New trigger warning unlocked: 'Catholic guilt'

Among the many trigger warnings offered for a student play at Princeton University’s Lewis Center for the Arts was one for “Catholic Guilt.”

The student play, which ran through November and closed on Nov. 19, is a “horror musical” that follows “three queer students of color at an elite university” competing for a graduation honor. 

Princeton is located in New Jersey.

[RELATED: Princeton alumni group publishes letter criticizing event’s lack of viewpoint diversity] 

Princeton’s website for the play contains a list of “Content Warnings,” including “Internalized Homophobia,” “Gender Dysphoria and Internalized Transphobia,” and “Catholic Guilt.”

Christina Hoff Sommers, author of “Who Stole Feminism?: How Women Have Betrayed Women,” criticized Princeton on Twitter, calling the trigger warnings a “strange fetishization of trauma [and] safety.” 

“There is plenty of evidence that trigger warnings are ineffective,” she continued.

Universities have used trigger warnings for years, despite evidence that they increase anxiety and perceived vulnerability in students.

[RELATED: Harvard study finds trigger warnings increase anxiety] 

Abigail Anthony, a Princeton student who attended the play, told Campus Reform, “I had never heard a ‘Catholic guilt’ warning before, at Princeton or elsewhere.”

Anthony went on to explain that she left the performance early “because the production was spectacularly bad.”

Campus Reform reached out to all relevant parties and will update accordingly.

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