➡️ Not every medium of fiction and storytelling has or is expected to have content warnings or extensive tagging.
➡️ Print novels do not traditionally warn for content in any way.
➡️ Until AO3 came along, fanfiction did not traditionally warn for content in any significant way.
➡️ An author is only obligated to warn for content to the degree mandated by the format they publish their fiction on.
➡️ Content warnings beyond the minimum are a courtesy, not an obligation.
➡️ ‘Creator chose not to warn’ is a valid tag that authors are allowed to use on AO3. It means there could be anything in there and you have accepted the risk. ‘May contain peanuts!’
➡️ Writers are allowed to use ‘Creator chose not to warn’ for any reason, including to maintain surprise and avoid spoilers.
➡️ ‘Creator chose not to warn’ is not the same thing as ‘no archive warnings apply’.
➡️ It is your responsibility to protect yourself and close a book, or hit the back button if you find something in fiction that you’re reading that upsets you.
➡️ You are responsible for protecting yourself from fiction that causes you discomfort.
(commenting on tags)
I think my issue with the wording of this is the contradiction between “You are responsible for protecting yourself from fiction that causes you discomfort.” and the rest of it. Like, yeah. We want to protect ourselves from fiction that we wouldn’t want to read. That’s why we’d like content warnings.
Empowering people to make their own choices by giving them the necessary information to do so is good. It should be generally the standard that we give people that necessary information. Just because something was done a certain way in the past doesn’t mean that way was good. It doesn’t mean that way is or should be unchangeable. Just because people have always done it one way doesn’t mean that way is better and can’t be improved. I, personally, think the standard of content warnings is good, and both publishing and fanfic should move towards that as standard.
(I should say that I’m a relatively “Fandom Old” person who started reading fanfic more than 25 years ago. So don’t come at me like I’m some youngin who wasn’t there for the Wild West days)
Just because something was done a certain way in the past doesn’t mean that way was good. It doesn’t mean that way is or should be unchangeable. Just because people have always done it one way doesn’t mean that way is better and can’t be improved.
Content warnings should absolutely be the standard. I have never heard any argument against them that has made any damn sense or changed my mind.
If you really think your book/ fic/ whatever is better spoiler free, then let people know that there are spoiler-y triggers and put them under a read more or something. But just saying “Nope not gonna use CWs” could not only lead to people getting triggered out of nowhere, but it’s turning people who might vibe perfectly well with your content away.
“Creator chose not to warn” IS a warning all by itself.
It is a warning that anything could be in the story and if you don’t accept that risk the author doesn’t want you to read it.
Some authors value maintaining the surprise in their work over making the work accessible to absolutely everyone who might be comfortable with its contents.
Discussion ¬