Sometimes it’s good to be offended

Tuesday, September 6th, 2016

I’ve been studying psychology. Before one tutorial, the lecturer made a careful point of being solicitous of the emotional welfare of anyone who might be triggered by the upcoming discussion about IPV (intimate partner violence.)

That was fine. But then blah, blah, turn right onto gender constructs, via genetic engineering, blah blah and all of a sudden she arrived at the statement that babies produced by IVF could be less than human.

Jeez! I did six cycles of IVF, thank you very much. Frankly, I thought I could get rather offended by her comment, if I’d wanted to, since she had put the idea of getting “triggered” into my head.

Uncharacteristically for me, I just seethed quietly, drew a doodle of the lecturer with a volcano coming out her butt, and filed the incident away as an illustration of the fraught notion of trying never to offend anyone.

In recent times there has been an exponential growth in what is known as “trigger warnings”, particularly on university campuses.

In an article in Inside Higher Ed, seven humanities professors complained that when students come to expect trigger warnings for any material that makes them uncomfortable, the easiest way for the faculty to stay out of trouble is to avoid material that might upset the poppets.

Robust debate ahoy! Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt and lawyer Greg Lukianoff , in their essay The Coddling of America” say there is an aim to turn campuses into “safe spaces” where young adults are shielded from words and ideas that make some uncomfortable.

It is generally considered unacceptable – blaming the victim – to question the reasonableness (let alone the sincerity) of someone’s emotional state, particularly if those emotions are linked to one’s group identity.

In that way “I’m offended” becomes an unbeatable trump card. This leads to a kind of offendedness sweepstakes: “I’m more offended than you!” Continue reading