Jane Austen Novel Gets Trigger Warning for 'Gender Stereotyping'

In a case of life imitating art, a London university has slapped a trigger warning on English author Jane Austen's classic novel, "Northanger Abbey," for "gender stereotyping" and "toxic relationships and friendships."

According to The Telegraph, which obtained content notes, a University of Greenwich class makes no mention of the book's "subtle ironies," including how Austen was actually humorously mocking the gender expectations of her day and how she was herself challenging the sexism of her day — by authoring books in a so-called man's world.

Among Austen's targets in the book: Women feigning stupidity to please men.

"(A) woman especially, if she have the misfortune of knowing anything, should conceal it as well as she can," Austen wrote.

In a surreal sense, Austen's use of irony and humor to address gender roles in the novel prompted the Greenwich trigger warning, according to The Telegram.

However, professor Dennis Hayes, an education expert at the University of Derby and director of the campaign group Academics For Academic Freedom, took issue with the trigger warning, telling the publication, "Through her great wit, expressed through her characters, Jane Austen offends everyone in her novels. She is the mistress of offense. That's why we love her work.

"Students love her, too," Hayes added, "But some academics still seem to think their students are snowflakes and need coddling. How often do we have to remind them, and university management, that students are adults? They must stop infantilizing them."

Hayes continued: "Universities should put up one simple statement: Trigger warning – this is a university, you must expect to be offended."

A Greenwich spokesman told The Telegram: "Content warnings were first used in July 2021, in response to student requests relayed to the teaching team via their student representatives during the 2020/21 academic year. It was agreed that Content Warnings should be included in reading lists so that students would be able to take them into account before encountering each text."

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