[ SECRET POST #6270 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #6270 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.


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Notes:

Secrets Left to Post: 01 pages, 13 secrets from Secret Submission Post #896.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

05. https://i.imgur.com/d0i7Y4g.png

[(Anonymous)]

Sorry to hear that reading a trigger warning ruined the book for you. Maybe we should precede any trigger warnings with "trigger warning: trigger warnings" so that you know to avoid reading them in the future.

[(Anonymous)]

A book had trigger warnings in it? How weird.

[(Anonymous)]

Meh, any author can warn for whatever they want on their story, warranted or not.

Beyond that, drawing any sweeping conclusions as to whether "society" has gone too far with content-warnings based on one book/author/warning you thought erred too far on the side of caution is pretty obvious troll bait.

[(Anonymous)]

Yes, we are all aware authors can do whatever they want with their stories. But readers are also allowed to say "I don't like this"

Tbh your comment reads more like troll bait than the secret.

[(Anonymous)]

I actually find this example really interesting for how trigger warnings can be used in storytelling. The unease you experienced sounds unintentional, but could possibly be put to deliberate use in another story that focuses more on the harassment themes? The way it made you uncertain of the male characters' intentions sounds like an interesting side effect of the choice to warn. I find very specific trigger warnings for brief, non graphic scenes to usually feel out of place but it is the author's choice in the end and I can always skip the warnings if I want to remain spoiler free. You've got me thinking about how trigger warnings can affect the mood of a story now, in potentially cool ways, too.

[(Anonymous)]

! Ooh, yeah, I've seen a couple examples of this I think! The Homestuck Epilogues had an extremely long and flippant (but still accurate list) of trigger warnings (ie listing stuff like "Clown dynamics" and "Gerrymandering" alongside stuff like abuse etc) which definitely did something to set the tone. The other thing is Too Like the Lightning, a book which presents itself as an in-universe document from a future with some weird censorship laws, so there are content warnings which double as a little taste of worldbuilding. But I bet there are other interesting things you could do with that, would love to see some horror making creative use of warnings.

[sabotabby]

I don't easily get triggered by reading words on paper, but I do sometimes get triggered by anxiety, so trigger warnings on books tend to have the opposite of their desired effect on me. I know I'm in a tiny minority of people for whom this is a problem, and thus on the wrong side of the "should trigger warnings exist in traditionally published books?" but I feel seen by your secret, OP.

A nice compromise would be a QR code, or even putting them in the back of a book, so people who wanted to avoid them or would get more enjoyment not knowing could have that option and people who needed them could flip to the end and see, but that'll never happen.

[(Anonymous)]

I don't think you actually are in a tiny minority. I recall reading a study a few years ago that found that yours and OP's reaction is in fact the more common one: the presence of a trigger warning tends to create more anxiety than the absence of one, because it inspires a sort of hypervigilance in the reader/viewer/etc.

[(Anonymous)]

I've had this experience with fic when authors out excessive warning in the notes. I dont mind tags but as soon as they put extra warning I start tensing and my brain is always trying to predict and analyze the scenes. It throws me all off. I try to skim or skip most notes for this reason but ADD brain takes in all sorts of details I don't always want.

[(Anonymous)]

I despise the trend of trigger warnings for books for this very reason. I spend the entire book waiting for the stuff that was so bad that readers had to be warned. I’ve learned to look for TW now and skip every last one of those books. I figured out that anyone who writes for readers who need trigger warnings isn’t worth my time or money. Readers can use tools like doesthedogdie.com to make informed choices about purchasing triggering content or we can go into things blind. I prefer having that choice.

[(Anonymous)]

I figured out that anyone who writes for readers who need trigger warnings isn’t worth my time or money.

This sounds very "people are too sensitive nowadays" ~special snowflake~ conservative bullshit.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm trying so hard to convince people I work with to use "content notes" instead of "trigger warning," I think the expectation it creates is so much simpler and less intense. There are reasons some readers want to know the content that doesn't equate to being triggered, and there's no implication that you will have a particular response, only that the content exists in the book.

