This post contains discussion about the legitimacy of triggers, misogyny, racism, and a lot of my personal opinions and views. I tried very hard to avoid being insensitive or offensive while writing this, but if something makes you feel uncomfortable, please tell me!
Hello, HSO mods! I’m not sure if comments are still being screened at this point, but I’m posting this because I have a lot of ~feelings about the way this idea was implemented and the mod response to everything, and, well, few of them are positive. Quite frankly, I’m upset by the way this situation was approached.
First off, the positives. I really love the idea behind this- a way for people to avoid their rare triggers and an acknowledgement that there are more triggers than the simple gore+noncon+underage+character death that are commonly warned for (an idea much of fandom often seems not to understand.) So up to that point I genuinely, sincerely thank you all. It’s an attempt to put into the spotlight something that is rarely talked about in fandom.
The first problem, though, comes in at your original post. As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of false information going around about what triggers even are. Most of fandom’s anti-triggering efforts (as evidenced by AO3’s standard list of trigger warnings) have been to warn for things like rape and gore; things that are often upsetting to people even without that trigger and things that are easily recognized and warned for. However, this has had the unfortunate side effect of giving many fandom-goers a misunderstanding about triggers- basically, many if not most people I talk to through fandom* believe that a trigger really is defined as ‘something objectively bad that bothers or horrifies people, especially people who have been exposed to it in real life’. And, well, it isn’t. It really isn’t.
This is what takes us to our first problem- there is nothing in that original post anywhere to tell people what a trigger really is, and why it’s being warned for. You don’t need an essay or anything- a simple link to Wikipedia’s Trauma Trigger page- A trauma trigger is an experience that triggers a traumatic memory in someone who has experienced trauma. A trigger is thus a troubling reminder of a traumatic event, although the trigger itself need not be frightening or traumatic. Triggers can be quite diverse, appearing in the form of individual people, places, noises, images, smells, tastes, emotions, animals, films, scenes within films, dates of the year, tones of voice, body positions, bodily sensations, weather conditions, time factors, or combinations thereof. Triggers can be subtle and difficult to anticipate, and can sometimes exacerbate post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition in which trauma survivors cannot control the recurrence of emotional or physical symptoms, or of repressed memory- would have been an excellent first step to avoid all those sarcastic “couch cushions?” comments. (And for the record, fandom: yes, couch cushions. Triggers are strange things sometimes- I’ve also encountered people (mostly on anon memes, because in this kind of fandom atmosphere can you really blame people for not wanting to admit they have such triggers?) who are triggered by math, a certain fruit, a specific pattern of curtain blowing in the wind, and drinking soda.)
The next problem is how you chose to deal with labeling triggers on fics. I can think of a few different ways to go about it, each with their own pros and cons, but none of them are as terrible as the idea of listing them all, telling people to warn for them with no explanation why or what any of them mean (what exactly does reality-bending entail? Are we talking use of profanity or the idea of profaning something religious? Does the presence of the Sufferer in itself count as blasphemy? None of these were explained in the original post, which could have been avoided if you’d contacted the anons in question for clarification before making the post public) and then leaving comments opened and unscreened. I’m not trying to be nasty, mods, especially about something I’m sure you’ve already realized, but doing that was a really bad idea. It’s no good trying to support people with triggers if the way you do it amounts to turning them into a circus sideshow. The mod response in this situation was also quite inappropriate, and to be honest is the biggest reason I’ve been debating the idea of pulling my participation this year. I do appreciate that you’ve apologized for posting a link to Eugenics to the Jewish person, but the very fact that it happened is indicative of serious flaws in this process and the attitude of the mods towards the people in this contest.
