Jenn McKinlay: Some time in that glorious week between Christmas and the New Year where time has no meaning, Hub and I went to see the movie AMERICAN FICTION. I had seen the trailer and the author bits resonated so resoundingly that I knew I had to see the movie.
Well…it was not the satirical comedy I expected. I mean it was, but it was so much more. It was so very much more in fact, that in the first few minutes during a scene that was particularly poignant for me on a personal level, the Hub leaned over the tub of popcorn between us and asked, “Do we need to leave? It’s okay if we do.” I shook my head and soldiered on and I am so glad I did. Needless to say, I loved this movie but that’s not the point of my post. My point is that we now live in a world full of trigger warnings (not for real guns, because…yeah, let’s put a pin in that because if I start ranting I might never stop). Ahem.
Emotional trigger warnings. They are everywhere. You pick up a book these days and before you can even read the first page, it warns you that there are discussions of eating disorders, mental illness, suicide, alcoholism, pet death, and on and on and on inside the novel – which is FICTION.
Frankly, I have very mixed feelings about this because had I seen a trigger warning for AMERICAN FICTION for the scene that reduced me to a napkin clutching blubbering mess, I might have decided not to see one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long while. And that would have been a real shame.
I’m also pondering the exact purpose of these warnings because a professional reviewer for one of the literary trade magazines dinged my upcoming book because it made her cry – she reduced it from five stars to four because there was no trigger warning in the advance copy she received. Yes, she said that. *sigh*
So, how about it, Reds? How do you feel about having trigger warnings put in your books? Yay or nay and why?
HALLIE EPHRON: What I don’t like about trigger warnings is that they cast a shadow over the reading experience. I read in a protective crouch, waiting to be sideswiped by whatever I’ve been warned of. And it seems as if it’s being used as a big CYA across a very wide swath of narratives.
RHYS BOWEN: I have had to deal with this so frequently recently. I had to put a foreword in one book to warn readers they may be shocked at the way the Brits treated the native Kenyans in 1935. Also about the way sexual predators were tolerated in those days.
I felt like saying “It’s History. It’s how it was. I’m showing the truth. Get over it.” or, “Learn from it. Feel better that we have improved.”
I think one of the important things about reading is that it’s good to be shocked. We are shocked when a character is revealed to be a murderer, when we read about brutality in WWII It’s good to be taken out of our comfort zone, to read something and know it isn’t right and feel angry or disgusted. Life cannot all be smoothed over for us. Life is sometimes gritty, unfair, brutal.
HANK PHILLIPPI RYAN: I am so grateful to hear this about American FIction, Jenn. I had the same expectation that you did, and cannot wait to see it–but I’m gonna CRY? WHAT? Can you tell me in an email what happens? Or wait–I’ll just look it up.
In that particular case, it seems like a marketing failure, then– they should say “poignant, heartbreaking and somehow hilarious and timely”:--then I’m at least warned. If promo content was simply clearer, we wouldn't need to have warnings that say: be careful, you might be upset.
I fear I am not qualified to answer this, though, because there’s nothing that would upset me enough–if it were something that I’m not comfortable reading, I’d just stop. But other people’s lives are different from mine.
DEBORAH CROMBIE: Oh, this is so interesting. I don’t want to see trigger warnings on things I might be interested in reading. As Hallie said, I don’t want to be reading with expectations of whatever the dreaded thing is. A general idea of what the book is about is just fine. If it doesn’t sound like my cup of tea, I can pass. If I’m reading something and find it distressing, I can quit. I can’t imagine all the wonderful books I might have missed if they had come with warning labels, and I very much hope I’m never required to add one to my books.
LUCY BURDETTE: There is a lovely woman who reviews cozy mysteries who tells authors not to send books with suicide in them as she had a tragedy in her family and this is too hard for her. This to me makes sense–she knows what sets her off and she doesn’t want to read it. I think we should all be capable of assessing and making choices, right? Though I think Hank makes an excellent point about the marketing–the book jacket should give us enough of a hint to choose whether to buy and read the book–or not! Now I cannot wait to see American Fiction…
JULIA SPENCER-FLEMING: I can understand the importance of certain kinds of scenes perhaps being acutely painful to someone. I have a dear cousin who lost a child to a particular form of suicide, and I can imagine it feeling like a punch to the chest if she were to run across a depiction of that in a film or in fiction. On the other hand, I find graphic violence extremely disturbing - as in, I’ve never seen all of THE GODFATHER - but you don’t tend to see explicit warnings for that, except for the pre-show “Warning: scenes of sex, smoking, bad language and violence” which is SO broad as to be useless.
My take? It should be in the individual to protect themselves if they are deeply sensitive to something. When I had kids, I didn’t want them exposed to violence, so I read up on any movies before I took them. I read books along with them, and read reviews. There’s SO much information out there, if you know you’re going to be traumatized by a scene with clowns, read up on the book before you buy it!
JENN: For a deeper discussion by information professionals about content warnings, I highly recommend this article in School Library Journal: Trigger Warnings and Emotional Distress
Oh, so we're talking spoiler alerts today.
ReplyDeleteI ran across one in a book I read last summer. It was a mystery (shocking, considering that's almost all I read). The trigger warning said the book had someone being threatened with a gun and a kidnapping. So I spent the entire book looking for those things. The kidnapping? It was a huge plot point, and the characters thought this person might have been killed. I figured they were alive because of the warning. And the gun? It showed up in the typical villain holding the sleuth at gun point climax. Only time we saw one.
So yeah, my take on them is rather cynical.
As you have said, I can see how they could be helpful, especially for someone with a certain type of trauma in their past. And it is hard to get all that information into a book teaser no matter how good your marketing team is (and I've read some book teasers that got the plot of the book very wrong). For the majority of us, it is going to be overkill.
But I feel like this needs to be more on the reader/viewer than on the author/publisher/creator.
And it's always okay to put the book down or stop watching if you realize something isn't for you. But maybe you will ultimately find this is something that helps you heal.
Yes, it's that fine line between a warning and a spoiler that really bugs me.
DeleteTrigger warnings for books? Just . . . no.
ReplyDeleteI get that people have things in their lives that are upsetting, that they might not want to read about in a fictional tale . . . but, really, we all have upsetting things in our lives. Should we stop reading books because there just might be some scene in the story that could possibly be upsetting for us? Should we avoid all the books that might make us cry? Should we never read a book that makes us think about the human condition? Isn't it a good thing when the reader feels empathy for a character?
