Should There Be Trigger Warnings on College Literature Books?

GalwayGuy2 · 20-05-2014 09:33PM #1

Here's a bit of a rundown from the guardian:

Just to sum up the above, it is not just a trigger warning about violence, but also about racism, homophobia, sexism, misogyny, so on so forth.

I'm of two minds about it.

On the one hand, I don't think anybody should be forced to read a college novel that they may find traumatic.

On the other, I genuinely think hiding people away from things that can cause trauma increases the effect that that trauma could have.

But, anyway, what do the after hours people think?

cloud493 · 20-05-2014 09:35PM

What a load of ****e.

Hande hoche! · 20-05-2014 09:35PM

Seems strange
http://24.media.tumblr.com/2d2e2e05987b1e13afd413df98b5a8eb/tumblr_n2juhvK9Xv1s71q1zo1_1280.png

Amirani · 20-05-2014 09:35PM

No.

kneemos · 20-05-2014 09:36PM

How do you suffer a "trauma"from reading a book and how old exactly are these beer guzzling fornication little mites?

Overheal · 20-05-2014 09:37PM

50 shades of grey caused everyone to drop their trousers and turn into sex zombies. Don't you see them? They're ****ing everywhere.

GalwayGuy2 · 20-05-2014 09:41PM

kneemos wrote: »

How do you suffer a "trauma"from reading a book and how old exactly are these beer guzzling fornication little mites?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but it's more for people that the academics class as 'traumatized'.

I have no doubt that a well written scene can bring back bad memories for someone who has gone through an ordeal, but I don't think avoiding is the best solution.

Actually, a correction, I think it's the worst solution.

pharmaton · 20-05-2014 09:45PM

some medical literature I can understand, we covered subject today and half the class went missing after lunch

Sound of Silence · 20-05-2014 09:47PM

Please keep this Tumblr nonsense out of our education system. . .

Mr. CooL ICE · 20-05-2014 09:47PM

Overheal wrote: »

50 shades of grey caused everyone to drop their trousers and turn into sex zombies. Don't you see them? They're ****ing everywhere.

No

mickydoomsux · 20-05-2014 09:52PM

Young people these days are pathetic babies.

Cookie_Monster · 20-05-2014 09:57PM

mickydoomsux wrote: »

Young people these days are pathetic babies.

need a good wars to harden them up

catallus · 20-05-2014 10:01PM

Especially in the USA, politics has become such a rarefied and professional business; these kids on the boards of student bodies use their positions to cause a bit of a ruckus; it really is just something for them to put on their future CV after they leave education for the real world of politics. And the Guardian, always eager to undermine the significance of politics for the common person, prints this stuff as serious news.

"Why are they laughing in those cages?"

NegativeCreep · 20-05-2014 10:05PM

All this talk about "triggers" on the internet these days actually make me want to leave society and live in a hole. People need to get the hell over themselves. Imagine being that self absorbed you have to seek out things that you might get offended by in the future and make sure people put "trigger warnings" on them. Jesus wept. Deal with it.

catallus · 20-05-2014 10:08PM

There is a time and a place for trigger warnings; it has little to do with being self-absorbed; serious literature (as in the OP) is not the place, but I think there can be valid uses of such warnings on internet sites, some of which provide real-life and often graphic representations of things some people would prefer to be given the choice to avoid if possible.

As usual, it is a question of degree.

Shakespeare's Sister · 20-05-2014 10:11PM

Seems OTT, but people who have never experienced trauma are in no position to be telling those who have, how they should feel about possible "triggers" of painful memories.
Still though, it does seem far-fetched in relation to novels. And why only now...

Queen-Mise · 20-05-2014 10:16PM

I think they kinda have a point - albeit not about the texts they have quoted above, they are not the worst of the stuff on courses.

I am avoiding doing an entire History module next year because they are covering Nazism and concentration camps. I know enough, I have been to a concentration camp, it is will just be too upsetting for me. So will do anything else bar do that history module.

I found some of the poems of William Blake upsetting. No one else did - but they must have tapped into something with me.

My name is URL · 20-05-2014 10:17PM

People have gone mad altogether. If folk are that sensitive and traumatised by what happens around them they'd be better off locked up in their rooms rather than making the world a more difficult place to live in for everyone else. Idiots is the only word for them.

