#crip time

[intervex]

Can I get a flag for crip? Like crip theory crip. In a pan-disability sense. I don't have any particular iconography in mind, only that it shouldn't give a vibe that this is exclusive to physical disabilities. If you can link it in some way to the Mad & Deaf pride flags that'd be nice.

Thank you!

Crip Pride Flag

This is a flag for crips and those who feel represented by/part of crip theory, crip pride, and/or general cripness. [SVG version on WC]

Crip is a term that is open to people with ALL disabilities (physical or otherwise) and also to groups who share the crip mindset. (Note different spelling from cripple.)

For folks who like details: I'm gonna explain what crip is for those who may be new to the term! Then I'll talk about the flag design how the different stripes represent different models of disability. 💜

What is even is crip?

Like how "queer" is to LGBT+, "crip" is to disabled. It's an umbrella term, a way of seeing the world. Activist reclamation of "crip" goes back to the 1970s, with disabled performance artists popularizing the term in the 1990s.

Crip theory began in the early 2000s by building on queer theory. Expanding on your [QCI's] recent post, its characteristics are:

Understanding disability as socially constructed.

Fuck capitalism: the social construction of disability as we understand it was a result of the development of capitalism.

Fuck eugenics: Ableism and racism have been entwined for hundreds of years and cannot be understood in isolation.

Fuck colonialism: which is itself debilitating. Violence disables people, and Global South activists have been clear it's important to talk about how war, landmines, etc are disabling.

Disabled people are creative. Where queer-ing refers to a way of being critical of categories, cripping tends to focus on subverting ideas of ability. Disabled people ARE the original makers/hackers.

Disabled people are experts: we know shit. It is *us* who should be the epistemic authorities on disability, *not* physicians.

Crip as a term is open to anybody experiencing the violence of eugenic thought, regardless of identification as "disabled".

Fat studies scholars have been locating themselves as within crip theory since day one. Similarly, reading Cripping Intersex by Orr has made clear to me that intersex has always been crip.

Again, drawing a parallel to queer & LGBT: kink and polyamory may not be LGBT but they are Queer. 🌈

Flag details

The design is based on @capricorn-0mnikorn's Disability Pride Flag. In line with newer meanings for the Disability Pride flag, the stripes represent different models of disability associated with crip theory:

Purple represents the social construction of disability and the influence of queer theory. #82609b is from the Mad Pride flag.

Red represents postcolonial understandings of disability such as debility. Understanding that which chronic illnesses receive care and research is *political*. The choice of #CF7280 is a nod to the AIDS flag. I took the red from the disability pride flag and shifted the hue (but not chroma & lightness) to that of the AIDS flag.

Yellow represents the affirmative and identity models of disability. The opposite of the tragedy model. Many disabilities can actually be beneficial! The choice of #f4db75 is a nod to the intersex flag.

White represents how crip pride and crip theory are pan-disability. It stands for models of disabilities not otherwise represented here. The #E8E8E8 white is also a nod to the neurodiversity flag.

Blue represents the social model of disability, the intellectual progenitor of the social construction model (and crip theory in turn). The choice of #83bfe5 is a nod to the Deaf flag.

Green represents eco-crip theory, the eco-social model of disability, and other crip engagements with environmentalism. The choice of #48af75 is a nod to the nonhuman flag. Because being a cyborg (alterhuman) is a proud tradition of crip theory.

The repetition of purple serves to show crip pride & theory exist within a social construction framework. Also it widens the amount of the flag which is stripes, reflecting how crip includes groups not consistently understood as disabled (e.g. fat, intersex).

As with the disability pride flag, the dark grey (#595959) represents the lives lost to ableism and our collective grief.

Tagging @radiomogai @mad-pride @liom-archive for archival. And I wanna acknowledge @scifimagpie for giving me feedback on dozens of prototypes. 💛

Finally: I release this flag design as public domain! 💜

[howwekeepcriptime]

Paid opportunity here for sick/Disabled Two-Spirit, trans and queer people who are interested in talking to me about their experiences of time! See my Call for Participants page for more info if you're interested in applying. 👨🏻‍🦼💨

[volant-endeavor]

U ever think about how fucked up time is?

