Do books NEED trigger warnings?

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Are they actually helping the readers it's intended to help? Are they doing more harm than good? Are they leading to spoilers...or even censorship? Let's talk about it!
Jamie Beck's article: writerunboxed.com/2023/01/24/...
New Yorker piece: www.newyorker.com/news/our-co...
Book Trigger Warnings: booktriggerwarnings.com/
Trigger Warning Database: triggerwarningdatabase.com/
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 To warn or not to warn
02:56 Misleading marketing
04:35 What if trigger warnings don't work
05:23 Spoilers
05:54 How many triggers are there
09:15 Genre expectations
10:14 Censorship
12:08 Reader trust
13:07 Self responsibility
17:27 Publisher and author responsibility
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14 июл 2024

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@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Jamie Beck's article: writerunboxed.com/2023/01/24/to-warn-or-not-to-warn-the-controversy-around-trigger-warnings-in-literature/ New Yorker piece: www.newyorker.com/news/our-columnists/what-if-trigger-warnings-dont-work Book Trigger Warnings: booktriggerwarnings.com/ Trigger Warning Database: triggerwarningdatabase.com/

@0Raiin0 Год назад

The problem with trigger warnings is that as censorship is becoming more and more prevalent (re: authors having their books removed and accounts suspended), authors, especially those who write dark fiction, horror, erotica, etc basically put a target on their backs for Amazon to remove their books because of "content" that now can be easily seen by anyone on the first pages if a trigger warning list is included upfront. This opposed to content simply existing in these books - as they have always had - but only being found by actually reading the book and thus not just getting the graphic content but the context to which to judge this content by. ie. "Why include rape? How dare you?" Becomes, "Oh, the book is a thriller novel and the antagonist is a rapist so of course there is mention of rape or even a rape scene." Those who read the book find the content and that's that. But there isn't an immediate brandishing of a book as "bad" because look at this content in this trigger warning listing so lets automatically ban a book. So trigger warnings create a list of situations that aren't in context and certain authors can get punished heavily (aka lose their accounts and ability to write) because of these warnings. And the fact that you don't even want to mention certain words already expresses the fear we have of censorship. All you have to lose is potentially ad-revenue from ONE video and yet you have that fear. By adding trigger warnings, we authors who write dark fiction, have our entire livelihoods to lose. So this once again feels like a "Think of others" kind of thing which ends up affecting authors, just like things like OWN voices turned into the pressure to come out with everything that has happened to you in life or everything you are to defend why you're writing about "X" topic.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

You're right, it gets messy real fast. And believe me - I'm writing a horror novel right now, so this is really weighing on me!

@PianoMan-hx3ev Год назад

💯

@PianoMan-hx3ev Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Keep on writing, and ignore the ignorant cancellors.

@jinxyhelix Год назад

Correct OP. Those of us in dark fiction and fantasy...ugh...ppl make it so difficult. It's ridiculous.

@PianoMan-hx3ev Год назад

@@jinxyhelix It’s definitely a slippery slope. 🏔

@c.a.newsome2437 Год назад

I agree 100% with your thoughts. I am a 65 YO SA survivor and have gotten along fine for decades without them. As you say, I am free to put down the book or turn off the movie if it bothers me. Also, treatment of the subject is more important than the subject itself. Harry Potter features many dark themes but does so in a way that does not terrify young audiences. Your remarks on branding and tone are dead on. I think that is more important than any trigger warning.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Thank you for your thoughts! The way marketing comes into this is so interesting to me. And yes, treatment of the topic is crucial - TW or not, authors should take care in how we write about these topics.

@bradansworld 16 дней назад

Agreed. Often the plot synopsis is on the cover and/or book jacket and you can see what themes will be covered. I suppose we could use the motion pictute labels witg PG, R etc but people have to make their own decisions.

@bicho6313 Год назад

Also I think we need to clarify the difference from trigger warning to content warning. Content warning is content that some may find offensive or uninteresting. Triggering content is content that literally triggers a person. I can't just put down a book and keep it moving when I come across a triggering scene. It will stay in my head and play on a loop for days, weeks, sometimes months and years. Though I do agree that it is my job to manage my own mental health and take care of myself, I personally really appreciate trigger warnings but I make sure to do my own research before picking up a book. I'm very grateful for these websites.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Great point about the distinction - you're right, putting down the book is not helpful when we're talking about triggers, because well, the trigger has been pulled at that point. And I agree, those websites are excellent resources.

@HannahTheHorrible Год назад

I have thoughts as a youtuber that puts content warnings on almost all of my videos. I think like you said, you can’t go pick a slasher movie and then be upset when it’s violent. When people come to my channel, it’s very obvious I’m a horror channel. BUT opening a random video of mine not knowing the case or story, i think it’s fair to warn people what they’re getting into. That said, I don’t like the idea of TW for books and movies. It takes away from the immersive-ness and like you also said there’s websites you can go to for triggers if a person has severe ptsd. When watching the news, yes, I appreciate it when they warn us the footage they’re going to show is distressing. If I pick up a book with a black cover and it’s called something like “murder club fun” or what have you I don’t want to be told the book is dark 😂 Thanks for talking about this Michelle!

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Great point! I also think RU-vid is a little different - for one thing, thanks to the suggested video feature, one of our videos might start playing automatically after another video to a viewer who has never seen our channels before. So putting a warning at the start of your video is a really courteous thing to do! The way the news is handled is another great point. I definitely want those warnings because the stuff they show is REAL, not fiction. I eagerly anticipate your debut novel, MURDER CLUB FUN by Hannah the Horrible. :D

@marcellacassab4331 Год назад

I'll never forget way back when I was on Tumblr and I first saw trigger warnings for "FOOD." I suppose to warn people who are suffering from eating disorders? My heart goes out to ED victims, but c'mon! That's ridiculous! Next are we gonna need trigger warnings for mentions and depictions of "sleeping" so we don't trigger insomniacs? That's a bit much. I feel like if I read a book with a trigger warning for, say, "death." For the whole book I would wonder whose going to die, when and how. I'll be hesitant to get too attached to any of the characters as a result. I also fear that certain trigger warnings can give false impressions of a book. Like can you imagine if the first page of Charlottes Web was a paragraph warning you that this book contains: "attempted slaughtering of baby animal, multiple mentions of death and killing, mentions of mortality, pigs, spiders, spider eggs, rats, and death." Do you think it would have went on to be the massive children's Icon that it has? Not a chance! Parents would be too scared of disturbing their kids because when you lay that all out, it sounds like some psychological thriller. As a result, everyone would have missed out on a beautiful story with an important messages about friendship and the preciousness of life. All and all I feel that it hinders the story, and the experience of reading it, for debatably little benefit to the reader. If any. This need to avoid all mentions of something upsetting ultimately isn't healthy. Especially when it comes to very natural topics like "death," sooner or later you're gonna be confronted with it one way or another. People need to learn to cope with it to lead happy healthy lives.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

That's such an interesting example with Charlotte's Web. TWs can definitely be used - deliberately or not - to give a false impression of a book's content.

