I hate trigger warnings.
You’ve got all the obvious reasons-they’re obnoxious, they’re infantilizing, and they don’t actually help-but there are others.
It interrupts the rhythm of the story. I don’t want to look at every character on screen, and wonder if they’re the rapist I was warned about.
I saw a play with trigger warnings once. The sign warned of homophobia. Early on, two rough around the edges small town folk wondered if the guy down the street was a “fruit”. They insisted that was fine, while they shuffled their feet and gave each other the side eye, and got increasingly uncomfortable. Completely fine though.
I spent half the play wondering when one of them would be revealed as closeted.
Surely, I wouldn’t be warned about bigotry for this? For what amounted to a couple of insensitive men doing a poor job of being sensitive?
Apparently I would.
Apparently, some people feel safer when everybody assumes they need to be coddled.