tw: rape mention, food, misogyny, violence, abuse

A content or trigger warning “is a very simple statement at the beginning of an article, film, or comic that lets the audience know that something potentially distressing will appear in the content they’re about to consume.” Amy McCarthy, Bustle Magazine.

It may seem silly seeing an article pop up on Facebook and a commenter asking for someone to place a content warning for Food. Or a classmate leaving a lecture because a documentary on alcoholism is about to play.  It may even seem ‘oppressive’ to you, for a 3 second message, address or mention before a class watches violently jarring footage of a women being racially targeted and choked to the point of suffocation. How inconvenient.

A recovering sufferer of an eating disorder, who may have purged the very meal shown on screen may not be able to focus in class after seeing the image. A rape victim might struggle listening to the hopeless pleas of a character on Game of Thrones as they are sexually abused, a soundtrack of the night that ruined their lives. From chastising trauma victims for preventing a breakdown, you are ultimately saying “I don’t care about your pain”.

Yes the world has no padding or protection, but the world is hard enough for survivors of trauma. If you have not suffered trauma, take it from me, someone who can get ‘triggered’.  When I enter a classroom, I don’t expect to see violent misogyny. I would hope I am entering a safe space, where I can put my trauma away for an hour and discuss something else. I expect a place where I won’t suffer a panic attack, become restless and lose sleep at night. I would like the option to excuse myself before I fall into a bout of insomnia.
Honestly, the lack of support from my classmates, who are young progressive people, is isolating.

Yet, would this conversation exist around ex-servicemen? Would their trauma be considered petty, frivolous or an inconvenience? Maybe we should consider rewriting the image of PTSD from the returned soldier to maybe a woman? In the US alone, 1 in 8 women are likely to develop PTSD, making it twice as likely for a woman to develop the disorder than a man.The most likely victim of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are sufferers of child abuse, rape victims, and sexual assault. Perhaps the face of PTSD should be the children who have watched their families perish, or have been abused under the arms of returned soldiers.

Give people who suffer every day the option to sleep at night. Trigger warnings aren’t a joke. The fact that they have had to change their title to content warnings due to ignorant naysayers speaks enough. Let people keep their self preservation and their sanity, even if it costs you 3 seconds of your life every time .

This comic anonymously published on The Nib summarises trigger warnings for better understanding:

continue reading at https://thenib.com/trigger-warning-breakfast-c6cdeec070e6#.gk25nrsz2