February 16, 2017 - 12:53
For my paper, I've decided to write about the concept of safe spaces: encompassing the ideas of safe spaces, brave spaces, and trigger warnings. As a kid, I was always upset by teachers who seemed unwilling to tell me what was really going on: I wanted to have real discussions about real topics but kept hitting a sanatized wall. It's not that I believe that having safe spaces is bad; it's that it seems our society is obsessed with them (increasingly so in modern times). I don't believe I grew up overly sheltered and I was raised in a good family in a good town; but to say that no one ever struggled there seems wrong. However, no one talked about that. We had a major bullying problem in my high school- no one talked about that. No one talked about drugs or drinking or abuse, though these were all issues I knew happened. And because no one ever talked about it, I was illiterate on these issues. If we don't talk about what is happening, no one can be literate. You can't be literate about something you don't even talk about.