Category: The Conversation – UK

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Naomi Braithwaite, Associate Professor in Fashion and Material Culture, Nottingham Trent University

When Hollywood actress Sydney Sweeney attended Variety’s Power of Women event on October 30 in Los Angeles, she may have delivered an empowering and inspirational speech, but it was her dazzling, see-through dress that really stole the show.

The floor-length silver design was a collaborative creation by Christian Cowan and Elias Matso. It was made from crystal mesh and structured around a steel-bone corset. The sheerness of the fabric meant her nipples were visible – a detail that stirred a frenzy of media attention across the globe.

Many people have marvelled at the dress, with an X user calling it an “absolute showstopper”. Sweeney’s bold choice to go braless sparked debates on social media around image and empowerment. But there has also been a backlash, criticising her for wearing such a revealing dress at an event that celebrates female advocacy and achievements.

Since 2012, the Free the Nipple movement has campaigned for gender equality for women by highlighting that while men can go topless in public, in many countries women could be arrested for indecent exposure.

Over the years the movement has gained momentum with the intention of showing that it is not just about nudity, but – importantly – about how women present their bodies and are perceived by others.

Critiques of Sweeney’s dress, however, demonstrate that the visible nipple still causes controversy. At the Brit Awards in March 2025, musician Charli XCX’s sheer outfit and visible nipples led to hundreds of complaints to Ofcom. A recent 2025 survey by YouGov, meanwhile, found that only 25% of women thought it was “completely” or “somewhat” acceptable for celebrities to wear garments that displayed their nipples (compared to 45% of men).

In her 1975 seminal work Visual Pleasure and the Narrative Cinema, feminist film theorist Laura Mulvey unpacks the notion of the male gaze, where women are often presented in film as objects of male desire.

The continued disapproval of the visible nipple may suggest, she argues, that it is still considered as a sign of sexual objectification through the male gaze, rather than a personal choice that represents women’s confidence, empowerment and body positivity.

The nipple in fashion history

Fashion’s fascination with exposed breasts has a long and compelling history. During French queen Marie Antionette’s (1755-1793) reign, modest dress was confined to those of the lower classes. At the Court of Versailles, the décolleté (plunging neckline) was the height of fashion for women, and a mark of social standing.

Marie Antoinette, a great advocate of style, was known to have a penchant for revealing fashion, and she was not alone. Émilie du Châtelet (1706-1749), a philosopher, mathematician and Voltaire’s mistress, was known for plunging necklines and exposed nipples which she would rouge to accentuate their appearance. Pauline Bonaparte, Napoleon’s sister, often did the same.

The fashion for breasts at the French Court could perhaps be traced as far back as the mistress of Charles VII (1403-1461), Agnès Sorel, who would purportedly leave her bodice unlaced and her breasts exposed.

Fast forward to the 20th century and countless celebrities from Marilyn Monroe to Jane Birkin have worn sheer clothing that displayed their breasts and nipples. Monroe famously wore a sheer dress when she sang Happy Birthday to US President John F. Kennedy in 1962. The dress from an original sketch by US designer Bob Mackie was so tight that Monroe was reportedly sewn into it, and chose to wear nothing underneath.

There are few better showcases for the fashion of the 2000s than Sex and the City (1998-2004). Set in New York City, it followed the lives of four women as they negotiated work, life, friendship and love, all while wearing the most fabulous clothes. Across episodes the series had a profound impact on fashion, launching designers and creating trends.

In an episode aired in 2001, one of the female protagonists, Samantha Jones (played by Kim Cattrall), wore a pair of fake stick-on nipples under a blue vest top, for a date. Proclaiming them all the rage to her friends with the line, “nipples are huge right now”, she found herself a man, and quickly removed them and flung them across the room when he wasn’t looking.

For Jones, visible nipples were clearly an example of sexualisation as empowerment. Perhaps this moment was a precursor to Kim Kardashian’s lingerie label SKIMS releasing a nipple bra. In stark contrast, other Sex and the City cast members have revealed that they were afraid to show their real nipples on the show in case they were shunned by the film world.

From shock, to disapproval and on occasion admiration, debates about the appropriateness of visible nipples for women drone on. I for one respect celebrities like Sweeney for making a stand against societal expectations over the presentation of women’s bodies.

Freedom of self-expression is after all a manifestation of empowerment and bodily confidence. Long live the freed nipple.

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Naomi Braithwaite does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. A brief history of the exposed nipple in fashion – from Marie Antoinette to Sydney Sweeney – https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-the-exposed-nipple-in-fashion-from-marie-antoinette-to-sydney-sweeney-269444

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Laura O’Flanagan, PhD Candidate, School of English, Dublin City University

The sequel to the hugely successful Wicked brings the story of Elphaba Thropp (Cynthia Erivo), also known as the Wicked Witch of the West, to its conclusion.

An alternative perspective on The Wizard of Oz (1939), Wicked began life in 1995 as a novel and in 2003 became a successful musical, before being adapted into a two-part film. This second film completes Elphaba’s story and firmly establishes her as one of modern cinema’s most compelling ecological heroines.

In the closing moments of the first film, Elphaba’s transformation to “wicked witch” is complete. She has refused to allow the Wizard (Jeff Goldblum) and his sidekick Madame Morrible (Michelle Yeoh) to control her magic, and so she is immediately cast out of Emerald City society and labelled as an enemy of the people. Elphaba’s magical powers are out of the regime’s control, and she instantly becomes a figure of fear and derision.

But to the audience Elphaba is a heroic, transgressive figure who resists pressure to conform. Her independence and individuality are celebrated through soaring musical numbers. Defying Gravity is about standing up for those who cannot and fighting back against injustice when no one else will. Elphaba is a heroine on the right side of history, while the cruel autocratic Wizard and Madame Morrible are cast as the film’s villains.

