Isn't the very concept of trigger warnings self-defeating?
I mean, if I were a rape victim and I saw an article prefaced with "trigger warning: this article mentions rape", would my traumatic memories not be triggered by that warning itself?
If the mere mention of rape is enough to make a rape victim feel anxiety, the warning that rape will be mentioned is just as bad, is it not?
Let's take it a step further. What if I was raped at gunpoint and the word "triggered" became a trigger for me? Would it be reasonable for me to expect you to put a trigger warning before your trigger warning?
What about words that look or sound similar to my triggers? "Pear" is an anagram of "rape". "Grape" rhymes with "rape". "Trucker" kind of sounds like "trigger". Any of these words could potentially be a trigger, so where's the cut-off?
What about trigger warnings themselves? If I see the phrase "trigger warning" before I even read what's after it, I would have already assumed that its going to warn of something that may be triggering to me, which will naturally cause me to think of my trigger. A trigger warning could be just as triggering as the trigger it is warning about. It doesn't even matter what the actual warning is, because once I see "trigger warning" my first thought would automatically be:
Oh no; Is this going to mention rape? Oh god. Now I'm reminded of rape. Oh, it's a warning about something else. Too late; I'm already thinking about rape. Shit.
To me, prefacing an article with a trigger warning is like slapping somebody in the face before warning them that they will be slapped. It's the type of shit people do when they want to say what they want, but don't want to feel guilty about the fact that they may offend somebody. It's similar to the people who type profanities but try to censor themselves by replacing a single letter with an asterisk, as if that'll somehow prevent people from knowing what the word is.
It's stupid, and it makes you look like a patronizing asshole.
Trigger warnings are an outgrowth of the idea that those who have suffered traumatic experiences should be sheltered from ever being reminded of them, which is impossible. You can't go through life avoiding the things that may trigger you. Sooner or later you will encounter a trigger and you will need to deal with it; avoiding triggers will not prepare you for that.
You can't expect everybody to curb their speech to cater to your sensibilities. That is an unreasonable expectation.
