Trigger Warnings - Productivity and Fragility

In this post I want to explore how both those who criticize and those who support trigger warnings view fragility. As Goguen defines, trigger warnings in the classroom are used to give “people a heads up about the material they are about to encounter”. I believe both positive and negative opinions of trigger warnings are based on an assumption of the necessity of productivity and a simultaneous devaluation of fragility. I will conclude by exploring the need to perhaps change our idea of what the classroom is to resist this emphasis of productivity and dismissal of fragility often present when trigger warnings are used.

The perspective against the use of trigger warnings presented by the ‘factual feminist’ dismisses the potential of trigger warnings to allow one to self-care. The ability for trigger warnings to allow one to pause, leave, or otherwise help themselves is viewed both as closing off conversation within the classroom and painting women as weak and delicate. Trigger warnings are viewed as harmful to learning in the classroom because people are given the possibility to not participate in class discussion/activities. The belief that trigger warnings are harmful as they give off the idea that all women are weak and cannot handle discussing potentially triggering topics clearly depends upon a negative understanding of weakness and fragility.

On the other hand, the perspective presented within the video “What’s the Deal with Classroom Trigger Warnings?” argues that trigger warnings encourage class discussion because of their emphasis on self-care. However I believe that this support of trigger warnings is based on an understanding that it enhances productivity, as does the perspective held by those against trigger warnings. In the video “What’s the Deal with Classroom Trigger Warnings?” it is suggested that self-care, the chance to take a step back from discussion, or leave the classroom actually allows one to better come back and participate in the class. As the video says, trigger warnings better allow one to “muster up the grit” to come back to the classroom and be productive (“What’s the Deal with Classroom Trigger Warnings”).

I believe that both sides, for and against, value productivity over weakness or fragility in the classroom. The side for trigger warnings may believe it is important to allow one to self-care but only with the intent of helping one be better able to do class work. I think one way to make trigger warnings even more useful would be to transform the way we think about the classroom to an understanding that is not based on productivity so that we can value fragility. I do not think trigger warnings need to be useful because they allow one to self-care and then return to the class ready to be productive but because they signal a space that allows and encourages one to be fragile. Rather than supporting trigger warnings because they allow one to recover and come back prepared to contribute to the class, if trigger warnings are a signal of a classroom that allows one to cry, to leave and not come back, to not speak, to be in pain rather than be a critical thinker, maybe they will be even more useful. Perhaps if we use trigger warnings without the intent for students to be better participants we can make the class one that is even safer than one that just includes a one sentence warning of triggering content.