@goosewithagibus Год назад

Yeah trigger warnings can get equally absurd in either direction of vague or hyper specific. Like I have a genuine anxiety response (which is to say I'm triggered) by fire alarms. Do we need a trigger warning for alarms? My friend has extreme CPTSD that can be triggered by the wrong shade of red. Unfortunately that red is the rather typical bright red you see used almost everywhere. It's hard to know where to stop and draw lines for when it's becoming ridiculous.

@iyannasmith9322 4 месяца назад

Wow! That made me laugh, because that really makes great sense. It would never have been so great if it had a warning label. That reference has helped me tremendously. Thank you😊

@swintonwoolfe Год назад

Neil Gaiman wrote the definitive essay on this topic as an introduction to his book, "Trigger Warning: Short Fictions and Disturbances". "And what we learn about ourselves in those moments, where the trigger has been squeezed, is this: the past is not dead. There are things that wait for us, patiently, in the dark corridors of our lives. We think we have moved on, put them out of mind, left them to desiccate and shrivel and blow away; but we are wrong. They have been waiting there in the darkness, working out, practicing their most vicious blows, their sharp hard thoughtless punches into the gut, killing time until we came back that way. The monsters in our cupboards and our minds are always there in the darkness, like mould beneath the floorboards and behind the wallpaper, and there is so much darkness, an inexhaustible supply of darkness. The universe is amply supplied with night. What do we need to be warned about? We each have our little triggers. -Neil Gaiman

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

That man has no business writing so brilliantly. 🤯

@EmmaBennetAuthor Год назад

That is just brilliant.

@iyannasmith9322 4 месяца назад

That's so true!

@victoriatalkswriting8352 Год назад

Thank you for talking about this! I use trigger warnings a lot and find them helpful. I often still read a book even if it has content that might trigger me, I just know to break it up into chunks and read a happier book at the same time. I still want to explore subjects that are difficult for me in books, but on my own terms. My main issue with trigger warnings is that they tend to be too vague. It's not helpful if you say "this content may be triggering" but not say what it depicts. I think there are sort of three factors to the representation of a difficult topic: how graphic is the depiction? How much of the book is about that particular thing? and what would a reader be led to conclude about the topic after finishing the book? The third one is probably the most blurry, but I think there is a big difference between a really graphic scene of something triggering that is never discussed again and a book about dealing with the aftermath of a traumatic event. There was a (sort of) controversy a while back on Storygraph which has user-added trigger warnings. People were putting trigger warnings for things that didn't occur in the book. They attempted to solve it by letting authors submit their trigger warning list and have that show up before the rest of the user-submitted list. This is great for the authors who do it, but I also think it's impossible for authors to know every single thing in their book that could be triggering. I totally agree with you that kids are way better at regulating their reading than we give them credit for, but I also think there could be a way trigger warnings might help them make more informed decisions in the absence of good parents/teachers/librarians/etc. to help them. I'm interested in the particular book the author of the article was writing because I am neurodivergent. I guess I don't really understand the idea of a content warning as a spoiler, I still find reading a book to be enjoyable even if I know what's going to happen. I'm a little concerned that if you think a content warning is a spoiler the "content" is only there for shock value. Autistic people (like myself) tend to find repetition comforting, so I'm glad they kept the warning in. It shows that the author cares about a neurodivergent audience, even if trigger warnings might bother someone else it shows that they are expecting neurodivergent people to read their book. It seems like a lot of authors who have autistic characters never expect autistic people will read their books which is troubling. I just see trigger warnings as an act of caring for your potential readers.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Whoa, I hadn't heard about that Storygraph controversy! What was the motivation behind putting TWs that didn't occur in those books? That's so weird. And thank you for all of these thoughts! I'm interested in Jamie's book as well.

@victoriatalkswriting8352 Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor If a book had a Black lead character people would put racism as a content warning, even though it didn't occur. Or saying a trans character was deadnamed when that didn't happen. There may have been some malicious intent, or people just not remembering what happened in the story I'm not really sure.

@andi-roo9426 Год назад

I took a course on women's lit, and I do wish one particular short story we read had come with a tw. It was an extremely well-written piece (so no shade to the author) about a mom's mental health after having lost a child. I had miscarried a week prior to reading it. I don't know if what I experienced was specifically "being triggered" or merely "super upset," but I can tell you I missed the next several weeks of class. I emailed the teacher to let her know why I'd been absent, and she thankfully was very understanding... but I felt less grateful than ANGRY that I was forced to read material that I wasn't ready to handle without a heads-up. And yeah, maybe "forced" is too strong here, but certainly I was ***compelled*** to read it per the syllabus. I totally get all the points against tw's and that makes me hesitant to take a firm stance... but on a very personal level, if I'm allowed to choose for myself, I will always appreciate even the most vague note of caution. I realize I can't speak for everyone, tho, which makes this nuanced topic a frustrating one to discuss.

@DalCecilRuno Год назад

Comment edited. I just read the video title and I was like “my books definitely need trigger warnings.” I don’t know what it’s like to write happy lighthearted stories. It’s not in me, I genuinely don’t know how to do that correctly. After watching the video: well, finally! Storytelling in general has always had disturbing content since the beginning of storytelling. The most I can do, which I’ve always done, is to warn anyone and everyone that my books are not lighthearted escapes, and if the potential reader is not in the right mindset to read about survival and coping with abuse of all kind, my book should not be up next in their TBR. That’s all I can do.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Absolutely true! And while lighthearted stories are great, we need those dark stories as well. Fiction is the best place to explore those things.

@user-xm3cx7os9b Год назад

You took all my thoughts and ideas around the concept of trigger warnings and articulated them beautifully! Thank you for this!! My girlfriend and I were just having this discussion in bookclub and I was having a hard time expressing myself without feeling like I was either being insensitive and harsh or tiptoeing around it, so to see someone do it so eloquently- I can really appreciate it.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Thank you so much!! Yes, I struggle with feeling like I'm being insensitive as well - but really I just think feeling in control is so much better than hoping others do their part.

@floragraves5167 Год назад

In poetry classes in college, we talked and wrote about the most devastating triggering things. Trigger warnings stopped being used in a week or two and we supported the persons instead. It ended up being a therapy session of private things we had shared to no one else. A fight club of sorts, if you will

@floragraves5167 Год назад

We cried and it was okay. I think trigger warnings are designed to force trauma victims hide their problems from others, and it’s an anti emotion thing. It’s normally put on woman oriented products and not male oriented products. It’s very anti empathy as a result-forcing trauma victims out of discussions they could contribute to

@floragraves5167 Год назад

Third comment so I’m pretty sure no one’s going to read unless they want to-porn has no trigger warnings. Neither animated nor actual actors. Why is that? Isn’t some content actually triggering? I’m thinking some urban legends like two girls and seeing a goat. Traumatized a lot of people but still no warnings placed upon that. A lot of dudes get molested and sexually abused. Why aren’t they given proper warning before that? It’s interesting because women’s erotica might contain trigger warnings but the same content for men would not. It’s kinda insulting that women are being treated as if they can’t handle that content but men are expected to regardless of trauma. If you’d like me to delete this comment, I’ll do so.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

@@floragraves5167 No need to delete! I appreciate the comments. I understand what you're saying about that poetry class - I've had a few writing workshops that turned into borderline therapy groups. Writing can be cathartic in that way.

