DEBATE ISSUE 9| RUMOURS| AUGUST 2020
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Whether you’re a dirty rooster or relatively chaste, you’re still likely to come in contact with HPV. Take steps to help protect yourself from genital warts and HPV-related cancers with your free* HPV immunisation. Talk to Student Health today or visit bestshot.co.nz to find out more.
* GARDASIL® 9 is a prescription medicine, for females aged 9–45 years and males 9–26 years of age. It is a nine-valent recombinant human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine. GARDASIL® 9 is indicated for 9–45 year-old females and 9–26 year-old males, for prevention of cervical, vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancer, precancerous or dysplastic lesions, genital warts or lesions, and infection caused by the HPV types in the vaccine. Each 0.5 mL dose contains the following HPV L1 Proteins by type: 6 (30 µg), 11 (40 µg), 16 (60 µg), 18 (40 µg), 31 (20 µg), 33 (20 µg), 45 (20 µg), 52 (20 µg), and 58 (20 µg). GARDASIL® 9 has risks and benefits, and should be used strictly as directed. Ask your doctor if GARDASIL® 9 is right for you. Tell your healthcare professional if you or your child have ever had an allergic reaction to any vaccine or to any of the listed ingredients for GARDASIL® 9, or if you or your child has a serious illness, blood disease, bleeding disorder, a high fever, or a weakened immune system (e.g. due to medicines, a genetic condition, or human immunodeficiency virus [HIV] infection). Common reactions are headache, fever, and injection-site pain, swelling, and redness. Fainting can occur. Allergic reactions are rare but serious. If you are worried by any side effects, see your doctor, pharmacist, or healthcare professional. Go to the nearest hospital if you experience wheezing, shortness of breath, or difficulty breathing; or pinkish, itchy swellings and rash, especially on the face. Immunisation does not replace the need for regular cervical cancer screening. Additional product information and Consumer Medicine Information is available from www.medsafe.govt.nz (October 2019), and from Seqirus (NZ) Ltd, Auckland, on 0800 502 757. GARDASIL® 9 is funded for both males and females aged 9–26 years – normal charges will apply for other patients. Copyright © 2019 Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., a subsidiary of Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, NJ, USA. All Rights Reserved. NZ/GAR9/0120/0073a TAPS NA12097 INSIGHT 10219B.
EDITOR Rebecca Zhong debate@aut.ac.nz DESIGNER Ramina Rai ILLUSTRATOR Yi Jong NEWS WRITER Jack Pirie FEATURE WRITER Andrew Broadley CONTRIBUTORS James Tapp, Emily Wilton, Esther Mackay, Andrew Broadley, Tom Vasey, Lyric Waiwiri-Smith, Te Haua Taua, Sanjana Khusal, Hayley White, Seth Nicholls, Casta Lawson ADVERTISING Jesse Jones jesse.jones@aut.ac.nz PRINTER Bluestar Collard DISCLAIMER Material contained in this publication does not necessarily represent the views or opinions of AUTSA, its advertisers, contributors, Bluestar Collard or its subsidiaries. This publication is entitled to the full protection given by the Copyright Act 1994 (“the Act”) to the holders of the copyright, being AUT STUDENT ASSOCIATION (“AUTSA”). Reproduction, storage or display of any part of this publication by any process, electronic or otherwise (except for the educational purposes specified in the Act) without express permission is a break of the copyright of the publisher and will be prosecuted accordingly. Inquiries seeking permission to reproduce should be addressed to AUTSA. Debate is a member of the Aotearoa Student Press Association (ASPA). Follow Debate! debatemag.com debate_mag autsadebate debate@aut.ac.nz
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Letter From “That Social Media Guy” Another One Bites The Dust The Fight For The Living Wage For AUT Cleaners What’s On Curiosity Killed The Cat Goss From The Top One Slice Of Pizzagate Māori @ AUT Giveaways The Enduring Magic of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ The Frankly Enormous Elephant in the Room Borderline Indian High School Sex 'Rumours' Women Don’t Masturbate! Symptoms of Quarantine Puzzles
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Got big ideas for AUT? Nominate yourself or a mate for the SRC and make a change! Nominations for the AUTSA Student Representative Council open Monday 20 July – instructions will be sent to your AUT email, so keep an eye out! For more info, check out: www.autsa.org.nz/elections or email autsa@aut.ac.nz
‘I saw them with her’, but that doesn’t have the life crushing force it did when we were 14. So now, as we all seem to get older, all the gossip seems to just hold so much weight, people are getting married to the kid down the street or having a baby with their ex. And if you can’t tell by now, I’m a bit too single, which at least means there’s never rumours about me.
FROM "THAT SOCIAL MEDIA GUY" Yo yo waddup, it’s ya boi Jimmy T the social media dude. With her adult life becoming a rotation of paying rent and going to the dentist, Rebecca resorted to passing her work onto others while advocating for the caffeine in apples. That’s pretty much it with her, so I might as well talk about myself. For those of you who don’t know me, after reading this you’ll hopefully either want to know me or will want to steer clear. I’m a second year communications and business conjoint student who for the most part has put studies to the side. Some may call me insane, but on top of assignments, I’m writing and working for the mag, a journalist for 95bFM, vice president of AUT’s management consultancy club as well as a student ambassador. I’m a *hip* indie boi whose main character trait is to listen to Sufjan Stevens while staring out a rainy
window. So if you’re ever wanting music recommendations or a good chat, either hit up our Instagram & Facebook (@ debate_mag or @jimbo_tapp), or head to our Spotify to find curated playlists from our lovely music columnist, Lyric. Over the past few weeks we’ve seen some reeeeal hectic politics from Iain Lees-Galloway to Andrew Falloon. It just feels like our politicians have started to think with their dicks instead of their so called brains. So in the world of journalism, this is the juicy line up of rumours, allegations and gossip we’ve all been wanting. Now that I’m at uni it feels like these are the only rumours which haven’t disappeared. Perhaps I’ve found better friends, or maybe people have just stopped giving a shit about what others do with their lives. Sure there’s the ‘who slept with who’ and the
That’s enough about me and my life, let’s dive into this issue of unbelievable writing. For myself the easy starting point is Andrew Broadley’s piece on Pizzagate and how the ‘woke’ TikTok kids have it all wrong. As any wise person should say, don’t believe everything you read or see on the internet. Moving along to something a bit more light hearted, Esther MacKay looks at some of the so called rumours about those we worship, celebrities that is. Keanu Reeves is easily mistaken for Jesus at times, and if Esther is onto something, honestly I wouldn’t be surprised if that were true (no man should be allowed to be that kind, good looking and talented). Finally as a journalist and someone who feels everyone should be engaging with the world around us, make sure to read the news. There’s been a lot of fucked up shit, and those in power need to be held accountable. Make sure to read the student news but to also engage with national news, especially with the elections around the corner (make sure to register to vote!). Much love from ‘That Social Media Guy’, James
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NEWS
Another One Bites the Dust Second AUT ‘Top Dog’ ‘resigns’ in the midst of allegations