I agree that it is important to consider other people's feelings, but . . . Read the blurb on the book jacket. Accept the fact that there are upsetting things in history [but, hopefully, we've learned something important from those events]. I get that some scenes/events can be particularly disturbing to a reader who has had a traumatic experience, but if it is that hard, just stop reading the story. Putting warnings on books just feels like overkill to me . . . .
I agree. Especially, in genre fiction. You should know what you're getting yourself into by category and if the author has pushed the narrative, there should be a clue in the blurb.
DeleteI like to know as little as possible or it does mess with my reading and viewing.
ReplyDeleteRemember on Friends when Joey would put the book he was reading in the freezer because it was getting too scary or sad?
When the movie UP came out, my husband saw it on a plane and then said we should watch it, it was funny. I turned to him 5 minutes in, sobbing, and said, “You think this is funny?” As you know, it got funny after that bit. I find a good cry cathartic, but understand that for some people, content warnings are helpful.
The Hub got me to watch Up, too, with the same reaction. But can you imagine having missed it if we were warned there was widow grief in it? Me neither.
DeleteOh, and Joey was always my favorite Friend :)
DeleteBook: JAWS
ReplyDeleteWarning: Shark eats people.
I just started seeing trigger warnings on some books. I find it interesting. Personally, I don't feel that I need them but confess that there are several things that make me upset. Those things would not necessarily prevent me from reading a book. Society, as a whole, has become super sensitive in some regard and much coarser in others.
"Political correctness" and the cleansing of offensive terms from our language has opened the door. We try in every way to protect people from hearing something that might upset them. Now, it is being used against us by others who are removing books from libraries and changing educational curriculum to avoid ugly truths from history. Too bad. History is mostly a compilation of ugly truths.
I read Rhys's forward explaining the treatment of Kenyans by white settlers. Unfortunately, it probably needed to be explained because that is considered so offensive now, and it is a cozy series. Were it not a cozy series but a hard boiled historical mystery, would it still be necessary? I don't know. As for the "professional reviewer" who dinged Jenn's new book because it unexpectedly made her cry...maybe she should reconsider her profession.
LOL, Judy, on the JAWS warning.
DeleteI remember reading an advice column by Carolyn Hax (20 years ago?) and it was about young people who were afraid of rejection. To poorly restate it, she said something like, "So, you're not afraid to fling yourself from an airplane with a just a cloth on your back or climb a mountain in a blizzard, but you're terrified of getting a thin envelope from the college of your choice or a no thank you from the girl of your dreams because your *feelings* might get hurt. Feelings are much more mendable than arms and legs, in case you haven't noticed."
Rather like how we have so much gun violence in our society but we're afraid of swear words. Huh?
I'm nay about triggers. The blurb gives you enough of what to expect. If a person is concerned, read the reviews before you start. I recently read a traditional mystery that I was enjoying until two things that I do not like to read in books happened. I closed the book and one week later read the last few chapters to see how it ended.
ReplyDeleteDru, I have done that, too. I have also put a book aside, then come back and read the last few chapters, then returned to the place I had left off and finished the book.
DeleteI've done that, too, Dru! I know my limits.
DeleteHonestly? I'm afraid my initial reaction to people who want trigger warnings is from the cranky old lady viewpoint: Quit being such babies and get over it. But that's not helpful. Deep breath. I agree that people who don't like a book can just close it and walk away.
ReplyDeleteAs a sometimes-writer of historical novels, I do often include a note that the language reflects the era the novel is set in. But I don't label it a trigger warning. It's just a statement.
American Fiction was a fabulous movie on many levels. (Jenn, I understand why that scene deeply affected you, and I'm glad you were able to stay for the rest of it.)
Thank you, Edith. It turned out lovely (the beach scene with the family gathered made me cry, too, but in a good way). As for Historicals, nothing makes me crazier than when people try to erase history. How can we improve if we don't acknowledge the horrors of the past?
DeleteI say no to Trigger Warnings in books. I read mostly fiction and I don't want to know about what is coming up that could upset me. I am a victim of sexual assault when I was 14 and I still have the occasional nightmare. I can deal with it in books and it does hit a nerve but I can deal with it. I might have missed a good book if there had been warnings.
ReplyDeleteThe other night my husband was watching The 3 Stooges and they put up warnings. That is just the way it was back then and that most people have changed with the times.
I'm so sorry, Paula, especially that you still have nightmares. What happened to you sucks, sucks, sucks. Sending love and hugs.
DeleteThe Three Stooges, really? Hmm.
Way back when getting my master’s degree in library science (not information science, Library science), I was taught that we should not put labels on books. We should let the book speak for itself. We should not use labels, as that is a slippery slope toward censorship. I would wish to avoid “trigger warnings” being printed on books too. We can’t bubble wrap the world. Michael, an old librarian
ReplyDeleteMaybe it's my librarian background that makes me persnickety about labels. It is a slippery slope to censorship.
DeleteI'm like Julia and don't tolerate explicit violence in films (but here I am on a murder writers' site! What's up with that?). I always read reviews like a hawk and my family knows that Mom may pack up and stop watching if she gets too uncomfortable. I can't imagine trigger warnings in BOOKS, and haven't run across them. However, aside from mysteries I only read history. Talk about a need for trigger warnings!
ReplyDeleteWhere I do think warnings are helpful are in series TV shows where suicide is used as a plot twist. I have two friends who have lost a child to suicide and I always worry about them and their agony when I come across this. Though generally you can avoid such things in films by doing slight reading, the Tom Hanks movie A MAN CALLED OTTO had four separate, drawn-out suicide attempts by Hanks' character, and the trailer and ads gave no hint of this. I thought the outcry against the cover-up was deserved (and the movie was forgettable). I imagine if I had a very close relationship with someone who was the victim of rape I might feel the same, but as a woman I feel as if I have been reading/seeing rape used in fiction since I was a young teen.
Basically, I self-censor all the time. I have a number of sad things in my life and when I feel particularly oppressed and powerless, I ditch anything grim. I just put down the book or stop watching the show. One of the wonderful things about 2024 is there are many choices. I have a few of my great-great-grandmother's books from the 1860s and they are all religious tracts. (Selden)
I had no idea about A MAN CALLED OTTO. I have to thank you as I avoid suicide story lines - too personal. And, yes, you're right that is a HUGE fail on the marketing of the film.