In Wicked: For Good Elphaba’s link with nature remains central throughout the story, expressed through her green colouring and her affinity with animals. She is portrayed as wild and uncontrollable in comparison to the rigid order of the Emerald City. The visual contrasts between Elphaba’s world and the Wizard’s regime are striking.

The Emerald City is garish, with unnatural colours, neatly manicured landscapes and steampunk-style technology, compared to the natural rugged cliffs scattered with wildflowers and open ocean surrounding Elphaba as she flies high above them on her broom.

Opposing the Wizard’s anti-animal policies places Elphaba in direct conflict with a regime that silences its most vulnerable. From this stance, she emerges as an ecofeminist figure of resistance.

A term first coined in 1974 by Francoise D’Eaubonne in her book Feminism or Death, ecofeminism argues that the oppression of women and the exploitation of nature spring from the same systems of power and domination.

Marginalised and feared for the raw power of her magic, Elphaba embodies the ecofeminist cause against the dual oppression of women and the natural world. In defending the animals of Oz and resisting forces seeking to control her, Elphaba is an icon of ecofeminist resistance.

Care as a form of resistance

This reading is further supported by the work of American philosopher and historian Carolyn Merchant, who argues that modern political power structures rely on viewing nature as mechanistic and controllable. The Wizard’s desire to silence and control the animals illustrates this worldview, turning living beings into manageable pieces of his ordered Oz.

Elphaba, by contrast, embraces a holistic, relational understanding of nature which is rooted in respect rather than control. By placing Elphaba in opposition to the Wizard, Wicked: For Good casts her as an ecological and political disruptor, reclaiming agency for herself and for the natural world she strives to protect.

The film presents relationships between women as catalysts for resistance and change. Ecofeminism places great importance on relationships and care, and Elphaba’s bond with “good witch” Glinda (Ariana Grande) aligns strongly with this emphasis. Although their relationship is briefly complicated by a love triangle, the film never positions them as rivals.

Instead, it foregrounds their evolving connection as a source of strength and moral clarity. Their friendship is defined by mutual care, which contrasts starkly with the Wizard’s desire for domination.

By the end of Wicked: For Good, Elphaba becomes more than the misunderstood witch of Oz. She is an ecological heroine who reminds the audience that care can be a powerful form of resistance. She invites us to look again at how a figure can come to be feared, and how easily power can shape the stories we inherit.

Her strength grows from compassion and from the courage to live truthfully. Far from wicked, Elphaba is a heroine and a role model for the ages, with a deep and intuitive understanding of the transformative power of care and friendship.

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This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org – f you click on one of the links and go on to buy something, The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Laura O’Flanagan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Elphaba the ecofeminist: Wicked For Good casts its heroine as an icon of resistance – https://theconversation.com/elphaba-the-ecofeminist-wicked-for-good-casts-its-heroine-as-an-icon-of-resistance-270474

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Edward White, PhD Candidate in Psychology, Kingston University

For the final season of Stranger Things, millions of fans will take one last plunge into the Upside Down to watch an epic showdown against Vecna as he threatens the town of Hawkins – and the entire world. But what sparks our collective fascination with this dark, horror-filled universe?

The answer lies in psychological and philosophical principles that shed light on why we’re drawn not only to entertainment but also to information. Understanding why millions willingly immerse themselves in the terrifying world of the Upside Down reveals deep truths about human nature and our relationship with fear.

From ghost stories to true crime documentaries, our obsession with the macabre stems from a bias towards negativity: the tendency to react more strongly to negative information than to positive or neutral content.

This negativity bias evolved as an alert system – our fight-or-flight response to threats. Today, since we no longer face sabre-toothed tigers, this alertness has transformed into a thrill-seeking drive to pursue frightening content for its intense arousal.

This explains why viewers are simultaneously scared and captivated by scenes like the traumatic flashbacks of Eleven (Millie Bobby Brown) or the Demogorgon’s savage attacks. Our brains are wired to respond to danger, even in make-believe scenarios.

Research into horror psychology shows that sensation-seekers actively chase negative stimuli to boost their sense of excitement. Cross-cultural studies on curiosity about morbid topics, meanwhile, reveal that this attraction appears across diverse human cultures and is rooted in stable psychological mechanisms rather than culture specific ones.

Stranger Things masterfully taps into all four dimensions of our morbid curiosity: exploring villains (like Vecna and Dr Brenner), witnessing violence (from the Upside Down creatures), experiencing body horror (through the Mind Flayer’s infections) and confronting paranormal threats (those haunting Hawkins). This comprehensive engagement explains the show’s massive global appeal.

Neuroimaging research employing brain-scanning tools like functional magnetic resonance imaging or fMRI, which tracks blood flow and neural activity in real time, indicates that watching disturbing content activates the brain’s reward system.

This neurological response explains why Stranger Things feels simultaneously terrifying and deeply satisfying – our reward systems are reinforcing the psychological benefits of confronting fear through fictional proxies, allowing us to practice emotional resilience and threat assessment without real-world consequences.

The hauntological framework

One popular aspect of Stranger Things is its setting: 1980s America. This choice adds a deeper psychological resonance to what French philosopher Jacques Derriera coined “hauntology”.

Hauntology suggests that we are all “haunted” by two ghosts. The first is a return to the social past, that idea that things were better before. The second ghost represents a yearning for a future that promises redemption and a belief that meaningful change remains possible. These two ghosts create a condition that sits between presence and absence, where lingering traces of unresolved pasts continue to haunt and shape the present.

The 1980s setting of Stranger Things serves as a deliberate return to a romanticised era, where unresolved social, economic and cultural issues from the past “haunt” the present.

The town of Hawkins, where the show is set, is presented as an idealised town of traditional values and economic stability. But underneath this facade, the series systematically dismantles the myth of 1980s American innocence by revealing the psychological trauma embedded withing the perfect suburban life.

