Lmao youāre an adult, you shouldnāt be using the word squick. Use trigger. Use your grown up adult words to explain how you feel instead of leaning on a cutesy uwu term that no one outside of tumblr uses. Itās embarrassing.
Idek if this is serious or ironic honestly
Found this in the original post tags and I just... SIGH
Hereās the thing, anon. Squick isnāt justĀ āI donāt like thisā, itāsĀ āI think this is gross and it makes me deeply uncomfortable but I pass no judgement on those who enjoy it, because I acknowledge that everyone is different and those same people may have the same visceral reaction some of the things I enjoyā and was originally made popular in the kink community.
So yeah, if you want to say that every time you come across a trope or whatever you find icky then go ahead, say that every time.
Also, this term dates back to Usenet in the early nineties, so sure, go off.
This frustrates me so much because squicks and triggers are fundamentally different things and as someone with PTSD, the distinction is super useful!
Squicks are things I find personally gross but may not be gross to someone else. They donāt upset me or provoke my PTSD, they simply do not pop my corn. Example: Omegaverse. I donāt like it, it makes me uncomfortable and Iām not going to read it, but if you like it, you do you.
Triggers are things which directly provoke my PTSD. This means that my triggers may seem completely normal and innocuous to someone else, because my triggers are so personal and intrinsically linked to a specific event in my life. My reactions to these triggers can include panic attacks and flashbacks to this traumatic event. Sometimes being triggered can affect me for several hours or even days.
Describing something as either a squick or a trigger allows me easily establish the difference in my potential reaction to something without having to go into painful detail about why bodily fluids might make me back button quickly but poker games might leave me a crying wreck.Ā
Making this distinction, and having a specific word for something that is not your slice of pie, but also not an actual psychological trigger, is also REALLY important for making sure that the word ātriggerā can retain its original, specific, purposeful, and collectively understood clinical meaning (both inside and outside online fannish communities).
If we encourage everyone to lump things that just make them slightly uncomfortable or simply arenāt to their taste in under the word ātriggerā, it actually dilutes the meaning of the word. It makes it harder for us all to, for the most part, collectively agree on and understand what exactly is being described when the word gets used.
And that destruction of shared precise definitions is a problem! It is really useful to have the communal language to be able to clearly and quickly delineate between āthis grosses me out, no thanksā and āthis is going to set off a trauma episode, rattle my brain, and probably throw off the rest of my day/week as a resultā while also maintaining your privacy, and to know that you will be understood in what you are saying. Not having it is actually detrimental to the effort of making our communities safe and navigable for people living with trauma. Which is a goal that is much more important to me, personally, than the idea of not being ācutesyā (a word which in this case which sounds a lot like itās being used as a euphemism for ācringeā).
(Also, one has to wonder if people told Shakespeare he was being childish when he made up entirely new words that are still widely used in the English language today...... š¤)
My understanding is thatĀ āsquickā was also created to avoid using more judgmental terms likeĀ āgrossā orĀ ādisturbingā--like yeah, I do find X kink gross or disturbing, but thatās my personal feeling, not an objective fact about the world, and if Iām explaining to my friend who is super into X that Iād prefer they leave it out of the story theyāre writing me in the fic exchange, I want to use politer language!
āSquickā does sound silly, like onomatopoeia, but I think thatās part of its role--itās a word that defuses if, again, youāre saying something squicks you in front of an audience that may include its connoisseurs. When I say Iām squicked, Iām clearly not getting onto a high horse of dignity and moral righteousness. At the same time Iām not being so indirect for the sake of politeness--āoh, itās not my favorite thing, Iām not sure it works for me, I havenāt found a fic about it that clicks for meā--that someone could misunderstand how much I do not want to see it.
And, to reiterate, it is a grown up word made by grown up nerds in the 90s so if you think it was somehow born on and limited to Tumblr I'm going to need you to actually do some fandom history research before you ever speak authoritatively again about anything fandom-related or adjacent.
I love and deeply miss the termĀ āsquickā and really want to see it brought back. It allows dislike for its own sake and without judgement. Itās polite, gentle, and has an air ofĀ āyou do you.ā A squick is not a trigger. Triggers are related to trauma. Youāre allowed to not like things and not have them related to anything other than just finding them unpleasant. And that aversion can be strong! Thatās okay! I really donāt like watersports. Like, gag-reflex levels of aversion, but itās not triggering. I just really donāt like it.Ā I feel like weāve lost the right/ability to just... quietly not like things and move on with our lives. Not everything is for everyone, and you donāt need a reason to not like something. Just politely and quietly excuse yourself. No need to draw attention, and if someone asks you why you just say,Ā āNo, it squicks me out.ā No judgement. No narrative necessary.Ā
There is a sad trend of trying to make everything you personally dislike morally reprehensible in some way to justify your dislike of it. You're allowed to just not like something for no real reason. You do not have to justify why you dislike something, and the word "squick" is perfect for that. It say "look I really really don't like this thing, but it's ok if you do" and that is useful.
I think the biggest problem is that a lot of these kids are VERY into the whole fandom purity culture thing, so they actually DO want to make it out to be morally reprehensible, and they DON'T think it's ok that other ppl might be into it.
Cheerfully using āsquickā since 1992, because it means a specific thing and other words do not mean that thing.
Very much SAME.
