’s been working with the team for 6 years now, so he’s obviously doing something right!

When I asked him about recruitment and the possibility of over-subscription and competition for places within the sport, he declared that the very opposite was more of an issue. Recruitment is limited and difficult, and he asserts that the sport could die out. As technology advances, it becomes possible in more and more cases to inject steroids at the site of the injury. A great number of Wheelchair Rugby players are disabled due to a spinal cord injury; he described to me in layman’s terms that it is the inflammation that chokes off the spinal cord and causes the paralysis, and direct application of certain drugs can prevent this. Whilst he is clear in his assertion that this is obviously a wonderful and life-saving development, it is still a saddening thought to him that the source of his passion might one day be inaccessible.

Following the 2012 Canadian National Championships held in Montreal, the Canadian Wheelchair Association released the names of those players selected for the London 2012 squad. Amongst them are many of the men that I met a few weeks ago. I would describe myself as a patriotic girl, who would normally back her country and fellow countrymen and women. However, I will be making an exception and these guys will be getting my support this year; it would be rude not to, really. For me, this epitomises all that should be celebrated about the Olympics: bringing continents, countries and people together. Yes, the event is based on competition and, inevitably, winners and losers, but if we can make some new friends along the way then more so the better.

Image credit: saucy_pan – Flickr

Whilst in no way wanting to suggest that I am in any way, shape or form what one would deem an “athlete”, I have trained at a competitive level in swimming since a young age. This has allowed me a vague understanding of what it must take to chase (excuse the pun) a dream in the world of sport. The athletes that will grace our television screens this summer will have probably trained 1,400 days out of the 1,460 since the last Olympics, with the ultimate goal in mind to prove themselves on the biggest level sport has to offer. They will have suffered blood, sweat and tears for something that may take them less time to complete than it takes you to read this article. But that’s what’s so inspiring about these people. We live in a world where Kim Kardashian getting flour-bombed on the red carpet is big news; and the papers with the widest circulation in this country document the every move of people on “TOWIE”. Having the Olympics on our doorstep will allow young children and teenagers the chance to watch some really worthwhile role models in action.

Someone who used to train at my swimming club was selected for the Olympics in Beijing 2008. Upon his arrival back in the country, he made a visit to the club to show us his Team GB kit and talk about his experience. If there was ever anything that was going to encourage the younger swimmers to keep up with their training, this was it. Witnessing someone local achieving one of the biggest goals in sport is not only inspiring, but it makes the impossible seem possible. Olympic champions aren’t superhuman gods (well, they weren’t always) – they too made their start at humble grassroots levels. Young people across the country will be able to experience this come July. Having the Olympics in this country makes everything seem more “real”; it’s not something going on in some distant land, between some untouchable personas on the television, it’s happening here, in our capital. It provides a doorstep model of something to work towards. Now, not everyone can be a podium finisher, but everyone can have a goal. I will admit to my own sadness when I realised that my Olympic dream was not feasible (I don’t know whether my parents were cruel or kind for leaving me clueless for so long), but I also realised that the sport meant more to me than coming first in a race and posting the fastest times. We don’t quit school or our jobs just because we’re not the best; there is cause for making sport just as much a part of our lifestyles as any of these other aspects.

His Seb-ness, Lord Coe himself, has referred to sport as the “hidden social worker”. There are so many benefits to getting involved. My swimming club is like a second family to me, and whenever I am home during uni holidays my first port of call is always the pool. It’s comforting to have something so familiar to go back to – and I really believe that the best thing the Olympics could do is to encourage more people to take up a sport, any sport! Becoming part of a team, which is possible even in ‘individual’ activity, aids increased self-esteem, encourages the pursuit of more ambitious goals in other aspects of life, and provides a long-term support network. Sports club dropout rates among teenagers are high for a number of reasons and  I’m not going to try and provide one sweeping response for everyone, but certainly one of the factors is the social pressures that are faced at this age. However, perseverance through this period can help with maintaining a “focus that will provide the person with a skill for life, that they can take anywhere with them. There are numerous complaints about the behaviour of “Britain’s youth”, but the counterargument is always that there is nothing provided to occupy them. What the Olympics can help to establish are the seeds of encouragement; hopefully inspiring more people to get involved at every level – not just participating, but the coaching and administrative sides also. Passion breeds passion, and the structures put in place as a result of the Games will last much longer than those four weeks in July and August.

