It’s the Friday after Thanksgiving here in the US, a holiday famed for its abundant food, contested history, and familial arguments. I confess my family doesn’t fight at Thanksgiving–we leave most of our giant arguments for our annual summer vacation where we’re together for a week and have time to resolve most disputes. Thus I did not bring up this question at our heavily laden table but it’s been on my mind since earlier in the week when the New York Times published a measured article entitled Brave Little Warriors in which it, inadvertently, made an argument against trigger warnings. I thought I’d ask youall about it instead–you cannot throw mashed potatoes at me or yell at me in front of my mom.
The Times article extols the benefits of exposure therapy which it defines here:
The decades-old treatment, which is considered a gold-standard approach for tackling anxiety, phobias and obsessive-compulsive disorder, encourages patients to intentionally face the objects or situations that cause them the most distress. A type of cognitive behavioral therapy, exposure often works within months and has minimal side effects.
The author, an editor on the Times Health and Science desk, writes such therapy is exceptionally successful in helping children and young people overcome extreme anxieties and is fairly easy to implement. Many therapists however don’t us it because they balk at the notion of intentionally making their clients feel worse.
I’ve long been iffy on trigger warnings. I believe that resilience, a key component of mental health, is compromised when those who struggle with anxiety or depression see themselves as helpless in the face of challenging ideas, words, or experiences. Studies on trigger warnings show that rather than helping us manage our anxiety, they often make it worse.
On the other hand, who wants to be cruel? If a topic makes someone flinch, is it the right thing to do to make sure they know it’s present? Are trigger warnings in a review different in that they let readers know that, if they are to read a book, this is what they may encounter and thus prepare for? Are they helpful for some and don’t bother most so why not?
What do you think? Do you think they’re a good thing or not? If so, why?
Impenitent social media enthusiast. Relational trend spotter. Enjoys both carpe diem and the fish of the day.
I don’t care what they are called but it can be a real mental health issue for some! If you can’t understand the spiral down, then thank your lucky stars. A TW or CW can save me from a day of anxiety.
I think part of the problem is calling them “trigger warnings.” When I see that phrase I think of NY Times staffers claiming they feel unsafe because the paper printed an op ed that they disagree with, and I assume this is something snowflakes want.
People do have triggers, I know, and they are no laughing matters, but it seems to me that the thing about them is that they are unexpected. A sight, a sound, a smell, a noise—any of these can set someone off. However, scenes in a book are rarely unexpected. I don’t have to read scene to know it’s going to bother me. I dislike graphic violence, but when I see it about to happen, I can just flip pages until I get to the next scene. If the subject matter of a book is something I know I would rather avoid, I can usually tell that from the back cover blurb or a well-done review.
It’s calling them “trigger warnings” that bothers me.
I think retiring the term “trigger” for emotional issues would be a good thing at this point. It’s rather meaningless.
Most of the authors I follow and read list “caution warnings” not triggers, so I think the word “trigger” is already falling out of fashion. I’ve also seen more authors only giving warnings for big things (violence, sexual abuse, etc) and then saying there are more extensive warnings on their websites if desired. That seems like a decent way to handle it. If someone is motivated, they can pursue the issue, but those who don’t, don’t have to see them. That should reduce spoilery ones as well.
It’s clear to me that a lot of my reluctance to embrace trigger warnings in reviews comes from my concern about the larger social context these warnings current exist in.
As Matthew Iglesias wrote this week in his Substack column,
Many feel isolated and besieged by modern life. But the answer to me is not to stress our individuality but rather to connect, even when it’s hard, with others. There’s something about the way trigger warnings are currently used and displayed that seems to me to work against that goal. I could be wrong. I’ve given thought to the responses here, all of which have been measured and open. THANK YOU to all who have so commented. I can see why trigger warnings work for those they do and I empathize with the desire to control what comes into our lives.
I am still thinking about this issue. The perspective of everyone here has been so helpful. You guys are the best.
As an atheist, I’m afraid I can’t agree that the “waning of religious faith” results in a “crisis of meaning” because my life is much better now that I am no longer a religious fundamentalist. I have a great deal more peace of mind and acceptance of others now that I no longer believe people are destined for hell if they are gay, trans, Muslim, unchaste. etc.
But again, that’s my experience, and I understand that for other people. their religious faith is much more inclusive and very meaningful to them. Everyone is different this way.
As for connecting with others even when it’s hard, I think this depends on who the others are. Just as an example, after I moved into a new condo, the first home I had ever owned, someone whom I considered a friend visited me on the pretense of bringing lunch and proceeded to bless the place (praying aloud, lighting a candle, etc) without my consent. I was so stunned I didn’t say anything at the time, but I found this to be very manipulative and disrespectful, not to mention a fire hazard from the lit candle. Afterwards this person didn’t call me or otherwise get in touch, so it looks like our friendship is over.