DeleteI've been reading for over 65 years, and did just fine up until now. And I suspect I'll keep on doing fine, without a warning I might have an emotional reaction. Why must every book or movie or TV show appeal to everyone equally?
ReplyDeleteWe can skip pages, close a book, fast forward a video, or walk out of a theater. I can understand not wanting to waste money, and time, on entertainment not to one's particular taste. And a lot of things others consider entertainment make me cringe. Blowing stuff up, wholesale and bloody shooting rampages onscreen: I'm not interested in watching any of that. It does not "entertain". Does it need a trigger warning? Not for me. That's what reviews are for, if we're concerned about getting upset.
On further thought, Rhys's note about colonial Kenya does not fall under this category. I would call that a historical note. Same for Edith's comments in her books. Life is different today than it was, and why should that be glossed over?
DeleteWell said! I agree, Karen. I always read the author's notes. That should be sufficient.
DeleteAgreed that life is different today and that author's note should be sufficient. Diana
DeleteI also enjoy a good author's note, especially when they give even more historical information. It's always fascinating to see how far we've come and realize how far we have to go.
DeleteI'm a hard "no" on trigger warnings. Good grief, if I make a reader FEEL something, I think I've done my job right.
ReplyDeleteJenn, as for animals, OMG, Dances with Wolves gutted me. I still loved the movie, but when my husband plays our DVD of it, I have to leave the room at a certain point. Same with the book The Horse Whisperer. The scene with the horse and the semi was a huge trigger for me, but I kept reading. I won't re-read it, but don't regret having read it in the first place.
@Annette: The beginning scenes of The Horse Whisperer "got" me, too. That's probably no surprise.
DeleteYet, I always wished I could bring myself to pick up the book again to study and deconstruct that opening sequence. I'd like to determine if what Evans wrote was as well-crafted as my hindsight suspects or if the emotional impact came from how I've always felt about horses.
Horse lover here - yes, once was enough.
DeleteI'm not a fan of trigger warnings.
ReplyDeleteIf you have a book set in Atlanta in 1948, if you need a warning that there will be offensive language, you clearly should never have passed history class in school.
Or if you are shocked that a book entitled "Serial Killer kills a bunch of people in gruesome ways" features a story about a serial killer killing a bunch of people in gruesome ways, you are in desperate need of either growing up or to stop being such a candyass.
Kowtowing to those who make it their business to manufacture their Internet-born outrage at every turn is no way to go through life.
If they need a so-called trigger warning, read the synopsis on the back of the damn book!
Otherwise, stop trying to make your life somehow infect and effect mine.
Jay, I just finished a book written in 1945. I read it first in 1970. Having just reread it, I was surprised at the language that is no longer used. In this book (WARNING: BAD WORDS COMING UP) he calls to ‘black man of lower social status who we can in this timeframe call word beginning with N, several times. No answer so the conversation then goes ‘Than take it to the Four-letter word beginning with S concerning in this time a person of Spanish heritage’.
DeleteIn 1945, it was normal. In 1970, it was beginning to become not-so-normal. Now it would be considered offensive. Should the book be relabeled as offensive, or should we just calm down and look at it as a window in time?
It's a window in time. I'm not a fan of adding content warnings because people reading a book in the here and now can't be bothered to find out / realize that the book was published in 1945.
DeleteI really, really, really don't approve of changing historical books to modern standards. They're more than a window in time. They're a mirror of humanity, an accountability mirror to do better.
DeleteLike many of the commenters, I'm anti-trigger warnings for books. Movies and TV are a little bit different ==when we read, we create our own visual images, but the films and shows come with the images created for us. I've been known to close my eyes when movies are too violent. I think crying is cathartic, so if a movie or book brings tears, I don't mind. The only movie that I can think of that I
ReplyDeletewatched and then thought, "If I had known that, I might not have watched it" was, interestingly, Bowling for Columbine. I was working then as a 9-1-1 dispatcher, and when the 9-1-1 calls were played as part of the story, it was just too close to home. My worst work nightmare on the big screen.
The son of a friend was hiding in a cabinet in the library during the Columbine attack. Wally Lamb's book The Hour I First Believed has a scene that nearly exactly describes his experience. I have no idea if he's ever read the book--by now he's in his 40's--but it would have to be traumatic.
DeleteI can totally understand that, Gillian. And I agree. A film is a different format than a book by far.
DeleteWhat kind of people do we become when we need trigger warnings on everything? We do not become better people. If a movie offends or upsets me I can leave (which I did with Clockwork Orange in high school). If a book upsets me too much, or offends me I can stop reading.
ReplyDeleteI say no to trigger warnings. Suzette Ciancio
Agreed, Suzette, especially when we focus on worrying about book content and not the many social issues that plague actual human beings, especially children.
DeleteI'm glad to know about American Fiction, as I had somehow managed to entirely miss it last fall. I'll be looking for it now. As for trigger warnings on books, hmmmmm. In a film's description on Netflix, I appreciate the heads-up about 'language, sex, violence' that appears. Is that a trigger warning? I'm not sure. Violence is horrid, so I skip shows with that in the notice. When I pick up a book, I read the blurb. I either like the sound of it (the story + the author's telling of it) or I don't and go from there.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure where that puts me, in the end. However, I do believe it's better to be open and to acknowledge fear and hurt than to ignore it or to assume no one has experienced it. But, as Michael-an-old-librarian says above, that dangerous slippery slope towards censorship can take us all down if we are not vigilant. I think my question, in the end, is: Who makes the call to place the warning and to word it? (Hopefully not that professional reviewer who denied Jenn's romcom a 5-star for not being warned about it being likely to make her cry. Sheesh.)
I think you found the crux of it, Amanda. Who decides? And I think Hallie was right that it's more of a CYA move by the powers that be in an era when the Internet trolls can rise up and chop you down if you inadvertently offend them. Oy.
DeleteSeeing red…and not the Jungle Reds…here, so into an early morning rant. With the daily appearance in real life of mass shootings, intimate partner abuse, and hate groups in the news, it is complete hypocrisy to demand trigger warnings for works of fiction. One can toss the book across the room, turn off or switch TV channels or walk out of a movie or a play. Trigger warnings let folks pretend that bad things don’t happen without warning. Something that is just not true. Thank you, Jenn, for your words. Elisabeth
ReplyDeleteThanks, Elisabeth! And I agree when there are so many real life threatening problems why are we so overzealous in policing thoughts and feelings? It boggles.