@manymusings Год назад

I've made it through 50 years of life without trigger warnings on stuff I read. If I'm reading and see something I don't like, I can easily close the book. It just feels like nonsense to me and a way to force a writers hand for content.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I understand. I think the main problem is a lot of people are mistaking "upsetting content" for actual triggers. If a person with PTSD is triggered by something in a book, closing the book won't help because the spiral has already begun. But that isn't the same as simply reading something that upsets you. This is why I wish people would stop using 'triggered' as a synonym for 'upset'.

@bedivere20 Год назад

I'm someone who absolutely cannot handle pet death in media of any kind and I always check various sites or with my friends about media before consuming it. I'm lucky to have friends willing to do things for me like give me timestamps to skip in shows or page/chapter numbers to skip over. From a creator/writer standpoint, I don't mind providing a broad stroke content warning (ex., this work contains lots of violence etc) but my concern about providing a list of trigger warnings is, as you mention, the idea that this might be seen as exhaustive and authoritative exactly because it comes from an author or publisher directly. I think it's important for readers to share amongst themselves and help each other out in this regard rather than to rely on an author or publisher precisely because it's so subjective.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Yep, I'm with you on the pet death. And I also agree that while this is a complex topic, generally I think the onus is more on the reader than the author/publisher - because that is the only way for the reader to truly avoid everything they want/need to avoid.

@reginaduke7451 Год назад

I agree. Kill a dog in a movie or a book, I'm done. And I won't trust the author again. It took me 30 years to get up the courage to watch Old Yeller and only because it was a classic film. Shudder.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

@@reginaduke7451 Yup. Not joking, totally for real, the book that most traumatized me as a kid was Where the Red Fern Grows.

@miramari732 Год назад

I find trigger warnings helpful to some extent. If genre doesn't imply the thing in question, hell yeah I want to be aware that I need to skip certain parts of it. It probably won't make me stop reading, it just make me skip parts that I should not read. I saw creative solutions like putting trigger warning not for book itself but for specific chapter and that worked quite good. On the other hand in visual media trigger warnings are more needed than on written media. When you read you can more easily disengage than when you watch something, even given the fact we have Netflix and stuff nowadays so we can just stop and skip but it takes time - I still want to know if I should watch with my remote in hand. Same logic here - I want to be aware if I need to be ready or not. For argument of "we cannot find all triggers so we should not put on any" I have one food-for-thought question: There are trigger warnings for flashing lights in visual media for people who have photosensitive seizures, because it can be dangerous for 1 of 4000 individuals. There are people who have other seizure triggers than that. Should we ditch photosensitive warning because it's unfair to the people who have seizures due to other triggers? So yeah, trigger warnings for most common triggers are necessary. And for the people who don't need or want trigger warnings why not just skip these 2-3 sentences after "TRIGGER WARNING:"?

@modernbuys Год назад

This isn't a good argument. You just outlined how there is literally only ONE trigger in these films, ignoring all other people who suffer from seizures AND ignoring all other triggering elements in that film for 99.99999% of the population. So according to you, it's fine for films to have ONE warning and nothing else. Why not sit through an hour of warnings so EVERYONE can be warned about everything in a film? I bet you wouldn't want that because it's ridiculous. It seems to me that its easy to say "add trigger warnings" without thinking FOR WHOM? FOR WHAT? Everyone just goes to the sex and violence, but you don't know millions of other things that trigger others, so again, how safe are we making books for readers? What science backs up that people even feel safe with trigger warnings? Also, these are books were talking about. Murder, suicide, rape doesn't happen in a second. You build up to it. Plenty of time to stop reading. You're creating an environment of learned helplessness where people feel they can't take care of their own mental health unless someone prepackages the world for them. That isn't reality.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

" I want to be aware if I need to be ready or not." Yes! Same here, especially with shows/movies. That's a really great point about the flashing lights, too!

@trinity3272 Год назад

As someone with a severe disorder that means if I am triggered I can lose anywhere from a few minutes to a month and maybe even longer, I think trigger warnings are essential, but I know that about myself so I google them for every book I read before I start it. This is a great method for me and works fine so I'd say to popularise this more

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I'm really glad those TW databases exist for this exact reason!!

@nahlanoelle8825 Год назад

My POV is simple: Trigger warnings are a form of censorship. While some genuinely want them just to make a person decision (and to them I say: Self-Regulate! as you mentioned), many people want to use the warnings to target authors. We've all seen those cancel campaigns. Books and every kind of media has existed literally since it's inception without trigger warnings. Why now some people feel the need to find and cancel content because they don't like it is beyond me.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I definitely see your POV here! I'll admit I'd never considered how trigger warnings might be used in censorship before this article, but I think it's a valid point for sure.

@RivkahSong Год назад

My POV is as someone with PTSD who's engaged in the fanfiction community for years where trigger warnings are a basic courtesy. When the warnings are in a clearly marked space people who don't want to read them can skip them so they don't get spoiled and people like me who are prone to flashbacks and dissociation can save ourselves a lot of mental anguish and just know straight out this is a story that will be damaging to us. Everything doesn't have to be warned for, but major things like torture, sexual assault, and child abuse seem like they should be warned for.

@lounatic.1 Год назад

Despite being off the cuff, your perspective was well-articulated and nuanced. Great job, Michelle! I'm writing a horror adventure that has some fantastical, silly elements that could be perceived as "kids stuff" but it's part of a very dark narrative. When an octogenarian in a writing group I visited asked who my target age was, I said, "I remember elementary school classmates in the '80s reading Stephen King, and I know adults decades older than me now who will have nightmares for weeks if a movie is too scary. So to answer your question, I have no idea." 😄 To your point about the terminology, I wonder if people take less issue when it's referred to as a "content warning" instead. But like you and the commenter noted, whatever it's called, itemizing content might lead to reader avoidance and publishers (like movie studios) demanding cuts. I also wonder if this makes it easier for those who want books banned. 😬 Edit: Well, I should've read the comments first because others, a month ago natch, already said what I did and much better than I did. 🤦‍♂️😄 Oh well, it's nice to be in the company of like minded people!

@therealannataylor Год назад

I’m still not entirely sure how I feel about trigger warnings. I think that self regulation is an important tool, and being able to understand yourself and what might induce anxiety or stress is a person’s responsibility to avoid (if they so choose). I recently finished Stephen king’s It. I say finished because i started it in October 2021. As a mother of four kids, I found that I couldn’t handle the gore that came at the expense of children and started having very visceral, graphic nightmares. So I stopped reading. I put the book down, and didn’t read again for almost a year. But I kept thinking about the story. About the main kids who would defeat It in the end and I really wanted to see how they overcame their own issues to come out the other end successful. So I picked it up again and practically devoured the story, knowing a little better what to expect this time around. I think the genre and it’s infamy we’re trigger warnings in itself, so I knew what to expect. Not how I would react to it. I think that trigger warnings can be important in the selection process. For me, stories are incredibly important because they help to gain insights into situations in which I’m not typically exposed. I think in the end that a person is 100% responsible for their own mental health. Certain things are probably a given in certain genres. Standard tropes probably don’t need trigger warnings. But I think that other genres, romance, fantasy, or anything else that doesn’t have specific expectations for triggering content might be useful, especially since the good stories *always* have productive conversations within the story. And I mean, obviously a story about war will be graphic, to say the least. All that to say I don’t think anything should be necessarily avoided because of a specific trigger warning, but that each person is responsible for themselves, and how would they know if something is “dangerous” to their mental and physical health if there is no warning label. We label things for gluten, peanut, and dairy allergies. Even vegan and vegetarian 🤷🏻‍♀️ so in the end, why not?

