#mod sparrow

[cripplecharacters]

How would I handle writing this like missing limbs, wheelchair users, conjoined twins, serious burns, and hearing issues in a fictional/ medieval-fantasy setting were surgeries, prosthetics and other modern technologies are not available? I want my stories to have a lot of disabled and disfigured characters while also not falling into harmful tropes and stereotypes(motivations being solely about being disabled or the villain is evil because their disfigured etc.) but I’m not sure what my limits are when it comes to a specific time period we’re technology is extremely limited.

Hi asker,

In advance: this is a very long post.

The thing about disabilities is that they exist whether you have the technology for them or not. And the thing about surgeries and prosthetics is that they are very, very, very old.

Pretty much all the information in this ask is from Wikipedia, by the way. When it's not, I'll give you a link.

The oldest known amputation is 31,000 years old, and the next oldest known one is 7,000 years ago. 7,000 years ago is like 6000 BC, well before the medieval era, even if we're using medieval to mean the very very start of it in 500 CE. 6000 BC is, well, 6500 years before 500 CE. People were doing surgeries in Ancient Greece and Ancient India and Ancient Egypt and Ancient China. Were they less successful, on average, than modern surgeries? Yeah, definitely, considering infection risks and germ theory if nothing else at all. But surgery existed, and "surgeon" was an established title and job by the medieval era. A lot of technology is older than you think.

And in the same way, people with serious burns, missing limbs, and hearing loss have existed for a very long time.

I'll start with hearing loss because its inclusion in this ask surprised me the most. This doesn't affect someone's lifespan, and it doesn't require any technology to live with. Sign languages develop wherever deaf people are, because people want and need to communicate with each other, and if not that then things like pen and paper or drawing symbols. Some people today with different degrees of hearing loss & deafness exist without ever putting on a hearing aid or cochlear implant.

As to conjoined twins, they are very rare. Half are stillborn, a third of non-stillborn twins die shortly after birth. They have better survival rates today than in the past. And even then, there are reports of conjoined twins who are either older children or even adults, for a very long time. Here is a link to a paper called "The 3,000-year history of conjoined twins."

Chang and Eng Bunker (1811-1874) would likely have been successfully separated today, but they existed as conjoined twins in their time died at age 63. Earlier still, Lazarus and Joannes Baptista Collaredo (1617- at least 1646) were a case of conjoined heterophagus twins; Joannes Baptista was a parasitic twin and much smaller than Lazarus, and reportedly could not speak or move his body parts independently. But they still both lived until at least age 29. Older still, the oldest mention we have I think, Augustine of Hippo in 415 CE mentions what was likely conjoined twins. So they can exist.

When it comes to missing limbs, they don't have to affect lifespan. They can, but they don't have to. Missing limbs can be congenital, and congenital amputees don't necessarily need a prosthetic. Today, most upper limb amputees, congenital or not, straight up don't use a prosthetic. And limb differences exist regardless of if prosthetics do.

Even then, prosthetics are very, very old. The first one that we know of for a limb is around 1000 BC in Ancient Egypt. Pliny the Elder, born in 23 or 24 CE, talks about a prosthetic hand. The Capua Leg is from around 300 BC, and for a time was the oldest known limb prosthetic. For a non-directly-real example, how many pirates in movies have you seen with peg legs and hook hands? That's because people using both of those things have existed for a long time. François Le Clerc (died in 1563) was a privateer who had a peg leg. François de la Noue (1531-1591) was a captain who had his arm amputated and then had an arm prosthetic with a hook. (Big century for guys named François and prosthetics I guess lol.) Götz von Berlichingen (1480-1562) had two different prosthetics for the hand he got traumatically amputated.

Which goes into the point: survivable amputations are very old. Some are like von Berlichingen, and are lost in an accident, which the person survives. But some are surgical, like de La Noue above; his arm was injured by bullets and amputated later. Celsus described one as far back as in the 1st century. I mean, I'm sure they were miserable, what with no anesthesia, but they existed, and people lived. (Maybe your fantasy world has magical anesthesia?) Here is a paper called "On some paleopathological examples of amputation and the implications for healthcare in 13th-17th century Lithuania," which in the abstract alone mentions specifically that one skeleton showed signs of healing.