I don't feel like doesthedogdie is very well known among the population at large (YA readers especially) and I suspect small-profile authors and newer books aren't going to be well-represented there, so I'm not sure it's really an option.

[(Anonymous)]

I mean movies and TV shows have content warnings and have for a while, I've known fans to make content warning lists for other fans for books so that someone who might be triggered by something can choose to engage or pass on it for that content. It's neither surprising or flabbergasting that perhaps some books have these too these days.

I can't say I overly care either way, other than it gives a bit more context and sometimes I'll be in a mood where that matters more. Idk.

[(Anonymous)]

Yeah as someone who doesn't have any PTSD issues or anything, I am Switzerland on content warnings for books. I think for stuff like Haunting Adeline it's perfectly valid to know what you're getting into so you don't waste your time lol.

I generally just skip past them because usually when I go into a book I know what I am in for.

[(Anonymous)]

The content warnings for TV and movies is a lot more broad, though, and usually describe something you'd know is in the genre, anyway. The warning of "violence" on an action movie, for example, or "sexual content" on a romcom, doesn't make you expect anything you wouldn't already be expecting.

[(Anonymous)]

I like trigger warnings in books ‘cause there’s stuff I don’t wanna read about, but all the ones I’ve read had warnings that made sense.

[(Anonymous)]

If it made you worry so much, maybe you should have used the trigger warning to decide that the book was not one you should be reading.

[(Anonymous)]

That doesn't make any sense. Reading about sexual harassment usually doesn't bother them; prior to experiencing the effect, it's reasonable for them not to have known that the warning would prime their brain in such a way, and therefore not to have thought the warning applied to them.

[(Anonymous)]

The problem is that trigger warnings are so overused as to be totally meaningless these days and end up having the opposite effect of what they're intended for.

For example, I have a friend who needs trigger warnings for anything involving alcoholism. By that, I mean depictions of alcoholism or characters drinking to serious excess - alcohol abuse, in other words. But these days a ton of people will put "CW: alcohol" on fics that have stuff a couple of characters sitting around having beers together (and not actually getting drunk), so my friend has to sit there and try to guess whether that "CW: alcohol" REALLY means what it says or whether it's okay to read a fic that has that label. And that really ruins her ability to read a lot of stuff because people use trigger warnings (which serve an actual purpose) way too flippantly in situations that don't warrant them.

[(Anonymous)]

Someone has a reading comorehension problem. Or just a logic problem. Either way, you make no sense.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm not opposed to books having trigger warnings, though I'm used to them not. After all, I'm used to film and television having not only a rating but a brief 'for sexual content' or 'violence' to contextualize why one thing is for a more adult audience than another. When I recommend books I've enjoyed to people, I will often give an idea of the tone or if there is content that might be triggering-- or just that I think people might need to go into in the right mood.

I do NOT love the idea of writers worrying so much about people coming after them for problematic content that the trigger warning will do the opposite of improving things for readers, though-- instead of being warned for content that was there, feeling hypervigilant the entire time for something that never happens.

[(Anonymous)]

I've read that trigger warnings can raise anxiety for students in class. Something about how it lets you know something bad is coming so you can really build up the stress but you can't actually avoid it because it's a class. It seems you've got a similar reaction so keep that in mind in case you see any such trigger warnings in the future.

[meadowphoenix]

i don't have any triggers so i don't read trigger warnings. like...imo the warnings are for people who have specific things they know will upset them to the point of disregulation, and if don't have something that does that...they aren't for you and you don't have to read them. you can see trigger warning label and move on. (full disclosure: i think content warnings and trigger warnings are different).

there's the case of course that you do have something that will trigger you or you have content specifications, but any other warning will prime you in a way that is distracting, and i fully admit that's harder for anyone to deal with. if that's the case for you OP, i think i would get a friend to read them.

regardless, i don't think that justifies not having them. there are many things that exist to help people that do less harm to us but are still inconvenient. i think it makes more sense to put the burden of management on the people who take less harm.

[(Anonymous)]

Trigger warnings in published novels sounds wildly unprofessional.