Many choose to moan about the sporting “failures” suffered by England/Great Britain, but the reality is that to make it in the top flight of sport, many of our athletes have to decamp abroad in order to get the best training and facilities. It’s a bit of a case of wanting our cake and eating it – we want to do well on the global sporting stage, but the outrage at the projected cost of staging the Olympics suggests that many are not willing to pay the price of development. I understand the worries at spending such a large amount during a period of financial crisis, but I truly believe the Olympics are a brilliant investment for the future of sport and subsequent sporting generations. The dedicated and underrated sportsmen and women of our country are getting a chance to shine in front of a home crowd, and eyes all over the world will be looking at London. I for one can’t wait to be watching.

Image Credit: Uk in Italy – Flickr.

The London 2012 Olympic Games have already generated a large amount of so-called ‘mega-event scepticism’, recalling past high-publicity, high-hype events such as Terminal 5 and the Millennium Dome, both of which received heavy criticism for operational failures. But currently generating most debate is how much the thing is costing us. Worryingly, nobody seems to be able to give a definitive answer. Even accounts of the original budget included in the bid vary, with the official government report putting it at just over £4bn, but other sources stating between £2.4bn and £2.7bn. The costs ‘officially’ rose to £9.3bn in 2007, and are now projected at anything between £11bn and £24bn. Whichever figure you go for, that’s a lot of billions.

And this isn’t big-business investment we’re talking about. After the recession struck – post-Olympic bid – the National Audit Office noted that public-sector funding has nearly tripled to compensate for the number of private investors (who clearly know what’s good for them) pulling out. The report states that private-sector contributions now cover just 2% of overall spending, with the Olympic village now being “fully nationalised”; that is, wholly funded by the public. Overall, going on ‘official’ figures, £9.3bn of public money has been set aside for preparations – twice the government’s original estimate. So what are we supposed to be getting for our £9.3bn? A PwC study in 2005 estimated that the Olympics will provide a £5.9bn boost to the London economy, and a further £1.9bn to the rest of the UK. In 2009 the government announced that more than 30,000 new jobs would be created before 2012. The deal seems to be: we spend £9.3bn of public money for a greater return of increased tourism, higher levels of spending and long-term employment benefits, plus all the prestige of hosting and a much-needed morale-boost. Sounds like a pretty good deal, right?

Certainly, some percentage of the projected economic benefits will come to fruition; I’m not suggesting we might as well all go and leap off the Olympic Stadium and end it all right now. But there are also a few flaws in the plan. For a start, increased spending largely relies on an increase in disposable income. But without that increase in income, public spending on the Olympics will result in a substitution effect: the money spent is simply diverted from other areas. The majority of ‘new’ money to the British economy, then, will come from tourism. And as for the influx in tourism that is going to boost the economy, the UK gets an estimated 27 million overnight visitors every year. The Olympics is only projected to bring in another 500,000. That’s a fairly pitiful addition of 1.9%. Most significantly, for such high levels of public spending you’d expect a lasting return. If the Olympics are just a massive blow-out party, it’s more an investment in vanity than economy. Part of the issue is that the large numbers of jobs generated by the Olympics are temporary: the largest areas of employment – those of construction and hospitality – will certainly experience a boost this summer. But what long-lasting improvements will the Olympics yield for those industries? Furthermore, only 9% of jobs generated are currently held by the previously unemployed.

