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

[justascream.livejournal.com]

I am not a member of fandom, but I am a member of the online fiction-creating community. Also, as an artist, I often encounter the very issue that apparently is being discussed among fandom now, though in different representations. As a survivor of a small handful of rough traumas and presently believing I am mostly "okay" and "better" in spite of them thanks to years of recovery and treatment, I have been exploring the issues surrounding post-trauma a lot in the last year or two. "Triggers" falls into this exploration, I think.

In any case, I wanted to note appreciation of the considerate way you read and address your readings of such things as the essays listed above. It is a civil and intelligent way of behaving for both the micro-society you choose (fandom) and the larger society which you cannot (humanity in the whole).

On your linking, I have now read the first essay (I don't think my lack of participation in fandom excludes me from a desire to comprehend) and am going to take a little time to absorb and stir it into my brain-batter before attempting the second.

[celli]

Kind of not really ironically, I can't read the first link bkz of the triggeriness.

:/

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*hugs you hard*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

They're pretty universal, to be honest, and apply across the board for creativity, so yeah, fannish context isn't necessary. The second one doesn't (at my reading) have the same triggering content as teh first one.

[beadattitude.livejournal.com]

Me, too. I had a loooong summer last time my PTSD got triggered. Did a lot of work to short-circuit flashbacks which has been helpful, but man, just...do not want to go there. Sounds like an interesting debate/subject, etc., but out of self-protection, I can't participate.

Also, am out of anti-anxiety meds. :)

[justascream.livejournal.com]

For me, at least, it is not so much about concern of being triggered as it is about giving each article an appropriate amount of consideration. I've found that rushing from one piece of writing to another often dilutes their significance in my reading and interpretation, so taking time between to separate and analyze internally is helpful to critically comprehending more than the obvious facets.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

I did them a day apart as well, though mostly for the sheer amount of comments that were already there by the time I started reading. Being in one mindset and jumping to the other one usually also doens't work well.

[justascream.livejournal.com]

In which case, at least, you already understand its key points. I don't know you, but nevertheless... *snug*

[shinetheway.livejournal.com]

I could barely read the whole essay, and I'm still reeling. And, like you, my opinion of what needs and requires a warning has been radically changed. I've already added a warning to a story of mine, in response. I feel like someone reached into my head and reset my horizon just a little, and yeah, from this new perspective, I see where the problem is now. And maybe it's not my problem but that shouldn't matter, because it's someone's problem and this is not a difficult choice to make.

[harborshore.livejournal.com]

That first one, oh yes. I think one of the most important points she makes in it is that it's the moment before, the lead-up, that is her trigger, and that's the moment at which people argue survivors of rape and sexual assault should see what's coming up and click out of the fic. That's what this debate is about for me--I'm less interested in debating whether or not to warn for, say, character death (I do, with my stories, but I have incredibly strong reactions to what I read, and so I tend to try to be cautious in return). Consent issues is a common trigger, and warning for it just seems self-evident to me.

[reginagiraffe]

kalpurna has a very useful post on practical ways to warn.

So now there's even less of an excuse.

[emrinalexander.livejournal.com]

I got through her post, and I'm glad I did. I never could articulate why certain warnings (non-con, especially and rape) were so important to me, but she was able to explain it - it's that moment before thing. You hit that part of the fic where you know that you need to get out of the fic and yeh, I back button out, but I've already been sent to the stomach churning place, regardless. And then it might be a week or a day or a month, depending on which memory sludges to the surface, before I get my equilibrium back.

[(Anonymous)]

It is heartening to see that this post has caused a shift in attitude in some people, and thank you for your eloquent phrasing on the subject.

In the same kind of spirit, and in the slightly wider context of warning on fics, I feel that I need to make a point I haven't seen raised (perhaps it has, and I have missed it). I am hesitant to do so, because I am severely lacking in spoons at the moment, but because I feel it is so important and also deserves attention, I shall repeat what I said in another journal (of someone who'd prefer not to be linked), on the topic of "Do you feel that apart from non-con/dub-con there should be any other hard and fast warnings?"

I think there should be a hard and fast warning for suicide/self-harm/serious dealings with mental health. Period. If you're afraid of spoiling, keep it to "deals with topics surrounding mental health, read at your own risk" or alike is fine.

But as someone who's been there, or close to there, what I can say for it in my experience (and YMMV), is that all the above can not only be triggering in the extreme, but, like with the point made about damage being already done by dub-con/non-con at the point where most people feel it's safe to hit the back button? Same goes for these topics. And if I'm reading fic and I'm already in a funk, and the mental health issues are subtly introduced, I may personally not be in a place to hit the back button, because I am incapable of doing so at the time because of said mental health issues, because that is their very nature.

And therefore, warning should be up front. So I get the chance to engage my brain *before* I run down the slippery slope of automatic thoughts.

