#and obviously there are disabilities and disorders that prevent doing this as well

[shkspr]

this is my actual number one tip of all time for people with disorders or disabilities that make cooking and/or washing dishes difficult. if you learned how to make a little tray out of paper in elementary school then you know how to make a disposable baking pan out of aluminum foil. i use this all the time for stuff like mini quiches and jalapeño poppers and pizza rolls. you can also just put things on flat foil but if you want a little more control. a little more order. then you can do this

[ID: a photo of a makeshift baking tray with raised sides, made out of aluminum foil. end ID]

[thurio-edau]

SBG GANG MENTAL ANALYSIS

yup, him for part two. funny thing despite Aiden being my favourite character I'm most excited for the other three posts I'll make, especially the last one. there's a lot to unpack here so

also im writing this with a migraine pls read it-

Part 2: Aiden Clark

ah, yes. the obviously-mentally-ill from the start fan favourite Aiden Clark. let's go.

first, I want to start with something I find really important about his character, what makes him heavily mischaracterized in the fandom. the 'psychopath' cliche.

the terms 'psychopath', 'insane' and 'unstable' are often confused with each other due to media stereotypes, such as Aiden here. one, he is not a psychopath. psychopath literally means a self-centered person who lacks sympathy, affection and care; making them far from most other characters in their franchise. their lack of sympathy/empathy often makes them criminalized, here

disturbing content warning, for an example of a psychopath.

let's take Gressil from Homesick for example since a lot of SBG readers also read Homesick. so, here, Gressil is a perfect example of an actual psychopath. his lack of empathy makes him torment others, he's very self-centered. and when asked why he's doing this? he says he was bored. let's look at Aiden here. what does Aiden do when bored? probably dumb ideas or annoy Tyler. not torturing people for fun. Aiden is just a boy who likes thrills, but he has a sense of empathy, care and justice.

you wanna see a psychopathic Aiden?? the canvas is it

(our local Logan hater is publishing the canvas eps go checc beachy out)

but that's him, not our Aiden. canvas does not equal originals y'all

alright, now since we got that cleared out!! firstly, ADHD.

I think everyone in the fandom is already aware that Aiden is ADHD but I'm still going to talk about it just like Ashlyn's autism. Red has also said that she wrote Aiden with ADHD in mind but hadn't canonically confirmed anyone as neurodivergent. let's start with the main symptoms of ADHD, also known as Attention Decifit and Hyperactivity Disorder.

I know about 5 different ADHD people myself and did some research, it probably won't be extremely accurate since I'm not ADHD myself, but I'll try to do whatever I can. first with the AD part, Attention Decifit.

now as seen, he doesn't exactly have any problems with theorizing itself. but the problem is that his attention just goes away easily.

i mean cmon bro was making memes on the job

he tries to do work, but can't. he has a low attention span which makes him not able to concentrate. he can't keep it up for long, he'll get distracted or bored too easily about things that doesn't interest in specially.

it's just distracting. what his attention is on constantly changes, there's more to that after the ADHD part but we're here for now.

the hyperactivity... it's a lot more apparent. but I should explain the insane-unstable thing before that.

insane means that someone's mental health is not in an okay situation, where it prevents the person from thinking normally, acting rationally, very often found together with delusions. the person is seriously mentally ill where it might count as a disability.

unstable, however, where someone is prone to psychiatric problems, has moodswings etc. they're not exactly the most sane person, but they aren't insane either. Aiden here, obviously falls on the unstable side. maybe just a little bit insane if you squint. this will be brought up later too, but it mixed well with his hyperactivity too.

and as we all know, our boy isn't exactly the most stable person. (sorry for the collages, but since there is a tumblr picture limit i have to keep on collaging. yes i learnt from the last time) his hyperactivity mixes with his unstable mindset which makes him incresingly vulnerable to danger- which he likes. from when the first shift happened, he's been really careless about stuff but it's been all about his love for thrill.

and it irritates Tyler, too.

the main subplot about his character is that he's a person of excitement. guess what? ADHD people like the excitement, they like new things, they like the adrenaline and thrill. now, Aiden's main characteristic of being unstable mixed with ADHD makes him an even more reckless person. another thing mixing with the hyperactivity, is boundaries.

this part will mostly be about Ashlyn since the boundary issue only happens with her.

I talked about this on Ashlyn's side on my Ashlyn analysis, now it's time for Aiden's side.

he's really annoying to her at first. Ashlyn is someone with lots of boundaries, like high walls. and who tries to climb them with his dumbass? Aiden of course.

she kept rejecting his efforts to befriend her for some time, until the night they stole the jeep. then she managed to actually bring the walls down, and accept them all into her life. but damn was she blunt.

felt that honestly

and Aiden understands her that night, too.

Ashlyn was hesistant to hug him, yes, he was aware. but she still did which made him realize she was also trying. i have to tell you, people with ADHD and people with autism either have trouble getting along, or go perfectly well. my ADHD sibling for example, I have to push them away for a lot and tell them to lower their voice. but once they remember my boundaries it actually becomes a normal, even pleasant hangout. which, Aiden realizes and tries to get along with. he tries.

seeing his efforts on her boundaries makes something click in her mind. and she starts to be a lot nicer when they hang out in the arcade.

Aiden eventually learns and remembers what she's like and what she loves to do. he already tried to watch her ballet sessions once -got slammed-, he's been to her room where he remembered the mat from and her fighting makes it obvious. I'm sure he knew he'd get cooked by betting that. but he still did,

because he knew it'd interest her. which he succeeded, he saw her smile again. the arcade day went great until Barron and his gang pulled up, but if we ignore that part it all went well. Aiden started to understand and respect her boundaries.

anyways then Tyler fucking dies

he knows that Ashlyn feels guilty. Aiden wants to comfort her through it, but also do it correctly. without going over any boundaries. which makes him really,

really,

really surprised when she responds.

also including this pannel cause its hilarious

here we see that he's still trying. hell, I'm sure he spent minutes thinking if he should come close physically to help her. that's probably why he just nudged her softly before anything else. he's not used to it, he has to conciously make an effort to not cross said boundaries. keeping his voice lower, try to not be so reckless, not doing anything physically close unless she reciprocates. wow how i wish another someone i knew irl tried that hard instead of blaming it on me cOUGH COUGH COUGH

also other small things to include

he's yapping a lot

he has a comically large amount of puzzles in his backpack for one single trip

and sticks his head into lamps for some reason

but that's just Aiden and his little neurodivergent brain for ya.

now the part I wanted to get to the most.

Borderline Personality Disorder.

first, what is Borderline Personality Disorder?

shortened as BPD, borderline is when someone's mood is inconsistent and swinging. think of it's name; the person's mental state is in the border, in the border line, switching up fastly. the most easily understood and common type is when the person goes from a depression to a happy state. but no matter which state they are in and/or go to, one thing stays the same: it is unstable.

one thing about borderline is that it is frequently mixed with bipolar. however bipolar is a neurodivengercy which means it is what someone is born with and cannot be changed. but borderline is obtained later in life. it usually happens with depression. bipolar is much more random and the episodes last longer in comparison. it may last up to hours, and the person's memory might have trouble remembering their episodes. borderline, on the other hand, is a short-lived mood swing.

now here. here's the catch; people with BPD during mood swings can have reckless behaviour, suicidal thoughts -in his case as far as we know, lowered sense of protecting himself- or a loss of understanding danger. sounds familiar?

borderline's recklessness and dangerousness, sometimes self-destructive acts combines with ADHD's love for thrill and excitement, combined with Aiden's own personality all make up for a great condition of instability.

Aiden's behaviour constantly goes crazy, I think his most frequent mood swing might be his normal self (at least, as normal as he could be) to this more maniac way of acting. I noticed it from his eyes, when he's in a more calm-ish normal state his pupils are a bit more dilated. in the pictures above, you can clearly see that he's still in the episode; filled with the adrenaline, the unstable way of thinking.

but, what causes that? surely a mental illness such as borderline doesn't happen on it's own.

right?

cause it didn't.

it never works that way.

but it can get better.

eventually.

but what happened to him?

personally, as much as a large amounnt of people seems to believe it's something like family abuse I don't think so. maybe neglect, maybe withdrawal, maybe maybe. but we've seen his parents. I don't think they would hurt him like that. I can't put any more pictures, but this is the last part anyway. his parents seem to be kind and gentle, despite that picture in his house. I'm thinking the picture was only for the dramatic effect. his parents said that he used to be really calm and quiet during Lily's birthday, and both Aiden and Ben seem comfortable around them. they were happy taking Ben in too, any kind of abusive parent wouldn't do that at least that's what I believe. also there is that Aiden got serious and concerned when he learnt that their parents were also in the facility, most likely worried for his own as you would have thought.

there was a post that I've been trying to find for like half an hour, I commented on it but I can't find the post now. the person talked about their own theory. if I remember correctly it was that when Aiden was depressive as a child, his parents took him to a thrilling activity like the ones he's been talking about (bungee-jumping, skydiving etc.) and the thrill made him actually get excited. which is why his parents allowed him to go even more reckless, because they are aware of how prone their son could be to the depression.

what happened? let's ignore the parents factor. someone can have a loving family and still be traumatized, someone can be taken care of and still feel abandoned, someone can never have confronted a situation they are terrified of.

one of my theories is that, the loneliness. it must get to a child heavily considering children need to not be left alone, but Aiden was. he didn't have any actual friends since they always moved from one place to another from his parents' business, and they might have not had enough time to make for him (which I believe is bullshitting, every child deserves to be taken some time out for. some people quit their jobs entirely for their child.) and be unaware, and that doesn't change that he was still depressed and alone. his depressive state was seemingly before Ben was taken in. now here one thing with borderline, at least from my experience, is faking actions. smiles, laughs, friendships, conversations... almost as if there's two different lives; one fake, and one real. you keep on switching, you keep on swinging between the sides where you're yourself and where you're just mimicking 'normal human behaviour'.

it starts from faking a happy state during their depression, and by time you're faking it it becomes an automatic adition to your personality. to your mind. once it furthers, it becomes the disorder. Aiden we see is always smiling. it becomes a habit that only breaks sometimes. now, I'm not saying his smile is fake- I think his face is literally just stuck like that. it breaks ever so slightly sometimes. fake it till ya make it yanno? that kind of thing. and when he swings from his calm mood to his borderline-d mood, his pupils get small and his smile gets worse. noticably worse. I'll be rereading the series (AGAIN) and this time look at all the small details since Red loves putting them and I love theorizing so

which, wraps up the Aiden thing! im actually really proud of how i could put my thoughts into text which i never could. i'd love any additions because i love other opinions as well.

and you know what? im glad Ash and Ai are out of the place because the rest are what I'm actually looking forward to >:)

...and i should sleep. really.