For instance, the Upside Down (a dark and decaying alternate dimension that mirrors our own) functions as a psychological manifestation of what psychologist Carl Jung termed the “shadow” – those repressed aspects of individual and collective consciousness that society refuses to acknowledge.

Hawkins Laboratory, operating in secret beneath the town’s surface, represents the dark underbelly of American scientific progress during the cold war era, where children become subjects in the pursuit of science. Eleven’s systematic abuse at the hands of Dr Brenner (Matthew Modine) exposes how institutional authority can perpetrate intergenerational trauma while maintaining facades of benevolent care.

Ultimately, Stranger Things is so addictive because it taps into multiple psychological layers at once. The show’s clever use of our natural negativity bias and curiosity about the morbid keeps viewers hooked emotionally from the start, while its hauntological framework adds deeper resonance by encouraging us to face the hidden traumas beneath our favourite cultural stories.

This blend – where our brain’s reward signals meet genuine reflection – helps explain why so many of us keep returning to Hawkins’ mysterious world. It becomes almost a shared form of therapy, letting us work through fears about betrayal by institutions, childhood wounds, and social breakdowns through supernatural stories that feel safe.

In this way, Stranger Things shows that our love for fictional horror has a real purpose: it allows us to rehearse resilience while also critiquing the very systems that create our everyday anxieties. The series’ enduring popularity suggests that viewers instinctively grasp this dual function, seeking not just entertainment but also meaning in a world where the boundary between monsters and societal horrors has become surprisingly blurry.

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Edward White is affiliated with Kingston University.

– ref. Stranger Things has kept our attention through clever use of ‘hauntology’ – a psychologist explains – https://theconversation.com/stranger-things-has-kept-our-attention-through-clever-use-of-hauntology-a-psychologist-explains-269641

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Jonathan Growcott, PhD student in Environmental Intelligence, University of Exeter

The roar of an African lion is one of the most iconic sounds of the animal kingdom. However, my new research suggests it should actually be separated into two distinct vocalisations: the full-throated roar, and an “intermediary roar” with a flatter, less varied sound. Making this distinction could have important implications for lions’ conservation.

The total population of wild lions in Africa is estimated to be between 22,000 and 25,000, but this number is half what it was 25 years ago. The main drivers of this decline are habitat loss and fragmentation, reduction in prey, and conflict with local people. According to the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list, lions are now vulnerable to extinction.

My colleagues and I investigated roaring in lions to get better at distinguishing between their different vocalisations. But our findings may make it easier to monitor lions’ numbers, which in turn would make it easier to protect them.

You might think you know a lion’s roar from the clip used by MGM at the start of all its films – but that isn’t quite right. It’s actually a tiger’s roar dubbed on top of this famous piece of cinema. Compared with a lion, a tiger’s roar is often raspier and higher-pitched.

In fact, male and female lions produce what scientists call a “roaring bout”. Each begins with a series of soft moans, followed by a subsection of intermediary and full-throated roars, which finally subside into a repetition of grunts.

There is no set length of time a roaring bout will last (though most are between 30 and 45 seconds), and the number of vocalisations within each subsection does not keep to a strict formula.

The roaring bout is important behaviour. Not only does it signal to other lions in their pride where they are, but to unfriendly lions, bouts can be used to advertise territorial boundaries.

The loudest, most complex component of a lion’s roaring bout is the full-throated roar, which is an individually identifiable sound. Each lion’s full-throated roar is as specific to the individual as the pattern of spots are to a leopard (and as my 2024 paper found, their roar too).

Population density estimates are a key metric for identifying priority areas for conservation. If individual lions can be identified by their full-throated roars, then researchers could use this to count them.

However, picking out the full-throated roars from other vocalisations within a roaring bout is tricky. Even for those with expert ears, it is a subjective process which is prone to human bias.

The reason becomes clearer when you look at a spectrogram of a lion’s roaring bout – a visual representation of its sounds using an x-axis of time (seconds) and y-axis of frequency (hertz). The full-throated roar at the start of the mid-section of the bout rarely looks or sounds the same as the roar that occurs right before the grunts kick in. Which made me wonder: should these different roars be classified the same?

My colleagues and I leaned on AI to help us analyse our roar recordings. Perhaps this could help solve the issue of subjectivity, we thought, and classify lion vocalisations automatically, creating a tool so that other researchers always know which roar is right for counting lions.

We used supervised machine learning to classify the vocalisations which occur in a lion’s roaring bout into three call types: full-throated roars, grunts, and our newly identified intermediary roar.

From the spectrogram, we could see that the full-throated roar is loud, complex and arcs in pitch. The intermediary roar was a flatter sound with less variation – and it always followed the full-throated roars. Grunts were shorter and even more compact.

Using simple acoustic parameters – the duration of each vocalisation and its maximum frequency – we could then identify each call type with an accuracy of 95.4%. As the full-throated roars are unique to each individual lion, we wanted to test whether our AI analysis of full-throated roars was better at distinguishing between different lions than human hearing.

We found we could identify individual lions at an accuracy of 94.3% – an improvement of 2.2% over when human-selected full-throated roars were used. Using this technique for identifying full-throated roars could hopefully lead to more accurate population density estimates of lions.

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Read more:
Lions are still being farmed in South Africa for hunters and tourism – they shouldn’t be

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It is exciting to discover the language of lions is more complex than previously thought. However, it is unclear what the communicative differences of the two roar types may be.

Scientists have long believed that lion roars may convey information relating to pride size, age and identity – but without Dr Doolittle to translate the meaning of moans, grunts and roars, this is still guesswork.

Therefore, it may take some time before “lion” appears as an option on Duolingo. For now, we should just celebrate the fact that AI can help us to discover more about wild phenomena as iconic as a lion’s roar.

Jonathan Growcott was funded via a doctoral training grant awarded as part of the UKRI AI Centre for Doctoral Training in Environmental Intelligence (UKRI grant number EP/S022074/1).