DeleteI have different opinion than most on trigger/content warnings. I had a period in my life where I was deeply affected by certain things and could not read about them for my own mental health. I was glad to have trigger/content warnings at that time so I could avoid books that were not good for me to read for my mental health. I am in a different place now and can read anything but I will sometimes put trigger/content warnings in my reviews to protect people in delicate places if the blurb does not indicate it as part of the story. I agree if you read a murder mystery you expect people to be murdered but you might not expect child abuse in the story. If child abuse deeply affects you it would be good to know before reading the book. Maybe you will read the book and the trigger/content warning will allow you to be mentally prepared for it. Maybe you can’t read the book now but can go back to the book when child abuse is not such a sensitive topic for you. If trigger/content warnings bother you because they might reveal part of the story then don’t read them but please understand that everyone is different and to some trigger/content warnings are very important.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely see your point, Sheri. I do. And I think if a reader is in a delicate place they do need to be vigilant about the content they consume.
DeleteI often wonder if Harry Potter was published now, would there be content warnings of child abuse/neglect on those volumes? Would that have denied children--who might have been comforted to know a young wizard suffered as they did--but didn't get to read the book because of content warnings? It's such a tough call. For me, books saved me from a severely dysfunctional/abusive home life. I honestly don't know if I would have made it out without my fictional friends who suffered in similar circumstances but were brave enough--and taught me how to be--to make it through. It's such an individual thing, isn't it?
I have not seen any trigger warnings as yet. I suppose now I will start seeing them on everything and be totally annoyed. On the other hand, I have read some books that contained content that was in no way indicated in the synopsis which made me feel kind of duped into reading a book I may have otherwise avoided. People need to learn to be resilient, especially when it comes to history. I don’t like these subtle ways of censoring materials.
ReplyDeleteThat's what Michael (comment above) was saying. It's a very fine line between a content warning and censorship.
DeleteLet us look at The Colour Purple. I read the book when it first came out. I don’t recall any trigger warnings. I was young (early 20’s I think). I was shocked. I had been warned. That was the point of the book. The author needed us to be shocked, disgusted, and dare I say angry. A trigger warning would have dumbed down the desired effect.
ReplyDeleteLook at The Mousetrap. Someone is killed. Someone does it. The secret remains in the theatre – no trigger warning and silence is kept.
In Canada, we are bombarded with trigger warnings on the news, followed by where to get help. If there are two items about ‘trigger-items’ we get warned twice. Never mind that a shooting has to be warned that this article contains guns. Wow what a surprise! Could there not be a notice at the beginning “Good Evening, I am Ian Hanomansing. Tonight’s news will offend some people. Handle with care., Now first in the news, 10 puppies were born today in Vancouver. They are all fine. For help in puppy-cuddling syndrome, call I-am-an-idiot.com.
I am with Rhys. Pass the white wash.
I'm headed to Nova Scotia in a few months. I am definitely watching the Canadian news when I get there!
DeleteAs many of you know, we lost a child. She drowned at 2 1/2 forty years ago. Do I like books about water/drowning? No.
ReplyDeleteWe read a book in Book Club (now that was a brilliant statement!). In it, the child drowns. She was 6. Did it bring back memories – well of course yes. Was I sad – again, of course yes. Did I remember Elizabeth? I remembered her running in the field, her frizzle-y hair shining in the sun. I did not and do not often remember that horrible day in March when our 3 kids went through the ice, and trying to rescue them by myself.
Now, would I deliberately go out and pick up a book about a child drowning – no. I will however read it if it turns up, and use it to remember.
Oh, Margo - you are amazing. And brave. My heart goes out to you.
DeleteMargo. You are an inspiration. I am in awe —and love you so much,
DeleteOh, Margo. My heart. Your description of Elizabeth is so achingly beautiful. I will remember her now, too, just as you described her.
DeleteMargo, I am heartbroken and so very sorry that I did not know about your loss. Everyone deals with and pain differently. In my opinion, you are very brave to face yours so directly.
DeleteBecause I believe there must be something good in everything, to find the good in this, I could have lost all 3 kids that day. I still had 2, not that the sacrifice was bearable for a long time.
DeleteI absolutely feel that the jacket cover on the book should indicate what the book is about without giving away the ending. I want to be able to choose what I read. I am not sure what a trigger warning is. Is it a warning printed in large letters - like caution this book contains this or that.
ReplyDeleteYes. It's a warning that they print inside the book about whatever they think might be upsetting. They are now debating putting stickers on the covers of books with warnings.
DeleteStickers??!! I am beyond horrified.
DeleteI have to side with others as a general pass on trigger warnings for books - or really anything. From the trailer or the blurb, you should be able to get the general gist of the story. These days, there are reviewers who will spill most of the plot. If it starts making you uncomfortable - stop reading, stop the movie, walk out of the theater.
ReplyDeleteA reviewer dinging Jenn's book because it made her cry? Heck, aren't we as authors supposed to make readers feel something?
My editor for THE TRUTH WE HIDE asked if I really wanted to use some of the anti-gay language I did. I checked with two gay friends who said, "Yes. Use it. That's how it was and we need to remember." I don't see Rhys and Edith's notes as trigger warnings, more a "This was how it was" explanations. History is often messy and ugly. It's why we need to do better now.
That's a good distinction- a trigger warning versus simply informing readers so they have the appropriate context in which to interpret the text.
DeleteWhat Hallie said! Context is critical.
DeleteI'm with everyone who said get over it. You can always put down the book. The first mystery I ever read that had a trigger warning was a cozy. That was unexpected. But, I know Library Journal has "sensitivity readers", and I was dinged once for something I wrote in a review. I agree with Rhys. "Get over it." Some of the comments here today made me laugh. And, I can't even imagine a trigger warning on one of Jenn's romcoms. Warning! May have romance and make you laugh.
ReplyDeleteMy publisher has sensitivity readers, too. MOstly, I like it because it challenges me to be a better writer in many ways. However, I did have my character say, "This recipe is making me crazy." She was baking a cupcake and the recipe was wrong. I was told I had to change it because the word "crazy" is offensive. Huh?
DeleteThat's just ridiculous, Jenn.