Which is fine with me, because I have no intentions of having this person in my life again. Maybe this is a case of my prioritizing my individuality over connecting with another person, but I don’t feel that I should keep people in my life unless they show a little consideration and respect for me.
That seems fair.
I am an agnostic and a spiritual but do not believe in any creed–other than the Force and the Circle of Life. I have been lucky in that most of the people in my life who have been religious have been wonderful, non-judgemental people.
I’m glad you have had better experiences. Unfortunately most of the religious people in my life have not been non-judgmental people who accepted me as I am. One of the reasons I left the Middle East and migrated to Canada was to escape from such people. I don’t hold out much hope for what my mental and emotional state would have been if I had remained in the Middle East, trying to maintain relationships with those people despite their treatment of me.
Anywhere where creed defines the culture seems rough to me. I was just in Israel for the first time and felt very uncomfortable there–I like pluralism in almost all things. It creates a less judgy system.
I just want to say one last thing. That quote is that person’s opinion, and I don’t disagree exactly, but in the end his analysis, to me, is too simplistic. We can rail against victimhood, but let’s not do it at the expense of real victims. If we start seeing every person proclaiming a need as suspect, or of having a “victimhood” mindset, then we do the people needing help a great disservice. I prefer to err on the side of not further isolating those in need because other people muddy the waters.
And I get really tired of people who don’t struggle with anxiety, depression OCD, ADHD, autism, etc., not understanding exactly how hard it really is to just get through many days. You don’t tell a diabetic “to just do without insulin,” and you don’t tell someone with mental health issues or neurodivergency to “just control your emotional reactions.”
Well said, Carrie! Dabney, at various points on this thread you wondered whether AAR’s job was to make people “comfy” or to protect them. It is not. Readers use reviews and content warnings to help them make their own decisions about whether to read a book. It is up to them to protect themselves, not you. It is up to them to make themselves comfortable. You are simply providing information.
I have a real life example which came up this week. In my book club, which reads literary fiction, we are currently reading a book which contains a completed suicide of a character, someone close to the MC. We have someone in our group who lost a loved one due to suicide, and it was devastating for them. Most of us will be reading this book over the holidays for our January meeting, and the leaders just discussed giving the group a heads up. We are not protecting anyone, we are simply providing information, which we did not have previously, and allowing people to make their own decisions about the book. We will also tell them that it is a lovely story, so the information will be more complete.
I’m glad your book club is aware of this issue and has taken necessary steps. You’re being honest as well as considerate.
I post fanfics on Archive of Our Own, which allows authors to include tags that can be used to give readers a heads-up about potential issues. For an upcoming fic, I plan to include ableism as a tag; it won’t spoil the story, because readers won’t know which character is ableist (though anyone who knows the characters can probably guess who it is), or how the ableism is presented. But readers will be able to decide whether or not they want to read a fic which deals with this issue. I also don’t see it as protecting them, but as informing them.
I want to give a concrete example from my own life on how much work it takes for some people to “control their emotions/reaction.”
Ten years ago when I started therapy my psychiatrist had me draw a picture related to by abuse. I drew the inside of an indoor pool area. she then reminded me of one session when I talked about how difficult I found supermarkets and big box stores. My skin would tingle, I’s sometimes shake. I’d wring my hands and I found it very difficult to make decisions. I often ended up in tears trying to decide what meat to buy because I kept thinking how I didn’t make good decisions and I’d probably waste it. What she saw was my body responding to an environment similar to an indoor pool: florescent lights, high ceilings, and echo-y sounds. I wasn’t thinking about something that happened 30 years prior, but my body remembers. For decades I’d been having panic attacks in certain environments and hadn’t realized that what it was.
That therapist, and the one after, taught me how to reground myself in the midst of an attack. I know things to try, and I know to call someone to talk with so I can make it through the store if it gets bad. (It doesn’t happen as much if I go with someone.) But even so, with a decade of practice, I still get caught some days. Last week I went to Target with a list, after the third item that I couldn’t locate, the panic got so bad I just walked out, leaving my cart where it was.
This is why I want warnings about difficult subjects in my fiction. I can then decide what’s best for me (and on different days, that could be different).I read for escape and enjoyment, and getting panicked in the middle of a book is neither of those things.
I personally find them to be valuable and use them for very obvious things such as DV, rape, etc in reviews. But I also weave some information into my reviews as I write them which help set context.
I think several earlier posts gave important clarifications: the word “trigger” in this usage is from old terminology for PTSD and refers to a real problem, but the modern implementation of “trigger warnings” is inherently flawed because we literally can’t know all the potential triggers of all possible readers. There isn’t a defined standard (like DSM, flawed as each edition is), so authors and/or publishers produce confused/confusing and sometimes ridiculous warnings.
