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Text: Trigger Warnings Matter – Christine Deneweth
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Emily talking and smiling. She has long bright red hair and is wearing a black shirt.
Emily: Hi. My name is Emily, and I want to talk about how important content warnings are.
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Emily and Anna on their phones. Anna has short red hair and is wearing a gray shirt.
Text: My friend Anna was over, and we were on our phones. She suddenly made a comment about content warnings.
Anna: These content warnings are so annoying.
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Emily talking.
Emily: I disagree. I had a very low week emotionally, and it could have been worse if there weren’t content warnings on some articles I was browsing.
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Anna talking.
Anna: Well if something’s going to bother you, it should be your responibility to avoid it.
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Emily talking.
Emily: That point of view blames the person for having triggers. And I’d love to avoid what upsets me, but having warnings gives me more control over what I expose myself to and how I handle trauma. Without them, I just get an unpleasant and sometimes distressing surprise.
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Emily talking.
Emily: What you tell people to simply avoid things that trigger them, that also diminishes their trauma, their oppression, and way they need to recover from the pain they’ve experienced.
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Anna yelling and waving her arm.
Anna: Well, content warning are also a form of censoring. It limits access to the content, and it is categorized with labels that not everyone agrees with.
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Emily talking.
Emily: The content isn’t being censored. It is being labeled in a way that allows readers to consent to what they are exposed to.
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Emily talking.
Emily: Consent is extremely important in any context. I remember my last partner would always ask for consent before anything went down. It made me feel safe and respected to be asked before anything happened.
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Emily talking narrowing her eyes.
Emily: And besides, there’s a huge difference between labeling content with warnings and censoring it. Censoring means to decide content is unacceptable and suppress it. Content labeling leaves the content intact; it just tells people what’s in it.
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Emily talking and smiling
Emily: Our food tells us exactly what’s in it. Why can’t we have that for the media we consume?
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Anna talking.
Anna: They can also cause more harm than they can help. They can cause stress because of the anticipation of worrisome content.
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Emily talking.
Emily: But think about all the stress that would be caused if they weren’t there. Having them there at least gives people options.
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Emily talking and smiling.
Emily: It means a lot to the people. It shows that our emotional well being is important enough to be considered.
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Emily talking.
Emily: I remember the first time I encountered a content warning and how I felt valued. For once, I didn’t feel damaged for the trauma I’ve had.
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Emily talking and smiling.
Emily: I have an anxiety disorder, and I have PTSD. Each day, I worry about being triggered.
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Emily on her computer.
Text: I was scrolling on Facebook, and I came across an article about rape.
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Emily on her computer.
Text: Rape is a topic that really makes me uncomfortable, so when I saw the content warning, it made me feel good. It’s nice when your emotions are considered.
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Emily talking and smiling.
Emily: There are content warnings for TV. It would make sense to have them on the Internet.
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Emily talking and smiling.
Emily: And TV warnings include sexual content, but not violence and especially violence against marginalized people.
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Anna looking down and talking.
Anna: I never thought of that. Violence against marginalized people is never considered as content that needs a warning.
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Anna talking and smiling.
Anna: After hearing how important content warnings are to you and your view, I can understand why having them can be beneficial.
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Emily and Anna smiling.
Emily: I’m glad you understand. It’s easy to be considerate of others, and it really can make a difference.