Latest news with #triggerwarnings
Times
24-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
Trigger warning! My top 20 children's classics that need a rewrite
As nursery rhymes go, Hickory Dickory Dock has been cruising for a trigger warning for some time. 'The clock struck one,' for example, is clearly gratuitous violence and the fact that the mouse is inside, running up the clock, points to dubious domestic hygiene. Now, a London theatre putting on a glove puppet performance of the classic nursery rhyme has warned parents about a new scene 'with some tension where a cat chases a mouse'. This does indeed sound terrifying, and proof that Tom and Jerry have had their day. However, it is not as triggering as many other childhood classics, so here are my top 20 in urgent need of a rewrite. Humpty Dumpty. Trigger warnings: health and safety, inadequate risk management. Suggested edit:Humpty Dumpty sat on the floor, Humpty Dumpty did not have a fall. Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. Trigger warnings: gluttony, sloth. Suggested edit: Augustus Gloop wins the Golden Ticket, which is a year's supply of Ozempic. Charlotte's Web. Trigger warning: death, spiders. Suggested edit: Charlotte, a cute puppy, strikes up a friendship with a kitten and lives happily ever after. Mr Bounce. Trigger warnings: uncontrolled bouncing. Serious health and safety concerns. Mr Bounce does not wear a helmet. He falls straight through the floor when he gets out of bed, because his anti-bounce boots are so heavy. Suggested edit to include the importance of not jumping out of bed without checking the floor offers adequate structural support. Winnie-the-Pooh. Trigger warning: sugar addiction. Suggested edit: instead of eating too much 'hunny' and getting stuck in Rabbit's House, Pooh will join a Parkrun round the Hundred Acre Wood. Where the Wild Things Are. Trigger warnings: monsters roaring their terrible roars so close to bedtime may cause nightmares. Issues with appropriate punishment and verbalising anger. Suggested edit: the monsters talk openly and calmly about the ups and downs of their day. Max encourages them to speak honestly about their mental health and offers tips for channelling roars in a more positive direction. • 'Trigger toolkit' for museums comes with its own warning Alice in Wonderland. Glorifies drug use. Normalises hallucination and being off your head. Suggested edit: Alice doesn't drink the bottle marked 'drink me'. The End. Fairytales: Snow White (food poisoning), Rapunzel (false imprisonment), Dumbo (name-calling, anti-big ear sentiment). Bin them all. Beatrix Potter: endlessly problematic. Tom Kitten (fat-ism), Jemima Puddleduck (false imprisonment), Two Bad Mice (not bad, just misunderstood), Mrs Tiggy-Winkle (labour relations, fair pay), Samuel Whiskers (vicious anti-rat sentiment throughout). Suggested edit: Samuel Whiskers befriends Tom Kitten and together they plan nutritious meals without suet. Or pudding. The Water Babies (child exploitation, drowning). Suggested edit: Tom puts on armbands before jumping in the river. Possible new chapter on the benefits of cold water swimming. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Trigger warnings: malnutrition, out-of-body experiences. Suggested edit: the caterpillar learns the importance of portion control and eating your five a day. Caterpillar could also live in permanent state of arrested development until 8+ age group. The Magic Faraway Tree. Trigger warnings: sexism, misogyny, outdated stereotypes of travelling salesmen. Suggested edit: the Saucepan Man becomes the Saucepan Person, Silky to become a male fairy, the Angry Pixie rejects traditional pixie stereotypes and identifies as the Zen Pixie. The Wind in the Willows (glorifies speeding and dangerous driving, possible climate change denial). Suggested edit: Mr Toad buys a bike. Watership Down. Trigger warnings: are you kidding me? Have you read it? Amid all the excitable scientific chatter about life on Mars, or the moon, or wherever we're supposed to be going when we balls up Earth, I'm glad that some scientists are focusing on the most important thing of all, which is tea. There is no point living anywhere without a good brew, so hats off to the British researchers who are seeing if the type of Camellia — who knew? — that gives us tea can survive in space. I can't get out of the house in the morning without a cup of tea, and I don't intend to try on Mars, so fingers crossed they succeed before the gate closes. • UK scientists grow tea in moon soil, for an out of this world brew I note also that they're not trying to grow coffee up there, and quite right too. Filthy stuff. Besides, I imagine we'll all need to pack light for outer space and that means appliances that multitask. My kettle beats your Nespresso machine hands down. I've seen the future and it's Twining's. So the memorial to Queen Elizabeth is to take the form of a translucent bridge in St James's Park, modelled on the magnificent tiara that she wore on her wedding day. It looks better than it sounds and it seems like a lovely idea, but alas, that's not all. • Queen Elizabeth's horseback memorial will watch over the Mall The memorial committee has also commissioned a statue of Queen Elizabeth with Prince Philip, a new gate, a wind sculpture, whatever a wind sculpture might be, and another sculpture nearby of the late Queen mounted on a horse. Why are there so many? Why are they all in London, not scattered around the country? And why, even more bizarrely, are they all in the same park in London?
