Do most people really even know what trigger warnings are?

[loyalsister]

I am mystified that people object to students having some warning about potential severely distressing material.

As a social psychologist and a professional academic in Chicago working for multiple universities on an at-will basis, academic and intellectual freedom is a value I am inclined to strongly support. I do believe that professors should feel free to express extreme viewpoints and present challenging material to their students in hopes of expanding their thinking and drawing out critical reflection. And as an instructor with my own classes, I often present material or ideas that some students may disagree with or vehemently dislike. Like many academics, I am dismayed when my colleagues are denied intellectual freedom, and are fired or otherwise punished for wearing political insignia, presenting challenging material, or espousing views some students object to.

What are trigger warnings?

Trigger warnings are small advisories placed before the presentation of material that people may find acutely upsetting. Sometimes they are placed in course syllabi, prior to weeks where distressing content is discussed, or on lecture slides, before the presentation of graphic or unpleasant or otherwise triggering material. The term “trigger” is a reference to trauma triggering, an experience common to people with post-traumatic stress disorder, whereby encountering a word, person, or object that is reminiscent of trauma causes a person to experience flashbacks, physical/emotional distress, or panic.

https://medium.com/@erikadprice/hey-university-of-chicago-i-am-an-academic-1beda06d692e#.flo59r1j1

[Gman]

1. Trigger warnings are for white privlege

When you're Black there is no such thing.

[loyalsister]

7. Really?

Any and all students are requested to provide any related information they would like to have considered.

[Gman]

9. And to say that frames the issue in white terms

It's not that easy when you're Black.

[loyalsister]

19. That is not so where I live

The students on the MU campus are receiving requested mental health services after a campus wide threat. The university was ridiculed for providing safe space for those students. And a professor was fired for trying to help protect it.

If you go to the link you will see that triggers are identified by the student. If a professors give attention to those of white students and not black students, or other students of color. It will be noticed.

[Gman]

35. First, you're in college

Most Blacks don't get as good a high school education, if they finish, to get into a good school. So you get "protected". Often when you're Black, there are no safe places. Maybe put yourself in the place of a Black child in a bad environment. For that matter, any race. Even poor kids on the street begging or doing whatever it takes to survive in Central America. Privleged whites have never and will never know this. Or any under advantaged situation. Because of an accident of birth you go to a nice school, and you feel safe and that's a good thing. For most of the planet, that's not how it is. You have to receive pain to know pain.

[loyalsister]

37. I'm not in college

But, I live in Columbia MO. Home of Mizzou where rampant racism has been exposed. The article refers specifically to trigger warnings in the context of academic content. The triggers are identified by the students and thus specifically refer to their own experiences.

They have been used and valued at MU largely because it is something that non white students appreciate. Particulaly after last semester when black students were threatened.

[thucythucy]

46. I used to work with an urban rape crisis center.

We had quite a few women of color who were rape survivors, and guess what? some of them even went to college. A trigger warning relating to some graphic depiction of rape or sexual violence in a class presentation might benefit them as much as anyone.

Are you suggesting that trigger warnings are bad because only white people benefit from them? The BBC World Service regularly uses trigger warnings when broadcasting disturbing images. Last night, for instance, they issued two warnings, one for a report including images of dead Syrian civilians, another for images of dead Italian earthquake victims. Considering the BBC is seen all around the world, with huge audiences in Africa and Asia, I'm not sure where white privilege comes in in that regard. In fact, since people of color all around the world are more likely to be targets of violence than whites, it seems to me trigger warnings in particular would be a much appreciated service to all communities, including communities of color.

One might even say that the attacks on trigger warnings are a form of male privilege, since rape and sexual and domestic violence (which in my experience provoke the majority of tw's) are forms of trauma that most often target women and girls. I wouldn't go that far, since there are quite a few male (and female) war veterans with PTSD who might also appreciate a heads-up on images or depictions of graphic violence. And of course, African Americans make up a disproportionate number of combat veterans, so here again trigger warnings would seem to benefit everyone.

