Lorna Finlayson

Lorna Finlayson teaches philosophy at Essex. An Introduction to Feminism came out in 2016.

Let them eat oysters: Animal Ethics

Lorna Finlayson, 5 October 2023

Animals​ are in. As mass extinction looms, nature documentaries have become big business. The last six years have seen a succession of David Attenborough hits: Blue Planet II, Dynasties and Dynasties II, The Green Planet and Frozen Planet II on the BBC; and on Netflix, Our Planet, A Life on Our Planet and Planet Earth II. Attenborough’s most recent series, Wild Isles, was watched by more...

Diary: Everyone Hates Marking

Lorna Finlayson, 16 March 2023

The university is not the safe space for complaint that it once was. Negativity, even ambivalence, is frowned on. Nothing less than complete enthusiasm will satisfy: you must at all times be thrilled to announce, excited to be part of, delighted to share. In this context, marking – which at most universities involves uploading long lists of numbers to creaking online portals that crash with abandon – is one of the few remaining repositories for an acceptable ennui, an apolitical ire. It unites the divided: everyone hates marking.

Doors close, backs turn: Why complain?

Lorna Finlayson, 12 May 2022

Sexual violence​ at universities is shrouded in myth and misunderstanding. Media reports of a ‘rape culture’ among students and ‘epidemic’ levels of sexual predation by staff have created the impression that universities are unusually sordid and perilous places. It can sometimes feel that way. But rates of sexual violence are not significantly higher in universities...

Diary: I was a Child Liberationist

Lorna Finlayson, 18 February 2021

When I was thirteen,​I left school and never went back. I don’t remember much about my last day. I don’t remember what lessons I had, or what I did when I got home. I only remember trying to make a mental recording as I walked down the corridors, into the foyer, out the automatic doors and onto the bus. I’d made a decision not to tell anybody I was leaving and waited until...

Short Cuts: The Rot

Lorna Finlayson, 1 August 2019

My brother​ is not dead. So far, he has lost only the top part of the index finger of his right hand, though he may lose more. He works with chainsaws. Or rather, he used to work with chainsaws. He did not lose the fingertip in a chainsaw accident, though. That would be an improbable scenario, since he is right-handed: this was the trigger finger. In October last year, my brother burned the...

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