Comments | eska_rina: menstruation: can one person's safe space be another person's trigger?

eska_rina

menstruation: can one person's safe space be another person's trigger?

Apr 05, 2011 17:49

So, over at the Tumblr GrrrlVirus, they reblogged the picture I linked to here for some time ago (I'll get back to your comments ASAP, but this subject is obvious something that matters to me). She... got some negative feedback, where people requested her to make a trigger warning for the picture. She decided not to do so. I don't follow her myself ( Read more... )

my stuff: thoughts, subject: biological gender, subject: phobia, meme: friending meme, subject: feminism, meme: love me, subject: trigger, subject: shaming

Comments 3

(The comment has been removed)

eska_rina April 8 2011, 00:09:34 UTC

I don't think the reference to this discussion being ableistic was due to the picture itself, but due to some people dismissing the importance of trigger warnings. Though I dunno if I would say that people, who get triggered, are disabled, but I do get why some people would consider not getting triggered by anything to be a privilege. I don't think I agree - mainly because I think 'privilege' is getting used in cases where it's not appropriate, which means it loosen it's meaning -, but I do get the thought behind it.

But agree with the rest. While I'm sure that hemo- and menophobia does exist, having a phobia of something is not the same as actually being triggered. Most people's response to facing a phobia is to feel uneasy, not out-right getting triggered. Getting triggered is a very serious response ( ... )

krytella April 7 2011, 02:41:20 UTC

It bothers me how lightly "triggering" gets thrown around. I think sometimes people ask for trigger warnings just because something bothers them or grosses them out, and that trivializes the real issue of creating a safe space for people with trauma triggers.

It's impossible to warn for everything that could actually be triggering, and I think there's a consensus that there's no need to warn for content that is normally innocuous, even if there's one person out there who will be triggered by, say, frogs. If I imagine something could be triggering because it's directly related to a traumatic thing, I want to warn for it. I don't think there's anything inherently traumatic about menstruation. Lots of things carry social stigma, and therefore can be used to traumatize people, but that doesn't mean they all need trigger warnings, does it? I think sex and nudity in general are probably connected to/triggering of much more trauma than some menstrual blood.

eska_rina April 8 2011, 00:18:31 UTC

It bothers me how lightly "triggering" gets thrown around. I think sometimes people ask for trigger warnings just because something bothers them or grosses them out, and that trivializes the real issue of creating a safe space for people with trauma triggers.
AGREE SO MUCH. People behave like getting trigged is feeling a bit uneasy over something. IT'S NOT. It's a serious emotional response to something. It's just not being grossed out or feeling a bit sick. Urg.

But yeah, I was under the impression of this consensus - but apparently not for pictures of periods! It's not - like you said - traumatic in itself, yet it seems to be the exception to the rule of some weird reason.
And I personally would require some seriously convincing arguments for trigger warning for something that can be traumatizing due to social stigma (...who the fuck would, oh idk, trigger warn for a picture of two men kissing despite this carrying some social stigma?) before I will do so. I NSFW-warn due to social stigma, but not trigger warn.