"You have to receive pain to know pain." I would think that includes the pain of rape and sexual assault, which, again, in my experience, are what most trigger warnings are about. People who know pain, who are trying to deal with it as best they can, and who might appreciate not being flung into the sort of PTSD related anxiety flashback that comes with seeing a graphic depiction resembling their own experience.

Is this truly too much to ask?

[loyalsister]

27. How does it frame it in white terms students offer them information themselves?

Many of our experiences are influenced by gender, race, ethnicity, sexual identity. Nowhere on the form provided is there a request that backgrounds be put aside and trauma only be represented in a context of whiteness.

[Buckeye_Democrat]

52. Tell that to the young, white Hannity look-alike at my university...

... who went nuts in a comparative economics class after the professor mentioned some of the benefits of socialism.

Seeing him turn red and scream about it was pretty hilarious, though!

The professor was listing pros and cons for everything, but that a-hole flipped out over any "pros" for socialism. He dropped out later, thank goodness. He revealed during his rant that he was a former soldier in the military, by the way.

[forjusticethunders]

54. is this where i say "triggered" nt

once again proving that conservatives are really good at projecting.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Like any good idea it can be taken too far such that it can have noxious consequences.

However, University students are very rarely the "snowflakes" the alt-right calls them.

Let's say you are a Syrian refugee and you sign up for a course on Middle-East GeoPolitics. The course title is a trigger warning. Is any other formal trigger warning necessary? Not that I can see. But of course, it is only just basic politeness as they are lecturing for the instructor to warn about graphic material if they are about to present detailed descriptions or images of massacres or tortures.

[thucythucy]

5. Well, if a part of the class

involves a film including images of children laying in bloody pieces on the pavement after an air raid, then yeah, a trigger warning before viewing such a film might be in order, ESPECIALLY for someone who is a Syrian refugee. But as someone who has experienced some pretty intense violence in my own life, and know others in a similar situation, I appreciate a little heads-up before wading into depictions of graphic horror.

How much trouble is it, really, to say a bit ahead of time, "there are some images here which might upset some people, so be forewarned"?

Hell, the BBC last night issued TWO trigger warnings before showing footage of a) bodies after an air strike in Syria and b) bodies after the earthquake in Italy. I truly don't understand what "noxious consequences" can follow from such a practice.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Ordinary reading of my post finds nothing contradictory to your post. Same for careful. Gosh. . nt

[thucythucy]

16. I was just wondering what "noxious consequences"

you saw to issuing a trigger warning.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

20. Ah, ok, perhaps you should have asked that, instead of giving an example that agreed with my post.

Noxious consequences can flow if there are too many trigger warnings in formal material, or if they are each too voluminous, or if they are issued for mild stuff.

I'm not aware of specifics, but I get the sense that sometimes it is over-done in formal material such as course outlines or course calendar descriptions. There seems to be some push-back, most of which of course is coming from insensitive clods who don't want any trigger warning because they have no empathy and no understanding, but perhaps there are cases where trigger warnings have been over-done.

One of the ways this can trip up is that just about anything can be considered a trigger and may be to some obscure groupings. For example, if a teddy bear was used (as has been apparently) to subvert a child into being a victim of sexual assault, that could be a trigger (cf. "pedobear&quot . Should there be trigger warnings anytime "teddy bear" is mentioned or shown? No, of course not, and I doubt any are issued. But somewhere there is an indistinct, hard to draw, line where a good amount of trigger warnings ceases and it gets over-done.

So trigger warnings are inherently imperfect, but an attempt to perfect the insulation via trigger warnings would drive out some good.

What is really missing from this discussion are examples of over-done cases of trigger warnings and I'm sorry that I can't supply any.