(wow sorry yall i finished this hours ago and said 'alright reread to make sure its good before sleep' and fell asleep through it lol sorry for 4 hour delay ig)

(leaving for school rn see yall 8 hours later 🫡)

[yellowocaballero]

Omg hi Ms. Yellow Caballero big fan of your work <3 For real though, I'm really excited that your sharing the Weekenders, it was a joy to read and I'm bongocat-ing now that others also get the privilege to read it as well.

Referencing your tags, would you please elaborate of ableism in fandom and, like you said, how fandom treats characters with unpalatable disabilities?

Hi Ms. Bud Lite I'm a big fan of you <3

TL;DR A fear of writing characters of highly marginalized identities shields you from criticism and discomfort, but it's actively stigmatizing to people of these identities and as a writer you really need to get over yourself and write The Icky People.

I guess I'll come out swinging on this one and say that fandom doesn't like severe mental illness. (As a note, when I say severe mental illness (SMI) I mean illnesses such as psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, personality disorders, etc)

Obviously, nobody likes people w/SMI. It's just insanely egregious in fandom to me, since fanfic writers absolutely love writing characters or HC characters with depression, anxiety, or a specific variety of PTSD That Isn't Scary. People actively reject any character HCs for a SMI. When people write a character with SMI, they nicely downplay it, ignore it, substitute it for a disorder they like better, or rewrite it. It's completely untolerated, in both headcanons and in fanfiction, and every time I bring it up I always get the most interesting reasons why somebody couldn't possibly acknowledge a character's SMI in their writing. I've heard all of these:

"I don't know enough about the disorder to write it accurately." Do research.

"I'm not X, so I can't really depict it." You probably aren't a cis white man, but you depict those guys just fine.

"It feels insulting to the character." There is no shame in having a SMI.

"I can't understand what it's like, so it's better to be cautious and avoid giving characters stigmatized identities." There are LOTS of experiences that you'll never understand because you've never had them - you just don't want to write anything you're uncomfortable with. People with SMI make you uncomfortable, and you don't want to write anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, or think of a comfort character in an uncomfortable way. SMIs are marginalized differently than solely depression/anxiety/The Nice PTSD, and by refusing to write them you're actively contributing to the stigma.

I think (?) I've spoken in the past about how I believe that the rigorous external and internal policing of writing people of marginalized identities is actively harmful towards efforts to increase diversity of experience and background in fiction. A lot of fanfiction writers are just terrified to write people who they can't directly relate with, because they're worried 'they'll get it wrong' and be Big Cancelled. I think this is negative enough when it prevents people from going outside of their comfort zone, but on a macro level I think this results in people refusing to write characters of marginalized identities as all. It's an insidious thought process, and it's reflected in people's unwillingness to diversity their writing or acknowledge canon diversity.

'Well, I don't understand what it's like to be Black, so I don't want to write Black people'. 'I want to project on this character, so I only want to write them with mental illnesses and identities I have'. 'If I write a marginalized character incorrectly people will yell at me, so I won't write a marginalized character who's marginalized differently than me at all'. Can you imagine writing a lesbian character with a boyfriend because 'you feel uncomfortable writing lesbian experiences'? It's blatantly homophobic. But people do that with disability and race/ethnicity ALL THE TIME.

People with SMI notice that you feel uncomfortable with them. It's obvious. They notice when a character has a SMI + anxiety, and you only write their anxiety. They notice when a character displays symptoms of a SMI in canon, but you write it out. And POC notice when the characters of color are written out. I know we all like to project on the blorbos and relate to them, and in the joys of your own head do whatever, but as a writer if you only stick to identities you're comfortable with you are actively being a worse writer. Which to me is the REAL sin lmfao.

[itsabouttimex2]

Hi can I please request Yandere Alphabet for MK please 🙏💗 I really enjoyed reading your Redson version

Yandere Alphabet: MK

(Let’s Start Over!MK is now available to chat with!)

Authority: Do they see themselves as above their obsession?

No, not in the slightest. MK views you as his equal, even if he won’t always treat you as such- he’s got the powers and the staff, after all. Why not just leave the hard stuff to him?

Bread: Can they cook or bake? Is Y/N responsible for their own food?

MK cooks and delivers noodles, so he’s obviously got some skill in the kitchen- I like to think that cooking with Y/N (and Pigsy) is a frequent bonding activity for him. Although, he does enjoy just making things for them as a surprise.

Cruentus- How do they respond to Y/N being hurt, both slightly and severely?

Even little wounds like paper cuts are met with worry, bandages, and lots of comfort. If you’re on the younger end, he might even kiss the bruises or scrapes.

If you’re hurt seriously? It’s like a switch flips, albeit temporarily. He’s absolutely vicious towards anything he considers a threat, willing to outright shatter the bones of his enemies to keep them from endangering you.

Disengage- What’s their response to being ignored?

Worry and concern. And then smothering Y/N until they either tell him exactly why he’s getting ignored, or they give up and return to “normal”.

Enclosure: Where do they keep Y/N?

As a noodle delivery boy with a one-room apartment, MK doesn’t have anywhere to keep you, nor does he have a way to get you to his room without alerting anyone.

Facade: Are they good at hiding their true intentions?

Yes, to a certain point. He’s pretty decent at pretending that this is all part of being a hero, trying hard to protect someone he loves. But then there’s little cracks running through those defenses, his clones performing surveillance well into the night, his insistence on Y/N sleeping over for weeks on end, his attempts to scare suitors off… the closer you look, the worse it gets.

Garment: Do they take control of Y/N’s clothes?

Nope- not unless he’s demanding them to wear one of his jackets when the weather gets cold. Also, trashing anything “revealing”. Aside from that, he’s pretty respectful towards their choices.

Handicap: How do they handle Y/N being or becoming disabled?

If they start disabled, MK is an absolutely sweetheart about the whole thing, bringing you your pills in the morning every day, making sure you eat after taking them, keeping you hydrated so you don’t experience nausea/headaches after the dissolve in you. He’ll insist on pushing your wheelchair, or even outright carry you wherever you need to go. Making food that won’t trigger your Sensory Processing Disorder, bringing you new clothes that won’t make you itchy, etc.

If they become disabled, MK blames himself for not being a better hero for you and triples down on his protectiveness, potentially even locking you inside for days on end to prevent your condition from being worsened again.

Intertwine- How physical are they? Do they enjoy skinship and touch?

Eleven out of ten, here. MK’s hands are always on you. Your wrists and head and hair and back and waist, hugs and pushes and pulls that keep you where he wants you, ready to drop everything and cuddle you at a moment’s notice. He just needs affection so bad.

Jaunt: Are they willing to take Y/N out? Where do they go?

Yes! He wants to take them all across Megapolis and show them so many cool things. Museums and cheese tea stalls and pop-up events and the zoo and every fun thing he can think of that might make you smile and laugh- without putting you in any form of danger.

Kindness: What brings out the best in this yandere?

You. His family. Being a hero. He won’t ever stop being a kind-hearted young man, no matter how severely his obsession might swell.

Limitation: What holds them back? Work? Family obligations? Physical weakness?

Yes, yes, absolutely no. He still has to earn money and save the city/world and spend time with Pigsy and Mei and Tang and Sun Wukong. He’s a pretty responsible kid in spite of everything, which means he’s far from the worst potential yandere- if you have a good enough heart to save innocent people at the risk of your life again and again, you aren’t going to be that bad of a person, even if they’re struck lovesick with obsession.

Morals: What lines are they not willing to cross?

MK won’t resort to any form of physical punishment, not even ear-dragging. No (intentional) gaslighting. No harming your friends and family, unless they prove to be a serious threat to you. He wouldn’t withhold affection or love, nor would he smear your reputation or destroy your livelihood.

The point of him obsessing over Y/N is to keep them safe! He doesn’t want to hurt them at all!

Nausea: Can they tend to an illness, or would they rely on a doctor?

If the home remedies that Pigsy has taught him don’t work (unlikely) he’ll resort to a doctor’s professional advice- probably Mei is the one who foots any fees, just to lend a hand to her best friend.

