#fandom ableism

[sassydefendorflower]

I want to talk about something. I want to talk about ableism in fandom. And sexism in fandom. Oh, and racism in fandom.

Mostly though, I wanna talk about how the discussion about these things often gets derailed because people don't understand what trends and typical behaviors actually are.

Whenever a Person of Color, a woman, someone disabled, someone queer (or an intersection of any of these groups) points out that certain fandom trends are bigoted in some shape or form, half the replies seem to be "but they are my comfort character! Maybe people just like them better because they are more interesting!" or even "people are allowed to have headcanons!" - the very daft even go for a "don't bring politics into fandom" which is a personal favorite because nothing exists in a vacuum and nothing is truly apolitical. But alas~

What most of these replies seemingly fail to understand is something very, very simple: it's not about you.

You, as an individual, are just one datapoint in a fandom. You are not the trend. You do not necessarily depict the typical behavior.

When someone points out that there is racism in fandom, that doesn't mean every fan is racist or perpetuating racist ideas*. By constantly mentioning your own lack of racism, quite often, you are actively derailing the conversation away from the problems at hand.

When someone names and describes a trend, they don't mean your headcanon specifically - they mean the accumulated number of headcanons perpetuating a harmful or outdated idea.

I am not saying this to forbid anyone from writing fics about their favorite characters or to keep anyone from having fun headcanons and sharing their theories and thoughts - quite the opposite actually. A critique of a general trend is not a critique of you as an individual - and you're going to have a much better, and more productive, time online if you can internalize that. If you stop growing defensive and instead allow yourself to actually digest the message of what was pointed out.

I am saying this to encourage some critical thinking.

Allow me to offer up some examples:

Case 1: A DC blogger made the daring statement that maybe Tim and Jason were such a popular fanfic focus because they are the only two undeniably white batboys. Immediately someone replied saying "no, it's all the fun traumatic situations we can put them in!". Which is an insane statement to make, considering the same can be said for literally ANY OTHER DC Batman and Batfam character.

The original post wasn't anything groundbreaking, they didn't accuse anyone, didn't name any names... but immediately there was a justification, immediately there was a reason why people might like these characters more. No one stopped to take a second and reflect on the current trends in fanfiction, no one considered that maybe this wasn't a declaration against people who like these characters but a thesis depicting the OVERALL trend of fandom once again focusing on undeniably white (and male) characters.

(don't get me started on the racebending of white characters in media that has a big Cast of Color and the implications of that)

Case 2: A meta posted on Ao3 about ableism in the Criminal Minds fandom caught my attention. A wonderful piece, very thoughtful, analyzing certain characterization choices within the fandom through the lens of an actually autistic person. The conclusion they reached: the writing of Spencer Reid as an autistic character, while often charming and comforting, tended to be incredibly infantilizing and at worst downright ableist. They came to that conclusion while CLEARLY stating that the individual fanfic wasn't the problem, but the general fandom trend in depicting this character.

Once again, looking at the replies seemed to be a mistake: while many comments furthered the discussion, there were quite a few which completely missed the point. Some were downright hostile. Because how dare this author imply that THEY are ableist when they write their favorite character using that specific characterization.

It didn't matter that the author allowed room for personal interpretation. It didn't matter that they noted something concerning about the entire fandom - people still thought they were attacking singular people.

Case 3: I wrote a fic about abortion in the FMA(b) fandom (actually I've written a weird amount of fics about abortion in a lot of fandoms, but alas) and I got hate comments for it. Because of that I addressed the bias in fandom against pro-choice depictions of pregnancies. I pointed out that the utter lack of abortion in many omegaverse stories or even mpreg or het romances, painted the picture of an unconscious bias that hurt people for whom abortion was the only option, the best possible ending. The response on the post itself was mostly positive, but I got anon hate.

(which I can unfortunately not show you since I deleted it in the months since)

And I'm not overly broken up about it, but it also underlines my point: by pointing at a general problem, a typical behavior, a larger trend... people feel personally attacked.

This inability to discuss sexism, ableism, racism, transphobia, etc in fandom without people turning defensive and hurt... well, it damages our ability to have these conversations at all.

Earlier I said YOU are not the problem - well, i think part of this discussion is acknowledging that: sometimes YOU are in fact part of the problem. And that's not the end of the world. But you can only recognize yourself as a cog in the machine, if you can examine your own actions, your own biases, your own preferences critically and without becoming defensive.

And, again, this is not to keep you from finding comfort in your favorite characters and headcanons. This is also not to say that I am free of biases and internalized bigotries - I am also very much a part of the system. A part of the problem.