DeleteTrigger warnings? Absolutely NOT. If you don't like it, put the book down. Ditto for TV. Turn it off. Ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteAgreed. Unless it's an egregiously horrific topic that is not mentioned in the blurb and then, yes, please warn me. Still mad at my brother for telling me to read Where The Red Fern Grows - and that was over forty years ago.
DeleteBlack Beauty would have a trigger warning now. Ditto, Old Yeller. And The Red Pony.
DeleteH2 still hasn’t forgiven me for reading The Red Pony to him when he was 10.
DeleteJENN: Wow! I cannot believe a reviewer changed five stars to four stars regarding your novel, PARIS IS ALWAYS A GOOD IDEA. Good grief. I LOVED that book and it is a favorite. I agree with Lena that I cannot imagine a trigger warning on one of Jenn's romcoms! The movie AMERICAN FICTION is new to me. I will look for it on streaming video.
ReplyDeleteRegarding Trigger Warnings, I totally get what the commenters meant by mental health and feeling duped. For example, I was watching a movie on streaming video that claimed to be a Comedy and once I realized it was more like graphic violence (not even Cartoonish violence), I really felt duped and stopped watching the movie. Another example: A friend was a Social Worker and worked with children who had been abused. She Refuses to read novels about children being abused. I can understand that.
Question about Trigger Warning:
As a Reader, do you want to know if the book is full of typos and bad grammar? I once read a biography that was a "rush job" and I was shocked by so many typos and poor grammar in the book. Luckily, I was able to borrow it from the library so I did not waste my money.
Agreed that History is often messy and ugly. The Author's Note really helps me put things in perspective as a reader.
Diana
There's no excuse for a book filled with typos and grammar mistakes. A trigger warning wouldn't help.
DeleteI agree with Hallie. There's no excuse for poor editing. As for being sensitive to certain topics, I absolutely understand. That's on the content creator to make it clear in the description.
DeleteHallie and Jenn, good points there. Thank you. Diana
DeleteJenn, laughing here. Youngest nephew as we're watching a movie: "You didn't tell me the dog dies!!!" Me: "Wait, wait, the ending makes up for it!" I agree that the synopsis of a book/movie/etc., should be plain enough to let you know about content (without spoilers). Isn't that why movies get a rating? And yes, Julia, isn't it up to adults to take the time to vet books/movies for themselves/their kids? I found a movie about teenagers that I thought youngest nephews would enjoy--watched it before telling them about it--and found a scene three-quarters of the way through where a drunken father rapes his daughter then commits suicide. Whoa! The movie rating did not reflect that!
ReplyDeleteBooks have made me cry, sob, laugh, feel pity, sad, disturbed by what the world can do to a person, but that's the whole point of reading. Ditto movies. The reviewer who dinged Jenn a star seems to be missing the point. Perhaps she could review unicorn cupcakes with pretty pink icing for an alternate, non-crying career.
TRIGGER WARNING: Comment may contain annoyance. "Curse you, Blogger!" Anonymous Flora.
Flora, you made me snort this morning!
DeleteLOL, Flora. Good for you for vetting movies before letting the nephews watch. Hub and I were little league coaches for the Hooligans and thought watching Bad News Bears was a great idea for family movie night. OMG! Never mind that we were their age when we first watched it. Times have CHANGED!
DeleteThis is reminding me how upset I was when I saw that in the movie version of my book NEVER TELL A LIE they kill the dog. I do not kill dogs in my books. Ever. Grrr. (But nobody asked me...)
ReplyDeleteThat would have made me stabby, Hallie! How dare they!
DeleteOne of my favorite memories is when Jonathan and I want to see the movie Sling Blade. This was about a week into our relationship.
ReplyDeleteAbout 10 minutes in, I started to sniffle. Jonathan said – – do you have a cold? And I said no, I’m crying.
And he said why? The movie is not sad.
And I said: I know, but I can tell it is GOING to be sad.
He was so baffled. But I spent the next week crying. IT WAS SO SAD.
If I had been warned, it was that sad, I probably wouldn’t have gone. But then I wouldn’t have this anecdote. :-)
Oh, Hank. Hugs. I never saw Sling Blade for exactly that reason. Sometimes you just know.
DeleteTrigger warnings in books? Not necessary. For an author I’m not familiar with, I read the book jacket first. That’s enough information for me. Because I read lots of mysteries, I don’t need the cat let out of the bag on the book jacket. We don’t need our past sanitized either.
ReplyDeleteRhys, I appreciated your comments in the foreword of your book about the treatment of Kenyans. That was a historical fact not a trigger warning in my opinion.
I enjoy books that make me laugh out loud or have a good cry. The authors in those books have written very well.
Well said, Dorothy!
DeleteIn my view trigger warnings are censorship without the book-banning. They act like social media algorithms that prevent us from reading what we might not want to read. And how can anyone be educated if they don't read what they think they might not like?
ReplyDeleteWell said, Jeff!
DeleteI am not a fan of trigger warnings on books, either -- and I say that as someone who has a low tolerance for human cruelty. There have been two times in recent months where our book club selection included sufficiently wrenching scenes of cruelty that I opted to move from an audiobook version to a printed version, so that I could just skim-read the most disturbing parts and move on.
ReplyDeleteThe first thing that popped into my head when I read Jenn's blog post, though, was this: The book THE ALICE NETWORK by Kate Quinn was one of the best, most memorable books I have ever read, and there is absolutely no way I would have picked it up if I knew in advance that it would include such disturbing scenes in the WWI flashbacks. I am grateful that I didn't know in advance, because by the time those scenes came up I was sufficiently invested in the story that I muscled through and was glad I did.
Some of my most transformative reading experiences have been books that I would have avoided if I'd known what was coming and yet I understand being too tender for some topics. I'm with you on the low tolerance for cruelty, Susan.
DeleteI for the most part am against the 'namby pamby' I know what is good for you school. Like Michael I was in Library School at the time when censorship was covered in most classes. Now that classics are being rewritten, I shudder thinking I might read Huckleberry Finn with a character named 'this complex runaway from the deep South Jim" rather than the allow the reader to discover the nobility of the character. One of my tools as a therapist was to encourage therapeutic reading. The mind can
ReplyDeletecontrol images, making them 'safer'. Movies are can also be cathartic - however it is harder to mind scrub images. In short, use the sources available to be an informed reader. Chart your own course.
Thanks Jenn for a great morning topic - 4 stars indeed (snort).
Well said, Coralee! I do believe there is a big difference between reading and watching.
