Tēnā koutou Te Ārohi
While traipsing the tiled halls of the Robertson I saw posters for this year's Law Revue, and was disappointed to see the theme: a parody of Harry Potter (Harry Notter: The Boy Who Passed).
I just want to remind everyone of some matters about JK Rowling.
She does everything she can to bludgeon the trans community. She pours the money she receives from Harry Potter toward funding anti-transgender causes. She is friend and benefactor to Kellie-Jay Keen-Minshull (Posie Parker) and Abigail Shrier (Irreparable Damage). She spreads conspiratorial claims framing trans-women as violent perverts & paedophilic rapists, posing trans-men as confused girls fooled and damaged by maleficent doctors spreading social contagions. She denies the persecution of queer people during the Holocaust, including the burning of the collections of Magnus Hirschfeld & his Institute of Sexology, one of the Nazis' largest book burnings. She contributed to legal fees in the British High Court case that established grounds for a bathroom ban in the UK, and celebrated it with cigars and champagne. She slandered Imane Khelif during the 2024 Olympics. She started a sexual assault support service for women in Scotland which openly and actively excludes transgender people as rapists, despite reliable statistics indicating that trans-women are 2-4 times more likely than cis-women to be he victims of sexual assault. She recently bullied Amnesty International into backing down when they called out the transphobia of organisations she operates. She openly mocks and harasses trans-people at every turn in her online presence, including a recent incident where she reposted an up-skirt photo of a trans-woman.
JK Rowling's influence and money directly backs the current wave of international hatred against transgender people. The one that spawned the current government's attempts to ban puberty suppression for transgender youth and define woman as "human biological female". The manifestation of which in the USA holds genocidal form. She backs a movement that seeks the eradication of transgender people from public life.
Unless the Law Revue, in its parody of Harry Potter, intends to grapple with the atrocious nature of its author, all they serve to do is build up the soft power that has enabled Rowling to stand as a font of bitter hatred.
Lochlan Hanham
Proudly trans-feminine non-binary
(they/them)
Dearest Critic,
Your magazine has become a staple part of our week, in all fairness it is the only reason many of us are getting up on a Monday morning.
Moaningful confessions has been missing this issue, this is the best column by far. We need it back, too many of us are living vicariously through this column. Please bring it back.
Sincerely,
A desperate reader
Editor’s Response: I think the last issue was one of the first in awhile that we haven’t had a Moaningful. It will be back – we occasionally just run out of space or Moaningful will be subbed out with another column because we have to share the love. Unfortunately, this issue also lacks Moaningful, but if you’re annoyed at that I’d encourage you to read the feature. Love ya!
Kia Ora Critic
Re: Letter of the Week Issue 15; UBS to Shut Down Issue 17: The day Critic can once again pull out a modicum of intelligence and respectability will be a fine day indeed. A day when significant student issues such as the reorganising of OUSA to enhance unelected non-student power, the closure of UBS and loss of 10 jobs, and the OUSA BDS policy become more than a one page vague report, and actually entail some useful investigative journalism. The writing staff of recent should be ashamed - I see the cohort this year has embraced the breather rubbish and limp moral backbone of the previous editor. Would it kill you to do some proper journalism? Or is toeing the University/OUSA line and promoting anti-intellectualism the end goal? Critic has become a glorified billboard, excluding perhaps the particularly good music journalism done this year, and the continuing quality and effort of the design department.
Best,
Lou
Dear Critic,
I have a confession: I've been moving people's shit out of the library booths, but I think I'm completely justified.
The other day my friend and I needed to sit down, and there was an empty booth with a bag in it. I waited for a bit, and then sat down, moving the bag out of the way. We then studied happily for two hours until the owner of the bag returned. Our conversation went as follows:
"Uhh, I put the bag there... so I could have the booth when I came back..."
"Yeah, nobody was here, so we moved it..."
Then, some kind soul from another booth said: "Oh, I was just leaving, you can have this one!"
The owner of the bag then proceeds to put his bag down and leave AGAIN, leaving the recently vacant booth now "occupied".
I encourage everyone to follow in my footsteps. Breathers don't have the right to reserve tables, so don't give it to them!
Sincerely,
The serial bag mover of central library
Dear Critic,
The party issue cover is so awesome, I've stuck it to my wall and now my room feels complete. To say thanks, the least I could do is write a haiku!
Each page, iconic
Critic's art is just sublime
ages like fine wine.
Sincerely,
Emily N
