Archive
Top Ten Paintings I’d Like to be Trapped Inside at the Dunedin Public Art Gallery
Posted 1:39pm Monday 16th August 2021 by Asia Martusia King

If you can’t jump into paintings, that’s embarrassing for you. I do it all the time. One day, my hubris will get the better of me and I will be trapped in one forever. If I get to choose which painting that is, it’ll be one of these. I’ve excluded any landscape paintings of Read more...
Dunedin’s Best Late Night Kebabs
Posted 1:42am Monday 9th August 2021 by Assorted Critic Staff

Late-night kebab missions are a hallmark of Dunedin culture. And while there are about a dozen places to order a kebab, only a handful may be open for you as you stumble home from town. Heck, not even all of these make the cut, but they were the ones our staff were most familiar with. We ordered all Read more...
Fascism 2.0: Lessons from six months in New Zealand’s largest white supremacist group
Posted 12:52am Monday 9th August 2021 by Elliot Weir

A note on aliases: Members of Action Zealandia use aliases to obscure their identities, even from other group members. In the article aliases are signalled by the use of single quote marks the first time a name is mentioned, e.g. ‘Marc’. Read the companion news article Read more...
Judging a Book by Its Cover: What Does Your Search History Say About You?
Posted 10:50pm Sunday 1st August 2021 by Fox Meyer

Critic collected eight stranger’s search histories and psychoanalyzed them, using an expert Geology student, to predict who searched for what. Then we checked the correct answers. Here’s how we did: (Our speculation in regular font, correct answers in bold) Looks like this Read more...
Campus Smackdown: Rating The Best Places on Campus to Throw Hands
Posted 4:13pm Sunday 1st August 2021 by Runze Liu

Do you live in a society that places unhealthy and unrealistic expectations of masculinity upon you? Are you torn between the increasing pressure to be emotionally articulate and in touch with your feelings, in a context where men are only valued for their achievements and ability to assert Read more...
How an Otago Study Is Enabling Transphobia in Media and Sports
Posted 4:04pm Sunday 1st August 2021 by Elliot Weir

The following article contains the author's opinion. We rely on science to separate fact from fiction when it comes to contentious issues, but it can be politicised by groups to spread fear and misinformation. A 2019 publication by researchers from Otago has been used in exactly Read more...
Sexual Awakenings and The On-Screen Characters That Inspired Them
Posted 5:25pm Sunday 25th July 2021 by Fox Meyer

Embarrassing to some, enlightening to many, the moment of sexual awakening is an almost universal experience. For many of us, our first crush was from a show or a film, and often defied logic in every way. Some people were turned on by turtles. Some by women old enough to be their mum. Critic Read more...
The Wack, The Cringe, and The Wholesome: Your best and worst Tinder stories, compiled
Posted 5:19pm Sunday 25th July 2021 by Critic

From a big bowl of minestrone to two cases of tonsillitis, Critic Te Arohi has collated the wackiest, cringiest, and most wholesome stories from Otago students on dating apps for your enjoyment. Let’s be honest though. More often than not stories we hear from these apps, and dating in general, Read more...
Take My Breath Away: The normalisation of choking during sex
Posted 5:01pm Sunday 25th July 2021 by Erin Gourley

Marie’s* boyfriend didn’t ask before choking her during sex. She was 18 at the time. “Looking back that was a red flag,” she said. “At the time I went along with it and he kept doing it [whenever they had sex] so I thought, huh, this must be normal. I didn’t Read more...
Decensoring Sex Work
Posted 4:32pm Sunday 25th July 2021 by Asia Martusia King

Content warning: Sexual violence. Vixen Temple should terrify you. She is an unstoppable force. She’s a performance artist, an activist, a writer, a podcaster, a sex worker, and a self-proclaimed Satanic sex witch. She’s single-handedly founded an online community for sex workers and Read more...