oddballism - Tumblr blog

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[oddballism]

C'mon guys! For the female monarchs!

If this post reaches forty notes by April 30 I will post daily in May about 31 female monarchs from history.

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How your disabled character's allies react to their disability can make or break the representation in your story: Writing Disability Quick Tips

[ID: An image with “Writing Disability quick tips: How your character's allies react to their disability matters” written in chalk the colour of the disability pride flag, from left to right, red, yellow, white, blue and green. Beside the text are 2 poorly drawn people icons in green, one is standing with their hand up to the face of the other, who is in a wheelchair. /End ID]

Something I brought up in my big post about Toph Beifong was how the other characters reacted to Toph pointing out that things were not accessible to her and setting boundaries regarding her disability, which were ignored. I had more to say about it than I thought I did, as it turns out (when isn't that the case lol) but I feel like this is an important aspect of disability representation that is all too often over looked.

You can write the best, most accurate portrayal of a specific disability ever put to screen or page, but it won't mean much if all the other characters, specifically those we're supposed to like and empathise with, treat your character terribly for being disabled and having needs relating to said disability, especially if the story justifies their behaviour.

You see this most often with autistic characters and especially autistic-coded characters. The character in question will be given a bunch of autistic traits, most often traits relating to not understanding certain social dynamics or sarcasm, and when they get it wrong, the other characters we are supposed to like jump down their throat, tease them or outright abandon them. Autism isn't the only disability that gets treated this way, but it is one of the more common ones that get this treatment. It doesn't matter if you do everything else right when creating an autistic character if the other "good guys" constantly call them annoying, get angry at them or laugh at them for the very traits that make them autistic, or for advocating for their needs.

Likewise, if you have a leg amputee character who is otherwise done well, but is constantly being criticised by their allies for needing to rest their legs or taking too long to get their prosthetics on, it undermines a lot of the other work you've done. Same goes for having a wheelchair user who is accused of being a bore or a stick in the mud because they point out the places their friends want to go to on a group holiday have no wheelchair access, or a deaf character who is accused of being entitled for wanting their family to learn to sign, or anything else.

This isn't to say you can never have moments like these in your stories, but its important to remember that a) people with the same disability as your character will be in your audience. If you spend a whole season of your TV show shaming your autistic character for real traits that real autistic people have, they're not exactly going to feel welcome and may not want to hang around. b) it's going to very, very heavily impact people's perceptions of your "heros" who do this, especially in they eyes of your audience members who share the character's disability or who have had similar experiences. This isn't like calling someone a mean name or being a bit of a dick when you're sleepy, it's going to take a lot to regain audience appeal for the offending character, and depending on exactly what they do and how frequently they do it, they may not even be able to come back from it at all. And finally, c) there should be a point to it outside of just shaming this character and saying the other guy is an asshole. Like I said before, you're character is criticising real people's real disabilities and the traits or problems that come with them, things that they often have no control over, it shouldn't be used as a cheap, quick way to establish a quirky enemies to lovers dynamic or show that one guy is kind of an ass before his redemption arc. If you really must have your characters do this, be mindful of when and how you use it.

[oddballism]

Prev sounds like they are speaking from experience

posts this and then walks away

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I’m glad to see she lived a long life

What an awesome person

Photos of Nancy Valverde, a Chicana gender nonconforming lesbian who was routinely arrested for violating L.A.’s cross-dressing ban throughout the 50s and has been credited as helping overturn the ban. Valverde died at the age of 92 in March of 2024.

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Hundreds of people are about to board a flotilla and deliver urgent humanitarian relief to Gaza. Please share this video and follow Gaza Freedom Flotilla. The more people watching, the safer the participants.

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Nadine Abdel-Taif, 10, whose home in Palestine was destroyed by Israeli bombing

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Israel has deployed auto-firing quadcopters that emit the sounds of crying babies.

https://xtwitter.com/jam_etc_art/status/1780038184828608975

There is no possible reality where this is in any way capable of being passed off as self-defense. It was never self-defense. It is, and always has been, a genocide.

Crying babies. Crying babies. This is, beyond a shadow of a doubt, meant to draw out and kill civilians while also making it far more difficult to locate and aid children who are trapped or alone.

If you have money to spare, please consider donating to some of the fundraisers on Operation Olive Branch to help people escape this genocide.

End the occupation. Free Palestine.

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I haven't purchased a HP item in close to a decade - I use the books I already had as doorstops or to prop a laptop up for meetings nowadays.

There is NO "death of the author" with JK Rowling - she controls and continues to profit from her IP, and uses that money to fund hate groups.

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Nice

“I don’t care about dumb weed jokes,” I said naively, before I saw this

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Y'all are amazing. Reblog to hug the person you’re reblogging from.

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note: am v aware i have horrible taste lol

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USAmerican but this is so funny

note: am v aware i have horrible taste lol

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I love a lot of very bland food without anything on it. Like bread and mashed potatoes

Also my autism makes my body think freshly ground pepper is spicy. Yes, really. I ate a bagel sandwich with fresh pepper and my rose ran like crazy

note: am v aware i have horrible taste lol

[oddballism]

I’m a horrible person

Why do I exist