jimnyc
04-30-2018, 08:02 AM
And they wonder what has changed over the decades, that folks now go astray and go on shootings. Or the endless whining and marches about lame things. Demands of tolerance over lame little things. Being turned into sniveling little whiners that feel entitled.
I find this to be pathetic and wrong. I disagree that this is helpful in any way.
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Let’s Embrace Our Blubbering and Make Cry Closets Happen
Across the country, college semesters are slowly coming to a close. Summer, once so far away, is theoretically around the corner—but first, final exams must be taken. To help students over the last hurdle of the academic school year and assist them in regurgitating 15 weeks’ worth of knowledge in five days, one university has allowed a student to install an inventive coping method in the campus’ library. Devised by University of Utah student and visual artist Nemo Miller, the “cry closet” is pretty self-explanatory. The closet, outfitted with black felt, stuffed animals and a strict ten-minute cry-policy, is a self-described “safe space for stressed-out students” to have a breakdown in the privacy of large wooden box.
Besides the ten-minute limit, the cry closet’s other rules stipulates that students knock before entering to ensure no one’s stress-induced bawling session is interrupted. And to ensure that the cry closet isn’t used for nefarious purposes, it only accommodates one person at time. But that doesn’t mean criers have to cry alone—to cry in solidarity, the closet asks that if users post about their closet session that they use #cryclosetuofu on all relevant social media. The cry closet’s appearance was, of course, met with snowflake crybaby derision and alarmed hysteria that the closet meant students wouldn’t be prepared for the real world—because instead of crying, as one enlightened Twitter commentator put it, adults just “grab life by the balls and manhandle that shit!” One alumnus even insinuated that she would stop donating if Miller got academic credit for their art installation—almost as if the University of Utah should be a safe space where this particular alumnus’ views go unchallenged, even after she graduated.
Hypocrisy aside, I happen to think the cry closet is a great idea. It should be celebrated and replicated across the country. There’s an unfortunately popular misconception that being a mature adult means taking all of life’s gut punches with stoic silence and a stiff upper lip. For those of us who aren’t emotionally repressed, that’s neither realistic or healthy. Life is hard and crying is both a completely natural reaction to stress and a way to reduce it. According to prominent tear researcher William H. Frey II, when humans cry in response to emotion, rather than say, onion fumes or pollen, their tears contain more of certain chemicals that are released when the body is under stress. Frey theorizes that shedding these hormone-infused tears reduces the levels of stress hormones in the body, which could then reduce stress. There’s also research that suggests that in addition to acting as a way to self-soothe, crying releases oxytocin and endorphins—both chemicals that help ease physical and emotional pain. And then there’s the fact that in a 2008 study, almost nine out of ten people reported “some degree of post-crying mood improvement.”
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/04/cry-closets-are-a-great-idea-thanks-millennials.html
I find this to be pathetic and wrong. I disagree that this is helpful in any way.
---
Let’s Embrace Our Blubbering and Make Cry Closets Happen
Across the country, college semesters are slowly coming to a close. Summer, once so far away, is theoretically around the corner—but first, final exams must be taken. To help students over the last hurdle of the academic school year and assist them in regurgitating 15 weeks’ worth of knowledge in five days, one university has allowed a student to install an inventive coping method in the campus’ library. Devised by University of Utah student and visual artist Nemo Miller, the “cry closet” is pretty self-explanatory. The closet, outfitted with black felt, stuffed animals and a strict ten-minute cry-policy, is a self-described “safe space for stressed-out students” to have a breakdown in the privacy of large wooden box.
Besides the ten-minute limit, the cry closet’s other rules stipulates that students knock before entering to ensure no one’s stress-induced bawling session is interrupted. And to ensure that the cry closet isn’t used for nefarious purposes, it only accommodates one person at time. But that doesn’t mean criers have to cry alone—to cry in solidarity, the closet asks that if users post about their closet session that they use #cryclosetuofu on all relevant social media. The cry closet’s appearance was, of course, met with snowflake crybaby derision and alarmed hysteria that the closet meant students wouldn’t be prepared for the real world—because instead of crying, as one enlightened Twitter commentator put it, adults just “grab life by the balls and manhandle that shit!” One alumnus even insinuated that she would stop donating if Miller got academic credit for their art installation—almost as if the University of Utah should be a safe space where this particular alumnus’ views go unchallenged, even after she graduated.
Hypocrisy aside, I happen to think the cry closet is a great idea. It should be celebrated and replicated across the country. There’s an unfortunately popular misconception that being a mature adult means taking all of life’s gut punches with stoic silence and a stiff upper lip. For those of us who aren’t emotionally repressed, that’s neither realistic or healthy. Life is hard and crying is both a completely natural reaction to stress and a way to reduce it. According to prominent tear researcher William H. Frey II, when humans cry in response to emotion, rather than say, onion fumes or pollen, their tears contain more of certain chemicals that are released when the body is under stress. Frey theorizes that shedding these hormone-infused tears reduces the levels of stress hormones in the body, which could then reduce stress. There’s also research that suggests that in addition to acting as a way to self-soothe, crying releases oxytocin and endorphins—both chemicals that help ease physical and emotional pain. And then there’s the fact that in a 2008 study, almost nine out of ten people reported “some degree of post-crying mood improvement.”
https://slate.com/human-interest/2018/04/cry-closets-are-a-great-idea-thanks-millennials.html