The University of Otago is currently under fire after staff conducted a covert night-time raid to steal and destroy most copies of a student magazine’s special issue on menstruation.
The magazines were taken off almost every stand around the New Zealand University campus with no warning, no discussion and not even a notification to take responsibility for the raid.
Critic Magazine’s Menstruation Issue sports on its cover an explicit illustration of a person menstruating while giving a thumbs up, as if to say “Bleeding sucks, hey, but we’re in this together”.
Some staff believed the artwork, by Saskia Rushton-Green, would be “objectionable to many people”, which apparently sparked their covert mission to steal and dump the magazines in a bin.
After eventually discovering who was responsible for the raid, Critic editor
Joel MacManus and his team hit out at the University for the blatant act of censorship. In an open letter to the University Chancellor, the Critic editorial team stated:
“There are, of course, limits to freedom of expression, and there is content that most of society would find it hard to defend. Critic’s latest issue, which was dedicated to the worthy, and often taboo, topic of menstruation, does not fit this description.”
The University has since apologised for their “mistake”, saying that “the actions that were taken here are regrettable.”
https://twitter.com/otago/status/998849905983549440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fthespinoff.co.nz%2Fmedia%2F23-05-2018%2Fcritic-editor-why-we-made-the-menstruation-issue%2F&tfw_site=TheSpinoffTV
In response, the Critic team says that “We have suggested to the University that a donation of sanitary products for OUSA to distribute free to students would result in a positive outcome for all involved moving forward.” Sounds like a fair resolution to me.
MacManus said that Critic created the special issue dedicated to menstruation after being approached by Otago Women’s+ Club, and it focuses on menstruation issues on campus like access to sanitary bins and the high cost of sanitary items in New Zealand.
Luckily, the pieces from the Menstruation Issue have been read more than 18 thousand times online – so the message is getting out, despite the weak call on the uni’s part.
