Written By Peter/Ethel
Dear Stephen Fry, What Happened To Education For All?
As the month draws on it seems that more and more activists have begun to lash out against the very movements which they have inspired. From Germaine Greer burning her bridges with feminism to Peter Thatchell doing so equally with the student base. But now Stephen Fry has seemingly come under the cross-hair following remarks that victims of sexual abuse need to ‘grow up’. Let that sink in for a second…
But what brought about such a seemingly inhuman response towards other people’s suffering? Well content warnings and safe spaces of course. The idea that teachers are giving students the choice to not participate or prepare themselves based on the content of a lesson or course, or that spaces are allocated on campus for people with anxiety to ground themselves, simply has Fry enraged.
How dare students ask for five seconds of their tutor’s time? How dare people suffering psychological trauma which often have physical manifestations ask for a place to regain control over their body and mind? In fact, why not cut to the core message? How dare people with psychological disabilities inconvenience education with their very existence?
Fry has to pretend that saying ‘The following book contains themes of X’ means that said classic can no longer be taught. Simply displaying, to borrow phrasing from Fry himself, a complete infancy in his perspective. Trigger warnings don’t ban works, they tell you what it contains before you read it and just to be clear, safe spaces do not follow you around like a personal shield.
How do I know? I have lived this very experience. In October of 2011 I suffered a series of breakdowns following material which broke the seal on an emotional block I had constructed around past memories. These memories of being forced into a refuge by my mother’s partner at the time and a subsequent sexual assault which took place inside the refuge did everything but kill me.
I developed a deep anxiety which was brought on by nearly any drawn out conflict. Panic attacks became frequent in those first few weeks as I gradually developed stress induced IBS. I became withdrawn as my confidence drained from me. One attack was so severe that I was hospitalized because the people around thought I was having a stroke or a heart attack. But steadily, thanks to stunning counselling and understanding from both my family and my college, I was able to piece my life back together piece by piece.
But the symptoms never go away. I made it to the university of my choice, by a small margin. Had I lacked the support I never would have stood a chance. And yet thankfully that support has continued at my university. If I leave suddenly people know it’s not because I am being rude or don’t want to listen, they know it’s because in my fluctuating state I just cannot handle it right now. They accommodate that and so the rebuild continues as my life moves on. Not because they told me to ‘grow up’, but because they had the empathy and compassion of a decent person.
Trigger warnings and safe spaces open the doors of higher education to people of all ethnicity, ability, gender and sexuality. Fry talks about the loss of the enlightenment. Well if he means the idea that education is mostly for upper class white cis men, yes. Otherwise it is rather the contrary. As a member of the LGBT+ community and as someone who has been through psychological turmoil myself, I cannot understand the complete absence of compassion on Fry’s part.
Take the ills by society today, add homophobia, biphobia and transphobia and you will begin to understand why mental disability in the LGBT+ community is staggeringly high. In attacking provisions made to ensure easier access to higher education Stephen Fry has attacked those LGBT+ individuals at an intersection with mental disabilities the most. Fry is in effect working to undo much of the good such shows as “The Secret Life Of The Manic Depressive” has sowed in the past.