Issue 18 | August 05, 2013 | critic.co.nz Experiences that mean the world The Melbourne JD Law degree www.law.unimelb.edu.au/jd DO YOU HAVE ECZEMA OR DERMATITIS? We are looking for male and female volunteers for scalp eczema or dermatitis clinical studies. Participants must have moderate to severe scalp eczema or dermatitis, which is responsive to steroid treatment, they must be at least 18 years of age and a non-smoker (for at least 6 months). The studies run for up to 3 weeks following enrolment and you are required to apply the study medication daily at home as well as at Zenith once a week. All participants will be remunerated for their time and inconvenience Please contact us at: Zenith Technology on 0800 89 82 82, or [email protected], or visit our website at www.zenithtechnology.co.nz to register your interest Much Ado About Nothing Clinical Investigator: Dr Noelyn Hung, Zenith Technology Corp. Ltd, 156 Frederick St, Dunedin Zenith Technology Corporation LTD STUDENT TICKETS ONLY $13 156 Frederick St • PO Box 1777 • Dunedin 9054 • New Zealand This advertisement and all studies are approved by an ethics committee FIVE-TRIP PASSES - 5 TICKETS FOR $60 accredited by the Health Research Council of New Zealand Zenith Technology • Established for over 20 years in the field of clinical studies and analytical laboratory services to the international community Critic | Issue 18 | 3 EDITOR Sam McChesney DePUTY EDITOR Zane Pocock SUB EDITOR Sarah Macindoe TeCHNICAL EDITOR 20 Sam Clark FEATURE DesIGNER 20 | The Scourge of Property Managers Daniel Blackball Property managers are an increasingly common phenomenon in Dunedin, their purpose to negotiate between the needs of tenants and landlords. However, Brittany Mann found herself AD DESIGNER inundated with stories of property managers acting as absentee landlords’ stooges and trampling Nick Guthrie on tenants’ rights. What follows is a closer look at this under-examined group. COVER PHOTO James Parsons & Sam Clark FEATURES FEATURE WRITER Brittany Mann 26 | Should Dunedin Impose Higher Flatting Standards? NEws TeAM Lefty vs. Rightie: Aaron Hawkins and Guy McCallum Jack Montgomerie, Claudia Herron, take each other on in this pivotal contemporary Thomas Raethel, Bella Macdonald debate. Would you prefer better housing to be leg- islated, or make the decision for yourself whether or SECTION EDITORS not to have the grungy Scarfie experience? Rosie Howells, Charlotte Doyle, Lucy Hunter, Kirsty Dunn, 28 | Suits, Skylarking and Scarfies Baz Macdonald, Basti Menkes, Realising that student culture is rapidly changing Raquel Moss, Tristan Keillor 09 NEWS with the closure of the Captain Cook Tavern, Sam Reynolds takes a step back to look at Scarfie history. CONTRIBUTORS 09 | Two Guys One Sock Guy McCallum, Jacobin, (Puppet) 32 | From the Crypt: Flatting Jessica Bromell, Sam White, The race for Finance Officer is on again! Do Horror Stories Aaron Hawkins, Sam Reynolds, Flatting can be one of the most enjoyable expe- Lucy Kavale, Daniel Lormans, you want the third-year Biochem/Finance riences of a student’s life. But what about when it James Cagney, Lindsey Horne, student, Nick Tenci? Or do you want another goes horribly wrong? Critic readers open their scars Ellen Sima, Amber Pullin, term with another Edgar? Maybe the sock and share their most horrific flatting tales. Lyle Skipsey, Phoebe Harrop, puppet is the best bet after all. Voting is M and G, Dr. Nick, Hannah Twigg, open in a week. Campbell Ecklein NEWS SPECIAL THANKS 08 | Protestors Fight the Pows, Gregor Richardson, Mary Lewis, reGULAR STUFF Need to Enter Rill Worl Ramon Strong News | 08-19 Culture | 36-54 10 | Dunedin Gets Cable in Con- AD SALES fused Quest to Catch Up With PLANET MEDIA DUNEDIN LIMITED Features | 20-35 Letters | 06-07 Rest of World Tama Walker & Josh Hannagan planetmedia.co.nz Critic is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). Disclaimer: the views presented within this publication 14 | Pope Cums Out in Support of [email protected] do not necessarily represent the views of the Editor, Planet Gays Media, or OUSA. Press Council: people with a complaint against a newspaper should first complain in writing to the Editor and P.O. Box 1436, Dunedin | (03) 479 then, if not satisfied with the response, complain to the Press 16 | The Fun Party: It’s Going to 5335 [email protected] | critic.co.nz Council. Complaints should be addressed to the Secretary, Have a Bad Time PO Box 10-879 The Terrace, Wellington. 