Jesus Loves You

Posted 2:31am Monday 12th September 2011

Or at least, the Evangelicals New Zealand is not a country known for its religious piety, even within the increasingly secular Western world. Confirmed atheists and agnostics can happily occupy the role of prime minister, there has never been a ‘church of New Zealand’ and 1.5% of Read more...

Workin' Up A Sweat

Posted 5:23am Monday 5th September 2011

When I was told that my next article was reviewing various forms of exercise, visions of sweat, short shorts and Powerade flashed before my eyes, quickly followed by the burning question: why? Or more specifically, why me? “It’s like Bridget Jones,” said the editor, “Bridget Jones does sport.” Read more...

Not All Papers Created Equal

Posted 11:03pm Monday 22nd August 2011

We all know it. There are some papers that are easy and some that are hard. You may have been warned to steer clear of the legendary POLS101 if you value your grade point average, or that Biochem will endanger the mental health and social life of every first year Health Sci. As one professor Read more...

Madonna in a Corset

Posted 12:14am Tuesday 9th August 2011

Charlotte Greenfield explores the strained dichotomy between the sexualisation of women, and the judgement of women’s sexuality. It starts early. A marketing exercise in the US analysed language used in advertising aimed at children. Boys got words such as “battle”, Read more...

Out on the town

Posted 4:33am Thursday 4th August 2011

One happening Saturday, Critic decided to brave a suitably cold winter’s night in order to find out whether Dunedin can justify its urban identity with sufficiently sordid nightlife. Much to everyone’s surprise, it can. We may have no White House or Mermaid, but what we found was more than enough to Read more...

Fed up with Pandering to Racists?

Posted 12:04am Tuesday 26th July 2011

“Its so racist against white people, wheres my free uni?” [sic] says Angus Anderson on the Facebook page “GETTING A UNI SCHOLARSHIP IS SOOOOO HARD lol jk I’m 1/64 Maori” (although Critic speculates that a scholarship might be necessary to improve grammar that bad). And how can we forget ACT’s ads Read more...

Out of This World

Posted 4:17am Monday 25th July 2011

300 kilometres above us, a long way in the context of Earth, but a miniscule distance in the vast expanse of the universe, is the home of the first continuous ten years of human occupation in space. It is an odd kind of home. With its conglomeration of wires and mechanics lining the 109-metre length Read more...

Their Land, Our Land

Posted 4:33am Wednesday 6th July 2011

After Israel attacked an aid flotilla headed for the Gaza Strip in May 2010, investigative journalist John Pilger accused members of the Western media, including the trusty BBC, of “deception” in their coverage of the event. The promulgating of propaganda is a charge commonly leveled at the Israeli Read more...

Out of the Closet

Posted 7:40am Thursday 19th May 2011

A History of the Queer Community in New Zealand When Chris Brickell began to research New Zealand’s gay history for his book Mates and Lovers, people told him “I don’t know if you’ll find much prior to the 1970s”. In fact his research led him to unearth a world that Read more...

You wouldn’t steal a handbag

Posted 10:29pm Monday 9th May 2011

The recent Copyright Amendment Bill was created to protect artists’ copyright, and ensure that the money for their ideas went to the right person. But how effective is the legislation? Will the change encourage people to buy CDs? Charlotte Greenfield asks the million dollar question: is it possible Read more...