STOP TAXING PERIODS

Photocredits - www.huffingtonpost.co.uk

Finishing a period; leaving only one tampon in the box: you never consider it a forthcoming trauma at the time, but 28 days later finding yourself foraging through stacks of cosmetic bags and purses in search of a stray tampon or sanitary towel, it becomes a pretty rubbish situation. It’s a frustrating dilemma as is, without the knowledge that the government currently implicate a 5% tax on the tampons and pads that they class as ‘luxury items’.

Personally, I don’t view a tampon as 'inessential but desirable'. Literally, it is not impossible to live without sanitary products, but it would be extremely unhygienic, and would jeopardise a woman’s personal safety. In short: we cannot lead normal lives without tampons/pads.

Ending tampon tax has been something that’s popped up on my Twitter feed more frequently in recent weeks: Austin Williams was snapped wearing a tee-shirt that read ‘tampons should be free’, and the change.org petition launched last May has had widespread popularity amongst women and men alike. Though the tax was cut from a shocking 17.5% to 5% in 2000, the responsibility to get it down to zero lies in the hands of George Osborne, chancellor of the exchequer, to convince the European Parliament to revise their policies on what counts as a ‘luxury item’. Today, the petition was given to 11, Downing Street, and it's had great recognition from the government...we are definitely on our way to ending period tax. For more information on the steps that need to be taken now, read campaigner Laura Coryton's five step plan to ending the tax for good.

'Throw them at Cameron until it works'

To further aggravate myself on the issue, I decided to work out how much the average menstrual cycle costs a woman in her lifetime. Take a box of 20 regular absorbency Tampax pearl tampons: £2.99 for a box; you change them every four hours. If you wake up at seven and go to sleep at eleven - that works out as four tampons a day, costing 60p. If a period lasts 5 days, that’s £3 per period; one period a month makes it £36 a year. According to Google, the average woman starts her period at 12 and reaches menopause at 51 (that’s 39 long years…). This means the average woman spends £1404 on tampons in her lifetime, assuming she doesn't have a particularly heavy flow; never uses more than four a day, and never wears one to bed.

Obviously, there’s the option of purchasing cheaper supermarket alternatives, but every girl knows that with sanitary products, you really do pay for what you get. And even so, it’s not just the price put on the tampons: it’s the morality of taxing them as ‘luxury items’. If crocodile steaks, edible sugar flowers and helicopters can go tax-free, then we should not be taxed on the ‘luxury’ of a period. Sign the petition, and change this for good!

https://www.change.org/p/george-osborne-stop-taxing-periods-period

MADAM BUTTERFLY AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL

Hyenseoung Kwan as Butterfly and Jeffrey Gwaltney as Pinkerton
Photocredits www.londonist.com

Raymond Gubbay’s Madam Butterfly has returned to London, with an in-the-round interpretation at the Royal Albert Hall, directed by David Freeman and set by David Roger. Running for only eighteen days, the show hasn’t been given a large amount of time or publicity to achieve optimum ticket sales, but for a fairly un-hyped performance, it certainly was not a disappointment.

The dainty, Japanese water-garden set was authentic and naturalistic, establishing the picturesque setting instantaneously. The use of water on stage caught my eye upon entering the theatre, however later proved to bring some compromises to Freeman’s spatial direction of the play: the array of bridges and pools left the cast with limited space to make the most of, hence concentrating most of the action very much centre stage. Had we been in a studio theatre, this would be of no problem, but when catering to the 5000-capacity Royal Albert Hall, this may have left the upper circle with restricted viewing of the action.

The authentic Geisha costumes brought an added sensation of delicacy and awe to the performance; especially notable during the female chorus’ first entrance to the stage. From the complicated details in the floral pattern on the women’s kimonos to their painted-white porcelain faces, the intricacies of the costumes subsidised where some of the most sincere plot lines were glossed over.

What lacked about the performance was the suggestion of Pinkerton’s untrustworthiness throughout the whole of act one. As this was my first time seeing the show, I had nothing to compare it with at the time, but from reading other’s responses to the performance it has become evident that some of the hint loss is due to the smoothing over of some of Puccini’s composing, which should help us suspend disbelief about Pinkerton. Others have said that lots of the suggestions have simply been lost in Amanda Holden’s translation. Despite this, the moment where Butterfly blindfolded her son and took her own life was poignant and breath-taking; Kwon captured Butterfly’s horror upon encountering Pinkerton’s American wife incredibly.

 The authentic Geisha costumes brought a sensation of delicacy and awe to the performance; especially notable during the female chorus’ first entrance to the stage. From the complicated details in the floral pattern on the women’s kimonos to their painted-white porcelain faces, the intricacies of the costumes in this performance subsidised where some of the most sincere plot lines were glossed over.

Overall, although some of the opera’s darker plot themes were pushed into the background, the performance was enjoyable and there were some moments indicating a lot of thought has gone into the rehearsal and design of this show.  

JAWS AT HEAVEN

Photocredits - www.theupcoming.co.uk

Emerging from the upcoming Birmingham B-Town scene with their EP Toucan Surf in 2012, JAWS have frequently (and righteously) been named as ‘the ones to watch’. Back in September, the release of their much-awaited album Be Slowly marked a growing point in their music; they swayed away from the almost futuristic, whimsical sounds of their older material and progressed towards something more fast-paced, whilst still keeping their dreamy sound that was born two years before. Taking the stage at Heaven nightclub on Wednesday night, it was my third time seeing the band, and bearing in mind I was initially keener to see Slaves at the NME tour than JAWS, I maintain that their unique sound and relaxed, 90’s vibe style of music is always worth catching live.

Turning up on stage to Kanye West was slightly cringe-inducing, but it set the youthful crowd into a frenzy for the opening song, Donut, which seemed a surprising choice seeing as it’s certainly not one of JAWS’ most popular hits. Still, the lack of abundant significance in the lyrics and the prominent bass sounds make me think that it could surface as JAWS’ equivalent of 1998. Frontman Connor Schofield is down to earth; the epitome of relaxation on stage, and doesn’t make a scene out of anything other than the music. Dressed in a simple Adidas tee shirt and jeans, it prompts the question of whether he could fit into the mould of true alternative rock-star status, should JAWS become big.

The set that followed was a varied mixture of old and new material, including some fresh songs that were recent recordings for the band. BreeZe, as well as a slowed rendition of Stay In unsurprisingly encouraged sing-alongs from the crowd, but it was disappointing that there were points where it seemed people were more intent on shoving each other around than paying any attention to what was happening on stage, particularly so in Time. Even so, encore Gold provided the highlight of the night, prompting the overexcited responses from the audience that, sadly, I felt some of the other songs lacked.

It did seem like the crowd was slightly lacklustre in comparison to the number of people who came to see JAWS at The Garage in September, but I assume this was partially down to the gig coinciding with the NME Awards. Nevertheless, Connor and the rest of the band didn’t let this put them off and they still produced an effortless performance.



My favourite JAWS songs: Cameron, Gold, Home
For listeners of: Swim Deep, Peace, Splashh