Trigger warnings are a hot topic of debate right now, and not just on the internet. The University of Chicago recently sent a letter to its freshman class denouncing “trigger warnings and academic safe spaces.” Students sent letters of outrage back, while users on Reddit commended the university for combatting “special snowflake syndrome.” With very heated debates on both sides, many still seem confused on what exactly a trigger warning is.
Trigger warnings, simply put, are disclaimers used to warn people about potentially disturbing or sensitive content. You know those warnings that appear before certain movies or TV shows? “This program contains content that could be potentially disturbing to some. Viewer discretion is advised.” Yeah, those. Most people like to know before being subjected to extremely violent imagery. It seems that because the internet has created a new meaning for this term, it has become conflated with the prohibition of free speech. But why?
A “trigger” is a term used by psychologists to describe a stimulus that causes an emotional or traumatic reaction in someone, usually resulting in flashbacks or panic attacks. It’s most commonly used with patients with PTSD, but it’s also an umbrella term that can describe anything that can prompt a certain behavior. For example, seeing something unclean that has been left for several days can be a trigger for certain compulsive behaviors in people with OCD. Or being around certain people can be a trigger for people with depression who get reminded of the suicidal feeling they used to feel when they were around those same people. The brain subconsciously associates certain stimuli with certain feelings and bam, a trigger is born.
So why should we care? Well, it’s very simple. Even for non-mentally ill people, it’s still extremely jarring to be enjoying a piece of media and suddenly be subjected to graphic depictions of violence, gore, rape or other sensitive subjects. It’s common courtesy. We aren’t going to suddenly force five year olds to start watching R-rated movies with the explanation, “Sorry kid, this is the real world. People aren’t going to cater to your triggers, you special snowflake.” That type of content is extremely traumatizing and scarring, and it’s ridiculous to subject someone to it when they’ve specifically asked you not to.
And even for those triggers that we don’t understand, we should still be respectful of them. I had a friend who would have a panic attack whenever she saw someone wearing a hoodie with the hood up—only when the hood was up—because her rapist wore the same when he assaulted her. I’ve known people who can’t stand the smell or sight of certain food because when they were hospitalized for cancer or other illnesses, it was the only food they were allowed to eat, and they ended up vomiting it back up frequently. Those triggers may not make sense to you, but if someone asks you to respect them, you should, because you don’t know that person’s history.
The internet has warped the idea of triggers into something negative that equates to silencing free speech, which is a shame. As many of the students who wrote back to the University of Chicago put it, forbidding trigger warnings and academic safe spaces is actually silencing free speech, not the other way around. No one should feel unsafe at their school just because they never know when they’ll be unexpectedly forced to watch footage of something that might make them uncomfortable. Asking for trigger warnings is simply requesting a heads up about the nature of the content. Is that really so inconvenient to provide?
