Do We Really Need Trigger Warnings?

The thing to remember about trigger warnings is that they are not a social justice warrior invention of the 2010s. I can remember trigger warnings as a concept for as far back as I can remember anything. They didn’t have a name for a long time, or at least I didn’t hear one for a long time. Then I started to hear them referred to as triggers.

They weren’t introduced as some sneaky approach to censorship, playing on the natural empathy of others. There wasn’t this idea that people were so fragile, they simply couldn’t handle certain topics, so it was best not to mention them at all. What they felt like, at least to me, were requests for consideration.

People didn’t want to control what others said or did. They simply wanted to have one or two opportunities to actually anticipate something. For the most part, as I got older, and as I met more people, it was a desire for control that was grounded in realistic terms. No one can completely insulate themselves from topics and words that bring them back to their traumas. As I learned more about triggers, and as the term ‘trigger warnings’ became increasingly part of common language, I worked to understand what people wanted on that front. They simply wanted the ability to make arrangements to handle things that could potentially open the memory floodgates of anything and everything that scarred them.

It was less about demanding special attention, and more about wanting to be able to adjust their lives to meet their potential traumas head-on. If it was possible to make these adjustments, then they wanted the opportunity to be able to do so. People are survivors. We can take a lot. Even so, sometimes, we need help. To that end, someone might ask others to be slightly more considerate than they were before, particularly in terms of things they shared on the internet.

It wasn’t a question of not sharing something at all. It was simply adding a little bit of precursory information to a subject, which could serve to go a long way.

I still think that is the common impulse behind trigger warnings. It’s just that these days, we’re dealing with the subject on a much bigger, more chaotic stage. Over the last couple of years, the discussion of trigger warnings has become larger, more inclusive, and far more complicated than most of us appreciate. As we discuss and deconstruct societal elements, history, politics, literature, films, music, television, and other items in increasingly elaborate ways, the subject of trigger warnings becomes more pronounced. I rarely see people trying to control the conversation, to the point of not being able to even discuss something that might upset them.

We’re not moving towards a society that is more P.C. We are simply trying to figure things out, in terms of trigger warnings, mental health, and the ability to have discussions that involve a demand for greater empathy than ever before. These discussions are challenging as hell. No one is arguing that. They’re challenging because the range of voices on the subject is astonishingly broad and seemingly endless. They’re challenging because we’re not going to magically draw up terms that everyone will be happy with.

These discussions are also challenging because of the extreme examples that really are out there. Some of us have run into those extreme examples of what people expect from trigger warnings. If you were to ask me for those examples, I’d point to anyone who thinks the phrase “trigger warning” should come with its own trigger warning. I also think asking people to tag “TW” to pictures of weed is a bit much. That’s just me. I don’t pretend to be someone who is capable of defining right and wrong on this subject. There really isn’t such a thing. Still, if your friends can’t keep up, and they’re clearly trying to, it’s possible that your need for trigger warnings is intruding on their lives.

However, I rarely run into people who take it to such an extreme. The vast majority of the people I know who rely on trigger warnings are not looking for crutches. They are managing and getting through life in their own way. They are trying to find a way to deal with trauma in a way that, again, allows them a certain measure of control. By and large, I don’t think it’s a matter of people shoving their index fingers in their ears, and screaming the lyrics to the last song they heard on the radio.

Trigger warnings have gotten to the point in which they are now written about, argued, mocked, and discussed on their own merits. However, I don’t think they are discussed on their own merits often enough.

There are two schools of thought on the idea of trigger warnings, with extreme perspectives on either side. On one hand, you have people who see the value in simply giving people a head’s up on what they can expect from a book, a movie, or anything else. It’s not about changing the material. Nor is it a question of coddling people, to the point of social and psychological paralysis. There is an argument to be made for the potential damage to a person’s ability to recover. I don’t know if I see it that way. What I see instead is that concept of control. It’s the understanding that no one can have it completely, in terms of what people say, do, or share on social media. Even so, it’s also an understanding that believes that every little bit helps.

Then you have the second school of thought. You see memes, rants, and long, pseudo-scholarly articles about the notion that we are coddling people. It won’t take you very long to find scorn for raising what some people perceive to be a generation of whiners. People who want to destroy our ability to learn about and engage controversial subjects and works. College professors express the fear that they will not be able to teach their courses without fear of losing their job. Others are terrified of social media mob rule, which is a fairly terrifying monster, more often than not.

