Thursday 26 November 2015

Why The Drama Over Triggers?

The subject of triggers was not something that I thought much about.  To me it was a few lines at the beginning of something, that would let people know that there is some controversial or sensitive material coming up, to me that just seemed respectful and was warning the reader of what to potentially expect.  I had no idea that triggers themselves could cause such controversy.  But it seems that when talking about anything concerning feminism, there is always a lot of drama.  The video we saw on Monday, from the backlash feminist was so condescending and annoying.  She made the whole topic of triggers seem ridiculous and made people who believed in them sound weak and infant like.  And when she asked for comments and questions at the end, the only types of comments that would have been acceptable were ones that agreed with her viewpoint.  There was no room for any other opinion, I could feel how ridiculous she would have any comments that would have contradicted her viewpoint.  She does a great disservice for the people who would do well with some sort of warning or head up about the content.  She also does a great disservice to any kind of open dialogue about triggers; she does not seem to be interested in any opinion that contradict her own.
Some of the arguments against triggers seem to make sense.  When taken to extreme, it does seem like we do not give people enough credit to be strong enough to deal with their issues.  In "Triggering Me, Triggering You: Making Up is Hard To Do", we read that "neoliberalism also counsels us to suck it up in relation to harm and pain that we may feel".  I don't like that sentiment, of course we should deal with our issues in a productive manner, but for some, "sucking it up" is not an easy option.  This makes it seem as though everyone has access to amazing therapists that will help us deal with our problems.
The second video on Monday made a relevant point, we do have triggers in our daily lives even though we have never thought of them that way, I know I didn't; movie rating telling what to expect.  They let us know if the content if appropriate for certain people or not.  I wonder if all the drama about trigger warnings is because it started in the feminist blogosphere, I personally feel that this is the issue.  I know that some people take trigger warnings too far, and we can potentially close off meaningful discussion about serious and controversial subjects; but because this is a feminism related topic, many people seem to be up in arms over it.

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