#student fragility

[religion-is-a-mental-illness]

By: Chris Hastings

Published: Jun 25, 2023

Is this a case of crazy wokery I see before me? Actors ridicule university trigger warnings over blood in Macbeth

Queen University Belfast has issued a warning to students studying Shakespeare

It stressed Macbeth 'could cause offence' due to its depictions of 'bloodshed'  

Similar warnings have been applied to the Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus

It is Shakespeare's most violent play – a bloody saga packed with stabbing, strangling and poisoning that reaches a grisly climax with a beheading.

And for more than 400 years audiences have been enthralled – if a little disturbed – by the butchery of Macbeth.

But now one of the UK's top universities stands accused of 'infantilising' students after it warned them they might be 'offended' by the 'bloodshed' in the play.

Queen's University Belfast has issued the warning to undergraduates studying a module called Further Adventures in Shakespeare on its BA English course.

'You are advised that this play could cause offence as it references and / or deals with issues and depictions relating to bloodshed,' the warning, a copy of which has been obtained by this newspaper under Freedom of Information laws, states.

The university has also applied similar warnings to the Bard's Richard III, Twelfth Night and Titus Andronicus.

Some of Britain's biggest theatrical stars last night branded the warnings counterproductive and unnecessary. They point out that Macbeth, which was first performed in 1606, is particularly popular with schoolchildren.

Sir Ian McKellen, who starred opposite Dame Judi Dench in Sir Trevor Nunn's landmark 1976 RSC production, said warnings such as this could undermine the dramatic impact of the piece.

He said: 'My sister (a teacher) used to show Sir Trevor Nunn's TV version of the 1976 Macbeth to her teenage students.

'She'd pull down the blinds, start the video and then leave the classroom and count the minutes till she heard the first scream from within. Had the youngsters had trigger warnings in advance, the effect of the play would have been considerably diminished.'

He added: 'I remember talking to a priest who saw a number of performances of the stage production at the Stratford Other Place.

'He would hold out his crucifix throughout the performance, to protect the audience from the devilry conjured by the cast. I suppose these triggers are something similar.'

Call The Midwife star Jenny Agutter, who has acted in Shakespeare's The Tempest, King Lear and Love's Labour's Lost, said: 'I don't understand why anyone should feel warnings are necessary for Shakespeare's plays. Unless we need to be constantly warned that depicting human nature might cause offence.'

Sir Richard Eyre, the former Director of the National Theatre who has directed productions of Hamlet, Richard III and King Lear, said: 'It's completely fatuous and totalitarian to try to police people's minds with these absurd warnings. Ridiculous, contemptible, infantilising.

Presumably the people putting out the trigger warnings feel they are able to cope with the content of these plays, but weaker, younger, less intelligent people aren't.' Doctor Who star David Tennant and The Good Wife actress Cush Jumbo are due to star in a new production of Macbeth which opens in London in December. It is one of four major productions of the play set to open in the UK.

Queen's Belfast's trigger warning for Twelfth Night centres on what it calls the 'depictions relating to sexuality or gender. Warnings for Richard III and Titus Andronicus relate to depictions of disability in the former and 'race and or racism' in the latter. A spokesperson for Queen's University Belfast declined to comment.

==

'[A priest] would hold out his crucifix throughout the performance, to protect the audience from the devilry conjured by the cast. I suppose these triggers are something similar.'

Very apt. It's magical thinking. Especially considering they've not only been shown to not work, they've been shown to make things worse.

Also: Spoiler, much?

