This week’s Wicked Wednesday prompt is about trigger warnings and has prompted quite a outpouring of opinion on the matter. I have thought long and hard about whether to post this week and share my thoughts.
Some of the posts have been very clearly anti-trigger warnings. I do not intend to address their points in this post. I am writing from a very personal experience rather than debating with others.
First of all, as with everything, an idea such as trigger warnings can be used carefully or it can be taken to extreme. The idea of labelling books with a whole list of trigger warnings is, to me, unnecessary. There is already a whole set of information for books. There is the category that they fall under, the blurb and often a synopsis too. It isn’t hard to check out what the themes of a book are. The information is there to be used to make a decision about whether to take the step of opening the cover and exploring within. With books, I am unlikely to stumble across something that causes me emotional harm.
I feel differently about blog posts. When exploring someone’s blog, there is more chance of being taken by surprise by the content of a post. Many blogs have posts on a variety of subjects. Blog posts don’t come with a blurb or a synopsis to check before reading. Especially when browsing through a blog, it is possible to hop from one topic to another. To change from a journal post to a piece of fiction without having sought out those topics.
There are some subjects that I will actively avoid. These might be related to things that have actively happened to me, or it might be related to events that are too close to my professional role. They rarely trigger trauma in me but they can leave me feeling anxious, disgusted or just unsafe. Sometimes that feeling can be very hard to shake afterwards. There are some blogs that I actively avoid after stumbling across posts that make me feel like that.
I do not expect any sympathy for this. I imagine that some people will think of me as either weak or as someone who avoids uncomfortable emotions because of what I have written. I can assure you that that is not the case. I actively seek out writing that elicits strong emotional responses. The pieces that I go back to again and again are pieces that make me squirm on the edge, that make me slightly pull back from the page as I read and yet the compulsion to complete the experience pulls me through. The important point is that I have had an informed choice to read them. I haven’t stumbled onto them whilst whiling away time at a bus stop. If I have, and I know the subject, I will save it for when I am in the right physical and emotional space to fully immerse myself.
I do not want over-the-top trigger warnings on everything, but a category of what is within is very useful to me. Without it, I might choose to skip the post just in case. An example of what I find useful can be found on Remittance Girl’s blog. I adore her writing and will actively seek out her stories to give me a reading experience that is powerful and emotional. One of the important things for me is that her categories give me a signpost of topic so that I can revel in the experience instead of having my attention sapped by having to keep my emotional guard up.
To summarise: I don’t want ‘trigger warnings’ to be added, but I do think there is an important place for categorising your work as you would if it was a published book. I want to be informed not warned.
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I like your point of view on this and like the way Remittance Girl categorizes her erotica. I have read blog posts that made me feel uncomfortable, but then I left a comment and honestly said how it made me feel. I totally understand that you say you have to read it in the right frame of mind, but I have never felt the same way about it. I read, comment, remember or forget what I have read. But I know it’s not the same for everyone, and we all react differently to different things.
Thanks for joining in with the prompt this week.
Rebel xox