Wheelchairs are also very old, by the way. They aren't exactly like our wheelchairs today, but the first ones we know of are around 525 CE. Other things, wheelchair-adjacent but not quite, were used before that. I mean, as long as people who cannot walk have existed, they have needed to move to other places for whatever reason. Wheels getting involved is the easiest way to get that done.

Last but not least, burns. These are related to amputations, because a severe enough burn – 3rd degree or 4th degree – needs surgery as treatment so you don't die, and amputation is surgery. And, like mentioned above, surgeries, specifically amputations, have existed for a very long time.

If your world has magic, why can't this extend to burn care and amputation as well? I don't mean completely healing a 4th degree burn that goes right to the bone, especially because 4th degree burns just don't heal, there's not enough left, but perhaps magic helps prevent infection to nearby sites, or, again, works as painkiller when it comes to an amputation or promotes faster healing of the amputation itself.

But either way, if you survive a burn, even with significant functional impairment afterwards, then you are already alive, and you might make use of things we've mentioned above like prosthetics or wheelchairs.

Sure, if a technology isn't there then it isn't there. We don't have Leg Regrowing Technology, meaning some people who used to have legs and lost them don't still have legs. But that doesn't mean we don't have any way at all whatsoever to support said people, and the same can be said of any era.

Hope this helps,

mod sparrow

[ethogirlsanonymous]

My friend who got me into this fandom is pissed Bc they were really hoping I’d latch onto Grian or Scar (for fanfic writing purposes) but as soon as I told them I had been watching Etho they sent several voice messages over discord acting like I had passed away and they’d never see me again because the Etho Fan Sickness got me. I told them they were being dramatic.

400k words later, I no longer think they’re being dramatic.

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[color--pals]

Banana Split Skies

[edrecovery-space]

We are anti endo

If you have anti endos on your dni, you're breaking your own boundaries by following us.

Using an alt to interact after being blocked is block evading. Block evading is disrespectful.

Idk what would possess someone who ignore boundaries and follow on an alt account after being blocked already. Just dont.

[clusterrune]

My Experience being diagnosed with bpd.

for me it was a relief to finaly have an answer, something to explain my thought process and behaviours, as well as confirmation for something i highly suspected.

the unfortunate thing is that i got diagnosed when i had a breakdown that scared me so bad i admitted myself to the psych ward behind my parents backs, having such a bad experience at the ward that being in that same hospital anywhere away from the er or first floor gives me panic attacks.

i went back to the er after my body shut down, my mom having to support me heavily as my body refused to cooperate and let me walk, they lent me a wheelchair and i was stuck in the er overnight till the afternoon the next day. when they finally got us in and did tests on me they couldn't see what was wrong physically but saw i had a bpd diagnosis so the psychiatrist there sat me down with my mom, gave us a booklet on bpd and told us it must have just been such intense stress from my bpd symptoms that my body couldnt take it.

i always thought it would be something like my spine defect to cause me a complete loss of mobility but knowing now that if i dont regularly take medication to manage my bpd and stress levels my body will decide on its own its had enough and stop responding.

losing my mobility slowly was scary enough, bpd symptoms giving me episodes of full immobility was terrifying. while im glad i had an explanation for it, i still wish they'd properly told me about the bpd diagnosis before when i was there self admited.

had i known any time earlier, i would have been able to better set boundaries and look after myself, recognize what didnt help me and what my symptoms and behaviours were and prevent such terrifying episodes from ever happening.

it was a relief when the psychiatrist i saw at the ward mentioned it off hand because i had suspected it already and that confirmation made my concerns feel even slightly validated. that was probably the only positive that came from that visit.

it wasnt what started my research on bpd but it sure as hell influenced me delving way deeper into it, and after one too many bad stressors and reactions to stress, i am still trying to do more research to help myself and others cope better and better understand ourselves.

hopefully my book "understanding borderlines" can do that.

[ed-culture-is]

ed culture is the urge to never weigh yourself ever again and just do your thing until you finally can stand to look at yourself in the mirror

And at the same time the urge to weigh yourself every 3 damn seconds because you wanna know what you weigh and then you have to double check and triple check and then change surfaces and check again and switch back and check and I'm just now realizing that's my ocd talking :3

.

[campfire-collective]

it really sucks how DID will be like. whoops you no longer care about that thing

[fantasy-store]

plans when we get back off our hiatus:

mania & phobia flags

disablity flag remakes

aid flag remakes

mothqueer and skyset continued

hopefully, zodiac and witch flags continued

possibly, pagan flags and attraction flags

slur / term / trope reclemation flags

[cripplecharacters]

Hello!

