#this is about a lot of things from physical ableism to mental ableism

[karmaphone]

why is it so hard for ableists to accept that there is no support network for those that are not well liked, that resources are withheld or deemed nonexistent if they are considered unpleasant or rude or just unlikeable, and that fact legitimately results in peoples deaths

[mossterious]

Something really poignant about Lisa Frankenstein, to be at least, is the fact that when the creature attacks Janet, it’s not when she’s being rude to her. It’s not when she’s just saying rude things, or beoittling Lisa, or anything. It’s when Janet says that she’s going to admit Lisa.

Because the creature is from the 1830s. And even if he knows about modern culture and inventions, which he sort of seems to?, he’s still FROM the 1830s. And when Janet says the word admitted, he hears the word committed. When Janet says Serenity Manor, he knows that that means an asylum. And he knows what asylums are. They are dangerous places. They are places where you’re stripped of all autonomy. They are places where you send people away to become someone else’s problem, and they normally don’t come back. And so he attacks. He protects Lisa.

And I think that draws a really important comparison between what asylums were, and what mental care is now. Because in a lot of ways, it isn’t much better. There’s still a lot of abuse in the system. There’s still a complete lack of autonomy. There’s still so much ableism and bias within the system. And people are still sent there to get them out of other peoples ways, rather than strictly to help them. And, sure, this movie is set in the 80s, so it’s not exactly modern. I mean, the movie points out that times are different. But with Janet, it almost seems intent on pointing out of similar everything is. Sending Lisa to a psych ward. The diet culture. The “intuitive person” thing. That one line about narcissists needing to be vanquished. And all these things are still a pretty big issue now.

There’s just a lot of comparison. ESPECIALLY a lot of comparison when it comes to disability and madness in these three distinct time periods. And like, it’s obvious that mental health was used as a weapon against people, and especially WOMEN, in the 1830s. But Lisa Frankenstein highlights that in the 80s, it was still a weapon! And that psych ward programs still poses a threat. Theres a comparison between how Janet and Lisa’s dad erase Lisa’s grief and say that she’s “acting out” compared to female hysteria of the creature’s time. There’s also the creature’s reaction to being physically disabled vs Lisa’s, with Patch and everything, but that honestly is another post entirely.

I just think that the discussion of mental health in this film is really important and, frankly, really well done. Especially especially especially through the lens that Lisa is a girl. And Lisa Frankenstein is a movie about GIRLHOOD. And so the movie took the extra step to talk about the denial of women’s feelings and specifically grief, and the pathologization of them. When women feel in a way outside of a norm, they’re wrong. They’re crazy. They’re dangerous. And idk I just think it’s done really well and the comparisons are all right there.

And this is all in a movie based on Frankenstein. This is all about a character based on Victor Frankenstein. The MAD scientist. So I feel like it all fits together incredibly well.

[dandylovesturtles]

Sidelined AU Info Post

Alright, I guess we're doing this

CWs: mentions of internalized ableism, struggles with mental health

Timeline:

all of S1 is the same as in canon up until End Game

however, after Splinter turns over the helmet to Draxum, Draxum does not put on the armor, but chooses to put Leo inside instead, realizing that whoever goes in will probably have something horrible happen to them. that's detailed in this fic

unlike Draxum, who gets spit out of the armor immediately, Leo ends up trapped inside. from Leo's perspective, he is only vaguely aware of what's happening outside (it's a bit sunken place-ish, with him seeing snatches of events like through a grainy television), and he has only small amounts of influence over what the armor does

once Feral Shredder is on the loose, he pretty immediately starts destroying the Hidden City. Draxum realizes that he has inadvertently released a great evil on his people, the exact opposite of what he wanted, and he turns to the Hamatos to help him stop it. obviously they don't want to work with Draxum, but they have to get Leo back so they take the help

it takes them two days, during which the Shredder moves up to start terrorizing New York as well, but eventually they get him subdued. I'm not 100% on what goes down yet or whether Big Mama gets involved (I'm leaning toward not), but Leo fighting from the inside is a big help

Leo is removed from the armor and is in really bad physical shape; meanwhile the Shredder is subdued for now. in the immediate aftermath, the Foot Clan manages to get ahold of the Shredder and take off with him

he's too weak to do anything immediately but he is very much a Looming Threat the family is aware of

Draxum leaves for awhile at this point because none of them want him around and seeing Leo in the aftermath did wake him up to "oh yeah that's just a kid and I did that to him," also he's feeling real bad about that whole "accidentally almost destroying the yokai and also maybe the world" thing

meanwhile, Leo is severely weakened, but there's not anything that the family can do to hasten his recovery. they can only get him hooked up to an IV for fluids and nutrients and wait

it takes Leo a few days to become fully lucid again; during that time he tries to fight anyone around him off or sometimes pushes his family away to "protect" them

eventually Leo does regain lucidity, he tells everyone he's fine but he's Super Depressed. he's also lost his mystic powers completely.