[guzhufuren]

everyone should give it a chance to get sucked into ateez and their music but not even for normal reasons. it's because it's this one instance where despite fully knowing that half of celebrities only pretend to be decent people, that you can never know if a famous person is of good character or is a shitty fucker who pretends well, you just know. with those men you look at them daily and you know. it gets to the point of feeling bad that you yourself are not on their level of goodness and kindness and compassion. they are such good eggs and sweethearts that continual exposure to them will make you want to go outside and search for street orphans to feed or like open an animal rescue or start a charity. i would trust them with a child or a bag of all my bank savings. every one of them is just so genuinely inherently good it's ridiculous

[lil-dragon-rawr]

TOH x DC: Eda Becomes a Chem Teacher

Masterlist

TW: Eda eats a mouse

So, Eda has a great character arc where she recognizes a problem in society (school) and makes it better when she becomes an adult (by opening her own super cool school). But she needs a job while she and her various kids are hanging out in Gotham because the landlord doesn't accept snails. And since Gotham is famous for people disappearing and/or going rogue, there's usually jobs to be found in many schools but particularly in the chemistry department since chemicals - and the know-how of how to mix them - is a hot commodity among rogues.

Anyways, Eda gets a human teaching certificate and becomes a chem teacher. The problem? She makes potions, not reactions and solutions. The other, much larger problem? She is learning human chem - which should be a good thing, right? - but you forget that this is Eda we're talking about. AKA Wild Witch No. 1 for decades, queen of mixing magic and blowing stuff up.

Eda, during her first class: hello everyone, I'll be your teacher this year, my name is Eda, please don't call me Ms. Clawthorne cause it makes me feel old

One particularly bold student who Does Not Care Because This Is Gotham: yeah but aren't you?

Eda, slightly miffed but proud that someone's standing up to a teacher/authority figure: oh perfect, a volunteer

Duke, who knows Eda as Signal: *starts freaking out because what does she mean by volunteer*

Eda: there are no wrong answers in this class and experimentation is encouraged, just run your plan by me so you don't lose any limbs

Eda, staring ominously into the distance: Titan knows I've lost enough of those already

Class: *is silent because when the lady with a hook for an arm tells you to talk to her before you start experimenting, you listen*

Eda, ignoring the panicked faces of students who have watched waaaay too many people go rogue: so today you'll all be learning how to make sleeping poti-um, solutions

(Cue confused whispering)

Eda: so the main ingredient you'll need is sleeping nettle, but I've found that concentrated valerian root works as a good substitute-

Student, raising their hand: what's sleeping nettle?

Eda, waving her hook vaguely: don't worry about it, it's not native. We will need a few chunks of water though as that will eventually vaporize and help the solution disperse as a gas - can anyone tell me what we might use to trigger a vaporization reaction?

Duke is pleasantly surprised to discover that despite Eda's...chaotic tendencies, she's actually a good teacher. The demonstration ends with her instructing the "volunteer" to wake her with a different brew sitting on her desk when she takes a whiff of the freshly-brewed sleeping solution. And sure enough, it only takes one whiff before she's slumped over her desk, snoring comedically loudly. The antidote, which she promised to teach next class before having the students brew their own sleeping solutions, works perfectly. The main problems are a) Eda doesn't use measurements and b) she's either on her way to becoming a rogue or is content to help others become rogues.

She gets a visit from Batman that night.

Batman, perched on the balcony of Eda's apartment:

Eda, trying to have a nice evening in with King and Luz: do you have a warrant?

Batman: no.

Eda: good, cause I wouldn't let you in even if you did. Anyways, what can I say to make you go away faster?

Batman: ...you started teaching.

Eda: astute observation from the master detective. You see that, kids?

King and Luz: *snickering*

Batman, used to the Batkids being similarly blasphemous: do you really think it's a good idea to teach people how to make potions? Especially in Gotham where the turnover rates are correlated to how many new villains there are?

Luz, very passionate: people only turn into villains if you treat them like villains!

Batman:

Luz: (•`-'•)

Batman, wondering when someone barely in their 20s got wiser than him (it was when he adopted a kid on impulse):

Eda, sticking to her (thankfully metaphorical) guns: look, people are going to do good things or bad things regardless of what they know or don't know how to do. The least I can do is help them learn to defend themselves! Besides, why should knowledge be restricted to the upper class? Everyone knows that if you're rich or famous enough there's only so many roadblocks that will actually be...y'know. Roadblocks. I'm just evening the playing field!

Eda continues teaching.