– ref. Lions have two types of roar – new research – https://theconversation.com/lions-have-two-types-of-roar-new-research-270314

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Susan Ann Samuel, PhD Candidate, School of Politics and International Studies, University of Leeds

At the UN climate conference Cop30 in Belém, Brazil, I asked some young climate activists and negotiators about their hopes, expectations and demands. Despite their positivity and the push for action from climate movements, Indigenous people and civil society, a lack of consensus on key issues was palpable.

Following overnight negotiations on November 21-22, the Brazilian presidency unveiled an outcome decision referred to as the “global mutirão” (collective efforts). But experts agree that the outlined climate action is insufficient.

I attended this years’ Cop as an advisor to the international Youth Negotiators Academy — a programme offering training to negotiators under the age of 35. My experience at Belém informs my PhD research into how social movements are influencing climate conferences. Here are some of the expectations of the young people I met at Cop30.

Brazilian student Ana Bertazzo Lemos, 23, attended Cop30 calling for obligations to cut fossil fuel emissions and the integration of ecological action into everyday life. But the final Cop30 text had no mention of fossil fuels.

Without a roadmap to transition away from fossil fuels, the Brazilian presidency said it will move forward outside the UN process. Accordingly, the first International Conference for the Phase-out of Fossil Fuels will be held in Colombia in April 2026.

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Read more:
Youth activists are now real agents of change at global climate summits

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Equality for Indigenous people

Matthaeus Menezes Assef, 29, from Guarujá, Brazil, is the student representative of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) taskforce at the University of Leeds. I talked to Menezes and Guarany Osório, a Brazilian professor of sustainability, about their common goals.

Menezes is concerned for Brazil’s domestic political vision. He says Brazil needs to deal with deforestation and oil extraction in the Amazon, while evolving as a climate leader. He was happy that Cop30 brought 3,000 Indigenous people to Belém, with many receiving blue badges for direct access to negotiations. However, a roadmap to deforestation did not materialise at Cop30.

Protection for Amazonia

Jhulielson Conceição, 22, and Nathália Vasques, 24, were volunteers at Cop30, providing essential information and guidance to delegates. “Without us they’ll be lost,” Vasques told me. She sees Cop30’s location as crucial because Belém is on the frontline of climate change.

Vasques hoped that first-hand experience for delegates would translate into stronger commitments and greater protection for Amazonia, but this hasn’t happened yet. Both Conceição and Vasques wanted to see more recognition for youth voices at future Cops — but this shouldn’t just be tokenistic. Young people require decision-making power.

Stronger climate law

Emily Zinkula, 25, a law student from Stanford University, focused on whether legal mechanisms can create accountability for climate action. She tracks whether negotiations incorporate the recent advisory opinions on climate obligations, particularly by the International Court of Justice. An advisory opinion is a legal interpretation that’s not legally binding, provided by a high-level court or tribunal in response to a specific question of law.

Zinkula spoke at a side event alongside Jojo Mehta, co-founder of the campaign organisation Stop Ecocide International. Zinkula argued that the advisory opinion can help civil societies gain momentum around recognising ecocide (large-scale destruction of nature by human actions) as an international crime.

Having researched climate laws, I share her vision for accountability and justice – but the negotiations don’t yet reflect that.

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Read more:
How young people have taken climate justice to the world’s international courts

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A healthy just transition

Nova Tebbe, 28, a postdoctoral researcher from the Global Climate and Health Alliance and UNFCCC constituency member, called for the introduction of “indicators for adaptation” – the rules, metrics and standards needed for adaptation projects.

Tebbe demanded adaptation finance from developed to developing countries as per the Paris climate agreement. She emphasised that human health should be central to climate negotiations, and hoped for a just transition mechanism that moves from policy to implementation.

Tebbe also wanted the second global stocktake (a five-yearly assessment of the world’s progress toward the goals of the Paris agreement, due in 2028) to be more inclusive, with civil society input. She told me how the Belém conference’s positive atmosphere and push for quick decisions seemed unusual compared with other climate summits she had attended.

However, the final outcomes of Cop30 did not offer reassurance on most of her hopes. A new just transition mechanism was adopted, but without any map, money or manual.

This mechanism is a strategy to guarantee that the global shift towards a green economy is equitable and safeguards the rights of all people. There were discussions about doubling adaptation finance by 2025 and tripling it by 2035 – but whether the adaptation indicators include priorities for health is yet to be seen.

Young climate activists can’t deny that climate negotiations are complex, driven by political agendas and national interests. But my time in Belém has reinforced something essential: young people can play an instrumental role in and around the negotiations. Unfortunately, those demands don’t always translate into actual outcomes.

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Susan Ann Samuel is a PhD candidate at the University of Leeds – School of Politics and International Studies (awaiting defence). She collaborates with the Youth Negotiators Academy and her presence at the UNFCCC COP30 in Belém, Brazil was as an advisor to YNA. Her PhD is funded by Prof. Viktoria Spaiser’s UKRI FLF Grant MR/V021141/1. She currently works as the Research Assistant to Dr. Shashi Tharoor – Member of Parliament, Thiruvananthapuram and Chairman of Committee of External Affairs, India.

– ref. The demands of young people went unfulfilled by the UN climate summit – mostly – https://theconversation.com/the-demands-of-young-people-went-unfulfilled-by-the-un-climate-summit-mostly-269527

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Emma Linford, Honorary research associate, English literature, University of Hull

Arthur Conan Doyle was not just one of the world’s best crime fiction writers. He was a progressive wordsmith who brought light to controversial and taboo subjects. One of those taboo subjects was male vulnerability and mental health problems – a topic of personal significance to the author.

Doyle was a vulnerable child. His father, Charles, was an alcoholic, which led to financial troubles in the family. Charles was admitted to an asylum in 1881 and spent the next 12 years in various mental care establishments. So began Doyle’s interest in male vulnerability and mental health.

