Elisa Mariño
2 min readSep 1, 2022

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My enjoyment rarely has to do with my political alignment. But I find silly to complain about something that takes a few seconds. I find more aggravating things like people with the phone on during the film and their screen blinding me. Or the ones who invade your space. Or the ones who talk too loud at a cinema/theater.

I think that the real reason that you have trigger warnings in a 450 year old play is because many people haven't actually read it or know what it is about. I mean, when I was a teenager, people already prefered to see the movie rather than read the book. Well, some of the people who would go to see the movie, might be teenager who do need them. Takes a few seconds and doesn't involve changes in the play. I would worry about censorship. As in cutting parts of the play. But triggers? you can skip them.

Now, many things that you would consider "edgy" I do consider "lazy writting". but that is another story. Specifically some tropes like "I need to motivate the male hero. I know! I would kill/kidnap/rape his girlfriend". It is overdone and boring as hell. Thankfully shows like breaking bad had better reasons to motivate the antihero. Even if pride is also used a lot, I find it that the way it was introduced worked well. And yes, it was pride, not paying medical bills, since he could have asked for the money to his friends but didn't because of pride. But the catalist worked well.

Art has always been "limited" by who could afford it. Back in the day, the church was the one who comisioned most artwork. And the nobles. So most art was done to their tastes. Now is about audiences. Don't delude yourself, good shows are cancelled all the time in favor of more popular shows. Many plays and movies would never be done because there are no producers interested. So if you are worried about creation, then the problem is not "trigger warnings", but lack of resources to new creators.

I mean, someone has produced Gina Carano's film, with 2,5 millions in crowfunding, yet Kevin Smith needed a personal loan of 27.000$ to film Clerks. So the problem is not that you need to put triggers, get a rate for the movie or whatever other information about your play/film. The problem is the money barrier that decides who gets to do the play and who doesn't. And I say this as a B-series fan.

Also, sometimes, "woke" people can be creative. Horror is an example of how the "tabus" can be turn in brilliant horror movies ofering new twists. That includes triggers.

As someone used to having things I like cancelled because lack of audience/money, I can tell you that triggers or woke things doesn't bother me one bit. On the contrary, woke poeple have brought new audiences and money to scify and fantasy and thanks to them now we have shows and films that we could dream about before. So if someone is salty because of than, too bad, I would still prioritize having more films and variety.

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Elisa Mariño
Elisa Mariño

Written by Elisa Mariño

Fiction is the art to tell lies to show truths. Politics is the art to use truths to tell lies.

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