Trigger Warnings Are Not About Victimising
The point of acknowledging oppression is to empower the oppressed.
Ironically, the very notion of trigger warnings triggers a lot of people.
“You can’t say anything any more,” they say.
“Bunch of crybabies,” they sob.
These people badly miss the point: the fact that putting trigger warnings allows us to read and write about more things, things that couldn’t be said or read before.
Trauma has always existed. Trauma created by the violence of an unequal society has always existed. It doesn’t always have to though. To change things, we need to fight systemic inequalities. We need to empower those that are oppressed. The way to do that, clearly, is not to leave them to deal with their trauma, whilst reinforcing it every way that we can.
The purpose of trigger warnings is not to coddle those that might need forewarning about difficult topics because of their own life experience. Nor is to suggest that they are weak. The point is to not add violence on top of violence. It is to acknowledge that things are harder for those that suffer from oppression, and thereby recognise their strength and the challenges that they are dealing with, have to deal with and have dealt with.