By Jack Pirie AUT has seen its fair share of scandals over the last year. From the allegations made towards Max Abbott we have seen a pattern emerge. This pattern can only be described as a snowball effect. When one story breaks and exposes someone’s wrongdoing, it leads to more people becoming exposed to those actions. The latest of the snowballs is Professor Nigel Hemmington, Pro Vice Chancellor for Research Innovation and International. When the initial sexual harassment investigation was undertaken against Max Abbott, the former dean of the university, we saw similar allegations pursued against other ‘top dogs’ of the university. This time we have seen the Pro Vice Chancellor, Nigel Hemmington, come under public scrutiny with sexual allegations pinned against the senior university staff member. Mr Hemmington has since resigned from his role at the university. A formal complaint was issued in 2019 against Prof Hemmington. The complaint was based around the allegation that the Pro Vice Chancellor continually boasted about his sexual lifestyle and the Japanese bondage acts of shibari to his
colleagues over multiple years. According to AUT staff members Mr. Hemmington continually made other staff members uncomfortable with the constant discussions of his sexual lifestyle. Staff members have said that Mr. Hemmington would often show colleagues video footage of the sexual bondage and have even said that he would show photos of himself tied up in rope to colleagues both on campus and internationally. One female staff member claims that he showed her the physical rope burns he had obtained whilst practicing the bondage act. The complaint was swept under the carpet in a very AUT like manner shortly afterward. To which an exit agreement was made meaning the complaint “may not be investigated”. With AUT’s fear of another sexual harassment debarkle in the media, Vice-Chancellor Derek McCormack sent this email to staff: “This email is to inform you that Professor Nigel Hemmington has resigned from his position with immediate effect. Staff will be aware of media allegations against Professor Hemmington. Professor Hemmington considers the allegations to be
'completely distorted representations of some events, and to be generally erroneous in many respects.' However he is at a point in his career relatively close to retirement and has other opportunities to pursue. He has therefore decided to resign to prevent the continuation of a media controversy which might damage the reputation of the University.” -Derek Is this AUT again trying to hide evidence of a ‘boys club’ amongst senior members of the university? Are they sweeping sexual allegations and investigations under the rug to avoid media attention? Is the ‘open secret’ of inappropriate sexual behaviour becoming the norm at the university. We at Debate certainly hope not. The ‘Independent Review’ of AUT’s structure and policies (with a focus on sexual harassment) is currently underway after the initial allegations against Max Abbott. As far as Debate is aware, several staff members have been interviewed to help with the investigation. However, we are unaware of any student involvement with the review at this stage. Only time will tell to see if this snowball gains any more momentum as it rolls down the mountainside that is AUT.
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The Fight for Living Wage for AUT Cleaners By Rebecca Zhong Recently I was talking to a friend of mine whose mother works as a cleaner at one of Auckland’s largest commercial firms. Despite attaining a masters degree in Taiwan, she’s been scrubbing toilets in Auckland CBD for the last 15 years. Like many immigrants, her knowledge and identity was non-transferable when she moved to New Zealand. But in 2020, scrubbing toilets makes you someone who is deemed ‘essential.’ Essential in that the general public understands that without
your labour, businesses and life would come to a freezing halt. But despite this being general knowledge, cleaners still continue to be severely undervalued and underpaid. In 2017, the Government made a Living Wage promise to cleaners and security guards who work in police stations, courts, Work and Income service centres and other government buildings where New Zealanders work and visit. During COVID-19, Jacinda Ardern received global praise for her empathy and gratitude
towards essential workers. Cleaners were amongst the many that Jacinda offered her personal thanks to. Jacinda recognised that these invaluable workers were instrumental towards keeping New Zealand safe and secure. But at the end of the day, a thanks has very little value unless it is backed up with action and change. Cleaners continue to be the lowest paid individuals in the core public sector. And their pay simply does not reflect their hard work. As of now, the Government has not fulfilled their promise in ensuring cleaners receive living wage.
In 2019, union members secured the living wage for AUT staff. This increase was a direct response to successful strike actions. And while this is a great win for AUT staff, it doesn’t mean everyone working at AUT is protected. Because AUT does not directly employ their cleaners, a living wage salary is not agreed upon or secured for them like other staff members. AUT instead works with a cleaning company to carry out all its cleaning services. When asked about how much these cleaners are paid, AUT responded with “cleaning work carried out for AUT is compensated at an appropriate level that is above the minimum wage. We aren’t able to comment on their overall compensation.” The living wage emerged as a direct response to growing poverty and inequality that continues to hold back so many Kiwi workers, their families and the economy. The living wage is a simple concept that is powerful by nature. As of 2020, the Living Wage Movement has recognised that $22.10 is the hourly rate a worker needs to receive in order to pay for the necessities of life, while also having enough to participate as an active citizen in the community. The problem with outsourcing work to a third party is that you effectively move liability and accountability onto another party. While AUT may take pride in the fact that they do pay the living wage
to their staff, they lack transparency in communicating who is actually accounted for in the term “staff.” These workers who are outsourced are often the most vulnerable, and are consequently susceptible to mistreatment and silencing. This is not the first time AUT has used outsourcing to shift liability.
This is not the first time AUT has used outsourcing to shift liability. During the lockdown period, we witnessed notable mistreatment towards student accommodation residents and RAs. During the lockdown period, we witnessed notable mistreatment towards student accommodation residents and RAs. When the media scrutinised the evident inaction of AUT, the university simply shrugged their shoulders and said it was the duty of Campus Living Villages to tend to this, as the job was outsourced to them. During this time, RAs were being paid
a rate of $19 per hour, well below the recommended living wage of $22.10. As of a few weeks ago RAs have moved to a solely AUT contract where they are now compensated at a rate above the recommended living wage. This really puts into question how much more AUT can do to protect the livelihood of their cleaners. We understand that this issue is a lot more multifaceted than simply paying cleaners more. Because these cleaners are contracted to work for AUT via their company, it is plausible to assume that they may also be offering their services to a number of different institutions and companies, not simply AUT. But as an institution that values equity, should AUT not work harder to ensure that the companies they outsource to share similar values? How can we ensure that across the board, not only at AUT, cleaners are compensated fairly, with rates that reflect their essential nature? What action needs to be done on our end to help echo the need for fair treatment towards cleaners? With saying this we also need to keep AUT to account. A quick google search will tell you that AUT has not published any readily accessible formal statement on their stance towards living wage. And as individuals, and a collective entity of students, we need to also put pressure on our government to fulfill their 2017 promise of paying cleaners Living Wage.
