Seeing violent acts should not be a prerequisite to giving a fuck
What is trauma porn?
Trauma porn (n.): any media that depicts a group’s pain and suffering for entertainment and/or to evoke an emotional response from the audience
Not all media that brings awareness to traumatic issues is trauma porn. The difference lies in:
1) whom it was created by and for,
2) the impact that it has on people both within and outside of the affected group, and
3) how the content is consumed.
"Trauma porn at its core is exploitive and emotionally provocative for unethical reasons that lack compassion for anything other than the society ruled “default,” aka those who are white, straight, cisgender, able-bodied, able-minded and neurotypical. "
- Brittany Johnson (The Mighty)
Trauma porn is created for people with privilege to feel outraged or be entertained and adds to the objectification and dehumanization of marginalized people.
Trauma porn is modern day lynching
Although 'trauma porn' is a relatively new term, the practice of sharing and consuming content about BIPOC pain is not.
The consumption of Black pain as a form of content isn't new. Lynchings in early 1800s America were public events (often organized as social gatherings for families) where white communities would gather to witness and celebrate the torture and murder of Black folk, often under the guise of 'justice' for crimes organizers of the event made up.
As Ashlee Marie Preston writes, "the extreme discomfort you may have felt while reading the details of last century's lynchings is similar to the discomfort many Black people feel when viral videos of us being publicly murdered are shared".
Trauma porn becomes the same cycle of consuming the pain of BIPOC communities as entertainment for YT folks, under the pretense of justice.
Examples of trauma porn
Some examples of more recent media content which could be considered trauma porn:
The mass distribution of body cam footage of the murder of Tyre Nichols by the Memphis police, which was released by the police dept (after a literal countdown?) and wildly circulated in the media
The highly publicized image of Emmett Till's body
BLM protestors being mistreated by the police
The picture of the Syrian refugee boy's lifeless body on the beach
Iranian women being harassed by morality police
Asian women and seniors being harassed/assaulted in Chinatowns across North America over the pandemic
Obsession around the increasing number of children's bodies recovered from residential schools
Desensitization and dehumunization
The power of trauma porn lies in its ability to trigger emotional responses from the viewers - anger, sadness, satisfaction, curiosity, disgust - whatever the emotion is, it is a strong one.
Theoretically, trauma porn can inspire people to enact change—but that's not what usually happens. More often than not, people only repost and share, adding to a chronic cycle of re-posting that saturates media platforms. If a piece of trauma porn is especially popular (e.g. a TV show about a serial killer), it can result in emotional overload and eventual desensitization and unresponsiveness by viewers.
Examples:
Another mass shooting in the US? No surprise there.
Flooding in Asia? It's just monsoon season.
MMIWG? People still aren't talking about them.
Outrage is not systems change
You may wonder: Where's the harm in sharing graphic videos of Black death if those videos are meant to spark public outrage and seek justice? ... Even when an officer or vigilante is charged or convicted for murdering Black people, it's only half of a victory.
Arresting an officer without dismantling the system that moulded him is like arresting the gun, not the shooter. That officer or vigilante that murdered a Black person wasn't an isolated case, but, in fact, part of a larger, systemic problem. White supremacy is the ultimate culprit, and it walks free every single time... Unless you're pulling up systemic anti-Blackness by the root, you're merely placing a bandaid over a bullet wound.
- Ashlee Marie Preston
Take the murder of George Floyd. The public resharing of his video didn't result in defunding & abolishing the police, which might have saved Tyre Nicohols' (and countless other Black people) life.
“Porn is by its very nature passive, whether you enjoy watching it or not. [...] comparing real oppression to porn suggests it can or, worse, should be watched passively.
If you find you regularly look at the exploitation of marginalized groups without wanting to take corrective action, or you avoid news of that exploitation so you won’t feel guilty for not taking action, the problem isn’t with media as seductive as porn.
The problem is with you.”
The alternative to using trauma porn to spur community action and advocate for system change is believing Black, Indigenous and other marginalized communities when they tell us they are experiencing violence and harm.
So what can we do?
How to know better
Before creating and/or sharing media, reflect on:
How do your personal biases and unique vantage point affect the story?
Are there people/organizations you can work with to help you better understand the issue or the community involved?
Other than sharing this content, what are you doing to break the cycle of violence and oppression these individuals are experiencing?
How to do better
Instead of reposting traumatic media, you can:
Write to representatives
VOTE in leaders who will prioritize issues like racism, sexism, classism, climate change, etc.
Continue these convos with those around you. No, it won't be as easy as reposting - it's work, it's hard - but it's absolutely essential.
The Me Too movement was a cultural shift focusing on believing women because they are experts on their lived experiences.
So, when we say 'Black Lives Matter' it means believing Black people when they share their experiences, and then doing the work to learn and show up in solidarity with them.
