Trigger warnings - not feminist?

[UnChartered]

hi all

am reading a debate on fb right now following the posting of an account of a woman's rape - some readers are calling for a trigger warning to be posted, and others are saying that trigger warnings are a way of silencing the written word, that all accounts should be read and that 'trigger warnings' are a covert method of censorship and subsequent silencing.

I'd never thought of a trigger warning being anything other than kindness to anyone who might be thrown back into their own ordeal, but the theory of it being another tactic to shut women up has got me thinking.

What do you think?

To clarify, my last post was in response tomango writing about people extending the courtesy of trigger warnings when not actually understanding the nature and randomness of flashbacks.

I guess trigger warnings are part of 'victim world' or 'survivor world', safe space world,not the real world. The real world doesn't come with trigger warnings. I'm not sure what can be done other than expand the warnings so they are factual heads-up warnings and generally educate people about PTSD and survivor reactions.

It's good to challenge the notion of trigger warnings, actually.
Clearly they are meant to be helpful but maybe they are just a bit...can't think of the right words, ghettoising?

I used to wonder if I was a proper victim because I didn't actually have a triggered reaction to things with trigger warnings! (bleak laugh).

Nap i agree with that also, about my own (almost) guilt at not having been triggered at times

I used to wonder if I was a proper victim because I didn't actually have a triggered reaction to things with trigger warnings! (bleak laugh).

Exactly, Nap!

I know, I know, they're well intentioned, they might be useful, etc... but, there is something about them that suggests that the writer wants to play the magnanimous protector to the good little victims.

So... we're agreed that they're meant as a courtesy. And maybe it's ungrateful to the point of mean spiritedness not to 'accept' them in the spirit that they're meant. And this isn't really important, but whenever I see 'trigger warning', I also get an image of someone making speech marks with their fingers.

Isn't that to try and avoid being picked up on searches by trolls, Consuelaa? I thought it was that rather than the avoidance of a 'dirty word'.

so, if i see a 'trigger warning' and decide not to read in case i am triggered, isn't that silencing me?

that one trigger might be enough for me to report my abuser (which i never have done)

UnChartered - I'm not sure that it makes much sense to hold a well intentioned internet poster responsible for your actions in that way.
Irritating as I (sometimes) find 'trigger warnings', I think that the spirit in which they are made and the discussions which they help to enable are likely, on balance, to help more people get through the shit that generally accompanies past experiences than if there was not 'culture' or practice of posting trigger warnings. IYSWIM.

i do swym - most definitely i think if posting potentially harrowing to read encounters, you should be about looking after the 'masses', and hoping that the discussions that follow are kindly and supportive

i'm thinking out loud here

thank you all for taking this discussion seriously btw. i was nervous about posting it as a subject

I think the 'trigger warning' should be scrapped for 'could be upsetting' etc not just because its sounds quite irritating and twee but also not everyone will have heard it before and can read things without realizing which In hindsight I wouldn't have in that frame of mind.

But from an empathy point of view I'm sure most people will understand what it means, rape isn;t the only horrific experience that can be triggered by images etc so even if someone hasn't been raped it doesnt mean they don't/won't have that reaction to something else, I have in the past ,publicly taken to task someone posting graphic anti-abortion pictures on fb the week after having been rushed to hospital with a threatened miscarriage, because they were horrifically upsetting.

I see a trigger warning much like a TMI warning - on my most vulnerable days I pass over, on normal days I grit my teeth and continue, etc. And when I'm upset I tell myself "see? Told you so". I'm not sure that's a good response, but at least at my most vulnerable I am protected

But like pps it is odd things that trigger me - Sit Down by James (which is obviously now my earworm for the evening) and a man's perfume.

When That Song came on in the supermarket recently I didn't know what do to with myself and the children thought I'd gone mental as I could not stop talking to drown it out. I leave wedding discos early as it's nearly always played. But I can watch assaults on tv programmes and in films without triggering - it's upsetting but not triggering.

That sounds horrible, cbeebies, and good on you for challenging that person. You also make a really good point about the preconceptions that are made about what might be 'triggering' (I'm really enjoying how much that word irritates me, in that context, now!) and to whom.

It should be fairly obvious that anything that could remind anyone at all about horrific experiences might be 'triggering' (I'm thinking Hillsborough enquiry reporting and how many people must have been 'triggered', by so many horrific aspects of what happened, the injustice, etc., but were there 'trigger' warnings about that?)

I think the problem with 'trigger' warnings being used specifically for accounts of and references to rape and sexual abuse is that not only to they ghettoise people who've been through rape/abuse, as well as suggesting that those people are somehow less psychologically robust than everyone else, but it also sort of plays into overlooking how sensitive people can be to 'triggers' that relate to any horrific experience.

yeah the person is much humbler now and I have seen a few warnings since.
Although I'm willing to accept that I totally flipped out but it made some impact.

I have a very recent thread about my experiences, and I'm afraid I haven't put any warning on it. I'm new (to mumsnet, but also to talking about this topic), and I used the word rape in the title of the thread, and thought that would be enough to suggest that anyone who might be upset should not read it. My opening post was not particularly descriptive, but in subsequent posts I did go on to add more detail that perhaps I should have based on what I have read here
It sounds as though I should have put a warning on just as a courtesy (when I started the thread I didn't appreciate the detail that I would find I was comfortable to go into on an anonymous board such as this). I am sorry if I upset any of you. I would certainly be reticent about adding any further posts to my thread without putting a warning on it.
From what I have read here it sounds as though MNHQ sometimes add these warnings; hopefully they will do that to mine if need be.

Beth I think it's ok, it's clear that you have posted in good faith and there is a lot of support on here for you, don't worry.

Hmm, yes, and there is also the way in which some people get so obsessed with Proper Netiquette that they might pick on a poster discussing her own traumatic experience but not having known the 'rule' about putting warnings in the title, and thus 'protecting' hypothetical others by bullying the crap out of someone already in distress...

And that is a good point about understanding the specifics of what a trigger actually is: if someone associates the smell of frying onions (to pick a totally random example) with their own horrific experience, they might find a cookery discussion upsetting but that doesn't mean that people who want to discuss onions and the frying thereof need to be responsible for posting warnings all over the place before using The O Word...

ON balance I think it is probably good manners to include something like 'May be upsetting' in a thread title if the subject matter is going to include things that, well, may be upsetting to some people.

I frequently use Tumblr (a blogging site) and you can block certain tags from showing up.
I know many people have blocked the words 'trigger warning' so that they can search for things such as helplines/advice without having to see disturbing images.

One example, I have a friend with serious depression, and she finds lots of blogs on there which contains coping mechanisms / interesting discussion topics, however people also post pictures of their self harm, which may be therapeutic to them, but she finds very upsetting. By blocking the tag 'Trigger warning' she doesn't risk seeing these when searching for other related things.

However, I agree that a more specific term would be useful, as that blocks out anything that might trigger anyone.