I personally side with those who approve of the concept of trigger warnings if a good implementation standard could be developed. The old adage about judging books by covers comes to mind: we literally can’t know what we will encounter in a book if the cover gives no clue or false clues. I still recall a Regency I read years ago with the on-page rape of the heroine as a book I could have avoided reading if I had known. It was not a personal PTSD-type trigger, but definitely content I prefer to avoid (referring back to the blog topic a week or two ago).
On my first day of college, in a class on interprofessionalism, the instructor showed clips of a film which were meant to demonstrate interactions and communications.
There was just one problem. The film was all about a woman with cancer. And it was pretty unsparing in its depiction of the effects. And I had previously spent a year watching my mother die slowly of cancer. It was the most horrible experience of my life. Even writing about it now is difficult. Watching that film made my hands shake and left me feeling sick to my stomach. I should probably have said something at the time, but it was the first day of college and I didn’t want to make waves.
Besides, who knows? Maybe the instructor would have felt that I needed to be more resilient. Maybe the instructor would have thought that I couldn’t expect to be protected from something that affects so many people, or that I needed to get out of my comfort zone and expose myself to things that upset me.
Regardless, though, I will never watch a film or read a book if I know in advance that cancer is involved. So for me, a trigger warning about cancer is greatly appreciated.
Just my personal experience. Others may feel differently.
I am so sorry, this is a brutal experience.
My heartfelt compassion.
After my husband died of cancer, it took me years to be able to react with emotional distance to some things, I was raw for a long time. And I still know that some things, like movies about a cancer, or books about it, when it is the center of the story, I just need to avoid.
I leave conversations when it gets too detailed, sometimes, still, and it is by now 10 years. It is a true effort to be present for friends who have any such real experience, where I feel that I must remain with them as a fellow human being. I do not do it for any reason except true human personal exchange, no theoretical debates, no tearjerkers, no fiction.
I do not – by now – expect others to protect me from it, but I expect them to respect when I say “not with me”.
Thank you, Lieselotte. You’re right, it’s the kind of experience that scars you for life, and I’m so sorry about your husband.
I don’t think there’s anything wrong with wanting or needing safety in fiction, especially when the real world doesn’t provide such security. If I do feel in the mood for a gutpunch instead, I can always find that in some genre other than romance.
The problems for me from a reviewer angle are:
1) What constitutes a trigger? If the heroine experienced a rape in the past but it is not graphically detailed on page, is that a possible trigger? If a book is a mystery, do I have to warn about every awful thing on page? I can remember in one novel I read, the heroine feared she was being groomed to be sexually abused but nothing more happened than a man holding her on his lap when she was a pre-teen. Does that need a trigger warning? If the event takes place during a war, do I need to mention the violence/sexual violence or is that inherently understood?
2) What about spoilers? If something happens in the mid-point or end of the book, how do we deal with that? Karen Roses’ books are romantic suspense that often contain a LOT of violence. So do Laura Griffin’s. Even most cozies start with a murder/violent act. Do I have to warn that those are coming and how much detail do I need to go into? YMMV really applies here. Even though I read a lot of dark stuff, I don’t read certain authors because they cross a subtle line for me. Reviews can’t warn me when the content I don’t want to touch is there because the borders of it exist only in my own head.
3) In my experience, trigger warnings tend to help those who want to avoid topics, not those actually impacted by them. For example, most rape victims are triggered not by the mention of rape but by a certain scent (I knew someone triggered by vanilla because she had been using that scent in her home when she was raped), or certain sounds or certain locations. To use fictional examples, Carla Kelly had a book where the hero had a truly awful experience while shipwrecked and IIRC he was triggered by the sound of leaves across pavement. Another hero had issues with women and fire because of something horrible in his past. So a lot of times, its impossible to warn people who really need them that the trigger is even there.
Lots of people want to know exactly what they are getting when they pick up a book but for plenty of others TMI can ruin the reading experience. What balance do we need so both groups are served?
I often think the better answer is a well written review.
Yes, this. I’ve seen so many “reviews” on Goodreads that are little more than a list of content warnings as long as your arm. I also worry that using such warnings so often that they become commonplace may have the opposite affect to the one intended and they may not be taken seriously… I don’t know, I’m still thinking about that one.
I have seen many well written reviews that didn’t contain warnings simply because those warnings would have constituted spoilers. And think of the differing reactions to “surprises” people have for things that are definitely spoilers and aren’t triggers – such as the title of Carla Kelly’s Libby’s London Merchant indicating one hero and the heroine choosing another. We had a reviewer angry over that with a McFarlane book recently. A reviewer on this site suffered backlash when she mentioned the heroine developed a certain disorder during the second half of the book. It was meant to be a plot twist and readers and author alike were angry she’d given it away. Because it would have been a trigger for her, she warned others. What about the complete mess that resulted from Suzanne Brockman’s big switchero in the trouble shooters series? To me, most people are concerned about content, not necessarily triggers. And that makes the issue a lot more complicated.
