A Note on Trigger Warnings

Home, for too many, is a place of trauma and hurt, and we do not wish to shut out or unduly censor works that maneuver through sensitive topics of violence/abuse, death, suicide, etc. Since Housebound hopes to be a place of refuge for both the grief-laden writer and the unguarded reader, being accountable to that bifold intention means crafting a nuanced content warning approach.

However well-intentioned or thorough, trigger warnings are not altogether effective. That is to say, they don't always work as intended. In our media-saturated society, it's immensely difficult to evade material that shares or generates emotional distress.

With this in mind, Housebound operates with an adaptable content warning approach that upholds the artistic integrity of all whose work finds a home at our magazine and provides an adequate heads-up before exposure to more dark, graphic, and/or emotionally taxing material.

Please note that our content warning system is for written portrayals/depictions of a sensitive topic, not for that which is merely implied/mentioned. For example, if a piece mentions a character's death but doesn't actually depict or explore that event/topic in its narrative, we will not be applying a trigger warning for death/dying.

The reasoning behind this is that if we're applying trigger warnings simply for the use of certain words or terms in passing, then we'd, arguably, need a trigger warning for the written trigger warning. See how messy this can get?!

Any work that demands a content warning due to detailed depictions of sensitive topics will have a "Content Notes" banner, so one can take a step back or prepare themselves before reading.

The language for each content warning banner will always be developed in conversation with the author, not ascribed solely by the editor.

Though we founded Housebound as a space of comfort, we believe that said comfort is cultivated, most crucially, by showing up to share and honor and hold each other's grief, trauma, and despair.

All in all, our approach recognizes that simply red-flagging a work is not entirely beneficial in isolation; content warnings can and should generate follow-up conversations in a safe and trauma-informed space. We strive to provide one such space for processing the hard-to-process, wherein we can encourage each other in moments of uncertainty and collapse.

Along these lines, James Baldwin perfectly spelled out the essentiality of reading/writing in this hallowed, human task of processing/transforming suffering:

I can only tell you about yourself as much as I can face about myself. And this has happened to everybody who's tried to live. You go through life for a long time thinking, No one has ever suffered the way I've suffered, my God, my God. And then you realize – You read something or you hear something, and you realize that your suffering does not isolate you; your suffering is your bridge. Many people have suffered before you, many people are suffering around you and always will, and all you can do is bring, hopefully, a little light into that suffering. Enough light so that the person who is suffering can begin to comprehend his suffering and begin to live with it and begin to change it, change the situation

Existing is hard. Thank you for being here.

~Erin & Taylor