For London, an overwhelming proportion of projected benefits will be felt in the run up to and at the time of the event, with an income of £3.4bn expected in this period. In contrast, the economic benefits in the years after the games are projected at £1.6bn. You only have to look at the number of Olympic-villages-come-‘ghost-towns’ scattered around the world to see that, at least for past hosts, lasting return on public investment in the Olympics is minimal. Ultimately, considering that almost all the Olympic hosts pre-Sydney in 2000 lost money, the projected benefits are perhaps a little unrealistic. While I have no problems allowing the government one or two idealistic dreams, I do have a problem with those dreams being funded so heavily by public money.

My issue with the Olympics is not with sport, or with national pride, or even really with economics. It’s a moral issue. With unemployment figures of 2.68 million (1.04m of whom are under 24), 48,510 homeless households, and an estimated 100,000 pupils leaving school functionally illiterate – to name but a few of Britain’s hardships – I can’t help but wonder: couldn’t that £9.3 billion be put to better use? I understand that in times of ‘austerity’ people need a boost; governments become desperate to make people proud of being British; desperate to make Britain ‘great again’. But making Britain look better to the rest of the world doesn’t make us better. National pride is a very nice, fluffy idea, but when the pursuit of it comes at such a high price, I just don’t think it’s worth it.

Maybe that will change, but for now I’m pretty convinced that my highlight of the 2012 Olympic Games is going to be Boris’ inspired rhubarb-rubbing speech. If you haven’t seen it, you can find it here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bkPQpRH4_Zg – much more entertaining than over-priced athletics if you ask me.

Image Credit: Fred Dawson – Flickr

Briggate became a site for hourly street dance performances; water carriers dressed as steam punks; and a ghostly ethereal children’s choir. Water was running in the streets and a brass band paraded around, filling the city with sound. The show came to a head with the intersection of these street performances at the bizarre yet fantastic statue erected in the middle of the walkway – a tree appeared to have forced its way out of the concrete, supporting a boat lodged in its branches. However, it was the Dark Arches that really impressed me. Hidden away under the train station, these arches are creepy at the best of times. The Brothers took this to a whole new level, with mesmerizingly grotesque ‘Aquaria’, or rooms housing nothing but small glass boxes of sculptures and faux taxidermy. The subterranean labyrinth was filled with an especially composed piece of music, constructed using the sounds of water, brass instruments and a children’s choir. The effect, when combined with the mysterious lighting, was eerie to say the least. The music had been passed to four separate dance companies, who were asked to produce an individual dance concept to perform throughout the course of the weekend. I was posted to assist Mad Dog’s Dance Theatre, which was a two-person performance by the company’s founder Douglas Thorpe, and a female counterpart. The piece was fraught and violent, frightening and full of angst, yet so intensely captivating that it was impossible to look away. The pair danced almost continuously, with each 15 minute performance being interspersed with a mere 10 minute break. The room in which the dance took place was bare except for an old armchair and table, and the open-stage environment meant that each performance was different, responding to the positioning of the audience. This, coupled with the physical exhaustion of the dancers, created a real intensity of atmosphere.

The other three productions were equally brilliant, although I did not get to experience them all completely. An underwater cabaret proved a big hit with the families attending the weekend, whereas Phoenix Dance’s production was much more sinister. It was an elaborate piece, consisting of what appeared to be close to 100 chairs as props, with the dancers moving in a zombie-like state. It was conducted in a corridor shaped room, with the performers continually moving towards the audience. The final exhibition piece was by Northern Ballet: I unfortunately only managed to catch 15 minutes of this 45 minute spectacle, but was still greatly impressed. Amongst other things it contained an on-stage ballet birth scene; performing this with poise and grace is no mean feat, as I’m sure you can imagine.

Possibly my favourite part of the production was the Cross Arches, situated at the very end of the underground stretch used over the weekend. It was an amazing success of lighting and sound manipulation, with an image of Briggate being projected onto a long section of arch and water, accompanied by the sound of Opera North’s children’s choir. The projection was so well executed that it appeared that the ground was in fact flooded – a real testament to the efforts of the team and producers.