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What's on Owlpine Presents: Manuela ~ Roonie ~ Jemilah
Auckland Fried Chicken Festival 2020
Where: The Wine Cellar When: Thur 6 August What: Gigs are well and truly back, and The Wine Cellar has prepared a truly stellar line up. This evening includes acts from Auckland based artist Manuela, indie-pop artist Roonie and acoustic folk singer Jemilah. How much: $15 ( +fees)
Where: Shed 10 When: Sat 8 August What: If you’re into hot chicken, get hyped as the Auckland Fried Chicken Festival returns for its third year. That's right, some of Auckland’s finest food trucks and restaurants will bring you their best fried chicken-inspired dishes for one day only! The festival will have live entertainment, activations and fun activities to keep our foodie fans busy in-between meals. How much: Door sales $15
The Great New Zealand Toastie Takeover
The Bottomless Fried Chicken Lunch
Where: Various When: Now till Mon 31 August What: Landing for the first time in 2018, The Great New Zealand Toastie Takeover invites eateries across the country to put their spin on the classic toasted sandwich. More than 80 have signed up for the 2020 edition, with toasted sandwich connoisseurs able to try different variations of the snack till the end of August. Price: Varies
Where: Fantail and Turtle When: Sat 15 August and Sat 12 September What: Good news poultry lovers — your finger licking dreams of unlimited fried chicken and beer will once again come true at Takapuna's Fantail & Turtle. On these two days, the craft beer eatery will be serving up bottomless buttermilk fried chicken and the bar's signature Gunnery lager. The plates of fried bird come with a choice of Japanese mayo or buffalo sauce. Price: $40
Top Dog Film Festival 2020
Civilisation, Photography, Now
Where: The Vic When: Fri 14 August What: At the Top Dog Film Festival, doggos and puppers cement their status as humanity's favourite movie stars in a touring programme of pooch-centric shorts. For two hours, dogs will leap across screens in a curated selection of heartwarming flicks about humanity's best friend. Price: $18-$28
Where: Auckland Art Gallery When: Now till Sun 18 Oct What: Civilisation, Photography, Now features the work of 100 photographers across eight key aspects of contemporary civilisation. The exhibition illustrates our increasingly global, connected society and encourages viewers to consider where we live, how we consume, and how we travel, learn, explore and control. Price: $16-$29
Same Name Confusion - ESP (Telepathy) Tour
The Mulls & Marsha
Where: Whammy Bar When: Sat 8 August What: PĹ?neke alt-rock outfit Same Name Confusion will perform four shows across Aotearoa in support of their new single ESP (Telepathy). This is the band’s first release since their acclaimed debut EP In Theory. Price: $20 (+ fees)
Where: The Wine Cellar When: Sat 29 August What: Coming in hot after the release of their debut EP 'Humpback', The Mulls (Wellington) bring their eclectic garage-rock sounds live for the first-time. Christchurch band Marsha will be delivering some fresh post-punk tunes and will have their reverb pedals ON, guaranteed. Price: $10-$20
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Curiosity Killed The Cat By Emily Wilton Curiosity, intrigue, gossip and rumour - it’s inherently human to want to know the answer to whatever questions you may have buzzing around in your head, to hear something and wonder the big what if. It’s human nature to be curious, inquisitive and a little bit nosey. Some would say it’s a significant trait noticed in just about everyone you meet. However, if you were to ask a person to define the term ‘curiosity’ they could come up with a different definition every time, depending on what it was you were asking. Historically many leaders have tried to wipe out the very idea of curiosity in humans, dating back to the middle ages when the church would give the impression that anything worth knowing was already learnt and therefore anything new was unnecessary. One of the first things that comes to mind when I think of historic leaders stifling curiosity was the Nazi party burning books as a sort of censorship against ideologies that weren’t aligned with their strict beliefs at the time.
Since the digital age, however, we have been more curious than ever with practically every bit of knowledge at our very fingertips, presenting the opportunity to connect with family, friends and even strangers on the other side of the globe within moments. Curiosity is thought to have first been noted back in the stone age when humans first developed survival skills and needed to know about their surroundings to thrive. It was a progressive step pressured by underlying causes to what is now considered a way to simply pass the time. Curiosity is similar to hunger or thirst in the sense that we feel curiosity as an urge to be fulfilled. Psychologists, scientists and doctors are all people who have studied the human brain and how our thoughts, feelings and emotions play out. The most common cases where our curiosity arises is when something is not fitting our usual everyday events. As we tend to be people of order and consistency, when something nudges us off that path we tend to stop and question it. This in itself is similar to our modern-day gossip magazines or clickbait floating around on social media. It intrigues us and makes us want to know if the piece
of information is relevant and true or if it is entirely fictional. Depending on our reaction to said gossip or rumours, if it doesn’t fit in with our already formed way of thinking then we either reject it and express our dislike across various platforms or we’re drawn into it and research it further and share the findings with a friend or online community. This is made easier for us to do based on whether or not we find ourselves in an echo chamber of our creation, having the same opinions repeated back on your feed providing a sense of confidence and comfort that isn’t always found outside of the chamber. Curiosity, rumours, gossip - they are a mystery in themself and can never truly be fully explained with any real conclusion. So from all of this, how do we end up with all the things we are currently facing, with the likes of conspiracy theories raging wild online and everything else that's going on in this wild, wacky world? These sources of unverified information continue to influence a person to find out more the constant ‘will it/won’t it’ argument provides plenty of debate for those that are intrigued to continue guessing.
Goss from the top: A Look Into Our Favourite Celebrity Conspiracies By Esther Mckay In pop culture we are so invested in every little detail of our fave celebrities' lives it makes sense that it all gets a bit wild at times. I have spent an embarrassing number of hours of my life pouring over celeb conspiracies on the internet, but I shall no longer hide this obsession from the public! You deserve the truth! And I’m here to deliver it. So whether you can't even name a Kardashian, or believe Katy Perry is JonBenét Ramsey - buckle up because we are heading down the rabbit hole headfirst.
Keanu Reeves is Immortal The actor you know today as Keanu Reeves has taken on multiple forms across history. His most well-documented identities are Charlemange (748-814 AD) and Paul Mounet (1847-1922), both of whom died under very suspicious and immortal-sounding circumstances. Now, I know what you're thinking, we’ve SEEN young Keanu in movies many
times so he must age - but has his appearance really changed? This man looks the same at age seventeen as he does at fifty five (if you even believe he is fifty five). Ambiguous king Keanu Reeves does not do us any favours in debunking this theory either. Whenever the immortal theory is brought up, Keanu charmingly shrugs it off with a range of vague and thought-provoking comments: “we’re all stardust baby.” Who says that?!? You may think this one is a stretch but with the combination of his all-knowing wisdom and surprisingly youthful appearance, it's easy to believe this man is immortal.
Avril Lavigne Died in 2003 Avril Lavigne died in 2003 and was replaced by an actress. A blog was uncovered on the internet revealing a series of pictures of 2003 Avril Lavigne compared to 2013 Avril Lavigne, highlighting differences in freckles, facial features, and even bone structure. More proof that current Avril is a different person includes an unusual decrease in height, and a change in aesthetic from skater to pop princess. I switch my look up almost every week so I’m not going to judge her too hard on that one. Sadly, this one is a confirmed hoax - the Brazillian blog that the conspiracy originated from states that “this blog was created to show how conspiracy theories can look true.” Now we can all rest
easy knowing that Avril Lavigne is not dead, but don’t get me started on her being a shapeshifting reptile...
Britney Spears Can’t Sing Anymore? Britney Spears is a legend with a rollercoaster career, but I think this ride has a few more loops than you originally anticipated. The abridged version is that Britney Spears ruined her vocal chords after her record label trained her to sing in an unnatural baby-pop voice, and she only ever lip syncs in live shows. Britney Spears often gets caught out for bad lip-syncing in shows. Britney may be a legend but those lip syncs are legendary for the wrong reasons, yikes. Now to get into the REAL conspiracy. Britney released an album called Britney Jean, however, studio vocals of some of the songs got leaked, where Britney’s backup singer Myah Marie sings demo versions of the songs. Played on top of each other these tracks sound identical to the final studio versions from the album. From this we, the conspiracy theorists, can conclude that it is Myah Marie who sang lead vocals on a number of the songs on Britney Jean. Whether you think Myah sings all Britney's songs or just a few, you can’t argue that an extensive pop career spanning years wouldn't do a number on your vocal range.