Interesting post, Maggie. Maybe discussion needs to be had about the differentiation between spoilers and triggers in an attempt to define each. Doubtless there would be considerable ways in which readers define or understand these concepts as well as in the ways they prefer or accept one or the other.
I think the fact is that anything could be a trigger for anybody, and it’s impossible to know what those might be and for whom. That doesn’t mean we shouldn’t mention things we think might be problematic in reviews, but I generally put them in the review rather than add a separate warning. But when you get past what I’m going to call “the obvious” ones – for rape/assault/non-con and violence in some circumstances – it becomes harder and harder to work out what might be a trigger and what might not, especially if you haven’t experienced them yourself or don’t know anyone who has experienced them.
And why do we have to be protected from everything?
I go backwards and forwards on this. I watched the first series of Homeland while on a long haul flight. Spoiler alert: one of the main characters undergoes ECT for bipolar disorder. My Mum had gotten out of hospital the day before for medication resistant schizophrenia treated with ECT. It was too raw. I lost it and was sobbing on the plane. Would I have watched that program if I had known what was coming: yes, just not in a public space. Are there books with topics that I prefer not to read? Absolutely. As mentioned I think reviews are a good place to start. I think general warnings: horror, strong language, sexual content etc are fair. I’m not sure specific trigger warnings are warranted.
In the Jewish New Year one of the central prayers is recited by the whole congregation as it stands and faces the Torah. In part it says that “on Rosh Hashanah will be inscribed and on Yom Kippur will be sealed how many will pass from the earth and how many will be created; who will live and who will die; who will die after a long life and who before his time; who by water and who by fire, who by sword and who by beast, who by famine and who by thirst…..”. Yom Kippur 2013 was only a month after my nephew was murdered, and when we recited the prayer I burst into tears as I thought of how Asher, at 23, was one of those who died before his time. I’ve always found the prayer powerful and poetic, so a trigger warning wouldn’t have helped because, even though I knew it was coming, it had never had the power it had that year, recited in so many voices, so soon after a tragedy.
That sounds so powerful. And I’m so sorry to hear about your nephew.
This is the problem I wrestle with, too. I don’t want to dismiss anyone’s concerns about things that might be problematic for them, and I’m fine with authors including content warnings in their books – but as someone here has said, warnings for “past death of X, off page” or even things like “mentions of past drug use” seem – to ME – to be excessive. And we also now see warnings for things like “X is sexually promiscuous” or “X has other partners before meeting Y” – which aren’t things I think need to be identified as “triggers”.
Part of the issue is definitely going to be labeling exactly what constitutes a trigger. Most just see them as content warnings and honestly, that’s what a lot pf people are looking for. I can remember a complete bruhaha when Deanne Gist had a character kiss a man in the doorway of her bedroom and then had the audacity to have a couple kissing on their wedding day in 1800s underwear. I would bet the vast majority of women who were griping had left their homes and walked around in public in less than what that married couple was wearing in their own room. Some readers were livid that this received just a kiss rating although that is literally all we saw.
As a review site that has many many diverse readers and writers, it’s simply not possible to make everyone happy or even comfy.
I tend to support things that work best for most rather than things that work to be best for all. I don’t think there’s any way we could ever come up with an answer to this question that won’t irk or discomfit some. Your Gist reference is a reminder of that!
I remember you had the author…Rose Lerner?…give a guest interview on AAR. She included a trigger warning. I was so confused. I had heard of them before in college environments, but this was the first one I’d actually seen/paid attention to in my romance universe. I think I had already read the book, so the warning bothered me. Mainly because I saw nothing in the book to warrant a trigger warning! I specifically questioned the use of a trigger warning and was given the excuse of how it’s “kinder” to people to include one. I think it was the author herself who responded and not AAR…but even that response bothered me. HOW is it kinder? Because honestly, I did not see any kindness to it. Instead, I saw it as pushing people away.
It’s been ages, so I don’t remember the specifics. But I think at worse the heroine was worried that maybe she would be in a compromising situation or physically threatened? Maybe by an employer? But I don’t remember any rape, no specific actions, no physicality, nothing… That was my first experience with trigger warnings and I was totally unimpressed. It wasn’t helpful, it wasn’t accurate, it wasn’t emotionally honest, it wasn’t even true! (That’s what my memory says, anyway.) It was an exaggeration and honestly, I felt like it was done to be socially responsive/trendy. In other words, *I felt triggered* by the entire situation.
If you can’t tell, I am vehemently opposed to trigger warnings that are emotionally and factually dishonest. I mainly feel that there are many ways for someone who is triggered to come by the information they need, without “trigger warnings”. Anyone who is truly that fragile probably needs – and hopefully has – a system in place to provide support.
To those people who say if you don’t like the trigger warnings, ignore them, I say that’s doing a disservice to everyone! It’s a horribly flawed process and I can’t in good conscience support it. It’s a well-intentioned trap that is not healthy for anyone the way it is currently being done. I love books and reading too much to support what I’m currently seeing for trigger warnings.
