I feel like I'm less concerned about the bubble wrapping aspect, and more wanting to protect the writers. But I'm trying to articulate what that means to me.
First, there's the issue of how any policy could be used to harass a writer. And so you make certain decisions about what is allowed and how complaints are made and what the response to complaints is to prevent your guidelines from being used in bad faith. This hasn't been a problem for our writing group so far, but it's something that I think about a lot. And to the degree that there is a legitimate objection to trigger warnings in an academic settings, it's that the requirement for trigger warnings they can be used in bad faith to shut down discussion or harass an instructor.
But it feels like there is a danger that is most acute in a memoir writing group, which is that writers are still working on naming the experiences that they're writing about. And so a requirement to label an experience abuse or sexual assault or childhood sexual abuse seems like it is going to really inhibit someone's ability to write about complicated experiences.
And sometimes a reader's reaction to something can be really alienating to the writer. I remember the forward to a lesbian novel I read where the woman writing the forward described fisting as "people who seduce you and then punch you in the most private places" and as a reader I was totally grossed out by the concern trolling of it. I can't even imag8ine how it felt to the author.
Content warnings seem to work on AO3, and to not create a chilling effect. But again I wonder how many people are just using "Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings" because they don't want to be accused of mis-categorizing a fic that they don't think is non-con, but someone else might.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2019-03-26 12:34 pm (UTC)First, there's the issue of how any policy could be used to harass a writer. And so you make certain decisions about what is allowed and how complaints are made and what the response to complaints is to prevent your guidelines from being used in bad faith. This hasn't been a problem for our writing group so far, but it's something that I think about a lot. And to the degree that there is a legitimate objection to trigger warnings in an academic settings, it's that the requirement for trigger warnings they can be used in bad faith to shut down discussion or harass an instructor.
But it feels like there is a danger that is most acute in a memoir writing group, which is that writers are still working on naming the experiences that they're writing about. And so a requirement to label an experience abuse or sexual assault or childhood sexual abuse seems like it is going to really inhibit someone's ability to write about complicated experiences.
And sometimes a reader's reaction to something can be really alienating to the writer. I remember the forward to a lesbian novel I read where the woman writing the forward described fisting as "people who seduce you and then punch you in the most private places" and as a reader I was totally grossed out by the concern trolling of it. I can't even imag8ine how it felt to the author.
Content warnings seem to work on AO3, and to not create a chilling effect. But again I wonder how many people are just using "Creator Chose Not to Use Archive Warnings" because they don't want to be accused of mis-categorizing a fic that they don't think is non-con, but someone else might.