[thucythucy]

26. Yeah, I haven't run into any actual cases either,

that is, instances of obvious over-the-top abuse of the concept. Instead I've only seen hyperbolic hypotheticals, such as the one further down thread of medical students getting a trigger warning before seeing blood on a slide. Personally I doubt that ever happened, and I find it interesting that the discussion against trigger warnings is always illustrated by pretty much bogus examples.

Anything can be abused. I mean, that's the danger of setting a speed limit on a highway, right? Because, what if some state decides to set its speed limit at exactly four and a half miles per hour? And institutes the death penalty for anyone who disobeys? So maybe the whole idea of speed limits needs to be denounced?

On the other hand, I've seen real life examples of what can happen when there are no trigger warnings. Years back a professor friend of mine showed a video in his class on misogynist images in major movies and MTV (this was years back). Two of his students had only recently been raped. and they both freaked out--not in the class, but afterwards. The professor found out and felt awful, and made sure to use a "trigger warning" from then on before showing this film in class.

"Trigger warnings are inherently imperfect." Well, pretty much everything is inherently imperfect. Doesn't mean we shouldn't keep trying, especially when what we're talking about involves simple human courtesy.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

30. Yeah, simple human courtesy is a good foundation.

"Trigger warnings are inherently imperfect."

I am thinking of "The Perfect is the enemy of the Good."

There is a current example where an NFL QB won't stand for the anthem / flag until the country that elected a (good) African American to the Presidency becomes perfectly unoppressive to African Americans.

Trigger warnings are good, especially in context before specific bits that have a reasonable likelihood of triggering problems in a few who may be present. But they can be over-done, I'm sure, and real-world actually-occurred examples would be good to see.

[treestar]

15. True, though that is not strictly necessary to the class

When I was in Jr. High, the school showed us several films meant to scare us away from using drugs. Graphic showings of the results of overdoses and so on. I would have been terrified to use them without these films. Some students might have been driven away from using when they would have without the films. Others would still try it, film or no. But what I remember most is that while I was sensitive and totally grossed out and upset, other students were kind of thrilled. There is a sensationalism in it. So the real conflict is between these types of people - the ones who find it thrilling, the ones who are indifferent, and the ones who get upset. Obviously, group 1 and 2 find group 3 to be oversensitive ninnies.

[thucythucy]

3. I too am mystified.

I have no idea why so many people, even people on DU, find the concept of "trigger warnings" so pernicious.

[loyalsister]

14. It's a very simple heads up

Last edited Sat Aug 27, 2016, 03:16 PM - Edit history (1)

that gives a person an opportunity to prepare. A student may want to proceed with the material and preparing for it may prevent them from going through something unnecessarily unpleasant. It is beyond me that anyone would object to a little warning that might help someone avoid unexpected trauma.

[Adrahil]

48. Like just about anything....

... They can be taken too far.

[Nye Bevan]

4. Like warning medical students that a picture on an upcoming slide may show blood and gore? (nt)

[thucythucy]

6. A) Has that really happened? and

B) Was it terrifically harmful or disruptive to either students or instructors?

[loyalsister]

8. Do you really believe that a person with an aversion to blood and gore would go to med school?

Or is that just an invented hyperbolic example?

[treestar]

12. Medical students I would surmise

know they will see such things, want to be able to handle it and pride themselves on being able to handle it. And that's good.

I would be grossed out if I were my doctor but she handles it all and good for her - and for her patients. Can't imagine doing the pap smear, lol.

[Cerridwen]

43. No. Like warning students who are taking poli-sci that they're going to see video of decapitations.

No. Like warning students who are taking a poli-sci class that they're going to see a video of decapitations.

Like warning a classroom in which veterans are studying, that there are going to be depictions of war during their history class.

Like warning a classroom in which rape survivors are studying, that they are going to read about Madge Oberholtzer.

Like warning black students in a classroom that they'll be watching "Birth of a Nation" and discussing its history and "cool" advancements in film-making during their film class.