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

"Why not" is where I tend to land too - although I have to say, that article's points about potential censorship got me thinking about how trigger warnings might be (forgive the pun) weaponized as a way/reason to ban or censor certain books/authors/topics. It's a complicated issue, for sure.

@jinxyhelix Год назад

The TW I have in my book is "life does not come with TWs, nor does my book. It's dark fantasy. Please research genre if dark fantasy is new to you. This is a work of fiction. Enjoy." I speak fluent sarcasm. I also have PTSD, awful anxiety and have other issues I rather not say online. I lived 30+ years without TW. It's easy to put a book down or turn off the tv or click off a site.

@Teckno72 Год назад

I really liked the idea of trigger websites. Writers could give a warning, if they think it might bother people, but I don’t think it should be required.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Agreed! Those websites are great resources.

@tropistan7735 Год назад

I just watched a video that contained a tweet with trigger warning for white rice. I understand this is an ED thing but food is literally everywhere you look. If ppl need a trigger warning on such a micro level, I think this indicates an even bigger problem in society that is being exacerbated by trigger warnings and avoidance. I don't know when total avoidance became the coping method du jour. If I'm in mourning, I will only consume comedies and rom coms instead of my beloved thrillers and horror because what I consume is my personal responsibility. if a death is part of those stories then I will react and that's fine. If the death is gratuitous, then I will make a mental note of the people involved and be more careful when seeing their name attached to a project. As time goes on, I start consuming other things and I will come across media that will make me cry. That response becomes less intense as time goes on. Isn't this a normal part of human existence? Isn't how we interact with our environment a barometer as to how we are doing? Isn't this a part of healing and knowing your progress and how much help you still you need? I'm fine with movies having broad content warnings such as violence, gore and graphic nudity etc.. but the trigger warnings in several genre books have actually made me not read the books because they felt like spoilers. And they are getting more detailed and spoilery as authors respond to some perceived demand from a vocal minority. I mean, gee, how did humans survive trauma for several aeons? We need to stop treating triggers and trauma like it's some brand new thing to be glorified when we are living in the best time to be alive. Trauma hasn't gotten worse. Our ability to cope has.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Interesting examples about the food - I've seen similar warnings. Food is indeed everywhere, and I know part of ED recovery is learning to manage your thoughts around that every single day. I can see providing a TW for a very specific ED-related incident in a story, but for food in general, that doesn't make sense to me.

@wisdomwielder Год назад

I definitely think they should be available if people want to look them up. Like with any movie or show, I should be able to have a general idea of what is it I'm getting into beforehand. I think some of that does fall onto how the author/publisher advertises the book in the synopsis, genre, etc, but readers should also be responsible enough to look up what kind of content the book contains.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Yeah, it's really interesting to think about how marketing comes into this. But overall, I agree that ultimately readers will be safest if we take it upon ourselves to look up what we need to before purchasing a book.

@Avionne_Parris Год назад

Hmmm, this is an interesting topic and I can see both sides to it. I love that there's a resource you can check to see if a book has trigger warnings. Its kind of like the same function of the parental guide in the IMDB movie database. I also thought the point about Olive & the Backstage Ghost cover not reflecting the true dark nature of the content is valid... and something I never thought about. I think both authors and readers should do their due diligence as best as they can cause even if authors cover every single trigger ad nauseum, some are bound to be missed. You could never know what triggers someone. Have a great weekend, Michelle! Hi Rosa :-)

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Thanks, Sio....Avi?? (Not used to it! :) And yes, ultimately we can't know all of the potential triggers in our books.

@Avionne_Parris Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Feel free to call me Sio. I thought I could ease people into it but seeing Lisa (and now you) struggle, I'm having 2nd thoughts. "Avi" is my home name and I figured it'd be easier to pronounce than "Avionne" but I guess it doesnt travel as well as I thought it did....:P

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

@@Avionne_Parris Avi is an awesome name! And super easy to pronounce. Don't second guess it, I promise it's great!

@kkay3784 Год назад

Functioning in the world has its gambles, surprises, disappointments, terrors. To read is to put on your explorer's hat, and to dive into different worlds, or discover that there are people out there who are more like you than you ever thought there were. There are plenty of books that have solicited large emotions in me (Outlander, anyone???). I have never experienced the kind of violence Outlander depicts, yet I still find it terrifically upsetting. A friend of mine HAS experienced a portion of the violence depicted, and yet was the one who recommended the book to me in the first place. It has meaning for her, despite how I was affected. I also would never have known that certain kinds of abuse I suffered from in life was actually abuse, were it not for reading. Nobody at home was going to let me know! I want to be supportive of people, to understand their pain and offer balm (literature offers those things in surprising, nuanced ways not easily citable), but I believe that part of what that means is to foster resilience and a safe space for expression and the freedom of discovery, to make your own decisions and learn from them. There is too much responsibility inappropriately placed on the shoulders of strangers who have their own baggage to haul around. We must respect people enough to allow them the room to figure out how to navigate what can sometimes be an ugly world (in some instances, let's hope, with the professional help they require). We all have to learn how to do that. Promoting resilience and self care is far easier than listing the infinite range of triggers per capita. Find your genre and learn at your own risk. (Also...does anyone remember how to skim? I do it all the time over things I find troubling!) Trigger warnings seem to be more about avoiding the newfangled exercise of shaming, generally by other adults who aren't interesting in learning how to dialogue. And I wonder how many people are really like that.

@jacquiz.6837 Год назад

Thank you for making this video! One other way trigger warnings can be misused is when readers tag a minority-authored book with more trigger warnings than necessary. This happened last year on StoryGraph when they let readers add trigger warnings to books they’ve read. It’s a great feature! But books like Octavia Butler’s “Kindred” had literally hundreds of triggers attached to them, that gave the impression that the book is inappropriate. Books by white authors that were similarly graphic had less than a dozen warnings.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Someone else mentioned this StoryGraph incident - dang!! I'll admit I never thought about the potential to weaponize TWs this way. People suck. :/

@underdawg47 Год назад

I added a warning to my novel partly as a joke. But if people are not a fan of homosexual relationships, foul language, etc, they probably shouldn't be reading my novel in the first place. My aunt expressed interest in reading my book but stopped short after reading the warning page which I found funny. When I write, I don't censor myself.