Splinter also retreats a bit at this point, because he feels guilt for handing the helmet over to Draxum instead of trying to find a different way to rescue his boys, which isn't a great thing for him to do but his mental health is also not doing very well (someone get these guys some therapy)

in the meantime the bros and April manage the best they can, they all have different approaches but I'll go into detail about that in the next section

there's no treatment for Leo's condition outside the most boring one: time, exercise, and diet. unsurprisingly he hates this

Healing Bad Times abound, as shown in this fic

eventually the boys have to go out on a mission again. Leo, feeling useless, listens in on the comms from the lair, and ends up catching something the other boys' missed, meaning he's able to save them from a trap or something idk exactly what the point is he makes himself useful

this opens up a new path for Leo, one his brothers very heavily encourage

with a new goal in mind, Leo starts taking a lot better care of himself, actually following his physical therapy routine, spending time gaining new skills, and accepting help in the form of mobility aids. his physical and mental health both start making big improvements

this also helps his dad's mental health, everyone is doing better even if things aren't perfect

Donnie builds Leo a command center modeled after the bridge of Jupiter Jim's ship, he absolutely loves it. whenever the boys+April are on missions, Leo is in his command center helping from the background

eventually Leo has gotten to the point where he has enough strength for day to day life most of the time, he still isn't fighting baddies on rooftops but he can get to a store and back without collapsing on a good day and that's pretty good!

the Foot Clan has been a much bigger threat in this version of S2 and it's clear they're up to something big

of course right when Leo is starting to feel stable and happy again, that's when they launch their final attack

a lot of the finale events go down similarly to how they do in canon, minus Battle Nexus New York. they get Karai back but then she dies, Shredder destroys their home (including Leo's command center :c ), everything is Bad

Leo gets his mystic powers back the same way his brothers do, though he needs a little bit of an extra helping nudge from April/Karai, since he didn't think that was a thing he could still do

everyone getting their mystic powers is emotional but it's especially emotional for Leo. he didn't even know what ninpo was before today, but he knew after the Shredder it was like some part of his soul got locked away, and now that he can feel it again he finally feels whole

it gives him a burst of adrenaline so he can participate in the fight, though he doesn't do much of the actual battling, instead getting his bros where they need to be for the big hits (I mean this is basically what he does anyway haha)

it takes Donnie exactly .02 seconds to figure out how to use his own mystic powers to support Leo physically so that helps

after this, Leo becomes a more constant part of the team in the field, though he still primarily works as support and only gets into direct fights when he feels like he has to

instead of being made leader like in canon, Leo and Raph become co-leaders. Leo's own leadership abilities have improved massively, but Raph has more experience in the field, so having the two of them working together means they cover each other's blind spots, and the division of labor is less stressful for both of them

since Leo's already been through his character development and this tension is gone the movie events play out totally differently but I haven't gotten that far yet lol. I'm sure the apocalypse still happens somehow, though, I'd hate to lose Casey Jr

happy ending whooo

Relationships

Raph

Raph feels a lot of guilt about what happened to Leo; he was supposed to protect his little brothers and he didn't, and now one of them has permanent physical disabilities as a result. add to that it was Raph's idea to be heroes in the first place and yeah... he's not doing great

because of this guilt, Raph's instinct is to essentially baby Leo - he wants to take care of his every need as soon as it arises. this makes Leo feel stifled and infantilized, and drives a wedge in their relationship (the same one Raph is driving between himself and Mikey, in fact)

his and Donnie's distinctly different approaches to the situation also mean that they get into arguments often and can't really deal with being around each other, leaving Raph feeling isolated at the start (and thus pouring more attention and effort into Leo, which compounds the problem)

Raph dealing with his own guilt and trying to find the balance between helping Leo while also respecting his need for independence, boundaries, and dignity is a big part of his journey in the AU, and it also improves his relationship with Mikey and Donnie as he gets better at those skills

Donnie

Donnie is not dealing well with the fact that there's nothing to fix. they can only be patient and work incrementally to improve Leo's condition

he distracts himself by putting all his energy into making the lair accessible for Leo, building him mobility aids and doing everything he can to help

he also has a hard time understanding why Leo won't do the things that will help him (at first), because doesn't he just want things to go back to normal? doesn't he want to help himself? why won't he just do what he obviously has to do, Donnie does not understand

