Thoughts on triggers and warnings

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Recently in fandom there's been a big argument about warnings on posts. The best summary, imo, is Warnings Wank In Bandom on Unfunny Business, but if you haven't encountered the idea of people being triggered by descriptions of sexual assault I recommend Triggers and Trauma and Sexual Assault, Triggering, and Warnings: An Essay(Warning: Very explicit discussion of sexual assault and the nature, anatomy, cause & effect of triggers. Is itself triggery.).

This post is a collection of thoughts on the issue, not all restricted to fanfic.

I don't have any triggers myself. There are topics which tend to upset me, and certain kinds of fiction which make me feel bad, but that's not the same thing. What I do have is friends with triggers. I've read enough descriptions of what a trigger is like to NOT want to do that to anyone (especially not anyone I care about), and I've been very politely informed that I've inadvertently caused one enough (ie at least once) to be VERY careful, though still not always careful enough.

And for me this has nothing to do with "community norms". For example, I put this under a cut, not out of peer pressure, not because I thought anyone would yell at me, but because I didn't want to cause my friends or anyone else extra pain. (I didn't add "Warning: About triggers, may cause triggers" because I can't see that being helpful. I'm open to correction on this though) You can never totally avoid hurting some people sometimes, but we can all do our best and try and learn from our mistakes.

People talk about how movies and tv etc don't have warnings but, well..why shouldn't they? Maybe the fact they don't is a sign of the way that mainstream media is less responsive to the feelings of it's viewers than fanfic fandom. EDIT: Sorry, I expressed that badly. I agree that there are lots of things that act like warnings (reviews and trailers etc). But even if there wasn't that wouldn't necessarily make it ok for us not to warn anyway: "as good as mainstream culture" is a pretty crappy standard to hold yourself to when it comes to stuff like accessibility.

Also I've seen a few people imply that it's appropriative to talk about this in terms of privilege etc but I really don't think it is. As a disabled person, I see this as an accessibility problem, and people being privileged prats about it are being ableist(*). Not all the people it affects are actually disabled, but afaict(**) the relationship between triggering and related psychological problems like PTSD and suicidal depression etc is similar to the relationship between "having problems with stairs" and related physical problems like quadriplegia: on the whole the more hurdles and prejudice that person faces in everyday life the worse they will be affected by the accessibility problem, so contributing to that problem unnecessarily or refusing to acknowledge it is thoughtless and ableist.

I have seen some people saying "This is EXACTLY like racism/RaceFail" etc which is appropriative imo. There are some striking similarities in the way people defend their privilege, but some pretty important differences too. I guess the problem is that fandom doesn't have the language to deal with disability as it's own separate thing (Yet. I say optimistically. Though I imagine the only way we'll get there is via DisabilityFail :/)

I think the thing that annoys me the most from (EDIT: some of) the less Totally Failtastic commenters is that sometimes they make reasonable points but it's clear that even if they're willing to warn sometimes they still see the feelings of people who get triggered as important but secondary to their own convenience, and will for example make no particular effort to denounce the extreme anti-warning people while simultaneously complaining about being lumped in with them. EDIT: Not everyone who has criticisms of some of the ways warnings are currently implemented is doing this, and some of those criticisms are imo valid.

So I won't stand for that here: If you don't want people to assume that you're a prat who doesn't care about the feelings of people with triggers, make it clear that you do (and not by concern trolling).

EDIT: Reading some more I think that while I haven't seen anyone being pro-warnings with the same intense nastiness as some of the anti-warnings people, there is still some unfortunate over-generalising and not-listening. Right. More, on warnings. is the best post I've seen on this so far, though I think a small minority of people ARE being malicious. Also an important point I've seen made is that painting anyone who's not 100% unambiguously pro warnings as "anti survivors of sexual assault" is unfair to survivors who are NOT triggered and/or use BDSM etc as a way of working through their issues etc.

(*)Of course other disabled people (especially those with a more relevant disability) are welcome to disagree.
(**)And I don't know a lot about these sorts of psychological issues, so my apologies if I'm spouting crap. Also I realise a lot of people use "psychological problems" as code for "reasons I can dismiss you as irrational and inhuman" but that is the opposite of my intention. AND that I still don't have a major grip on what does and does not count as a disability (and I both wouldn't want to apply the term to someone who doesn't identify as disabled and wouldn't want to tell a disabled person that they "don't count")