Safe Spaces
I've seen many posts from my right-leaning friends mocking the millennial generation for "safe space" and treating them like they are "wimps." It is apparent, they have no idea what they are talking about.
"Safe space" started in the learning disability community. Mainstreaming learning disabled kids into regular classes is a good thing. It doesn't mean that there aren't side effects. One of those is that these students get overwhelmed, whether it's in the classroom or by some other means, and need a place to calm themselves down. Once they are taught this process, they'll usually know when it's happening and when they need to go to their "safe space." Although schools now usually provide space for this, some students figure it out on their own. My son is on the autism spectrum, and his trick was to ask to go to the bathroom.
After that, "safe space" was a place to retreat from bullying. It's pretty obvious these people who make fun of "safe space" never routinely met with bullying in school. And I mean day after day after day. There were times I had that in junior high and high school, and there was no place to get away from it, not even when I was with my friends. I could be standing in gym class with my friends and someone would come up behind me and kick me (true story). I could be sitting at a table in the cafeteria and one of the "jocks" would come by and toss salt in my hair (also a true story). A safe place where I could have retreated to would have been nice; either to talk with someone about what had just happened or to be able to eat lunch with people in peace.
Since I went to school, there is more awareness of this kind of issue. Safe spaces became places for LGBT students in particular to retreat to and feel safe in school; not on their guard every single minute wondering if someone was going to come up and jump them, or hit them, kick them, punch them. It was a place they could meet other students and talk, letting them know they weren't alone when they felt like the most persecuted person on the planet. The also is true of other outsiders at school. It became a place where students who are open and accepting of others can meet and not be judged.
I have safe spaces now for myself. Suffering with severe depression and PTSD, I have places I retreat to and feel safe from the world. Sometimes it's my Jeep or the forest. Sometimes it's my bed. Sometimes it's my deck. The point is, it gives my brain a chance to shut down all the noise that's going on in it and sort of "reboot". I have "safe space" on Facebook with certain groups that are private where I know I can share things that won't get made fun of or picked apart; support networks of a sort.
Mocking safe spaces puts you in the same category of the bullies in high school. You are what the world is retreating from. If you think soldiers never needed "safe space" and act like a bit of time there would "man these pussies up" you're barking up the wrong tree. PTSD is an issue that will cause people to need safe space. How many people in the military go off on their own for a while once something happens. "I need time to think" and separating themselves from others is no different than going into a real safe space. For them, it's a virtual one.
No one should be mocked or feel ashamed for needed safe space, in the real world, virtually, or otherwise. It's part of what allows us to reboot as human beings.
"Safe space" started in the learning disability community. Mainstreaming learning disabled kids into regular classes is a good thing. It doesn't mean that there aren't side effects. One of those is that these students get overwhelmed, whether it's in the classroom or by some other means, and need a place to calm themselves down. Once they are taught this process, they'll usually know when it's happening and when they need to go to their "safe space." Although schools now usually provide space for this, some students figure it out on their own. My son is on the autism spectrum, and his trick was to ask to go to the bathroom.
After that, "safe space" was a place to retreat from bullying. It's pretty obvious these people who make fun of "safe space" never routinely met with bullying in school. And I mean day after day after day. There were times I had that in junior high and high school, and there was no place to get away from it, not even when I was with my friends. I could be standing in gym class with my friends and someone would come up behind me and kick me (true story). I could be sitting at a table in the cafeteria and one of the "jocks" would come by and toss salt in my hair (also a true story). A safe place where I could have retreated to would have been nice; either to talk with someone about what had just happened or to be able to eat lunch with people in peace.
Since I went to school, there is more awareness of this kind of issue. Safe spaces became places for LGBT students in particular to retreat to and feel safe in school; not on their guard every single minute wondering if someone was going to come up and jump them, or hit them, kick them, punch them. It was a place they could meet other students and talk, letting them know they weren't alone when they felt like the most persecuted person on the planet. The also is true of other outsiders at school. It became a place where students who are open and accepting of others can meet and not be judged.
I have safe spaces now for myself. Suffering with severe depression and PTSD, I have places I retreat to and feel safe from the world. Sometimes it's my Jeep or the forest. Sometimes it's my bed. Sometimes it's my deck. The point is, it gives my brain a chance to shut down all the noise that's going on in it and sort of "reboot". I have "safe space" on Facebook with certain groups that are private where I know I can share things that won't get made fun of or picked apart; support networks of a sort.
Mocking safe spaces puts you in the same category of the bullies in high school. You are what the world is retreating from. If you think soldiers never needed "safe space" and act like a bit of time there would "man these pussies up" you're barking up the wrong tree. PTSD is an issue that will cause people to need safe space. How many people in the military go off on their own for a while once something happens. "I need time to think" and separating themselves from others is no different than going into a real safe space. For them, it's a virtual one.
No one should be mocked or feel ashamed for needed safe space, in the real world, virtually, or otherwise. It's part of what allows us to reboot as human beings.
Maybe many of those people who make fun of safe spaces are bullies themselves. Food for thought there.
ReplyDeleteThat's one of the points I was trying to make. You cut right to the chase.
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