Leo is deep in denial at first, and he feels like he breaks down and starts doing physical therapy and using mobility aids and doing basically any of the things that will help him, that means it's not going to magically get better, it's going to take time and effort and it will probably never be fixed, just improved, and he hates that so much he's choosing to treat this like a temporary cold or flu that will blow over any day now

Donnie doesn't understand that so he takes Leo's refusal as a rejection and animosity abounds!

breakdowns and admissions of feelings will eventually happen

Donnie and Leo together come to grips with the idea that there is no fixing this and there is no return to how things were before but they can work toward a new normal that's just as good

Mikey

this one is a little bit too big for Dr. Delicate Touch and Dr. Feelings

Mikey tries, but he is just a kid, and with their dad emotionally retreating too there's just too many feelings for him to deal with on his own

he's gonna play family therapist until he breaks

he's frustrated because he can see what each of his brothers need to do to feel better but they just! won't! they won't do it, and he doesn't know how to make them

he's really stressed

it's Mikey that realizes that Leo needs goals to work toward to get himself motivated to take care of himself, and it's Mikey who pushes the hardest for Leo's new role in the team

sometimes Mikey will challenge Leo to something silly, like who can make the most throws of a paper ball into a trash can, just to push Leo into exercising

he finds other little ways to help the others too, but he still can't solve the big problems on his own

meltdown ensues

Mikey has to learn to take care of himself, too, while the others have to learn they can't lean so hard on him for all their emotional problems

April

the only one holding on around here. it helps that she doesn't actually have to live in the powderkeg

takes a rationally minded approach to all these problems, kind of functioning like family therapist along with Mikey but in a healthier and more controlled way

helps get them resources from above ground

Leo opens up the most about his feelings about his physical condition to her first, because she strikes the best balance between being a sympathetic ear without coddling him

she's also stressed, but she has an outside support network so she's handling it better

Splinter

fully blames himself for what happened to Leo and has a hard time getting over it

depression in full swing

it means he can't easily get out of bed to help his kids, but then he feels bad because he isn't helping them, which worsens the depression, which makes it hard to get out of bed... a vicious cycle

when Leo starts working on his condition he gets a pact out of his dad that they will both work on being healthier together

maybe they manage to find an actual therapist eventually idk lol

either way, Splinter and Leo grumpily sitting over their plate of broccoli and then Leo says "bet I can eat more pieces than you" and it's on son

he's trying his best

Leo's Condition

Leo came out of the armor severely dehydrated and malnourished, even more so than any person should realistically be after two days; just keeping him from dying of the dehydration was the most immediate struggle

the main issue is that Leo's life force, mystic abilities included, were basically sucked out, leaving his body catastrophically physically weak

his muscle mass can come back with time and diet

the bigger problems are the bone density and chronic fatigue. while Leo can improve these, they'll never be back to where they were before the Dark Armor

his reduced bone density means he has to be careful doing anything physical because the chance he can break a bone is much higher than average, and he stands to suffer more from that break than the average person

he'll eventually get to where he can go through his day-to-day life just fine most days, and can even do some of the physical things he enjoyed before, he just has to be careful and know his limits. he'll never be pulling the 1440 off the halfpipe again, but he can still skateboard as long as he's careful.

even when recovered (as much as he can be), he has bad days and days when the fatigue is really strong. how Leo feels on a bad day is up in the air; sometimes he's at peace with it and generally cheerful, happy to be around his family even if he spends most of the time in his chair or on the couch dozing in and out. other days the depression rears its ugly head and he can get a bit nasty and bitter again. his family is much more patient with him on days like that than he is with himself.

in the beginning Leo also has brain fog and sensitivity to light and sound. these clear up over time, especially once Leo starts making more effort to exercise his brain. he starts reading a lot more and doing puzzles, especially things like sudoku and word puzzles, which helps a lot. thankfully these changes aren't permanent

his inner ears were also damaged a bit, this also heals up largely on its own, sometimes he still has difficulties hearing his brothers if they're whispering or far away but it's not so bad he needs assistance

Leo's Devices

Wheelchair

this is obviously the one Donnie had the most fun building and it shows. this baby is tricked out. Leo also likes to suggest improvements often, some for actual functionality but many just because he thinks it would be cool (like neon lights on the spokes)

it is blue obviously. do you even need me to tell you that?

it's fully electronic but Leo can also wheel it around freely if he wishes. Leo likes to wheel himself when he has the energy because it's good exercise he doesn't have to go out of his way for and he just likes feeling like he's moving himself under his own power. but when he's not feeling up to it he just drives it with the electronic controls instead

it has handles that extend and retract. being allowed to touch the handles is a major sign of Leo's trust and initially it's only for his bros + April + Splinter. Leo hates being moved when he doesn't actually ask to be moved, and he also hates being tipped backwards so his fam knows not to do it even as a joke (and it's so heavy that tipping him is kind of hard, anyway). someone touching the handles or messing around with them without permission gets you immediate backlash from protective siblings

that said Leo has them extended often so he can hang things off them, even though Donnie constantly gripes that that is not their intended purpose!