The character of Sherlock Holmes is a true expression of male vulnerability that does not equate it with weakness. Doyle does not represent Holmes as infallible, but as a man others can relate to – he battles with drug addiction, loneliness and depression. His genius thrives in part because of these vulnerabilities, not despite them.

Many of Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes stories examine male characters facing emotional catastrophe, betrayal or moral dilemmas. In works such as The Man with the Twisted Lip (1891), The Adventure of the Engineer’s Thumb (1892) and The Stockbroker’s Clerk (1894), Holmes’s male clients approach him with problems layered with emotional turmoil, fear and failure.

In The Man with the Twisted Lip, for example, a man named Neville St Clair hides his double life. He tells his family that he is a respectable entrepreneur going to London on business. In reality he is begging on the city streets. He lives this double life due to fear and shame over the inability to pay off his debts. “It was a long fight between my pride and the money,” he explains, “but the dollars won at last.”

“I would have endured imprisonment, ay, even execution, rather than have left my miserable secret as a family blot to my children,” St Clair says. In having his character consider execution to protect his and his family’s reputation, Doyle explored the societal expectations of Victorian masculinity and how men struggled with such pressures.

The Stockbroker’s Clerk also examines male suicide, as well as economic and professional anxieties. When Holmes reveals the crimes of Harry Pinner, the man attempts suicide rather than face prison.

In The Engineer’s Thumb, hydraulic engineer Victor is treated physically by Watson and mentally by Holmes. As Doyle writes: “Round one of his hands he had a handkerchief wrapped, which was mottled all over with bloodstains. He was young, not more than five-and-twenty, I should say, with a strong masculine face; but he was exceedingly pale and gave me the impression of a man who was suffering from some strong agitation, which it took all his strength of mind to control.”

The physical injury marks Victor as a victim of physical violence. Watson suggests that Victor is using all his mental capabilities to keep calm about his severe pain. Holmes treats Victor’s mind as he listens to his story: “Pray lie down there and make yourself absolutely at home. Tell us what you can, but stop when you are tired, and keep up your strength with a little stimulant.”

Holmes is a protector, a confidante and a comforter in this scene. He provides Victor with breakfast, induces him to lie down and offers him a stimulant (more than likely brandy).

The extremity of violence that Victor has endured has escalated to mental trauma. In having Holmes treat Victor’s mental trauma while Watson treats his physical pain, Doyle showed the importance psychological support for men of the age.

Holmes was a highly popular character. To contemporary readers, his drug use and dysfunctional clients were seen as markers of his genius rather than a reflection of the significant social issues that men faced during this period. But today, they offer a window into the mental struggles of Victorian men, and a point of connection between readers of the past and present.

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This article features references to books that have been included for editorial reasons, and may contain links to bookshop.org. If you click on one of the links and go on to buy something from bookshop.org The Conversation UK may earn a commission.

Emma Linford does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Arthur Conan Doyle explored men’s mental health through his Sherlock Holmes stories – https://theconversation.com/arthur-conan-doyle-explored-mens-mental-health-through-his-sherlock-holmes-stories-246728

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Francesca Lessa, Associate Professor in International Relations of the Americas, UCL

Fifty years ago on November 25 1975, military intelligence officers from Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Paraguay and Uruguay gathered in the Chilean capital of Santiago to set up what they called the “Condor System”.

Better known as Operation Condor, this was a secret transnational terror network that allowed repressive regimes in these countries to persecute opponents living in exile. It left behind a legacy of torture, as well as hundreds of kidnappings, disappearances and murders.

Condor was built on three main operational pillars. First, all intelligence information about perceived subversive activities across the region was centralised in a database in Santiago. Second, an encrypted communications channel let state agents communicate secretly and efficiently. And third, the so-called office for coordination and advanced command oversaw joint operational activities.

Argentina, Chile and Uruguay also set up the Teseo unit to target exiles from those three countries who were living in Europe. And while Operation Condor ended in late 1978, bilateral operations which mainly saw Argentina collaborate with Brazil, Paraguay and Chile continued until early 1981.

Because of Operation Condor’s top-secret nature, there are no official lists of victims. But my research has confirmed there were at least 805 victims between August 1969, when several South American regimes began collaborating in informal ways, and February 1981.

While victims came from a variety of backgrounds, they were mostly political and social activists plus members of revolutionary armed groups, primarily from Uruguay, Argentina and Chile.

Seeking justice

From 1976, when Condor’s repressive operations peaked, evidence was being compiled on the atrocities committed by member states. In 1977, for example, a Uruguayan journalist called Enrique Rodriguez Larreta gave evidence to Amnesty International in London about his abduction in Buenos Aires the previous year. He had travelled there to search for his missing son.

Rodriguez Larreta recounted how he was detained and tortured in three secret prisons across Argentina and Uruguay, before being released six months later. His testimony provided undeniable evidence of the clandestine coordination between South America’s military regimes.

Further proof of Operation Condor’s atrocities was provided in 1979, when American journalist Jack Anderson wrote an article in the Washington Post revealing Condor’s role in the assassination of Orlando Letelier in 1976. Letelier was a minister in the government of Chile’s socialist former president, Salvador Allende.

Wider progress towards justice was limited while South America’s dictatorships remained in power. But the collapse of several regimes across the region in the 1980s opened a window of opportunity.

This period saw some groundbreaking achievements including the Nunca Más (Never Again) report, published in 1984 by Argentina’s National Commission on the Disappearance of Persons. Beyond investigating the military dictatorship’s systematic practice of disappearing people, the commission was the first official state body to recognise Operation Condor’s transnational terror machinery.

However, the possibility of seeing perpetrators stand trial for their crimes was again delayed. So-called impunity laws were sanctioned by democratic governments in Argentina and Uruguay in 1986 and 1987, effectively preventing proceedings against people accused of committing crimes during the military dictatorships.

These laws were passed primarily to quell military dissent and prevent further uprisings after the return to democracy. The laws in Argentina and Uruguay accompanied existing amnesty laws in Brazil and Chile.