Obcordate: What reminds them of Y/N?

Sunflowers, towering blooms that represent warmth and adoration. Sugary drinks to binge during movie nights. White lilies, symbols of innocence and sweet-natured souls. Marshmallows, soft and squishable and sweet.

Pacify: How do they comfort Y/N? Do they even bother trying?

Movie nights with lots and lots of snacks, soda, and junk food. Monkey Cop, for something mindless and fun. Some of Mr. Tang’s scholarly lectures, for interesting background noise. And cuddles.

Queue: Do they have something of equal or greater importance to Y/N?

His friends. His surrogate father. Megapolis. The world. He can’t just throw that all away for one person, as much as he loves you.

Redemption: Could they grow out of their obsession and make amends with Y/N?

Season Four would redeem him. The Ink Curse shreds him a brand new hole over his obsessiveness, about how it’s hurting him and Y/N. How he’s a worse hero for it, how he prioritizes his obsession even over people who are in more danger, how he’s butchering his training by skipping to spend time with them, etc.

And it actually works. MK realizes that he needs to back off and work to overcome his obsession, for both him and Y/N to be happy. It might not ever fully leave, but it does get much better.

Sobriquet- What nicknames do for they have for their obsession?

“Mèimei”, for someone he views as a little sister. Dídí for someone he views as a little brother. And he hopes that you’ll repay the favor and call him “Gēge”.

Troop: How many people do they obsess over? Is that obsession spread equally?

Just one- Y/N.

Underdog: Who‘s on the yandere’s side? Would they help out?

Mei, who agrees that Y/N is a big cutiepie and needs to be protected. Pigsy and Tang, who want their surrogate son to be happy. Wukong, who just doesn’t want the kid to lose someone he loves. All of them are willing to “babysit” on occasion, too.

Vocalize: How do they justify their actions?

MK will just say that anything he does is for the sake of “protecting” Y/N, and he believes it with all his heart. It doesn’t help that none of his closest friends call him out of any of his more unethical actions for a very long time.

White Whale: Why do they pursue Y/N, exactly?

They’re sweet and precious and helpful, and he doesn’t want to see the world so carelessly rip that away from them. MK lost a lot of his innocence and gained trauma, and he’s intent on keeping them safe and sound and mentally well, even if it’s by destroying anything that dares threaten to harm them.

Xanthous: What do they really want?

Unconditional love and support from someone he cherishes.

Youth: How old is Y/N in comparison to them? Younger, same age, or older?

Younger by at least a year. MK wants to be someone’s “big brother” so bad. He takes that role very seriously, too. Holding your hand as you cross the street, tucking you in at night… even as a yandere, he’s kind of a sweetheart.

Zealous: Do they pursue Y/N doggedly, or are they more laidback and casual with their approach?

He’s rather dogged, honestly. There’s an almost sweet enthusiasm to his protectiveness, like a guard dog who just wants the praise of his master.

Author’s Choice 1: Would anyone else go yandere for this specific Y/N?

Yes. Pigsy and Tang both insert themselves into Y/N’s life as father figures, agreeing with MK that they need to be protected, if not outright sheltered. The kid is sweet and polite, offers to help constantly, is always volunteering in community projects and lending a hand to those in need.

How could they let the world rip up something that is so unabashedly good?

Author’s Choice 2: Do you have any AU’s involving this character?

Aside from Primal Moon, the afore-mentioned Let’s Start Over!

Basically, several after MK’s adventures end and he’s grown up, a notably innocent and sweet kiddo comes along and meets him on Flower Fruit Mountain, having taken the mantle of ‘Monkey King’. (I’ve also considered calling him ‘Monkie Knight’ in this AU given the whole ‘working for the king and fighting for good’ thing. Still ironing it out!)

He decides to start training them so that they can one, intent on teaching them everything he knows. MK tears out an itty-bitty portion of his power and stuffs it into Y/N, allowing them to wield the staff. Once they’ve mastered enough of his skills to wield it, that portion gets pulled back out. (And Y/N is out to bedrest for three full days, just in case it hurts them.)

The new Monkey King/Monkie Knight seems kind, and really he’s not all that bad-

But MK is trying to relive his story through Y/N, and constantly impedes their own journeys to make them safer. The hero is basically forcing someone else to avoid the traumas he went through so he can feel content, as though his own traumas never occurred.

And this works out decently, until Y/N starts going their own path by redeeming a villain that MK never thought he’d see again.

[ghostonly]

Disability, Cures, and the Complex Relationship Between Them

So, I've been thinking a lot lately about cures, just in general, as a concept. I've been watching the excellent videos of John Graybill II on Youtube, where he demonstrates his day-to-day movements as someone with Limb Girdle Muscular Dystrophy 2a, and updates every year to show how it progresses. I'm currently writing a character with LGMD and wanted to be sure I understand exactly how it impacts his daily life and movement limitations, so this has been extremely helpful, because there's only so much you can glean from a list of symptoms.

Quick Background on John Graybill II

John started this series in 2007/8, back when he was about 30 years old. He was diagnosed when he was 17, back in '95, and, when he started this series, he was very much fighting his LGMD, in a constant struggle, and angry with himself and the condition. In this, he directed a lot of toxic positivity at himself and became convinced he could defeat LGMD with positive thinking, healthy diet, etc.

Now, while I respect that there are positives to this (exercise and eating well is rarely a bad thing, and the stretches he does almost certainly have helped him to lengthen his time with mobility), there is also something to be said for accepting a physical disability for what it is. In later videos, he clearly had shifted that mindset toward something a bit more realistic. Where, in the beginning, he had been certain that he would somehow heal himself through positivity and such, he later says that may never happen, and he wants to enjoy doing what he can, while he can, instead of being in a constant battle with himself.

That being said, he does run an organization (I believe he runs it?) that seeks to fund research and find a cure for muscular dystrophy of this particular variety. And, while watching his videos from oldest to newest, I've been grappling with my complicated feelings regarding cures.

Why Are Cures a Complicated Topic?

The reason cures are a complicated topic is because, for a lot of us, cures are unlikely to ever be developed - at least not within our lifetimes and probably not within our children's lifetimes. Many physical disabilities and disorders are just too rare, too unknown, the cause unclear. For us, we have to just accept that this is something we have to live with, for better or for worse.

The other reason is that people are often proponents of seeking cures for things that don't need curing, such as autism. Obviously I haven't polled every autistic person alive, but I have known and read content from countless autistic people. I don't think I've ever found a single autistic person who wanted to be cured of autism. In fact, I would say most of them were pretty vocally oppositional toward the idea, for good reason. 90% of the difficulty that comes with being autistic comes from societal ableism and accessibility issues on a systemic level.

My Thoughts on Cures

I can't speak for everyone with incurable physical disabilities that are unlikely to have a cure developed, nor can I speak for everyone who's autistic, but, speaking for myself, talk of cures can be extremely uncomfortable to me.

I asked myself why. Because, in reality, there shouldn't be anything wrong with researching a cure for something like LGMD. It causes people great difficulty and often great pain. For certain variants, it causes early death.

And, after reflecting on my feelings for a long while, I think I've figured out why the word and the concept bothers me so much.

Cures Are Often Used as a Crutch for Ableism

There are, broadly speaking, two camps of people who want cures:

People who want to improve their quality of life, the quality of life of someone they love, or who want to prevent future generations from the difficulty they or a loved one have been dealt

People who are uncomfortable with disability and want it to go away

This is a venn diagram with a large overlap. The number of people who are purely in camp 1 is much smaller than you might hope.

Why Is Wanting to Get Rid of Disability a Problem?

Okay so here's why camp 2 is a problem. Let's say, for the sake of the argument, that every disability has a possible cure that just has to be found. Why is that a problem? Disability is bad, right?

Wrong! Disability is completely amoral - it has no goodness or badness. It just is. Ideally, some of the more painful disabilities could be cured to prevent pain and early death. However, the problem with viewing disability, in a vacuum, as bad, is that your opinion of the disability will inevitably rub off on the people with the disability.

When you view disability as an adversary, you view disabled people as a problem to solve.

Just as John Graybill II explains in one of his stair-climbing videos a few years into the series, he had spent so long trying to fight the progression of the illness, that he had spent every day in passive anger and frustration. He had forgotten to just enjoy his ability to climb stairs. And he said that he wished he could go back and just enjoy it - stop timing himself on his stopwatch and trying to beat his times. Basically, even as a disabled man himself, he had spent so long looking at his disability as a problem to fix, he hadn't been properly enjoying being a person and just living his life.

When you apply the same fix-it approach to someone who doesn't have a disability, it's equally easy for them to forget the personhood of the people with disabilities. Only, instead of it being directed at themselves, it is directed at others. They push their disabled loved ones to just try harder, just push harder and for longer, eat right, try this, do that, think right, take vitamins - if you just try hard enough, you can beat this!

Except... most of the time, you can't.

The idea that doing everything right will allow you to beat a chronic illness is just ableism in a scientific hat. You're afraid - of being disabled, of the consequences of disability, of someone you love being different, of them looking weird, becoming weird, being seen in public yourself or with someone disabled, of being uncomfortable, of having to put in more energy and effort into helping someone with special needs.

The list of things people are afraid of is endless, and the positive spin on that ableism is simply fighting to fix it.

Make it go away so that you don't have to deal with it anymore.