This project was part of the Cultural Olympiad, which is ‘the largest cultural celebration in the history of the modern Olympic and Paralympic Movements’,[1] and is a part of the build up to London 2012. Overworlds and Underworlds was ‘Yorkshire’s contribution to Artists taking the lead, the UK Arts Councils’ flagship project for the London 2012 Cultural Olympiad’.[2] It is vital with an event as globally recognised as the Olympics that the country celebrates not only our best athletes, but also those who are not driven by sports. Engaging people from all sectors of the national community makes it possible for the UK in its entirety to feel somehow connected to the event that will focus all eyes on us. In little more than 60 days the Olympics will kick off, and it is reassuring to know that not only our best runners and jumpers will be celebrated, but a cross-section of our entire society.

Photo Credit: Katie Machin

The recent proposal to ban images which promote sexual objectification in the union is one which has stirred up great debate. I was one of many who immediately objected to the idea of banning ‘lad’s mags’ and similar magazines from being sold in the union. Suggested by Harriet Rankin, LUU’s Welfare Officer, the idea stems from the view that everyone should have a right to feel comfortable, safe and confident in our union, regardless of age, gender, faith, culture or occupation. Having recently spoken to Harriet about the idea, there’s no denying that it has some value: students have the power to decide how the union should be run, and it is a place where everyone should feel comfortable. Student choice probably wouldn’t be that limited, considering that there are numerous shops very nearby which would not be affected by the ban, and this is a unique opportunity to create an environment and market which we are happy to buy into, free from images which some may view as sexually objectifying, degrading or insulting. The proposal also raises some important and probably uncomfortable questions which have been largely skipped over when the proposal has been discussed, the focus instead falling on the fact that students would have to walk across the road to Tesco to purchase their regular copy of Nuts, Zoo, Cosmopolitan, More and so on.

Yes, magazines aimed at women would be included too. They would have to be. This was the root of one of my initial reservations: how could we justify a ban on ‘lad’s mags’ – which is what the proposal has been widely advertised as – yet continue to allow the sale of women’s magazines which contain topless pictures of men, sex tips and advice on how to keep a man wrapped around your little finger? The idea is about banning ‘magazines that objectify’, not about passing judgement on magazines that make their money off pictures of naked women. In fact, the ban would cover all images that are sexually objectifying, including advertisements for club nights in the union and promotional material used by external companies advertising on campus.

And here is the first major flaw in the proposal: where do we draw the line of what should and shouldn’t be included? Harriet assures me that it would be the decision of the members of the elected executive to decide exactly which images, magazines, products and advertisements would be included under this umbrella of censorship. She also assures me that our beloved RAG naked society calendars would not be affected. So, naked charity calendars are in, all other nudity is out. Presumably. Because it would seem that nudity is only acceptable if it is used for a certain purpose. Stripping off with your friends, doing a hilarious photo shoot, selling the calendar to everyone you know, sending the money off to a worthwhile cause: what an excellent idea! But stripping off by yourself, doing a photo shoot for a magazine or advertising company, knowing the picture will be sold to the general public in some form, and then keeping the money for yourself? How appalling.

This is my main objection to Harriet’s idea. It simply smacks of judgement. If the movement is to ban images of sexual objectification, then surely all nudity should be out. Don’t get me wrong, I love the RAG naked calendar as much as the next person, but either this ban has to apply to everything or nothing, regardless of the purpose of the photograph. Doubtless some people might read this and immediately insist that it is totally different: the RAG calendar is not about sexual objectification, it’s just people getting naked to make money for charity. But is it really so different from, to borrow an example Harriet used in a speech she made to open the debate on the motion, a watch company using a picture of a naked woman to sell watches? Does the RAG naked calendar need to feature naked models? Sure, it’s a lot of fun, but does the nudity serve any purpose other than to make people stop, look and buy? Not really. So if this is deemed acceptable, how can we say that other nude images – which are also used to make people stop, look and buy – aren’t? And therein lies the judgement. If this motion is passed, we are applauding those of us in our student body who have been brave enough to strip off for a charity calendar, but, by implication, condemning men and women who use their bodies every day to make a living through topless or nude modelling. Moreover, if we try to argue that glamour modelling is different because it uses the images in a degrading, exploitative way, then we are stripping people who choose this career path of their agency.