@RivkahSong Год назад

As someone with PTSD I always appreciated the warnings as certain content can seriously affect my mental health. It's easy for people without those traumatic triggers to dismiss it but sometimes encountering certain things with no warning can cause flashbacks that re-traumatize you before you even really recognize the warning signs in yourself. The argument that if you can't warn for EVERY trigger you shouldn't warn for any is the logical fallacy of the excluded middle and completely disregards the good it does to warn for those big triggers. I don't expect people to "make the world my safe space" but a fair warning for things people KNOW can and are traumatic is helpful and appreciated. Trigger warnings on literature arose out of the fanfiction community where it's considered a basic courtesy. As more fanfic authors become published authors it's becoming more prevalent in published stories. Fic trigger warnings involve major things like domestic abuse, sexual assault, racism, child abuse, amputation, suicidal themes, graphic violence, death of a child, depictions of war, etc. Horror stories that are especially dark and upsetting are often just slapped with a Dead Dove Do Not Eat tag meaning "this is a very dark and twisted story and may contain triggering events, you've been warned" and call it a day since the genre of horror means the reader can fairly accurately assume what kind of triggers are likely in it. Trigger warnings are also listed in an area of their own, not with the blurb, and clearly labeled as the Trigger Warning section so people can choose for themselves if they want to read those warnings or just skip past them to the story.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

That makes a lot of sense - being truly triggered is not the same as being upset or disturbed. Closing the book after reading the triggering content doesn't help. And personally, I know I would include TWs in any of my novels that covered those 'big' triggers. Did this really come from fan fiction? I didn't know that! Although I do know they're extremely common on AO3 and other sites. Um...does the Dead Dove thing come from Arrested Development???? That's so funny! (It's been awhile since I've watched that show, but I definitely remember that gag!)

@RivkahSong Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor lol yes, the Dead Dove Do Not Eat is from arrested development! I love the adoption of that tag since it's so tongue-in-cheek but accurate lol. A lot of AO3 tags/warnings are equally informative and hilarious like that. Another example I can think of is using "A+ parenting" to sarcastically signify abusive parenting i.e. "The Dursley's A+ Parenting".

@floragraves5167 Год назад

My previous comments did not tackle how gay and trans were considered R rated for most of history and would be one of the first things labeled with trigger warnings, then censored as a result of bigotry

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Great points, yeah.

@AmaniCarson Год назад

I can get on board with most of these arguments. But the last point is where I have an issue. I feel like there’s a misunderstanding regarding what trigger warning are actually for. They’re not for situations where someone gets a bit uncomfortable and can simply put the book down. To me a trigger is something that fires something off in your brain that causes a mental health relapse, whether it be self harming again, a suicide attempt, and episode of psychosis, ending up in an ambulance because of a panic attack, or just extreme distress. Most of us who have trauma responses like this want to get better and are actively seeking treatment. But trauma isn’t easy to treat and exposure therapy should be gradual and supervised by a profession. When those of us who are trying to heal from these issues aren’t actively in our therapist’s office or doing the work we have to do regularly, we’re just at home trying to enjoy our lives by escaping into a book or tv show. And when we do it’s nice if we can avoid what could be a devastating spiral that can really set us back. My personal story is that something that I saw in a TV show triggered me to lose touch with reality in a big way. Cue years of paranoia, derealisation, panic attacks, agoraphobia, suicidal ideation, hospital visits, psychiatrist visits and an extreme loss of quality of life all because of something in that show latched onto my existing trauma I was recently grappling with and turned it into something much worse. Saying all that, I’m not annoyed that the show didn’t contain a trigger warning. My trigger wasn’t common and it was difficult enough for me to navigate let alone a stranger who doesn’t know me. But I do wish there was a bit more understanding and compassion around the topic. And whilst I personally don’t expect trigger warnings, it does feel nice when someone cares enough to include them. And I do try and use them myself for others. I do see the argument regarding spoilers and such. To me a happy medium might be to put warning at the end of the book, so that only those who are looking for a warning can seek them out. The directory idea is a good one too.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Yes, you're absolutely right. Putting the book down doesn't help once the trigger has happened. I'm definitely reconsidering my thoughts on that particular comment because it's not the same as just being upset by content. Also, I am so extremely sorry that you went through something so horrible. Trauma recovery is challenging enough, and I absolutely understand that trigger warnings can alleviate some of the burden when it comes to choosing media - and as you said, it's nice when people care.

@esthermarieandujar Год назад

I don’t feel nor think Trigger Warnings are a breath away from censorship. So if any of my written works has triggering scenes I’ll put the warning. I don’t feel like I’m loosing anything. If that makes my place (books) safer for other people I have no problem doing it.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Yeah, "why not" was/is definitely my first reaction. But it's been interesting to see other commenters point out specific ways some books/authors have had their TWs weaponized, too. Definitely a complex topic!

@PaulRWorthington Год назад

I remember Neil Gaiman wrote an essay about this, “Trigger Warnings," almost a decade ago. I don't think anything has changed since then. I agree with his take and with one of the comments you read: as soon as objectionable content starts up in the book, the reader can put it down. They have just as much reaction time as they do from reading a sentence describing the traumatic scene in a contact warning at the beginning of the book. I have a rather horrific scene in my current book that - if anything should - might be deserving of a content warning. But I am writing a paranormal suspense story, which is what's the genre of horror. I think anyone complaining they were horrified by a scene is just silly. It's supposed to be spooky. It's a murder story with ghosts. A reader could hardly complain that a character was murdered. Like you said, for the most part the genre is the content warning. Pretty much the only place I see a content warning as truly being necessary is if there is a particularly traumatic scene that is otherwise out of place in the story. I don't know why a writer would do that in the first place, but if for some reason they did put a SA scene in an otherwise cozy romance, for example, then yes, they should warn the reader.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

NG's essay was beautifully written and still holds up, for sure. I do think there's a difference between finding something horrifying and being triggered by it. I can't do stories with cannibalism - but I'm not triggered by it. I'm just super grossed out by it. If a person is triggered by something and it leads to a true mental health crisis or incident, closing the book doesn't work because the damage is done. But if that's the case, once again I'm kind of wavering because would the TW itself have triggered the same response? Hmm.

@matty2041 Год назад

I appreciated your take on this. My partner has complex PTSD and it's really frustrating when people talk about being triggered but they really mean "upset" or "grossed out."

@bicho6313 Год назад

Maybe publishers need to take better care to market books in a way that gives readers a better idea of the book's content, tone, themes, and level of graphic detail. Idk if this is new but I have noticed a theme in books lately being marketed in a way that misleads readers about what to expect. Also this wouldn't be such an issue if editors and authors were generally more careful about how they write certain content. I personally have been burned many times on certain genres (mainly historical fiction and horror) because of the careless way in which SA and other "taboo" subjects are employed as plot devices or shock value.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Oh that's interesting! Which books have you noticed with misleading marketing? I've definitely felt duped by a few in the past as well. And yes, sometimes authors do not handle certain topics well, which is why literary criticism is so important.

@bicho6313 Год назад

@Michelle Schusterman it's hard to remember one specific books it's more of a theme. It's getting kind of hard to know what you're getting into nowadays like there would be books with cutesy animated covers that have very intense content which I'm sometimes ok with but I'd rather be mentally prepared for it.

@ArtemisMS Год назад

The thought of slapping on HBO-style warnings onto the cover of a book leaves a bad taste in my mouth. But I'd like to see things like the Trigger Warning Database become "official" databases updated by the publishers. Of course that would be mean more work for overworked, underpaid workers, so... it's hard to figure out where to go from here.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I agree, I think those databases are the best solution we've got for now!