And then, when you take that approach and apply it to the countless disabilities that don't have cures and may never have cures, you end up with boatloads of people who are seen as problems to solve. They feel like a burden to their family and friends. They're pushed to do what hurts and will actually cause more long-term problems for them by forcing themselves to do things they shouldn't be doing - things that damage their bodies, which aren't meant to do those things anymore.

The Long-Term Consequences of Ableist Pushes for Cures

So back to that argument about all disabilities being curable with time: what's the problem with making some disabled people uncomfortable if, one day, all disability is cured and there are no more disabled people?

Well, the simple answer is this: that's never going to happen, and if you think that way, you're a eugenicist.

Even if every disability is curable with time, the ends do not justify the means - the means being to humiliate and degrade disabled people by treating them like problems.

And it would take decades, maybe even centuries, of those means to even reach the ends. But we'll stop that argument there, because there will never be an end to disability.

Why There Is No End to Disability

So, the thing about disability, is it will never cease to exist. Even if it was a good goal to have, which it isn't, it's never going to happen.

Disability is often caused by gene mutation. At one point, none of the gene mutations for our current physical disabilities existed. They developed. And, just as the current disabilities developed over time and with gene mutations, so will new and different ones. Even if we cured all of the current disabilities, there would always be new ones, likely developing as fast as we can cure the existing ones.

Additionally, a lot of disability is not congenital. People who are in accidents and lose legs will never be able to regrow those legs. Even if eugenicists managed to prevent any "deformed" babies from being born without limbs, people would lose them from accidents and infection, and all kinds of things.

In a world where all congenital disabilities were cured, what quality of life do you expect people in wheelchairs to have?

Because I think I can confidently say that, if everything congenital were cured, a day wouldn't pass before accessibility laws were thrown out the window. We would be returned to the days where disabled people are hidden away and can't leave the house - kept as shameful secrets by families who resent them, or shown off as paragons of strength and virtue when/if they're able to be fitted with a working prosthetic.

Neither of these outcomes is positive.

The Slippery Slope of Cure Ideology

So, on to another argument: there is a lot of danger in letting cure ideology go unchallenged.

I want to clarify again, that I don't think we should never research cures. I'm challenging, specifically, the social movement behind cures that is often driven by eugenicism and ableism.

So, why is it dangerous to let that exist? Well, let's look back at the reason I mentioned that people are in camp 2: they are afraid of being uncomfortable. They are afraid of what's different from them. They view difference as a problem to be solved - a disease or a disorder.

You can see this exact principle in action when people fight for a cure for autism. It's being fought for by the allistics who know people with autism, not usually the autistics themselves. It's being fought for by parents who are angry that their child is different or won't look them in the eyes. They see them as an obstacle to overcome, not as a person who has a different way of socializing. Even in the best case, where they see them as a person more than a problem, they are seen as a person with a wrong and disordered way of socializing.

Imagine, for a moment, that there was an allistic trait that people treated as disordered or wrong the way an ableist might treat hand-flapping or lining up toys. Let's take a direct comparison - something one does when they're happy - like laughing. Imagine, for a moment, that something you do when you're joyful, is treated like a maladaption. Perhaps, in this alternate universe, smiling is normal, but laughing is disturbing to people. You spend your life desperately trying to repress your laughter, hiding your joy, even though it's the most natural thing in the world to you. How would you feel hearing people chanting positively, with smiles, taking donations, running marathons and dancing, all for a cure for laughter?

Really, really, genuinely think about it.

Imagine living your entire life like that.

This doesn't just relate to autism.

The reason this ideology has to be challenged is not just by the concrete example of people trying to cure autism, it's the root of the ideology, that different is bad. That the majority being uncomfortable means the minority is wrong and needs to be fixed.

Is this ringing any other bells for you? Because autism isn't the only thing I desperately hope they don't find a genetic link for.

If fighting for a cure for anything people deem different and weird enough goes unchallenged, people will attempt to cure anything they don't like. Like being gay. Or being trans.

And I'm not talking about conversion camps that try to brainwash you into thinking you're not gay. I'm not talking about the abusive Christian approach, I'm talking about the eugenicist scientist approach.

If a genetic link were found or if there was some kind of actual biological difference, that could mean people trying to test fetuses for the "homosexuality gene" or whatever. It would give a concrete path for eugenicists to try preventing gay and trans people from ever even being born.

And, if that biological connection is found, how long do you think it would take for people to start excitedly pushing for a cure to "homosexuality" or "transgenderism"?

What is the point of this post?

It's food for thought.

I want, not only my abled followers, but my disabled ones as well, to reflect on how they feel about cures - about being cured or about curing others.

I want you all to ask yourself, am I in camp 1 or camp 2?

Your goal in supporting a cure should be to prevent death, to prevent pain that cannot be overcome through systemic support and accessibility, to help people live lives with quality.

Your goal in supporting a cure should never be to remove something that makes you uncomfortable. If you're abled, it should never be to make your life easier or alleviate your feelings of guilt, resentment, or stress. It should never be to make people normal, especially not people you care about.

And, on a final note, remember that the things you see in a disability you know nothing about may not have anything to do with reality. If you see a disability for the first time and you immediately wish for a cure for it, simply because it looks painful, maybe find out if it actually is first. Sometimes we attribute pain and misery to things that are no big deal to the people dealing with them. And, in doing so, we also attribute heroicism and virtue to the people dealing with them - which they did not ask for.

Don't make disabled people into a project. Don't use them as inspiration porn - putting them on a pedestal and using them as proof that "anything is possible."

Treat disabled people with dignity and respect.

Treat disabled people as people, with or without them jumping through every hoop you think will make them better.

Think about how fucking annoying it would be if, every time you got up from a chair in public, everyone stared at you, or even praised you for it. How uncomfortable would you be if no one ever saw you as yourself but as some kind of ambassador for strong, amazing people who are so so so cool because they can tie their shoelaces.

Think about how fucking infuriating it would be if every tenth person you walked past turned to you, looking sad, and said "god bless you."

Think about how old that would get, and how fast.

That's all. Just think about it.

[angel-in-shibari]

you obviously know nothing about what "terfs" believe in. radical feminism is a far left movement. your whole rant is so embarrassing and clearly shows you've never read any feminist theory, been in feminist spaces, or interacted with a single radical feminist ever.

if radical feminism is far left, why do you and the far right both want to commit genocide against trans people, sex workers, homeless people, disabled people, etc.? I've never seen a single radfem say one positive thing about any of those groups of people. it's always "they are a disgrace to feminism! they shouldn't exist! they make all women look bad! we need to get rid of them all!"

and before you say "oh genocide is such a strong word", this is the official definition of genocide from the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide: The Convention defines genocide as any of five "acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, as such." These five acts were: killing members of the group, causing them serious bodily or mental harm, imposing living conditions intended to destroy the group, preventing births, and forcibly transferring children out of the group.

you already have at least three of these right now for transgender people. trans people are more than four times more likely to be murdered, assaulted, or raped. laws are being passed to strip them of their rights, and you freaks scream so much about "protect the children" which you think can only be enacted by forcing the child to live in a very specific restrictive and harmful way, rather than letting the child make their own decisions. sex workers are also facing some of these, particularly by making their work illegal. you paint all sex workers as helpless victims being trafficed by some gross man, but most of them are literally just people who record their own porn at home to make money, and rather than victims of abuse, are instead victims of poverty and capitalism. if you actually cared about helping them, you'd fight to raise the minimum wage and get rid of stupid restrictions that prevent them from working normal jobs, instead of throwing them in jail because they sell their own ass pics online. homeless people are also major victims of capitalism, as well as being tightly interconnected with the trans community. a large portion of houseless people are trans, and trans people are more likely to be homeless than cis people, mainly due to transphobia. but rather than helping them, ie providing them with houses and jobs and accessible food and water, you want to make it illegal for them to exist, and encourage police to destroy their tents and steal what little possessions they have. and disabled people get the most shit. as someone whos both physically and mentally disabled (plantar fasciitis and arthritis at age 20, as well as autism, anorexia, and add), I can tell you first hand that we get treated like absolute shit, and half the time aren't seen as human. I was fired from my last job because I dared to ask to use a cane at work. nothing is accessible for us, we are constantly excluded from society, and if we ever want to get married and have children, our benifits are taken away. I've seen multiple instances of children being taken away by cps from moms with eating disorders or histories of self harm. they think that because they had trouble taking care of themselves in the past, that they are incapable of healing and unable to provide for their children. even worse, people constantly beg people with autism and adhd not to have kids for fear of passing down autism and "cursing their children with that terrible illness". I can say that ignoring the people who constantly treat you like shit, living with autism is absolutely fine and not at all a curse.

I've never seen any single one of you terfs advocate for the rights of these groups even a single time. it's always hate and bigotry with you. you'd rather us all die than do a single thing to make any of our lives moderately easier. I doubt you even see any of us as human. and you dare call yourself a feminist? you dare call yourself left wing? you make me sick. honestly I think every single one of you needs therapy.

