WORKFORCE
campusreview.com.au
Content notes’ recent rise to prominence
has its seeds in the progressive feminist
blogging movement of the 2000s. Many
subjects that were until then shamefully
labelled as taboo were being discussed
openly and often graphically on websites
for the first time. Stories of domestic
violence, child sexual assault, date rape,
rape within marriage and incest were
shared. One such blogger, Melissa McEwan,
wrote in 2010:
“Those of us who write about triggering
seem to have hit Australia just yet. A ring
around to leading institutions across the
country reveals ad hoc approaches to this
issue, at best.
At the University of Western Australia,
professor Grady Venville, UWA dean of
coursework studies, outlined a system
characterised by sensitivity to some
circumstances while also making it clear
that UWA is a place for adults.
“The vast majority of subject matter taught
at UWA is not the kind that would have the
In-depth discussion, analysis and debate of complex and
controversial issues are fundamental to student learning and
development.
topics (sexual assault, violence, detainee
torture, war crimes, disordered eating,
suicide, etc) provide trigger warnings with
such content because we don’t want to
inadvertently cause someone who’s, say,
sitting at her desk at work, a full-blown
panic attack because she happened to read
a triggering post the content of which she
was unprepared for.”
Just as the internet gave voice to women,
other historically oppressed or marginalised
groups began using the inchoate carriage
service to connect and publicise their own
inherent humanity, free from the socially
constructed tropes that had often been
applied to them. The broadest description
for such people is anyone who is not a
thin, white middle-class heterosexual man.
When authors of a cover story in The
Atlantic describe the use of warnings as
“The Coddling of the American Mind” and
prominent writer/comedians tweet out
cartoons mocking political correctness
overreach at universities, those in favour
of content notes (along with related ideas,
such as campuses being safe spaces free
from microaggressions) respond by saying
such sensitivity does not curb free speech
but expands it, for people like women,
homosexuals, non-white people and
people who don’t conform to binary
sex or gender labels.
Content notes are seen as tools of
equality for those who have experienced
inequality, so it is not surprising that the
privileged in society scoff at their very
existence, let alone their application.
The pervasive spread of content notes
and warnings through US colleges doesn’t
potential to offend or traumatise students,”
Venville says in a statement. “The university
recognises, however, that there is material
in some courses that has the potential to
offend or traumatise a minority of students
due to their special circumstances or
experiences they may have had.
“In-depth discussion, analysis and debate