PS to Dabney: I have 3 teens/20-somethings in my household. In response to your questions about exposure therapy — I will say based on my children the BEST, most enduring results we have had dealing with anxiety and depression have been through exposure to learning how to deal with it. Basically making them responsible for their wellness and their living situation. Versus avoidance, or taking responsibility for them, which caused problems to fester and actually get worse.
Well summed up, amers, and well said.
Book reviews usually discuss what happens in a book and how well it is executed so people can tell if they want to purchase it or check it out. I don’t know if it needs to be done in “trigger warning” format, but why is discussing if a book contains violence or sexual assault strange? Usually these things are big plot points and isn’t discussing what happens in a book what reviews have done for a long time? Don’t reviews partially exist in order to tell someone if a book of interest to them?
And implying that if a reader doesn’t want to read about violence or sexual assault in their fiction that they are not “mentally resilient” doesn’t make sense to me. What people can handle in their real lives and what they chose to read about are very different.
And there is a lot more anxiety and depression among young people these days in the United States (I believe it is up across all age groups) – but look at what the last few years have been like. If trigger warnings are part of the problem, they are like less than 1% of the problem. It’s one of those things that people can easily point to and say, “Look, this thing is causing people to be less mentally resilient!” when really the issues are probably a combination of societal and personal, and there are many complex causes.
I certainly don’t think trigger warnings are the cause of young people’s anxiety. I have four kids and spend a lot of time with teens and young people in their 20s. They have very real things to be anxious about.
AND I think it’s useful for us to consider whether or not the approach that we’ve taken over the past decade is the best.
Coming at this as a reviewer, I try to flag up things I feel may be an issue for a majority of readers when I write reviews – mostly those things are around the issues of consent and/or abuse because I think those are things that are likely to be of concern to any reader. If I’m reviewing a mystery or suspense or sci-fi book, I assume anyone contemplating reading it will expect there to be some degree of violence, so I will only warn for that if it’s excessive or there’s something that might be particularly upsetting. But I’ve seen warnings for things like smoking and other things which seem – to ME – to be fairly minor when compared to things like rape or violence against kids.
As a reader, yes, Carrie is right, I can just ignore them if I want to and many authors now put them at the beginning of a book so you can use the “Look Inside” feature at Amazon to read them.
Trigger warnings basically do what the quote you posted is saying. They “encourages patients to intentionally face the objects or situations that cause them the most distress.” The key word here is “intentionally.” No therapist just springs the spider picture on a patient with arachophobia. They tell them what’s going to happen and get their consent.
I don’t get why the trigger warning hate. Readers can just ignore them. Being able to read books without the “need” for trigger warnings doesn’t somehow mean you’re a more mature or intelligent person. It means you thankfully don’t have a reason for needing them, and I’m very happy for you, honestly.
Trigger warning are extremely helpful for me. Sometimes it just means I set a book aside for when I’m in the right frame of mind for reading a more challenging work. Sometimes It means I avoid it all together because, honestly, I don’t have the emotional bandwidth for some types of stories. I’m grateful not to purchase and get halfway through a story only to find that instead of me being entertained, I have to stop reading.
You just stated why I am opposed to trigger warnings. “Sometimes it means I avoid it all together…”. These trigger warnings, especially in romances, can be wrong. Or exaggerated. They are a short-cut to what’s really going on in a book and not consistently or accurately utilized. That’s why I much prefer reviews to a trigger warning, because you get a much better understanding of what is going on and why. Especially when you find a review site where you find certain reviewers who have similar taste to yours — that can help weed out a lot of books. Or draw you to new authors.
I’m fine with reading reviews to get the information if I can find reviews that do. And I do have reviewers I trust. But I still see no problem with just saying up front, whether in a book blurb or in a review: “Warning for graphic rape scene.” That’s a hard no for me and I appreciate not wasting my time or money. If I see a trigger warning for violence or whatever, it helps me know I need to do more research before I buy. And there are so many books in the world, and my TBR pile is so high, that if I’d much rather miss a few good books than waste to my time on something I won’t finish.
My problem is with lists a mile long, and I see more and more of those. “death of a family member off the page” recently struck me, in a long list including “troubled siblings” and “depression off the page” … it reminds me of the very old McDonalds law suit about the coffee being hot, and someone scalding themselves – I do not know if is an urban myth, but as a European, the idea of being sued for serving hot coffee is excessive – I would sue people for serving me cold coffee. So trying to protect me from everything, or the author / publisher from every person who could be unsettled just seems too much.
My second problem is that at some point, those trigger warnings give away plot points that I feel are spoilers.
I want to give an author the chance to surprise me, and I am willing to take the risk of being surprised and not loving it.