[faiiryteethh]

hi do you mind if I ask you what symptoms of bipolar you have experienced before/are currently experiencing right now? if this is too heavy for you to answer then that’s alright it’s just that I was recently diagnosed with bipolar 2 and I wanted to hear about the experience from another person.. thank you 

well i have bipolar 1 rapid cycling which is more severe than just having bipolar 1. and bipolar 1 by itself is more severe than bipolar 2, so definitely don't compare yourself to me too much. also everyone is different. not every person with bipolar of any type has the same symptoms. i also have anxiety, ptsd, and im seeing a psychiatrist in november to be tested for a neurological disorder that my therapist thinks i may have but she can't diagnose me. so sometimes those symptoms from other things overlap into what i experience. some things might be caused by my anxiety or ptsd. for example i've had hallucinations plenty of times which can be a symptom of bipolar but also could be from ptsd too. i have manic episodes all the time. and when im not having mania im basically in a constant state of depression. its awful. i do have impulses but ive spent years learning how to control them. they used to be uncontrollable and it ruined my life for many years. my sleep and appetite changes constantly. sometimes i dont need sleep at all and other times all i do is sleep. and most of them time i can't eat a lot. and when i am able to eat i end up binge eating to make up for barely eating most of the time. im extremely indecisive and its hard to focus on one task. i usually have like 10 different tasks going at a time which makes it hard to complete anything. but i also become obsessed with my interests. it actually annoys ppl because i will talk about the same few things over and over. i have suicidal thought all the time. only thoughts tho. i would never act on them. but before i could control my impulses i had multiple attempts to end my life. i also have constant racing thoughts or my mind feels blank and i'll be completely silent for days sometimes because i have nothing to say. except when it comes to my children. obviously i speak to them when they are around, but i won't start a conversation when my mind feels blank or i won't CHOOSE to say anything for days. yeah it really fucking sucks. life with bipolar is mainly living in extremes. [for me anyway]. im either exteremely happy or extremely sad. same goes with being confident or not confident, hungry or not hungry, etc. one of the hardest things is having so much energy when im manic and feeling constantly tired and drained when im depressive. because i have children and i HAVE to be productive on daily basis. i can't just NOT clean or do dishes or laundry etc. so when im depressive i have to mentally and physically force myself to do anything. its honestly absolute hell. and im so sorry you have it too. i wish i had more positive things to tell you about it, but im not going to sugarcoat it or lie to you.

as long as you put in effort to work on yourself and try to be aware of the way you react to things or what things affect your mood, it will get easier. i know that i NEED therapy. every time i left therapy i relapsed on drugs or i mentally deteriorated. so i highly recommend finding a good therapist if you start to struggle badly. or just have one just to help you even if you don't think you need one. they help sooo much with helping u understand yourself and your thoughts and actions. i wish you nothing but the best✨💜 bipolar disorder can be so crippling. it can even be a disability for some ppl. for me it is. i am getting disability soon because its pretty impossible to find a job that works with what im able and unable to do. it lowered my confidence a lot when i realized i needed the extra help but now im more okay with it because i know its just the hand i've been dealt. i didnt ask for bipolar disorder. just like i didn't ask for it to prevent me from working. its just what happened to me. and thats okay. 🖤💜 i hope you are well🥰

[void-galaxy-shenanigans]

“Reasonable” Accommodations that may get approved in a workplace (or school)

(this is obviously limited by our specific disabilities and varies job to job, but based on what we’ve asked for and what we’re currently discussing with our work’s HR/disability department)

a) headphones or earbuds with music

(In school we used this for tests. We were sometimes asked to test separately (different room, different time) from other students because of this, but it almost always got approved even pre ADHD diagnosis. At work, this helps us prevent overstimulation and thus work more effectively & safely. There’s more hoops and paperwork for a workplace, but we work in fast food and they’re actually letting us proceed with paperwork and the hoops to jump through so we can do it. We do have to have a “medical provider” sign off on paperwork &/or an official note stating that they know we’re disabled and agree we need the accommodation, but our workplace includes therapists for that. We’ll probably still involve our psychiatrist for backup/support, but they mostly just care that a professional backs us up. At school it didn’t matter what kind, but we’re discussing what kinds of earbuds/headphones are allowed with works disability people because food safety protocol limits which kinds they allow.)

b) texting in instead of calling out sick

(We go mute when we’re honestly sick, either because sore throat happens first or because the stress and overstimulation that come with being sick makes us mute (¿autism? ¿ADHD? ¿sensory processing disorder? it’s something around there). Usually a workplace avoids this because some people might text in sick when they just don’t want to work or have fun plans, so the big thing here is validating that you won’t call in just because and you’re texting because you *can’t* talk when sick. You do want to stress can’t or they’ll demand you to do it anyway. So it’s possible to ask for the ability to text instead (using text capable phone numbers or a messaging app if your work has one), and discuss with management or go through the HR paperwork to have that.)

c) more frequent breaks / more breaks

(This is a big one for physical disability. We usually ask for this because asthma & POTS together can be a nightmare. They usually don’t want to let you sit while doing your job in fast food, but they may be willing to let you take more frequent breaks or more total (a ten minute break every two hours as an example). Usually they stick to the legal minimum, so you may have to do HR paperwork for this &/or have a doctor’s note about why you need this (injury or physical disability).)

d) shorter breaks

(this one can better for ADHD/autism sometimes, or any dissociative disorder. the longer breaks usually get me out of Work Mode™ or give me too long to start dissociating. (I don’t always ask for this but it might work for you.) sometimes this just means breaking your 10min breaks into 5's, or breaking a 30 into two 15's or three 10's. it can also go with more breaks overall. it depends on your needs. this also usually requires a doctor’s note unfortunately.)

e) ability to take an Emergency Break™

(by this I mean an unscheduled break. In this case I’d need it for PTSD or a panic attack— the ability to step away (just nudge a manager or tap a code or have them know that sometimes you’ll have to duck out without communicating at the time) to let ourselves calm down. this could also be for physical disabilities where you may have an unpredictable episode, collapse, or a sudden/unpredictable need to use the bathroom or eat. usually managers get angry if you step away when you aren’t scheduled to do so, especially if there’s a lot of customers (peak period, rush, etc.).)

f) alternate communication methods

(we work in a kitchen environment. there are alerts for hot, cold, knife, blind corners, etc. as well as alerts when something runs out or is about to run out up front. we need to communicate (acknowledge or respond) with coworkers. but we go mute sometimes. so having a method like....three knocks means ‘working on it’, two knocks means ‘I heard you/acknowledged’, and four knocks means ‘I’ll do that now / I’ll start that now’. Or sign language (official language or one you work out between coworkers & managers; I haven’t learned ASL yet so I rely on signs most people will understand, like a hand drawn across my neck and then miming speaking (mouth movement with hand) to say ‘I can’t speak’/I’m mute), or hums/whistling/non word noises, or another method that works for you.)