Sr Hueso is another person who gets handle-touching-privileges pretty fast, and he's also the one Leo asks to move him most often because he thinks it's really funny. he hams it up every time. Hueso is exasperated but does it anyway

(if Hueso adds a few extra wheelchair-accessible tables to Run of the Mill no one has to know)

the chair can also be moved by S.H.E.L.L.D.O.N. this is mostly just for emergency situations, or times when the chair is somewhere Leo is not. Shelldon is a very good boy who does not move the chair without Leo's permission.

it has a billion storage spaces and little hidey holes and it can sync with Leo's phone to play music and it also has a charge port for his phone and yeah basically anything Leo and Donnie can come up with goes into this thing. it's a behemoth

Donnie also made Leo a lighter-weight chair with fewer features that he most often uses when he's good using his walker/cane/braces but wants to clear a larger distance first, and eventually Donnie makes him an athletic wheelchair so he can play games like wheelchair basketball

Walker

the walker is also blue but there's nothing particularly special about it

Leo hates using it because it feels like an old person thing. even if realistically he knows there are plenty of reasons people use them, including his own situation, culture is culture and it makes him feel bad no matter what rationality states

so basically once he doesn't have to use it he doesn't

as they all get more comfortable with Leo's situation and he starts openly using humor to cope, jokes about Leo's chair and cane become pretty commonplace in the fam (all good-natured of course). they know the walker is too much of a sore spot though, and poking fun at it is the fastest way to get Leo to do something stupid, so no one does. it's better to just pretend it's not there

Crutches/Canes

he eventually ends up with a variety of these, with different levels of support depending on what he's needing on a given day.

some of the canes are more fashionable than others. this is important to him.

Leo pretty much always has one of these on hand just in case, even on days where he feels alright to walk on his own

he is not afraid to bonk a brother with a cane or crutch but he does so knowing they are free to retaliate

Leg Braces

Leo doesn't need these every day but they're a pretty standard part of his wardrobe at this point

they start out plain but get increasingly elaborately decorated as time goes on because he, Donnie, and Mikey can't help themselves

like the walker, the braces are in the "don't make fun of" zone, though Leo is happy to get positive comments about them and doesn't really need their presence ignored

Other Mobility Aids

Leo has a variety of things to help with his loss of grip strength, difficulties bending over, tremors, etc. all of them are either made by Donnie or ethically "acquired" by April

he drives everyone crazy by leaving them in random places and then forgetting where they are. Donnie starts installing locator tags on everything they give Leo

jokes about these are fine, Leo makes them often himself and has silly names for all of them (this also drives Donnie crazy)

[stressfulsloth]

I really do think it's interesting that the way DE discusses ableism gets ignored by a lot of the fanbase. Because Harry is undeniably disabled and that's a core conflict of the game. He's living in an impossible situation that so many disabled people get caught in; he's physically disabled, even more so by the end of the game after being shot, but even at the beginning of the game he struggles with nerve damage, post-polio syndrome, partial paralysis in his jaw, withdrawals, and that's not even starting on the mental illness. He is sick and cannot ever properly heal under these circumstances because he cannot stop moving forward or he will start to sink. He's living in poverty. He has no safety net. No way out of the RCM. That night in Martinaise before the beginning of the game, he tries to quit- throw everything away. He tries to end his own life and drive his car into the sea because he cannot fathom a future where he's able to get out of this alive when he's so intrinsically bound to this abusive institution that he can't escape from.

And then comes Jean, deliberately forbidding anyone from jogging Harry's memory out of spite and anger, refusing to allow anyone else to help, calling him a fucking idiot and a psychopath, asking if he can go to the toilet on his own, telling him that he doesn't deserve his disability pension because it should go to cops who gave a shit instead (nevermind that Harry has been working at burnout pace for years, he's an addict so his contributions are essentially worthless, right?). He has a conversation with Judit, right in front of Harry, on whether or not he has learning disabilities.