On the other hand, I refuse to read suspense and thriller books with children victims – and stop if I see that is where we are going –> which means I read less and less thriller –> so I do not even know exactly what would be perfect for me personally, and cannot decide what would be right for others.
As many said, AAR and its reviews are important, they strike the right balance for me, while I am very undecided about trigger warnings – they disturb me, more than they serve me – and they seem to get more and more detailed, which disturbs me more.
McDonald’s was sued for hot coffee. An elderly woman suffered severe third degree burns to her groin due to the restaurant heating it to near boiling point. She suffered for years and had multiple skin grafts. McDonald’s refused to pay her medical bills, leading to the lawsuit. It also was revealed that they had received over 700 complaints about their coffee causing burns and ignored them.
At the time, she was ridiculed in the press for not knowing coffee was hot. I only learned the full story a few years ago and was shocked that it was so misreported.
This is a fascinating case. If anyone would like to read about it, here’s the link.
Thank you!
That incredibly relevant bit of information never reached me, only the ridicule. I feel sorry for all the years of not understanding enough and using this example.
You never know enough …
Sorry this is long, but this is in my wheelhouse, so here goes….
As a therapist, I worked in an anxiety disorders clinic where we did exposure therapy with our clients. The clients voluntarily came in to our clinic knowing they were going to expose themselves to situations they feared. They also knew they would be taught coping strategies such as mindfulness, relaxation, breathing, and cognitive therapy prior to being asked to go into the situation. The key is the clients consented to this approach, were given the skills to cope with any increase in anxiety, and chose to participate each step of the way, knowing they could change their minds at any time. The treatment was highly effective.
When we give trigger warnings in reviews for books or films, we are telling people what subject matter they will encounter. They can choose expose themselves to that subject matter or not. If they choose to read a book that might be triggering, then they exercise agency by intentionally exposing themselves to that subject matter. I am all for giving people choices.
There are subjects I do not enjoy reading about, and I appreciate knowing whether I will encounter them in a book. For example, I don’t like to read books with a lot of explicit violence or rape. However, I sometimes read that subject matter if I like and trust the author. I recently read the fabulous Louise Erdrich book, The Night Watchman. Knowing there was difficult subject matter, I read it earlier in the day and not at bedtime. So I like reviews to give me a heads up about content, whether you call it a trigger warning or something else.
Dabney, you shared an article which talked about trigger warnings for college students and whether professors should be offering warnings about course content. I do think that is different in that students choose to be in college and are taking these courses knowing that they will be exposing themselves to a broad range of content and ideas. That is what college is about. I think that trigger warnings are being taken to an extreme in that environment, and causing students to see themselves as fragile and unable to handle challenging subject matter, i.e., not resilient. If they truly are that fragile, then they should have resources in place to help them get through their courses, not put the onus on their professors who cannot and should not be their therapists or gatekeepers.
Thank you! This is exactly right. I have been in CBT and DBT therapy, and they don’t just throw you in the deep end. The skills are taught first, giving the patient the ability and confidence to tackle the problems, but most importantly, the patient goes into the therapy purposefully. In effect, they have been given the trigger warnings up front and have consented to the exposure.
Thank you. This is just the sort of answer I was hoping for!
You’re welcome. Just as an aside, it’s helpful to remember that the idea of triggers comes from work with war veterans who experienced PTSD, originally identified as “shell shock” after WWI. Doctors found the vets were “triggered” into re-experiencing their trauma by certain reminders such as fireworks, or a car backfiring. This research has expanded to include many types of trauma, from concentration camp survivors to rape to car crashes to mass shootings.
I’ve noticed that many romance novels have characters who are dealing with past trauma, and the authors use that as part of the character’s journey as well as the evolution of the romantic relationship. I wonder if this was as common 20 years ago? Sometimes it is handled well, with complexity and sensitivity, while at other times not so much.
Maybe part of what I struggle with is how exhaustive trigger warnings have become. I do believe that if you were in Iraq that you may have PTSD around explosions and loud noises and that such things trigger you. But not everything warrants that level of protection.
I agree that trigger warnings have become ubiquitous and are sometimes overused. As so often happens, once a clinical diagnostic term such as PTSD or trauma or even triggers becomes popularized, then the term is overapplied to situations which do not merit the label. Once you overapply a term, it begins to lose its meaning, and it does a disservice to those who truly have the clinical condition.
Yet for those who really need them, trigger warnings are a godsend. IMHO, AAR is doing a real service by providing excellent and informative reviews for romance novels. AAR enables those with PTSD to find romance novels that will provide them a time of peace and pleasure, and that is a true gift. I would not hesitate to provide the veterans and first responders or victims of assault that comfort. Instead, be proud of giving people the information they need to make informed reading choices. You are doing good work here!
To me this is, like most of life, a question of balance.
I think, if I had to, I’d say trigger warnings in reviews for violence make sense. But for things like food allergies–I just saw this one elsewhere–I think it’s overkill.