DeletePersonally,I don’t want TW. I want to experience a book without any influence beyond a synopsis. If am bothered or don’t like, I can skim or stop reading altogether.
ReplyDeleteRecognizing that TW are important for some readers, I would suggest standard placement at the back of the book so that those who need it know where it is and those who won’t see it accidentally.
But I wonder about different triggers for people- what if someone’s trigger isn’t listed?
Love the idea of putting them in the back of the book, but you nailed it. How can every conceivable trigger be listed?
DeleteI was on a panel with an author recently who said she had a reader berate her for one sentence. "Her mom died of cancer several years ago." The reader slammed the author and declared she never would have read the book if she'd known it was about cancer. It was literally one sentence. Gah!
I'm with Hank. If the jacket copy does it's job, a reasonable reader will know if there will be something that pushes their particular buttons.
ReplyDeleteWhere do the trigger warnings end? How is the writer/publisher expected to know when enough is enough? I do not mean to make light of people who are deeply affected by scenes in a book or certain topics. Not at all. I'm still haunted by descriptions of animal abuse from a book I read twenty years ago. I did finish the book, but I won't re-read it - and it's a shame. The language is lyrical. My question is how can you be certain you include all of the necessary ones and what happens if you miss one?
Exactly. I do think this is where reviews can fill the gap. If a reader is sensitive, they can read reviews (plenty include spoilers) to see if they can handle the book or not.
DeleteFirst of all I think you need to distinguish between historical notes and actual trigger warnings. No one is going to be left an emotional basket case when they discover that the British weren’t especially nice to various natives several hundred years ago. That’s history.
ReplyDeleteSecondly, you need to draw a line between what some might be offended by and what is a genuine emotional trigger.
The latter DOES require a trigger warning. If a person is in a particularly fragile condition following a traumatic event, and they pick up what they hope to be a light distracting read — and they get a punch to the gut that leaves them unable to function —- well writers, do you consider THAT a job well done?
If a person is at a place where they’re past the initial shock of the grief/trauma/etc, then they might have no problem with that particular situation — it might make them a bit sad/weepy, but they get over it and that’s ok.
But when it’s still fresh (and the time frame on that differs vastly from person to person), then no, they might not be able to handle it.
31 years ago I lost an 8yo son to cancer. About a month later I picked up a book that was an anthology of inspirational stories. Except the first one was about a little girl in leg braces teaching herself to roller skate… well my son had his leg amputated at age 5 — and taught himself to roller skate… backwards…..
Suffice it to say I was a basket case. Every story seemed to involve someone having a child or not having a child, or getting sick and either recovering — or not… I cried straight through. That was obviously not a good pick for me at that time. I reread it years later — and it was fine.
Fast forward and a year ago we lost our 5yo grandson. I can’t handle stories with children dying again. A book club I belong to chose a (autobiographical) book written by a mother whose young child had died and was all about her personal growth after the tragedy. I chose to skip that month. I knew I couldn’t handle that book at that time.
I agree that you obviously shouldn’t chose to read a book that involves themes that you personally don’t want to read about. But the triggering situation might not be part of the main plot and so wouldn’t be in the blurb and you don’t see it coming till you’ve walked into it. (Your favorite sleuth is at the hospital questioning a witness and stops off to bring cookies to her neighbor who is at the same hospital with her child… who is dying of cancer…… I can read this now, but couldn’t have handled it last year).
To say — just put down a book if you don’t like it — that’s neither compassionate nor very helpful — because by the time you discover the triggering situation, it’s too late — the damage has already been done.
So all in all yes, I do think trigger warnings are warranted for some things that are not in the blurb (child loss, child abuse, suicide, etc), but I also do think they have become overused and should be reserved for real need.
I'm so sorry for your losses and how wrenching to have an endless amount of stories that hit so hard. That's just devastating.
DeleteI do think the reader above who mentioned putting the content warning at the back of the book might be onto something. If it became the norm, then readers could simply flip to the back, scan the list, and know if the book was for them or not. And readers who don't want to know can ignore it at the back of the book instead of finding the list unavoidable at the beginning.
As a former college adjunct who had to deal with TW/no TW on assigned readings, I have to say: no.
ReplyDeleteAn author/movie maker/TV producer will *never* know what might trigger someone - Clowns? A certain song? A domestic argument? Facing those is how we grow.
Like Rhys said, "It’s good to be taken out of our comfort zone, to read something and know it isn’t right and feel angry or disgusted. Life cannot all be smoothed over for us. Life is sometimes gritty, unfair, brutal."
That is the dilemma. How do you know what will cause a reader distress?
DeleteThe best warnings come from friends who know you. My niece warns me of books and shows that might be too intense for me, and a member of our faculty book club sent a student to take away a book the awful principal had just loaned me. Too-specific public warnings can be spoilers, and can still be too general for particular needs, like the friend who asked, "Do any animals die?" and then declined to read CHARLOTTE'S WEB. At one point review sites had a box to check to report if there were any curse words, apparently a deal-breaker for enough readers to mandate it, but not meriting a box warning on the book itself, surely. (I just imagined the string of potential warnings, like those on pharma ads ;-)
ReplyDeleteCan you imagine if there were warnings like the big pharma ads for books? I imagine people wouldn't listen to them just like they don't for meds. And, yes, friends are the best at vetting materials.
DeleteI don’t want any warnings, just a good promo blurb or book jacket. I’m emotionally intelligent enough to decide for myself if I’m interested in a book, and to stop reading if I don’t like one. I went through a period when I refused to read books set in WWII because they were messing with my artist mojo, but that passed, and I am back to them. Good thing, or I would have passed on The Paris Apartment, which was sooooo good! I think trigger warnings are spoilers sometimes, as previously mentioned. They reveal more than I want to know going in.. If the dog dies…. well, we all need a good cry sometimes.
ReplyDeleteGlad you were able to work through it, Melinda. Ugh, the dog...but it's so hard!
DeleteI appreciate this discussion; I'm old enough (or maybe I'm just "literature degree" enough) that trigger warnings befuddle me. I don't want to be cruel or insensitive to people who might read what I write, but how on earth can I know what might trigger a stranger who decides to read my work? How do I warn people of such things without giving away too much? Like, what if it's a key plot twist or hidden character motivation that is now not a surprise at all? I guess I'd hope that a reader who has sensitivities to particular things would read the blurb and a couple reviews to find out if there's something they'd find too troubling to approach.