She teaches how to accelerate healing, how to ease chronic conditions, how to make darkness appear at one's fingertips. She shows students how to condense water molecules in the air and turn them into ice shards or even whole blocks of ice. She invites questions and discussions and new ideas. She gives bonus points for improving or modifying recipes.

Her class quickly becomes the school favorite. It's a mix between "easy A" and "learn how to make things go boom". Exam days are literally just "brew something new". It can be a variation on a recipe from class or a completely new one. The only requirement is that students tell Eda what they're doing before they do it. At the end of the exam, everyone grabs their concoctions and goes outside for a mock battle. (Technically, this part is optional and Eda retains the right to ban any student's creation if she thinks it's unsafe, but she supplies plenty of her own "relatively harmless" potions they can use.)

Things spiral when one student walks into her room during lunch (in their defense they just wanted to ask a question) and sees her talking to the weird new freshman, King, while her non-hook arm stirs a pot...on a counter six feet away from her.

Cue freak-outs, debates, and many, many more theories. Bets are placed among the student population (minus King - the entire school worked together to make sure neither he nor his "buddy" Damian Wayne found out about the betting pool). Most popular bets include Eda has several hyper-realistic prosthetic limbs aside from the hook, Eda is just a straight up witch, and King is weird because his mom is Eda who is a witch.

The betting pool gets even more chaotic when they're working on brewing blabber serums and Eda warns the class that a blabber serum is just a few degrees shy of a horrifying monster serum. Nobody really knows what to do with that information, but a student who tries to make said horrifying monster serum during the next exam doesn't get to drink it during the mock battle because Eda snatches it out of their hands when they try to walk outside. She brings the vial to the front of the classroom and explains what the student did, the expected effectiveness of it, and the fastest way to reverse the effects, which turns out just involves exposing the subject to copious amounts of ice.

Betting pool expands to include "Eda lost her arm to a horrifying monster that she created" and "Eda was force-fed an overcooked blabber serum and turned into a horrifying monster".

Then Eda caught and ate a mouse that had gotten loose in the cafeteria, and the betting pool immediately split between "Eda is a witch and does weird witchy things as a result" and "Eda turned into a horrifying monster and still has some of the horrifying monster urges"...which are both technically true.

The students collectively agree that whether or not Eda's a witch or a monster or just a really weird lady from Connecticut, she's the most fun - and most relevant (this is Gotham) - chem teacher they've ever had. No one tells their parents about the mock battles. If the school does an inspection of the class, everyone is on their best behavior and talks loudly about how much they love the class. Someone sees the mock battle on exam day? Don't worry, it's definitely just a water balloon fight with special effects.

The school board doesn't know what to do. She's borderline unhinged, and the reactions she's teaching definitely shouldn't be possible. Is the school going to get targeted for her skills? Should they get rid of her before she inevitably goes rogue? But they can't fire her because where are they going to get a replacement?

Turns out, this is the safest the school has ever been. Not only did Luz and King befriend Wallace Cobblepot*, aka the Penguin's kid, Eda also befriended Wallace because he's in her chem class. The other Imps really like Eda, too, so their parents are in on it as well (minus Mad Hatter, who is currently in Arkham's hospital wing recovering from burns). Any rogue that so much as sniffs near the chem lab gets a house call from the Penguin, if not the Riddler and Scarecrow, too.

*See Part Four

But rogues aren't the only ones protecting the school anymore. Most students who have taken Eda's class carry around sleeping solutions, flash freeze potions (referred to as Mr. Freeze Could Never if another teacher is nearby), instant darkness brews (lovingly called Batman-in-a-Bottle), mini-bombs, and various healing potions. Also, with all the mock battles they do, their aim is getting really good.

Overall, the school board and students think they have a handle on things, albeit in vastly different ways...until someone else from Connecticut applies for the band and orchestra teacher positions, which have been open since the beginning of the year.

[japeneselunchtimerush]

This scene hurts so bad not only because akashi is having a severe breakdown but also because all anyone else can think about is what it says about him as a player.

