well, i suppose the cage is my area to vent now, so here goes:
someone was talking about sharing trigger warnings in a dungeon environment, and proudly proclaiming that there is no way that they will post such things. i'm new, and i don't even go to dungeons, but, misunderstandings about trigger warnings are annoying. not as though i am the pinnacle of information when it comes to such things. but how hard is it to care about other people?
is there just a massive miscommunication on what trigger warnings are?
they're like the ingredients label for food. if you're cooking food in your own home, do you need to share the ingredients label? no. however, if you're bringing a potluck or sharing your dish with others, you need to let people know what's in your dish. so that they can consume responsibly. so that if they have a specific allergy, they can go, 'oh, yeah, i'll just not eat that dish'. it's exactly like that, but for your brain. it's not like people can control their allergies or their triggers. but if you know what to expect, you can prepare for it, (i.e. lactose pills for lactose intolerance, or a game plan for dealing with it mentally). or, if something unexpectedly sets you off, you can look at the ingredients list, and now, voila!, you know what to avoid or address. you don't have to be responsible for other people, but trigger warnings allow other people to be responsible for themselves. ptsd and mental health is no joke. i apologize if you know what trigger warnings are, but i'm tired of miscommunication about them that leads to people thinking that people taking care of their mental health are just 'complaining'. no, they're trying to survive, and engage in their community. and when you joyfully exclaim that you don't do trigger warnings, you've just said that anyone with ptsd or any mental health concern is not welcome around you.
i remember going to an art show in college that my class was required to attend. i'm an old, so this is waaay before trigger warnings. the show was performance art and included graphic and gory scenes of surgeries that the performance artist went through. one of the students had the first seizure of her life there. it was a trigger for her. it was unknown. it was out of her control. can you imagine how terrifying that must've been??? it was terrifying for me, and i was just a bystander. trigger warnings only let people know what to watch out for, it doesn't stop the event. it doesn't force anyone to change anything. it's like a signpost on a road telling people, there's falling rocks ahead, or slippery when wet (heheheh) so that people can respond accordingly. that is not fucking hard. and it is fucking awesome that we can help others like that in such an easy way.
i've seen you kinky fuckers. i've seen you talk about scenes, and preparing for scenes, and getting supplies for scenes, and looking for ideas for scenes, and practicing for scenes and getting experience for scenes, and looking at pictures of scenes, and negotiating contracts for scenes and etc. etc. etc. it's awesome and i love it. but there's no way that you can bullshit me and tell me that trigger warnings are too hard for you, or too unnecessary. that's a pile and we can both smell the stink.