ReplyDeleteI do think reviews can do the heavy lifting here. Lord knows, Goodreads is a cesspool of spoilers and author hate, so there's really no reason not to check there first if a reader is sensitive to find out what issues will arise in a book. Goodreads will ruin any surprises (good or bad) for you guaranteed. I guess my feelings about Goodreads are clear - LOL - but still they will reveal all if a reader requires it.
DeleteThis will probably not be well-received! I was reading book 2 of a series that was a tiny step above a “cozy”, when out of the blue, they introduced a trans character. The “character” went through the “I am trans” and these are my preferred pronouns. This had no bearing on the story line. It just seemed so political in nature. I admit that I finished the book, but not the series. I don’t know that a warning was needed, but it was frustrating in the way it was presented. I kept waiting on more to the point that I didn’t enjoy the rest of the book.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with this. Had the author written the trans person as a fully realized and important character then their arrival in the story wouldn't have pulled you out of the narrative. They clearly did a disservice to the reader and the character. While I appreciate books that are inclusive--it's important!--there is no excuse for it not to be well done.
DeleteI am with you. I've read some books that were trying to be inclusive but came off as shallow pandering that threw me out of the book. I've read others that were trying inclusive and didn't give us any lectures. There, I felt like they were truly being inclusive.
DeleteI've read every comment above and been educated and moved--and have concluded that trigger warnings are a mistake for all the reasons listed above, which don't need to be repeated by me. An example: I'm almost finished with S. A. Cosby's ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, which is on many best-books-of-2023 lists. I read his first two books and found them well-written, exciting, and thought-provoking. Quite early in this third book, I realized that the story was going to be disturbing. I thought about whether to stop and decided to keep reading. It was my decision--and there were no explicit spoilers in the form of trigger warnings to spoil my enjoyment of the book. If we're going to read murder mysteries, we have to cope with all kinds of murders---or not. Our choice.
ReplyDeletePerfectly said, Kim.
DeleteI'm not a fan of trigger warnings and to me they sometimes spoil the story if I'm looking for something to happen. However there are times I put a book away and stop reading it. I have a parent in the last stages of dementia and don't want to read a book with any hint of that illlness. But that is my issue and it's not the authors or the publishers job to deal with it.
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree. I have issues that are mine and mine alone and it is up to me to determine what I can and can't handle not the creator.
DeleteJenn, we just saw American Fiction yesterday and you hit the nail on the head about the film. It was so much more than I got from the trailer. (And what a great cast!) But on the topic of trigger warnings, I am with the majority of the commenters - I am not a fan. I think a mention in a review about something “difficult” should be enough for a person to decide for themselves. And yes, stop reading, watching if you don’t like it. On a personal level, I am bothered by what I think is a generational reaction to difficult things. To be clearer, I think that young (late teens to 30?) people are more apt to walk away from difficult things (jobs, school, relationships) than we (>50 years old) did at their age. I think a trigger warning would aid their avoidance of unpleasant topics. — Pat S
ReplyDeleteI think you're onto something there, Pat. Age of viewer/life experience of viewer definitely factor in. That being said, the Hooligans watch much tougher stuff than I do. I couldn't even get through Breaking Bad and they loved it. Then again, I had a chaotic childhood and they had an idyllic one.
DeleteMy husband had a chaotic, not very child-friendly childhood, too whereas mine was pretty good. I think our son had a pretty good childhood, but we were guilty of the over-parenting, here’s-a-ribbon-for-participating style of child rearing that many of us did. I am just having a hard time not saying, “Get over yourself. Some people suck but you have to slog through it!” Sorry, a little venting. — Pat
DeleteI am generally against trigger warnings. My experience is that different events in fictional telling have a different impact on you at different stages of life. I read and enjoyed an early Elizabeth George, Well Schooled in Murder, when it first came out. It deals with the murder of a school boy. I picked it up again to reread years later when my son was about the same age as the murdered boy and found it very uncomfortable reading the second time around. A compelling story has power, but at some times more than others.
ReplyDeleteWhen my niece and nephew were born and little, I found books where kids were in peril suddenly hit me differently. And they weren't even my kids. I can only imagine how you would feel.
DeleteThat's so true -- we experience things through our personal lens and no one knows better than ourselves where that lens is currently focused.
DeleteAfter I went to bed last night, I was thinking about this a little more, and I started to feel a little hypocritical. I will often put content warnings in my reviews. The reason? I review so many cozies and family friendly things, I want to mention when a movie is R rated or a book isn't a cozy. So I'll point that out, often mentioning that a book has more language, s*x, or violence than a book I would typically read. (And I'm using the * because I sometimes have issues if I type that word on the internet. Go figured.) I don't get into any more specifics than that. It's more because I don't want someone coming back to me saying "I trusted you on X, but it was nasty and I hated it." Is it different from a trigger warning? I think so. It's more like the ratings on movies and TV.
ReplyDeleteBut if you are reviewing Jenn McKinlay and Robert Crais in the same week, it is helpful to point out the different audiences for their books. This is how I do that. Is it possible that people reading my reviews would know that without me pointing it out? Yes. But I feel better including it.
Of course, this is me saying it in my review, which is different from the author/publisher including it.
I love that this topic resonated with you, Mark. I do think reviews are vastly different than content warnings. It's exactly what readers who use reviews to parse out whether they want to read a book or not are looking for.
DeleteI'm sure trigger warnings were intended to be helpful but I think they've gone way overboard. Too many publishers with CYA syndrome have become the literary version of helicopter moms. Like Mark said, the same book can have a different effect on us at different stages of life. Put the warnings at the back or leave them off entirely.
ReplyDeleteI actually dislike the term "trigger warning." Tell me in the book jacket/blurb/whatever, "When (protagonist ) discovers the corpse of a (whatever gory description) .... and I know right away I don't want to read it, even though I do like cozy and puzzle mysteries, most of which do involve a corpse. Tell me in the blurb that the bigoted (whoever) interferes in the case, and I don't need a warning that she/he will use bigoted language. Likewise a grief warning: If it's in the synopsis that X is grieving the death of his/her son/sister/father/spouse when Y happens, I can decide if I'm ready to read such a story.
ReplyDeleteVery reasonably stated, Elizabeth.
