{"id":153828,"date":"2023-04-26T13:31:38","date_gmt":"2023-04-26T11:31:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/?p=153828"},"modified":"2025-12-19T11:26:45","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T10:26:45","slug":"sensitivity-readers-stifle-public-debate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.erasmusmagazine.nl\/en\/2023\/04\/26\/sensitivity-readers-stifle-public-debate\/","title":{"rendered":"Sensitivity readers stifle public debate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Academics are encouraged to participate in the public debate and thus demonstrate their social relevance. Among other things, this can take place by publishing popular scientific books with well-known publishers. However, academics may be faced with a new phenomenon when doing so: \u2018sensitivity readers\u2019.<\/p>\n

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\n\t\n\n<\/svg>\n<\/span>\n\tImage by:<\/span>\n\n\t\t\t\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tLevien Willemse<\/a>\t\t\t\t\t<\/span>\n\t<\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>

These are people who assess texts in advance, not to eliminate awkward sentences and careless language errors, but to highlight \u2018sensitivities\u2019. There might not seem to be much wrong with this at first glance, because why would you want to offend people unnecessarily? Nevertheless, this advance censoring touches on academic freedom and can stifle public debate. Whereas academics should actually be initiating<\/em> discussions.<\/p>\n

Sensitivity readers were first used in the publication of literary works, as a way for publishers to hedge against possible criticism that a particular text might be offensive to a particular group of people. It wasn\u2019t all that long ago that the stamp \u2018politically incorrect\u2019 was a boon to an author \u2013 and helped sales to skyrocket \u2013 but publishers seem to be more scared or more politically correct these days. The children\u2019s books by Roald Dahl are a well-known example: the classic works were recently taken to task by sensitivity readers, after which characteristics such as \u2018fat\u2019 and \u2018ugly\u2019 disappeared and \u2018small men\u2019 suddenly became \u2018small people\u2019. The exaggerations that made Roald Dahl so enjoyable were suddenly no longer deemed acceptable.<\/p>\n\n\t

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