Trigger Warnings, Authorship Empathy, & The Reader Experience
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- Опубликовано: 21 июл 2024
- Of all the drama the literary community dishes out, Trigger Warnings seems to be a fight for the kindness we, as readers, wish to see from authors. Join me as I discuss one of the book community's most infamous hot topics. Trigger Warnings!
✨Chapters✨
00:00 - Merry Meet!
01:18 - What Are Trigger Warnings?
03:03 - Book Twitter
04:23 - Let's Talk About Trigger Warnings
25:36 - Valid Author Concerns?
27:52 - Why Trigger Warnings Are Kind
31:11 - Final Thoughts
35:35 - Let's Keep Talking About It/Find A Solution
35:57 - Merry Part, Blessed Be!
📚Books Mentioned
Beast: A Tale of Love and Revenge by Lisa Jensen
📄Articles/Sources
The Illusion of Safety/The Safety of Illusion - therumpus.net/2012/08/28/the-...
Dead Dove: The Dual Purpose of Content Warnings - / dead-dove-the-dual-pur...
✨Socials✨
📸Instagram - / witchy_reads_
🖊️Twitter - / witchy_reads
🎞️TikTok - / witchy_reads
🎶Original Intro and Outro music by Therah @Therah
🎨Branding Artwork by Ethan @Ethmwhit
🎥Intro by Jack Carter
Where do you stand on this bookish hot topic?
As someone who absolutely despises spoilers, my preference is that authors would include a statement at the front of the book that trigger warnings can be found at the back of the book. It is a courtesy that takes very little effort from the author to be considerate to their readers.
On a separate note, I long ago determined that one way to avoid plenty of emotional stress was to delete Twitter/X. It is an emotional dumpster fire over there, and I have not looked back.
I think that is a solid suggestion as well. I only brought up the website idea so that authors could avoid having to physically but the TWs in their books, which a lot seem to be against. It was a way to compromise, but I think you're solution would work as well. Those who need TWs would seek it out and those who don't, won't.
I also understand not wanting to be on the dreaded blue bird app. I don't go on there much and when I do, it's strictly to look at other book reviewers posts about books. I've found a lot of great new reads that way that I wouldn't have normally. Everything in moderation. This was just a topic that Twitter kept pushing my way for some reason this past month and I felt like it deserved to have a discussion.
Thank you for watching! 💜
I am no longer on the dead blue birdie app, but I also saw someone mention on RUclips is recent weeks that content notes lead to avoidance behaviour. I doubt that is the case, but they made a claim that studies would have shown that, yet I could not really find any study actually making that point. Had almost forgotten about that, if this video would have not brought up that topic again.
Personally I only need content warnings in regards to topics of suicide, since I struggle with chronic depression. But I find all other content notes useful still, since sometimes I want emotional intense reads, to feel something in my numbed world of depression, then the darker themes can be jolting.
Yeah, I pretty much stay on Twitter because it's still where a lot of hot topics of the bookish community are discussed. Plus - Drama!
The topic of using TWs leading to avoidance behavior is definitely a point that others have made against TWs. In that people need to face things to get over them. There are studies that do prove this, but I feel like those studies don't factor in that everyone heals and deals with trauma at a different pace. Just because I avoid a book today because it has one of my triggers, doesn't mean I will avoid it tomorrow when I have adequately prepared myself for the content within. And I truly believe that this is what most readers use them for.
I agree with you that there are some days that I want an intense read, but there are other days where I would prefer something cozy. I'm allowed to avoid and consume things in my own time, as is everyone. Allowing others that grace by providing TWs is a kindness and I think the world could use more kindness, even for something as inconsequential as Trigger Warnings in books.
I do think that authors need to include trigger warnings for the common triggers. Content of books is meant to be unpredictable. One of the reasons I love to read is because there are many stories with twists and turns that I could never have guessed. This means that there is no way for a reader to "judge for themselves" the types of books they should be picking up. I agree that a reader can look up trigger warnings by reading reviews, however a lot of those reviews also have plot spoilers that a trigger warning list could avoid. I'm not sure why this is such a hot topic as it really wouldn't take a ton of time for an author/publisher to create. They could even have a list to choose from prior to the printing of their book (like a standard page that gets printed in all books for that publisher). Each publisher could have their own format and method for authors to do this.
I agree that I like the unpredictability of stories, but I also don't mind spoilers. I know that's a personal preference and most people dislike spoilers. But I don't think including the common trigger warnings would really spoil anything. If they are, then I don't think the author is utilizing them correctly.
I also dislike the idea of having to navigate through however many reviews to see what triggers there are, if any, in a book I'm interested in reading. As you said, there is the risk of spoilers and, for me personally, it would take any motivation I had for reading the book away.
I think it's such a sour subject for certain authors because they don't fully understand what they are used for. They look at them as a way to spoil or censor their books. I do not believe that TW censor books and, like we said, there are ways to include the most common TWs without spoiling anything. If there were a database on the author's website or the publishers, those who don't need TW wouldn't even need to see them.
For me i think books should have trigger warnings, some people actually need them. At the end of the day if you don't need them and you don't want potential spoilers then you don't have to read the actual trigger warnings. Feels a lot like pushback i see in video games around accessibility settings/game modes oddly. Great video hun
side point, glad you mentioned age ratings, it's something I have been considering talking about in terms of YA especially, although trying to do a similar system with books would i suspect be an absolute nightmare
Books should absolutely have TWs. I don't always need them, but when I do, I am grateful for them and since I usually purchase books to support authors I figure that's the least they can do.
Yeah, the gamer world is a whole other level of debate that I am no where near knowledgeable enough to touch. My stance in anything will always be to make all things accessible to people who want to consume media.
I mentioned age ratings, such as in movies and TV because that is the most one-to-one comparison for TWs. Though I wouldn't say I would want the exact same thing for books. The film rating system isn't perfect and I do feel that it does censor movies to a degree. You can see it when they have to dub over the word "fuck" (Galaxy Quest and The Social Network are two movies that come to mind where it is extremely obvious that's what was done) just to keep a certain rating, because certain rated films get different distribution. I wouldn't want that for books, just including the common TWs is good enough for me.
Thank you for watching! 💜
@@Witchy_Reads I am similar, i have only ever been triggered with one book, which did have warnings but not for the one thing that made me put it down, but then again it an extreme horror so i can't really complain. I think the elephant in the room a lot of the time is YA especially over here where we don't have teen as an option so you end up with a very variable selection from 12+ which often don't have the warnings that they need for the younger end of the YA grouping