This is so you can comfortably ask yourself "but why is there no abortion in this universe?" or "why are my favorite black characters always the top in my slash ships?" or "why do I write this disabled character as childish and in need of help?" - and sometimes the answer is "because I am disabled and I want comfort", and that's fine too.

There is no one shoe fits all in fiction. There is not a single trope that captures all members of a group. There is no single stereotype that isn't also someone's comfort. No group is a monolith, no experienced all-encompasing (or entirely unique).

There is never a simple answer.

But that doesn't mean you should stop questioning your own biases, your own ideals.

Especially, if you grow defensive if someone points out that a certain trend you engage in might be racist. Or sexist. Or queerphobic. Or fucking ableist.

*this does not mean negate the general anti-blackness perpetuated by most cultures as a result of colonialism and slavery

[soullessjack]

not only should any autistic character who’s ever been infantilized by their fanbase kill and maim more people, but they should also fuck as nasty as possible too. as a treat

[1863-project]

Please reblog for a bigger sample size - this is part of the same project as my earlier polls! (For extra data, please feel free to mention the character(s) in question in the tags if you've experienced this!)

PLEASE DO NOT ANSWER THE POLL IF YOU ARE NOT AUTISTIC. This is specifically for autistic people's testimonials.

[eelfuneral]

Tech is a grown man and a special ops pilot. He can drink, use firearms, and care for children. He has male pattern baldness and lines on his face. He is a capable adult and I wish that the fandom treated him like one.

Yes, Tech is autistic and has more issues socializing than everyone else, but that doesn’t mean that he needs to be coddled in-universe or by the fandom. He is a grown man who is perfectly capable of figuring out socializing on his own, even if he stumbles more than others. Other characters not understanding him 100% at all times is a fact of life that Tech is likely well aware of as an autistic adult. He is also capable of making genuine mistakes that hurt others to the same degree that a neurotypical person would, and other characters calling him out on it is not ableist. In fact, it would be super weird and ableist for everyone to assume that he is an uwu baby incapable of understanding how to be unkind.

Tech does not need “protection” from other characters flirting with him. Being attracted to an autistic adult is not inherently predatory, and many autistic adults can and do form romantic and/or sexual relationships. Tech almost certainly knows what romance and sex are, and is capable of deciding how interested he is or isn’t in either topic. Him being autistic doesn’t make him a helpless child incapable of understanding “grown-up” topics, and if he ever feels harassed by another character, then I believe that he would not need any help sticking up for himself. Tech is assertive and blunt. He called Cid ugly TO HER FACE once. He does not need Hunter or Wrecker or whoever to intervene for him if he needs to tell someone no or call them out.

Tech isn’t portrayed as innocent and cutesy in canon, but I see this characterization a lot in fanon and I have a hard time believing that it has nothing to do with his autism. As an autistic person who has had to deal with my own classmates talking to me like I was four months old for a good chunk of my childhood, I can’t say that I love this fandom trend.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

As much as I'm glad Daniel Sousa got away from Peggy because he deserved so much better than her, I won't ever forgive Marvel Studios for proving Agent Krzeminski's ableist, misogynistic ass right when he said, "No girl is gonna trade in a red, white, and blue shield for an aluminum crutch."

What a great message to send to disabled people in the audience, "You are only ever good enough to be the second choice to an abled person, you don't deserve a have a happy ending."

[describe-things]

new meme format.

[ID: A chart labeled, "Fragility scale", with three colums down the side. The first is labeled "Fragile" in yellow, and reads, "Glass". Next is "Very Fragile" in orange, for "The tail of a Batavian tear". Last is "The most fragile thing in the world" in red, for "Fandom when you criticize racism, misogyny, ableism, and other bigotry in media.". End ID.]

Download the HD template from the internet archive here. The image description should be copied and pasted whenever you use the meme, just edit whichever parts you're changing. No credit is necessary as long as you make your post accessible.

[rejectedfables]

Headcanoning [villainous character] with [stigmatized neurodivergence] but like. Not like that. Not to villainize the disorder but to humanize the villain. It makes them relatable to me. Not to "explain" their violent behavior (which is irrelevant), but to acknowledge their trauma. The author gave them trauma and said "their response makes them evil" and I say "that's the least interesting take a person could have. I want to dig my claws into how trauma affects people. I want meat."

