The use of the word or meme ‘triggered’ has become popular on social media. It is typically used as an insult or as a joke to refer to feminists who take offense at harmful things being said or done in society.
It has to stop.
Why? Let me break this down for you.
- Being triggered is a real symptom of PTSD
An actual symptom of post-traumatic stress disorder is that an individual can experience triggers from something they see on the news or internet for example, that can set off negative emotional responses including anger, anxiety, flashbacks, pain, fear, sadness and panic. Being triggered can cause physical responses such as loss of appetite, shaking, fatigue, racing heart beat and so much more.
Being triggered is NOT a laughing matter. It is not a joke. It’s not funny.
It is a real fucking symptom of PTSD. Have some sensitivity.
Stop using triggered as an insult or a joke because not only is it insensitive and rude. It dismisses, trivialises, undermines and ignores the severity of what it means to experience mental illness and trauma.
2. It is fucking dismissive and rude
We often see people using ‘triggered’ as an insult to show that feminists overreact or are easily provoked by issues that affect us.
It’s not a joke that we are affected by the gender wage gap. It’s not a joke that we are angered by sexual assault. It’s not a joke that we are offended by sexist rhetoric. We are affected and angered by such things. Stop dismissing our feelings as just being ‘triggered’. Stop undermining our anger as just being ‘triggered.’ Stop trivialising our opinions as just being ‘triggered’. It’s rude.
My disgust and anger to racist, sexist and homophobic remarks have personally been dismissed as just being ‘triggered.’ I was in a political group on Facebook as part of my university and there were some racist, homophobic, sexist things being said in it. Horrendous things like ‘anyone who doesn’t identify as male or female are just pretending so they can be different.’ One group member’s response to Islamophobia was ‘if Muslims weren’t here in the first place they wouldn’t have to deal with such confronting and offensive imagery !!!!’
Of course I was pissed, disgusted, offended and angered by such horrendous remarks. I spoke out about the things being said to a woman’s group, but the initial response from the political group was that I was just triggered and that nobody should ‘provoke her please.’
Absolutely I was provoked by such racist, homophobic, sexist remarks – but don’t dismiss my outrage as just being ‘triggered’.
3. It perpetuates the culture of victim blaming
When people dismiss the reactions, feelings and opinions of feminists or anyone for that matter, as just being ‘triggered’, they are effectively perpetuating the culture of victim blaming. They are placing the blame on women for feeling the way they do, they are placing the blame on women for being angered by things that are outright offensive. They are shaming women who stand up to harmful sexist, racist, bigoted rhetoric and actions.
With all this ‘triggered’ rhetoric and victim blaming, I’m genuinely concerned that society has lots its grips with basic concepts of right and wrong. With justice and injustice.
We see victim blaming all the time. It’s the kind of attitude that attacks and criticises the conduct of the victim, instead of the perpetrators of a crime. It’s the sentiment that somehow the victim is at fault for the wrongdoings committed against them, or worse that the victim deserves the harm.
We see it in cases of rape, revenge porn, image-based sexual assault. If she wasn’t wearing such revealing clothes she wouldn’t have been raped. If she didn’t send nude photos, he wouldn’t have uploaded them online. If she didn’t post risqué photos to social media, they wouldn’t be photo shopped into porn. If she was being abused at home she should’ve just left him.
Have we all gone fucking mad?
When Kim Kardashian West was robbed of millions of dollars worth of jewellery at gunpoint, and reportedly tied-up and gagged by a couple of masked men in a Paris hotel. The public reaction was extremely telling of where we are at with our views toward women and how much we are blaming the victim instead of the perpetrators. It’s ridiculous that the public outcry was to blame her for the robbery because of her celebrity status, or what she wears or because she shouldn’t have been flaunting her wealth – instead of condemning the perpetrators.
This insensitive, dismissive and disgusting ‘triggered’ craze needs to STOP. Seriously.
Tech and Law 
Reblogged this on Serenity.
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Sounds like the person who wrote this is triggered af!
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So…?
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“BEING ‘TRIGGERED’ IS NOT A JOKING MATTER! STOP!!!”
*TriGgErED*
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I liked the post very much. Yes arbitrary events can be reminders of trauma , however some people do deliberately perpetuate they can hide their role in the harassment by claiming to be innocent bystanders , because . Vulnerability often stimulates abuse , instead of protection. And any open show of vulnerability is accused of attention seeking and hiding as deception !