My next issue is best illuminated by Please note that warnings for any/all of these elements (including both headers and subcategories) are required in the main rounds. Quite frankly, I’m seriously uncomfortable with this, as (unless I’m missing something huge) it indicates that there will be no ‘Choose Not to Warn’ option in this fest, something that is totally unheard of to me. To be clear, I don’t wish for a choose not to warn option because I’m lazy or I’m the sort of person who enjoys harming others, but because I’m really uncomfortable with not being able to decide that a.) I don’t know how to classify this and so would rather be safe than risk triggering someone, or b.) that warning for this legitimate trigger makes me uncomfortable due to my personal experience and so I would rather chose not to warn than harm myself or another person. I do have a personal example for B, and it’s warning for lactation, one of the triggers listed. I completely believe lactation is a genuine trigger, I would never do anything to say it isn’t (and I really hope I’m not making the anon who requested a lactation warning uncomfortable by discussing this), but the fact of the matter is that I live in a culture that shames women for having the capability to have children, that considers breastfeeding a dirtybadwrong thing that should be done in private where no one can see it and acts like this natural body function (which unlike the other two warnings on the list, blood and vomit, is not an automatic sign of sickness or injury) is something women should be shamed for. And I just… I know that’s not why the anon asked for it, and lactation isn’t such a big deal that I can’t just avoid writing about it for the duration of this fest. But I can’t be comfortable warning for that, because of my personal experiences, and no ‘Choose Not to Warn’ means that I can’t write about it here without one of us getting hurt. It makes me uncomfortable that I have no way to choose not to warn for it, and it’s not the only thing that has potentially unfortunate implications. Namely, last night’s French debate.**
Here’s the thing: I consider warning people for the presence of non-English languages (especially historically marginalized languages) to be an action uncomfortably akin to racism, the same way I consider warning for homosexuality to be a homophobic action. This empathetically does not mean that I believe everyone else should feel as I do or that French or any other language is not a completely legitimate trigger; it just means that I personally would be uncomfortable doing such a thing. But because the mod team does not offer a ‘Choose Not to Warn’ option and refuses to have a more neutral ‘content notes’ section, there were a few hours last night before the policy was changed where my options were literally either to engage in an action I consider racist or not to participate in this fest at all. Can you see why this makes me uncomfortable? (The language-notice idea that is now implemented is fantastic, for the record, and I’m very glad you have it! Thank you for listening to the people who were uncomfortable on that point.)
(And as a side note, another thing that is making me uncomfortable is the fact that, as the rules stand, if someone lists 'homosexuality' as a trigger you are obligated to force me to warn for it.)
So, TL;DR version: Mods, I’m incredibly grateful for what you’re trying to do here! It’s awesome, and something no fest I’ve seen has tried to do before. But the way you’re going about doing it makes me feel marginalized and silenced and the way the discussion has been going makes me feel as though my being uncomfortable somehow makes me an insensitive bully (See comments such as the ones here, here, and here, both by mods and non-mods) rather than a genuinely conflicted person who loves the concept but not the way it’s being implemented. I want this fest to be safe space, but that takes discussion and education and carefully moderated discussion spaces, not things like giving inadequate information, allowing people with rare triggers to get mocked and doubted for upwards of a hundred comments before shutting it down, being dismissive of legitimate discussion, and assuming anyone who sees problems with the implementation is doing it out ignorance or desire to harm.
*YMMV, I suppose. I’m sure many people have a different experience than me in this regard.
**I understand and greatly appreciate that this policy has been replaced by a far, far better one, and I’m really grateful for your fast assessment of the situation. However, it still happened, and I feel it’s a really important discussion point.
no subject
Hello, HSO mods! I’m not sure if comments are still being screened at this point, but I’m posting this because I have a lot of ~feelings about the way this idea was implemented and the mod response to everything, and, well, few of them are positive. Quite frankly, I’m upset by the way this situation was approached.
First off, the positives. I really love the idea behind this- a way for people to avoid their rare triggers and an acknowledgement that there are more triggers than the simple gore+noncon+underage+character death that are commonly warned for (an idea much of fandom often seems not to understand.) So up to that point I genuinely, sincerely thank you all. It’s an attempt to put into the spotlight something that is rarely talked about in fandom.
The first problem, though, comes in at your original post. As I mentioned before, there’s a lot of false information going around about what triggers even are. Most of fandom’s anti-triggering efforts (as evidenced by AO3’s standard list of trigger warnings) have been to warn for things like rape and gore; things that are often upsetting to people even without that trigger and things that are easily recognized and warned for. However, this has had the unfortunate side effect of giving many fandom-goers a misunderstanding about triggers- basically, many if not most people I talk to through fandom* believe that a trigger really is defined as ‘something objectively bad that bothers or horrifies people, especially people who have been exposed to it in real life’. And, well, it isn’t. It really isn’t.
This is what takes us to our first problem- there is nothing in that original post anywhere to tell people what a trigger really is, and why it’s being warned for. You don’t need an essay or anything- a simple link to Wikipedia’s Trauma Trigger page- A trauma trigger is an experience that triggers a traumatic memory in someone who has experienced trauma. A trigger is thus a troubling reminder of a traumatic event, although the trigger itself need not be frightening or traumatic. Triggers can be quite diverse, appearing in the form of individual people, places, noises, images, smells, tastes, emotions, animals, films, scenes within films, dates of the year, tones of voice, body positions, bodily sensations, weather conditions, time factors, or combinations thereof. Triggers can be subtle and difficult to anticipate, and can sometimes exacerbate post-traumatic stress disorder, a condition in which trauma survivors cannot control the recurrence of emotional or physical symptoms, or of repressed memory- would have been an excellent first step to avoid all those sarcastic “couch cushions?” comments. (And for the record, fandom: yes, couch cushions. Triggers are strange things sometimes- I’ve also encountered people (mostly on anon memes, because in this kind of fandom atmosphere can you really blame people for not wanting to admit they have such triggers?) who are triggered by math, a certain fruit, a specific pattern of curtain blowing in the wind, and drinking soda.)