@Sue-pn7mq Год назад

What’s the effect of trigger warnings for literature students? Are they allowed to not read certain books because they refuse them because of triggers and what’s the consequence? Can you still study literature if there are many subjects that do trigger you? If something is too much, you can stop reading as it’s a book, but not giving things a try might lead to unnecessary knowledge gaps and also missing out on things that might not be an actual trigger. Many amazing books are specifically meant to shock the reader and trigger warnings are taking away that shock factor and therefore also part of the experience. Then again, I feel like if someone’s reading for fun, it’s a different matter. If you buy a book as a form of entertainment, it serves a completely different purpose. It’s a subject that has so many different sides and I like how this video addresses this.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I don't have the answers, but this is clearly a hot topic in academia right now. Once again I really think a lot of the problems stem from a misunderstanding between a genuine trigger and generally upsetting content.

@thefolktalefox5960 Год назад

I think we underestimate the value of the blurb. IMO a good blurb should indicate what kind of book you'll be reading. Grim dark fantasy will explore themes that are darker, more pessimistic, raw etc. That's what you expect from the genre. Same with romance. A cozy romance novel will have a blurb that will indicate that we'll explore romance. I honestly think genres combined with a blurb should really be enough to indicate if the book will be what you're looking for. And again, as you said, if it doesn't end up being what you wanted it to be. Well, just put it down. I recently read a thriller and unexpectedly it contained a very explicit rape scene. I wasn't surprised by it but the graphicness and horror of how it was written (I think it was frighteningly accurately portraited} it just ended being too much of a horror story for me. So I stopped reading it. I very much agree that we as readers should acknowledge as you said, that the world will never be a perfect happy space. Consider genre + blurb an indication as to what the book will contain and often you will find what you were promised. That's why I don't see the need for trigger warning. Readers need to take their responsibility in their own actions and the choices they make. if you don't want bad endings and dark themes well don't read grim dark fantasy, horror, etc. I really think as a writer/publisher you cannot possibly warn for every single event. Because it will also set the reader expectations that might not even match the content in the book. Or recognise the way it is handled. Perhaps there is mention or rape. Just the word. Does that also need a rape trigger warning? Even if perhaps it is only by mention? Which is completely different than an actual scene unfolding? Here in the EU, trigger warnings on movies and series are really only there if it is included in the movie itself. On television. There are no trigger warnings, only for epilepsy, as flashing images might cause it. We just assume that if you let your child watch adult movies, you'll be able to judge whether what they are seeing will be troublesome for them as you know them. So to me the need for trigger warnings is a little over done. I think it be better if you either include more in the blurb about the themes or more clearly state what genre, perhaps even subgenre you are writing in.

@ainathiel Год назад

Thank you for the video. I am still on the fence on this subject. Also I don't think finger--wagging or blame is helpful. I will read both articles and give this issue more thought. I do agree that instead of arguing with the creator or their fans, we should take responsible for ourselves. Thanks again for introducing me to Writer Unboxed.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I'm right there on the fence with you!! And Writer Unboxed is excellent, so glad you liked the article!

@winterrenes1249 Год назад

I'm torn on this subject as well. I understand the desire for trigger warnings, yet I can also understand the spoiler aspect of them. I also think triggers can be highly unexpected even for the person who can potentially be triggered. It might trigger, it might not. I'm currently writing books that could potentially have trigger warnings. I'm wondering if (when my books are published), instead of just writing out the trigger warnings, put them as a link on the books page. That way, those who don't want to see them don't have to and those who want to can click and see. Sadly, I don't think this can work for all online shops, only my website. So, I am not sure how to offer this as an option across all boards if you know what I mean. 🤔

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I think you're right in that the key here is finding a way to make the triggers accessible, but only if the reader chooses to see them/click on them.

@winterrenes1249 Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor It would be nice if other platforms offered that option, like Amazon or book store websites 🙂

@aroomofmIOwn Год назад

I wonder how the anti trigger-warning people choose which books to read in the first place. Do they just close their eyes and reach out towards the shelf? Or do they check out the back cover copy to get an idea of what the story is about before they commit to reading it? Because it seems to me that if you're ideologically opposed to trigger warnings, you'd have to be ideologically opposed to plot summaries, too.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I think it depends on what the trigger warning is exactly. Apparently some of them are quite detailed - more information than you'd normally reveal in a cover blurb.

@jinxyhelix Год назад

That is not the same thing at all. Not even close.

@c.s2193 22 дня назад

You’re comparing apples with oranges. I’ll give you an example: A book I’ve recently read, a family drama, had a trigger warning for su!cide. I knew from the first page what the twist would be. It spoiled the ending. A blurb does not do that. It should gibe me the right tone (it was described as dark) without giving too much away, like the trigger warning did. So no, not even remotely the same

@Iwasonceanonionwithnolayers Год назад

I like the idea of having some kind of stamp that people with very common triggers would recognize, while people who don't really know about it wouldn't. For example, a Medusa stamp. A lot of people who've been through the traumatic event associated with Medusa would understand and could make an informed decision, while most other people wouldn't know why it was there. That's my solution, but if you're looking for opinions: I really think it depends on your audience. For a young audience, it may be inappropriate not to add certain content warnings (I'm not referring to things that's immediately disqualify a book from that age category.) But for an adult audience, as you say, triggers have been politicized. So, it may just be safer to add a trigger warning if your audience is more liberally aligned because that's largely who will care if you don't do it. Just in general, I think people are responsible for their own mental health, so they'll need to investigate when consuming media. I applaud the resources available for that, and since they exist, no one can really blame the author. However, since we're empathetic people, I think it's good to add a warning when there are themes present that no one could reasonably expect. Idk how many books are doing surprise suicides this day and age, but putting it on the website or having that stamp on the jacket may be worthwhile. At the end of the day, for one, they're right there's too many triggers to warn for, and two, again people are responsible for their own mental health and should investigate, but three, as empathetic people, we can do something to help. I've got some personal mental issues that can be triggered

@ardelleholden7538 Год назад

My trigger warning will be : "This is not a Cozy Mystery!"

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Ha!!

@ardelleholden7538 Год назад

I might even capitalize NOT!

@tanyabc Год назад

I feel like one thing that the commenter missed out on is the fact that all of those show creators of that content she put down or stopped watching also wasted her time. Like yes, maybe Braveheart worked out for her, but how many didn't? I'll never understand the authorial urge to get your content in front of people who aren't interested in the themes or traumas you're exploring. Similar to how kids have the self-management skills to put something down that's too much for them, we also have the same experience in making exceptions to our own personal "rules." I don't like reading about child sexual abuse, but I still picked up Unbound by Tarana Burke because the author and book blurb made me trust that it would be handled in a way that would work for me. I work in marketing, not book marketing, but the general rule of marketing is to get your product in front of the right person, not every person. Setting customer expectations leads to higher customer satisfaction. I'm pro trigger warnings / descriptive blurbs / covers that reflect tone. I think the fear of censorship is a huge reach because there's still such a wide swath of readers who love trauma-centered books and dark stories. There are many best-selling romances out right now that feature trauma as a plot device. As long as people are experiencing trauma, authors will continue to write about trauma, and readers will actively seek those stories out because they want to be seen. /rant done lol. But seriously, there's enough readers for everybody. I don't see what's so bad about targeting the right readers for your book.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Thanks so much for sharing this perspective! The marketing angle is interesting to me - you're right, it's about getting the book in front of the right readers (hence my issue with OLIVE, sigh). There are absolutely readers out there who seek out trauma-centered books. I think the censorship comes into play when people use TWs as a reason to ban a book or 'hide' it. A few other commenters mentioned an incident on the site StoryGraph in which excessive TWs were used to essentially bury books by marginalized authors.

