(Photo: Mark Tantrum)

WRAP:“Two days ago, CBS (SI BI ES) broadcasted the bombshell interview with the Royal couple which started a waterfall of controversies around the Royal Family. In this interview, Meghan and Harry shared their point of view about what’s happened since Meghan joined the Royals. 

The Duchess of Sussex admitted to Oprah, that they were racial issues around her presence in the family. Also, she mentioned that it started her mental health problems.

TAKE: Meghan.mp3

DUR: 1.7s

IN: I just didn’t…

OUT: to be alive anymore.

Markle even reached out for help but didn’t receive it. 

TAKE: Meghan2.mp3

DUR: 21 s

IN: I went to the institution…

OUT:that was very very clear.

Prince Harry has spoken openly how has relationship with his father changed. Duke and Duchess of Sussex are still in a good relation with the Queen.   

TAKE: Harry.mp3

DUR: 7.5s

IN: Where we were in Canada…

OUT: stopped taking my calls.

While the Royal couple received support from the US President, Joe Biden, British Prime Minister, Boris Johnson remained silent.

Both Royal family fans and opponents wait for any answer from the Royal Family, however, so far, no statements by Buckingham Palace were being made. 

We’ll keep you updated on this story.”

It may be hard to distinguish the art from the artist but, in my opinion, it all depends on the case we are dealing with. A great example of that can be the author of the Harry Potter series, JK Rowling, who has been promoting women's rights and supporting homosexual people over the years. 

In one of the interviews, she even admitted that one of Harry Potter's characters, Albus Dumbledore, was in a short relationship with the other male character, Gellert Grindelwald. She has had a great reputation until she showed her support for Maya Forstater, a British researcher, who said that transgender women are not women. On December 19, 2019, JK Rowling tweeted:

Dress however you please.

Call yourself whatever you like.

Sleep with any consenting adult who’ll have you. 

Live your best life in peace and security. 

But force women out of their jobs for stating that sex is real? #IStandWithMaya #ThisIsNotADrill

— J.K. Rowling (@jk_rowling) December 19, 2019

Does the controversial behaviour of JK Rowling mean, that I will stop reading her books? The real question is - what kind of controversial behaviour did they represent and what consequences will it bring to their career and reputation. In this case, absolutely not. 

In my opinion, the real achievement is to distinguish that kind of controversial things has the artist done. JK Rowling did not commit a crime, she just behaved in a wrong way, supporting a person who shared a transphobic opinion. The real question is - what kind of controversial behaviour did they represent and what consequences will it bring to their career and reputation. 

Making the decision whether to support the artist or not can become a real challenge when that person committed a crime or has done something serious. In 2009, Chris Brown has on his way to attend Grammy Awards, when he started acting aggressively and beat Rihanna. He was found guilty and got a suspended sentence. 

As a ten years old Chris Brown's fan, I was shocked and I could not believe that he could do something like that. After that it was hard for me to listen to his music and eventually, I stopped following his career. After all these years, I am still not willing to listen to his music even though I know that he and Rihanna have made up. 

Being an LGBT+ supporter, I had to choose between the art and the artist when I heard about Sherry Pie story. Sherry Pie, actually Joey Gugliemelli, RuPaul's Drag Race superstar, was accused of catfishing,  asking for nudes and other personal recordings, and sexual harassment. After that, Sherry Pie was disqualified from the show. She admitted to sexual misconduct. 

In this case, it was a real struggle to choose whether to support Sherry Pie or not. I realised that this decision (whether to support the artist who has done controversial things or not) is a matter of our personal opinion of that. If we think, we can still listen to music, watch movies or read the books written by that celebrity, it is only our choice and nobody should blame us for that. 

There are so many cases when someone's discography has helped a fan to struggle with their problems, or to find their identity. It should be one's decision whether to stop supporting the artist and do not follow their career, to read the books or listen to their music but do not value them as good artists anymore, or to stop following them and listening to their music. 

2020 has not been the most successful year for many of us – lots of people have lost their jobs, most of the businesses had to start working online to avoid bankruptcy. However, there are some people who found 2020 both challenging and exciting as they have decided to try something new and turn their hobby into a serious online business. 