And I am chickening out and commenting anonymously for the very same reason; that being in that place (having a calm, calculated plan which would have had a very high likelihood of success given my circumstances) is a very recent experience for me, and I therefore do not feel able to jump into this discussion with people whom I don't know through my own LJ. I hope this is understandable.

I would further like to add that I think it is because I am currently in this situation and thus hyperaware of it that this point occurred to me consciously for the first time and add the following:

That I am not, as a general rule, triggered by such topics, but have, in fact, loved fics because they dealt with those topics. But that, for further explanation of my POV, I also know that were I to read it (or any other bleak but well written suicide fic) whilst already feeling suicidal, (probably in an attempt to distract myself from these very feelings by reading fic) and not warned for the subject matter, it Would Not Be Good.

And given the prevalence of mental health issues, I could see myself not being the only one for whom a warning would be necessary in such a hypothetical scenario, and why I believe the reader should have knowledge of such themes beforehand.

If any further explanations on my part would be helpful, for example a more in depth personal explanation of what I mean by automatic thinking, I am happy to provide this.

[tricksterquinn.livejournal.com]

You and me both. *sigh*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

And I am chickening out and commenting anonymously for the very same reason; that being in that place (having a calm, calculated plan which would have had a very high likelihood of success given my circumstances) is a very recent experience for me, and I therefore do not feel able to jump into this discussion with people whom I don't know through my own LJ. I hope this is understandable.

Very understandable and completely all right; I'm just glad you felt comfortable enough to comment at all. My only experience with this concept is through people's essays (like impertinence's) and some reading I did this afternoon for more context, though honestly, three paragraphs in was enough, I think, to illustrate the absolute necessity. That anything could set off a mental chain reaction that's this personally debilitating is terrible enough; the idea of anyone navigating fandom with that potential following them without being given the most basic tools for navigation, while those of us, including me, withhold the tools is sickening.

Thank you very much for further explanation. I'm sorry that it came to the point in fandom where all of us were so careless it was necessary to make something so personal and painful open to public debate. There's no way I can understand completely what everyone who has this goes through, but the explanations have shown just how much damage we're doing out of ignorance.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

That was--painful to read, and I hate the fact it took her writing that out to get what that meant for her and others in terms of the experience after. Sickeningly enough, I was always total backbutton, and this illustrated why the backbutton way too late by that point.

*hugs you* I'm so sorry for whatever you've read, by me or anyone, that wasn't sufficiently warning-ed.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Yeah, that shocked me right out of "warnings pooh!" hard. And worse, when I think of her sitting there writing it out just for the barest line of text--I don't know. Sickened doesn't begin to describe it.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Until this essay, I never realized it wasn't the moment, but that the lead-up itself that was the trap. And once people get that far, backbuttoning doesn't do any good. And it really feels like soemthing that should be obvious.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

You, darling, are marvelous. *hugs* Thank you.

[cathalin.livejournal.com]

That was incredibly harrowing and powerful (essay 1). I'm still in tears. Thank you for linking to it. I'll try to read Zvi's later. I've always been of the "why not warn, and warn extensively" mindset -- it's just how I think naturally -- so it hasn't changed my thinking, but it has steeled my resolve to do it as well as possible every single time, and maybe speak out more about it if it's appropriate.

And I just want to say, I respect people so much who can change their minds in the face of evidence/good arguments/better explanations, and do so publicly. I think it's a fantastic example you're setting. People can get so locked in, and afraid to say, you know, I think I was looking at it wrong. Don't beat yourself up too much over the "shouldn't take someone gutting themselves" thing (though after reading that essay, I certainly can understand why you would feel that way, god -- I'm questioning the adequacy of the warnings I've done myself after that). I'm still learning stuff/having my perspective changed by people in this community all the time. I think it's a rare person who hasn't, sometime in their life, had the shame of only learning something when someone guts themselves over it -- I know I do. If you think of it by analogizing to RaceFail, the issue comes down to, do you listen, and then change your behavior. And you have and are.

[archaeologist-d.livejournal.com]

I'm a bit confused. Are they saying that even the warnings are potential triggers? Or are they saying that there should be definite warnings about certain aspects of the story (dub-con, non-con, mental health issues, character death, etc)? Which I do anyway.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

Have definite warnings so a reader can judge if it hits a trigger.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

It's a personal failure. I never have gone the whee artist route, so there's always been a faint--heh, God, smugness that I never carried that kind of thinking around with me as a writer, but if anyone, anywhere, has to get to the point where she feels it necessary to write out her pain like this just for the sake of getting something so simple from us.... It's not just me (fandom, collective) not getting it; it's almost like being contrary possibly for no better reason than I didn't feel like thinking about it too hard.

*g* I mean, I am not a martyr to my own self-absorbent self here, but--I think in this case, after everything that's happened, that I hadn't extended it to paying attention to more aspects of fandom is a pretty good indicator I am not yet doing this right. In which case, yes, doing better is the most important thing and hopefully, please, encouraging more people to do the same.

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*hugs you hard*

[seperis.livejournal.com]

*hugs* Yeah, don't read either one right now.