[treestar]

10. An example I ran into

In Australia, the museum at Uluru had film material. At the beginning it warned indigenous people that the film contained images of people now dead. The indigenous people in the area did not like photos of people to begin with (tour guide told us never to take photos without asking), and further, did not want to see any photos of deceased people. Which is odd for us, as we have no problem with it, but they would want the option not to watch that film at all since seeing those photos would violate their principles.

It is well complicated by the fact each person's culture is different. I didn't know this about the Australian indigenous people, so a lot of it is people just not knowing. A lot of people innocently offend just because they don't know. I just learned that "Canadians" can refer to AA people. That one is really an unfair kind of gotcha - I've lived a long time and didn't know it and what if I really do want to refer to the actual persons living in Canada? Why should such a basic demonym become a racist slur against a non-matching set of people? So at times it can be unreasonable. What are the Canucks to call themselves?

Persons with PTSD are also different from persons who do not have any such condition and simply don't want to be exposed to anything they don't agree with or find unpleasant. Any complainer should be asked if they actually have it. It should be limited to things like that.

I was kind of traumatized in 5th grade when a teacher insisted on describing JFK's physical condition post assassination in detail. Other kids thought it was great of course - some people like to be scared or grossed out, thus horror movies. Some in the class were too young to hear it, others not. It's a hard call and people should not get fired for it unless it is purposeful and with malicious motive.

[loyalsister]

17. Any complainer should be asked if they actually have it...

So, they should be required to provide medical records?
As the link indicates, professors will ask students to provide information about any triggers they may have. When the professor has that information they know what to warn about. If someone didn't know they would be traumatized by something, it would seem to me to be a lesson learned and the student will list it for future reference.

[treestar]

21. I was traumatized a lot

by things other people weren't bothered by, actually in elementary and junior high, not at all in college. No PTSD. I still hate medical conservations and sometimes would rather leave the room. Yet the people talking are quite OK with it. I become aware I fall on the sensitive side.

So it's kind of unfair to go hard on people when they can't know. Anyone can be traumatized by anything. The only real trigger warnings that can be generally made are those kind of common to society. I'd say it has got to a point where it's on the person claiming trauma to tell others - they can't know without being told. So all this blaming them for not knowing or for being surprised seems just another form of hey I'm better than they are. And yet some day you though thinking you are so sensitive might trigger somebody and get accused of meanness by something you had no idea could be so offensive. And that was my point.

I said nothing about medical records. That was uncalled for.

[loyalsister]

32. Asking "if they really have it" is not a cousin to asking for proof?

If we go down that road rather than simply taking the students' self awareness into consideration, it does wind up with a requirement to provide a note from the doctor.

[treestar]

40. I would generally be content to believe someone who told me

that they had it.

[Nevernose]

25. PTSD is interesting in that the most common triggers

Of panic attacks, in PTSD, often aren't even related to what actually caused the PTSD. That's one of the reasons that it's difficult for people, even those that actually have it, to understand it. For instance, the two most common panic attack triggers for PTSD sufferers are large crowds and heavy traffic (especially when one is a pedestrian).

[treestar]

39. Yes. I don't even have PTSD and yet

I don't like either of those things much, though of course must deal with them. People with PTSD might have to also and hopefully there are helpful treatments. Large crowds, especially - I'll never understand people who want to go to Times Square New Year's Eve. Though I do get it that it doesn't bother them or they even like it.

[Jim__]

11. That's kind of what I thought.

I wonder why the University of Chicago refuses to post them. It may not be possible to always anticipate a discussion that will raise a trigger event in a class, but, they could at least make an attempt when a class contains material that has a strong potential to set off a reaction in some people.

Your link doesn't take me to the article that I think you want it to - it trips over the @ sign. Setting up the link using the link button resolves the problem for me: the Price article.

[loyalsister]

22. Thanks for fixing that for me

When an instuctor asks for some guidance on it, they can work with the students. It's not hard to be considerate of people's backgrounds. I don't get the resistance.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

18. Do people who want trigger warnings know what they are?

On Tumblr I've seen tags like "tw fat person" or "tw dogs" etc, and I think this abuse of trigger warnings is what contributes to a misunderstanding of them as a whole.

