{"id":364,"date":"2019-03-31T18:38:57","date_gmt":"2019-03-31T18:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/?p=364"},"modified":"2019-03-31T18:42:35","modified_gmt":"2019-03-31T18:42:35","slug":"faq-content-warnings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/uncategorized\/faq-content-warnings\/","title":{"rendered":"FAQ: Content Warnings"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

This FAQ is written from my perspective as an educator and as someone with complex PTSD.\u00a0 It does not constitute medical advice; I am not a medical professional.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Content Warnings: Frequently Asked\nQuestions<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is a content (or trigger) warning?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A content warning alerts\nstudents that there is potentially traumatizing subject matter in a reading, a\nfilm, other educational materials, or in an upcoming discussion or lecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Why do people ask for content warnings?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Individuals who have been\ntraumatized (by violence or assault, for example) may find themselves triggered\nwhen forced to relive those experiences through readings, films, discussions,\nand lectures (as well as other educational experiences, like role play).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does that mean?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being triggered is an intense physical and psychological experience that can vary widely by person.  There are, however, some common ways in which being traumatized can manifest.  I\u2019ve described some of the ways I experience being triggered in a blog post you can find here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How is a trigger\ndifferent from simply being upset or uncomfortable?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Triggers, upsets, and discomfiting situations have some things in common: they often feel scary (particularly when experienced in a classroom environment), can involve physical reactions (like crying or an accelerated heart rate), and can have effects that last longer than the class period.  Preparing students for discomfort and upset, and talking through ways to deal with those feelings, is a great tactic for any classroom.  I\u2019ve shared one way of doing this here<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When a person is\ntriggered, however, they are often thrown back into the emotional and physical\nstate they were in when originally traumatized. \nThey can feel terror, disabling panic, very real physical pain, and profound\nspatial and temporal disorientation.  Their\nmental, emotional, and physical experience of a trigger can be very intense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does a content\nwarning help?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Being\nunexpectedly confronted by traumatizing material or experiences is a prime\ncause of being triggered.  If an\nindividual knows that there is potentially traumatizing material\/experiences\nahead, they can prepare for it.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What does that mean in\npractical terms?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\nmight not see the student behave any differently than any other class\nmember.  Individuals who are prepared for\nsuch material ahead of time can often deploy coping mechanisms to weather the\ndiscussion, film, reading, or lecture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nstudent may ask, however, for page numbers where they\u2019ll find descriptions of\ngraphic violence, sexual assault, or other traumatizing material, so that they\ncan skip them while still reading the rest of their assigned text.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nstudent may ask you to supply a different text to read.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A\nstudent may ask for permission to step out of the classroom during a discussion\nor depiction of graphic violence, assault, or other traumatizing subject.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many\nother coping skills are highly individualized. \nTalk with students about what will help them.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

You keep talking about\ntraumatizing subjects.  How am I supposed\nto know what will traumatize people?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\nare some experiences which people commonly find traumatizing: graphic violence\nor sexual assault, for example.  You can\nalso ask people to let you know if they need a warning for other situations or\nexperiences.  Here\u2019s the language I use\non my syllabi:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have tried to anticipate where you may need a content warning, but if you have concerns or want to check that a particular trigger has been taken into account, please let me know.  I am happy to provide that warning so that you can interact with class material safely, and on your own terms. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t this just\ncoddling people? <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No.  It\u2019s providing an equitable playing field.  Indeed, if your student has PTSD from a\ntraumatic experience, they have a disability that requires you attention like\nany other.  Not every student who has\nbeen traumatized, however, has PTSD, or has a formal diagnosis.  Therapy and psychiatric services are expensive\nand inequitably distributed, which can make getting a diagnosis difficult, and\nPTSD is only one outcome of being traumatized.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There are no \u2018content\nwarnings\u2019 in the real world!<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis untrue.  Netflix, for example,\nregularly provides warnings about violence, sexual acts, or profane language at\nthe beginning of TV shows and movies. \nMost movie reviews contain information about things viewers may want to\navoid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And\nlet\u2019s not pretend that college is not \u2018the real world\u2019.  Students do not get traumatized in\nNarnia.  They have witnessed and\nexperienced traumatic events that make the world very<\/em> real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Isn\u2019t the only way to\nget over trauma to expose yourself to the thing you\u2019re scared of<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s\nnot the only way.  Even if someone\nchooses to engage in exposure therapy it should be conducted by a qualified\nmental health professional with the consent of their client. Forcing a student\nto absorb traumatizing material is not a healing act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything I teach is\ntraumatizing to some degree. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This\nis why anticipating common areas of trauma is helpful, but nothing replaces\nasking students what they need.  A\nstudent may, for example, be able to deal with a generalized discussion of\nrape, but not a graphic description of a rape occurring.  A student may, for example, be able to handle\na generalized discussion of lynching as a tool of white supremacy, but not a\ngraphic photograph of someone being lynched. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Should students who\nare traumatized even be in my classroom<\/strong>?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes,\na student may choose to drop your class because it\u2019s not right for them.  Sometimes, students take a leave of absence\nif their symptoms are acute and the material in their courses is too\noverwhelming.  The important thing to\nremember is that choosing to disengage completely should be up to the\nstudent and not you<\/strong>. A common thread that runs through the traumatic\nexperiences of many people is of having had choice taken away from them.  Let them choose how they deal with the\naftereffects now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This FAQ is written from my perspective as an educator and as someone with complex PTSD.\u00a0 It does not constitute medical advice; I am not a medical professional. Content Warnings: Frequently Asked Questions What is a content (or trigger) warning? A content warning alerts students that there is potentially traumatizing subject matter in a reading, a film, other educational materials, or in an upcoming discussion or lecture. Why do people ask for content warnings? Individuals who have been traumatized (by…<\/p>\n

Read More Read More<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/364\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/catherinedenial.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}