Are either of you aware of the 'Does the Dog Die?' site, a kind of IMDB for animal deaths in films: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/? Or at least, that's what it started as. A few days ago my partner and I were having a (genuinely jokey) back-and-forth on whether he would spoil a book I was reading with a dog character I was convinced was doomed. For the first time in years, he looked up the site. Animals deaths are something I would like to avoid or fast forward in a film, however I'm aware this a) can't always be done, b) doesn't mean that a film is 'bad', and c) is not a universal issue. The website has expanded to include 'triggers' most people won't have thought of and/ or would question were really justifiable as an issue. Per this article at https://www.theringer.com/pop-culture/2020/8/19/21375046/does-the-dog-die-dimdb-can-you-pet-the-dog: "The site now sports more than 80 user-suggested categories, or “triggers,” ranging from violence toward humans and other animals to aspects of the cinematography or the story, such as “shaky cam is used” and “the ending is sad". " What a state of affairs we've come to. A trigger warning is not a guarantee of any kind of protection or resilience, as you say here. Anyway, I thought worth sharing here to see what others thought.
Are either of you aware of the 'Does the Dog Die?' site, a kind of IMDB for animal deaths in films: https://www.doesthedogdie.com/? Or at least, that's what it started as. A few days ago my partner and I were having a (genuinely jokey) back-and-forth on whether he would spoil a book I was reading with a dog character I was convinced was doomed. For the first time in years, he looked up the site. Animals deaths are something I would like to avoid or fast forward in a film, however I'm aware this a) can't always be done, b) doesn't mean that a film is 'bad', and c) is not a universal issue. The website has expanded to include 'triggers' most people won't have thought of and/ or would question were really justifiable as an issue. Per this article at https://www.theringer.com/pop-culture/2020/8/19/21375046/does-the-dog-die-dimdb-can-you-pet-the-dog: "The site now sports more than 80 user-suggested categories, or “triggers,” ranging from violence toward humans and other animals to aspects of the cinematography or the story, such as “shaky cam is used” and “the ending is sad". " What a state of affairs we've come to. A trigger warning is not a guarantee of any kind of protection or resilience, as you say here. Anyway, I thought worth sharing here to see what others thought.
Roxane Gay has a profound essay in her 'Bad Feminist' collection on trigger warnings and encountering them as an adult survivor of violent childhood sexual abuse. You can get a sense here: https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/3191845-trigger-warnings-aren-t-meant-for-those-of-us-who-don-t.