If I tell yall which character and which disorder though, somebody is gonna clown too close to the sun about it. Can't have SHIT in this villain loving house

[zvtara-was-never-canon]

with the new Azula comic that showed her as a traumatized abuse victim like Zuko out I have seen so much victim blaming sh*t from a bunch of zuko stans

I f***ing hate this fandom and I want to hear your opinion about it

Nothing new under the sun and to be expected, especially since Azula actually rejected redemption this time (unlike all the other times people claimed she "rejected second chances" she was never actually given).

The fact that Zuko ALSO rejected redemption in Ba Sing Se, and that even with that no one was saying "He is a villain therefore what his father did to him doesn't count as abuse because he isn't an 'innocent' victim" doesn't matter to them for four reasons, that often overlap:

1 - Zuko was never described as being mentally ill, while Azula was, so she has to deal with a ton of ableism Zuko got to avoid.

2 - Zuko is a boy, so he avoids falling victim to the sexism of some parts of the fandom.

3 - Zuko is a victim of physical abuse. The proof of his suffering is literally burned into his face. Azula's scars are all emotional, so it's easier for people to dismiss them without being called out. Nobody is gonna have the balls to say being disfigured by one's own parent doesn't count as abuse.

4 - The writers never intended for Azula to be a victim at all, hence some EXTREMELY tone-deaf things like Iroh saying "She's crazy and needs to go down" or the script literally describing Azula like she's an animal during her breakdown. She was meant to be the crazy, evil villain that is evil because she's crazy, and crazy because she's evil. It was only when other writers on the team started giving her a bit more depth and people really thought of all the implications of things like hering being raised by Ozai, considering herself "imperfect" for things like one hair out of place, having a breakdown due to feeling like an unwanted monster, acting as bait for the enemies while her father was hiding away safely during the invasion, or the fact that Ozai is canonically the only person to ever manipulate her (which shocking ease) that people realized "Holy shit, this is abuse too."

5 - This fandom, for all their praise of Zuko's redemption/healing arc, doesn't actually understand or like said arc, hence them taking away all of Zuko's flaws and pretending his bad choices were not truly his - after all, if he isn't an "innocent" victim, then he is no victim at all and thus deserved all that happened to him like his evil sister does.

(I'll say it again: this fandom does not actually understand why Ozai was an awful parent, they just think he was too harsh on the wrong child. They think Azula is the "good-for-nothing" child that deserves to be abused, while Zuko is the "golden boy" that needs to be perfect - or else)

[azurecanary]

Y'know i could probably take Stiles having ADHD seriously if the fandom treated it as anything other than something that makes him a quirky uwu boy

[omgcheez]

This is what some redditors see when they talk about Abed. It's like they watched this episode and nothing else.

[enby-axels]

izuna: *warns madara to not trust the senju and correctly predicts doing so would end with their clan's demise*

naruto fans: the AUDACITY, how dare he say something so factually true. how can he be filled with so much justified HATRED, it has to be due to a genetically inherited MENTAL ILLNESS bc as we all know no SANE person would say such a horrible, accurate thing

[rjalker]

"OMG, it's a kids series, why are you criticizing the bigotry in it? That's so cringey!

"Who cares if a show aimed at little kids is teaching them that it's romantic for boys to sexually harass and assault girls?

"Who cares that this kids book series with over 60 entries is defending slavery and genocide??

"Who cares if there's victim blaming and rape apologism in just the second book??

"Who cares if [insert children's series] is teaching kids horrible, cruel, bigoted ideas that they will absorb and reproduce in real life?

"Who cares that the media we show to kids plays a massive role in shaping our society?

"It's just a kids series! Stop criticizing the blatant bigoted propaganda being fed to kids by conservatives who want little kids to think that being abused by their partner is the height of romance!!!"

[ID: The Garfield "you are not immune to propaganda" meme, with Garfield the orange cat's head smiling on a blue background, with the text now reading, "Children are especially susceptible to propaganda.". End ID.]

[soullessjack]

autistic spn fans: hey I relate a lot to jacks character and feel really represented as an autistic adult who has the same issues and experiences he has in the show :) here’s why I think he’s autistic and I’m gonna ask the silly actor man if he meant to do that bc he did it so well :)

silly actor man: I think he’s definitely a little bit on the spectrum, most of his traits were just from not being fully human but it’s important that people get to see themselves represented on tv and I like having that connection with you guys :)

the rest of the fandom: yay that’s so cool we love representation that’s so important he gets to be autistic just like his dad we love our autistic nougat child 😝😝😝

autistic spn fans: hey since we all agree that jacks autistic could you guys like dial it back on the baby thing it was cute at first but now that’s like the only content you ever make with jack and it’s kind of irritating and infantilizing

the rest of the fandom for some stupid fucking reason: I mean yea but I just like this better 😋😋 so cute and domestic and destiel family yay 😁 he’s basically a toddler anyways already its not hurting anyone 😜

autistic spn fans: … he literally says he isn’t a child and hates when ppl treat him like one and half of your reasoning for him being a child is just his autistic traits

the rest of this stupid fucking fandom for some stupid fucking reason: anyways i actually think that jack should’ve always been a baby and never ever an adult so that dean and cas can be uwu soft domestic gay dads with him 😝😝

autistic spn fans who related to jack as autistic adults and felt represented by him enough to thank the actor for his portrayal:

[1863-project]

Please reblog this if you vote, and if you'd like to share your own stories with me, please do, as this poll is part of a larger study I'm working on and the more data I can get for that, the better! If you'd be okay with sharing your story with me and having it anonymously included in the essay I'm writing, you can message me so we can discuss further.

[eelfuneral]

I know that I’ve touched on the harassment that people are getting for posting theories about Tech being alive, but there is another element that I believe we should discuss: the fact that the harassment is being disproportionately lobbed at autistic fans. Now, I’m not trying to imply that all of the people leaving these nasty comments are sitting around thinking about how much they hate autistic people, but whether they realize it or not, the types of posts that they tend to leave nasty comments on tend to be posts made by people displaying what might be autistic traits. In fact, a lot of posts that have these harassing comments are made by people who make it no secret that they are autistic and sometimes even mention it in their bio.

So what do I mean when I say that a lot of these posts may hint at OP being autistic? For starters, autistic brains tend to latch onto things with a great deal of intensity, and sometimes our brains latch onto specific fictional characters. We know logically that these characters are not real and that there are objectively more important things to worry about, but our brains simply do not care. Focused autistic interests are a source of a lot of comfort and stability for us in a world that is often overwhelming, and they are important to us as a result. A lot of the people dogging the Tech posts seem to take issue with how “obsessed” people are with the character and his survival, which in some cases, is due to OP simply being autistic and having a focused interest.

Another trait that can manifest in autistic people is difficulty with emotional regulation, meaning that even “small” things can make us more upset than our peers. The people leaving harassing replies seem to have picked up on the fact that people are “too emotional” over a fictional character and sometimes even make their replies extra graphic (ie. “he’s rotting at the bottom of the chasm”, “he’s flesh paste”) in order to get a rise out of the OP. Obviously, not everyone who makes posts like these or has these challenges is autistic, but I believe that my point still stands that going after people with these traits will cause autistic people to be disproportionately targeted, which is an ableist pattern.

Sometimes, however, the harassment feels more intentionally targeted at autistic fans. A lot of Tech fans really value Tech as autistic representation and feel like killing him off in our current popular culture environment where a fair chunk of autistic portrayals are negative is in poor taste. The “Tech is dead, get over it” harassers blatantly ignore or ridicule these statements, showing zero empathy to the people who feel seen because of this character. I have seen people bulldoze into posts where autistic fans talk about how much they hope he survives because they see themselves in him with comments like “he’s dead, get over it.” In one instance, I saw an allistic fan tell an autistic fan that Tech was “forced diversity” and that if Disney was going to attempt autistic representation, then the character shouldn’t be “boring” like Tech. I don’t think I really need to explain why this is inappropriate.

It’s fine to disagree with a popular fan theory or debate about it in good faith with someone who is up to it, but what I am seeing goes well beyond that. Harassment is never, ever okay, and you should know better than to leave replies like the ones in these screenshots below when you see a fan theory that you don’t agree with.

[gay-jewish-bucky]

The amount of abled people who are smugly like "it's an au, don't like, don't read 🙄" when disabled people complain about disability erasure in fic (which is deeply rooted in societal ableism) make me so sick. Like no, fuck you.

For one, 99.999999999% of writers don't tag the fact they've done this, so it's literally impossible to avoid. Especially in fandoms where the majority of AUs have erased character's canon disabilities.

Second, Canon disabilities, even acquired disabilities, being included in every universe are vital to maintaining character integrity, no matter how far you stray from canon.

There are countless ways for someone to be born or become disabled. Many of these ways are not as traumatic as canon! If the story isn't about them becoming disabled, you don't even have to include how it happened, you can just have them... be disabled already!

If you erase a disability because you can't be bothered, or you think disabilities existing ruin lighthearted stories, or if you intentionally replace a mobility aide with an accessory or tattoo: you're an asshole.

Disabled people exist in the real world, stop erasing us because you see our disabilities as burdens that can't exist in cute little fantasies, and can only exist in tragedy.