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Mary Maxfield Thesis Complete.pdf (584.8 KB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

The Safety Net: Troubling Safe Space as a Social Justice Aim

Maxfield, Mary
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460105175

Abstract Details

2016, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, American Culture Studies.
The contemporary debate over safe space has inspired a multitude of news editorials, blog posts, and passionate commentary, presented along a hard binary of proponents and opponents. Defenders of safe space strategies, including trigger warnings and call-outs contend that these practices benefit a larger social justice project, while opponents insist they reiterate past political correctness movements and constitute censorship. This project strives to situate the contemporary safe space debate within a broader historical and critical context through a textual analysis of the defenses and critiques published between 2011 and 2016. It considers three key themes that recur in that discourse, namely the belief that safe space takes identity politics to an extreme, the belief that safe space strategies create a population of hypersensitive victims, and the belief that calls for safe space constitute a form of violence or policing. Each of these themes is examined in comparison with another safety project, (e.g. women's-only spaces, domestic violence shelters, and public safety or policing). This method complicates the deterministic view of the contemporary safe space movement as a result of the rise in social media. It also challenges the binary that links safe space with progressive politics and opposition to safe space with conservatism. Ultimately, it allows for insights gleaned from the examination of previous safety projects to inform recommendations for effectively pursuing safety as a social justice aim.
Becca Cragin, Ph.D. (Advisor)
Radhika Gajjala, Ph.D. (Committee Member)
96 p.
American Studies; Gender Studies; Glbt Studies; Web Studies; Womens Studies
safe space; trigger warnings; social justice; digital activism; feminism; activism; Michigan Womyns Music Festival; Ferguson

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Maxfield, M. (2016). The Safety Net: Troubling Safe Space as a Social Justice Aim [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460105175

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Maxfield, Mary. The Safety Net: Troubling Safe Space as a Social Justice Aim. 2016. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460105175.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Maxfield, Mary. "The Safety Net: Troubling Safe Space as a Social Justice Aim." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2016. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1460105175

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1460105175
497
© 2016, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.