Meet Weronika and Camilla – undergraduate students from Poland. Last year, when the pandemic has forced them to change their lifestyles to remote, those two motivated students decided to try something new and turn their love of books and movies into a small business. Both Weronika and Camilla admitted, that they were not so happy with the way life was playing out, they were both struggling to find a job during the virus outbreak and that is why they decided to start a business to avoid getting lost in a day-to-day routine, where everything was the same. Weronika said: “We found a video on YouTube where people were making their own scented candles and we felt inspired to try to make something on our own.” 

It is not a surprise that starting a new business can become a real challenge, especially where the competition in the market is really big. “It was a really long process to come up with the idea of how to make our products stand out. We wanted to offer something special. Personally, we are in many fandoms, including k-pop fans and Potterheads [fans of Harry Potter books]. And we thought it would be a great idea to name our candles after something we are interested in, so musicians, books, movies.” So far, the girls came up with seven 235 ml scented candles inspired by a Korean boyband, BTS, and Harry Potter novels. 

What makes Świeczuszkowo candles so special? The girls make bio candles, using soy wax and eco-friendly additional ingredients, including essential oils. The aim of each candle from the Harry Potter range is to take you to the wizarding world just as you were a Harry Potter character. You can choose from four different candles, including the bestseller “Butterbeer” with a scent of roasted caramel, gingerbread, and chocolate. 

When it comes to the BTS range, there are 3 candles to choose from, all of them named after BTS songs from their newest album, BE. Their aim is to make you feel like you were taking a part in a boyband’s music videos. One of them is a dark green candle called “Dynamite”. The girls describe this one as an energetic candle with an intensive scent of pomegranate and green tea. Also, for every order, the girls add some extra gifts, including stickers and sweets. What also makes them stand out in this market is the fact, that clients can contact Świeczuszkowo and create their own scented candles, by choosing different essential oils, scents, and colours of the candle. 

Wyświetl ten post na Instagramie.

Post udostępniony przez Świeczuszkowo (@swieczuszkowo_pl) 

Nowadays, where many people are stuck at home and use social media platforms more often, the girls decided to sell their products using Facebook and Instagram business pages, Świeczuszkowo, where clients can see a photo of each candle along with the ingredients list. “Unfortunately, we did not have that much budget to start a professional website, but I think we proved that if you are passionate about what you do and motivated to work towards developing your business, you do not have to have a website”, admitted Camilla. 

When asked about how the pandemic influenced their lives, the girls answered: “It all went so quickly – everything was closed and for us, as students, it was almost impossible to find a good job and earn enough to survive life at university and still be able to self-care and work on our mental health. But we finally came up with the idea of making our own business. In this case, I think the pandemic helped us a lot – the world slowed down and we had way more time to think about every aspect of running a business carefully at home.”

For now, Świeczuszkowo does not ship the products internationally. They also had to stop the distribution of the candles because of graduating from university. You can still visit both their Facebook and Instagram pages here:

Facebook, Instagram. 

Back in 1892, a founder of the International Olympic Committee, Pierre de Coubertin, gave the speech, and he said: “All sports must be treated on the basis of equality”. However, for the last couple of years, women had to fight for their rights in the world of ski jumping. 

Many people may think that it is a typical sport discipline for men, and do not realise that female athletes also participate in ski jumping competitions. It is probably all because the history of men’s ski jumping is way longer than women’s. When it comes to male athletes, it all started back in 1808, when a Norwegian sportsman, Olaf Rye, jumped 9,5 meters and established the first world record! Almost 210 years later, in 2017, Stefan Kraft jumped 253,5 meters and now he is the official world record holder.

Another important date in men’s ski jumping history is 27 December 1979, where the first World Cup competition took place in an Italian city, Cortina d’Ampezzo. The first winner in history was an Austrian ski jumper, Toni Innauer, who jumped 88.5 meters in the first round and 88 meters in the final round and scored 250 points overall. So far, there were 42 World Cup seasons for men. A current World Cup Champion is a Norwegian athlete, Halvor Egner Granerud. Some other worth-mentioning ski jumpers are Gregor Schlierenzauer (from Austria), who won 53 World Cup competitions so far, and Janne Ahonen (from Finland) who took a place on the podium 108 times! 

The first ski jumping competition for men during the Winter Olympics took place in France in 1928. The winner back then was Norwegian athlete Jacob Tullin Thams, who jumped 49 meters twice and took the gold medal. Nowadays, athletes compete on a small hill and a big hill. Current Olympic gold medallists from PyeongChang are Andreas Wellinger and Kamil Stoch.

