2015-02-05: This is Not the Way to Get Healthy

[Nosy Neighbordroid]

Discussion thread for This is Not the Way to Get Healthy

[JirinPanthosa]

Ok, I don't know what other comic you drew this character came from, but her wordy comics that have nothing to do with the main characters or the premise of the strip are not what appealed to me about the premise of this comic.

Be it Naga eating people, Vampire sex, or aliens playing D&D, they're all much more interesting and funny than this woman's sexual escapades.

[Baeraad]

Well. Jordan, as usual, takes things a little far. :p But as a disabled person, I basically agree with her here. People sugar-coating something that sucks doesn't make it suck any less, it just makes you feel pressured to feel good about it. And nothing makes me feel so bad as being pressured to feel good.

[lyze]

I pretty much feel the way about all the sugar coating. And the phrase triggering is my trigger. There was some movement at a gaming con to have to label whatever game your running with tags. Stupid crap like having to put 'blood', 'violence', 'gore', on a supernatural horror game. If you're so non-functional that someone mentioning these things in a completely make believe environment is crippling, stay in your house.

I remember a time where 'triggers' didn't exist. There was just things that upset you and you didn't like so you just turned around and walked away and didn't expect the world to sanitize itself preemptively for your exclusive benefit.

[Imp-Chan]

Ok, I don't know what other comic you drew this character came from, but her wordy comics that have nothing to do with the main characters or the premise of the strip are not what appealed to me about the premise of this comic.

Be it Naga eating people, Vampire sex, or aliens playing D&D, they're all much more interesting and funny than this woman's sexual escapades.

I know, it's way too wordy, right?! This is the script after I told him to cut a hundred words, and before I touched it or the lettering. Poe actually lettered this one himself, because I refused to tackle that much text.

However, you are incorrect about whether or not this strip has anything to do with the main characters or the premise of the comic. Arguably, these people are the main characters (certainly they occupy a large percent of the archives), and this is definitely a strip about modern culture, so it's right on message in that sense.

Oh, and the woman in question is Jordan Kennedy, a character from Exploitation Now.

^-^'

[lyze]

I know, it's way too wordy, right?! This is the script after I told him to cut a hundred words, and before I touched it or the lettering. Poe actually lettered this one himself, because I refused to tackle that much text.

As a fellow sufferer of expositionitis, I completely disagree ;p

[Baeraad]

I pretty much feel the way about all the sugar coating. And the phrase triggering is my trigger. There was some movement at a gaming con to have to label whatever game your running with tags. Stupid crap like having to put 'blood', 'violence', 'gore', on a supernatural horror game. If you're so non-functional that someone mentioning these things in a completely make believe environment is crippling, stay in your house.

I remember a time where 'triggers' didn't exist. There was just things that upset you and you didn't like so you just turned around and walked away and didn't expect the world to sanitize itself preemptively for your exclusive benefit.

I'm not sure if you're joking or not, but I actually get triggered by people talking about triggers. And yes, I am perfectly aware of how fucking stupid that is, but it happens anyway. Every time I hear the word I flash back to all the many, many instances of self-righteous bullying that's left lasting emotional scars, and then I have to curl up and whimper for a while. I could use some trigger warning for trigger warnings, I tell you!

And just generally, I'm unsympathetic to people whining about their triggers exactly because I'm such a fucking headcase who gets traumatised and depressed by absolutely fucking everything. My position is, I'll start worrying about not upsetting other people as soon as they show any signs of worrying about upsetting me, which is going to be the day after never in your fucking life.

(fun fact: the word "upset," I've been informed at least once, is triggering. Because "it's been traditionally used to trivialise women's feelings," apparently. I found being told that to be very upsetting)

[Alice Machaer]

"Triggers" are a real thing. However, the original and more accurate use of the term refers to a symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). So for example, a Vietnam War veteran who's been diagnosed with PTSD may suffer memory flashbacks, nausea, headache, among other psychiatric or physiological symptoms when he passes by a TV screen showing a battle scene (set in 'Nam or otherwise). And--still within this original, psychiatric context--a trigger can be something less obvious to non-PTSD sufferers; for example, a sexual assault survivor might experience such symptoms from the smell of fresh bread, if such a smell was present during her trauma.

The problem is that many people online, especially in fanfic and broader fandom circles, have distorted the "trigger" concept way beyond its proper clinical meaning. First, in such circles, "that's triggering to me" has become a hyperbole for "that makes me feel upset | disturbed | offended." Example: I'm Jewish, and I readily admit that hearing someone call out "Hey, k*ke!" is offensive and a bit upsetting to me. But it's in no way triggering. I don't get an acute onset of physiological or psychiatric symptoms from hearing it. If, in contrast, another Jewish person survives a brutal, sustained assault by white supremacists who shouted "k*ke throughout, and that person developed PTSD as a result, hearing that slur might well be genuinely triggering and bring about such symptoms.

Second, the original "trigger" concept wasn't intended as some sort of I.D. card giving even genuine trauma survivors automatic access to a life free of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting or touching anything remotely linked to their trauma, ever again, to say less of non-trauma survivors. Granted, it's long-established practice for TV networks to air a "viewer discretion advised" disclaimer before and during a program that features common, broad potential triggers like brutal violence. That's common courtesy and common sense, and reasonable for potentially affected viewers to expect. What's less fair to demand is that a fanfic (or any other entertainment work) bear "trigger warnings" for things that go well beyond what the creator could reasonably expect would be triggering. So to use one of my examples above, a trigger warning for "rape" (or, if that would be a plot spoiler, maybe "brutal violence") would be a reasonable expectation; a trigger warning for "fresh bread," less so.

Given all this, Jordan's use of "triggering" in this comic seems odd to me, considering the rest of her monologue, unless she's using it ironically.

[Imp-Chan]

She is most definitely using it ironically.

I suffer from PTSD as a result of a traumatic extended hospitalization and time in what I'm calling an induced coma (for lack of a better colloquial term for two months on life support under anesthesia). Poe, being a caring and attentive husband, is very familiar with the proper medical context for the term trigger, and what a triggered person looks like in real life. Jordan, who legitimately has cause to suffer from PTSD herself, is just mocking the abuse of the term.

And yes, "trigger warnings" are yet another example of bullshit special snowflake nonsense propagated by social media. Broad labels such as "brutal violence" make some sense. Specific labels, and the expectation for them, are a ridiculous exercise in futility. For example, because much of my trauma was due to vivid hallucinations fueled by the anesthesia, I have been genuinely triggered by a truly bizarre range of things, ranging from baby elephants to the sight of an orange julius. It makes no sense at all, and it would be ridiculous to expect a warning for everything that might trigger me when I don't even know what all those things are. So as an actual PTSD sufferer, all that word means in my life is that I'm in the middle of coping with Heavy Shit, and don't poke me while I do it... which is a very far cry from "please shield my delicate psyche from things I don't like."

^-^'

[dark_lord_zagato]

Then, it follows that using this term incorrectly and applying it to oneself when there is no PTSD diagnosis is very disrespectful to those who actually do have PTSD, right? Wouldn't it be amusing to beat the social media types at their own game with a petition demanding they stop using the word trigger because it's... you know... pissing the rest of us off? I don't expect any of them would really stop but it might be a good way to rustle some jimmies.

More about the comic, Jordan might have a hard time strangling people with one hand but she still has two good legs. She could always just kick these people in the crotch, man and woman alike. Boom, nutshot!