The tide of justice finally began to turn in 1998. That year, former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet was detained in London to face charges for human rights abuses, including Condor atrocities.

Pinochet was spared from trial on medical grounds. But there has been considerable progress since then in the investigation, prosecution and sentencing of state agents for the atrocities committed by Operation Condor.

My research has mapped 50 criminal trials since 1976 that endeavoured to shed light on some of these atrocities. Convictions have been handed down in 40 of these trials so far, with over 100 people sentenced to prison.

These include high-profile figures like former dictators Reynaldo Bignone of Argentina and Juan María Bordaberry of Uruguay. Several high- and middle-ranking military officers, such as Chilean colonel Manuel Contreras, Argentine admiral Antonio Vañek and Uruguayan colonel José Nino Gavazzo, have also been jailed.

Most of these trials have taken place in South America, with 13 verdicts handed out in Argentina, 11 in Uruguay and seven in Chile. In September 2025, retired military intelligence officers Carlos Alberto Rossell and Glauco Yannone were sentenced in Uruguay to 12 years in prison. These men were found guilty of abducting and torturing political activists Universindo Rodríguez and Lilián Celiberti, as well as Celiberti’s two children, in the Brazilian city of Porto Alegre in 1978.

This sentence is significant, despite a four decade-long delay. In February 1984, Rodríguez and Celiberti were the first people to file a lawsuit in Uruguay for the crimes they had suffered at the hands of Operation Condor. At that time, Uruguay was still in the grips of its military dictatorship.

Five verdicts have also been delivered by Italian criminal tribunals. A Rome court sentenced Jorge Troccoli, a former officer in the Uruguayan navy, to life imprisonment in October. He was convicted for the murders of Italian Rafaela Filipazzi, Argentine José Agustín Potenza and Uruguayan Elena Quinteros between 1976 and 1977. Troccoli is a dual Uruguayan-Italian national and fled to Italy in 2007 to avoid prosecution in Uruguay.

According to Alessia Merluzzi, a lawyer I consulted prior to writing this article, this prosecution not only once again confirmed the existence of Operation Condor, it also “probed deeper into its violent and operative mechanisms and structures”. Merluzzi added: “It revealed the modus operandi of the repressive agents beyond borders – and the specific, planned and methodical organisation of the atrocities suffered by the three victims”.

While significant progress has been made towards achieving justice for victims of Operation Condor, many of its crimes remain shrouded in impunity and silence. As the Inter-American Court of Human Rights recommended in 2021, all former Condor member states should work together to uncover the extent of this transnational network’s crimes.

Francesca Lessa’s projects “Operation Condor” and “Plancondor.org” received funding from University College London, the University of Oxford John Fell Fund, The British Academy/Leverhulme Trust, the University of Oxford ESRC Impact Acceleration Account, the European Commission under Horizon 2020, and the Open Society Foundations. Lessa is also the Honorary President of the Observatorio Luz Ibarburu, a network of human rights NGOs in Uruguay, as well as the principal researcher and the coordinator of the Plancondor.org collaborative project.

– ref. Operation Condor: the secret system that terrorised exiled South American dissidents 50 years ago – https://theconversation.com/operation-condor-the-secret-system-that-terrorised-exiled-south-american-dissidents-50-years-ago-268139

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Selbi Durdiyeva, Visiting Scholar, Nottingham Law School, Nottingham Trent University

Details of a new peace plan for Ukraine are emerging after officials from the US, Ukraine and its European allies met in Geneva on November 23. They discussed the 28-point plan presented by Russia and the US the previous week, which has been widely criticised as requiring concessions from Kyiv that critics said would be tantamount to surrender.

These two plans, which represent the contrasting positions approved by Ukraine and Russia, are now being discussed in Abu Dhabi by officials from the US, Russia and Ukraine.

The plan which emerged from Geneva is reportedly based on a European counter-proposal to the US-Russia plan that had been developed in Miami by US envoy Steve Witkoff and Kirill Dmitriev, head of Russia’s sovereign wealth fund.

Full details of the Geneva plan have yet to be published. But reports suggest that unlike the US-Russian plan, it leaves open the door to Nato membership, removes restrictions on the size of Ukraine’s post-war army, and removes a proposal for an amnesty for war crimes committed since Russia’s invasion in February 2022.

The most contentious issues, including any territory to be ceded by Kyiv and Ukraine’s future Nato membership – something that Russia strongly opposes – will be decided by the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelensky, and his US counterpart, Donald Trump. Ukraine is calling for a meeting between Trump and Zelensky within days to iron out the remaining issues.

It’s no surprise that neither Ukraine nor its allies in Europe were happy with the the US-Russia deal developed by Witkoff and Dmitriev. Apart from looking more like a plan for Kyiv’s capitulation than a credible pathway to peace, it presents some serious problems – both legal and moral.

Territorial concessions

The 28-point US-Russia proposal suggests Ukraine should concede parts of Ukraine’s internationally recognised territory including Crimea, Donetsk and Luhansk, which would then become internationally recognised as part of Russia. It also calls for the frontlines to be frozen in Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, with “de facto recognition” along the current line of contact between the two armies.

This would legitimise acquisition of territory by means of force and aggression, and hence would be in contravention of obligations under Article 2(4) of the UN Charter, which prohibits the “the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state”.

The illegality of Russia’s invasion in 2022 was underlined in June 2025 when the Council of Europe established a special tribunal to prosecute senior political and military leadership “for the crime of aggression against Ukraine”.

If the territorial concessions detailed in the US-Russia plan were to be adopted, they would hinder effective investigation and prosecution of any such crimes of aggression – and thus set a dangerous precedent for future conflicts.

Impunity and accountability

The US-Russia plan’s proposed blanket amnesty for war crimes also contradicts international law. The law governing conduct of hostilities – and public international law in general – imposes an obligation for states to investigate, prosecute and punish war crimes.

