What follows isn't a rule, or a guideline, or even a suggestion.
I'm leaving it in place while we figure out a better approach because it's possible some people may find it useful. Also, I want to be transparent about my mistakes -- and I think this was one. Even if we do decide that such a list is the way to go, I put it up quickly, without proper consideration, and without working through the ramifications. -CW
This is a list of things you should considering adding a trigger-warning to. This list is, necessarily, incomplete. As it says in the Trigger warnings: a how to guide:
Discussion of these triggers is here. That thread may explain in more detail what various users think these terms mean.What should I warn for?
There’s no hard and fast rule here, I’m afraid. A few topics should always be warned for: rape, suicide, and the use of slurs being prime examples. As a guide, if you think that the topic is likely to cause upset or trigger someone, please warn. Trigger warnings allow people to take control and to decide for themselves what they do and don’t want to see. Covering up triggering topics makes this a safer space for those with triggers.
While I encourage you to err on the side of caution with your trigger warnings, there are some things you don’t need to warn for. You don’t need to trigger warn for use of a word, and you shouldn’t cover up only one word (unless said word is a slur. But really, do you ABSOLUTELY HAVE to include it then?). You do need to warn for a description, or lengthy discussion. So you don’t need to cover up a mention of fluffy bunnies, but if you’re talking about their adorable tails and how soft their ears are, you do.
Possible triggers include:
Things Relating To Assault Or Abuse
- Victim blaming
- Emotional cruelty
- Bullying
- Violence
- Sexualization of teenagers by adults
- "Jailbait"
- Jokes about age of consent
- The notion that older man/younger woman is normal, compared to the reverse
- Incest in a kink context (even consensual)
- In a kink context: collaring, having a master, bondage
- Extreme body modification
- Bad accidents
- Horror film scenarios
- Pregnancy
- Assumption that someone looks pregnant
- Jokes about "can I get pregnant from that?!?"
- Assumptions about how "all bodies of this type are like this"
- Medical coercion
- Medicalization of neurodivergence
- Implication that I might use psychiatric services in the future
- Unhappiness with body size or food, preferably not even in thread titles
- Dieting
- "Healthy eating"
- Exercise to change shape of body
- Eating disorders
- Calorie counting
- "Bad" foods ie "Oh, I shouldn't have eaten that cake"
- Implication that anyone can exercise
- Jokes about spiking a drink
- Comments about contraception failure
- Quiverful Christianity (? Specifics of the trigger are not clear)
- Implications that someone will have children