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One Slice of Pizzagate How TikTok is influencing a new generation of conspiracy theorists. By Andrew Broadley | Illustration by Yi Jong
Recently I read a Phoebe Bridgers interview. One of the standout takeaways for me (other than her new album being great, check it out) was how she talked about TikTok being the first thing she has felt disenfranchised from. It represents the first signs of her departure from youth culture. I am now 24, and I look at TikTok the same way all old people look at everything: angrily because we don’t get it. People say it’s the new Vine, but it doesn’t feel like it. So recently I got even more confused when all these memes and videos and articles started popping up surrounding Pizzagate, a now debunked conspiracy theory from Trump’s alt right back in 2016. What was it doing here now in 2020, and why are K-pop stans and TikTokers involved? For those who don’t know, Pizzagate is essentially a conspiracy that Hillary Clinton and other high ranking Democratic officials were/are running a child sex trafficking ring out of a pizza shop in Washington D.C. Wild, I know. It all began when former Democratic member of the house Anthony Weiner was caught sexting underage girls. As part of this, his and his wife’s devices were seized and emails searched and then subsequently leaked onto WikiLeaks. Then a white supremacist Twitter account used this opportunity to say that the emails of Weiner's wife (Huma Abedin, a former top aide of Hillary Clinton) showed evidence of a sex trafficking ring and that Clinton herself was involved in. Now to be very clear, there was no evidence of this. This was an unfounded claim. Now this obviously took off in the alt right blogosphere and cesspool of 4chan enthusiasts. Emails from the Podesta brothers were found to mention pizza and Italian food frequently which led to rumours that it was code for this sex ring. Podesta’s hankering for a cheese pizza (child porn) or some pasta (a young boy) took on new and sinister meanings. This continued to gain traction until a man drove to the pizza shop that supposedly housed the children and fired off a few rounds in a Rambo inspired rescue mission, only to find the store didn’t have a basement, as claimed online. Now while this tarnished the reputation of Clinton, it was largely among a demographic that were never going to vote for her in the first place, but it was the original investigation into Anthony Weiner that led to the investigation into Clinton’s emails being reopened and ultimately cost her the election.
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So here we are now, post apocalyptic 2020. It’s a new election cycle and among the fires and face masks and the continued systematic oppression of people of colour, we have Pizzagate 2.0. But hey, incels are hardly going to be Biden fans anyway right? True, but then again this time we aren’t dealing with Incels (solely), because TikTok has turned into a home for conspiracy theories. The youth are here to save the children and somehow Justin Bieber is involved. The explosion of TikTok has been so big, and so rapid, that regulation hasn’t been able to keep up. So when dance crazes turned to conspiracies and ‘fake news’ nobody seemed to notice. And by the time they did it was too late. The Pizzagate hashtag amassed more than 82,000,000 views on TikTok before it was banned. To put that into perspective, the original Pizzagate
movement in 2016 garnered only 93,000 views on Instagram before being banned. This has created a new generation of conspiracy theorists that have been exposed to these tidbits of information with no real foundation or context. Even those who haven’t been entirely aware of it have been impacted. When I was talking to my mum about this topic she even told me “Oh yes I remember reading something somewhere about Justin Bieber and Hillary Clinton and something to do with underage children. Well where there is smoke there is usually fire”. A prime example how even those who don’t buy into the culture of it are still impacted peripherally. Their opinion of these people is impacted, which has again the huge potential to spoil the election for the Democrats. Now I am not saying that these Democrats are a bunch
of great people, but the smoke of one guy sexting a 15 year old is highly unlikely to be from the fire of Hillary’s child sex ring. Now this all went next level when Justin Bieber released his song ‘Yummy’. In the build up to the release he posted photos of children to Instagram with the caption ‘yummy.’ He also released a picture of the word yummy spelt with pizza. For many with an agenda, this was enough smoke for there to be flames. Justin Bieber was alluding to Pizzagate and the subsequential music video was hyper analysed to find meaning at every corner that supported this. The final straw came during a live stream in which a comment (flooding by in the sea of thousands of other comments) asked Justin to touch his hat if Pizzagate was real. Justin touched his hat (like he had done several times in the four minutes of livestream before then) and sent the TikTokosphere into overdrive. He had confirmed it. So now we have this new wave of Pizzagate theorists: teenagers and young adults. Liberals and conservatives. Politically minded or not. They have taken these small amounts of information, coupled with fake news spread by their alternative news sites (such as the death of a sex worker in Haiti who was claimed to be investigating links between Hillary Clinton and sex trafficking. She was not there to investiagte either of these things) and they have used TikTok and other social media sites aimed at young people to spread it like wildfire.
And it’s not just Pizzagate. 5G theories, COVID theories, and many more are running rampant on the platform and infecting the minds of youth. The next generation are being exposed to a new era of wokeness that has out woked itself to the point they are so engaged, they aren’t engaged. In their rejection of the media, they are essentially disconnecting with real issues, but they do so with the belief that they are the ones that are engaging in real issues because they are the ones that have disengaged with the lies of the media. They believe they are so aware and involved to the point they have developed such a distrust of our societal structure that they disengage with it. Yeah, BBC news has a bias, but at least it’s news. The people chanting “Fake News” are the ones that are engaging only in fake news. I’m not saying trust the media, or trust the politicians. There is corruption and agenda and ulterior motives everywhere, but TikTok should never be a platform to form your opinions. Yes it can be used to draw attention to areas, but the idea is to then go on to do your research and understand the background. Because I am sure many of these theorists have no idea this whole thing began with a wild claim from a white supremacist Twitter account. They only know of what has happened recently, largely surrounding Justin Bieber. This is a debunked theory. Plain and simple. There is no evidence to support it. That’s not to say that powerful people have not abused children. Epstein’s
involvement with many high profile celebrities and politicians gives reason to suggest this may be the case. I am confident Hollywood is a place that is full of abuse. We have seen this in the case of Weinstein, and in allegations involving minors levelled against Kevin Spacey, Woody Allen, and the continued success of Roman Polanski despite him being charged with rape of a 13 year old. I am confident that many more people in Hollywood are bad people, and are predators. But Pizzagate itself is not real.
The next generation are being exposed to a new era of wokeness that has out woked itself to the point they are so engaged, they aren’t engaged. Hillary Clinton has not been running a child sex ring from a pizza shop. And the continued pedalling of these conspiracies discredits the very real struggles and issues of paedophelia and sexual abuse. Because it is a very real issue. But reasoning with those who believe in these theories is near impossible. Any counter evidence has been supplied by the mainstream media who are not to be trusted. But they are willing to believe any wild claim from any person
on TikTok. Recently a viral video from a man claiming to be a telecoms engineer erecting 5G masts during lockdown spread false information connecting 5G with COVID-19. In the video he shows what he claimed to be a 5G circuit board which when opened reveals to have COV19 engraved on it. Now let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Let’s say he is who he says he is and the box is what he says it is (it’s not). Why would this intricate network of people who are clever enough to develop technology that causes flu-like systems through radiation (because the usual radiation symptoms are too obvious) be dumb enough to engrave the box with COV-19? That’s about as subtle as hiding porn on your laptop in a folder titled ‘Not Porn’. Yeah they could easily invent some random serial number or codeword but no, these geniuses put COVID smack bang on the inside of the box. But hey, benefit of the doubt aside, this video has been debunked. A company spokesman for Virgin Media confirmed: “That is a board from a very old set top TV box and which never featured any component parts inscribed/stamped/printed or otherwise with COV 19. It has absolutely no relation with any mobile network infrastructure, including that used for 5G.” We have all seen viral videos of people sneaking into events and locations with nothing but a high vis and a confident demeanor, but this dude seems to be taking BHVE (big high vis energy) to new levels.
