Negotiating vulnerability in the trigger warning debates

Katariina Kyrölä

Research output: Chapter in Book/Conference proceedingChapterScientificpeer-review

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Abstract

The chapter maps out and examines online debates about trigger and content warnings in the late 2010s, asking how they negotiate vulnerability. Whose vulnerability comes to matter most in these debates, how, and for what aims? The chapter proposes that the figure of the trigger warning currently circulates most intensely in three contexts: first, in feminist discussion forums where the use of warnings is a desired, required and normalised practice; second, in the feminist, queer and anti-racist academic opposition to trigger warnings which emphasises the pedagogical value of discomfort; and third, in the circulation of trigger warnings in anti-feminist online spaces. Each of these contexts understands vulnerability in somewhat different but overlapping ways: as a standpoint that both prohibits and enables; as a necessity to life that must be embraced; and a paradoxical position where claims to power are made through claims of disempowerment. The chapter does not argue against or for trigger warnings but invites readers to re-evaluate their own stances and understand what is at stake in the opposing as well as defending arguments, depending on context.

Original languageUndefined/Unknown
Title of host publicationThe Power of Vulnerability. Mobilising affect in feminist, queer and anti-racist media cultures.
EditorsAnu Koivunen, Katariina Kyrölä, Ingrid Ryberg
PublisherManchester University Press
Pages29–50
ISBN (Print)978-1-5261-3309-0
Publication statusPublished - 2018
MoE publication typeA3 Part of a book or another research book

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