This guy is a very interesting character! And I'm not denying that he's likely dealt with consequences at work from Harry's illness. But he also fulfils the narrative role of being a mouthpiece for the suspicion and even outright aggression that addicts face even while trying to recover. He fulfils the role of a representative of the RCM, with the ability to approve or deny Harry’s return and in turn essentially sentence him to a slow death in the seaside village. He is not there to help; he is there to judge and observe, and then blame Harry when things go bad even though his inaction is at least in part responsible for the deaths during the tribunal. And this is all very deliberate! The RCM, and by extension the Coalition, as an organisation is failing both its officers and its citizens- Jean, by extension, is one of the officers being failed! They are underfunded, overstretched, overworked, and shouldn't even exist in the first place. The expectation on partnered officers to provide emotional support to each other is ridiculous. But instead of directing his anger upwards towards the Coalition airships or superiors at the RCM, he directs it outwards, towards 'the liberals' or towards Harry, who as a disabled addict is a pretty convenient punching bag.

His vitriol towards Harry is not supposed to be sympathetic! At least the way I read it, you're not meant to look at him and think 'oh wow Harry's struggle has been so hard for him.' You're meant to question his language, to think more deeply about how society treats addicts, how punitive measures are never going to help someone get sober, about the importance of safety nets.

[interstellarsystem]

Endogenic Systems and Experiences in the Neurodivergent Community

We tend to stay mostly on the fringes of syscourse nowadays without directly interacting with it too often but I'm going to post this more broadly and less focused on our specific instance of this because community-wise I think it's important to talk about.

Endogenic and other non-traumagenic systems are so commonly excluded from so many neurodivergent-safe spaces where they would otherwise be able to gain knowledge about the disorders they might have, share experiences and coping strategies with peers, or at least have a sense of community that is so commonly valuable to disabled and/or neurodivergent people. In a lot of cases, even people who only support non-traumagenic systems get shoved out.

[Continued under the readmore as it's long.]

This obviously harms non-traumagenic systems, but I have to point out that when people sit there and say "we care about REAL disabled people!", I have to say.... Do you? Because if you did care about those with mental illness, physical disability or neurodivergence, you in my mind wouldn't exclude them based on something unrelated to the topic itself which might even be something as small as holding an opinion that other people get to be the judge of their own experiences. You can say that you care about "real" disabled people, but what about when a traumagenic DID system also has a tulpa that they consider just as valid and real as their alters? What about when a system labels themselves as quoigenic because in reality, you owe no one the knowledge that you are vulnerable and traumatised? What about when a system starts out as endogenic but gains so much trauma later on that they develop dissociative symptoms?

We're quoigenic because while yes we are diagnosed with DID:

DID does not have trauma in the diagnostic criteria so our diagnosis doesn't mean anything by way of origin. Nontraumagenic is not the same as nondisordered the same way that traumagenic isn't the same as disordered.

We cannot remember a time before we were plural so we cannot say with accuracy what our actual origin was.

We have headmates we consider to be from both traumagenic and endogenic origins and it feels unfair to pick one.

We don't owe anyone a quick little "hey, we have trauma!" flag on our pinned post which can easily paint us as a target. This is the exact reason we don't share our triggers online--it's not safe.

You don't owe anyone personal medical information including your diagnostic history, your trauma history or lack thereof, your current medications or how many times you've been in a hospital. That is your business and yours alone to decide who you share it with. It's downright dangerous to share some of it, especially so publically. So who is anyone online that clearly isn't your specific medical practitioner to decide whether your experiences are real enough to allow you into spaces meant for a usually completely unrelated thing? Why would someone holding the opinion that endogenic systems get to decide what labels they use be denied access to spaces just because they support people with differing beliefs and/or experiences?

If we as a system with multiple disabilities want to go into a space for people who are schizoaffective because we need others who won't immediately jump on the ableism train when discussing something we're diagnosed with that has so much stigma, should we be denied that just because we don't label our origin with a clear-cut "we are traumatized!!" label? Should we be denied access to spaces because we don't want to sit around and smile while parts of our system and other members of our community are called fake and evil and whatever else they come up with? It's so common in spaces for people with disabilities to be exclusive to traumagenic systems and people with an anti-endogenic mindset that people don't realise they're not only hurting the endogenic community, but literal chunks of their own community itself.

I can't even begin to understand the reason why.

Endogenic systems by just existing do not cause harm. They're not like a transphobe you would not be safe around by default of having a label. Not every nontraumagenic system is a saint but if you took any communtiy and called everyone in it the equivalent of an unproblematic holy angel, you'd be lying. People are bad in every community, some worse than others, but the nontraumagenic system community literally just wants to exist--and yes, sometimes a nontraumagenic system (or supporter of such) does have dissociative symptoms, or maybe they have autism, or maybe they're physically disabled. Should they be not allowed access just because of the way they chose to label their system, or their opinion of people picking their own labels for their personal identity?