Of course, I understand that this motion is not meant to be about judging the career choices of glamour models, male or female. However, a motion which only bans nude or sexualised images which are created or sold for a certain purpose, which some people decide they may not approve, of does not seem to me to be in line with the purpose of this motion, which is to help create a fair, inclusive, considerate union.

UPDATE: The voters in the referendum voted not to pass the motion to ban sexual objectification in Leeds University Union on May 21st 2012.

Image: Danny McL on Flickr

]]> http://www.lippymag.co.uk/the-lads-mag-ban-should-luu-ban-sexual-objectification/feed 0 http://www.lippymag.co.uk/the-republican-war-on-women http://www.lippymag.co.uk/the-republican-war-on-women#comments Sun, 13 May 2012 18:05:03 +0000 Brittney Coker http://www.lippymag.co.uk/?p=3347 As November approaches, America is preparing for the upcoming presidential election and issues focusing on the economy, job creation, etc. etc. are at the forefront of the debates. The American public is bracing itself for another round of mud-slinging, dirt digging, and rampant flip-flopping on issues.  Watching the current political stage unfold from a country an entire ocean away has made me all the more aware of the pettiness attached to political campaigns,  and nothing has made my blood boil more than the Republican “war on women”.

The Republican Party is America’s conservative party. However, their conservative values have become more and more ridiculous this past year as they have waged a war attacking women’s rights.  Many members of the party have denied this war, citing the “liberal media” as the authors of a fictional battle. For those who are unaware, this is the Republican style: propose an issue, issue faces extreme criticism, deny issue and blame the liberal media.

However, this time around, there is no denying it….  State after state has proposed and often signed into law outrageous legislation dictating a woman’s right to choose (or lack thereof), redefining victims of rape as “accusers”, as well as cutting employment, pre-school (nursery) programs, clothing, and food aid to low income mothers.  In South Dakota, they have even sanctioned the legalization of the murder of abortion doctors.   Sam Brownback, Governor of Kansas, has proposed some of the most extreme anti-abortion laws within the United States.  The Kansas anti-abortion law contains a measure mandating that all doctors inform their patients that there is a direct link between abortions and breast cancer, even though this fact has been denied by both the National Cancer Institute and the American Cancer Society.  To make matters worse, a separate measure allows doctors to withhold medical information if  it may lead to a woman to having an abortion.  Therefore, according the Kansas bill, doctors may legally lie to women in order to reduce the numbers of abortions.

But wait, it gets worse.  Governor Tom Corbett of Pennsylvania has proposed a bill to force state mandated ultrasounds before an abortion is performed. The bill states that print-out images of the ultrasound must be placed in the patient’s medical file (even if this is against their wishes) and the ultrasound machine must be in direct eyesight of the patient.  When asked by journalists what a woman is supposed to do if she does not wish to have an ultrasound, he simply replied, “She does not have to look, she can close her eyes”. In Oklahoma, legislation has been proposed making it legal for doctors to lie about medical information if a woman is already pregnant,  while in Virginia, another state with forced state mandated ultrasounds, Republicans are denying legislation that would finance the practice, forcing women to be financially responsible for something they do not wish to take part in.