The next problem is how you chose to deal with labeling triggers on fics. I can think of a few different ways to go about it, each with their own pros and cons, but none of them are as terrible as the idea of listing them all, telling people to warn for them with no explanation why or what any of them mean (what exactly does reality-bending entail? Are we talking use of profanity or the idea of profaning something religious? Does the presence of the Sufferer in itself count as blasphemy? None of these were explained in the original post, which could have been avoided if you’d contacted the anons in question for clarification before making the post public) and then leaving comments opened and unscreened. I’m not trying to be nasty, mods, especially about something I’m sure you’ve already realized, but doing that was a really bad idea. It’s no good trying to support people with triggers if the way you do it amounts to turning them into a circus sideshow. The mod response in this situation was also quite inappropriate, and to be honest is the biggest reason I’ve been debating the idea of pulling my participation this year. I do appreciate that you’ve apologized for posting a link to Eugenics to the Jewish person, but the very fact that it happened is indicative of serious flaws in this process and the attitude of the mods towards the people in this contest.
My next issue is best illuminated by Please note that warnings for any/all of these elements (including both headers and subcategories) are required in the main rounds. Quite frankly, I’m seriously uncomfortable with this, as (unless I’m missing something huge) it indicates that there will be no ‘Choose Not to Warn’ option in this fest, something that is totally unheard of to me. To be clear, I don’t wish for a choose not to warn option because I’m lazy or I’m the sort of person who enjoys harming others, but because I’m really uncomfortable with not being able to decide that a.) I don’t know how to classify this and so would rather be safe than risk triggering someone, or b.) that warning for this legitimate trigger makes me uncomfortable due to my personal experience and so I would rather chose not to warn than harm myself or another person. I do have a personal example for B, and it’s warning for lactation, one of the triggers listed. I completely believe lactation is a genuine trigger, I would never do anything to say it isn’t (and I really hope I’m not making the anon who requested a lactation warning uncomfortable by discussing this), but the fact of the matter is that I live in a culture that shames women for having the capability to have children, that considers breastfeeding a dirtybadwrong thing that should be done in private where no one can see it and acts like this natural body function (which unlike the other two warnings on the list, blood and vomit, is not an automatic sign of sickness or injury) is something women should be shamed for. And I just… I know that’s not why the anon asked for it, and lactation isn’t such a big deal that I can’t just avoid writing about it for the duration of this fest. But I can’t be comfortable warning for that, because of my personal experiences, and no ‘Choose Not to Warn’ means that I can’t write about it here without one of us getting hurt. It makes me uncomfortable that I have no way to choose not to warn for it, and it’s not the only thing that has potentially unfortunate implications. Namely, last night’s French debate.**
Here’s the thing: I consider warning people for the presence of non-English languages (especially historically marginalized languages) to be an action uncomfortably akin to racism, the same way I consider warning for homosexuality to be a homophobic action. This empathetically does not mean that I believe everyone else should feel as I do or that French or any other language is not a completely legitimate trigger; it just means that I personally would be uncomfortable doing such a thing. But because the mod team does not offer a ‘Choose Not to Warn’ option and refuses to have a more neutral ‘content notes’ section, there were a few hours last night before the policy was changed where my options were literally either to engage in an action I consider racist or not to participate in this fest at all. Can you see why this makes me uncomfortable? (The language-notice idea that is now implemented is fantastic, for the record, and I’m very glad you have it! Thank you for listening to the people who were uncomfortable on that point.)
(And as a side note, another thing that is making me uncomfortable is the fact that, as the rules stand, if someone lists 'homosexuality' as a trigger you are obligated to force me to warn for it.)
So, TL;DR version: Mods, I’m incredibly grateful for what you’re trying to do here! It’s awesome, and something no fest I’ve seen has tried to do before. But the way you’re going about doing it makes me feel marginalized and silenced and the way the discussion has been going makes me feel as though my being uncomfortable somehow makes me an insensitive bully (See comments such as the ones here, here, and here, both by mods and non-mods) rather than a genuinely conflicted person who loves the concept but not the way it’s being implemented. I want this fest to be safe space, but that takes discussion and education and carefully moderated discussion spaces, not things like giving inadequate information, allowing people with rare triggers to get mocked and doubted for upwards of a hundred comments before shutting it down, being dismissive of legitimate discussion, and assuming anyone who sees problems with the implementation is doing it out ignorance or desire to harm.
*YMMV, I suppose. I’m sure many people have a different experience than me in this regard.
**I understand and greatly appreciate that this policy has been replaced by a far, far better one, and I’m really grateful for your fast assessment of the situation. However, it still happened, and I feel it’s a really important discussion point.