The social media outrage and justice army is a real thing. It has created a degree of accountability that has done a lot of good, which I don’t think any reasonable person can argue. Unfortunately, it has also the ferocious capacity to destroy lives with misinformation, or not enough information to form the opinion that people wind up having. As scary as it can be, I don’t think it’s fair to lump it in with the idea of trigger warnings. One of the worst things that has happened to any discussion about trigger warnings is that the discussion gets lumped in with other things. Writers and others who believe these warnings will do more harm than good frequently rely on irrelevant evidence.

You have to try to look at the concept on its own terms. Bullies and mobs of outraged teenagers and young adults are out there. That’s something that needs to be addressed. Almost all of us (including me) could stand to be more vigilant about getting more information, before we arrive at our verdicts. Bullies and mobs should not distort the intentions of someone who simply wants to know what they’re in for. You have to consider whether or not putting warnings on certain things is going to inconvenience your life on some significant level. I don’t suspect that it will.

Ultimately, as we create this space in which people are better able to deal with their traumas as they see fit, we are going to have to deal with the unreasonable. There will be people whose expectations of others is not terribly realistic. We can’t make things ideal for everyone. Most of us understand that. Some don’t. All we can do is try to accommodate everyone up to a certain point.

Are trigger warnings the first step towards erasing certain subjects completely? Probably not. Should you worry about deranged social justice warriors policing every word you say? Maybe, but allowing for trigger warnings is not going to make a difference on that front. We’re not losing our sense of humour either. As we create this space, we have to accept that there is no universally appealing resolution. We have to take the constant good of the idea with the constant bad. We have to find the compromise between too much empathy, and a complete lack of desire to try to understand what others have been through.

My own work towards understanding trigger warnings on their own terms continues. I have triggers. I just choose not to bring them up. At no point can I ever imagine needing a warning beforehand about the unwanted potential of book or movie. That’s just me. As I continue to confront how enormously insensitive I have been at different points in my life, I continue to try to believe that there is a place for trigger warnings in the world. The infinite middle is out there. We don’t have to embrace one extreme or the other.

What I can see is a world in which people are given the choice to either approach certain materials that might upset them, or go in the other direction. If it’s a student, they have to understand that they might miss out on learning about something valuable. They might miss out on the growth that comes with facing unpleasant material. They can’t expect to be accommodated to the point in which peers who are fine with the material suddenly find themselves blocked off. As I said, I don’t see that perspective from most of the people who favour these warnings. Generally, I see individuals who want a little more control over their surroundings than they’ve had in the past. There seems to be by and large an understanding that this control may come with personal consequences. They may not be able to heal in the best way possible. They may find themselves cut off from certain opportunities.

Should all of that be their call to make? I really don’t see the harm in saying yes to that. All the books, films, and terrible jokes that I’m personally fine with are still out there. I can take them as I please. If someone else doesn’t want to, that should be their call to make. Even if I don’t understand their call, what does it really mean to my life? Everything is exactly the same for me.

But all of this amounts to a difficult conversation to have. Some would rather we didn’t have the conversation at all.

To me, that decided stance against the possibility of progress is far more offensive than anything else.

Recently, I spoke to a friend of mine I knew to be in favour of adding a list of possible triggers to college syllabuses. I told them I was writing an opinion essay on the subject.

“Can you explain you take on it to me?” I asked.

They took a deep breath. They had been made to explain themselves many times before. Just as often, I suspect, they had been held up as a definitive example to prove a pro or con perspective. Using them here is not really designed to justify my own opinions. They just explained it in a way that I knew I couldn’t. It wasn’t fair of me to ask them, but I did anyway (I also received their permission to use our conversation in this article).

This is what they said to me:

“What I’ve been through in my life, it’s mine to deal with. I can’t ask people to watch every single thing they say. I can’t ask the world to protect me from these thoughts every waking hour of the day. But I like the idea of trigger warnings. I don’t think it’s the same as asking for constant protection. It lets me decide once or twice, during a day that is filled with people and situations that do not care about anything that might have happened to me. They shouldn’t have to care. But if I can protect my mental health by being able to occasionally decide when I can handle something, and when I can’t, even if that only happens in certain spaces, what do you think? Of course I’m going to be into that.”

I’m not the most sensitive guy in the world. Nonetheless, I think I can manage trying to contribute to a scenario along the above lines. What I’m not prepared to do is be presumptuous about someone else’s mental health. It’s their battle. Most of us understand this fact within ourselves. It’s just that sometimes, a little help might be necessary.

Don’t expect a lot from me. I remain a bastard, but I’ll do what I can to help you.