It doesn’t stop there.  Arizona governor Jan Brewer recently signed into law a bill which bans abortions after 20 weeks and requires forced ultrasounds before the procedure. In addition to this bill, Brewer has also restricted city, county, and/or state funding for any organization that offers family planning that may lead to abortions. This legislation directly affects Planned Parenthood, a national organization that provides free contraceptive care, health screenings and health care, and abortions to low income individuals.  Only 3% of Planned Parenthood’s services include abortions.  This being said, Brewer has essentially attempted to outlaw all government funding to an organization dedicated to responsible family planning.  However, Brewer fails to understand that the only service funded by state funded Medicaid is birth control, causing the bill to stifle the healthcare of women on Medicaid.

Planned Parenthood may be safe from Arizona’s new legislation, but they are not yet safe from federal budget cuts.  Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential candidate, has proposed to get rid of Planned Parenthood funding altogether, despite the fact that the $75 million dollar cost to fund the organization only accounts for 0.002% of the federal budget.

The Republican war on women does not stop at anti-abortion and anti-contraceptive legislation.  The Violence Against Women Act, a 1994 legislation providing assistance to victims of domestic violence, has recently come up for renewal.  The Democratic Party has proposed an expansion of the legislation which would include funding and protections for same-sex couples, Native Americans, and illegal immigrants.  Due to these inclusions, the Republican Party has held the bill hostage and refused to sign it into law.  Judiciary Chairman Lamar Smith, Republican of Texas, has slammed the bill for a provision allowing immigrant victims to seek a U visa that allows citizenship to victims of specific crimes (including domestic violence) and individuals who assist law enforcement in solving crimes.  Many Democrats (and some Republicans) have denounced the Republicans’ stalling of this bill as it is a necessary component to protecting the rights of domestic violence victims.

The Republican-fuelled war against women has provoked many women to respond to the absurdity of these legislations.  Lizz Winstead, author of Lizz Free or Die, has stated that less access to healthcare leads to less access for women to fulfill their dreams.  “Why are the Republicans focused on preventing people from being happy?” Comedian Kristen Schaal recently made an appearance on The Daily Show asking, “What’s the difference between a fertilized egg, a corporation, and a woman? One is not considered a person in the state of Oklahoma.”  She, of course, is referring to women.

No other political battle has enraged me more and made me question the sanity of the Republican Party.  How these policy makers have become so out of touch with reality is something I will never understand.  Their legislation has attacked the rights of women and brought government control over an individual’s body.  After all, like a recent Funny or Die video ‘Republicans, Get in My Vagina‘ asks, who knows better about reproductive health than a bunch of old white guys?  I, for one, definitely want someone like my dad to be all up in my vagina.  Come on Republicans, it’s time you came back to the 21st century.

Image: Fiboccani Blue on Flickr

With only a limited interview time, we get started with the obvious. The name ‘Ladyhawke’ came from the 1985 fantasy film: “I was trying to find a name to call myself, and I sort of stumbled across the movie Ladyhawke, which I hadn’t seen for years – not since I was a kid. It was instant: the perfect name, it suited me. You know when you’re trying to think up an idea and one comes – it’s just right.”

It’s been a while since Pip’s last album – four years, in fact, since the release of her debut Ladyhawke, but the much-anticipated Anxiety is out this month. As far as Pip is concerned, the album can’t come out soon enough. The release date has been put back twice – firstly because she wasn’t happy with the original mixes of the songs. “The very first mixes were the ones we ended up going with – they were the ones I liked in the first place. Always ends up that way!” Record-making, it seems, is a complicated process, and the release was pushed back a few months later still. “This whole time I’ve just been waiting – there’s so much red tape you have to get through. You know, working out all of the artwork – my friend Sarah does all the artwork, and it’s all very time consuming – the mixes for the songs, and then the record label deciding when’s the best time for it to come out. Meanwhile I’ve been sitting here going du-du-du…”

So what can we expect from the new album? “I sort of wanted to do something a bit darker, a bit rockier. It’s still a pop record. I was influenced by quite a lot of 90s stuff, and a lot of 60s as well. Lots of David Bowie in the mix there as well, Nirvana, Blur, Garbage. So much different stuff!”

