Author's Note: This debate has been going on forever, and there is a little nuisance to it. Whether you are for or against content warnings, there are reasons for adding or not adding them. For the purposes of this examination, I'm talking about spoilers via content lists, and not in any other capacity. Either way, I think warnings matter, and moreover, I think it's your responsibility as a writer to provide them. Why? Let's get into it.
No doubt you've seen content or trigger warnings on media. In fact, you can't really consume much media without encountering them. Movies and video games have come with consumer content warnings or ratings since 1968 and 1994, respectively, at least in the US.
But this trend has become somewhat of a newer thing when it comes to books. What's the big deal? Why does everyone scream and argue about content warnings? Why does it matter?
The answer is pretty simple, and it's basically the same reason it's on everything else. Graphic violence, sexual material, blood/gore, intense scenes, etc., are important for audiences when determining whether they will consume a specific piece of media. If body horror makes you queasy, then you aren't watching a horror movie with graphic violence and blood warnings. If sexual activity disgusts you (I don't know why you're reading me, but to each their own), then you aren't going to want to watch a movie full of nudity and sex scenes. It's pretty logical if you spend two seconds thinking about it.
So why does it make any less sense to put those warnings on books?
Sure, there are authors who don't believe they matter, or refuse to use them either out of spite or out of their own personal ignorance. Some claim that the genre already defines what you are likely to find within the pages, so they don't need to warn you further. You aren't going to read a horror story if you don't like death or unhappy endings. You'll probably pick up a romance or comedy instead. If science fiction is just too difficult for you to grasp, or the idea that extraterrestrial life is out there and that gives you the heebie-jeebies, that's probably not your go-to genre.
But does that go far enough? I don't think it does.
Just because YOU don't need a content warning doesn't mean someone else doesn't. There are vast differences in what one person can handle, and what another finds acceptable or triggering. And I feel that way, no matter the genre. I personally love horror, especially gothic or darker supernatural stuff. But I cannot do body horror and explicit gore. Literally gives me nightmares. And if I don't know it's there and it happens, I nope the fuck out so fast. Conversely, I generally don't have many triggers when it comes to romance or erotica genres. But there are a couple of things that will make me end consumption of that media quickly.
And that's the point of the content warnings. As a reader, I want to know if there's something in the book that I can't handle. It's about consent, something a lot of people seem to struggle with. If you will not allow me the courtesy to read and abstain from a potential trigger in your book, then I don't really want to take the chance. You aren't allowing me to properly consent to your material. Yes, I've read books without content warnings. And, yes, I've stopped reading books because they didn't list one they should have. And I'm simply never reading that author again.
As an author, it's your duty to provide context to your readers and make sure you are giving your audience the right to consent to your material. That doesn't mean that every single person needs them. But if at least one person protects their mental health because of your warning, then I feel like you owe them that. The people who don't need the warnings will skip over them. That's also their right of consent to reading your book. But the ones who do need them will be grateful. Not only that, some of the readers who don't have triggers will use your warning as a shopping list, which is even funnier to me, and also sometimes how I pick books.
In my opinion, if there is a potential for a trigger, you should include it anyway. Even if it isn't a trigger for you, and it's probably not if you wrote it (except in some instances), someone will be glad you gave it. If nothing else, to prepare themselves for what's to come.
Which brings me to another point that also gets conflated within this argument. Another reason I've seen where some authors refuse to list triggers is that it will spoil the plot. But it doesn't have to, right? And I'd further argue that if you can't give a warning without spoiling the plot or ruining a plot twist, then you probably aren't writing a very compelling story anyway. That or you're subverting genre expectations for a gotcha factor, and that's a whole other conversation. Content warnings are not about giving details; it's about generalizations within the context. Subtlety is allowed, even in triggers. And I think that's an important distinction that people don't contextualize correctly.
There are things we expect from certain genres. Do all of those need content warnings? Probably not. I likely don't have to tell you there are fear sequences or terror in a horror, death in a murder mystery, or sex in erotica. It's implied by the genre. But there's no harm in putting it there anyway. Who does it hurt? But if I open what appears to be a spicy romance or romantic erotica title and it turns out there's graphic sexual assault or heavy BDSM scenes throughout the book, and I wasn't prepared for that, I'm going to be a little confused, maybe a little turned off depending on how it's handled, but ultimately fine. But someone else might be traumatized by those acts. Including those in the warning will prevent your reader from experiencing that trauma altogether, or at least prepare them for the possibility that it's there. I do not expect the warning to say 'major character death in chapter 8,' but simply including 'character death' in the list would be appreciated for a lot of people.
Spoiler? Perhaps. But for most, reading is an escape. A fantasy lived through the pages conjured from someone else's mind. And don't we owe it to our readers to protect their headspace in exchange for spending their time with our worlds? They are choosing to spend their time and money with your characters and live in your imagination through your stories. I think it's just a common courtesy to provide things that might hurt them mentally before they give your creations space in that potentially fragile environment.
And don't misunderstand me. I don't think people who struggle with certain stimuli or situations should be consuming all media. That's silly to assume. No one experiences things the way another person does. As I said, some people look for the things that traumatized them as a means of healing. It's not a secret in the dark romance or horror romance genres to experience stories to help heal your inner trauma. Or, for some things in horror, to speak deeply to your mental psyche. Or broken poetry to help understand yourself. To each their own. But not every book is equal, and not every book fits nicely into genre boxes. Which I think makes this even more important.
If you're writing books that include a laundry list of themes to rack up the high score in trigger points, maybe you should examine that, especially if asking for those themes ahead of time offends you. Just because you're the author, I don't think that gives you a right to decide that someone shouldn't be warned about the things in your book because it doesn't bother you. For me, that's kinda akin to victim blaming. If your response is, 'well, they shouldn't read _______ if they get triggered,' then my question to you is: why didn't you feel the need to warn them that there was a trigger, in the first place? How do they know if you don't tell them it's there?
It's something I think we all should think about as we release our book babies into the wild. Especially in today's age, consent is extremely important, and protecting your space is even more so. In the end, I think most readers would thank you for giving them an informed choice.
