Posts by Tessa Houghton

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  • Busytown: Less is more,

    Oh, definitely (re: TurnItIn). I'd never suggest using it alone - it's just another tool in the arsenal. Just as it's used in universities, I'd hope it'd be used as a tool to mop up things that might have been missed - after all, you can't expect a human to pick up every instance of plagiarism by themselves, although good editors can certainly catch changes in voice (as I presume Jolisa did). It might also serve as a deterrent - obviously, not all editors are as careful readers as we might wish they were. I wonder if it happens more with established writers? Editors getting careless, I mean.

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: Less is more,

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Busytown: Less is more,

    It seems to me that it would be in everyone's best interests for the publishers to run the book text through an anti-plagiarism app (such as TurnItIn) and publish the results. To be honest, I'm amazed that publishers don't use this kind of software on every book, pre-publishing. Doesn't take long, and it seems like it would be a worthwhile exercise, not only to catch out 'big' offences like this one, but also to catch minor, genuinely mistaken instances of plagiarism.

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • OnPoint: Gotcha?,

    you are awesome. that is all.

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Hard News: The next bylaw will ban irony,

    I disagree. I'm a grown-up, I can parse propaganda when I need to. And I was genuinely interested to see what they'd do.

    Completely agree. I thought it was an excellent move, to allow the Chinese government the right of rebuttal, because so far, they have shown that they don't seem to quite be able to grasp the fact that they can't control the speech of the rest of the world like they can do with their own citizens, and it was patently obviously that their reposnse would be some laughable piece of propaganda. Showing it directly after 10 Conditions of Love, however poor it was, simply underlined that fact. Good on Maori TV.

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: Testosterone and the…,

    You know it's the media right? Not to sound glib but when the story is "800m winner to undergo gender test" then you should know that the coverage from most quarters is going to be incredibly offensive.

    Oh, for sure - I'm a critical media and communication scholar, so I really do know, believe me. But surely we have a responsibility to call the media out on their behaviour, whenever possible? I don't think it's acceptable to just go "meh, it's the media, that's just the way they are". They shouldn't be the way they are, and nothing is going to change if they aren't constantly critiqued - and I think that is what many of the feminist arguments have been doing. And the media coverage is playing into some very ugly ideologies and prejudices, just as Megan Wegan pointed out:

    It is a feminist issue, because a lot of people are basically saying "she's too good to be a woman. Oh, and she looks like a dude." (cue sniggering and offensive jokes.)

    I agree that there does need to be some kind of biological demarcation between the men's and women's events - though it seems like a bloody hard thing to set. But I really don't get the feeling that that's where a lot of feminist anger over this issue is coming from - sure, there is some - but most of it is focused on the media coverage and how it is revealing societal ugliness that is usually more subtle. People are just going "oh yeah, OK, she must be a dude b/c she's too good and not stereotypically attractive", like many other female athletes. (You ignore the sexualisation of women's sport at your peril, I think. Female athletes are expected to be much better looking than their male counterparts - see Flo Jo et al.) And I personally think that that is where feminist arguments about this issue should be rooted.

    Sorry, I didn't mean to derail this thread - I thought your post was, on the whole, orders of magnitude better than most of the other writing I've read on the issue. I just think you missed some points in there.

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Up Front: Smut-Clog Part 2: This Time…,

    Best wishes, Emma. (Longtime lurker, first time commenter, today) I hope the surgery goes the best it can possibly go.
    You could get a tattoo under your hair! I have always wanted to do that, but have never had a shaved head to do so. I like the idea of having a secret tattoo. Could you possibly share the name of the tattoo parlour, as I am in Christchurch, but don't know where the good ones are, and have been considering getting one for a while?

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

  • Field Theory: Testosterone and the…,

    Wow, I really do believe you may have missed the point of many feminist comments on this issue. You don't seem to have made much of an effort to unpack the kind of ideologies behind why she was targeted and how she has been treated in media coverage and by her fellow competitors.

    She doesn't fit a Western stereotype of feminine, therefore her gender is questioned - media coverage seems to have picked up on photos where she does look very masculine, but upon seeing live footage of her, she looked nowehere near as masculine as the cherry-picked images would have us all believe. Her fellow contestants have made the most offensive othering comments about her. The media coverage has been sensationalistic and full of spurious commentary from people who seem keen to make assumptions about her before test results were even available. There seems to have been little concern at all for how all this might be making an 18 year old young woman feel.

    In all the feminist commentary I have read, these have been the main concerns - not much has been claiming that she shouldn't be tested, just that the fact that she is being and the way she has been treated has revealed some ideological ugliness with regards to sex and race - a point that I totally agree with.

    Wellington • Since Aug 2009 • 18 posts Report Reply

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