Trigger Warnings

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Trigger Warnings

Trigger warnings have a bad reputation that is completely unjustified. They’re called stifling of free speech, the special snowflakes controlling what people can say by making “safe spaces”.

Except…that’s not what they’re about. At all. Even close.

A trigger warning, or content warning, is simply that, a warning. Like, say, a movie or a television show having a PG rating and a warning that “viewer discretion is advised”. It’s simply a courtesy that people ask for. For example, a man who suffered abuse growing up now suffers from severe PTSD. He takes a required sociology class at a college when he sees a warning for a certain day that they’re going to discuss child abuse. He can prepare beforehand or, if he’s feeling particularly unwell that day, skip the class entirely so as not to aggravate his condition. The rest of the class he’s fine over, he just can’t handle discussing abuse, especially of children.

Why is that a bad thing? There are people out there who say he should just not take the class. But what if it’s the only one open? What if he’s really interested in sociology and the class is a requirement? He’s not asking the teacher not to talk about it. Again, he’s not asking the teacher not to talk about it. He just wants to be able to brace himself for it. Trigger warnings should not and generally are not used to stop topics from being conversed. They’re simply a warning that something is coming, like, say, “This trailer has not been approved for all audiences.” “Rated R, not suitable for children.” “Warning, graphic content, viewer discretion is advised.”

Similarly, safe spaces are not made for locking certain people out, they’re just places for people who feel threatened by their everyday existence. Imagine a transgender woman in North Carolina, basically told that she might be assaulted for trying to use the bathroom. A safe space for her would be a place that says no transphobia will be allowed. But for some reason, that’s too much to ask for. As Junot Diaz said, “The problem isn’t that students are demanding safe spaces and trigger warnings. The problem is that these students have very little power, and these institutions would rather argue about why they make so many demands than why they feel so unsafe.”

People don’t expect everything not to be triggering. People don’t expect everyone to tag everything. It’s a courtesy. Holding a door for someone carrying a heavier load than you. You don’t have to help them. You don’t need to yell at them for asking, either.

Comments

  1. I may be a dinosaur, but I thought college was supposed to expose you to ideas that make you feel uncomfortable. I don't have a problem with trigger warnings and safe spaces per se, but I think they are horribly overused. Professors are teachers, not therapists. As the parent of two millenials, I think we've coddled their generation way too much, and they as a group are finding it hard to function in the real world -- there are no "safe spaces" or trigger warnings at work. I think we need to find a balance between protecting the handful of students who actually need trigger warnings and the overuse of such warnings being used to shut down debate on "difficult" subjects.

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    1. There is no shutting down of debate on difficult subjects. And it's not about not being exposed to uncomfortable subjects. That's what I said. And I feel like if you were at work and your boss suddenly showed a graphic image, they'd give you a heads up first, like "Oh, we have to do this report on Syria and it's really horrible". And as a millennial, I have to say that no, we are NOT coddled and the only problem we have in the "real world" is that people are constantly looking down on us.

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    2. The problem isn't the theory, it's the practice. An it leads to situations where universities are cancelling speakers because of it. Ann Coulter, as vile as she is, should be allowed to speak at Berkeley. Not sure what college it was, but I saw a video of a professor telling a journalist to get lost, that he couldn't cover a protest because it was a "safe space". That's the problem, how these lofty goals and ideas you're talking about are being expressed to actually stifle speech.

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    3. No she shouldn't be allowed to speak at a university with a population that doesn't want her there, and it wasn't the fact that trigger warnings and safe spaces exist that cause people to protest her presence but her offensive manner (she's free to speak, but they're free to not tolerate her presence). And I've seen videos of journalists making fun of university students for not wanting to use the word ghetto in an offensive manner, so I think their free speech is fine. That professor clearly doesn't know what a safe space is because no one thinking reasonably would believe that a protest would be one.

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  2. Seems reasonable to me. Otherwise there is unnecessary shock if you are not prepared. I hadn't realized this was even a controversy, so thanks for bringing up the subject.
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    Gail Park

    Making Life an Art

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    1. It's kind of surprising that it's so much of an issue. Giving people a warning about graphic content is now seen as coddling. Kind of makes you wonder what movie ratings are for!

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    2. Yes, Libertas, there is a difference. You choose to go to the movie, or not. Doesn't affect your life. If you've chosen to take a class, you cannot opt out of the material you might find objectionable or distasteful. What's the point of education if you cannot discuss ideas without someone shouting "trigger" and someone yelling "safe space"? If you have an issue, talk to your therapist, of course, but don't expect your professor to ssume that role.

      I guess maybe I'm a veteran of too many wars on books, too many times where I've had to argue that books should not be excluded from the public library or the school library because they contain "explicit scenes" or "dangerous ideas".

      We on the left have to be very careful about how we handle free speech issues, we are becoming almost as bad as the far right.

      Your ideas aren't bad ones, it's the misuse of your ideas that are ruining universities these days.

      I found this article very enlightening. The author postulates that we are actually creating mental illness among college students, rther than protecting them, from trauma.
      https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2015/09/the-coddling-of-the-american-mind/399356/

      My daughter's experience at Fordham a few years ago....The Young Republicans invited Ann Coulter to speak on campus, the rest of the student body found her to be objectionable and argued that she should not be allowed to speak. My very liberal daughter, a card-carrying member of the ACLU (like her mother) took a lot of abuse from her fellow liberals because she advocated for Coulter's speech. She argued that a liberal speaker could easily be banned from campus if conservative speakers were banned. The President of the university agreed that Coulter be allowed to speak. She didn't speak, though, because the Young Republicans decided to withdraw the invitation.

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    3. Warning means they can choose to skip the day that the graphic things are discussed! Or knowing that this is what the class will go into means they can take another class! It is not about opting out of material you find objectionable. I said this in the post. It's about preparing yourself, learning what you can tolerate, and learning what you're not ready for.

      This isn't about stifling free speech. This isn't about shutting down things that can bother people like sex, swearing, or questioning religious ideas. This is about having a little warning before classes that something extremely graphic is going to be shown--graphic like bloody body parts, mutilation, rape, and child abuse. Horrific things. Yes, everyone has different levels of horrific, but my not liking sexual scenes is not the same as my traumatized friend not wanting to read a book where a rape is depicted. But if she knows beforehand, she can opt out of the class. That's literally the only lofty ideal that I have.

      Had I been on campus with your daughter, I would not have liked that she was advocating for that woman's speech. The university is not the government but a place of its own, and the people who live and learn their can refuse to tolerate the presence of a vile human being like Ann Coulter. This isn't like protesting someone on the right who believes in small government. This is against someone who says hurtful, hateful things about minorities. Their right to exist in peace trumps her right to spew her garbage. A POC or LGBTQ person shouldn't have to live on a campus that is hosting a person who speaks against their rights as people.

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  3. Hi from Idaho and found your blog though Liz. I'm aware of triggers as I do home care and one of my client has been horrible abuse...And some time she need to be redircted.
    If you fine the time stop in for a cup of coffee.

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    1. Thanks for stopping by! I'll come visit you soon.

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  4. I don't have a good response to this, right now, but, certainly, the typical Right Wing response -- you should just "man" up, or however they want to say it at any given moment -- is not an appropriate response.

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    1. I find that nothing they say is every an appropriate response.

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