In this episode, podcast co-host Sean Johnson Andrews talks about some of his recent writing and research on the concepts of safe space, cancel culture, and trigger warnings. In this episode, drawing on his current book project, Sean argues that these are not “merely cultural” concerns but are part of a larger, longer struggle over which subjects get to feel safe in our society. Sean Johnson Andrews is Associate Professor Emeritus of Cultural Studies at Columbia College Chicago and the author of numerous books and essays.
Show Notes
The links in the image description below provide some background information about the topics we discuss. We don’t quite get around to talking about this essay by Roxanne Gay, but it is a useful one for thinking about the concept of the trigger warning as well as safe spaces. Near the end of the episode, we talk a bit about the way trans people were villified following recent mass shooting events - there are a few posts on Sean’s Substack about this (here and here). And as we touch on at the end, there are many recent posts talking about the way recent ICE/BP operations in Chicago are presented on keeping (white?) people safe despite the fact that they do nothing of the sort.
Credits
Image:
The image is a mashup of several of the movements and concepts that intersect in this conversation. The background is taken from a set of “safe space” rules that were generated by an anarchist book fair in New York City c. 2012. The pink triangle in a green circle was used by the LGBTQ movement in the late 1980s to designate safe spaces free from homophobia. The documentary No Safe Spaces was produced by right wing publicist Dennis Praeger and former The Man Show gadfly Adam Corolla, promoting the evergreen reactionary argument that all college campuses are hotbeds of marxist indoctrination and liberal snowflakes. The protest images are from a 2017 demonstration of the #MeToo movement (attended by Tarana Burke) and a 2015 Black Lives Matter demonstration in Minneapolis, Minnesota protesting the police killing of Jamar Clark.
Hosts:
Madhurima Chakraborty madhurimachakraborty.net,
Sean Johnson Andrews breakingculture.substack.com
Show music: composed by Kris Stokes krisstokes.com
