Frontiers of Scarfiedom: The Legacy of the Capping Cult

Posted 4:33pm Saturday 11th May 2024 by Nina Brown

Now in its 130th year, the Capping Show is a time capsule of the ever-evolving Otago University student culture. To recap Capping – and reuse a joke that Critic has made time and again in our 99 years writing about it – what began as a 19th century flash mob of sorts during graduation Read more...

Transmasculine periods: Men bleed monthly, too

Posted 5:19pm Saturday 21st May 2022 by Lotto Ramsay

CW: Discussions of bottom dysphoria, period dysphoria, and medical transphobia  The landscape in which we consider periods is slowly changing. The taboo that has surrounded menstruation for centuries is lifting. More period care products are widely available, commercials show red blood, and Read more...

Hekate Opens Doors

Posted 5:07pm Saturday 21st May 2022 by Fox Meyer

A period health clinic on Albany Street has recently rebranded. Despite the flashy new look, they’ve promised they’ll continue to offer services to menstruators from all backgrounds.  Hekate presents itself as “New Zealand's leading private, nurse-led health clinic with Read more...

Mad Lib: How Does Menstruation Work?

Posted 12:33am Monday 24th May 2021 by Fox Meyer

Ask a friend for words to fill in the blanks. No matter how much you fuck it up, you’ll still receive a better menstrual education than anyone born before 1970.   Menstruation is the regular discharge of (LIQUID) and (NOUN) from the inner lining of the uterus through the vagina. It Read more...

What do MEN know about MENstruation?

Posted 12:01am Monday 24th May 2021 by Fox Meyer

Men don’t talk much about periods. Some think women wear tampons all the time “just in case”. Most think the pad sticks to the inside of your thighs. The idea of talking about periods seems to make men instantly flustered. We took to the streets and designed a little competition. Read more...

Mythbustin’ Menstruation Myths

Posted 11:51pm Sunday 23rd May 2021 by Susana Jones

Menstruation myths have been around for yonks. The term menstruation originates from the Greek words men and menus, with men meaning month and menus meaning moon and power. Menstruation has always been symbolically tied to power, both good and bad. It’s not surprising then, that many a myth Read more...

GUEST EDITORIAL: Menstruation is non-binary, period.

Posted 11:12pm Sunday 23rd May 2021 by Jay Bailey

As a transgender person who was assigned ‘female’ at birth (AFAB), menstruation is a funky topic for me. My body’s feminine properties constantly remind me that I exist in a meat shell which doesn’t quite fit with my perception of myself. But my body is not as clearly binary Read more...

The Alpha Uterus: Is Period Syncing Real?

Posted 10:58pm Sunday 23rd May 2021 by Asia Martusia King

The Alpha Uterus. A uterus so formidable, brimming with such sheer hormonal force that it annexes the uteri around it, pulling them into orbit and causing them to sync up. Does such a legendary power really exist? Period syncing is based on the idea that when a bunch of menstruating folk live Read more...

There Will Be Blood: The good, the bad, and the messy of period sex

Posted 9:04pm Sunday 23rd May 2021 by Erin Gourley

Most humans swap a lot of bodily fluids to show that we’re attracted to each other, but for some reason we don’t put period blood in that category. There’s a longstanding belief that periods are unclean or gross, with no evidence to back that up. And contrary to what a lot of Read more...

Gender Diverse Takes On Periods

Posted 5:22pm Thursday 14th May 2020 by Sinead Gill

There is a lot of stigma around periods. Not as much stigma as there is around gender diversity, though. So what if you were stuck in the middle of both discourses? This would be a shit menstruation issue without talking to the one group of menstruators who are most excluded when it comes to period Read more...