I'll talk about her being quadriplegic and how it might affect her design but leave the actual hairstyle ideas to other mods since I'm not Black (we don't have any Black quad mods at the moment).

"Moderately quadriplegic" is probably too vague to help you figure out what your character could or could not do. I personally haven't seen any quads describe themselves like this, it's much more common to say what level the spinal cord injury is on and potentially whether it's complete or not. "Moderately" could mean either an incomplete injury on any level, or a complete low-level injury (here it'd probably be the former since she's able to walk from my understanding?), which just doesn't really cut it. To go with the main topic of the character's hairstyle, if she's an incomplete C1 then she probably won't be able to move her hair out of her face - and if she's a complete C7, she probably would be able to.

As a general rule of thumb, C5 (or higher) results in less/no bicep function and thus limited/no ability to raise the arms to the person's head (there are obviously exceptions, especially at the lower levels). If she can't reach her hair, it will limit (realistic) design choices. You wouldn't want a hairstyle that requires you to tuck it behind the ear every time you look down if you needed to ask another person to do it for you. As for doing her hair by herself, unless her hands are really mildly impaired it's probably out of the question. You can look up tenodesis, it's the type of movement that quads will do in order to grab things. I never heard of someone braiding their hair like this (not saying it's impossible, I just haven't seen it).

Her level of injury could also affect her design in different ways; e.g. a present trach tube would indicate that she's a C4 (or higher) and complete and a tracheostomy scar would imply that she's probably complete on whatever level, while neither would signal that she's probably lower level and incomplete. It would be a cool detail if you're going for realism.

Since it's a children's book, talking about these specifics is probably too much (unless you're looking to specifically educate about quadriplegia/spinal cord injuries), but it's still something that will be helpful for you going forward. When doing research, a lot of the information that would answer your questions will probably be blocked behind the SCI levels and completeness, so it's good to have it figured out to be consistent.

As I mentioned earlier, "moderate quad" isn't really a description that's used much in my experience. If you want something that's more accurate but not too medicalized, you can try low level/high level quadriplegic and explain the difference. E.g., "[Name A] is a low level quadriplegic, so she can write and draw during art class with a special brace that helps her hold a pencil, just like her friend does. [Name B]'s older sister is a high level quadriplegic, and she needs her dad's help to eat breakfast before school. She uses a different type of wheelchair than [Name A] since she can't use her hands".

To actually go back to the hairstyles, you need to consider what kind of wheelchair she uses. If she has a headrest, she won't be able to have a ponytail in the back since it would be uncomfortable. Same for no hard materials like beads at the height of her wheelchair since a pressure sore on the back would be a nightmare.

I hope this helps,

mod Sasza

Just adding a little bit extra about hairstyles,

(and editing slightly to add: i’m mixed and i don’t speak for all or even a lot of the black experience just a small part of it but definitely not the non-mixed experience)

Like Sasza said, it depends on what kind of wheelchair she uses and her needs in general.

Like mentioned above, beaded hairstyles are common for Black little girls to wear, but if she has a headrest she probably wouldn't have beads or clips at a length where they would put pressure on her head or back with a headrest or backrest because it would cause pressure sores, which you definitely do not want, ans especially not on your head. This could include something like bantu knots; she could have them wherever it doesn't touch her headrest, but again, not in the back of her head.

It also depends on how much she can use her hands and arms. For example, I've had long knotless braids (like waist length), and I have full use of my hands. I've had to tie them back in a ponytail or half ponytail a lot, because they can get in my face often. If she doesn't have the ability to move her hair out of her face when braids obscure her vision, this could get really annoying very very fast! Her braids would probably not be that long, because she is a child and you usually don't put in braiding hair on kids and mostly use their natural hair, but I wanted to put that example just for the practical part of having very movable braided hair it can get in your face way more than unbraided hair. It's heavier and thicker than just a standard hair strand.

