Runs with scissors discussion
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Encountering things that upset us and challenge our assumptions and past experiences is called life. We live, good things happen, bad things happen, we grow, we move on, we keep living. This move toward a world where everything comes with a content warning and is wrapped in three feet of cotton is dangerous. We're devolving into a race that is incapable of adapting, insisting instead that everything be sanitized and dumbed down "for our protection."
I agree that in the case of the video, some warning should have been given. Imagery like that is hard to shake off, even without a traumatic past event to dredge up. But if a book upsets you, you can stop reading right there and put the book down. It's not a difficult concept. If these were elementary school children, I could almost understand their point (though I still don't agree with it). But these are college students? How did they even survive high school??
I agree, it is insanity of the past revisiting. Sadly, this happens nationwide... EVERY year. We just typically do not hear about it. One school district JUST banned a book about families because it included same sex families. A quick search on Google News and you can find:A book banned from a high school honors level English program for the "f-word"
http://www.tennessean.com/story/news/...
Toni Morrison's "The Bluest Eyes" banned for incest and child molestation
http://theworldlink.com/news/local/ed...
Police called when students hand out copies of a book banned that "contains offensive words "we do not speak in our home," while others objected to a "reference to masturbation," and called the book "anti-Christian."
http://gawker.com/parents-call-cops-t...
AND finally... parents trying to ban sex education books from school for being too graphic (they are drawings!)
http://www.jrn.com/kmtv/news/Parents-...
Yes, we are going tooooo far in this!
As an aside... the McDonald's coffee lawsuit was a valid thing. I read up on this recently... the woman did not just get a little burn. She was severely burned, had to have skin grafts, and McDonald's admitted that their practice was to serve the coffee JUST this side of boiling, despite industry recommendations of serving it about 20 degrees cooler.
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" Drop 'trigger warning' idea from the syllabus
The New York Times reported Sunday — a version of the article ran in Sunday's Plain Dealer — that a number of colleges are examining whether to implement ''trigger warnings'' for potentially offensive books, films, etc. The warnings would be aimed at readers such as combat veterans, transgender individuals or victims of sexual assault, who might be upset by graphic portrayals of wartime violence or rape, or expressions of intolerance.
At Oberlin College, the Times reports, a pending draft guide would advise professors to ''be aware of racism, classism, sexism, heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, and other issues of privilege and oppression.'' A Rutgers student wants a trigger warning applied to ''The Great Gatsby,'' for scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence, the Times reported.
Is this political correctness that will chill academic freedom, or a valid concern? Members of our editorial board offer their impressions and Cleveland.com readers chime in:
Elizabeth Sullivan, opinion director, Northeast Ohio Media Group: You might as well put a warning sign on life. Great works of art reflect the complexities and jarring emotions of a life fully and broadly lived. Instead of encouraging students to escape those impacts, colleges and professors should encourage full and open dialogue — a discussion that is respectful of those who might bear internal or external wounds, but that does not shy from the hard and bitter truths that underlie so much of what is moving and ultimately soul-satisfying in literature. Trigger warnings? No thanks.
Kevin O'Brien, deputy editorial page editor, The Plain Dealer: Here's the warning colleges ought to give students: ''You have enrolled at a college. You will hear all kinds of things discussed here. Some will make you uncomfortable. College is a ridiculously expensive timeout from the real world, but we do discuss the real world from time to time. You are here to broaden your horizons, not to narrow everyone else's to fit your comfort zone. If we are mistaken about your motivation, we apologize for admitting you.''
Sharon Broussard, editorial writer, Northeast Ohio Media Group: Romeo and Juliet marry and commit suicide and two families discover their noxious feud can lead to tragedy. A girl who is forced to live with her rapist discovers how to free herself in ''The Color Purple.'' A man uses his wits and ultimately dies for (spoiler alert) the love of his life in ''The Orphan Master's Son'' set in benighted North Korea. They should all carry trigger warnings — that reading such works could change and expand and enrich their readers' lives.