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There is no evidence to suggest he is even a telecoms engineer. He’s just some guy bored in lockdown who grabbed his old sky box and an engraving pen and was keen to start some shit. But all this counter evidence is useless. Because it is always going to be labeled as fake news that is fed to us by the elite. People believe what they want to believe. And it’s hard to see what the answer is when this is the mentality. How do you talk to those who won’t listen? How do you debunk fake news when you are the one that is seen as the fake news? Regulation is seriously needed by all social media platforms to limit the spread of this crap in the first place. But keeping up with this new age of information sharing is virtually impossible. Everything we develop now and everything we have worked to develop has been about spontaneity convenience, and the ability for effortless communication. And that makes shutting down this content hard. There is so much content, and it moves so quickly. Regulation cannot keep up. This is evident in other areas too. Live streaming has allowed graphic content to shift from platforms such as 8chan and 4chan and onto mainstream ones. The Christchurch shootings were live streamed on Facebook and there have been reports of live murders, suicides, and other violent or sexually explicit content being live streamed in the past. But none of these platforms have seen content spread as quickly as TikTok. And part of the problem lies within TikTok’s foundation. It is a Chinese owned company that has come under heavy scrutiny because of this. Concerns around how they censor content to align with China’s heavy censorship, and how they store and control data have been widespread. And to try and alleviate these issues, TikTok has moved to separate themselves
from China. They store all their data outside of the mainland and they operate a separate app within mainland China under the name Douyin to ensure they can meet the requirements within China without compromising the freedoms outside of it. The head of TikTok, Alex Zhu, has been outspoken, declaring they do not censor content to align with China and if he was requested by Xi Jinping himself to do so he says he would politely deny his request. Now whether this is entirely true is difficult to know for sure. There are reports that issues sensitive to China such as Tiananmen Square, Tibet, and the Hong Kong protests have been suppressed by TikTok’s algorithm. But what it does point to is a reluctance to openly censor content. The company is working hard to distance themselves from Censorship, and this has allowed content to spread more freely. Pizzagate is false, sexual abuse is not. COVID-19 is real, 5G being the source of it is not. TikTok has allowed these claims to spread and to grow and to morph into something else entirely. It is leading to a growing trend among young people with a huge distrust in our media and our politicians. One that is not entirely unjustified, but one that is concerning. Now more than ever we need to be engaged and vocal, and we need to be informed. The latter of those is what so often seems to be missing. I don’t have the answers, I don’t know how to combat this trend. For those of you that may be full blown conspiracy theorists already, I can only hope you will do your research, and you will have an open mind. For those of you who are not, I ask the same. Don’t blindly trust our current systems, our current politicians or our current media. But don’t blindly trust TikTok either.
Māori student support Te Tari Takawaenga Māori The Māori Liaison Services Team at AUT are dedicated to the success of our Māori students. They offer a range of services and activities to support tauira Māori (Māori students) during your studies here. These include: - Providing learning mentors who can support you with your studies - Whānau spaces where you can socialise, relax, or just study on campus
Māori @ AUT By Te Haua Taua
Message From Te Haua I'm proud to be your AUTSA Māori Affairs officer for 2020. My job is to liaise with Māori students and staff at AUT, keeping the Student Representative Council informed of their perspectives and issues. I'm always available to meet over coffee in the student lounges or in one of our whānau spaces. Below I have collated a number of AUT services which help to support our Māori students.
The Office of Māori Advancement AUT has a strong relationship with Māori, honouring the principles of the Treaty of Waitangi. The office of Māori Advancement works closely with AUT Māori staff, students and the wider community to advise and implement Mātauranga Māori kaupapa throughout AUT. Enlightened by the AUT's adopted values of tika, pono and aroha, the Te Wānanga Aronui (Māori Advancement at AUT) Facebook page was initiated to enhance the university experience by providing a 'virtual marae' where everyone can connect at AUT. Activities facilitated by the Office of Māori Advancement include: - e-Inoi - Monday morning online karakia with the purpose of centering everyone to launch into the day and week; - Wai Whai - Wednesday waiata sessions, with Tikanga Talk wānanga sessions and te reo classes in the pipeline.
Titahi ki TUA (Māori Students Association) Tītahi Ki TUA is our AUT Māori Students Association which offers Māori students a place where they can come together to share ideas, share identity, draw support, meet other Māori, and practice culture through kapa haka, all in a marae environment. For those who want to join TKT, follow us on Instagram: @titahikitua and Facebook @Tītahi ki TUA - AUT Māori Students Association. You can find most of our events held at the marae, one main one being our noho marae held every Wednesday. This noho will be run a bit differently than past noho marae, so please keep an eye out on our social media outlets.
Piki Ake Kaipakihi Māori: Enhancing Māori Success in Business Piki Aki Kaipakihi Māori is a programme founded on Kaupapa Māori principles, nurturing Te Āo Māori and Mātauranga Māori, to assist Māori staff and students in the Faculty of Business, Economics and Law. There are three objectives to the programme in 2020: - Tuakana Teina Peer Support: Developing and delivering study skills support across the Faculty; - Tūhononga: Providing opportunities for Māori business and students to network and collaborate; - Takiwā Māori: Developing space(s) for Māori students and staff to meet, and support each other. The Tuaka Teina Workshops will begin in Week 2 of Semester 2, on Tuesdays 12-1pm on Manukau Campus, and in WH210 on Fridays 12-1pm, City Campus
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Student life can be tough, which is why we search the city for goodies and treats that make life just that bit easier. Like the look of something? Email our editor at rzhong@aut.ac.nz and tell us how you will make good use of one of these items.
SPOOKERS TIX
COOKIE TIME!
Spookers is a live entertainment experience in
Remember in highschool where the only way
which the victims move through a theatrically
you could entice your friends to wait in line at
themed Haunted House environment
the tuck shop was through the single phrase
populated by sets, props and live scare-actors.
“I’ll buy you a cookie”? Not much has changed
We have a double scare voucher for 2 people
since going to uni to be honest. We’re all still
for Spookers Haunted Attraction Scream Park,
stingy and it doesn’t take much convincing
New Zealand.
for us to do anything. But regardless, Cookie Time still holds a warm place in all our hearts.
Frank Green Reusable Cup Have you spent $20 on coffee this week? Are you feeling guilty about both your finances and the environment? To be honest Debate can only help you with one of these things. We have one Frank Green reusable cup to give away to one lucky winner.
LUSH BATH BOMBS
HOLEY MOLEY TICKETS
Feeling like indulging in a little bit of luxury?
Imagine the craziest round of mini golf
Debate has a number of bath bombs to give
you’ve ever played. Now add a bar. Hello,
away this week. Exploding with essential oils
Holey Moley Golf Club! Take some time
and tons of fizzy fun, bath bombs are the
out from procrastinating and enjoy a day of
perfect way to wind down from a busy uni
drinks, tunes and putt putt putt.
week.