Also, most 5 and 6 year olds, abled or disabled, don't do their own hair past a ponytail. It's totally okay for her parents to do her hair, and it makes sense. It also opens up the avenue of maybe she can have cornrows, twists, or braids. If she has a headrest, maybe her hairstyle has the bulkiest part to the sides or top, like afro puffs or side ponytails or space buns or bubble braids (which are very very cute in my opinion), or hairstyles with something like zig-zag parts. I am not a parent (or a child!), but I do see a lot of braided hairstyles and little puffs among the little kids I work with. She could also just have her hair natural and loose, and put something in like headbands or large clips that wouldn't interfere with her mobility or with backrests/headrests if she needed one.

Hope this helps,

mod sparrow

Hi!

I have a couple of Black friends who use power chairs, though they are not quadriplegic. They have to be mindful of hairstyles that would be uncomfortable with headrests (as Sasza mentioned). One of them wears braids, an afro puff, or straightens her hair and wears it down. She gets help styling her hair. The other keeps their hair very short and natural because that's easiest for them to maintain.

Mod Rock

Hi! Your blog is really really cool and an awesome source of information with so much context and detail! I really love your approach of like "don't not do it; research, learn, and do it well"!

So Idk if this is a reasonable question or not but I thought it would be better to ask than not to: So I'm endeavoring to write a kids picture book and in it there's a little girl who's Black with a physical disability, probably moderately quadriplegic, and I was wondering about what kind of hairstyles might be realistic for her to potentially have?

Like I know she could technically have anything that a real person could have, but like I don't want to just pick something out for the character just based on how *I* think somethings looks without having a context I don't have yet if that makes sense?

She's about 5 or 6 and she's able to use her hands but she'll have spasticity in them and be using adaptive equipment, and she can move but she'll be in a wheelchair most of the time, so Idk how that might factor into how she/her parents might kind of style her hair?

(it won't really come up in the story since it's about her first day of school, but like more from a design standpoint)

Also idk if this matters to add but I wouldn't be personally doing the art, I'd probably try and connect with someone to illustrate, but I would like to try and have some pretty concrete descriptions for them to work with when the time comes.

Thanks so much, you're so awesome!!!!

That's a good way to summarize my mentality, and I appreciate you catching that! I do get frustrated when people approach writing people different than them as "well is it yes or no" when that's not what it is. It's "put effort into it or leave it alone". Because many things can be done! We can be in any story! It just has to be done with...wait for it... INTENT!

As for your question, she's an industrious child because I was not doing my own hair at 5 and 6 lol. That's a young age for hair. Maybe a ponytail or afro puff at best. I think it would be okay if you allowed her parents to do her hair, which does lead back to her being able to have any style that she might like. Maybe something with less barrettes and such, since they might fall out and she may struggle to put them back in.

So my suggestion would be to look up hairstyles little Black girls, and go through your options and pick one!

[cripplecharacters]

Thank you so much for this blog. Can I take a moment to ask the rest of your followers to please stop using it to ask for *permission* to write whatever they're trying to write? On every ask that starts with "can I write XYZ?", I just wanna grab the asker by the shoulders and ask back "what do you think is going to happen if you do?"

Since there's no ableism police going around inspecting amateur creative projects, this is really a poorly worded version of "is this bad/ableist/problematic/gonna get me cancelled/punished?", with an undercurrent of "am I bad? Am I a bad person? Please reassure me that I'm not a bad person", which is a hell of a lot to drop on a handful of strangers online who can only ever give you a bit of information and their own biased personal opinions.

I swear I'm not trying to be a jerk about this. It's good that so many people want to depict disability in fiction beyond flat stereotypes. But it's incredibly hard to create *anything* with this level of anxiety and craving for approval. It's sooo much better to be driven by playful curiosity. Learn to love research! Don't underestimate your capacity for critical thinking! Dare to form your own opinions! The worst that can (and will) happen is that you'll be wrong and make mistakes. Big deal.

I also invite everyone to get further along in the writing process before running to consult here. Writing is rewriting, and it's easier to rewrite what's already on the page than toy with hypothetical ideas forever. Tumblr jokes a lot about the mere existence of bad pieces of writing being "a hate crime", but let's get real. Your accidentally ableist first draft is not an act of violence, and treating it that way is not disability advocacy or activism or helpful to anyone.

Sorry if this ended up too long or verbose. What do you mods think? Agree/disagree?

I can't speak for the other mods but I mostly agree TBH.

There's much more to writing disabled characters than just getting a "stamp of approval" that what you're doing "is OK". And it's not that it's bad to consult others to make sure you're not being ableist (it isn't), but a good disabled character can't just be a character that's Not Offensive.

