The season premier of "American Horror Story Coven" featured graphic images rape. Not one but two rapes occurred during this episode. The first featuring a gang rape of a female and the second featuring a female literally raping a male to death.  Every year there is an average of 207,754 rape victims over the age of 12 in the US alone.

The audiences who are watching these shows such as "American Horror Story Coven" are almost guaranteed to be at least made up of some sexual assault victims. For victims of sexual assault, such as myself, seeing rape can be very triggering. It can cause disassociation, self harm, panic attacks, and even suicidal ideation among many other things. The effects of triggers are different for every victim so they cannot be put just blatantly. 

While the show does give a warning to graphic and violent images, this is not enough. Graphic and violent images could mean a variety of things. And as a watcher of horror movies, one could imagine that they can deal with graphic and violent images they are going to see. Rape isn't just graphic and violent. It is life changing. And a tv show shouldn't make someone in recovery from a traumatic event put their life on hold.  

Traumatic events are unavoidable however triggers aren't always unavoidable. The MPAA could help sexual assault victims everywhere by having a warning placed before the show. This could be done in the same context as the "graphic and violent content" warning is done. And it would help the millions of sexual assault victims out there. 

sources for statistical information came from rainn.org