Raunchy Dolphins and Paunchy Sleepwalkers NUMBER 121 Google It and You May Think It’S True

THE NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CENSORSHIP NEWSLETTER FALL 2014 Trigger Warning: Raunchy Dolphins and Paunchy Sleepwalkers NUMBER 121 Google it and you may think it’s true. While the myth thrives the familiar, question their views, and encounter human that dolphins have a fetish for forced copulation outside experience in all its variety. Books, film, and art all have the NCAC BOARD of their own tribe, it also remains a fact that if you’re not potential to do this, and to touch us deeply in the process. Jon Anderson deep sea diving in search of cetacean mammal love, you Indeed, their value may sometimes lie in their ability to Michael Bamberger will be safe from dolphin rape. Students at the School of unsettle and even distress. And if absurdist images of Joan Bertin men in dolphin costumes are vulnerable to censorship, Judy Blume Visual Arts in New York, however, demanded the removal Susan Clare of Dolphin Rape Cave, a staged photograph satirizing the how can we begin to draw a line between what may offend Eric M. Freedman popular internet meme, claiming the image could serve as someone and what could actually prompt post-traumatic Martha Gershun a “trigger” for sexual assault victims. The incident recalls a flashbacks? Robie Harris Phil Harvey similar one at Wellesley, where last winter students used the Michael Jacobs same reasoning in demanding the removal of a sculpture One may argue that trigger warnings are merely Chris Peterson of a middle-aged sleepwalker in informational, alerting students to Larry Siems his underwear. challenging material. In practice, Emily Whitfield however, trigger warnings pre- Trigger warnings are popping judge content, signal expected COUNCIL reactions, and invite (self) OF ADVISORS up at universities all over the censorship. Even in a policy, like Amy Adler country. At Oberlin last year, Helene Atwan faculty were advised to provide Oberlin’s, which only suggests Julian Bond trigger warnings for “anything that that faculty make “triggering Rev. John Harris Burt might cause trauma” including material optional,” the message James Cromwell “racism, classism, sexism, is: best avoid it. Professors who Norman Dorsen fear that they will be accused of Gail Edwin heterosexism, cissexism, ableism, Chris Finan and other issues of privilege and “insensitivity” (or worse) will be Frances FitzGerald oppression.” The policy (currently reluctant to select material that Rev. Carl E. Flemister tabled pending review) further might trigger disturbing thoughts Danny Goldberg advised professors to “[r]emove and will gravitate towards safer, Victor Gotbaum less challenging content. As a Franklyn S. Haiman triggering material when it does not Marjorie Heins contribute directly to the course learning goals.” Otherwise, recent AAUP statement observes, the demand for trigger David Henry Hwang it recommended a warning like this one: “Chinua Achebe’s warnings is “infantilizing and anti-intellectual,…makes George Kannar Things Fall Apart is a triumph of literature that everyone in comfort a higher priority than intellectual engagement,… Rhoda H. Karpatkin [and] creates a repressive, ‘chilly climate’ for critical thinking Tony Kushner the world should read. However, it may trigger readers who Sylvia A. Law have experienced racism, colonialism, religious persecution, in the classroom.” Pamela A. Mann violence, suicide, and more.” Gail Markels The driving concept is that a college campus should be Jay Mazur Those who lobby for trigger warnings express concern a “safe space.” While we can all agree that certain acts Joyce D. Miller (discrimination, violence) have no place on campus, it is Victor Navasky for students who would be inordinately affected by some Aryeh Neier material. By couching their request in the language of quite another matter to ban unsettling ideas. Or historical Robert M. O’Neil trauma, they see themselves as validating the painful material, which is blind to the sensitivities of the present. Pat Scales experience of vulnerable groups, whose experience is not Or films about genital mutilation. Or revelations of our Stanley K. Sheinbaum always recognized or acknowledged. ancestors’ ugly prejudices. Or cutting satire, gallows humor, Nadine Strossen parody, raunchy dolphins and paunchy sleepwalkers. All Cleo Wilson Susan N. Wilson Of course students diagnosed with PTSD deserve treatment of these could be unsettling, but they also offer insights and support. But for the rest, emotional discomfort can into ourselves and the world we inhabit. Perhaps today’s be an important part of the educational process, which students will dramatically transform this world, but not if challenges students to expand their knowledge beyond they are shielded from its uncomfortable