What exactly is the reason they're so excluded everywhere? I'd try to assume that this level of exclusion (to the point of endos being on DNIs next to transphobes and racists) would mean there's some real harm being done on a community-wide scale, but even when looking for it there isn't any explanation we've been able to find. "They're fake" is all we seem to see which has no actual backing whatsoever. "They're harmful" is another but.. How? We might be looking in the wrong places, but we have never seen an actual explanation for how nontraumagenic systems cause harm as a community just by being themselves.

At this point, I have to wonder how many people who say "we care about real disabled people!" are just covering up their "we care about socially acceptable disabled people who I understand and/or do not find cringey" sentiment instead. Being neurodivergent should never be about fitting into tight little boxes--it's part of the whole point of having a community like this. You're not the majority, and that's okay. So why are we dividing the disabled community into boxes too?

Of course, this doesn't only apply to ND spaces. LGBT+ spaces are similar and even more divided from the concept of being a system that it makes even less sense to block nontraumagenic systems from entering the space. How does their system origin relate to their LGBT+ identity? Sometimes it can, but should a trans person be excluded from a trans space because they have a friend who is an endogenic system and they support them fully?

Overall, the main point is that it makes no sense whatsoever to be anti-endo in general, let alone so violently anti-endogenic system to the point where you hurt members of your own community due to it. Sometimes from something as simple as them supporting endogenics alone. Your safe spaces aren't actually safe if you exclude a nonharmful group who also belong in that space due to having a personal identity or opinion different to yours. If you want somewhere to be a safe, inclusive space, it should include everyone as long as letting those people in won't cause harm. People who are seeking to cause harm (racists, transphobes, etc) obviously do not belong in a safe space because they seek to harm others, thus making the space unsafe. But people who just want to be themselves without harming anyone should be included in your space if they fall under whatever it may be topic-wise. Even the "cringey" ones. Even the ones who don't quite make sense to you or have "contradicting" labels. Even the ones who use labels completely differently to the way you do. And even the ones who are uninformed or misinformed but trying their best to learn. Your safe space is not safe if it excludes those who do not follow your every single mindset and thought without any deviation.

[genderkoolaid]

Do you still believe HRT, which unless you have a messed up endocrine system doesn't hurt or sterilize anyone , and SRS, which often calls for reduction or addition of things and doesn't have to entail the removal of any genitals, gonads etc, are in the same vein as being trans abled, and wanting things like debilitating illness, removed limbs, and to use mobility aids etc when physically and mentally abled? /genq

It could've been a trollpost, but I saw someone posting about something that supposedly came from you about how it's the same as removing healthy gonads or to sterilize oneself intentionally to want a limb removed to disable oneself /g

Uh, yeah, at the very least I believe it doesn't make sense to support people's ability to choose one but not the other. [Also as a necessary disclaimer: I am physically disabled and I use both a cane and a wheelchair. It has had a major impact on my life. This is my opinion as a cripple who suffers on a daily basis from both my disabilities and systemic ableism.]

If you get healthy gonads or sex organs removed, you are essentially reproductively disabled. When it comes to phalloplasty, especially RFF, your arm can experience some nerve issues (which for most people is not serious, there are therapies you do to help recover) but you could, potentially, experience some kind of disability. None of this is a value statement about any kind of medical transition because disability is morally neutral. In fact for many people being reproductively disabled is an entirely positive thing! Even though for another person it could be deeply upsetting!

I've fought for a long time against TERF fearmongering about transmasculine transition, specifically HRT, and their warnings that "it will make your good pure body DISABLED!!!!!" which is both ableist and transphobic. It comes from the assumption that a disabled body is inherently lesser and tragic and a place of suffering, and that no trans person would ever take disability for the ability to experience euphoria and relieve their dysphoria. Many of us would rather be disabled and happy than abled and suffering. So why do we only get to apply this to medical transitioning for trans people?

Yes, obviously getting a limb removed or paralyzed or losing a sense is going to change how you live and you will have to deal with a lot of ableism. But it's not up to me to tell someone else that they shouldn't pursue happiness and relieve because oh no! They might be a DISABLED PERSON! The worst thing to be in the whole wide world!!!!!!!! Like disabled people already have to constantly hear "wow if I was you I'd kill myself." And while you shouldn't comment your feelings on someone else's condition unprovoked, I think it's way better to see people getting excited to live a happy and active disabled life instead of constant traumaporn. So yeah I think people should have the ability to pursue voluntary disability & I also think it would be cool to see people with BIID reclaim the label of transabled, since it was coined by a BIID activist to create a less medicalized and suffering-focused way of talking about BIID.