@tanyabc Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I can kind of see that, even more so when self-publishers run into issues with Amazon, but I still struggle with calling that censorship when it's really just an author losing access to one of their marketing channels. And the issue of inequitable access to marketing channels has been an issue in publishing since the dawn of time. In some ways, with self-publishing and social media specifically, things are much more equitable than they used to be and while I think people should still keep fighting to make them even better, I don't think trigger warnings are the real issue. If the trigger warning is accurate, then the book is being censored for content, not the warning on the content. I think the bigger issue is with how tech companies build their algorithms and with how booksellers and librarians (and mostly the voters / politicians who control librarians) deprioritize diversity, not only racial / identity diversity but diversity in story...or maybe even the issue is how paternalistic they've started treating readers? Until some really fundamental thinking about diversity / access to diverse lit is changed, there will always be some new reason to "censor" a book. You've even had the honor of being banned! I think of it as a badge of honor at least, lol.

@StevenWilliams2560 Год назад

I'm a relative newbie, so take what I say with a grain of salt. I also have no major triggers. I believe it is our job as writers to convey the tone and subject of our book, so we attract readers who want to consume our work. We should work hard not to mislead buyers into making a purchase they'll regret. But if someone is triggered by violence, let's say, they should not read crime mysteries and expect not to be triggered. They have an obligation to protect their own mental health. I also wonder if people pay attention to film ratings anymore? Aside from parents with young children.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

It's so interesting to see how marketing intersects with this topic! it's not pleasant to feel like you were duped by a book/author, that's for sure.

@kanashiiookami6537 Год назад

I like trigger warnings in a sense. But not the broad "this book contains x" like most trigger warnings are. I prefer specifics; one book I read had a trigger warning that gave you the exact page number, and amount of pages you may want to skip to avoid the trigger. I loved that. I didn't need to skip the pages because they weren't a trigger for me, but I appreciated the specificity of the warning that made it so readers understood the entire book wasn't about that one thing. But I do feel that it's a bit much. I've read agents MSWLs telling you to put content warnings on your query so they can reject you outright without getting triggered.(which seems ironic considering I always felt that if you're triggered by the mention of something in a book, then the trigger warning itself must be triggering, no?) I've found agents who want mysteries without murder, or people who don't want to read about characters that are depressed or characters that may unalive themself or make mention of knowing someone who has. And while I understand and respect that, it can drastically limit plots or character arcs. (Something hard to explain unless you've read books or watched shows containing this info and understand how it impacts the characters and the story.) All that being said, I like content/trigger warnings that are specific down to the page number. Though I understand the fact that it gives spoilers and can ruin the story for people. That and the slippery slope you mentioned of what to list where in terms of genre fiction, age range, and all that. It's impossible to know, and I don't think we'll ever make everyone happy when it comes to this.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Whoa, I've never seen a warning with a specific page number before! Interesting. Purely subjectively, I think as a reader, I wouldn't want to read a book at all if I had to skip a few pages to avoid something. It would drive me bonkers wondering what I missed! I also hadn't seen agent MSWLs with those instructions. Also interesting. I mean, I get it - if I were an agent, there are a few specific topics I would never want to read about and therefore try to sell. I suppose that's no different than saying "I don't rep romance" or whatever.

@JoeyPaulOnline Год назад

I used trigger warnings on my last book because of the plot revolving around a certain subject but yes you can't warn for everything, but I think they can be good.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Agreed. It's a complicated topic!

@avitalpseudonym5973 Год назад

On the topic of trigger warnings acting as spoilers, can they simply not be moved to the end of the book with their placement referenced at the beginning? I don't know much about book formatting, but this doesn't seem too hard. If you're a reader who cares about spoilers, you just don't turn to the page. Maybe I'm just too used to fanfiction where the writer just points you to the end notes for trigger or content warnings.

@jinxyhelix Год назад

Also I saw ppl on goodreads complaining that authors weren't leaving TW for cliff hangers. Lmao.

@vivianwakoff Год назад

IMO trigger warnings are valid, but they're not an obligation. And people shouldn't expect/demand them. I couldn't finish Daisy Jones and the Six because it triggered me (for real) but I didn't think it was the book's fault (or the author's) for one second. Ultimately my mental health is my responsibility and I don't need an author/director treating me with kid gloves. I can just stop reading/watching. I did that last weekend, when I walked out of Smile (a horror movie) because of animal cruelty.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I hear you! I think a lot of people feel this way.

@KyrstOak Год назад

15:01 Kids shouldn't be exposed to that stuff _at all._

@chrismeister884 Год назад

can you do a video on what the heck is a sensitivity reader. and why would i need one.

@jinxyhelix Год назад

You don't need one. Avoid at all cost

@antoinehenderson1659 Год назад

Disney put a trigger warning for the Jedi massacre in the first episode of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I found it to be almost comical.

@StevenSheltonAuthor 10 месяцев назад

I'm writing a memoir. It includes two violent sexual assaults that I barely survived. I don't know what to do with those.

@cynthiaking5308 Год назад

This is in conflict with the inciting incident. You need more than a paper cut to be the reason a person makes the choices they make.

@yaboyharv Год назад

I'm all for people having access to trigger warnings, but I personally want to be able to avoid them. They ruin too much of the story for me, and really sour my experience as a reader/watcher/whatever. If warnings were included, say, on one of the pages in the back of a book instead of the front, I'd be much happier. As it is, people will open their reviews with "TW this story contains: [plot twist], [big reveal], [character's secret identity], [something that happens on the final page]."

@nocturnus009 Год назад

There are positive & negative impacts here. One can be positively triggered. On a livestream I commented to the creator of Rory’s StoryCubes that their board game, Megacity Oceana had hit so many positive triggers for me: the game is a mix of Jenga & SimCity. See any play alongs to see how this particular game would land for someone with a Civil (Environmental) Engineering degree.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

That's an interesting point, Charles!

@trinaq Год назад

Greetings, Michelle, thanks for this helpful video. Personally, I find trigger warnings to be very useful, as it lets the audience know of the dark content ahead of time, and that if it doesn't appeal to them, then they have the option to opt out or skim in advance. I try to let my readers know whenever we'd be approaching some heavy territory in my own stories.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

Thanks, Trina! I completely get what you're saying. I know a lot of readers really appreciate TWs.

@histlitgeek5663 Год назад

For me its the same as one mans trash is another mans treasure... one womans trigger warning is another womans shopping list!