They should be well researched, they should be interesting, and they shouldn't just be there to be "good disabled rep". They should be a character, not a diversity quota to fill.

I've addressed the whole "no one is actually going to Cancel You if you write something ableist" in one of my older posts about writing characters with facial differences because it's true. One billion movies and series and comics come out every year and a ton of them are ableist, and I promise you no one is getting "cancelled" over having a villain with a scar.

I stopped answering those "is it ok if my villain is deformed and scarred?!??" asks because they don't really add anything, they're usually not looking to change anything or learn anything, they just want a Cripple's Stamp of Approval. And that's not going to result in a good character, ever, it's just like showing a thumbs up to a writer that it's OK for them to write this offensive thing. What's the point? If you want to write it so bad, just do it... There is no Council of Disfigured People that will cancel you and take your house. You don't need my permission to write a generic evil disfigured guy and I'm not going to grant it. If you don't want to actually learn or change anything, there's no point in asking.

As I said, that's my opinion and not necessarily representative of the other mods on the blog.

mod Sasza

As to my opinion I largely agree. You (the general you, not you specifically asker, which is what I will mean in this whole ask when I say 'you') can write whatever you want and no one will send you a certified letter by mail that says you are Cancelled or a Bad Person or whatever.

We just want people to do research and put thought behind what they're writing. To think about why things are considered ableist, by us or by anyone else. And we want people to make disabled characters be characters and not just a Trope.

We as a mod team, but also as just regular people, can't or control what anyone does or doesn't write/draw/do. No one can. If you want to write something we hate, then do it. We won't stop you. We can't. We just won't like it, but if you're that committed to writing what you're writing, you can live with that, or at least you should. Someone's specific piece of art/writing/etc won't change our minds on what we've previously stated. No, not even yours. But you can do it if you really want to because that's how being an individual person works.

mod sparrow

[forsaken-headcanons]

FORSAKEN OLYMPUS AU AAAUUUGGHHHH- 💥💥💥💥

Builderman- God of Creation, Forgery, and the Enforcing Deity of the Law (Inspired by: Hephaestus)

Shedletsky- God of War, Fire, and Ruler of The Heights (The Heights is basically just Olympus in this au. Inspired by: Zeus)

Dussekar- Titan of Magic and the Symbol of Protection (most shields and magic related items have Dussekar's sacred animal (deer) etched in them as a supposed good luck charm. Inspired by: Hecate and the Titans)

Taph- An immortal that serves under Builderman's (lack of) rulership, the supposed Immortal of Destruction and Flame (hc that he's a being forged in Shed's magic as a peace treaty between him and Builderman)

Guest 1337- Immortal, the Symbol of Victory and Hope, granted immortality by Shedletsky after saving his people in a war

Elliot- An Angel, the most hardworking one out of most the angels, granted divine healing magic by an impressed Dussekar (Inspiration: Hermes and Eros)

Two Time- Devoted follower of The Spawn (a deity not apart of the Pantheon), half-immortal, considering they have been granted two lives by The Spawn

Chance- One of the most richest people of the Capital, that was until he enraged a Demon lord (Mafioso) which forced him to leave most of his money behind and hide close to a God's domain (the village under The Heights)

Noob- A young mortal living in a small village at the bottom of The Heights, possibly the most normal out of the cast

007n7- Former Helldweller (Olympus equivalent of hacker) that's been living in the outskirts of the same village, working as a humble farmer that may or may not be associated with The Three Furies (the c00lkiddlings)

I'LL DO THE KILLERS IF THIS GETS PEOPLE'S ATTENTION!! UNTIL WE MEET AGA💥💥💥💥

-Sparrow anon

WAIT THESE ARE SO GOOD OHGMYOD?? hey.. smirk emoji... wanna continue in the inbox... /silly

[color--pals]

The Ecumene Tragedy

[edrecovery-space]

Getting lunch so senshi will be proud of me

[ID: A digital illustration of Senshi from Dungeon Meshi. He is holding a pot full of yakisoba and looking upwards. End description.]

He wants you to eat well!

[clusterrune]

so everyones aware of whats to come/being worked on

[ed-culture-is]

ED and student culture is learning in Biology exactly what you're doing to you're body

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[campfire-collective]

hi all i briefly disappeared for six weeks hi