The history of women’s ski jumping is a little shorter but it does not mean it is less interesting. The premiere World Cup competition for women took place in December 2011 in Lillehammer, Norway. American ski jumper Sarah Hendrickson took a first World Cup season victory. The current world record holder when it comes to women’s ski jump is Daniela Iraschko-Stolz, who jumped 200 meters in Bad Mitterndorf in 2003. She took a part in a men’s competition as a pre-jumper. 

Daniela Irashko-Stolz (Photo: OMV Group)

The premiere female ski jumping competition at the Winter Olympics took place in Sochi in 2014. The first-ever Olympic gold medallist was German athlete – Carina Vogt. The current gold medallist from PyeongChang is Maren Lundby. When it comes to most titled female ski jumpers we have to mention two names.  Sara Takanashi, who was World Cup winner four times and took 60 victories, and Maren Lundby, who won three World Cup seasons and scored the most points in a single season – 1909 points. 

After reading about so many achievements of both female and male athletes, you may think that both men and women should have the equal right to ski jump. Unfortunately, the World of Women’s Ski Jumping is not so bright and cheerful. It all started back during this season, in November 2020, when the National Ski Federation announced that Ski Jumping World Cup competitions for both male and female athletes in Sapporo, Japan are cancelled because of the Coronavirus outbreak. After that, Women’s World Cup competitions in Oslo, Lillehammer, Trondheim (Norway), and Zao (Japan) were cancelled, as well. The Women’s Continental Cup and FIS Cup event calendars were also shortened, which started an open discussion about the uncertain future of women’s ski jumping. 

The breaking point of this discussion was the announcement by the International Ski Federation saying that the Olympic Trials in Zhangjiakou, China were cancelled both for male and female athletes. A couple of days after that, FIS published another announcement saying that the Polish Ski Federation would organise the additional competitions for men on February 13-14, which meant there will be no additional competitions for women.

A winter sports journalist for Skoki Okiem Kobiet, Julia Wiraszka, comments: “It is undoubtedly a sad and unfair decision [the lack of competitions for women]. It would be great if the International Ski Federation could find someone who would be willing to organise competitions for both men and women to make women’s ski jumping more popular. It hurts to see that female athletes have to fight for their rights on their own”. 

Not only journalists are concerned about the future of women’s ski jumping. Sarah Hendrickson, the first female World Cup winner, admits: “There need to be more events so that the women can have media and sponsorship chances. Without these, it is hard to make enough money to keep going. A financial situation is not the most important but it does determine how much you can train or travel (specifically from the US) and if you can make your dreams come true”

First World Cup winner, Sarah Hendrickson (Photo: RedBull)

Miss Hendrickson believes, there is a chance to make male and female ski jumping equal, but it will take some time: “The best way is for the men and woman to travel and compete together. The makes it financially smart for the organising committees to host them together. Once we will have more events, we can build up the media’s attention and a fan base. Of course, we can a couple mixed competitions so it is going in the right direction but not fast enough.”

The current Men’s World Cup leader, Halvor Egner Granerud, supports his female friends. In the interview with a local magazine, Granerud admitted that female and male ski jumpers should be treated equally and that he is not happy with the lack of competitions for women this season. 

What is more, female ski jumpers are still waiting to be allowed to train on the flying hill and attend ski flying competitions. Will we ever get equal rights for men and women in the world of ski jumping? I am not so sure about that, but as Pierre de Coubertin once said, “All sports for all people” – and I think the International Ski Federation should think about this quote while discussing the future of women’s ski jumping. 

Little Mix is a first group that won the X Factor UK back in 2011. What makes Little Mix so special, is the fact that they use their position in the music industry to spread feminism and positivity all over the world. The best example of what makes them such inspiring figures is their discography. They released many feminist singles, including “Power”, “Woman Like Me”, and “Strip”. 

A TV package including interviews with FIS Nordic Junior World Ski Championships Silver Medalists, Janni Reisenauer and Robin Pedersen. 

Winter sports affected by the pandemic from Amanda on Vimeo.

A radio package on World AIDS Day, including interviews with PhD Celeste Holbrook (Sexual Health Consultant and Educator) and Alice Goldsmith (Individual and Community Fundraiser at National AIDS Trust).