Trigger Warnings and the Creative Industry by Mark Jobanputra

Trigger Warnings and The Creative Industry

April 2020

The relationship between art and controversy is akin to the relationship shared between a superhero and supervillain, censorship in the creative industries has always been the overly persistent super villain seeking to destroy freedom of expression. Although a lot less prevalent today, one of the most practised forms of censoring a creative and/or philosophical work was book burning. Book burnings were used to ensure that a certain ideal would remain dominant over another. Although the effects of censoring creative works aren’t successful, any form of censorship could potentially facilitate a figurative ‘burning’ of information and subsequent human development on a universal scale. Unfortunately, 21st-century creatives are up against a digital form of book burning called trigger warnings which are slowly becoming prevalent in academic spaces. A trigger warning acts as an announcement to make sure a reader is aware of the content in a piece which could disturb them involuntarily due to its ‘offensiveness.’ Trigger warnings were first used on feminist blogs, particularly on Tumblr, as a means of preventing symptoms of PTSD occurring in those who suffer from mental illness by making readers aware that their post(s) will discuss suicide, sexual assault and/or eating disorders. Although the application of trigger warnings in small, feminist blogospheres is perceivably helpful, the introduction of trigger warnings into academic spaces has been viewed as detestable and criticised by many including the controversial Psychology professor Dr Jordan Peterson who argues that ‘a university isn’t a home, […] it’s a place to be confronted by what I would say horrible ideas’ before going on to compare literature to an ‘endless bloodbath’ and a ‘horror show.’

One of the most well-known attempts at establishing a proto-trigger warning for creative works was the implementation of Parental Advisory labels which were reserved for albums with obscene language. A list of singles (i.e. Darling Nikki by Prince) dubbed ‘The Filthy Fifteen’ were used by the Parents Music Resource Centre to persuade the Recording Industry Association of America that explicit lyrics have the ability to corrupt the youth which ultimately led to the label being placed onto all future ‘explicit’ record releases after 1985.
Although the Parents Music Resource Centre fulfilled their aim of having the Parental Advisory labels on future music releases, experiments have shown that censorship is counteractive. Psychologist Brian K. Simmons’ study found that ‘potential listeners do [sic] have an increased desire to hear the censored material after they know it has been censored.’ This counteractivity was exemplified when the Hip-Hop group 2 Live Crew were put on trial for obscenity due to the sexual lyrics of their 1989 album ‘As Nasty As They Wanna Be.’ Despite the album being banned in various parts of America and Canada, the album was still being stocked in record stores and sold to minors.

While Parental Advisory Labels warn of explicit language, trigger warnings are a lot more nuanced and tend to warn of content revolving around the following: physical violence, sexual violence, abuse (including emotional abuse), slurs, drug or alcohol abuse, eating disorders and suicide and self-harm. Undoubtedly, abuse in any form is distressing and is a rather sensitive topic to discuss, the issue of defining what a trigger is is perplexing. British Journalist Mike Hume argues that ‘once the notion of trauma is reduced to feeling emotionally uncomfortable, the sky is surely the limit for Trigger Warnings.’ A website called Doesthedogdie.com allows visitors to search whether a piece of creative work has any triggering content. The website has a criterion of over 60 categories including some which aren’t generally viewed as distressing i.e. farting and spitting.

Thankfully, doesthedogdie is only just a website, however, its utilisation by individual readers before engaging with creative works is inevitable. However, the increasing acceptance of trigger warnings in academic settings asks the following question: how does the use of a trigger warning affect those who read for pleasure and those who have to read in an academic context? In 2018, Benjamin W. Bellet along with the Department of Psychology at Harvard University that ‘trigger warnings do not appear to affect sensitivity to distressing material in general, but may increase immediate anxiety response for a subset of individuals whose beliefs predispose them to such a response.’ The experiment demonstrates that trigger warnings are pointless because their implementation doesn’t seem to dissipate, nor shield the reader(s) from anxiety before reaching the triggering content, rather, upon reading the triggering content, an even more extreme reaction is inevitable thanks to one’s real-life interaction with what was written about, thus such an extreme reaction will only be provoked IF the reader believes that words have the power to hurt.

Despite the fact there is currently an increasing acceptance of trigger warnings in academia, Bellet’s revolutionary experiment has demonstrated that they seem to be much less of a digital form of book burning as implied at the beginning of the article. However, should this increasing acceptance in academia continue, a form of legislation concerning trigger warnings and censorship may be enacted and abused simply to make the life of University staff easier? Such a toxic form of legislation would hinder 21st-century creatives who write black humour because their comedy relies on that which is tragic if their work were to be prefaced with a trigger warning, it would essentially be spoiling the entire book, thereby ruining what could potentially be years of hard work, therefore, in some sense a trigger warning isn’t a digital book-burning, it is a burning of the imagination and creative prowess.
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Bibliography:
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Bellet et al., 2018. B.W. Bellet, P.J. Jones, R.J. McNally Trigger Warning: Empirical Evidence Ahead
Journal of Behavior Therapy and Experimental Psychiatry, 61 (2018), pp. 134-141 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0005791618301137
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Crabtree, Chloe-Rose. The Dirty History of Parental Advisory Labels. Culture Trip. Available at https://theculturetrip.com/europe/united-kingdom/england/london/articles/the-dirty-history-of-parental-advisory-labels/
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Does The Dog Die. Emotional Spoiler Categories [online] Available at https://www.doesthedogdie.com/categories/

Hume, M., 2015. Trigger Warning: Is the Fear of Being Offensive Killing Free Speech? William Harper Collins. P.148
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Chang, J., 2005. Can't Stop Won't Stop: A History of The Hip-Hop Generation. Picador. P.225
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PowerfulJRE. (2016). Joe Rogan Experience #877 - Jordan Peterson. [Online Video] 1:05:54 – 1:06:27 Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04wyGK6k6HE&t=
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Oxford Student Union. Guide to Trigger Warnings [online] Available at https://www.oxfordsu.org/resourcehub/guidetotriggerwarnings/
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