This piece is about the use of the 'rough sex defence' by men who harm women. I focus on ideas, not acts of violence, but it remains a challenging read. As always, a reminder I'm not a lawyer.
I put off reading this for months - needed to feel in a good space before taking it in. Really glad I came back to it as you've done an amazing job teasing out the issues with care and without sensationalism. Thank you so much for your writing
Thank you Anna for the thorough and thoughtful piece. I have been wondering about the idea of whether we are always entitled to have the sex we want. Obviously we don't want to fall into paternalism etc.. but there are some ways of relating to each other that are bad for us as a society. I don't mean to say that BDSM should be illegal, but I do think further nuanced reflection on the rising prevalence of an rough sex is probably necessary.
I don't think Melody Thomas' ideas regarding BDSM or kink taking place in a strong community where consent is highly valued is true anymore. The proliferation and ease of access of online pornography who's algorithms push people to more extreme content has changed the demographics of who practices rough sex dramatically.
I feel similarly. I don't know how exactly to draw the line, or where, but I have a sense that the way we do it at the moment isn't right. The situation with porn alarms me. I used to be quite liberal about it, but then it used to be magazines and videotapes from the local hire shop. Now it's teaching our kids. It feels like a crisis slowly unfolding.
This is a brilliant piece, Anna. I wanted to give you a reference to my Broadsheet article about a notorious NZ case of manslaughter. Auckland University has digitised the whole run of Broadsheet, and this used to be freely available online. It is not available anywhere else. But to my intense anger, I have just discovered that access to it has now been restricted to Auckland University staff and students.
Argh, that's super frustrating. I'd love to read it. I wonder if it's possible to OIA it? But it raises some questions about the university not acting in the public interest. Might be worth writing to the VC?
Anne: What is your article title and the date of publication, please? I’m on staff at UoA so I have access, and can download your article and send it to you, if you like? Excellent article, Anna — thank you.
Thank you, Vivi. We are also making inquiries about the apparent change in access to the AU digital collection of all issues of Broadsheet.
My article:
The killing of Leigh Minnitt, by Else, Anne
Broadsheet (Auckland, N.Z.), Nov 1980; n.84:p.25-29; issn:
Description
Looks at the case in detail. Includes excerpts from the testimony of Dr David Minnitt. Evaluates the way the trial was conducted and concludes that Leigh Minnitt was actually put on trial and as a result a manslaughter rather than a murder verdict was handed down. Provides relevant sections from the 1976 Criminal Law Reform Committee report on culpable homicide.
Weirdly, although I am staff I cannot get access to Broadsheet, which is available online through the university library. All I get is a pop up message which says 'access restricted' but it doesn't say why. I'll try contacting the staff service centre today!
That's not good! I was one of Broadsheet's founders and another one, Hilary Lapsley, is getting in touch with the university to task what's going on. I'm pretty sure it is supposed to be freely accessible (as it used to be).
Ive just discovered your work Anna, and am impressed by your thoroughness and depth of thought. I look forward to your work and will go back to your other writings. Ngā mihi.
Kia ora and welcome, Dorothy! You've dived in with quite a challenging piece, do I'll assume you like longer reads. You might try 'Busting' and 'Ake ake ake'. Lovely to meet you.
I'm so glad I've found your writing again ❤️
Thank you for all the tears that went into this, as well as the research, the thinking. We mourn the dead and keep fighting for the living.
Welcome, friend. ❤️
Thanks for your mahi tackling this, Anna. A shame that it still seems to be mainly (only?) women addressing issues of men’s violence.
It seems that way, doesn't it? This is a particularly hard issue to engage, too - the more I dug into it, the more complex it became.
I put off reading this for months - needed to feel in a good space before taking it in. Really glad I came back to it as you've done an amazing job teasing out the issues with care and without sensationalism. Thank you so much for your writing
I really appreciate that. Getting at the issues in a respectful way is important to me. Thank you for circling back when the time was right.
Thank you Anna for the thorough and thoughtful piece. I have been wondering about the idea of whether we are always entitled to have the sex we want. Obviously we don't want to fall into paternalism etc.. but there are some ways of relating to each other that are bad for us as a society. I don't mean to say that BDSM should be illegal, but I do think further nuanced reflection on the rising prevalence of an rough sex is probably necessary.
I don't think Melody Thomas' ideas regarding BDSM or kink taking place in a strong community where consent is highly valued is true anymore. The proliferation and ease of access of online pornography who's algorithms push people to more extreme content has changed the demographics of who practices rough sex dramatically.
I feel similarly. I don't know how exactly to draw the line, or where, but I have a sense that the way we do it at the moment isn't right. The situation with porn alarms me. I used to be quite liberal about it, but then it used to be magazines and videotapes from the local hire shop. Now it's teaching our kids. It feels like a crisis slowly unfolding.
This is a brilliant piece, Anna. I wanted to give you a reference to my Broadsheet article about a notorious NZ case of manslaughter. Auckland University has digitised the whole run of Broadsheet, and this used to be freely available online. It is not available anywhere else. But to my intense anger, I have just discovered that access to it has now been restricted to Auckland University staff and students.
Argh, that's super frustrating. I'd love to read it. I wonder if it's possible to OIA it? But it raises some questions about the university not acting in the public interest. Might be worth writing to the VC?
see below - help is at hand!
Anne: What is your article title and the date of publication, please? I’m on staff at UoA so I have access, and can download your article and send it to you, if you like? Excellent article, Anna — thank you.
Thank you, Vivi. We are also making inquiries about the apparent change in access to the AU digital collection of all issues of Broadsheet.
My article:
The killing of Leigh Minnitt, by Else, Anne
Broadsheet (Auckland, N.Z.), Nov 1980; n.84:p.25-29; issn:
Description
Looks at the case in detail. Includes excerpts from the testimony of Dr David Minnitt. Evaluates the way the trial was conducted and concludes that Leigh Minnitt was actually put on trial and as a result a manslaughter rather than a murder verdict was handed down. Provides relevant sections from the 1976 Criminal Law Reform Committee report on culpable homicide.
Weirdly, although I am staff I cannot get access to Broadsheet, which is available online through the university library. All I get is a pop up message which says 'access restricted' but it doesn't say why. I'll try contacting the staff service centre today!
That's not good! I was one of Broadsheet's founders and another one, Hilary Lapsley, is getting in touch with the university to task what's going on. I'm pretty sure it is supposed to be freely accessible (as it used to be).
I have the entire issue now - I was able to access the database on campus - I just couldn't get it off campus. Would you like me to email it to you?
This is so good! Your work is always amazing, so well researched and thoughtful
Appreciate that - thank you!
Thank you for bravery in venturing into this difficult terrain. I appreciated your delicacy, compassion and insight
Thanks so much for reading. I know I ask a lot of readers with pieces like this, and I always feel gratitude when people engage.
Ive just discovered your work Anna, and am impressed by your thoroughness and depth of thought. I look forward to your work and will go back to your other writings. Ngā mihi.
Kia ora and welcome, Dorothy! You've dived in with quite a challenging piece, do I'll assume you like longer reads. You might try 'Busting' and 'Ake ake ake'. Lovely to meet you.