DeleteBased on my own personal experience, the triggers are already in my head for certain authors for extreme, graphic violence. So, I just don't read them - authors like Stephen King and James Patterson. Yes, I view the book covers and read the overview of the inside flaps. Sometimes I will even read the reviews. As my husband is a history buff, I read him Rhys Bowen's comments on the subject. We also agree that if it is history, it is history and if you don't like it, just get over it. Yet, if we are not aware of history of this kind, aren't we liable to repeat it, especially those atrocities?
ReplyDeleteSome authors just aren't my cuppa - I understand that completely.
DeleteAlicia, I too stopped reading Stephen King (and avoid horror in general) after reading It.
DeleteI am not a fan of trigger warnings, although I am not offended when somone foists one on me. Not the same with spoilers. I feel violated by those who choose to spoil my pleasure for whatever reason they think justfifies it. If there must be a spoiler -- that should be a trigger warning [SPOILER ALERT MAY RUIN THE (BOOK, MOVIE, WHATEVER) IF YOU KEEP READING!]
ReplyDeleteIt's only polite to announce a spoiler. I agree 100%
DeleteWhat a thoroughly interesting topic and hard to untangle. Could we say that there is a difference between in-peson (such as a class), media (tv/movie) and books? between discussing use or presence of these touchy topics (such as a class), and in-your-face for action (such as a tv show)?Acknowledge that some action (violence, ex.) is more likely to be traumatic depicted than described in a book? There are warnings on some tv shows, and I don't find them at all intrusive. But I do avoid pointless violence in anything I read or watch, and children in jeopardy is not my idea of entertinament.
ReplyDeleteWhoops! I Sent before I was done. I am especially troubled at how this sometimes seems to play out in college setting...because some college classes SHOULD make people uncomfortable. History happened and the way to make evil not be repeated is to understand it - the facts, the reasons, the context, whether it is language or events or attitudes. Isn't that the purpose of education? Finally, this is, in the end, so personal. True example: my husband has much higher tolerance for violence than I do. We watched the first episode of The Americans, having seen some trailers. He hated it and never watched another; I was entirely hooked and found the series was brilliant and complex. No way anyone could have predicted that, or "warned" about it. We had ato find out for ourselves.
ReplyDeleteHub and I have had shows like that - most recently SILO. I was in and he was out. No way to know until we watched. And I agree about college. I am not spending a bloody fortune for my Hooligans to be coddled from life's truths. Educate them so we're all the better for it, please.
DeleteI like warnings. One of my favorite authors wrote a book where the main character was a boy whose father beat him often. We talking broken bones and more. Since I was beaten as a child, by a sibling, I don't enjoy reading books where children are hurt. I had to finish the book to be sure the boy was okay in the end. If I had known of the beatings ahead of time, I just would have just skipped this book. Now I will never read another book by her again. Just my take, thanks for asking.
ReplyDeleteThat is DEFINITELY something that should have been in the cover copy. Shame on the publisher for not including it. I also grew up in an abusive household and avoid domestic violence tales at all costs. Traumatized enough, thanks, and if I'm reading a book that goes that way, I stop reading immediately.
DeleteI'm not sure what the term means: "If you've had a similar, specific trauma around -fill in the blank..." or "If you don't like to be upset by anything..." ? Seems to me it's now being used as a catch all for Don't say anything I don't want to hear" and I agree that generally we can figure out what we don't feel comfortable about in books movies and TV. Hard news not so much.
ReplyDeleteRight? I find the daily news much more upsetting than a fictional story I can walk away from.
DeleteI cried all the way thru American Fiction (and laughed) - what a great movie. It's not really possible to warn everyone about everything, as we all have different triggers. Like Dru, if the subject matter in the description isn't something I want to read about, well, then I don't pick it up.
ReplyDeleteSame. And I am glad they didn't warn me. It would have been a real shame to miss it.
DeleteJenn--I had the EXACT same experience as you with AMERICAN FICTION. Same from the trailer, obvs had to go see it, and then the same after seeing it. It was great, but it wasn't the movie the trailer had told me I was about to see. (Funny story: I was so looking forward to seeing it that when I saw it listed at a theater an hour away, I went, but they would not let me in. Someone involved in the movie was running a private screening and, apparently, I wasn't on the list. For shame!) I had to wait another month before it came back for us regular folk :)
ReplyDelete*gasp* They should have let you in. Jerks! :) But I am glad you had the same reaction as me! It was great and also a lot.
DeleteThis is usually a much more empathetic group! Some readers benefit from having more information about what's in a book so that they can make a choice about how to spend their reading time, and may be more likely to try a new book if they can prepare themselves in advance for specific issues (or set aside, perhaps not forever, a book dealing with topics that they don't have the energy for at that moment). It is not always easy to research specific types of content in advance. For a period of time after her grandmother died very suddenly and unexpectedly, my daughter was extremely upset by books with the death of a parent or grandparent. Believe me, these aren't always mentioned in the book description or reviews! She could not sleep for weeks after reading one and withdrew from trying any new books unless I could assure her they did not involve any family members dying. Her anxiety around this issue naturally passed with time, but content warnings were useful to me in helping her get through a period when she otherwise would have avoided reading any new books at all. If you are lucky enough not to need content warnings, they are easy to skip.
ReplyDeleteI’m gonna be honest as someone who is affected by certain subjects in books (and all media in general) a lot of these comments are pretty heartbreaking. I tend to have very deep reactions to SA that is mentioned in a book and I find myself needing (almost begging) teachers to give me a heads up so I can skip pages of a book or whatever I need to do for my mental health. Otherwise I will have a physical and anxiety induced reaction that isn’t just a “wow that was hard to read.” It deeply affects my mentality to read things of that nature. I can read violence, aggressive language, whatever. I just can’t bring myself to read something about SA without having anxiety reduced reactions.
ReplyDeleteThere is definitely a difference between a trigger warning and a spoiler. Trigger warnings are used for people’s mental health. People that need trigger warnings typically have a traumatic experience from their past or just feel deeply uncomfortable or overwhelmed with reading something of that nature.
What some people call “causing a reaction in the reader” can sometimes be very harmful to the readers state of mind, and in some cases, even cause PTSD.
So, I’m curious. Why is it a big deal for a teacher to announce to the class “just a heads up, there is *insert sensitive subject here* in the book/movie we will watch/read in class. Talk to me if you have any other concerns or worries to help me accommodate you.” Why is that bad? Why wouldn’t you want students to be comfortable?
I think, or than anything. Trigger warnings are definitely needed and it is a personal issue between a student and educator.