Safe Spaces, Free Speech, and the Infaltization of our Young Adults

My last post was regarding Stephen Fry's comments on the "infantile" culture of trigger warnings and safe spaces and their effect on freedom of speech. I covered trigger warnings, and this post will cover safe spaces.

 A specific safe space doesn't curb free speech unless people are forced into the safe space against their will and then you are curbing more rights than just speech. There are some valid concerns about safe space culture curbing people's freedom of expression and I would like address those.

In an interview mentioned in the New York Times, Adam Shapiro, a junior at Columbia at the time said, “If the point of a safe space is therapy for people who feel victimized by traumatization, that sounds like a great mission.” But a safe-space mentality has begun infiltrating classrooms, he pointed out, making both professors and students loath to say anything that might hurt someone’s feelings. “I don’t see how you can have a therapeutic space that’s also an intellectual space,”.

 I agree completely. There is no reason for a college classroom to be a "safe space". College is all about learning new things and...

If you always think what you have always thought,

Then you will always feel what you have always felt.

 

If you always feel what you have always felt,

Then you will always do what you have always done.

 

If you always do what you have always done,

Then you will always get what you have always gotten.

 

If you always get what you have always gotten,

Then you will always think what you have always thought.

 Socrates

In an article by The Atlantic they make an excellent point:

Silencing these voices is not a good thing for anyone, especially the advocates of marginalized groups who hope to sway public opinion. Take for example the idea that God opposes homosexuality, a belief that some students still hold. On an ideal campus, these students would feel free to voice their belief. They would then be confronted by opposing arguments, spoken, perhaps, by the very people whose sexual orientation they have asserted is sinful. At least in this kind of environment, these students would have an opportunity to see the weaknesses in their position and potentially change their minds. But if students do not feel free to voice their opinions, they will remain silent, retreating from the classroom to discuss their position on homosexuality with family, friends, and other like-minded individuals. They will believe, correctly in some cases, that advocates of gay rights see them as hateful, intolerant bigots who deserve to be silenced, and which may persuade them to cling with even greater intensity to their convictions.

So, I agree that Safe Spaces should be separate. However, I'm not sure why people feel the need to criticize therapeutic safe spaces that are separate as infantile. Here is an example of a safe space on a college campus as published in the previously mentioned NY Times.

"KATHERINE BYRON, a senior at Brown University and a member of its Sexual Assault Task Force, considers it her duty to make Brown a safe place for rape victims. So when she heard last fall that a student group had organized a debate about campus sexual assault between Jessica Valenti, the founder of feministing.com, and Wendy McElroy, a libertarian, and that Ms. McElroy was likely to criticize the term “rape culture,” Ms. Byron was alarmed. “Bringing in a speaker like that could serve to invalidate people’s experiences,” she told me. It could be “damaging.” …So she decided to create a safe space. The safe space, Ms. Byron explained, was intended to give people who might find comments “troubling” or “triggering,” a place to recuperate. The room was equipped with cookies, coloring books, bubbles, Play-Doh, calming music, pillows, blankets and a video of frolicking puppies, as well as students and staff members trained to deal with trauma."

A safe space such as this, separate and therapeutic, is criticized for infantilizing adults and I think that is completely unfair. It may seem silly, but psychologists agree, play therapy techniques, such as bubbles, or playing with Play-Doh, can be as useful to 20-year-olds as it is to 2-year-olds. Vibrantly painted moldable pieces of dough combine three stress relieving therapies: aromatherapy, tactile-play therapy and color therapy. Unfortunately, lots of people, think therapy means you are weak. They make comments such as this:

"What ever happened to removing yourself from a situation that you weren’t comfortable with? By no means am I trying to trivialize the effects of a sexual assault. It is, by far, one of the worst things a person can experience. However, there was nothing in this debate (for example) that required anyone to attend. If a person wasn’t comfortable with the topic, then they didn’t need to go. I just don’t see the need for a “safe room” — especially for one that sounds as if it virtually ignored the plight of men who are sexually assaulted. Now they’re talking about putting “trigger warnings” on books, television programs, and movies. I’m almost afraid that I’m raising kids who will be considered “insensitive”. A few months back, my son had to write a thing for school that included sayings and motto’s from their parents. I finally managed to talk him out of one that I picked up in the Army: “Grow a pair”, though he did keep “Suck it up and move on”."

I would counter that by pointing out that having places like this, could perhaps allow people to attend, who wanted to, but were nervous about the effect it would have on them. PTSD is real and going into a triggered state is horrible. I know they were not required to attend, but they might want to attend. Since universities should be encouraging thoughtful debate/discussion, having a safe place to retreat to, might actually get people to participate/listen that might otherwise stay closed off. Telling a rape victim to "Suck it up and move on" is trivializing the effects of sexual assault. Trauma requires therapy, safe spaces are therapeutic. What is so wrong with that?
Music therapy is widely used to benefit children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly with mental health needs, developmental and learning disabilities, Alzheimer’s disease and other aging related conditions, substance abuse problems, brain injuries, physical disabilities, and acute and chronic pain, including mothers in labor.

In Medical Daily, Dr. Stan Rodski, a neuropsychologist, says that coloring elicits a relaxing mindset, similar to what you would achieve through meditation. Like mediation, coloring allows us to switch off our brains from other thoughts and focus on the moment. Tasks with predictable results, such as coloring or knitting, can often be calming — Rodski was even able to see the physical effects they had on our bodies by using advanced technology. “The most amazing things occurred — we started seeing changes in heart rate, changes in brainwaves,” he told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, adding that part of this neurological response in “colorists” comes from the repetition and attention to patterns and detail associated with coloring.

As for the puppies, studies have shown that pets can alleviate depression, reduce anxiety, and decrease levels of the stress hormone, cortisol, and provide some real benefits. Yet people still make degrading comments against these spaces.

Here is one such comment:

So I propose that every employer include these questions for every college graduate seeking employment at their firm.  As far as I know, since these could apply to any particular people group or sub-culture, no group could say they were unfairly targeted.

1.  Have you ever felt the need to go to a “safe space” during your college experience?  If yes, answer the following questions.
2. What was the cause of your need to go to said safe space?
3. Did you go?
4. Did you find that you were able to recover after your visit to the safe space?
5. Did you need to revisit the safe space any subsequent time?  How many safe space visits did you make during your collegiate time?
6. Do you believe that having a safe space at your place of employment is a necessary condition for you to accept a position with us?
7. If you hear ideas that previously drove you to seek a safe space, what are your plans to address that issue if you are one of our employees?
8. Do you believe you are now mature enough to tolerate ideas that you may not agree with without the need of a safe space?

Of course the employer should stop after question one if the answer is affirmative, then tell the applicant that for their safety, it is best that they pursue employment at a less-threatening institution.  Once the word gets around that safe spaces lead to no work places, I think we’ll see something different on our campuses.

I really wish Stephen Fry had just stuck with this and that everyone else would follow this example:

Getting help when you need it is not immature or childish. It is responsible! It is bravely admitting that you have a problem and then facing that problem head on. 

I've got a lot more to say on this subject so stay tuned!