ABSTRACT
Feminist classrooms were the first places where I heard discussions about safety in the classroom setting. These discussions usually centered on the issue of students learning to talk together in ways that did not lead to conflict and hurt feelings. These discussions always annoyed me because I felt that they were more a reflection of the professor's fear that conflict would emerge and he or she would not be able to cope or that negative energy in the classroom would lead students to dislike the professor and the class; that to ensure good evaluations one had to ensure that students felt good. Ironically, in those classrooms much of what we had believed to be true about the nature of gender was being called into question. Belief systems that we had been comfortable with for all eighteen or more years of our lives were being contested. And yet we were being told that we should accept that this spirit of contestation and challenge should take place in a placid environment, wherein 86the rivers of our being should remain calm and no one should make waves.