While international law does not outlaw amnesties in pursuit of reconciliation, for the establishment of truth or to prevent war recurring, these should not interfere with a state’s obligation to investigate and prosecute international crimes. So, blanket amnesties are incompatible with this requirement.

The scale of documented violations in Ukraine over nearly four years makes the idea of an amnesty especially troubling. The Ukrainian authorities, with support from civil society, have documented more than 183,000 alleged war crimes since 2022.

The International Criminal Court has issued arrest warrants for senior Russian figures including Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin. National prosecutors in Europe are pursuing cases under universal jurisdiction.

Granting amnesty would nullify these investigations. It would signal that even the gravest crimes can go unpunished as a result of political deal-making.

The principles of transitional justice place victims at the centre of any post-conflict processes. They are entitled, under international law, to truth, justice and reparations. But the US-Russia plan does not outline any role for victims. Instead, it effectively deprives them of their right to pursue justice.

Research suggests that peace agreements without mechanisms to ensure accountability all too often end up with further outbreaks of violence. The pursuit of justice, which can include – but should not be limited to – criminal prosecutions, can be slow, costly and imperfect. But it tends to strengthen the rule of law and provide some form of remedy to the victims.

The US-Russia plan’s clause limiting the size of Ukraine’s post-conflict armed forces to 600,000 personnel is also controversial.

It is common to see measures such as demobilisation and disarmament in non-international armed conflicts. This was part of the settlement in peace negotiation processes for Colombia’s lengthy civil war in 2016. But applying them to a state which is the victim of aggression in an international armed conflict reverses the logic of accountability.

Ukraine is the state under attack. Limiting its defence capability while the aggressor retains its forces undermines both security and justice.

A fragile ‘peace’

Critics have described the US-Russia plan as “a gift to Putin”, as it aligns with the Kremlin’s longstanding demands while disregarding Ukraine’s legal rights. It would transform the future of millions of Ukrainians into a bargaining chip for great-power politics.

However, it appears that Kyiv’s European allies recognise this danger. The negotiations now underway in Abu Dhabi will be vital – as will any meeting between Trump and Zelensky to agree the framework of a new deal which fairly represents Kyiv’s position.

A genuine and just peace agreement must reflect the system of international law which, for 80 years, has sought to prevent the sort of aggression that Russia has unleashed on Ukraine. The 28-point plan presented by the US and Russia clearly failed to meet that test.

It is now up to Ukraine and its allies to ensure that any plan which does go forward rests on justice, accountability and the rights of victims – not on concessions to an aggressor.

Selbi Durdiyeva does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Any peace deal in Ukraine must be just and fair – the plan proposed by the US and Russia was neither – https://theconversation.com/any-peace-deal-in-ukraine-must-be-just-and-fair-the-plan-proposed-by-the-us-and-russia-was-neither-270511

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Daniel Mills, Professor of Veterinary Behavioural Medicine, University of Lincoln

Humans have probably shared their homes with dogs ever since they first settled. So it could be argued that there is no such thing as “human society” without including animals as part of it. Our long shared history with dogs has even be described as a form of co-evolution.

And a new study my colleagues at Cambridge and I published shows golden retrievers and humans seem to share a genetic basis for at least some behaviour.

Dogs show many adaptations that might help them live and co-operate with people. Ancient humans may even have been selected dogs’ ancestors for an ability to eat a more human diet than wolves. At a psychological level there are many adaptations that aid communication between the two species, like an ability to follow human gestures such as pointing, that exceeds that of our closest relatives, chimpanzees.

Dogs also appear to be exceptionally skilled at responding appropriately to human emotion. But it is not all one sided. Humans seem to show an intuitive understanding of the nature of dogs’ vocalisations.

Nowadays, our relationship includes sharing the hustle and bustle that is so often a feature of modern living. So it is not surprising that there is an exceptionally high prevalence of stress-related problems arising in dogs, especially in countries like the US.

This has led researchers to question to what extent we might share mental health problems too. Recently there have been several claims about the potential for an autism-like syndrome in dogs. In March 2025, a similar genetic marker was identified for some of the social problems related to autism.

Our study has taken this genetic search to another level. My team and I analysed the genetic code and behaviour of 1,300 golden retrievers, looking for genes associated with their behavioural traits. “Equivalent” genes in humans, inherited from the same evolutionary ancestor, were then identified.

They also identified the genes’ associations with a range of human intelligence, mental health and emotional processes. I specialise in studying and managing companion animal emotions at the University of Lincoln, and so I worked with the team to explore the psychobiological basis to these traits.

We identified 12 genes where there seemed to be a connection between dogs and humans that related to similar psychological functioning. Some of these were closely aligned in terms of the emotional responses they produced, for example responses related to non-social anxiety. However, in other cases the link was perhaps less obvious.

But we formed hypotheses that may explain the association. When we did this, we found logical reasons to support the similarities we saw in the genetic associations in humans and golden retrievers.

For example, the canine gene ADD2 was associated with fear of strangers, but in humans was related to depression. A key characteristic of depression in people is social withdrawal, so we suspect there may be a common genetic link, which manifests in dogs (who are generally hypersocial) as stranger anxiety.

Other potential associations were with human conditions that involved complex cognitive processes, like self reflection, which are not thought to occur in dogs. However, as we looked more deeply into the range of human associations we could identify potential reasons for even some of these associations.

For example, trainability in dogs tended to be linked to genes in humans that are connected to not only intelligence but also sensitivity about being wrong. As far as we know, dogs cannot project themselves and their circumstances in the abstract ways people can, but they can certainly vary in their sensitivity to unpleasant experiences. so this might form the basis of the common genetic root between the two species.

The results provide a great basis for future studies in comparative and evolutionary psychiatry. As, Eleanor Raffan, a vet and assistant professor of physiology who led the Cambridge side of this research, said: “The findings are really striking – they provide strong evidence that humans and golden retrievers have shared genetic roots for their behaviour. The genes we identified frequently influence emotional states and behaviour in both species.”