Telegraph
13-06-2025
- General
- Telegraph
Museums put trigger warning on manual about trigger warnings
A group of museums have put a trigger warning on a new training manual about trigger warnings. The 'trigger toolkit' provides advice on how to prevent heritage sector workers becoming traumatised in training sessions. The manual suggests issuing content warnings to alert staff to any upsetting material, ranging from 'Islamphobia' to 'transphobia' and 'colonialism'. But the document has itself been given a trigger warning, cautioning readers about its own 'potentially triggering content'. The guidance was shared by Museum Development North, a heritage sector organisation that works in partnership with Arts Council England. The manual was produced to help staff in the heritage sector handle material relating to British history, and periods in which 'intolerant, discriminatory, and offensive attitudes and behaviours were significantly more prevalent than they are today '. The guidance warns that museum workers will inevitably have to discuss 'material which represents a break with the diverse social and cultural landscape of the present day '. It states that this may be emotionally triggering, and some workers may not be able to 'comfortably engage with the material at hand'. The manual urges museum bosses to clearly signpost any material that could be emotionally disturbing, and provides a list of topics that could be upsetting. These topics include 'classism', 'politics', 'policing', 'transmisogyny', and 'genomics' – the study of an organism's genetic structure. The guidance also advises museum workers to flag triggering content in all emails, discussions, presentations, and training materials. It adds that staff can recognise if material is triggering by the reaction to it, including people 'crying'. If a training session has been particularly triggering, psychological aftercare should be provided to any upset participants. The guidance states: 'Preventing triggers from happening is the most effective and inclusive way of demonstrating an active commitment to your training participants' mental health and psychological wellbeing.' Trigger warnings have become widespread across British universities and the publishing industry. In 2024, The Telegraph revealed that new editions of the James Bond novels and Agatha Christie mysteries had been given printed trigger warnings alerting readers to potentially outdated and racist attitudes in the books. Passages of these books were also rewritten ahead of release to remove words that could be deemed offensive. The Telegraph has previously revealed that Works by Virginia Woolf, Ernest Hemingway, EM Forster and PG Wodehouse have been given trigger warnings, cautioning readers about their more antiquated contents. In higher education, students have been alerted to the potentially upsetting nature of literary works from Beowulf to the novels of Thomas Hardy.