4 | Issue 18 | Critic EditoriaL oday, I want to talk about rape. Jesus, defenders of rape jokes view as an “acceptable” the objectors as unreasonable, over-sensitive, I had better get this one right. rape joke. Taken the wrong way, the punchline and misandric, or to lapse into talking about T could be read as “haha, she got raped” – which “free speech,” or some other such bullshit. When Specifically, I want to talk about rape jokes. Last is always the danger – but the intended target you exist in a male-dominated echo-chamber week, Critic’s comics contained a rape joke. Three of the joke is not the victim but the perpetra- – which, for whatever reason, the Critic office weeks ago, the same comic also contained a rape tor. The comic is a (dark) commentary on the unfortunately is – this attitude can ossify into joke. Over the last few days I have been flooded male psyche – that some men have, and act on, knee-jerk defensiveness. – or at least, lightly doused – with emails com- thoughts of incest – and, significantly, the comic plaining about the comics, and accusing Critic shows the man being punished. It’s frustrating to be told that you are funda- of enabling rape and sponsoring rape culture. mentally unqualified to comment on a topic. When I first drafted this editorial, I stood by the It’s a characteristically male attitude that with The first comic, published in issue 15, depicts a decision to publish the issue 17 comic, citing the introspection and deep, abstract thought, one can man having a conversation with his car. “This debates I’d read online, sticking up for free speech figure out most problems. Hence the obsession was going to be a Maori joke but the editor re- and listing, for context, a series of “acceptable” with free speech and other such rights: if I have fused to print it,” the man says. “Print a rape rape jokes from comics such as Louis CK and Sarah my rights, I can exist in my own bubble, and I joke then,” the car suggests. “No way,” the man Silverman. Something about it didn’t sit right. I do not need to do any of my thinking outside of replies, “they’re always forced.” knew that I was hardly an expert on rape, so I took this bubble. In this way, many men (including what was probably the best decision I’ve made myself) have been happy to “learn” about the The second, published in issue 17, shows a man all week, and ran the editorial past two female problems with rape jokes by analysing certain telling his wife that he’d bang Selena Gomez, friends whom I could trust speak their minds. abstract properties of the joke itself: does it have and his wife reacting angrily. The final panel a certain motivation, does it have a certain tar- shows a judge awarding custody of Gomez to get, does it reduce men’s inhibition to rape. Of her mother – Gomez having been the man’s “The main problem with course, these are all problems, but they’re not daughter all along. (Some people have expressed rape jokes is, quite simply, the only problems, or even the main problems, confusion as to why this would qualify as a rape with rape jokes. joke. Statistically speaking, father-daughter that rape is horrible.” incest is almost always rape.) The main problem with rape jokes is, quite sim- They tore strips off me. “Print an apology and ply, that rape is horrible. It is an utterly traumatic The debate about rape jokes and whether they move on,” they urged. I protested that as I did not experience, and to raise it in a comic context are ever acceptable has received a lot of attention fully understand the problem, such an apology – even where the comic means to condemn over the last few years – particularly in the last could not be sincere. rape or express solidarity with rape survivors year, after “comedian” Daniel Tosh made his – is inappropriate, hurtful and disrespectful. As now-infamous remark that it would be “funny” “Have you ever walked down the street holding someone who writes for a living, and who tries if one of his hecklers were gang-raped. I have your keys between your fingers because you’re to raise a few laughs along the way, this was a followed this debate with interest, but also with afraid of what might happen?” one asked me. disappointing realisation, but it’s one I think I’ve a certain amount of intellectual detachment. (I have not.) finally come to terms with. I have never found rape jokes funny and feel nothing but contempt for Tosh. But I am also Some of the McChesneys were hanged by the Learning about these matters involves not ab- extremely uncomfortable with declaring entire English for sheep-rustling, and my grandfather stract theorising, but listening. This is hard work topics off-limits. Until recently, I believed that it was once detained in Iraq on suspicion of being at the best of times, made even harder in this was possible to make a largely unproblematic a Jew (on account of his nose).