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The Enduring Magic of Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Rumours’ By Lyric Wawiri-Smith Released in 1977, Fleetwood Mac’s eleventh studio album Rumours is a musical odyssey of drugs, sex, cheating, loving and scandal. The album maps the breakups between four of the five band members - Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham, and Christine McVie and John McVie, then Nicks’ subsequent affair with Mick Fleetwood, then Christine McVie’s relationship with the band’s lighting director, and so on and so forth. You can feel the tension in every note Nicks sings, on the strings of Buckingham’s guitar, in McVie’s penmanship, in the sneering duets and eye-batting love songs. Despite the mess in the band’s relationships, the music they made on Rumours remains stylishly smooth, timeless, and engaging. Opening with Buckingham’s sneering on ‘Second Hand News’ with “I know there’s nothing to say/Someone has taken my place,” Rumours jump straight into Fleetwood Mac’s fiery drama. Across 11 tracks spanning nearly 40 minutes, the band lays out all the good, bad and ugly in varying levels of honesty, often so petty you can’t look away. On the show stopping Stevie Nick’s solo ‘Dreams,’ she lays bare the turbulence in her relationship with Buckingham in her classic witchy-Stevie way of seeing “crystal visions” and letting the rain wash you clean. ‘The Chain’ is an epic mosaic of lyrics and soundscapes focusing on the grittier sides of heartbreak, and is the only track on the album where every member had a hand in writing the song. ‘Don’t Stop’ and ‘Go Your Own Way’ are fun and poppy radio friendly hits that still feel in place with the other songs on Rumours, providing moments of mindless joy and defiant release. Less aggressive tracks such as ‘Never Going Back Again’ and ‘You Make Loving Fun’ centre around moving on after love is lost. ‘Gold Dust Woman’ provides an insight into another layer of heartbreak, explained by Stevie Nicks as symbolising the drug-use that occurred after the breakdown of the members' relationships.
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In the case of Rumours, “nomen est omen” - the name is the meaning! The band was caught up in a whirlwind of drama, and instead of letting their hurt divide them, they created a beautiful piece of music that is still celebrated to this day. Thwarting the rumours following them, they chose to regain agency over their lives by putting their most vulnerable moments on display, in their own terms. Rumours shows the power of being able to identify the embarrassing or hurtful stories following you as your own, and setting the record straight on the truth, however ugly it is.
on ‘I Don’t Wanna Know’, matching his scorn with her own heartache and passive aggression is a musical lesson in standing your ground. ‘Dreams’ in particular has become a battle-cry for heartbroken young women - “players only love you when they’re playing” may have been written in the 1970s, but it remains crazily relevant to this day in meaning and in slang.
Lately, Rumours has enjoyed a cultural resurgence. ‘Dreams’ re-entered the Billboard charts in 2018 after a meme using the song spread online, Harry Styles covered the classic ‘The Chain’ on his first solo tour, Lorde proclaimed Rumours as being a “perfect record”, and Glee had a whole episode dedicated to covering the album. Of the new generation of Rumours fans, many are young women finding solace in the album’s themes of hurt and betrayal and empowerment. The ladies of Fleetwood Mac, Stevie Nicks and Christine McVie, emerge on Rumours as two unapologetic powerhouses refusing to take any shit from their scorned lovers. The power alone in Christine penning and singing a song about her affair with the band’s lighting director on ‘You Make Loving Fun’ while her soon-to-be-ex-husband plays along is truly unmatched! The way Nicks faces off with Buckingham
of young girls
These women are heroines to a new generation who have access to more music and information than ever before. Stevie Nicks is often at the centre of the spotlight in conversations about Fleetwood Mac, to no fault of her own. She has an unapologetic and empowering nature, yet she’s wrapped in mysticism and feminine divinity. While her female contemporaries were often leaning into masculine tropes and attitudes to keep up as women in a male dominated world, Nicks found an ability to harness her femininity as a source of power. However, in all the adoration for Stevie, Christine often gets shifted to the
sidelines, although her musical abilities are nothing to be overlooked. She wrote four of the songs on Rumours, and enjoys some of the album’s most tender moments. ‘Oh Daddy’ and ‘Songbird’ are two beautiful tracks led by Christine which provide moments of pause and clarity in a tracklist muddled with high tempers and scandals. Christine and Stevie give their male counterparts a run for their money, throwing punches and revelling in their emotional powers. These women are heroines to a new generation of young girls who have access to more music and information than ever before, and although Rumours is a stunning collaboration between all members of Fleetwood Mac, its feminine influence provides a distinct and unique point of view. Rumours has endured throughout the decades by comforting generations of those heartbroken (an emotion that itself is as timeless as the Earth) in a way that feels so whimsical and yet so personal. In getting lost in all the tales of heartbreak let loose across the record, it’s easy for listeners to latch and project our hurt onto a certain line or moment to help ourselves feel at ease with the pain we experience in our real world. Rumours simultaneously feels like a giant hug and a scream of resistance, a fight to tell your truth and the ability to walk away only looking forward. In all its magic, this record persists as one of the best ever, in its time, in our time, and for time to come.