Times
12-06-2025
- Health
- Times
‘Trigger toolkit' for museums comes with its own warning
A guide that advises prominent museums on how to deal with sensitive topics including divorce, poverty and violence put a content warning on its own 27-page 'trigger toolkit'. The booklet was released by Museum Development North, which is a partnership funded by Arts Council England between York Museums Trust, the Manchester Museums Partnership, Cumbria Museum Consortium and North East Museums. The aim of the booklet is to 'support organisations working across the sector to take a practical approach to preventing, responding to and managing a triggering event within a training session'. The 27-page guide, called 'Trigger Toolkit', advises leaders in the heritage sector on how to prepare training content that will reduce the likelihood of staff being 'triggered' during their work with collections or artefacts. • Chocolat author Joanne Harris adds trigger warnings to her books Due to 'sensitive' topics, the training guide has two pages of warnings in large red type that states: 'The following two pages contain potentially triggering content.' People working in the heritage sector are exposed to collections that include 'racist and intolerant artefacts', which could bring back childhood trauma and prompt memories of 'offensive language and name calling', the toolkit states. Included among the more than 40 topics that could affect museum staff were death, divorce, childbirth, debt, violence, politics, classism and warfare. Gambling, hateful language, the climate emergency, disease, the criminal justice system, policing, and natural disasters were among other examples of 'possible triggering topics' included in the toolkit. The document cites 2022 research that describes a trigger as a 're-experiencing of unpleasant post traumatic stress disorder symptoms such as intrusive thoughts being evoked by the exposure to materials which spark traumatic memories'. Liz Main, a mental health policy expert who has studied trigger warnings, said: 'On balance I think trigger warnings can be a good thing as they can stop someone from seeing something that may upset them. However, the fact that the booklet is about trigger warnings would indicate to staff that there may be emotionally distressing content in there.' The toolkit was developed by Inclusive Boards in partnership with Museum Development Yorkshire. The guide states: 'Many artefacts and conversation subject matters relevant to the heritage sector speak to a time in which intolerant, discriminatory, and offensive attitudes and behaviours were significantly more prevalent than they are today … It is important that in navigating this history organisations ensure that equality, diversity and inclusion is a priority.' Museum Development North had no further comment.
Daily Mail
12-06-2025
- General
- Daily Mail
Museums put trigger warning on new training booklet about trigger warnings - because it mentions addiction, natural disasters, slavery and poverty
A group of museums have put a trigger warning on a new training manual about trigger warnings because it mentions 'sensitive' topics like poverty and the slave trade. The 'Trigger Toolkit' aims to foster a new generation of leaders that can tackle the challenge of 'reducing the likelihood of an emotional trigger occurring'. But ironically, the guide has slapped its own bright red warning on one of its first few pages, which reads: 'The following two pages contain potentially triggering content.' The booklet was released by Museum Development North - a partnership funded by Arts Council England between York Museums Trust, the Manchester Museums Partnership, Cumbria Museum Consortium and North East Museums - and it will help staff during their training. The pamphlet states it is 'intended to support organisations working across the sector to take a practical approach to preventing, responding to and managing a triggering event within a training session', adding: 'It supports and can be part of an organisation's tools and training for becoming more equitable, diverse and inclusive.' According to the guide, emotional triggers are likely within the heritage sector because staff may have to review collections that include 'racist and intolerant artefacts' that could trigger childhood trauma and spark memories of 'offensive language and name calling.' Ironically, the guide has slapped its own bright red warning on one of its first few pages, which reads: 'The following two pages contain potentially triggering content' It also teaches managers how to support those who have become triggered and follow up with them to make sure they have the appropriate support. Topics discussed which could be seen as potentially triggering include modern day slavery, hate speech, debt, divorce, childbirth, miscarriages, violence and warfare, among others. An end note adds: 'The tools and techniques shared in this toolkit are collated with the intention of supporting individuals and organisations to prepare and deliver training with greater consideration of equity, diversity and inclusion. 'These are issues central to modernising the heritage sector, and if addressed with intention, compassion, and care, will grow the reach and impact of organisations' cultural offering.' Mental health policy expert Liz Main, who has studied trigger warnings, said: 'On balance I think trigger warnings can be a good thing as they can stop someone from seeing something that may upset them. 'However the fact that the booklet is about trigger warnings would indicate to staff that there may be emotionally distressing content in there.' Museum Development North was contacted for comment but has not responded. The pamphlet comes at a time when, in the last couple of months alone, cultural relics slapped with trigger warnings include George Orwell's 1984, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and an iconic BBC show.