This essay is a balm to the pains of time. Whether you are disabled or not, crip time can teach you.

[Under the cut there are a couple videos talking about time as it exists under capitalism]

[modmad]

hey! there's zero esims left for the connecting gaza campaign as of today. i remember you promoting them earlier. could you give them a much needed boost?

oh dang! unfamiliar with that particular campaign, as I always donate via crips for e-sims because it's super easy to do, but regardless let's go people!

[libraryben]

Six Ways of Looking at Crip Time1 Ellen Samuels

Abstract

In this creative nonfiction essay, the author reflects on how 'crip time' has operated in their life, not only as a form of liberation, but also as a site of loss and alienation.

When disabled folks talk about crip time, sometimes we just mean that we're late all the time—maybe because we need more sleep than nondisabled people, maybe because the accessible gate in the train station was locked. But other times, when we talk about crip time, we mean something more beautiful and forgiving. We mean, as my friend Margaret Price explains, we live our lives with a "flexible approach to normative time frames" like work schedules, deadlines, or even just waking and sleeping. My friend Alison Kafer says that "rather than bend disabled bodies and minds to meet the clock, crip time bends the clock to meet disabled bodies and minds." I have embraced this beautiful notion for many years, living within the embrace of a crip time that lets me define my own "normal."

And yet recently I have found myself thinking about the less appealing aspects of crip time, that are harder to see as liberatory, more challenging to find a way to celebrate. Now in my forties, as I reflect on my life, these other ways of looking at crip time have been pressing deeply, leaving their mark.

[studyingsocialjustice]

7 Days of Productivity, Days 1-3

Well, I had certainly hoped to be able to upload daily instead of all on one day. Alas, I ran out of time and energy after doing work all day to post any updates. But here we are! I'm honestly not super happy with how the last three days have gone, but I'm hoping for tomorrow and Friday to be better.

Monday Dec 4 - Day 1: As you can see by my Study Bunny daily study hours, I didn't get much work time in this day. I had a really hard time getting up and moving in the morning and ended up sleeping half of the day. My body definitely needed it, but it's not ideal when you have deadlines! I did have a productive rehearsal for my scene for my Directing class though. We didn't get to everything I had planned so I'll have to prioritize the last chunk during my rehearsal tomorrow. After rehearsal, I went to the library and started my final project for my Social Justice Education class. My topic for the project was the concept of Crip Time, and I had a little bit too much fun researching it! I am so passionate about the field of Disability Studies so I kept getting distracted by all the articles I was finding, even if they weren't actually useful to my project 😝 I guess that's a good problem to have, but again - deadlines!

Tuesday Dec 5 - Day 2: Unfortunately another day where I didn't spend as much time as planned on working. I had planned to spend the entire day at the library, but due to a miscommunication my anxiety got really bad right before my partner dropped me off at campus, and it took me probably three hours to be calm enough to get any work done. I used the Study Bunny app when I first got to the library, but after a few hours it just didn't make sense to me to bother using it since I was just going to work continuously. Next time I'll use the stopwatch function instead of the countdown. While I was at the library I created a universal annotation key for myself. I like to color-code my highlighting but it always slows me down to take the time to set up my color key, so I thought I would just create one that would be applicable to everything that I read, not just course readings. After I got home and showered, I was ready to do more work, but it seemed my cat had other ideas! I still managed to get another couple of hours of progress on my project though.

Wednesday Dec 6 - Day 3: I finished my project on Crip Time and thus finished my Social Justice Education class! I'm having a hard time being happy about it though. I spent 5 straight hours finishing the project, and didn't have it completely finished until just before I presented it to the class - and I was the last to go. I am happy with the final product, and I feel like I learned a lot from my work on it, but I'm pretty unhappy with myself for my utter lack of time management with the project. Oh well ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ there's always next semester. And hey, I don't have to worry about it anymore! That's one class down, three to go.

I also got my grades back for my two Incomplete classes. I got a B in both classes, which is honestly better than I was expecting. I didn't finish all of the work (and didn't finish most of the work for one of them) for them, so I thought I was going to have a C at best. But the B is a huge relief! And like with Social Justice Ed, it's done and I finally don't have to worry about it anymore.

