Real Life Doesn’t Come With Trigger Warnings
I was cursed with the stomach flu recently and spent a couple of long, tummy-rumbling days in bed, wishing away the worst of it. I didn’t really feel like doing much, so I turned to the tv to keep me company and keep my mind off how sorry for myself I was feeling.
I binge-watched a couple of shows over those two days, which gave me ample time to be exposed to my least favorite new trend in entertainment – trigger warnings.
One series had a different one for every show.
WARNING: This show contains discussions of sexual assault.
WARNING: This show contains discussions domestic violence.
WARNING: This show contains discussions of suicide.
WARNING: This show contains discussions of child abuse.
The show was a drama, so naturally there were all kinds of disconcerting themes at play. There was a trigger warning for every one. It began to make me viscerally upset. At one point I just turned off the tv in disgust, I was so tired of the trigger warning lectures. I suppose someone (probably my children) might say that’s a bit of an overreaction. It’s five seconds of a friendly warning in case a topic might be too much for a viewer to handle. Get over yourself. It doesn’t change your experience of the show at all.
And technically that is true…it does not change my experience of the show whatsoever. However, it does change my experience of modern society. It is a sharp, blatant, infuriating reminder that we are raising an entire generation of lily-livered, yellow-bellied, spoiled weaklings who are so fragile and have spent so much of their lives in metaphorical and emotional bubble wrap that they can’t even watch a pretend tv show without first being warned of all the sad and bad things they might be exposed to.
Who turns on Law & Order: SVU (Sex Victims Unit) and is shocked to see actors portray victims of sexual assault? Needing a warning on a show like that, or any show that deals with the human experience (which is all of them) is as stupid as needing a warning on a coffee cup that the coffee inside will indeed be hot. As stupid as the latter is, we do have that nowadays (thank you, litigious America). I guess the soft idiots who are dumb enough to be shocked that the hot coffee they purchased is hot are dumb enough to be shocked that tv shows are about people and the things that happen to us.
I find the weakness of modern, young America to be wholly repulsive. My gag reflexes are (pardon the expression) LITERALLY TRIGGERED when another trigger warning shows up on my screen.