The four-year gap shouldn’t really come as a surprise, given the years Pip spent touring after Ladyhawke’s release. “I toured the first album pretty much non-stop in 2008, 2009, and then finished in about February 2010. The last tour was the Big Day Out tour around Australasia – which was perfect ‘cause then I was like, oh, I may as well stay in New Zealand. I moved home and took some time off, just rejuvenated. Got back to the old Pip! And then I started in July and it took probably about eight months for the album to be done.”

The current tour is going well. “They’re a rowdy bunch in Manchester!” Pip laughs. But she tells me that it can get quite exhausting as well. So how does she spend her free time? “Just chilling out, otherwise I get run down and I can’t catch up,” she tells me, laughing about her low-key days off. There isn’t much time to recoup, so she spends it wisely – though she and the band did manage to stop in Manchester for a day. “We went to a Thai restaurant. You get so exhausted – I just ended up lying in bed all day watching movies on Netflix!”

Despite the extensive touring, live performances are still nerve-racking for the Kiwi singer. “I quite often close my eyes when I play ‘cause I find it really hard to look at the audience. I’m playing new material as well as old stuff, so no one’s heard the new stuff because the album’s not out. It’s quite risky – ‘cause people obviously don’t know the songs, they’re just standing there taking it in, and it’s quite hard for me because it feels like they don’t enjoy it.”

“I like seeing – there’s always some people up the front, some real, keen, hardcore fans – they’re usually wearing a Ladyhawke t-shirt or something. That makes my day, that stuff. When I see some like that up the front it makes me feel a lot better. I think, they love the music, it’s good, that’s reassuring – then I close my eyes again.”

She’s done several collaborations in the past, and I ask if there is anything planned for the near future. “I love collaborating, it’s so fun. I’d love to collaborate on something that wasn’t for Ladyhawke” – but nothing in the pipeline just yet. So is there anyone in particular she would like to work with? “I don’t know – anyone! I really want to do something with Willy Moon, I don’t know if you’ve heard of him? He’s really new actually, he’s got a really cool vibe, and I’d love to do something with him.”

Apart from the music, there has been a lot of buzz as Pip has risen to prominence and come into the public eye about her distinctive style – over the past few years she seems to have become somewhat of a style icon. She seems genuinely amused about the comments she’s received: “Yeah, it’s funny! I was as surprised as the next person about it. I think it’s because I don’t dress to my gender, I guess.” She’s known for wearing a lot of men’s clothes, which makes a change from the traditional attire for contemporary female musicians. “I don’t really dress girly – I always wear big stuff, and people seem to like it! It’s comfortable for me to wear, and I love clothes.”

As the interview draws to a close, we get to talking about Lippy – and it transpires that Pip has a bit of a history with student media, as she was a music editor of a university magazine herself. “I don’t even know how this happened! I was a photography major, and I ended up going to lots of gigs and taking heaps of pictures, and I was in a band – I just got to know heaps of people. First of all they asked me if I wanted to do reviews – CD reviews and reviews for this other magazine, Wellington magazine, so I did. Then Salient, that’s the uni mag – they asked if I wanted to be music editor, and I said yes.” All of this made for a busy last year of university – “I kind of regret saying yes! I had to do the whole music section, meanwhile doing my degree as well, and I was in a band. It destroyed me – it was so much work!”

However, there’s definitely a nostalgic glint in her eye as she tells me about her toils. “I can’t believe I did that for a whole year! I’ve never actually told anyone that before, I’d completely forgotten…”

So what’s in store for Ladyhawke over the next few months? “Just lots of touring. I just can’t wait for the album to be out, that’s gonna be a wait off my shoulders!”

Well, we at Lippy wish her the very best of luck, and I look forward to hearing the album!

Ladyhawke’s second album, Anxiety, will be released later this month. Visit the Ladyhawke website for more information.