[neodiekido]

gundham and sonias dynamic makes me smile so much idm if it's platonic or romantic i love that they're both weird kind of misfits who bond and become inseparable over their strange occult hobbies. like sonia gets to nerd out over demons and serial killers without having to worry about it reflecting back on her/her country and gundham gets to be his beautiful chuunibyou self without judgement + sonia thinks he's the coolest fucking guy to ever exist

[awakenedunknown]

Ferdinand is trying to write

I have a few requests to get to, but my hyperfixation with sims 4 is killing me, I feel bad for the long wait people will have to put up with, until I can beat this cycle of hyperfixation... I really am trying to think of ideas to write the way, I want.

I'm so dead by the Sims 4, because I'm doing a massive Estate for Ferdibert right now. I really apologize on how slow it is going to be before I even start writing. -Ferdinand von Aegir

[tortelli-ni]

England gave birth to stunning men, amongst them Charlie Hunnam and Tom Taylor (they look a bit alike, that's so english).

[whotookmysenbon]

Genma-sensei! Genma-sensei!

The class is gonna fight to see who can be on your genin team! Can I *pretty please* borrow those senbon? All the class ones are dull and none have even the mildest poison.

Your senbon are blunted for a reason so you don't put out your fucking eyes with them what the hell kid-

[bisexualfbiagents]

THE X FILES | Rush (7.05)

[itspileofgoodthings]

one of my favorite, favorite things about teaching is the way that it’s just the perfect hiding place for love. and I do mean hiding place. I can love a student so much, never say it, never even really say anything personal, only talk about books and homework, but they feel it anyway.

[fatuismooches]

fragile reader who was pals with faruzan, I know this doesn’t line up with the lore’s time (faruzan for like 100 years with reader beings like 400 year coma if we’re with Dottore) but i just think it’d be nice for them to be visiting the Akedemiya with Dottore and seeing her again

also I hc reader as having to use crutches because of how long they’ve been in a coma and not moving, or a wheelchair (even if Dottore can whip something up much better)

YES I APPROVE OF THIS, WE CAN IGNORE THE LORE FOR A BIT. DIVERGE INTO SOME ALTERNATE AU. Though I imagine she still has no clue you're with Dottore or the kind of things you've done, because otherwise... well obviously she wouldn't be friends with you anymore 😃 I imagine she taught you a lot of little tricks regarding machinery and puzzles in ruins, which you put to good use when exploring with Zandik 😌 You two would definitely go on about how much the world's changed too! Speaking of, I've been thinking for a while of potential friends fragile reader could have in general, of course always hiding their identity in public. Them interacting with the Sumeru cast brings lots of brainrot to my mind. Dehya telling you all about the latest trends, Kaveh ranting to you about his struggles, some of which you relate to. Just hope you don't run into a man with a large hat... you may not remember him, but he sure does remember you... 😛

YES THAT IS A GREAT HC!!! Your whole body was probably like jelly and you could barely control it yourself after being asleep for centuries. Relearning so many things was super difficult, walking especially as you had to have a support system for a long time before you managed to walk by yourself. Even then you were wobbly and had to cling to someone or the walls to keep yourself steady. It's a lot.

[chaoswillcalmusdown]

my job interview today lasted like 50 minutes which apparently is long ?? so let's all hope that's a good sign bc i really got a good feeling from the principals

[blossompoet]

I love doing my silly little art projects and showing them to people and they be like "cool! are you crazy tho?"

makes me feel so seen

[administer-distractions]

.

[nerdie-faerie]

Been trying to move my stuff out of my friend's flat since Monday and have had no such luck. We were hoping to finally get it sorted today but that doesn't seem possible so now we gotta try wait until Saturday unless we want to carry on moving everything box by box on the buses

[lesbianogecharlie]

me and my friends always joke that we’re the reason the Barbie movie exists cuz before it was announced we had this Barbie ritual at school (me and a ton of my friends had a sleepover and we watched life in the dream house all night cuz we were locked in my basement) and we got half of our grade to do it with us and we all just stood in a circle around five Barbies and started spinning and jumping while chanting the Barbie girl lyrics and it ended when one girl came in and started twerking on the Barbies