Å·±¦ÓéÀÖ

“Over the years, I have seen trigger warnings for eating disorders, poverty, self-injury, bullying, heteronormativity, suicide, sizeism, genocide, slavery, mental illness, explicit fiction, explicit discussions of sexuality, homosexuality, homophobia, addiction, alcoholism, racism, the Holocaust, ableism, and Dan Savage. Life, apparently, requires a trigger warning.� (150)

In “The Illusion of Safety / The Safety of Illusion,� Roxane Gay takes on trigger warnings...and comes out against them:

“When I see trigger warnings, I think, How dare you presume what I need to be protected from? Trigger warnings also, when used in excess, start to feel like censorship. They suggest that there are experiences or perspectives too inappropriate, too explicit, too bare to be voiced publicly.� (151)

“That said, there is value in learning, where possible, how to deal with and respond to the triggers that cut you open, the triggers that put you back in terrible places, that remind you of painful history...This is the truth of my trouble with trigger warnings: there is nothing words on the screen can do that has not already been done. A visceral reaction to a trigger is nothing compared to the actual experience that created the trigger.� (152)

What do you think about trigger warnings? Did your opinion change after reading this essay? Why or why not?

I'm not quite sure my opinion on this. Sometimes I'd appreciate a warning (especially for someone's graphic detailing of a sexual assault), but I don't think I'd like it if they weren't included just for my benefit. I always say I'm going to skip over that part, not read it, but instead I tend to devour it voraciously, which the author and other people in my personal life tend to agree with. But I agree with her, you should at least know what's going to hurt you.