There are, of course, differences in the ways that humans and dogs experience their
emotions. A lot of human emotion is tied up in complex thought processes. However, that does not undermine the importance of related conditions that might reflect mental health or suffering.

Enoch Alex, the first author of the report and a PhD candidate in the department of physiology, development, and neuroscience, summed this up: “These results show that genetics govern behaviour, making some dogs predisposed to finding the world stressful. If their life experiences compound this, they might act in ways we interpret as bad behaviour, when really they’re distressed”.

Although it might be tempting to sometimes dismiss academic work on dogs as somewhat frivolous, in this new work, there are hints at an important new role for dogs in our shared society: as natural models of mental health issues.

Daniel Mills does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Golden retriever and human behaviour may be linked by the same genes – new research – https://theconversation.com/golden-retriever-and-human-behaviour-may-be-linked-by-the-same-genes-new-research-270402

Source: The Conversation – UK – By Roberta Garrett, Senior Lecturer in Literature and Cultural Studies, University of East London

Please note this piece contains spoilers for Wild Cherry.

Critics have compared Nicôle Lecky’s six-part BBC thriller, Wild Cherry with the critically acclaimed Netflix drama Adolescence. But that would be unfair.

The former is a glossy thriller that critiques the lives of wealthy Surrey schoolgirls and their mothers, while the latter is a serious and powerful social commentary on the potential impact of misogynist online influencers.

Both dramas address the issue of teens on social media, explore “sexting”, and question the degree to which parents are aware of their teens’ online life. But Adolescence is dialogue-driven, innovative in style and offers a sympathetic view of the parents and their troubled and violent son.

In contrast, Wild Cherry’s thriller/melodrama form mirrors US “eat-the-rich” dramas such as White Lotus by focusing as much on the trappings of wealth (sumptuous interiors, gated communities, expensive landscaping, fancy cars) as on dialogue and plot. It is this aspect that leads to the key problem with Wild Cherry: it satirises the lives of the British upper middle class, while also trying to address the more pressing challenges of mother-and-daughter relations in the digital age.

As Lecky, the series’s show-runner and a key cast member, has stated in an interview: “How do you parent teenage girls when you have grown up in such a different time, without social media?”

Where Adolescence depicts ordinary people in realistic settings, Wild Cherry’s critique of the wealthy initially relies on negative stereotypes of women, girls and mother-daughter relationships. This makes it difficult for viewers to sympathise when the full plot unravels and the pressures and problems of girls’ social media use are brought to the fore.

Mean girls and not-so-perfect mothers

One of the ironies explored in the programme is that the central protagonist, aristocratic Juliet, is basking in praise for writing a parenting guidebook – blissfully unaware her own daughter is pressuring school friends to pose provocatively for a monetised secret online catalogue.

The mothers are portrayed as shallow, competitive and woefully out of touch with their daughters. Reinforcing negative “yummy mummy” stereotypes, the series presents the mothers as either leisured housewives (Juliet) or successful “mumpreneurs” (Lorna, without any obvious reference to her professional activities).

Similarly, the representation of teenage girls – specifically Juliet’s mean-spirited and sullen daughter Allegra, and her closest friend Grace – revisits a multitude of sexist screen stereotypes of young women. Reproducing the mean-girl stereotype analysed by critics such as Alison Winch and depicted onscreen in productions such as Heathers and Gossip Girl, the girls’ friendships are defined through rivalry, bullying and hierarchy.

Wild Cherry also fuels longstanding moral panics around teenage girls’ “dangerous” emergent sexuality by depicting the girls’ sexual self-presentation and their desire to illicit sexual attention.

This stereotype has also been analysed and critiqued by feminist cultural critics, including Valerie Walkerdine and more recently, Jessica Ringrose in relation to depictions of girls’ internet usage. The authoritative voice of the female police officer echoes the programme’s reductive and hostile view of young women, stating: “I don’t put anything past teenage girls” – also the title of the final episode.

Subverting stereotypes

The first four episodes of Wild Cherry present the female characters through a stereotypical lens as pampered middle-aged women, bad mothers and wild daughters whose problems seem entirely self-generated. However, Lecky sets up these female stereotypes only to reveal male manipulation, by both younger and older men, as the central catalyst for the exchange of sexual online images of girls (revealed in episodes five and six).

Wild Cherry therefore becomes a feminist tale, rather than a tale of toxic femininity, as the story takes a turn towards a more sympathetic representation of mothers and daughters in its resolution. The mothers eventually assert agency and take revenge on the male characters, while the teenage girls reject male approval and seek solace from their mums. Mothers and daughters are ultimately united against patriarchal power.

As the story unfolds, Wild Cherry highlights the dangers of girls internet usage linked to male power and control. Yet, the series is no Adolescence. It’s unlikely to be considered serious social commentary due to its sensationalised narrative and – despite the ending – its overriding vision is still a stereotypical one in which mother-daughter relations and female friendship are presented as riven with conflict.

This view conflicts with much research that demonstrates the selfless bond between mothers and daughters. It is also well-established that female friendship brings huge psychological and emotional benefits for women throughout their lives.

These more accurate and uplifting narratives of mothers, daughters and female friendship are represented in popular screen series such as The Gilmore Girls and more recently Ginny and Georgia (mothers and daughters), and Derry Girls, Geek Girls, and Sex Education (teenage girls).

In this sense, Wild Cherry is a missed opportunity to explore girlhood in the digital age from the point of both mothers and daughters in the sympathetic manner that Adolescence did for fathers and sons.

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The authors do not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and have disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

– ref. Wild Cherry is no female version of Adolescence – but it is a modern feminist tale – https://theconversation.com/wild-cherry-is-no-female-version-of-adolescence-but-it-is-a-modern-feminist-tale-270381