Yes, should there be a warning about gore or potentially disturbing material? Sure, why not? MPAA ratings on movies are pretty much trigger warnings. And if someone who is "easily triggered" looks anyway, it's their own damn fault.

[treestar]

23. to be triggered by something so common

as a fat person or a dog would lead to a miserable existence - nobody can prevent a person from seeing those, no matter how sensitive. There's a line there. Things like that do give conservatives something to use. There is a line to be drawn somewhere.

[loyalsister]

24. The people who make fun of them on tumblr are not representing what they actually are

It's like how when disability activists started to talk about their language preferences some started using terms like "vertically challenged" to ridicule the idea.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

33. True

But I've also seen people ask for trigger warning tags like "tw eating" and "tw food" in dead seriousness. I suppose I can understand that to a degree, but again it easily gets twisted to represent something it's not meant to be.

[loyalsister]

36. Eating disorders are real and very serious

If someone decides to be considerate of that when they post pictures, I wouldn't say that is over the top.

[cagefreesoylentgreen]

41. Not trying to be rude here

But what if a person with an eating disorder requests trigger warnings tags for pictures of fat people? I've seen this actually happen. Should this request be taken seriously or sarcastically ironic?

Basically, I think I'm confused on where the line is between considerate/polite warnings and silly/ironic ones.

[loyalsister]

42. Consider context

If it is floating around on tumblr requested by someone you don't know, why worry? If it comes from a friend, maybe it's worth your time to care? If you are a teacher and it comes from a student, maybe it is worth your time to help a student avoid unintentional stress in the interest of helping them maximize their learning opportunity.

[hunter]

28. Trigger warnings are simple common decency.

Furthermore, many presentations that might require a "trigger warning" are unnecessary.

As often as not the people posting shocking material are doing it because they are assholes, not because they are trying to teach anything. It can also be a form of hazing or desensitization. Desensitization is not a good thing when it's concerns things all humans ought to abhor. Empathy for rape victims, for example, is not something a decent human being would want to lose.

Another thing to remember is that setting off a person's PTSD triggers doesn't always result in that person silently taking the hit and slinking away in pain. Another reaction can be over-the-top anger.

[loyalsister]

34. That's a really good point

When a point can be easily made linguistically there are few explanations that I could understand for insistance on presenting horrifying images.

[leftstreet]

38. +1

[Bill USA]

29. isn't that the same thing as an indicator that the material is not suitable 4 children under 10 yrs?

[Bernardo de La Paz]

31. No. Not the same. Duh. . . . . nt

[Eleanors38]

44. When teaching college-level government courses, I listed in my syllabus...

several possible areas of study (papers and guest speakers):

1) Legalization of drugs
2) Gun control
3) Gay rights
4) Legalized abortion
5) Legalized prostitution
6) Affirmative action
7) Liberation politics
8) Women's liberation

Bunch of others, as I recalled. I hoped like hell these topics triggered something, esp. In an impromptu manner.

[loyalsister]

50. Even trauma?

People keep trying to redirect this concept in a direction of the media narrative that trigger warnings are about stifling academia.

[Eleanors38]

57. I don't advocate coersive policy enforcememt of trigger warnings...

I figured my syllabus was a sufficient warning. But that was in a time when irony and subtlety had more play.

[loyalsister]

58. Apparently it hasn't been enough for some students

The only reason it has to be enforced is because there are instructors who are so coled hearted that they can't be bothered to write a single sentence that can help prevent barriers to learning.

[Eleanors38]

61. "has to be enforced." No. Not in an academic environment for adults....

I had students who personally thanked me for opening up their eyes, for providing the unexpected, for learning how to control one's intellectual powers (I guess that is cultivating a "sense of agency," now), and I have had a couple complain about my approach -- both on religious grounds (The Exorcist had just opened). I hate to believe that young men and women have become so frail that they seem older than me. Personally, I rather enjoy the moment when some misogynist gets his ears pinned back, not by me, but another student. College claases are a controlled argument where one can spit in their hands and go on a hunt for bad thinking.

