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| ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: young-walsingham 04:28 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
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| "While many criticise content guidance in art and literature, others argue they help people make informed choices" | |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: sf 02:03 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - young-walsingham 04:28 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
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| The only trigger warning 'Frank and Percy' - the play McKellen is currently in - needs is a warning that it's half an hour too long and you'll be two steps ahead of the plot all the way through. (He and Roger Allam are very charming in it, though.) |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: portenopete 06:11 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - sf 02:03 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
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| Thank for the laugh. Very acid. | |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: Delvino 10:30 am EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - young-walsingham 04:28 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
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| Over the years, the trigger warning discussion has (appropriately, I think) separated into two distinct categories, which were erroneously conflated: course content in academia vs warnings on entertainment and standalone works of art. As a staunch believer in consumer rights, I am pleased to see the blurred lines ebb. Ticket buyers are very different from students participating in an educational environment purposefully designed to stimulate and challenge. Certainly no one is harmed by these up front warnings on shows, and in the case of some subjects - fatal disease, depicted violence, suicide - the PTSD factor is critical. I'll leave the classroom and syllabus matter to another board; really a different debate, at least in my opinion. | |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: portenopete 12:14 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - Delvino 10:30 am EDT 10/03/23 | |
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| I don't think there needs to be a great hue-and-cry about them and I suspect that McKellen's blunt and honest assessment was the result of some muckraking journalist peppering him with questions and being an octogenarian codger with a probably-bigger-than-average ego, he just said what was on his mind as old people do. (I'm 57, so I'm sort of an old person.) I don't find it so hard to ignore the warnings. The longstanding warning about strobe lights has faded into invisibility and irrelevance for me. Presumably people with epilepsy are much more eagle-eyed in their reading. But I do think that by normalising the trigger warnings, we are paving the way for increasing numbers of people to regard any unpleasant or upsetting qualities in a work of art to respond to such inherent aspects of a play or a movie or a book as somehow "wrong" or "provocative". If I DON'T feel angry or frightened or amused or shocked by a work of art, then I think "What's the point?" And definitely I do not want to know if there is a suicide or a quadruple homicide or a penis on display before the show begins. I go out of my way to go into a show or a movie with zero preconceptions. If I perceive that a piece has been critically well-received and/or has familiar artists on the team or is at a theatre with a track record of quality and artistry, then I buy a ticket. And read nothing about it. |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: kess0078 07:03 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
| In reply to: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - young-walsingham 04:28 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
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| Content warnings (or “trigger” warnings) are a hot topic right now. I do see the benefit for people to have some context to the show’s content beforehand. For those with children, or people with trauma or who are differently abled/ neurodivergent, especially. But I also don’t think it should be an automatic deterrent from attending. Content Warnings should help prepare people to engage with the material, not act as a “Do Not Enter” sign. So - you’re taking your family to “The Sound of Music,” and one of our cousins escaped and immigrated from, say, Bosnia in the 90s. You might be grateful that you could give them a heads up that there might be some tense moments in Act II. |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: schlepper 01:53 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - kess0078 07:03 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
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| "So - you’re taking your family to “The Sound of Music,” and one of our cousins escaped and immigrated from, say, Bosnia in the 90s. You might be grateful that you could give them a heads up that there might be some tense moments in Act II." JFC. Please tell me you are kidding! |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Last Edit: Unhookthestars 04:37 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
| Posted by: Unhookthestars 04:35 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - schlepper 01:53 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
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| I’m okay with trigger warnings as long as the announcements are made in the voice of Stefon: “This musical has EVERYTHING! Music, family, romance, the threat of Nazi Germany, the annexation of Austria…” | |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: HunterHailey 07:30 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - kess0078 07:03 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
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| Trigger warnings should also never be pushed out where you can't avoid them. I get that things like suicide may be upsetting to some. But it also really detracts from watching something if you've basically been told in advance some things that are going to happen that should have been surprising. | |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: BruceinIthaca 05:56 am EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - HunterHailey 07:30 pm EDT 10/02/23 | |
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| A few years ago, I taught an upper-level college course titled "AIDS and the Arts," in which we read novels, plays, memoirs, and poetry, and viewed films, all either addressing the AIDS crisis or emerging directly from it. At the beginning of the semester, I told the students, "Everything you will read or view in this class will depict death, illness, often violence, discussion/depiction of sexualities." Considered this a blanket "trigger warning"--the material is such that for me to identify what difficult material shows up in each text would both take forever and rob you of the experience of encountering the material in your own way." While one or two students dropped the course (it had a very long and demanding reading list--a design flaw on my part, I readily admit), it was not because of the content of the material. The course was an elective that could fulfill a number of requirements (a choice among advanced courses in the major, as well as for the Women's and Gender Studies minor), so the audience was self-selected. But a course in Greek tragedy or Shakespeare will contain potentially upsetting material (read Medea or Titus Andronicus lately?)--I'm on the side of McKellen here. Granted, from time to time, an unexpected trigger can happen (I taught Cather's "Paul's Case," which ends in a particularly disturbing suicide and one of my students had a brother who had ended his life the same way. She asked to be excused from class that day--of course, I not only allowed her to, but strongly recommended it, given her understandable dismay--she came to me before class began and explained the situation, fighting back tears). Some common sense seems in order in not traumatizing people, but audiences need to make choices and to investigate if they have trigger areas. My student was respectful and smart about what she knew would be too much for her and, as a teacher, I cared more for her welfare in that moment than in her sitting through a discussion of a great story that would nonetheless not serve her well. She will have a whole lifetime to reread Cather's classic, should should she want to. | |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: JAS (JAS576@aol.com) 10:40 am EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - BruceinIthaca 05:56 am EDT 10/03/23 | |
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| Well done, Bruce! This was the textbook way to handle a potentially explosive situation, done with great care and delicacy. What drives me crazy is that trigger warnings have replaced good, old-fashioned research. Back in the olden times, (aka, “pre internet”) you often times researched the plays you were going to see. You read up oh what you were thinking of seeing, and you made a decision based on that. Ultimately, it’s the theater goers job to decide, it shouldn’t be the responsibility of producers. You know yourself better than they do: with the classics, do you REALLY need to guided??? I guess what I’m trying to say is, do your research if you are particularly sensitive. We are all grown-ups and should be able to decide for ourselves without being told in a trigger warning. (Though smoke, strobe, and loud noises are fair warnings! LOL) |
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| re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre | |
| Posted by: portenopete 12:17 pm EDT 10/03/23 | |
| In reply to: re: ‘It’s ludicrous’: Ian McKellen sparks debate over trigger warnings in theatre - JAS 10:40 am EDT 10/03/23 | |
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| We have different approaches to preparing ourselves (or not) for what we are about to see, but we seem to be basically on the same page LOL. Of course, I'm sure that if Sir Ian had encountered Bruce's student in person, he would have acted exactly as Bruce did. Most feeling, empathetic people would in a one-on-one situation. |
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