(Also, my stance as a mobility user has always been that the only criteria you need to fill to get a mobility aid is thinking it could help you. People already suffer unnecessarily because they are worried they aren't "disabled enough" to deserve an aid. So if someone w BIID feels better when walking with crutches I don't care! Especially if they actively fight against systemic ableism and inaccessibility! I am wayyyyy more concerned with all the buildings in my hometown with no goddamn elevator + crosswalks with no button or speaker than I am with someone using a wheelchair because it helps their dysphoria.)

[feral-anthropologist]

I’ve been thinking a lot about Frodo Baggins lately and I think that the reason why he’s so hated has to do with ableism.

He is carrying pure, concentrated evil around his neck and is having to constantly fight it. It’s an intense mental and physical battle that leaves him exhausted. Meanwhile he’s also walking all the way across Middle-Earth, dealing with dangers and horrors around every turn, and knows that he can’t truly trust anyone except Sam. He’s been wounded many times and he’s still dealing with that and in the end it takes everything in him to get him to the mountain and then he can’t do it. But he did absolutely everything he could. He did what would’ve been impossible for most others. What’s more, Frodo wasn’t okay in the end. He never really recovered from the Quest. He was sick every year on the anniversary of the Nazgul blade and the bite from Shelob. He had to leave the Shire and Middle-Earth. Frodo gave everything he could and more to the Quest and it broke him.

Sam, on the other hand, is lauded as the hero. And don’t get me wrong here, I absolutely adore Sam. He’s incredible and his relationship with Frodo means so much to me. Sam acted as Frodo’s caretaker, making sure that he ate and drank and doing everything that he could to protect and help him. Where have we heard the narrative before that a disabled person is just whiny and wimpy and lazy and helpless and their caretaker is a hero and a saint for dealing with them?

Frodo isn’t your typical character. He goes through so much and it breaks him and wears him down to the point where he can barely remember the happiest times. The Ring utterly consumes him. And after it’s gone, he can’t go back to the way things were. Sam and Merry and Pippin go on to lead relatively normal lives, though they’re still deeply scarred by what they went through, but Frodo just can’t. And that’s okay and accepted.

[wings-of-fire-confessions]

Rant on Kestrel and Kestrel Apologists:

TW: Child abuse, Abuse Apologism, and angry controversial ranting.

Kestrel is one of the most easily hateable characters and is a IRREDEEMABLE dragon.

She is literally a CHILD ABUSER. She physically and verbally ABUSED the DoD. She also let and even used her strong>weak favoritism, racism, and ableism from her strong>weak mindset towards Sunny affect the way she abused the DoD.

She also literally abused the DoD since they were TODDLERS, which is revealed within the book Dragonslayer, since Sky, who was around 1 year old - who’s currently eight years old - saw Kestrel HIT the DOD because they were playing, like any child would do, with Glory showing signs that Kestrel was abusing her the most - who are currently now 7. This means that she started to abuse the DOD where they LESS THAN 1 years old - just as, or even younger than the currently age of CLIFF, who’s nine months old!

🔥There is literal PROOF that Kestrel physically and verbally abused the DoD on the wiki AND within the books.🔥

I also want to remind people that in the prologue of The Dragonet Prophecy, when the Skywing egg died, instead of suggesting to give the remaining eggs to dragons within the Talons of Peace that actually want to be parents and/or raise the dragonets themselves - she literally wanted SMASH the DoD eggs - KILLING them instead!!

And within the prologue of TDP as well, she stated that she literally didn’t care how she affected the dragonets, as long as she raised them to be within the prophecy.

Kestrel NEVER cared for the DoD. She CHOSE to abuse them. The only reason why she tried to save them from Scarlet and appeared to Morrowseer in the epilogue was because it was her JOB. Nothing else, especially since she stated HERSELF somewhere within a main part of the first book that she literally didn’t care about them.

So when I see the majority of the fandom - or at the very least, the fandom on Youtube and some parts of the WoF wiki - is sympathizing over hating Kestrel, I honestly don’t get or like it at all, what-so-ever.

And when I hear some people say things about Kestrel that are somewhat similar to THIS:

“Yes, she abused those kids, but it was because she was grieving the death of her own kids!”

“She did abuse them, but she was just doing so because of the death of her children.”

or even

“She wasn’t abusing them, it was a form of tough love!”

It makes my literal blood BOIL.

Because while defending a fictional character’s abusive actions is much, MUCH different than defending abusive actions of a person in real life - let alone child abuse -

Defending actions like these is still indirectly connected, regardless whether it is fictional or not, due to the fact that child abuse is a literal thing happens to people in Real. Fucking. Life. Like - to this very damn day. Especially since these excuses towards child abuse like this are even used to excuse real people literally being or was abused as kids as well.