@dinaatjuh Год назад

I'm so done with this very american sentiment of your mh is your responsibility. In a world as violent as this one, where so many young folk are going under mentally, where mh care is so unobtainable it's shoving systemic issues onto the shoulders of the individual. No. Be kind and do your best to not hurt others, so use and don't abuse TW's. Personally I am in a circle on my social media where TW's are used almost at all times. Food, eye contact and lots more, stuff that's specific and to the masses unharmful. It's impossible to count the amount of times I could continue my day without landing in a catatonic state because of TW's. I think they are a great tool to help each other survive this world, this life and prevent unnecessary escalation. I often wish TW's where used even more widely then they are currently, it is so helpful to just get a heads-up. If you are so great in self regulating, then why are you so upset about TW's when you can easily just skip them?

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I really do understand your point, and like I said, my initial reaction to TWs is "why not? If they help people, cool!" I do believe we can and should do whatever is in our power to change society for the better. But I also know that the reality is, the world can be a rough place. And I don't think of it as shoving responsibility onto the shoulders of the individual - more like empowering them through strategies, therapy/counseling, other tools etc that they can use to best handle triggers when they come across them. I also understand that TWs can be helpful - but as many other comments on this video have pointed out, there have been numerous scenarios in which TWs have been weaponized against certain books/authors, bordering on censorship. There's a lot to consider!

@dinaatjuh Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Only writing this the other day landed me again in this catatonic state. And ableism, or in this case sanism is a daily struggle. It's not only about people with ptsd, there are many other conditions and even non mental health related reasons why TW's can really help. And things like ableism and sanism are systemic. No one chooses to be unwell but this world is casting us aside and worse, wants to eliminate us out of existence. That's not me being dramatic, that's both historical and current day fact. You mention therapy (even in my country which has (mh) health care available, it's still not available cause of the endless waiting times.) You mention tools, exactly! TW's are a tool just like a wheelchair is. Would you discuss the cons and pros of a wheelchair? How inconvenient they are for abled bodied folks to get around, the privilege of those people, they can park in handicap spaces, how awful! Let's discuss their right to merely exist in this world. And let's claim their disability is their responsibility, because that's what systemic means. It never. ends. every. day. it's. the. same. message: your existence is bothersome, taking you into account is too much trouble. I like you and I've been here long enough to know you mean no harm. But no one here seems to consider the dark undertones of this discussion, the implications that lay under the surface. And I wish someone would, because I would also like to feel welcome.

@dinaatjuh Год назад

I'll repeat; use - don't abuse - TW's. Cause I heard you, and I read the comments.

@fortunamajor7239 9 месяцев назад

it's always interesting when people act like individualism wrt mh is an american-exclusive thing ... my family is nigerian and nigerian culture and many other cultures aren't very different from america when it comes to the 'you have some responsibility for your own health' sentiment. wheelchairs and mobility aids are not the same as people getting mad that their obscure trigger was not warned for on page one of a book. everyone is triggered by something different because everyone's trauma is different and there's no way to do a catch-all for the majority of people outside of a full plot synopsis. that's not the same as making sure that buildings are designed to accommodate wheelchairs, because we know how big wheelchairs are.

@manymusings Год назад

I lost all respect for "trigger" warnings when they applied it to the Constitution of the United States.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I don't recall this...?

@manymusings Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor yes ma'am. They have done it.

@manymusings Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor to be more specific, the National Archives added the warning of "harmful content " to the Constitution. Happened in September 2021.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

@@manymusings Wow, I didn't know that!

@fantasmic77 Год назад

There are so many things I really don't understand with the pushback against trigger warnings. I don't understand how it's spoiling anything. If you read see that a book contains X trigger (Idk, abuse for example), how is that a spoiler? Unless it's a huge twist that someone is abused, it's not telling you anything. It's not like "murder warning--X character murders X". It's not like it would be plastered on the front cover, I assume, in huge font just for anyone to see as they're looking at the book. I also don't understand how it's censorship. How is a trigger warning censoring anything? The content is still in the book, the warning is not silencing anyone. It's such a small thing that can save people so much grief. Maybe even rephrase it to "content warnings" if that's more palatable. Even for myself who doesn't necessarily have any triggers, I would LOVE content warnings. Holy cow the number of times I've had to put down a book because it got sooo graphic OUT OF NOWHERE! I just really don't understand the big deal. Can't we be kinder to people with mental health struggles and triggers instead of telling them to deal with it on their own? Editing to add: also the argument that "there are so many triggers, so we just shouldn't have any." Ok but there are some that are really common. I agree that there are many you would never even think of and you definitely can't account for everything, but for the common ones that affect so many, a simple warning wouldn't hurt...

@Mark-nh2hs 8 месяцев назад

This whole "books require trigger warnings" just shows how common sense is clearly lacking in some quarters of today's society. It's so simple… Turn the book over and read the synopsis on the back - it will tell you the general gist of the story including particular key elements - such as "She was in hiding from her abusive/Violent husband", or "Then the first body was found, naked, mutilated and defiled, this was only the beginning". Everyone has mobile phones if still unsure watch a spoiler free review on the multiple social media platforms.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor 8 месяцев назад

Sometimes, but not always. I've read tons of books that included a scene that wasn't hinted at in the synopsis and would absolutely be triggering to those with PTSD related to such events. And to be clear - nothing wrong with having the scene in the story. The lack of mention is because otherwise it would spoil the plot in some way. The key is making that info available for those who might be triggered to seek out without spoiling that plot point for other readers - which is very doable.

@Mark-nh2hs 8 месяцев назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I mean go back a few years ago nobody were triggered or you never heard about it. Now everyone seems triggered by everything, sometimes it's something really mondain - as a cup fell over and ruined a hat - this may trigger someone out there, so totally impossible to predict. If they want trigger warnings simple slap a warning saying "Don't read any book as it can trigger certain people". Also you should have some knowledge that particular genres of books say Horror, Crime, True Crime and Romance etc all have particular tropes or themes even if it's not mentioned in the synopsis which may or may not pop up. If they want trigger free books - my god Literature would be so boring and even then something in the Trigger free book would trigger someone along the line lol.

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor 8 месяцев назад

As long as PTSD has existed (ie always), triggers have existed. It's part of that condition. It's not that nobody was triggered, it's that it wasn't talked about - because it was stigmatized and seen as shameful (and going back decades ago, PTSD wasn't even acknowledged as a legit medical/psychological condition). That said, I absolutely agree that the word trigger is frequently used nowadays as a synonym for "upset", which is harmful to people with actual PTSD and actual triggers. It's complicated because I absolutely disagree with reviews saying a book could trigger someone therefore no one should read it. But I also disagree that trigger warnings are unnecessary at all, because people with diagnosed PTSD and trauma greatly benefit from those warnings as a way to manage their conditions.@@Mark-nh2hs

@StephenAryan44 Год назад

I don't think it's harsh at all. If the back of the book says, a spine tingling story to keep you up at night, and then you get triggered because it was scary.....well, you have to take responsibility for that. I understand why trigger warnings are used but still.....

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

I'm definitely finding myself going back and forth on this whole debate!

@StephenAryan44 Год назад

@@MichelleSchustermanAuthor I checked and on my new book, we have Content Warnings in the press release, rather than Trigger which I find a better term. Also less political these days

@MichelleSchustermanAuthor Год назад

@@StephenAryan44 Very true.