[romanic]

45. I'm against the abuse of trigger warnings.

It's one thing to have a TW on a syllabus in regards to rape in literature or violence in a war film. But to have TWs for something as simple as a college speaker having a different opinion or a TW for too many white people in a room - that is a stupidly abusive way to conduct trigger warnings.

[loyalsister]

49. And this happened to you?

[LTX]

47. "This will probably offend you, but ..."

The new Universal Trigger Warning, available now for $2.99 in macro and loop recording at your local campus bookstore.

[LWolf]

53. Hmm.

professors should feel free to express extreme viewpoints

"Extreme" is subjective, and can be applied to anything that departs from an individual's pov.

Trigger warnings...yes, I know what they are. And I know that some people find things that don't fit their world view "acutely upsetting," having nothing whatsoever to do with PTSD.

I wanted to read more, but that link takes me to a long list of twitter posts; I didn't find this one.

[loyalsister]

55. see response 11 above

For some reason, I am having a tough time posting that link.

I think "extreme," within reason is not as difficult to agree upon as you might think. The point is that trigger warnings are not about points of view. They are about distress and trauma that can actually interfere with a student's learning rather than those which question pre-existing ideas.
The article points to an individualized inventory which guides the professor in the creation of the syllabus. If a student wants to have a warning that allows them to censor their own education by identifying a warning about content or imagery they just don't like, I think their narrow mindedness is their own problem. They already self censor by choosing their classes, anyway.

A VOX article offered another perspective....

A letter from the University of Chicago’s dean of students to the incoming students of the class of 2020 has been making the rounds on social media the past few days. Its purpose, I guess, was to let those students know they were in for a real education. More of a full-on broadside than a welcome letter, the dean let the incoming students know that the university is totally committed to academic freedom and "freedom of expression" from its faculty and students.

What this means in practice, the letter continues, is that "we do not condone the creation of intellectual ‘safe spaces’ where individuals can retreat from ideas and perspectives at odds with their own." And, if you’ve watched students at other campuses, the dean warns, don’t get any crazy ideas about protesting invited speakers: "we do not cancel invited speakers because their topics might prove controversial." And, for the love of Milton Friedman, "Our commitment to academic freedom means we do not support so-called ‘trigger warnings.’" WE ARE A MIGHTY RACE OF INTELLECTUAL WARRIORS.

http://www.vox.com/2016/8/26/12657684/chicago-safe-spaces-trigger-warnings-letter

[LWolf]

56. That is exactly what I was thinking.

There is a difference between "safe spaces" for those with trauma and "safe" intellectual spaces where people won't have to wrestle with ideas that are new, different, or confront their own world view.

Are the trigger warnings referred to real trigger warnings for people who have suffered trauma, or are they referring to "trigger warnings" that would announce that they might not like the intellectual content they will be exposed to?

It feels, from a distance, like they were trying to say the second, and tripped over the first. I think we can do both: make sure that trauma survivors have safe spaces, including trigger warnings, and make sure that there is no softening or camouflaging of intellectual integrity.

[Sen. Walter Sobchak]

59. One of my friends teaches a course of the history of sexuality in literature and film

Every semester she has a whole new junta of students agitating and complaining to the administration about the courses subject matter.

Everything is allegedly too sexist, too homophobic, too transphobic, a depiction of rape or violence or otherwise too offensive for any public airing. And how dare a heterosexual "CIS" woman appropriate this subject matter.

[alarimer]

60. They have always existed in some form.

I had numerous biology classes with very graphic images, especially parasitology. They were kind of gross, really. All a "trigger" warning is in those cases is a heads up (mostly for non-majors) who might be grossed out. But it is not an excuse not to do the work. If people can't hack it, they should drop the class.