g) ability to bring/have stuffed animals / comfort items or fidget toys

(this is obviously limited by what job you do. but when in school, we often did this to help us regulate. some jobs may allow this as well, especially with backup from a doctor, therapist, psychiatrist, or mix thereof. they might limit the size or type, but it’s worth investigating, if any fidgets or comfort items will help you concentrate or work easier or more effectively.)

~~~~

This is a starter list, but it may be a good leaping off point or give you ideas for something you may not have considered or thought possible/worth asking for before. If this helps even one person get the accommodations they need, then it’s done its job. ☺💜

¡Please add on if you have any suggestions for your disabilities or any of the ones included here!

~Nico (he/they)

[liskantope]

Here is another way of explaining the spirit of the frustration I've been trying to express recently.

Early in high school, I was in a jazz band class. The below quote was taped to the wall of the band room; I specifically remember one time the band director had someone read it out loud to the whole class but I also remember just seeing it every day on the wall for a year or so. Remarkably, Google almost completely refused to produce this quote for me, but I finally found a version of it sloppily tucked into a high school band syllabus posted online apparently a lot of years ago and attributed to no one (I guess it's a sort of "folk quotation", perhaps more popular 20 years ago than now?). After a little cleaning up, it reads as follows:

Because you can understand that a person can’t play well, or forget their reed, or doesn’t feel well, or overslept, or didn’t have a chance to practice, or has sticky valves, or lost their music, or couldn’t get a ride, or is having a bad week, pretty soon you have a whole lot of understanding and a terrible band.

I remember being very annoyed at that quote when I was 14, a period of my (and most people's) life in which authority figures endlessly seemed to be lecturing us kids / "young men and women" along these lines. And I can't really recommend it as necessarily a very effective form of preaching at children or young teenagers. But obviously enough essence of that particular quote stuck with me persistently enough that I was able to remember enough approximate phrases to google it tonight, two decades later. And increasingly over the past year or so, it's kept coming back and back into my mind because of a certain harsh truth it reflects.

The main utility of acknowledging one's own disadvantages or disorders/conditions or less-than-ideal circumstances in assessing one's failures is to prevent one from being hard on oneself in a way that is on the net unhelpful and destructive, and to help with setting realistic instead of unreachable goals, etc. There are other advantages as well that I think of as sort of "second-order" (for instance, being able to name one's disability can be extremely helpful in figuring out how best to deal with and get around it). But all of that is true, while at the same time something else is true: being understanding of your own challenges in the end amounts to nothing more than a whole lot of understanding and you still don't get to your goals.

In my case, I see a place in life that I desperately want to reach which involves a permanent professional position that I can do well in and actually feel efficient enough at that I can balance it with owning a home, being a good partner and family member, and possibly being a parent, a relationship for life, preferably with someone wanting and able to have children with me, and being able to feel like a truly cemented part of some meatspace community. It may be privileged of me just to be able to wish for these things, and I have to acknowledge that I do already have many of the most sought-after things in life (e.g. better-than-basic health and financial stability), but it doesn't seem unreasonably entitled of me to want the rest.

I could spend all day dissecting the conditions and circumstances which have played a role in making it hard for me to attain these things that I want: obvious neurological issues that affect both my social and work performance, a career lifestyle that involves relocating every few years and going through a particularly strenuous job application process even more frequently, the backdrop of a turbulent job market through much of my adulthood, moderate-to-severe acne from teenagerhood all the way through my early 30's, hell, even my lower-than-average height, etc. And to a certain extent I've needed to be able to step back and acknowledge these things and view my shortcomings in that context. But I'm in a state of fierce rebellion against the temptation to sink into all that understanding because the moment I do, it feels like I'm going to fall into an abundance of understanding and I won't be one inch closer to the place that I so badly want to be in. At the end of the day I can't allow myself to lose sight of the fact that I want to get the actual concrete things I want, goddammit. I feel like if I take my eyes off that, I ultimately lose and that a ton of sympathy for myself is a crappy consolation prize. And I react badly to a certain type of online culture because it seems designed to lead me (and others) astray from keeping my eyes on that hard and unbending truth.

Like with most things, this is about finding the right balance of perspectives and partial narratives. I would be writing a very different kind of rant if Tumblr and my social bubbles seemed deeply immersed in another set of cultural values, the ones that were dominant until very recently and still are dominant in more traditional parts of society today. But as it is, my deep fear is that a massive social movement is relentlessly creating a whole lot of understanding and a terrible band.

[brownsplodge]

Okay so I really hate when people keep repeating this question right here

One reason for uncanny valley is to stop us fiddling with dead bodies too much, but the reason I’m addressing will be another.

The reason we have the uncanny valley is not from another being: its to avoid illnesses. It’s like a natural version of ‘ableism’ evolutions gives us. It makes us feel scared of people with visible disorders (for example albinos, or people with Down syndrome and such) because it prevents us from having as many kids with hereditary or other harmful illnesses/diseases(being an albino isn’t harmful for you other than possible bullying, but you’ll still be a ‘target’ of the uncanny valley instinct). The fact that uncanny valley exists is actually horrible because it’s a defence mechanism evolution gave us that is mostly useless because very few horribly bad disorders are visible/passed on by people who have them.

Saying that some monster caused us to develop this instinct is blatantly ignoring people with visible disabilities, which are the actual target of this nowadays mostly useless instinct. Its okay (not great though) to feel uncomfy with nearly but not quite ‘normal’ looking people/things, since it’s a basic instinct, but implying that it’s caused by monsters is basically like calling people with visible disorders monsters.

Basically it’s a way to sort out dangerous, but sadly also ‘ugly’ or ‘undesirable’ genes. Obviously uncanny valley changes a little over time because our standards for human changes, and it is an instinct. I understand you can’t always change that. But it is technically a natural form of ableism

A ton of disabilities are also not visible or skip generations, so this gene is like a small security measure anyways

Nobody is aiming at having disabled kids(I hope), but you shouldn’t be scared of people for having ‘a weird face’ (Well you can be, but don’t be ableist, shut in your mouth, its not that hard/lh)

Basically, probably like 80 percent of instincts are explainable. Even one that people dont realise there’s an easy explanation

Educate ur brain before you say ableist shit on accident/srs

Well to be fair it’s such a widespread theory I can’t blame people for assuming that’s it but still.

The fact that so many horror icons/villains look like that is writers and illustrators playing into the natural instinct, to add to the natural fear/hate you get when you see them, it’s not what makes them a monster. I cannot say I’m completely innocent here. I have made characters albino for an added scary factor. But when you do this, why not add some heroes/protagonists with the same features?

An example for a monster that is portrayed like this is Zero, from shotgun boy. He is a monster, and looks like an albino child. What makes him creepy is largely his looks. They amplify his already there creepiness. I don’t find it great tbh. Make some your villain characters the most normal ass white guy with brown hair looking people please/hj

There will be people who make characters that are ‘obviously’ a villain, with these traits as the way you notice(take Draco Malory from Harry Potter: he’s obviously an ass, but the first description you got is supposed to make you feel like he’s a bad guy from a first impression. Draco Malloy is probably an albino, or he heavily resembles one, as he’s very pale and has light blonde hair. It’s trying to make you feel like he’s a bad guy based purely on his looks.)

Consider: What scares us often? Slightly deformed features or ‘too light’ or pasty skin or hair, red eyes, obvious non symmetry, etc… all symptoms of common (visible) disorders or even just common deformities that you might even have yourself.

Sometimes how someone looks can make you feel uncomfortable, but this is not an excuse to assume that anyone who looks close to the ‘average human’ but not quite is a monster.

TL;Dr: Don’t assume that a monster made us develop an uncanny valley instinct, it’s a defence mechanism that makes us avoid visibly disabled/deformed people and is actually a pretty harmful thing.

Sorry, it’s just that the “oooooh there must have been human like monsters that’s why we have uncanny valley” is such a overused and uneducated and unsettlingly ableist comment and I wanted to rant/infodump the real reason for it.

It’s the common sense of not wanting to have disabled kids combined with internet horror enthusiasts that seemingly have no time to think why we could have a seemingly useless instinct.

It’s not quirky, philosophical, a thing to think about or a funny horror prompt. The idea of monsters disguised as humans is fine. But don’t make it an excuse to spread ableist ideas hidden under quirky horror.

[thedawningofthehour]

Yea I forgot the story plays in like 2021, so I just wrote that Avatar comment bc man I love the second movie (I dont remember anything from the first), it‘s like 2am rn I am no night owl so I didnt use my brain much

ANYWAY, I am impressed the fam still believes they will get Donnie back bc I am losing hope lmaoo, also, interesting tidbit about the XXY chromosomes, will that be relevant in the future??

Honestly, the extension of the world of Avatar is smth really great about the second movie. Plot wise, I fear it might become repetitive if they dont think of smth for the next one. The emotions are 🤌🏼✨

Not really relevant to the plot, just something I thought of when I was looking up spiny softshell biology and trying to figure out how all that nonsense works.

Weirdly, Klinefelter's does actually seem to fit Donnie. I know they didn't, like, plan that, but it is funny that it happened with the turtle that had sex chromosomes before and therefore may have weird chromosome things going on already. (Splinter probably also has chromosome weirdness, but he was already past puberty and snipped, so his infertility didn't really matter)(they obviously have other chromosomes and there's other chromosomal issues that arise from mashing two completely different species together, but Draxum's ooze was made to minimize complications arising from that, and obviously the original Yokai who had significant genetic issues didn't pass them on) People with Klinefelter's are often taller with lower muscle strength, which fits his lankier build. They often have coordination and speech issues-check and check. It even fits my personal headcanons, with people with Klinefelter's being more likely to develop auto-immune disorders and having a low interest in sex. (Donnie's bi but he's got shit to do, he doesn't have time for that)

Also worth pointing out that it's not exactly Klinefelter's, because Donnie doesn't have two X chromosomes. He has the XY chromosomes from Splinter and a single Z chromosome from his turtle parents. The Z chromosome just occupies the space a second X chromosome would be and Leo confused it because it looked similar to an X chromosome. I have no idea how the whole 'chromosome mashing' thing works for Yokai overall, but while I can go ahead and say "mutants are allowed to have weird numbers of chromosomes that would normally result in severe health problems in humans because they're really not human anymore," it's a bit different for allosomes. In organisms that use sex chromosomes, aside from some organisms that use X0 or Z0 systems where the heterogametic sex just has the one, they all have two sex chromosomes. And there are issues if there's more than that.