Up Next: [] Make a plan for how I'm going to complete all the work for my Directing class [] Prepare for my rehearsal tomorrow [] Finish the text analysis for the scene I'm directing [] Complete my production critique for All's Well That Ends Well [x] Choose the other two productions that I need to watch and critique [] Order the gifts for my boyfriend's mom, grandmother, and stepmom for when we visit them all for Christmas. I'm thinking of getting candles for each of them as hostess gifts. We'll be spending 5 days with his mom's side of the family and then 5 days with his dad's - I'm nervous!

Wish me luck for a better and more productive day tomorrow! And I wish you the best of luck for your day and your exams as well. We got this!

🎵: Einaudi: Experience

[zzkt]

[howwekeepcriptime]

Here is a little bit about my in-progress graphic novel to go with the call for participation I'm sharing.

Adagio is a story about a sick transsexual drummer named Lucky who is transitioning into crip time. The story takes place over two intertwining timelines in the drummer’s life, and spans across two fictionalized port cities. In the not-so-distant future, a late-twenties Lucky is navigating a potentially regrettable solo trip to his hometown for a one-night-only show - his first since the onset of his illness; while in the not-so-distant past, a teenage Lucky is discovering the venue for the first time in the midst of a transition of his own. 

As I start to select participants for How We Keep Crip Time, I will share some previews of the story it will live alongside 👨🏻‍🦼💨

[samuel-star]

What’s the point of the buttons if they DON’T WORK.

How the fuck can you claim to be an “accessible campus” if this shit hasn’t been fixed. I’ve been hearing other people complain about this bullshit for MONTHS. Literally like nine months. I’ve BEEN AT THIS FUCKING COLLEGE FOR NINE MONTHS. I’VE BEEN HEARING ABOUT THIS SHIT SINCE THE MOMENT I GOT TO THIS FUCKING CAMPUS.

[cosmic-pr1nce]

I HATE that online school isn't an option anymore

DISABLED PEOPLE STILL EXIST IN PERSON SCHOOL IS STILL VERY DIFFICULT TO ACCESS

[cedarspiced]

someone really struggling with something is NOT the same as someone being fully unable to do something, and saying as much is not oppression olympics, it's just a statement of fact.

if that statement feels invalidating to you, please ask yourself why.

just because someone needs more accomodations than you doesn't mean you are any LESS disabled, it just means that different people are going to have different needs, and that's ok!

[cy-cyborg]

Wheelchair users:

Hey, the main entrance to your business is up some stairs, is there a wheelchair accessible entrance with a ramp or something available?

non-disabled business owners:

No, we don't get any customers in wheelchairs so there's no point

Wheelchair users:

...do...do you think there might be a reason for that?

Non-disabled business owners:

Because disabled people don't need [whatever product or service we provide], obviously.

[wheelie-hurting]

i love u full time wheelchair users💚

[a-sassy-bench]

yes, your disabled friends will frequently not want to go out. but you better fucking invite them anyway. if you just straight up forget about them entirely when making plans, then you aren't their friend.

[heliza24]

Being a physically disabled Dimension 20 fan breaks my heart sometimes

I’ve been thinking about this since last Wednesday’s episode when we finally got a real scene with Lydia, one of the few physically disabled characters in the entire canon of the show. It was nice, but it was really just a lore dump. An excuse for exposition. A moment for Kristen to look good by expending sympathy/pity. (I’m a little frustrated about how that interaction went down. Extending the help action was nice but patronizingly touching the neck of a full-ass adult without consent was not. It was weird and not something she would have done to a nondisabled character).

I have watched almost all of D20 (still missing a couple of seasons) and as far as I know here’s where our list of canon physically disabled characters stand: Lydia Barkrock, Jan de la Vega (who feels pretty problematic to me, maybe more on that in a later post), one of the Dwarven statues in the temple in The Seven (who is not given the dignity of being brought to life like Asha), and Pete’s coworker in TUC2 who is in exactly one episode and is so unimportant I have forgotten his name. I guess you could make an argument that Gunny is disabled, but I don't feel that Lou or Brennan really talk about him or play him through that lens. So in terms of canon physically disabled PCs-- that leaves us with 0.