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Reblogged this on Coalition of the Brave.
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Reblogged this on Writing Radiation.
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Here here. Good post. People need to think before they speak (or write).
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Reblogged this on The Patchwork Diaries and commented:
Some valid points presented here. I can laugh at myself when I find my self in a PTSD moment over something trivial, so I’ve never really thought about how deragatory the memes themselves were until reading through this. It’s worth a look.
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Wonderfully and powerfully written! So incredibly true!
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Reblogged this on Am I the only loser out there? and commented:
There’s no way I could read this and not reblog it. So incredibly true.
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Most people have no idea about triggers. It is treated the same way panic attacks are treated (I find.) It doesn’t really exist and if it does, it’s your fault for not being strong enough to handle something. If you’ve never been through a horrific event you can’t possibly understand and it is SO easy to say and expect the person to “just get over it.”
I am as guilty as the next person. Although I tried to be compassionate with my patients, I remember reading somebodys’ chart and the diagnosis was “depression.” They were on meds and were just useless as far as living life. (How well I understand that now.) I thought to myself “what could possibly be so bad that you can’t get over it and have to take drugs.)
God sure taught me a lesson. I have been punished beyond all belief for my cruel, ignorant thinking.
I have tried to remove triggers as much as I can but they are still around. Seeing my middle daughter was bittersweet. She is a trigger. All of my children are and they think I should just “get over it.”
Thank you for posting this. Hopefully, people like me who thought she was looking at the world through rose colored glasses, will too, wake up and realize that once you have been abused…you are a victim…and you will have triggers….and they are REAL.
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I’ll give you cupcakes something to be triggered about! XOXO
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Thank you! I hear the phrase and it ticks me off.
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You go Girl!!!! Wow? I must be living under a rock. I don’t recall hearing that term before reading it in your post. Thank you so much for bringing this issue up!!! I will now be more in tune to listen for this and speak up! I think maybe we should start a Counter Meme! One for all the insensitive, hateful, uninformed and uncaring idiots that use that term in a joking or hateful manner!!! Can we get a movement started?? I think we can!! maybe “Heartless and Uninformed”.
Just curious because I was thinking of “Triggered” in a different context and in a more positive way as in a romantic or emotional way like a trigger for a romantic memory??? I’m guessing these idiots have tainted the use of that word forever??
Please check out my Friend Tanya Cliff’s blog. I think she would be very interested in this issue as she is “politically aware”.
Thanks for visiting my blog and deciding you want to follow!! Welcome. I’m always glad to meet a new friend and especially one who is politically aware and active enough to speak out. I am following you now!
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Partner and I just watched the first couple of episodes of Madmen (series 1 – OK! We’re slow!). The most shocking thing (other than the constant smoking) is the casual denigration and minimisation of women. At the end we agreed that some things have improved. But when I read your justifiable outrage, I think, no. Things still have a very long way to go. There are those who will seek to reduce women (or anyone they don’t want to share power and privilege with) any way they can, and using a single word put-down is distressingly efficient. (It also obscures an important debate about how much protection society should provide, but that’s another story). So maintain your rage, comrade. No-one should be dismissed or mocked for their reactions to a far-from-great society.
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Well shiver me triggers. All you are doing is loading the magazines of those that hate you. Good work.
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No it is not. PTSD is a real condition, but the way you use “triggered” isn’t. Just because some narcissistic snowflake can’t handle reality or indifference is their problem.
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The author sounds triggered.
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What a load of 🐴 💩
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Could you be anymore triggered??
I have an idea, stop being so fucking soft! You are a disgrace to your ancestors. They would rolling around in the graves if they knew what your bloodline had come to. A soft fucking snowflake.
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triggered
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The Author posts photographs publicly online that are ‘provocative’ by any definition. This is her choice and I support it. Everybody can dress as discrete or attention getting as they choose. But as an adult she needs to be aware that herself in a provocative way will attract more unfiltered attention.
Many of the Author’s photos look like they could be on the front cover of a mens magazine, that is why you are getting the attention from that type of man. It’s not right that they harass you, but not attributing fault to your own actions in attracting this attention is naive and shows a very childlike understanding of reality.
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Triggered.
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Triggering liberals is entertainment all day long. It’s fun AF. Especially when you trigger some dude dressed up like a chick.
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Triggered
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Triggered.
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“Triggered”
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Take a few minutes to do some research on PTSD, actual research, because you obviously have no idea what you’re talking about.
Fucking feminists.
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