Kristen Lamb had a stunningly well
written blog
post on Tuesday. It expressed her thoughts on a subject that's
been on my mind lately: the thought of “trigger warnings” on
books. I find myself ambivalent on the subject. On the one hand, I
can see the reasoning behind people getting upset it, falling into
the cultural facet of Empathetic Correctness. On the other hands I
can see how warnings that would help people with PTSD and similar
things prepare themselves for finding the scene in a book.
Huffington
Post has a very interesting take on it. Their opinion is that
it's not as bad as we're thinking, though it does have the potential
to become a problem. A lot of what they say has to do with the fact
that it would just be a few words on a syllabus warning those who
have suffered past trauma that it's coming up, not that they aren't
required to read the book for their classes.
The
Guardian has a different point of view. They say that it's one
step away from book banning. They hold forth on the fact that it's
catering to a overly sensitive crowd of students who don't want to
deal with the harsh realities of real life.
As I said, I can see the potential of
both situations. On the one hand, I can see needing a few trigger
warnings on things such as violent rape scenes, acts of domestic
violence, things like that which could send someone spiraling back
into a flashback of a terrible situation. But I also don't think that
there needs to be trigger warnings for every little thing that might
offend someone.
There's a difference between offending
someone and actually triggering anxiety/fear flashbacks. The first is
an act of pedantry. The second is something that can cripple someone
emotionally. In dealing with the trigger warnings on books, if there
is a violent rape scene I can see a warning about that in the book.
It gives a person who has been raped the information it's coming and
they can know what to expect, even brace themselves so they don't
react as violently.
I use trigger warnings in some of my
blog posts because I don't want someone having a flashback and losing
control. I warn them what's in my post so they know what they're
facing. This has driven some readers away. But others have come back
and told me how much they appreciated the warning so they can prepare
themselves for it.
There is such a thing as being too
Empathetically
Correct. The current trend for that is very disturbing. People
aren't looking for success because they're being told everyone is the
same. No one is reaching for anything because they expect to be given
the same privileges as everyone else. The idea of over generalizing
trigger warnings smacks of this.
Let's take a breath and do more
research on it. I think everyone should get their voices in on this
and let your opinion be known. If you're for it, that's great. If
you're against it, that's great. Keep things civil and discuss it in
the comments. Let me know what you think of all of this.