realities. NCAC needs your support. Donate now at www.ncac.org NCAC PARTICIPATING ORGANIZATIONS In The Courts Actors’ Equity Association American Association of School Administrators American Association of University Professors Supreme Court Decisions Divide 35 foot “buffer zone” to protect patients American Association of University Women at abortion clinics from harassment by American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression American Civil Liberties Union Last term, the Supreme Court issued two anti-abortion protesters. The Court voted American Ethical Union First Amendment decisions that met with unanimously to strike the law, but court- American Federation of Teachers watchers are divided: does the decision American Jewish Committee decidedly mixed reactions among civil American Library Association libertarians. “reflect a pattern of ‘free speech for me American Literary Translators Association but not for thee’” since “buffer zones American Orthopsychiatric Association are reasonable at polling places and the American Society of Journalists & Authors In McCutcheon v. FEC, the Supreme Court Americans United for Separation of Church & State struck down the aggregate limits on individual Democratic convention, but not for women Association of American Publishers contributions to all political candidates seeking intimate medical care?” Or does it Authors Guild remind us that “Your right to speak is not Catholics for Choice and parties. The Court held 5 - 4 that “the Children’s Literature Association Government may not penalize an individual contingent on my willingness to hear you, or College Art Association for ‘robustly exercis[ing]’ his First on my emotional fortitude?” Comic Book Legal Defense Fund Read a collection of the The Creative Coalition Amendment rights” by making multiple Directors Guild of America large contributions. Prominent First opinions at www.ncac.org/blog/ The Dramatists Guild of America Amendment lawyer, Floyd Abrams, bufferzones. Dramatists Legal Defense Fund Educational Book & Media Association agrees, saying that “the best protection First Amendment Lawyers Association for democracy is more rather As these debates suggest, belief International Reading Association than less speech,” while First in the theory and importance of Lambda Legal the First Amendment doesn’t Modern Language Association Amendment scholar Geoffrey National Center for Science Education Stone demurs, objecting always yield agreement on its National Communication Association that the First Amendment application to specific facts and National Council for the Social Studies situations, even as it insures our National Council of the Churches does not grant the National Council of Jewish Women wealthy “the ‘right’ to ability to disagree about it. National Council of Teachers of English buy a disproportionate National Education Association More Hard Facts National Youth Rights Association influence in The Newspaper Guild/CWA American politics.” PEN American Center First Amendment lawyer Anthony Elonis posted disturbingly People For the American Way violent thoughts about his Planned Parenthood Federation of America Paul Smith observes that the Court Project Censored itself “remains badly divided estranged wife on Facebook and SAG-AFTRA between Justices who read the First was convicted under a federal Sexuality Information & Education Council of the U.S. law prohibiting transmission of Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators Amendment to require a hands- Speech Communication Association off approach to all but the most quid pro messages containing “any threat” to Student Press Law Center quo forms of corruption…and Justices who kidnap or injure another. In Elonis v. US, the Union for Reform Judaism Supreme Court will decide whether the First Union of Democratic Intellectuals believe the First Amendment allows, indeed Unitarian Universalist Association encourages, regulation of contributions Amendment protects Elonis’s online speech United Church of Christ, Office of Communication and expenditures that they believe distort unless it can be proven that he truly intended United Methodist Church, United Methodist Communications to place his wife in fear for her safety. Women’s American ORT the marketplace of ideas in the campaign Woodhull Sexual Freedom Alliance realm.” Writers Guild of America, East NCAC joined the ACLU and other free Writers Guild of America, West The same division is reflected in current speech organizations on a friend-of- NATIONAL COALITION AGAINST CENSORSHIP and former ranks of the ACLU. While the-court brief in support of the intent Joan E. Bertin, Executive Director the ACLU generally opposes efforts to requirement, noting that “a significant Andy DiBella, Development Director regulate money in politics, former ACLU amount

Load more