We have spoken before about how Atrocities are all too often casually invoked in fiction for lazy characterisation. We have also spoken about how marginalised issues are too often appropriated for lazy storytelling or even as a cheap marketing tool - but these points don’t just apply to the genocides and catastrophes that are in our history books, but also to the very personal atrocities that happen to people every day. Rape, abuse, hate crimes and so many horrendous acts leave people every bit as devastated as the horrors that are considered large enough to deserve historical record.
Let us not downplay what a trigger means. A person who is triggered is hurt - they are wounded, they are often forced to relive some of the worst moments of their lives. Being triggered is more than being uncomfortable - it can mean your deepest fear ambushing you, it can mean nights of overwhelming terror, it can make leaving the house a desperate struggle. No, it certainly doesn’t always manifest this way and certainly many people have learned ways to cope with their triggers - but on no account can we dismiss triggers as something minor, or “oversensitivity” (as it is so often dismissed as by people who object to them even being discussed)
Obviously, it does become difficult, if not impossible, to remove every trigger for every person in the media. Nor does it mean that any or all triggers must never ever appear in the media in any form. However, that doesn’t mean some of the most commonly experienced and egregious triggers cannot be warned for - that the victims of things like rape, torture, hate crimes etc cannot be given the chance to protect themselves.
With every depiction of these on TV or in books you are invoking atrocity. You are using atrocity, you are portraying atrocity and there is an even higher chance that you are presenting that atrocity to its victims. Which means we must always ask WHY we are doing this? Why is this here? Why is it being included?
To invoke these atrocities casually, gratuitously, clumsily and/or pointlessly not only seeds unnecessary minefields of triggering pain for victims to stumble upon but it completely disrespects their experience and rubs salt into these tender wounds. It’s bad enough that a show has decided to gratuitously depict what these victims have endured - but to do it as entertainment? To do it for shock value? To do it and show none of the consequences, the impact or the scars of it? To do it even for titillation?