Food allergies may be overkill, but then again if you’ve experienced an anaphylactic shock and almost died (like someone I know with peanut allergies) it can cause PTSD (like any traumatic experience can) and they really might prefer to be warned rather than reading a description of it in a book they are reading for pleasure. (Yes I know a traumatic experience doesn’t always cause clinical PTSD.) I get a little frustrated when people who don’t need accommodations criticize what others might need. If someone doesn’t need it, ignore it, but why be gate-keepers for something that others might appreciate or need? We start getting into the realm of ableism if we gatekeep for things that don’t actually affect us.
Almost anything can be triggering for someone. There is no possible way to identify every single possible trigger, and I think that is the challenge for review sites, authors and publishers. If you are going to give trigger warnings, where do you draw the line? For me, the question I would ask is, “Would this content trouble a significant number of people?” What is a “significant number?” Violence, assault, bullying, torture are obvious choices. But I would not list food allergies, and I have a son who had an anaphylactic reaction to peanuts. As a reader, I do accept that there will be surprises in every book, and I may not like them all, but that ok. Books reflect life, and life always holds surprises.
I get that. I know it’s not easy. I’m more playing devil’s advocate here. It’s often too easy to say, “I don’t need this so why would anyone.” I believe we need to have these conversations and help each other realize all the sides to an issue, and how it might affect people who are different from us.
But the goal in life cannot be only helping each other. There have to be other considerations.
I’m sure the PTSD label can be overused, but it’s also worth noting that the reasons they expanded the definition was that doctors started to recognize the symptoms of PTSD in other populations, like abused spouses, car accident survivors, rape victims, children of alcoholics, etc. I know you are a professional, and already know this. I was diagnosed by my psychiatrist because of my symptoms, many of which surfaced as I got older. The diagnosis enabled me to get the therapy I needed (still ongoing), but it also helped immensely just to know what was going on and why I was the way I was.
I guess I’m saying I wouldn’t want to risk people not getting a diagnosis because we are too afraid of overapplying the label. People often think ADHD and Autism are “over-used” because so many people have been diagnosed. But what is happening is that the understanding of neurotypical and neurodivergent is increasing, and people aren’t falling through the cracks. In that case, neurotypical is the mathematical “mode,” or the single group with the most people, but it’s not the majority. There are actually more people who are neurodivergent (ADHD, or Autism, or both or other) than neurotypical. We may find that the group of people with past trauma that impacts their present lives is much larger than we thought, and as information is gathered we will be better able to diagnose proper treatment depending on the degree of severity instead of only looking at the most severe cases as “real.”
Yes, exactly. I agree with you completely as a psychologist and also as an avid reader.
To me, the analogy is to bringing a dish to a potluck where it will be shared with a large group of people. It’s just common courtesy to say, “This dish is made with peanut oil/dairy/soy/fish, etc.” and make reference to potential/common allergens. I wouldn’t want anyone to have an allergic reaction to something I’ve prepared just as (if I were an author) I wouldn’t want to trigger someone who didn’t know my novel included references to an abusive relationship or the death of a loved one, etc. Just as, because I don’t have food allergies, I can ignore an allergy warning on a dish, I can ignore trigger warnings that don’t bother me. It’s easy to say “Be resilient” or “Suck it up” if you aren’t bothered by certain triggering topics, but if there’s something that might cause someone to have an episode (or simply to decide, no I don’t want to put that image in my brain), what’s the problem with letting readers know about upsetting topics? It just seems a kind thing to do. Readers shouldn’t be forced to read something that they know in advance is going to distress them.
Great analogy, DDD.
No one has to read anything they don’t want to – ever. One can just say no to whatever they like. On the other hand, if I am advised (I prefer that to “warned” which I find more negative) of a particular plot device, then I will start a story or film looking for that issue even subconsciously to the detriment of the whole experience. This, it seems to me, can stifle artistic licence and spoil the experience of the writer’s creative journey in their story.
I guess I do see a difference between a genuine food allergy–which only about ten percent of us have–and something that makes people emotionally uncomfortable. I do see your analogy, however, and it makes sense.
If you read the NYT article, it makes it clear that resilience is developed by exposing yourself to things that make you anxious. At least for myself, it seems counterproductive to avoid things that make me flinch.
We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one, but I think there’s a big difference between a reader who reads something that might make them “flinch” and a reader with a pre-existing mental health condition who could be sent into a spiral by reading about a situation that triggers their anxieties. I don’t see the problem with telling readers in advance about potential triggers and giving the reader the opportunity to decide if they want to read the book. As I said in my original comment, giving readers a warning seems like the kind thing to do.
For me, I struggle because it feels like behaviours that taken individually that are kind may be, when applied to society, terrible for our big picture happiness. Many trigger warnings are used by some to say–That makes me uncomfortable so I am not going to engage. This, I believe, makes it more likely that people will then not engage with people and situations that are out of their comfort zone.