There's some weirdness in the mutation process, some chromosomes get thrown out, some stay against their best interest, and sometimes the resulting mutant is a pile of tumors and meat. Draxum's ooze was modified to prevent most of the catastrophic consequences, but stuff still happens. I chose to say he has three sex chromosomes instead of four because trisomy disorders are generally pretty mild, while tetrasomies are usually much more severe and cause serious intellectual disabilities. Which doesn't fit Donnie.

(I don't mean any of this in a TERF bullshit way, I'm talking exclusively about what Donnie's got in his blood, he can be whatever gender he damn well likes)

[darklight-owl]

Celeste (from a dyspraxic point of view)

So a couple days ago I finished my first run of Celeste. If you know anything about this game, you probably know it's very very good and also very very difficult. But it wasn't until I started playing that I realized how much of a challenge it would be. Obviously it's not supposed to be easy, but aside from the game itself, my dyspraxia made it an entirely different beast. Dyspraxia is a developmental disorder that affects coordination and fine motor skills, as well as making learning a new skill more difficult and time consuming. All important skills you need when faced with a game like this. I heard about the Assist Mode built into the game later on, but decided not to use it for the main storyline. I wanted to put myself to the test and see if I could beat it in spite of my disorder. I'm making this post as a sort of insight/retrospective on how dyspraxia affects me, as well as a way to encourage other dyspraxic people by showing that you don't need to drop your hobbies because of your condition.

I have no idea if this first thing is specifically because of my dyspraxia or if it's something every player goes through, but in the first level, it took a long time for me to get used to the wall grip mechanic. I would do the same jump over and over again, completely forgetting that I had to hold Z. I didn't know about Assist Mode at the time so I looked around the pause menu and settled on switching the controls a bit so Madeline would now automatically grab on to the wall and instead slide when I held Z. It helped a lot when I was getting started since now I had to make a conscious decision to move, but it became a bit annoying as I got a feel for the controls, so I shut it off after a while.

Something else that persevered throughout the entire game, however, was the classic dyspraxic "my hands won't do what I tell them to" problem. It's a pretty common symptom, you want to do something but the weird dyspraxia filter in your brain decides to do something ever so slightly different that somehow ruins everything. Either you do something with too much force, start twitching when you're supposed to be sitting still, or use your index finger when you meant to use your middle. In the game this meant that a LOT of the times I would mix up the controls very often, sometimes jumping when I meant to dash, dashing when I meant to grip the wall, et cetera. This would also happen more often in tight jumps that required faster reaction times for some reason. There isn't an actual workaround to this one, I just had to hope I'd get better as I went along. Although I did find myself planning the moves I'd have to do ahead of time and practicing the button presses. Since I have very poor reflexes, I considered it better to think of a segment as one swift action.

It caused a few hand cramps as well (and now that I think about it maybe I should have used Assist Mode for this reason alone). I tended to press the buttons way too forcefully. Especially in more difficult bits my hands were very tense. The cramps happenned very rarely, however, and they never lasted long, but they prevented me from actually sitting down and binging the game.

Despite the issues my dyspraxia caused me, I do think I got better at the game. Of course, I learned slower than a neurotypical person would have, but because of that I would appreciate my progress that much more. Dying right before the end of a segment wasn't a punishment at all, because it proved that it was possible for me to get that far.

As I said before, I didn't use Assist Mode for the base game, but just recently I decided to try it out for the b-sides, since around halfway into the first one the game began feeling far more frustrating than in the normal levels and I'd gotten sick of it. I'm gonna mention the settings that helped me the most for other players with dyspraxia to try out: This mode is made for people with all sorts of disabilities, so some settings, like the Dash Assist, just made the game more difficult for me. But one I did find to be extremely helpful was the option that let you slow the game down. Like I said, my reflexes are garbage and when I needed to make tight jumps my dyspraxia would mess me up. Just making the game slower made everything feel so much easier, like a breath of fresh air. And for jumps where I tended to screw up and waste my dash instantly, I tend to toggle double dash on and off so I have another chance just in case I press the wrong button again.

Fitting, that a game about someone who wanted to push her limits and feel in charge of her life again became the centerpiece of a post like this. I really do love this game, and I love how it means something to so many people.

Thank you for sticking with me through this tangled mess of a post. So to wrap this up, what I would say to any dyspraxic people reading this who want to try something challenging for people like us, whether it be games or art or music, is: YOU CAN DO IT. It will take you longer than your piers, but it IS doable. Remember that there will always be options and tools made to make your climb easier, and if anyone tries to shame you for using them, tell them they can eat my ass-ist mode.

[suspicious-whumping-egg]

Writing Characters with Chronic Pain and Disabilities

PSA: Writing characters with disabilities and chronic pain is great for representation, but I’m seeing harmful tropes and portrayals perpetuated in the way chronic pain and disability is treated in parts of the whump community. Abled people need to stop using chronic pain and/or disabilities purely for “fun and whumpy” purposes. To help address the (hopefully not ill intended) ignorance that likely causes perpetuation of hurtful tropes and harmful portrayals of disabled characters, I’m sorta writing a guide on what to do and not to do when you write a character who is disabled or has chronic pain. I am disabled myself (connective tissue disorder that causes chronic pain among other debilitating symptoms) but obviously all disabled experiences differ so take this all with a grain of salt.

What to do/what is okay to do: An injury causing chronic pain and that being just a part of a character, or a character who becomes disabled (or has been from birth). Their struggle is/can be obviously present and a significant part of their life BUT they must still be a rounded/whole character (background, personality, relationships, etc) if the narrative surrounding their disability was omitted. Writing characters with disabilities and chronic pain is good for representation! I’m not saying it’s bad to have chronic pain be caused by injuries for a character, including whump sustained injuries. A good example of a disabled character done right is Kaz from Six of Crows (Leigh Bardugo is disabled herself tho which obviously plays into why he’s done so well). Kaz uses a cane and has chronic pain caused by a wrongly healed broken leg. His pain and his cane are mentioned often throughout the novel and influence his life experience and perspective. However, his narrative doesn’t focus on his chronic pain: he’s not looking desperately for a cure, his goal is not to someday stop using his cane, etc. (These things are harmful tropes because they portray disability as something completely and totally bad, to be avoided at all costs). Kaz is a badass and competent character, as developed as the other (able bodied) main characters of the story, and his disability is one of many trait about him. If you wanna write a disabled character as an abled person, try to keep those kinds of things in mind (make them developed, make sure their narrative doesn’t focus fully around their disability even tho their disability can/could be a large part of their life, don’t use the “looking for a cure” trope as their whole motive, don’t present disability as a fate worse than death or similar.)

What not to do: What I’m sorta mad about is when someone writes a character who’s constantly suffering from chronic pain/disability and is written in a way where they’re constantly miserable from it and can never feel anything other than the constant sadness/pain their disability causes them. (Perpetuates the trope that disability is constantly horrible and sometimes creates the idea that a life with disability isn’t worth living- which is harmful because it creates the idea that people with disabilities can’t be happy/successful/etc unless they’re faking their disability). It is harmful when their pain or disability is their only trait and/or is only used to make them suffer for “fun” or whump (perpetuates harmful stereotypes around disability- gives the idea that it’s impossible to be happy/a successful person/etc while disabled or having chronic pain, makes light of disability.), Do not write a disability unrealistically and do your research to prevent from ignorance turning into harm. When a character is written disabled/in pain purely for whump, harmful tropes usually end up being perpetuated (the search for a cure trope, the idea that a disability is a tragedy and must be avoided at all costs, etc). Chronic pain is not fun, disability is not whumpy. If you want to write it, do it respectfully. Putting it as the focus of a whump story or as the only trait of a character, especially if you’re an able bodied person and just want to write suffering is not okay. Doing so mitigates and makes light of the real shit people with chronic pain and disabilities live through every day.

Abed people don’t clown on this post. Do not start discourse on this post.

Edit: This obviously isn't as cut and dry a topic as "never write this" and "only write this", just meant to be a general guide of what tropes have a higher likelihood of perpetuating harmful stereotypes versus what you can do to have better representation.

[crippleprophet]

My mum just (and I mean literally today) got diagnosed with osteoarthritis. In her knee, specifically. I'm not sure if that type of disorder is something you've familiar with but may I ask if you or any of your followers have advice on stuff that might make it easier to handle for her? Thank you.

absolutely! my knee pain is due to my ankylosing spondylitis but a lot of the effects are similar and i know a fair bit about osteo as well

equipment / aids - she may already use some of these and may not need others, everyone’s different!

mobility aids - a cane is a great starting place for knee pain, especially in one leg. my “cane user” and “faq” tags have more info on choosing and adapting to using a cane - make sure it’s the right size and you’re stepping with the cane at the same time as the opposite leg (eg i walk with my cane in my right hand because my left leg is worse, and step with my left leg and the cane at the same time)

shower seat - saves energy, reduces pain, prevents falls

aids to minimize bending - grabby claw aids to pick things up, shoe/sock aids, shoes with zippers instead of laces

perching stool for cooking, washing dishes, etc

chairs with arms to lift yourself out using your upper body rather than putting weight on your knees

lower chairs / seating in general helps me because i can have my legs more extended, which reduces my knee pain

knee braces - i’ve tried basically every style out there as well as studied their biomechanical effects on myself (that post is still forthcoming lol) and my recommendation is compression sleeves unless she has severe knee buckling/stability difficulties, in which case a hinged brace is helpful but in my experience it’s way less effective at pain relief

assistance

depending on how long your mom has had pain, her ideas about disability, and what messages she’s internalized, it may be hard for her to accept help. that’s a journey everyone goes through in their own time and not a reflection on you! all you can do is offer whatever assistance you’re comfortable with in a respectful way and make sure she knows you don’t think negatively about her for being disabled

disability studies has been really vital for my own self-worth; her interest may vary but i think some basic info on the social model of disability and radical ideas about care relationships (i recommend mia mingus’s writing on access intimacy) is always a great recommendation

most of the help i was willing to receive from other people when my pain first became debilitating was my roommates bringing me things to minimize the times i had to get up, and people bringing me food when i didn’t have the energy to cook