The Frankly Enormous Elephant in the Room Content Warning: Sexual Harassment Tēnā koutou, Considering recent events in the university, and the ongoing investigation into its processes, we want to make clear AUTSA Advocacy’s stance. It is never acceptable to sexually harass people and it is reprehensible to exploit power dynamics to do so, too. This year more than most, students are placed in extremely difficult situations - financially, socially, academically and professionally. It can sometimes be unclear who to turn to. If you have had experiences here at AUT that have made you feel unsafe and you don’t feel comfortable using the student feedback portal or you’re scared of what might happen, AUTSA Advocacy will be happy to hear you. We are independent from the university and can promise a safe, confidential and professional environment for you to provide feedback, lodge complaints, or let us know what you’d like us to submit
to the university’s review panel. Nothing you say to us will be passed on to the university except with your express permission. If you are being made to feel uncomfortable, intimidated or coerced at university, work, or in a tenancy or flatmate setting, please also feel free to contact us for guidance and assistance. Student Services ask that you go through the Formal Complaints process if you are not happy with your paper or a staff member, which you can do via the following link: https://www. aut.ac.nz/student-life/student-feedbackcompliments,-concerns-and-complaints The folks who monitor feedback through that portal are good people who do excellent work. The avenue is always there for you to use, and similarly, we’re here for you if you are nervous about the process, don’t know where to start, or not sure whether you’re comfortable approaching the university, yet. No matter what, we’re here to help, and our team is
professional and friendly. Outside of the university, we have seen instances of employers, landlords and cotenants acting in inappropriate manners, especially given the complications of lockdown. It’s easy for us to deride people who engage in this behaviour, but it is not ultimately helpful. Please know that we are here to support you any way we can, and if we’re not able to assist ourselves, we’ll be happy to work with you to find someone who can, be it in the university or an outside body. Above all, though, I want to say our team has been inspired by the amazing work and spirit we’ve seen from you all this past semester. I sincerely hope that this semester is easier, and that we can return to safety and normalcy. Be safe, and be kind to yourselves. We can be contacted on advocacy@aut.ac.nz, or on 021 195 1178. Kia Kaha, AUTSA Advocacy
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BORDERLINE INDIAN By Sanjana Khusal One day, when I was 5 years old, I covered my skin in sunscreen. I have naturally dark skin, due to my estranged Indian grandparents. It was a hot summer and the fan swirled hot air around the orange bedroom. There is an explicit contrast between my tan skin against my white, cotton t-shirt and linen shorts. At first, the sunscreen was to protect myself from the sun, from burning my skin to a charred crisp. When I think of that time, I think of Snow White: milky skin, ruby lips, ebony hair. I’d always found white skin luxurious. Snow White was my mother’s favourite Disney princess, and still is today. My mum always reminds me of the cultural legacy of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, how it was the first colour film. At the time, she was a portrait of feminine innocence. So, I slathered the sun cream thick on my arms to cover my brown skin; but it smeared across my skin like a cheap foundation and kept catching on my fine arm hairs. This memory has always been imprinted on my mind. My brown body, the white paste and the orange carpet. When I look at myself in the mirror now, I see skin darker than everyone else, like a heavy shadow that only I can see. Before anyone can hear a sound escape my lips, they see my Indian skin. My mind and soul are nonexistent. What is unquestionably existent is my sunken black eyes and pug-face frown. Being Indian is my predetermined identifier. I have always questioned the significance of my skin: If my voice came with white skin, would people be more interested in my words? I am made of monochromatic colours: thick brows, walnut lips, mahogany
hair. And my voice will always come with an Indian face. Asians have the reputation of multiplying and being obnoxious, like ravenous rats. We have been called out for being outlandish. As a child, I was called a know-it-all. My school said it was a romantic comment, charming and pretty. At the time, I didn't know how to explain the underlying sarcasm in calling someone smart. I was taught quickly that others saw everything differently to me. Others thought that being called a "smart-ass" by a snotty kid meant he had a crush on me. I never know whether these titles are an attack on my body or mind. So, I internalised this brandish reputation and I accepted it as my identity. Whenever I spoke, I would be careful to hold my tongue. I would learn there was nothing to be done, that I couldn’t avoid these comments. In school, I had a speech prepared whenever someone asked if I was Indian: “my mum is from England, my dad was born in Pukekohe. It’s my grandparents who are from India. I’m not sure where in India.” It wasn’t until I was around 15 that people stopped asking. This was because anyone who had wanted to know had already asked. In my last year of high school, I started to struggle to recognise my ethnicity. I wrote stories about bleaching skin, anti-tanning solution, colourblind vision. I spent lunches in the classroom so I wouldn’t get darker. I have never felt like a ‘cultural’ person. I am not someone with a deep desire to understand her own heritage. During my first year of university, I was taking a sociology course and we spent time
learning about the history of New Zealand immigration. I had a strange epiphany that my mother and father’s parents were immigrants. I knew I was Indian but never thought of them as immigrants. I was curious about the significance of being where I am because of their choice to move here. My grandmother and mother both chose to move from their hometowns for a better life here. When I mentioned this to Mum in conversation, she didn’t respond. It wasn’t until a couple of days later, out of frustration, she explained that she was offended by being called an immigrant; herself probably coming to terms with the term. Immigrants referred to invasions of Asians taking all the jobs and housing, Syrian refugees dispersing across the land, Mexicans bringing drugs into America. It was like I knew this secret no one else would acknowledge: no one in New Zealand was originally from here. But nobody wanted to be an immigrant either. This is all an unspoken, internalised argument of us versus them. Me being classified as Indian has never been under duress. But in today’s generation, it is near impossible to meet anyone without a mix in culture. Our grandparents, parents, or even ourselves have moved to New Zealand and settled on this land. I am afraid to say I have not figured out ethnicity either. Over the years, my mind has incorporated the culture around me, mixing my family culture with New Zealand culture. I have had to separate my skin from my thoughts. Should I be performing my Indian ethnicity or should I embrace my new space? I am learning to acknowledge my heritage and explore what that means to me beyond my shade of colour.
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High School Sex 'RumoUrs' By Casta Lawson Rumours and gossip have always been ingrained in our societies. The ancient Greeks loved to stir shit and our modern society is no different. However, it is important to recognise that while often seen as fun and light hearted on a surface level, they can, and often do hold much more weight for the people on the receiving end of the rumour. We have made sure no names or specific details have been revealed below to maintain a level of privacy and distance. These rumours are here to be taken as they are, a collection of rumours (true or not) that reflect the kind of rumours found in schools all across the country. Females are often overwhelmingly the victim of these rumours, and I think it is important that we recognise that, and look inwards and see what that says about our prejudices, and attitudes towards women and sex. Why is it that when we asked people to submit their high school rumours, the responses almost entirely held women as the victims? Often in high school we lack the language, emotional resources and understanding to recognise these nuances. While this is important to recognise, this is not a good enough excuse for the behaviour we see exercised in high schools. Thinking back to when I was in high school, I remember always hearing about some nasty, crook as fuck shit that went down between students and teachers (mostly at my school, but at a lot of others too). With that being said, here are some rumours. I hope they allow you a moment to think back on rumours of your own, rumours that you know of, and reflect on what that says about some of your attitudes and beliefs.
"My nudes got leaked around the whole year level when I was in year 10.” “My ex teacher had an affair with a student and it’s their 20 year wedding anniversary today. No idea why she wasn’t fired.” “This guy I know slept with his female teacher and filmed it on snapchat.” “One school had to ban carrots because the girls were using them to poke themselves. Another girl at the same school used a test tube during science and it shattered inside her.” “Two teachers at my school (one married, one engaged) had an affair and both got kicked out of their homes.” “Two students were caught fucking in the props room at school.” “This one girl at my school is now known as the girl who had sex with a hairbrush.” “My friends ex’s friends told the whole school they fucked on a mattress on the field during lunch and they got suspended for it. My friend had been reported missing the day before and was on a 24 hour holding at the hospital so they weren’t even at school. But not even the teachers wanted to believe the diagnosed psychosis student.” “At one point during high school the entire PE staff were smashing the students.” “The science block bathrooms at my school had a glory hole. I’m pretty sure it was used.” “Apparently two girls fucked each other in the music practice rooms with drum sticks.” “Someone in year 12 lit a girls pubes on fire with a firework while she was fucking her boyfriend.” “At my old school there’s currently a girl in year 10 who’s pregnant.” “A girl in the year below me got spit roasted on the school field.” “A teacher at my school groomed one of his students into a sexual relationship and it made her suicidal. It was so fucked. Apparently, he called her “pet” and made her call him “master” and he bought all this BDSM stuff to use on her in a super degrading way. It ended up being this super controlling relationship that lasted half a year and left her with an eating disorder as well. The cops got involved and he got two charges.”
