"Trigger warnings" in threads, and the general media.

Crumble Froo

By general media, I mean mostly television.

Asking this in here because there have been a couple of threads in tLL which have had the courtesy of having trigger warnings, and I don't want to ask in AH for obvious reasons... but I was wondering how everyone here feels about trigger warnings in the media they view.

I have certainly appreciated some of the warnings in threads in here, and been able to completely avoid threads, or to come back to them when I've felt more stable, or able to read them.

Last night, I was watching one of my favourite tv programmes, which I enjoy cos it's light hearted, with some realism to it, but not usually full of death/rape/violence/anything too heavy.

So this particular episode happened to feature heavily on issues like mental health and suicide, both from the perspective of the person dealing with the mental health stuff, and their loved ones.

Nooowww, that is something I've been struggling with a fair bit lately, and wow. I can't believe how much it completely f*cked with my head. I quite literally couldn't handle seeing those images and even the next day, my head was still reeling.

Got me thinking a lot about triggers and warnings. Cos if I'd known what I was going to watch, I really never would have watched it. Had me wondering about trigger warnings, and how everyone else feels about them. Too mollycoddling, or something it's only fair to let people be aware of? I'm not quite sure where I stand on this one yet. Usually I just have a lol when the 'offensive language' warning comes up, but now I can't figure out where the line between spoilers, molly coddling and appropriate warnings lies.

Malari

I would just stop watching something straight away if I was feeling disturbed by it. If vague warnings were issued too often it might put me off things that really weren't that severe, so I think you just have to trust people to be able to switch off if they don't like something, unless it's very violent or gory images. Certainly not for things like mental health issues.

Everyone has issues with something and you can't be giving out warnings for everything that someone may have problems with in a tv show - like suicide, cancer, whatever.

I agree with Malari on this one I think.

If these trigger warnings were used for everything that may upset people then they would be on most evening/nighttime television programmes and movies and thei meaning would be diluted. There are things that really get to me, rape being one of them, I feel genuinely sick when I watch this being acted out. Also graffic car crashes and images of dead children are things I'm not too fond of. But someone else will have other things that upset them.

There are watersheds etc to try and protect children and I think that is enough. I think as adults we need to make decisions on whether or not to watch something. If the particular programme or movie has scenes that upset us then it is up to us to decide at that point whether to continue watching. I understand that at this stage it may be too late to make that decision but as I said previously, people have different triggers so it be would be virtually impossible to cover all of these.

28064212

It would be impossible to implement. One person has no way of telling what may affect another, it's entirely dependent on the viewer's personal circumstances. Where do you stop?

• "Warning, this programme contains scenes where a marriage ends in separation" - hard to watch if you're going through the same thing
• "Warning, this programme contains scenes of a happy child" - hard to watch if your child has just died

Also, programme producers would resist this with everything they have because it's so subjective. If they didn't put a strong enough warning, or it was slightly inaccurate, they risk getting sued. Not to mention the people who will manage to get offended at the mere mention of the topic in the warning

Malari

28064212 wrote: »

• "Warning, this programme contains scenes where a marriage ends in separation" - hard to watch if you're going through the same thing

Not to mention spoilers for people watching a show who are suddenly told of a dramatic incident that happens in the middle of it!

Pyr0

28064212 wrote: »

It would be impossible to implement. One person has no way of telling what may affect another, it's entirely dependent on the viewer's personal circumstances. Where do you stop?

• "Warning, this programme contains scenes where a marriage ends in separation" - hard to watch if you're going through the same thing
• "Warning, this programme contains scenes of a happy child" - hard to watch if your child has just died

Also, programme producers would resist this with everything they have because it's so subjective. If they didn't put a strong enough warning, or it was slightly inaccurate, they risk getting sued. Not to mention the people who will manage to get offended at the mere mention of the topic in the warning

Very true. The producers would probably have a better chance walking through a mindfield with magnetic boots on than trying to appease every possible emotional circumstance.

Crumble Froo

Pretty much what I thought, really

I guess I'll go back to my old technique of never watching telly, and only watching things that good friends can censor for me

Crumble Froo

Crumble Froo wrote: »

Pretty much what I thought, really

I guess I'll go back to my old technique of never watching telly, and only watching things that good friends can censor for me

Nooooo, get a pillow and hide behind it. Always works for me

Hope you're feeling better after your traumatic viewing

It really can be horrible. I remember going to watch song for a raggy boy in the cinema, BIG mistake, I was hysterical for the whole night. Couldn't sleep and wasn't right for days after.

Crumble Froo

i can usually do that with programmes i dont watch, or whatever, there's literally only two tv series i follow (outside of the mighty boosh and black books, which i trust to never, ever do this to me), and one of those is skins, which, certain characters, ive really gotten into. absolutely bawled my eyes out when they killed one of them off a couple of seasons ago. but yeah, something transfixing about watching this character (who's always been one of my faves) go nuts, it was mesmerising in a way. but yeah. massively triggering, as it happened.