Christopher Evans, editorial writer, Northeast Ohio Media Group: The ultra-left, hypersensitive, politically correct thought police can be just as ignorant and infuriating as the Taliban and the Tea Party bullies. Censorship has no place in the free world, especially in the halls of learning. If these kids have made it to college without reading Shakespeare or F. Scott Fitzgerald or Chaucer or Maya Angelou, they ain't gonna start now. Better to burn CliffNotes and block websites such as eCheat.com.
Peter Krouse, editorial writer, Northeast Ohio Media Group: I'm all for being sensitive to people's feelings, but we're talking about adults here who have enrolled in college and are looking to advance their knowledge of the world around them. Those who have been traumatized may have fragile psyches for very good reason, but providing them with warnings about the books they are about to read seems overly protective and unnecessary.
Thomas Suddes, editorial writer: Suggestions such as these are among the reasons higher education is not better regarded by some people. Of course, one should be sensitive to the wounds that so many humans bear. But that is not the same thing as attempting to anticipate every potential offense or hurt, an attempt that couldn't possibly succeed. All art, whether pictorial, literary or dramatic, has the capacity to evoke powerful responses. That, after all, is one measure of greatness. The only practical result of a warnings policy might be to create yet another set of grounds for litigation, which is one of the last things society needs.
"Universities and colleges are becoming hellishly expensive group homes for the developmentally stunted." — cmorton.gm
"There are no ''trigger warnings'' in adult life. — iNOTaFAN5 What makes these trigger warnings more onerous than the ones you see on TV every day?: — internetsuperstar
"No, let's just censor everything. The poor, sensitive dears."— slyolddude
"Excellent opinions from all six writers." — jonfw2
"Actually, I can't take this anymore, I am offended." — cosmoblue"
I love the reader comments at the end, especially the last one.
" Classroom word of warning
Academics balk at student requests for alerts on material
New York Times
Santa Barbara, Calif. —
Should students about to read ''The Great Gatsby'' be forewarned about ''a variety of scenes that reference gory, abusive and misogynistic violence,'' as one Rutgers student proposed?
Would any book that addresses racism — like ''The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn'' or ''Things Fall Apart'' — have to be preceded by a note of caution? Do sexual images from Greek mythology need to come with a viewer-beware label?
Colleges across the country this spring have been wrestling with student requests for what are known as ''trigger warnings,'' explicit alerts that the material they are about to read or see in a classroom might upset them or, as some students assert, cause symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder in victims of rape or in war veterans.
The warnings, which have their ideological roots in feminist thought, have gained the most traction at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where the student government formally called for them. But there have been similar requests from students at Oberlin College, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan, George Washington University and other schools.
The debate has left many academics fuming, saying that professors should be trusted to use common sense and that being provocative is part of their mandate.
Trigger warnings, they say, suggest a certain fragility of mind that higher learning is meant to challenge, not embrace. The warnings have been widely debated in intellectual circles and largely criticized in opinion magazines, newspaper editorials and academic email lists.
''Any kind of blanket trigger policy is inimical to academic freedom,'' said Lisa Hajjar, a sociology professor at the university here, who often uses graphic depictions of torture in her courses about war.
''Any student can request some sort of individual accommodation, but to say we need some kind of one-size-fits-all approach is totally wrong. The presumption there is that students should not be forced to deal with something that makes them uncomfortable is absurd or even dangerous.''
Bailey Loverin, a sophomore at Santa Barbara, said the idea for campuswide trigger warnings came to her in February after a professor showed a graphic film depicting rape.
She said that she herself had been a victim of sexual abuse, and that although she had not felt threatened by the film, she had approached the professor after class, suggesting that students should have been warned."
I fell that this is going WAY beyond the pale and that this is bordering on censorship. Perhaps the professor should have warned the class before he showed the video that it contained graphic images, but books now need warning labels? Really?