We do a bit better with neurodivergent characters and characters with mental health problems; Ayda (my beloved) is very well developed and Adaine is a PC. There have been some openly neurodivergent players, like Omar and Surena, whose characters also read ND to me. But that isn’t labeled or discussed in canon, so it's hard for me to know where to class that. I am going to focus the rest of this post on physical disabilities, since that is my area of lived experience. If another fan wants to write about their perspective of neurodivergence rep in the show, I would love to hear that, and will happily amplify.

There has never been a character with a sensory disability or a limb difference or a chronic illness (not a fantasy one, a real one) on Dimension 20. The only NPCs we have are nondescript, similar wheelchair users. And there has never been a physically disabled player at the table. On the flagship show of Dropout, a company founded on diversity and inclusion. It feels extremely pointed to me.

In fact as far as I can tell there has only been one (1) physically disabled performer on any of Dropout’s shows. (Shout out to Brett, you were great on Dirty Laundry.) Obviously I haven’t seen every episode of everything they have produced. If I have missed someone, please do let me know in the comments/reblogs. But it’s a problem. And Sam Reich even agreed with this criticism when I asked him directly about.

I do really hope they’re working on it, as Sam says. But why has it taken so long?

Dimension 20 has had trans and nonbinary and queer players. It has had players of many different races. I’m not saying that the diversity here is perfect; there should always be more POC in the dome, more queer people. We should keep pushing for that. (And we should also push for performers at the intersections of these identities!) But we’ve seen the ways this diversity has expanded and improved the different seasons, because diverse players create sensitively drawn, diverse player characters. They add details to their PC’s experiences that make them feel rich and alive. I’m thinking about each of Ally’s PC’s incredible capital G gender and Aabria “all my characters (even the stoats) are Black” and how excellent they all are. D20 would not be the show it is without this input.

And yet. And yet.

There are 1,000 interesting and complicated themes to explore around disability. Dealing with access. Dealing with ableism. Dealing with compassion and community care. Dealing with none of it and just being a cool fantasy or sci fi character that happens to be disabled. We don’t get any of it.

I watch my favorite show and I see myself in the ace rep and the female characters. But I don’t see all of me. I see a silent but ever present message: you aren’t quite welcome here.

I have this fantasy that I play in my brain sometimes that someday I’ll get to talk to Brennan in person, like maybe if I buy a VIP ticket and risk Covid to go to a live show or we run into each other on the street or something. I am able to look him in the eye and articulate why he NEEDS to include a physically disabled player in an upcoming season. I reference the ways he’s talked about inclusion and writing diversely on Adventuring Party. Maybe I hand him a handwritten letter, or hell, a printout of this post. And because he really cares about diversity and his shows and his fans he would listen to me, and cast a physically disabled performer in the next season.

But I think that might be giving that nondisabled man (whose work I adore, who I respect so much) too much credit. Because he’s had Jennifer Kretchmer, a physically disabled actual play performer, on adventuring academy to talk about access in gaming. He’s hired disability consultants. He knows about physically disabled people, enough to give us shoutouts as inconsequential npcs. And he still hasn’t thought to include us at the table. In over 20 seasons. None of that other stuff matters if we aren't given a seat at the story telling table, and the agency to craft our own narratives equal to other participants in the game.

When Lydia was telling her story in the last episode, I kept wishing for a prequel, where she is more than a plot delivery device and a kind but unimportant parent. I want to know about her adventures with her adventuring party. I want to see a talented, wheelchair-using actor play out the scene when she decides to put the gem in her chest. I want to hear about what happened after. I want to know how she survived. I want it so badly it hurts.

I am in the process of trying to find new indie actual plays that feature more disabled talent. I am learning how to GM myself so I can tell these kinds of stories. But it’s not the same as being a fan of something. Sometimes I don’t want to have to make my own representation. Sometimes I just want to turn on my favorite tv show, the one that I have cosplayed from and written metas about and loved whole heartedly, and see myself included.

If you’re another disabled or neurodivergent fan I’d love to hear your thoughts on this. If you’re not, I’d love for you to reblog this. I would love for the absence of physical disability in this show to be a topic of fandom conversation, at the very least.