Arifa Akbar | The Guardian: So we’re back here again: the debate on trigger warnings has become so persistent and volatile that the discussion might require its own trigger warning these days (as per above). Is the act of alerting an audience to sensitive, potentially triggering, content such as sex, violence and suicide (and that’s just in Romeo and Juliet) a helpful access aid or it is infantilising us and neutering the power of theatre?
5 comments:
I was not aware about how big of a debate trigger warnings are. In my opinion, trigger warnings are important and needed. It is kind of upsetting that people like Smith have been using the fact that trigger warnings used to not exist as a reason why we should not use them. Things change for a reason because we are always trying to be better and improve. I agree that drama is supposed to have surprises and a bit of danger but having trigger warnings does not affect that. People have the choice to pay attention to content warnings if they need to or ignore them if they don’t. In no way does knowing that there might be some violence for uncomfortable scenes undermine the story or drama within the performance. The performance will still be impactful to the audience and surprising. I’m not exactly sure as to why there is so much concern about trigger warnings in the first place. They truly do not reveal anything about the plot of any show. It truly is just common courtesy to make sure that the audience is aware of what they are walking into.
I just read an article on the opposite view on this topic and it really made me upset. As someone who really relies on trigger warnings I will always fight to keep them but I don’t always know how to argue that point other than I need them to feel comfortable watching a show. I really like how this article brought up the point that even with a trigger warning it is difficult to predict how strong of an impact a show will have. I think this is true. Telling me there are loud sudden sounds does not tell me if a show is going to emotionally drestory me and make me think about everything in a deeper way. But I had a warning about the specific topics that might make watching a show unsafe. I thought this article had a really beautiful way of explaining a perspective that I really agree with and doing so in a beautiful and kind way. I think it is really valuable for a lot of people who do not need trigger warnings or do not understand them.
Boy, do I agree with this article. I commented on an article recently, I think it was one talking about Ralph Fiennes opinion on the subject of trigger warnings. Theatre can still shake us to our core, without us having to go in not knowing that there is something that could affect us as the audience. I also agree that it has been co-opted into the culture wars, being used as a way to show how younger generations are “weak”. No, younger generations are just more aware of how things are affecting them. I know that there are certain topics that affect me greatly due to circumstances of my past, and going into a production where I’m not prepared to face the topic can cause undue stress. While possibly taking me completely out of the production. However, if I’m made aware that one of these topics is in the show, I can mentally prepare myself, and not take away from the story that the production is trying to present.
This is such an interesting way of thinking. I have been using trigger warnings for such a long time that it is part of my nature and honestly I think that is a good thing. THere are people that rely on trigger warnings to not go into a full panic attack and that is really important for them and we should respect that. At the same time I understand when people say that it can harnish the surprise aspect of theatre and drama to it because the audience is sort of expecting it. I think that trigger warnings are important because they not only help the audience for many people's mental status but also their health. For example if people are not giving a flash warning someone with epilepsy could have a really bad reaction to most shows with light designs that go into the audience .
I think that this article summed up my complicated feelings about trigger warnings rather nicely. There are only a few topics that I can’t handle, but one of those is a fairly common trope in basically any movie or show in order to bring about a certain mood, and it’s not often tagged as or remembered as such. Sometimes, I can manage to get through it, but other days if I’m not in a place to go there in my mind, it can ruin the rest of my day, sometimes even weeks. I know that I’m not the shining beacon of mental wellness 24/7, but I know that there’s some battles I need to pick and choose sometimes, and that is one of them. I understand that sometimes the trigger warnings can ‘spoil’ the surprise for certain audience members, and I don’t really have an answer for that other than to suck it up.
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