Abstract: This article argues that at a time where it is often difficult to source discourse, attention is better placed on questioning and challenging discourses, rather than focusing on their originality. This is a position that frees us to look beyond ad hoc and ad hominem accusations of plagiarism, and instead to question and challenge the ill-motivated intentions of those who would use plagiarism as a proxy for sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination. Thus, rather than parsing what is and is not plagiarism in academic writing (which ultimately is a red herring aimed at detracting our attention from challenging and questioning the hateful voices that promote sexism, racism, and other forms of discrimination), this article argues that we should accept that, by one standard or another, we are all plagiarists—and like the novelist Raymond Federman, focus on questioning and challenging discourse in other, more productive and significant, ways.
Jeffrey R. Di Leo (Wed,) studied this question.