pain relief

topicals - voltaren, biofreeze, tiger balm

CBD - i use gummies and george foreman CBD ointment (which is super expensive but i get it wholesale). disposable vape pens were really helpful for me but i haven’t vaped since figuring out i have ankylosing spondylitis because i’m at risk of lung problems. the only oil i’ve tried was low concentration so it didn’t help much but also i didn’t like the taste and texture

other cannabis products - obviously depends on how your mom feels about it lol but for me delta 8 is a lifesaver

if she uses a lot of oral NSAIDs (ibuprofen/advil, naproxen/aleve) it could be worth trying to get a prescription for an NSAID with less risks of GI bleeding + another prescription for a GI protective medication (i’m on omeprazole). personally i don’t know anyone with arthritis who NSAIDs actually help so like, awesome if they’re effective for her, totally normal if they aren’t

scientific literature aka everything i’d bet money your doctor didn’t tell you about osteoarthritis

bone lesions (link) as a first stage of subchondral (below the cartilage) bone remodeling due to atypical loading - basically, weight is distributed differently in arthritic knees than non-arthritic ones, and that causes bone to grow places it doesn’t in people without osteoarthritis which, as you’d expect, hurts like shit

OA is not just due to “wear and tear,” even if you’ve been labeled obese (link) - obviously it’s not always this simple but my opinion is if at all possible don’t listen to doctors who tell you to lose weight; it’s not that simple of a causation and weight loss doesn’t work (link). relatedly, i recommend reading up on fat liberation just as much as disability justice, the two are inseparable

we don’t actually understand how OA works (link 1) (link 2)

there’s evidence that OA is at least partially inflammatory, again disproving the “wear and tear” conceptualization (link)

osteoarthritis pain severity does not directly correspond to extent of tissue damage and might be due to changes in the brain (link)

people, both within medicine and society at large, are incredibly minimizing of OA pain and severity, and that’s completely bullshit - it’s both psychologically damaging and scientifically unfounded. the only one who knows how severe your mom’s symptoms are is her, and i think the most important thing you can do is affirm that her pain is real, her condition is serious, and she should be able to make her own choices about her body, activities, and limits.

i’m super touched by how much you clearly care about her and i wish y’all both the best 💕💕

[tg-headcanons]

Since ghouls heal so fast, does that mean they’re always healthy? Do they ever get permenant injuries or do they always heal?

I’ve been wanting to talk about this! Even with increased healing ability, it’s possible and not at all uncommon for ghouls to have scars and disabilities

Sometimes even advanced healing isnt enough. Repeated injuries with not enough food or heal time between them can be disabling. It’s uncommon, but missing limbs, lost senses, and chronic pain can be caused later in life

The most common way ghouls get disabilities is just by birth. Sometimes ghoul kids are born blind or deaf or paralyzed or with chronic issues same as humans. In their culture it’s treated very differently than it is with humans though, since they’re quite community oriented and adaptable. It’s understood that they won’t be able to function the way abled ones do, but with the right conditions and supports, they can thrive alone or even outmatch others

Blind or deaf ghouls can often use their kagune to sense vibrations more effectively than abled ghouls, making them terrifyingly effective fighters and hunters in environments with harsh light or sound that would cause others distress, and the CCG is ill equipped to fight them since their tactics rely a lot on the assumption that their enemies are relying on sight and sound to fight. Since feeling and smell is a large part of how they hunt, losing other senses isn’t too much of a blow.

Sign language is a common practice with many ghouls because of how useful it is when hunting in silence, so deaf ghouls or ones with speech issues don’t have as many issues communicating as the average human would

Mobility impaired ghouls will have some difficulty hunting, whether they’re paralyzed or have disorders that make their ability to move unreliable, they will have problems there. That’s why they tend to join up with groups. Since almost every ghoul has had a debilitating injury in the past, they’re better at understanding how loss of physical functions can impair daily life and what they can help with

Scarring happens sometimes when a ghoul is injured while too hungry to heal for a long time, so when they do heal the tissue stands out. It can also happen from being bitten by other ghouls as they have an enzym in their saliva that drastically slows the healing process. It’s a big part of how marriage bites work, but can be annoying for people who got in a fight a month ago and still have teeth marks on them

Sometimes scars or damaged organs that get injured again grow back working better, leading to a gruesome type of healthcare. You can’t hear out of one ear? Just take out the ear bone! Don’t like that scar on your arm? Take the skin off! Paralyzed stomach? Just remove it! If it works it works, if not then damn bro you really did all that for nothing, oof. Try again maybe?

Rc disorders are more common and can be disabling. Some underproduce and can’t maintain a decently sized kagune or any kagune at all, but that’s still less difficult to deal with than overproduction. Those who overproduce may be able to grow larger kagune and heal faster, but it comes at a cost. Extra rc will cause patches of kagune mass to grow around the kakuhou, make containing kagune difficult, and even form claws on the hands and feet since it can escape the body through keratin easier than through skin. It’s a sort of psuedo kakuja, especially when it gets so out of hand that it makes them grow another kakuhou. It’s not very well understood, especially by ghouls who think of it as extra power, but those who have it know that it’s stressful, can cause spikes of pain, and makes hiding one’s ghoul identity next to impossible. It can be managed with rc suppressants, but those are expensive. It’s just something that every individual has to find ways to deal with, and hearing other ghouls go “Oh I wiSh I hAd Rc OvErPrOdUcTiOn I wOuLd Be So StRoNg” isn’t helping them in the Enxhausted Rage department since it gets tiring to explain to every single person that this isn’t a cool superpower, it sucks

Certain autoimmune diseases can effect them. Though they aren’t as deadly to ghouls as they are to humans, but they still leave them more vulnerable to illnesses and infections. They can usually survive these, but it certainly isn’t fun and they need to boil their meat before eating it to prevent catching anything

Ghouls, obviously, have little to no access to healthcare. Anything they do they do themselves, and they’re lucky to find a ghoul who knows a little about how healing works, and a single ghoul doctor within fifty miles is a windfall. The best most of them can do is frontier medicine and a small list of safe over the counter meds. Though when they can find a ghoul doctor, they tend to be very good about prescribing things that can help with chronic issues. Much less of that “are you sure it’s not in your head?” Bullshit since they know better than anyone that if someone is spending the time and money to see a doctor, they obviously know it’s not. Even when ghouls are decriminalized, ones that are chronically ill will be more likely to request a ghoul doctor because they’re sick of dealing with humans who callously second guess everything

[auntbibby]

I Can’t See That You’re Innocent When I Glance At Your Body Therefor You Must Not Be Trying As Hard To Be Innocent As I Am

[content/trigger warning: emotional abuse, suicide, sexual abuse, ableism, the fate-worse-than-death fantasy trope being used to explain a sociopolitical concept]

almost all of the difference between what is a pathological disorder and what is just having different biology from another human being is based on whether it makes it noticeably/significantly/urgently harder for u to function as part of society. even a genetic glitch that Causes You To Suffer Constantly 24/7 Forever will never end up being deemed as pathological by doctors if you hide it from other people really well, right? cuz how would they know how severely traumatizing it is for you internally, in your mind, if all they can do is measure it externally, in real life, with science?

this is why things like autism or tourette syndrome or chronic exhaustion or chronic pain, which are often called "invisible disabilities", garner a lot less empathy than a PHYSICAL/VISIBLE disability like a broken arm, or cerebral-palsy, simply because other people can immediately see the problem and immediately know not to ask you to take responsibility for something you obviously are incapable of doing.

in contrast, the majority of the therapy that is offered to the autistic for example, is mainly just teaching them to suppress their expressions of what theyre going thru, so that neurotypical people dont have to realize theyre asking way too much of the autistic community. the neurotypicals dont even realize how painful it is for us even just to eat a VARIETY of food rather than the same foods our entire life, or to wear more clothes than a t-shirt and maybe a skirt, or to sit nearby an electric light and have to listen to it buzz for hours at a frequency that neurotypicals can also hear, but tend to ignore due to the difference in how they PROCESS their sensory data.

some people even say that psychopathy, narcissistic personality disorder or even pedophilia are probably caused by mental or neurological problems just like depression or schizophrenia or hypervigilance are, which means that capacity for these people to cause harm is biologically reduced, regardless of how much they try not to cause harm; they literally have a harder time NOT making the world worse, compared to other people... it takes more effort from them to not horrifically-abuse others than it takes from the average person, entirely due to either genetics or the childhood abuse that shaped THEIR neurology, neither of which is really their fault at all.

so when we look thru decades of research and see that the best way to prevent them from causing harm is to make it EASIER for them to not cause harm (A.K.A. funding uniquely-tailored disability assistance programs for them to teach them how to lessen or redirect their inherent impulses to harm) and then change our mind and turn away in disgust at the prospect? not wanting to offer anything to the worst criminals of our society? thats not just denying the loathsome reality of the situation, but also contributing to why they still continue to CAUSE such terrible soul-crushing harm in the first place: because the able-bodied are not there to rescue them from their own morally-broken basal ganglias, like they wouldn’t hesitate to for someone whose fingers were replaced with dangerous knives ala edward scissorhands. we need to be able to visually see that the inherent harmfulness is external to you AT A GLANCE, or we will automatically assume you arent even trying to be a good person

those who see a narcissist finally admit they WERE faking their suicide attempts to avoid abandonment at literally any cost, due to the moral-compass-overpowering severity of their abandonment-issues, and cry out “OKAY COOL SO YOUVE REACHED A POINT WHERE YOU CAN START TO REDUCE HOW MUCH HARM YOU CAUSE. THAT OBLIGATES NO SYMPATHY FROM ME!!!!! YOU STILL MADE THAT PERSON INTO A CATATONIC HUSK. YOU ARE NO LESS WORTHY OF HELL THAN BEFORE” without any regard for how their (admittedly 100%-justified) insults affect the narcissists development towards normalcy, are the same as those who wish that more people were traumatized into catatonic self-torture in the future.

these people are like this not because they are fairytale villains but because their brain tells them it is good or even necessary to be this way. this can theoretically be altered just like any other biological phenomenon, if one knows how and has the technology, possibility & motivation to do it... but nobody would be interested in medically-healing a “bad person” into a “good person” even if we DID magically jump ahead in our scientific understanding of the human brain by 50 years overnight... because the “bad person’s” limbs and mouth and head and face have already done bad things, and we don’t care what systems of their brain had control over them. locked-in syndrome is bad enough, but being locked into a body that doesnt stop harming no matter how much u tell it to, only just slows down or suppresses the harm a little bit? thats beyond the comprehension of most people, despite it effectively already being the case for The mAJORITy of neurological disorders, whenever their symptoms are severe enough.