Call this the summer of trigger warnings.
“Blink Twice,” originally titled “P***y Island,” used social media to warn viewers about sexual violence against women. That’s both a trigger warning AND a spoiler alert.
Some slammed “It Ends with Us,” which deals with domestic violence, for its lack of a trigger warning. One online review even teased its trigger warning in its headline. The Hollywood Reporter ran an essay excoriating the production for leaving one out.
Western culture routinely depicts domestic violence on screen. Consider “Sleeping with the Enemy,” “Waitress,” “Fried Green Tomatoes” and countless other titles dealing with the subject.
Now, apparently, audiences must be warned ahead of time. Even pop superstar Taylor Swift agrees.
RELATED: THE BITTER TRUTH ABOUT TRIGGER WARNINGS
Several British stars have had enough.
Former “Doctor Who” standout Matt Smith blasted the practice in a Times of London chat.
“It’s OK to feel uncomfortable or provoked while looking at a painting or watching a play, but I worry everything’s being dialed and dumbed down. We’re telling audiences they’re going to be scared before they’ve watched something…”
“Isn’t being shocked, surprised, stirred the point?” Smith says. “Too much policing of stories and being afraid to bring them out because a climate is a certain way is a shame. I’m not sure I’m on board with trigger warnings.”
Other British actors have similarly teed off on the concept, including Dame Judi Dench.
“I can see why they exist, and it is preparing people, I suppose … but if you’re that sensitive, don’t go to the theater, because you could be very shocked. Where is the surprise of seeing and understanding it in your own way?”
“Harry Potter” alum Ralph Fiennes is another trigger warning critic.
“Shakespeare’s plays are full of murderers, full of horror. As a young student and lover of the theatre, I never experienced trigger warnings telling me: ‘By the way in King Lear, Gloucester is going to have his eyes pulled out’ … Theatre has to be alive and connect in the present….It’s the shock, the unexpected, that’s what makes an actor (in) theatre so exciting.”
Sir Ian McKellan rounds out the Brits giving trigger warnings the finger.
“I think it’s ludicrous … I quite like to be surprised by loud noises and outrageous behavior on stage.”
Australian actress Cate Blanchett is simpatico with her British peers on the subject.
We are terrified of tough conversations… but we need them. We talk about radical candour, but when there’s a trigger warning in front of something you are implying that there is a lack of mutual respect or that the subject hasn’t been properly interrogated….
Why are British stars vocal on the subject? It could be their theatrical backgrounds. More likely? It’s happening in the UK more than stateside, at least on the stage.
The U.S. is far from immune. We’ve already seen trigger warnings for classic cartoons and blistering satires on streaming platforms.
Trigger Warnings, like much of woke culture, are both contradictory and unnecessary. The aforementioned artists explain the latter. Must we be bubbled wrapped from being made uncomfortable by art?
Why contradictory? Just about any film could feature a trigger warning.
- Warning: “John Wick 4” features unrelenting violence that leaves dozens dead (Imagine growing up in a violent neighborhood and enduring any of the Keanu Reeves films…)
- Warning: “Terms of Endearment” features a sizable cancer subplot. (Cancer touches almost all of our lives to one degree or another, and once again we’re talking about a huge spoiler alert)
The push to include trigger warnings coincides with attacks on free speech, attempts to silence campus speakers and Big Tech censorship.
If you think there’s no pattern here you’re in for an uncomfortable surprise sooner than later.
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