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Triggering Content?
Sep. 1st, 2009 02:16 pmI recently had the misfortune of reading recent wank from the fanficrants and ffrantsrants communities over on livejournal. For this, I blame myself, since I tell myself not to go there and yet do so out of some sort of "train wreck" reasoning.
While a little dated now, what I'd found was butthurt over the subject of giving warnings for "triggering content" in fics. Basically, warn for every possible thing that will happen in your fanfic that might upset a reader (in addition to the other things many on fanfic rants would have people warn for). The result would be a summary something like this:
Naruto, and his trials and tribulations as he navigates a post-apocalyptic world. Warning: character death, physical violence, non-consensual sexual advances, scene with prostitution, (insert a few others here). Naruto and (x) pairing.
And under the assumption that you don't have everything completely mapped out beforehand, I'd assume one would have to modify their summary as time goes to include new events. Of course, someone might not read the revised summary every time, so one would have to add warnings to each individual chapter about what follows later.
This entire debate makes me think of a kind of fanfic elitest group that comes from a world where fanfiction isn't as simple as "someone writes, someone reads, and maybe a review happens". Ignore that this subject matter can appear in everyday life, either in the conversations of passing people or when you read/listen to the news or go see a movie. No, you need an extensive list of warnings--it is a duty owed in fanfiction, and why doesn't published original fiction do the same?!
It seems like since this debate erupted, people have actually been using the term "triggering content" much more frequently too, perhaps out of fear as being labeled a monster by those who have labeled the realm of fanfiction as both extremely complex and multifaceted, and just plain srs business.
The most I'd ever put as a warning on something I wrote would be 'dark fic' coupled with an M rating. Does this make me terrible? Many would give a hardy yes, but considering the kind of reasoning that is the norm on communities like that, I'm not especially concerned.
...
...
WARNING: TRIGGERING CONTENT IN MY ICON!!!
While a little dated now, what I'd found was butthurt over the subject of giving warnings for "triggering content" in fics. Basically, warn for every possible thing that will happen in your fanfic that might upset a reader (in addition to the other things many on fanfic rants would have people warn for). The result would be a summary something like this:
Naruto, and his trials and tribulations as he navigates a post-apocalyptic world. Warning: character death, physical violence, non-consensual sexual advances, scene with prostitution, (insert a few others here). Naruto and (x) pairing.
And under the assumption that you don't have everything completely mapped out beforehand, I'd assume one would have to modify their summary as time goes to include new events. Of course, someone might not read the revised summary every time, so one would have to add warnings to each individual chapter about what follows later.
This entire debate makes me think of a kind of fanfic elitest group that comes from a world where fanfiction isn't as simple as "someone writes, someone reads, and maybe a review happens". Ignore that this subject matter can appear in everyday life, either in the conversations of passing people or when you read/listen to the news or go see a movie. No, you need an extensive list of warnings--it is a duty owed in fanfiction, and why doesn't published original fiction do the same?!
It seems like since this debate erupted, people have actually been using the term "triggering content" much more frequently too, perhaps out of fear as being labeled a monster by those who have labeled the realm of fanfiction as both extremely complex and multifaceted, and just plain srs business.
The most I'd ever put as a warning on something I wrote would be 'dark fic' coupled with an M rating. Does this make me terrible? Many would give a hardy yes, but considering the kind of reasoning that is the norm on communities like that, I'm not especially concerned.
...
...
WARNING: TRIGGERING CONTENT IN MY ICON!!!
