Hey U of Chicago: I’m an academic & survivor. I use trigger warnings in my classes. Here’s why. – Medium
The University of Chicago recently stated ‘We Do Not Support So-Called Trigger Warnings’. “So-Called”, eh? Because millennials are entitled and overly sensitive and oppressive, right? Not because anyone has ever experienced actual trauma and requested a little warning in order to properly administer self care, of course. Because mental health, being invisible, is still not as valid as physical health that can be readily perceived.
This is not about censorship. This is part of toxic masculinity, rape culture, and the “suck it up” mindset that has been damaging real, living human beings for generations. If millennials are willing to speak up about such societal poison, we should be thanking them, not punishing them.
Erica D. Price wrote an amazing piece on Medium. Please go have a read.
I have honored every request for a trigger or content warning that a student has ever given me, and I go out of my way to tag any potentially upsetting material with trigger warnings. I don’t do this because I am a beaten-down, scared shitless academic with no intellectual freedom. My students have not backed me into a corner and demanded that I keep thought-provoking content at bay. Students who disagree with me politically or philosophically (of which there are many) do not try to silence me under a deluge of TW requests. My universities have not twisted my arms, pinned me down, and affixed black TW duct tape across my mouth. That’s not how TW’s work.
