two highly recommended warnings essays

[seperis]

As This Is My Life

So apparently, someone doing roadwork cut through our cable line, and we have a.) no cable, b.) no internet and c.) no phone. Which means tonight, may not be on if I can't get the tethering to work between John II and Arthur. However, Arthur the G1 and I are going to bond like whoa. Just. G3 is not very fast. So we'll see how that's going to work out.

ETA: Have internetz! They fixed it! Shocking.

Warnings

Sexual Assault, Triggering, and Warnings: An Essay by impertinence

Warning: Very explicit discussion of sexual assault and the nature, anatomy, cause & effect of triggers. Is itself triggery.

In response to this essay, I've had a complete reversal on my general attitude of whatever on warnings. Sure, it should not take someone gutting themselves publicly for me to work out why this is so important, but there you go, that's what it actually took in this case. That is perhaps one of the hardest things I've read in the last year, bar none. Recommended reading no matter what side of the warning debate you are on and in my opinion required reading if you're going to debate this topic at all, ever, anywhere.

Also recommended:

Warnings by zvi_likes_tv at Dreamwidth, with an alternate perspective on the warning issue, along with very good conversations in comments (actually, both essays have both great and faintly terrifying commentary). I'm going to say whatever side you are on, this, too, should be read thoroughly before engaging.

ETA: reginagiraffe linked in comments to kalpurna's post on easy ways to do warnings. We shall all read and learn and do better.

For me, I think I'll just automatically add a line to all headers (and if I don't, someone for the love of God slap me for stupidity; I'm adding it to my autotext header in MSWord now) for Warning and either enter None or See Cut for a separate section before the story starts. I don't often have the more common trigger issues in my fic, but honestly, since I haven't thought about warnings, I very well may have and just haven't paid attention to it.

Comments

[cimmerdeux.livejournal.com]

Interesting reads although a bit depressing. I haven't written in a while and now I'm wondering do I really want to bother writing again? Although it's ironic that we're all having a discussion on what warnings to put on our amateur stories using someone else's copy written characters and or real people. Perhaps we should all just warn that here lie college students, house wives/husbands and professionals trying to entertain or work out personal issues using another creator's characters and the writing my be darn bad so read at your own risk? Although I do understand putting certain warnings on stories if for no other reason than that a minor may stumble across an author's story involving and underage orgy at Hogwarts and Harry's subsequent suicide. (I need warnings for things like that too. LOL)

[cimmerdeux.livejournal.com]

My apologies if I sounded flippant in the above. There's a lot of stuff written that isn't suitable for reading by anyone (IMHO) not just minors which is why I like warnings but I do worry about going too far in trying to 'regulate' fan fiction for other adult readers. I'm much more concerned about underage readers stumbling across stories, like in the HP universe that are totally unsuitable for children. Perhaps all stories not G rated should be kept in sections where they're not easily accessible and have a blanket disclaimer, like the adult movie section at your local video and then it comes down to a person's choice as to whether they're willing to browse that area?

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I don't think you sounded flippant. *G*

It's more--there's adult (sex) and adult (violence) and adult (sexual violence), and conflating those three is conflating apples, oranges, and pomegranates. If I know an author, then when I pick up their fic, I already have a pretty good idea where their limits are and the worst that will happen is I get squicked. For someone who gets triggered, the worst that happens is relieving a horrific, if not the most horrific period, of their lives. For me, as a storyteller, the entire point of my writing is lost the second that happens. For me, as a human, I feel like I've dropped down a step in evolution.

This is not a judgment on how anyone else sees this; this reaction is personally shocking to me as i've had about twelve hours to process this, so it's still very fresh and new that not only does this happen to people, something I did could cause it.

[cimmerdeux.livejournal.com]

Good to know :)

Well I have to admit that when I was writing I warned if I considered a fic dark or if there was character death but otherwise I'm a bit of a fluffy writer and I'm not keen on incest or underage or non con and won't write it. I actually find RPF disturbing too so I like to know pairings. I also like ratings that a lot of people use for fic because it's a nice short hand way for me to get an idea of what I may be getting into if the author is unknown. Some days you want something steamy, other days straight adventure.

I would hate to think I unknowingly ruined someone's day with something edgy I'd written, without the proper warnings. But I did understand in the second article, some of the concerns about what people should warn for; the big things I see and I think most people would agree on what they were, as mentioned above. It's the secondary (for lack of a better term) items that might be considered worthy of warnings that were being discussed that worry me, some of them sounded too subjective, although I suppose that could always be used as a defense/argument. Do unto others is not as easy as people would have us believe.

[boogieshoes.livejournal.com]

i personally like the suggestion made in another lj - can't for the life of me remember where or who now - that headers have two lines. one for standard 'common triggers' warnings, like rape, character death, mental health issues, etc, and the second for *kinks*, like BDSM, knife play, etc. separating them out has the value of recognizing that some people may not want to read whatever-it-is, while also recognizing that this is a legitimate part of sexuality for some people.

i don't tend to trigger on stuff, and often use the 'warnings' section to *find* stuff i want to read, but i also agree that certain warnings should be standard. part of it is common courtesy to me, but also, i tend to think of the entire header section as the fandom equivilent to a book's back blurb. to me, warnings are more like plot teasers than spoilers, and heighten anticipation. (which is why i get pissy when people rate something 'R', and it's more like 'PG-15'...)

-bs