Reply To: [TW: rape] Helping Sea Monkeys with triggers (at karaoke and otherwise), was: JCCC4 Post-Mortem
I don’t like the idea that we’re going to be maintaining some sort of monolithic list based on an arbitrary definition of “this triggers me based my past traumatic experience of rape / abusive parents / alcoholism / abusive spouse / post traumatic stress disorder / animal attack at the zoo / something” (note: I’m not putting all of these situations on equal footing, simply mentioning that there are a variety of things that can cause a trauma trigger event).
If we don’t track who puts a song onto the list, and they don’t show up next year, is the song banned forever, especially if something gets put on there that no one even understands? More to the point, why should people with triggers be forced to examine a list and try to cull out songs, some of which they may not even recognize but may contain triggers?
That seems like more work than a vacation event should entail for anyone, be it event organizers or attendees.
All this hand-wringing about who gets to choose what songs should be removed is why I proposed the solution I did. Not because I think specific songs (or even all songs) should stay in rotation, but because the cruise is ostensibly a vacation and as such should be a relaxing and enjoyable time, and any solution that gets implemented needs to be as simple, understandable, commonly accepted, and thoroughly communicated as possible. A banned list is a high maintenance band-aid, not a workable solution, in my opinion.
Now, in the interests of trying to mend some rifts, how about a set of “guideline” songs that people can compare against and say “Ok, this song is like THAT one and probably wouldn’t be a good idea”. Start with Blurred Lines, add in a handful of other songs covering other trauma triggers, and I think at that point we can say we’ve done our best.