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Women Don't MastuRbate! By Hayley White All right ladies let’s have a little heart to heart about taboo. In particular, the taboo around female masturbation. It’s a bitch isn’t it? Especially when you just wanna wack one out but you can’t without feeling this overwhelming guilt and shame that you’re doing something wrong. I was a total prude in high school. In a time where young people were getting to know their changing bodies and getting comfortable with the, you know, urges, I pretty much kept my hands, my eyes, my thoughts above the belt. Even though I came from a very open family whose
table talk commonly included raunchy topics, the idea of sex and sexual pleasure made me wanna puke. The mere thought of even touching myself made me want to jump off a cliff. Apparently, that’s not uncommon. The numbers on a variety of studies around female masturbation prove that either their studies really suck, or women lie. My guess is on the latter. Why wouldn’t women lie about what they do under the covers? Especially when we are constantly ridiculed and shamed for figuring out our bodies. This kind of taboo has been around for a while too and has roots (he he). In the 1700s, masturbation was medicalised as a disease that could lead to insanity and other serious health consequences for women. And in the in the 1900s, the first ever vibrator was created to treat the negative effects of hysteria in women. It wasn’t something based
around female pleasure, it was purely a device for medicine, so of course female masturbation and the idea that women do feel pleasure has always kind of been put on the back burner. During this time, the medical industry was dominated by both men and male perception. For centuries, our understanding of female anatomy has been tainted by the viewpoints of a patriarchal system. When I spoke to Edit Horvath, an Auckland-based sex therapist, she said that the taboo around female masturbation starts at a pretty young age, so how adults react to their young children figuring out that kind of stuff can stick. “Babies and toddlers and young people all work out that it feels good to masturbate, so how grown-ups respond to that establishes whether their kids feel that it is a good thing, acceptable thing, a dirty
thing, a naughty thing, evil, or whatever.” She also mentioned the gender division between boys and girls masturbating can definitely reinforce the taboo, saying that it’s common for parents to allow boys to continue doing their thing because ‘boys will be boys', but girls have to uphold the ideals of virginity and purity (which is all a load of rubbish if you ask me). The effects of this taboo on young girls and women are seriously damaging. If you have people around you that absolutely do not approve of you exploring your body and your sexuality, then of course you’re gonna feel shame and embarrassment when you finally decide to try and figure yourself out. In order to establish a strong and fulfilling sexual relationship with both yourself and your partner, it is extremely important to explore your own body through masturbating. Masturbation has
been encouraged by sexologists as a way for women to navigate and learn about their bodies. This can further manifest in a number of positive benefits such as improved body image and improved familiarity with your own genitalia. Unfortunately, some women never figure out what they like, and Edit says that it definitely has an effect on how people – women in particular – know and understand their bodies. “What I find, as a sex therapist, how lacking that basic anatomy information is in people – even in women, so they don’t know their own bodies.” So, all those memes about boys not knowing where the clit is? Yeah that’s no joke. Studies show that nearly 90 per cent of women cannot get off from penetration alone, that there has to be some clit action to even make them feel something, and that’s no wonder when the female clitoris
is a fucking minefield of nerve endings (over 15 thousand to be exact). The clitoris is totally complex, almost as complex as the inner working of a woman’s mind (amirite fellas), so women being able to figure out what they like will also have a more positive effect on their sexual relationships. As a sex therapist, Edit commonly runs into issues with couples where the sex is solely based around the guy and what he wants to do and believe it or not guys, but our worlds don’t revolve around you. We need some attention too and Edit says that this is a seriously good reason to push through the stigma and figure out what’s good for you. “Females [need to] to learn how to work out what feels pleasurable for them, how it’s done as well as be able to tell their partners what that is and where it is and guide their partners to persist what feels good for them at that particular time.”
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Symptoms of Quarantine By Seth Nicholls Today, I’m writing about fear. Today, I’m writing about worry. Today, I’m writing about gossiping to myself about so many terrible outcomes that the worst timeline seems. Inescapable fear buzzes on and on like a tempest of locusts as closure comes to the epidemic that shook the world. We all went through months of cramped madness, our dreams wracked with impatience and isolation, our internal clocks run rancid with rust, and just all around having a shitty time, man. This is a retrospective article on how bullshit quarantine was, and some vague gesture at a listicle of the symptoms I caught during that terrible time.
online systems to keep contact with friends, the growing distance strengthened a foul chokehold upon me. Without a new smile or a familiar face the same set of three grew old and withered in my mind’s eye. I begged the heavens for some change in pace, but all I was given was the stuttering pixelated boxes of Zoom meeting coworkers upon my screen. It feels so uncannily good to meet up with people again. To laugh with them. To share stories with them. To call them shit-heads to their faces. Feels so good, man.
LET ME OUT
When I first went into quarantine, I descended into a pit devoid of all motivation for a frankly terrifyingly long amount of time. I thought I would pursue all the writing projects and artistic endeavours that I could imagine but as you can probably guess, I was not impacted by any inspiration so holy as that. Wrought with an unending urge to sleep and laze about, I found myself unable to exert any passion. I was even worse off when trying to actually do proper work. University work. That shit I need to do in order to stay in school. My brain just goes “no knowledge please” and plays bass-boosted elevator music for the next 3 months. This ungodly psychological drought carried on through my assignments and my exam season. Thank god for disrupted study, right?
Reverse Eric Andre out here, am I right? That meme is already dead when I’m writing this so I’m more than sure I’ll regret it more than ever when I see it on the publishing stand. Hey Future Seth, go fuck yourself! The horrid sluggishness dragged me down into the cramped shadow of my apartment. A lot of progress was undone in those few months as I was locked into a bubbling little cauldron of self-loathing and abject terror. My confinement made me mad. Think about how tigers and other wild things must feel stuck in a zoo. My confinement made me think of cold windowless bunkers as bombs whistled through the air outside. My confinement made me think of the upside-down witching-hour-dark strangulation in an underground cave, my flashlight lying shattered and dead beneath me.
TIMEY-WIMEY BULLSHIT A few weeks into quarantine I began to feel as if the windshield I saw the world through became slowly cracked and smeared with bug-guts. The curtains stayed shut as I slept through the days like a coiled, hairless bear. Slowly the calendar's ink began to run off its paper and the whole water-clogged mess just slipped off its nail on the wall. When you start to double check what day of the week it is, you know it’s gotten bad. When you forget how many weeks you’ve been in quarantine, you know it's gotten worse. When you check what month it is thrice in the same day, you know that shit is fucked.
SUPER LONELY, BROSKI Ah, the utterly dreadful isolation. In the depths of quarantine, there is the aching of detachment from the outside world. Even with
THE FUCK-ALL DIRECTIVE
I’m not entirely sure what to say in this conclusion, to be honest. I should have planned for it before I started writing this piece. Fuck it, I can make this motivational. Quarantine was utter trash. We all know that already. We all went through it. I write this piece today to find some commonality with you, the enraptured and very entertained reader, in a time in our lives when we felt caged off from the entire world. To share in our lamentations. In the end, our suffering was healthy for our country and therefore ourselves. The defense against a virus which, at time of writing, still rips through the organs of innocents overseas. We can feel secure that at least our troubles meant something. But that doesn’t mean we should ignore those burning mental symptoms just because they are outweighed by a more horrific viral alternative. Be sure to search out any counselling services that you may need, even if just for a check-up. A thousand blessings upon all us fools. Love you, AUT.
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29/07/2020
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CLINTON
CONFRONT
Conspiracy Divide Guilt Support Equity
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CONSPIRACY
puzzlemaker.discoveryeducation.com/code/BuildWordSearch.asp
Whisper Tiktok Shitpost Rumours Woke
Tough Mazes by KrazyDad, Book 16
1/2
Curiosity Diversity Immigrant Stereotypes Confront
Mix Clinton Hysteria Treat Gossip
KRAZYDAD.COM/PUZZLES
Need the answer? http://krazydad.com/mazes/answers
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