Image: Beckie Smith

Chew Lips: Mine (LUU)

London-based electro-pop duo Chew Lips was the opening act for the LAL stage at Mine. Having heard and enormously enjoyed a couple of their tracks on Kitsuné Maison albums previously, I was pleasantly surprised to hear that almost all their songs lived up to my rather high expectations. The duo were full of energy and produced some real, dance-inducing beats. Their attitude was one of carefree abandon and the audience couldn’t help but bop along to each track. Some of the songs were so catchy, I found myself singing along to tracks I had only just heard for the first time. With such well-orchestrated synth and stunning vocals, Chew Lips really do have the whole package and I wouldn’t be surprised to seeing them performing at other, larger festivals across the UK soon. Overall, a fantastic and memorable start to a day of non-stop music.

I Like Trains: O2 Academy

I had been recommended I Like Trains by a number of different people who collectively described them as brooding and sombre. The latter seemed to hit the mark perfectly. The main singer’s voice, although admittedly rather lovely, was so incredibly low that it was often difficult to make out amidst the instruments on stage. I wondered if he had managed to reach tones beyond those heard by the human ear. Or perhaps I was just standing too far away from the stage? I can only speculate. Overall, the impression that I got of I Like Trains was that it might have been nice to listen to them as I drifted off to sleep (although probably not) but as mid-way marker to LAL they were rather wasted on such a huge venue and were even, dare I say it, a bit of a downer to the electric, festival atmosphere outside.

Ellen and the Escapades: Holy Trinity Church

Ellen and the Escapades‘ set was a particular LAL highlight for me. Holy Trinity is a beautiful building, and full to capacity, the gorgeously sophisticated surroundings suited the local Leeds four-piece well. It also made a welcome break to be able to sit down, which provided a welcome mid-festival creak from jostling crowds and running between venues. If, like me, you’d just come from seeing Broken Hands at Nation of Shopkeepers – who I hadn’t heard of previously, but were very good – you will probably understand the need to escape from the claustrophobia of bar queues and beer spills. The Escapades chose a stripped-back set, saying that they’d chosen to avoid using a full drum-kit because of the reverb. They definitely chose well; the slight echo lent Ellen’s already gorgeous voice a beautiful warmth. Single ‘Coming Back Home’ was predictably a highlight, and tugged at more than a few heartstrings in the pews. The band is beginning to gain widespread recognition, but they’re definitely one to catch while you can – something tells me they won’t be playing in venues like this for long.

Post War Glamour Girls: The Well

Post War Glamour Girls gave probably my favourite performance of the day. I’d heard some of their stuff before, and had seen their name around a lot, but had never seen them live so I was really excited. I must say, they did not disappoint. Contrary to their name, 75% of the band are not actually girls, but the sound is cracking. The heady vocals and sombre lyrics remind me of Modest Mouse, which in my opinion can only be a good thing, but the female backing gives a different edge. The band had a great stage presence and got everyone moving during the more lively tracks. The set list was well chosen, alternating between slower, deeper sounds and their harder, heavier ventures. The Well was a perfect venue for this band, with its dark, close feel but which still accommodates a big crowd. The room was packed 10 minutes in and the only disappointing thing about this set was its shortness. This band was a welcome change from the previous set. Wot Gorilla might be many peoples’ cup of tea, but unfortunately for me it sounded like the poor lead singer was coughing up a lung.

All in all my experience of the day was great. It was my first time at the festival and I was very impressed with the organisation of the event. Bands were always on time and for the most part the sound was spot on. I loved the idea of multiple venues and it just added to the fun of the day having to run between places, catching snippets of sound from the streets. It was definitely worth the price of the ticket, and it was just a shame that you can’t be in two places at once! I really enjoyed myself and getting to see some great local and up and coming bands; I’ll definitely be going again next year!

Images: Live at Leeds, Beckie Smith

Images: Beckie Smith