The WaPo just wrote:
I worry that trigger warnings and indeed a whole culture that focuses on protecting people from pain is, writ large, a disaster for our long term social health. We need to be able and willing to be with people that may offend us, disagree with us, even make us feel criticized or hurt. I can’t help but think that trigger warnings do not facilitate that skill set.
Dabney, I feel like we are talking about two very different things. Trigger warnings for sexual situations, trauma, violence, past abuse, etc., in our reading material have NOTHING to do with with being “willing to be with people that may offend us, etc” I’m not sure how you are jumping from trigger warnings in fiction to teens not spending as much time with friends.
Those two are completely different things in my life. I read news and current events, and engage well, and so do my kids, even if a lot of it is online. What I don’t want is to deal with graphic descriptions of sexual abuse in my books. I don’t see how these two things equate.
And honestly, I just reread the post and thread on “How do you like your love stories” and I’m scratching my head. It feels like there you were saying you read for escape and didn’t want books with agendas, but now you’re against trigger warnings?
Carrie, I’m not against trigger warnings period end of statement. I do think it’s worth asking whether the way we are using them is doing what we hope.
Just tell me, don’t think you need to warn me, in a review. On a book cover not needed. I don’t read back covers anyway. If you think I need a warning, you must be thinking I still eat baby food. Believe me, I don’t. Whatever is happening to intellectual challenge and forming views through mental exposure, debate snd discussion? I read an article today saying younger adults think fairy tales are off limits. Sleeping Beauty didn’t consent to that awakening kiss. So next time the handsome prince can let her lay there in her sleep and find a more appreciative partner. I truly despair.
I’m with this comment: just tell me what the book is about and I’d rather not have to dig through reviews to find out. For example, I would like to find out if a romance is about a girl who falls in love with her bully or aggressor while he is still aggressing her (and not 20 years later when the guy changed, he regretted being horrible in high school or something). If this appears in the synopsis, great if the title is clear, ok. But if the synopsis says something like… “Two soul mates collide until they implode” and then praise and positive comments recommending the book I think I prefer a warning or at least a little sentence “this book contains non-consensual relationships, aggression on the part of of the hero and graphic violence”, thank you is not my type of book so I will not spend money on something that I will not finish reading.
You make an interesting point. I think a good review gives you a sense of what happens and you can decide whether you want to read it or not.
I just saw and did not like at all the film Glass Onion. Were I to review it, I wouldn’t offer any trigger warnings. But I would say, “Those looking for a coherent plot or character development that makes sense will be disappointed.” I might even add the cryptic hint, “And if the desecration of items of priceless cultural value upsets you, prepare to flinch, more than once, by the film’s incoherent end.” No warnings but an assessment!
I’m late to the party here but I agree with your doubts about the social consequences of trigger warnings, Dabney. We can’t insulate ourselves from everything painful in life. And as I read through the comments earnestly defending trigger warnings I was thinking “I’d rather have warnings about cookie-cutter characters, wooden dialogue, couples of previous books hogging the pages, etc…”
The trigger warnings I do encounter tend to annoy me. They are often spoilery, so they do affect my reading enjoyment. And they imply that romance isn’t to be taken seriously as a genre. Does literary fiction have trigger warnings? Or does the reader take a leap of faith when they buy or borrow the book and embark on that reading journey?
Those are really good points – I think the things you mention ARE things that you will find warnings about in a well written review (of the variety we present here, of course!). But I have to say that some of those long lists of warnings have left me scratching my head in confusion more than once.
I do think Mark has a point upthread though – warnings for a potential “trigger” and content warnings are actually different things, but we’re starting to see them as the same.
My personal desire is that romance novels treat this issue as other genres do. It’s not super common in other realms–what is it about romance readers?
Romance readers do tend to develop very specific tastes for heat levels, characters’ morals, etc. and the output of the genre is so vast that people can generally stick to their preferred niche and never run out of things to read. We’ve all seen reader reviews that are outraged because the book contained some element they didn’t like: “I would never have bought this book if I’d known….” etc. I’ve even read posts on websites like this in which readers say they have to check the ending of a book before they risk starting it! Readers of romance (speaking very generally here) don’t seem to want to be challenged by anything different, but want to stay in their comfort zone all the time. I too have my preferred tropes and I definitely like what I like, but I’d rather have to skim certain scenes or abandon a book I’m not enjoying than have a long list of content warnings potentially ruin a lot of the fun of discovery that is the reading journey.
It’s so interesting to me that we think art–and romance is art–should work specifically for us. It’s just been such a sea change in perspective since I became a romance reader.
One thing about romance readers is that we are among the most voracious readers around. I read hundreds of books per year. My *first tier* spreadsheet of books waiting to be read has over 2,000 entries. If a content warning lets me avoid a book with content that I will dislike and read something I will enjoy more, that is a win for me.