Sound of Silence · 20-05-2014 10:19PM

Magaggie wrote: »

Seems OTT, but people who have never experienced trauma are in no position to be telling those who have, how they should feel about possible "triggers" of painful memories.
Still though, it does seem far-fetched in relation to novels. And why only now...

It's just part of the whole SJW movement that's gathering momentum online, especially on the likes of Tumblr. Trigger has become a buzz word for these people and has pretty much lost any real meaning. Apparently pretty much anything can be a trigger, no matter how benign.

/r/Tumblrinaction is a good place to start if you want to see just how bizarre these people get.

Davarus Walrus · 20-05-2014 10:21PM

The only warnings that should be inside college reading material is that they may turn students into insufferable arseholes with ideas above their stations and grand notions about their intellect.

Should certainly be placed inside Charles Bukowski and Hunter S. Thompson novels for the attention of English lit students. And inside the works of Marx and Bukharin for undergraduate Arts students doing a class in economics and/or political theory.

J_E · 20-05-2014 10:49PM

Absolutely nuts. Another Social Justice Warrior fad that has somehow made it out of oversensitive blogospheres. Whatever happened to the good old fashioned 'viewer discretion advised'?

Let it have it's 15 minutes of fame before the Tumblr-dwelling 20 somethings come up with the next thing to wail about.

How utterly crazy would it be if every piece of challenging material in university was prefaced with a 'trigger warning' and allowing students to skip classes? What is the point of education at all then?

Trigger Warning: Might make insufferable assholes concerned. Seriously...

Tokyo · 20-05-2014 10:54PM

I look forward to the inevitable AH thread where some incompetent twat wins a lawsuit over their poor grades because the course literature didn't have enough "trigger warnings"...

mickydoomsux · 20-05-2014 10:56PM

Cydoniac wrote: »

How utterly crazy would it be if every piece of challenging material in university was prefaced with a 'trigger warning' and allowing students to skip classes? What is the point of education at all then?

They just want the bit of paper and a career handed to them because they are used to all being special little stars and everyone getting a medal.

Heavens forbid that the might be challenged by their course material and actually have to learn to deal with real world ideas and situations :mad:

oak5548 · 20-05-2014 10:57PM

Trigger what? Thats fkkin insulting to people with actual triggers that suffer from PTSD etc.

Tumblr shíte needs to go.

20-05-2014 10:57PM

It reminds me of the campaign to change a number of classics so as not to offend modern sensibilities.

pharmaton · 20-05-2014 10:59PM

would they get to skip classes or would the warning allow them to just 'brace themselves'?

J_E · 20-05-2014 11:02PM

oak5548 wrote: »

Trigger what? Thats fkkin insulting to people with actual triggers that suffer from PTSD etc.

Tumblr shíte needs to go.

That's the worst part. The people advocating this are not the people suffering serious stuff like this. Even those with PTSD will tell you that avoiding any such trigger is worse than learning to deal with it in a real life situation. Not to mention the term 'Trigger Warning' will probably have most people think it refers to epilepsy or something.

I really do hope the US colleges have the sense to not take these requests seriously.

My name is URL · 20-05-2014 11:22PM

Queen-Mise wrote: »

I am avoiding doing an entire History module next year because they are covering Nazism and concentration camps.

No offence, but that is bizarre. Why are you studying history at all if you can just pick and choose which parts you want to learn about? I mean trigonometry freaks people out but they wouldn't graduate with a math degree if you chose not to learn about it.

Muise... · 20-05-2014 11:26PM

Lolita triggered in me a great respect for the talent of Nabokov, that he could write so beautifully and make me sympathise with a paedophile.

Ficheall · 20-05-2014 11:28PM

My name is URL wrote: »

I mean trigonometry freaks people out but they wouldn't graduate with a math degree if you chose not to learn about it.

Of course they would.

(Not saying I agree with QM though).

Shakespeare's Sister · 20-05-2014 11:29PM

Sound of Silence wrote: »

It's just part of the whole SJW movement that's gathering momentum online, especially on the likes of Tumblr. Trigger has become a buzz word for these people and has pretty much lost any real meaning. Apparently pretty much anything can be a trigger, no matter how benign.

/r/Tumblrinaction is a good place to start if you want to see just how bizarre these people get.

Very Upworthy too.

Should There Be Trigger Warnings on College Literature Books?

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