Grief is NOT an excuse to abuse literal children. NOTHING IS!!! Abuse is a CHOICE - regardless of how people were raised, or even by how mentally impaired they are. It explains it, but does NOT excuse it. EVER.

There are literal dragons within Wings of Fire - and literal people IRL even - who suffered through MORE grief and/or trauma in the past than Kestrel, that, despite it, we’re still better dragons in the end. Like GILL, for example, who lost not one, not two, but TWELVE of his daughters. And despite this, he was STILL a good dragon who cared a LOT about his subjects and sons, and tried his best to stop the literal war that happening within pyrrhia - in order for ALL dragons to live in peace - and even created a protest within Scarlet’s arena in order for EVERYONE to NOT be forced to battle each other to death for a horrible and iconic villain for her own joy and amusement.

*Sigh* I am SO sorry for making this angry, probably hateful, and VERY long rant. This was something that was bothering me for MONTHS on end, and wanted to let it out so people can know my view about Kestrel and the way she’s treated within the fandom, although this is probably a improper and bad way to do it.

I am NOT saying people shouldn’t like Kestrel as a character, or even as a dragon, for how awful she is. I’m also NOT saying people shouldn’t feel bad for what happened her either, because what did happen to her, was, indeed, downright AWFUL. Feeling things like this about her is ok!

However, it’s one thing to like a character for how awful they are and feeling bad for what happened them-

than literally EXCUSING and even JUSTIFYING her literal abuse towards literal dragon CHILDREN because of how bad you feel about and/or how intensely you sympathize her.

So yeah - In conclusion: Kestrel one of the most easily hateable characters and is an irredeemable child abuser, who physically and verbally abused the DoD since they were the age of toddlers. She also never cared for them, and only attempted to save them because it was her job. People also shouldn’t justify or excuse Kestrel’s behavior as well, since it unintentionally and/or indirectly defends the same type of abuse that is currently affecting people IRL. And while yes, you can like her character and feel bad for her, you should NOT justify her actions towards the DOD at all. WHAT-SO-EVER.

Anon also left some evidence. I put some of it below:

Abuse Against Glory

Abuse against Clay

Abuse Against Starflight

Abuse Against Everyone

[joleneghoul]

Booster Gold vs Disability

AKA, how Disability is an integral part of Booster Gold’s character

Foreword: This is a LONG personal essay and will use mostly casual language.

 This will be an analysis of the character Booster Gold from the perspective of a physically and mentally disabled reader— thus will include a lot of my opinions. I will consider only canonical moments for this essay, no elseworld or alternate universe comics will be included in this specific analysis. Every image used in the essay is described.

TW: Topics of ableism, classism, addiction, death, eugenics, and violence will be mentioned.

 Thank you for reading.

THE FUTURE, A closer look at 25th Century ideals.

    The topic of disabilities has been ingrained within the story of Booster Gold since his first solo series ‘Booster Gold volume. 1 1986’. This not only is the base point of where his character jumps off from and thus is important to any conversation to be had about this character’s past and future— but also contains the context of the 25th century society views on disability and is crucial to talking about how he would view himself. Specifically within Booster gold Volume 1 we will be looking at the “Back To The Future” arc, aka issues #13-#15. 

    Booster Gold Vol. 1 Issue 13 starts with Dirk Davis, Booster’s manager, telling Jack Soo and Trixie Collins (fellow members of Booster’s team) that Booster is dying and there is nothing they can do about it. Even doctors seem to be “bamboozled” about the origin of his illness but it’s clear it is fast acting and terminal. In order to save Booster (and repair skeets, who was broken in the previous issue) they devise a plan to travel to the future where a cure may be possible. Jack Soo calls Rip Hunter, who he knows from college, and for the first time in the series Booster actively travels back to his home, the 25th century. 

    This arc, besides being the first introduction of some notable characters to the future of Booster Gold (like Rip Hunter and Michelle Carter) gives us an insight to the society Booster grew up within. Specifically, I want to focus on how this society views illness and disability for this analysis. The first bit of information we get is a call to Booster's backstory, the fact his father had a gambling addiction that he inherited as a way to cope with poverty. 

    Illness becomes one of the main themes of this 3 issue arc. At the end of Issue 13, Booster, while dying of his own illness attempts to visit his mother but learns she passed away from an illness shortly after he left for the past. As we move into issue 14 Booster continues to blame himself for his mothers death— claiming it a result of his own greed. This shapes how Booster’s backstory evolves.

ANIMAL, the post nuclear future and eugenics. 

    As we return to Booster Gold Volume 1 issue 14 we are introduced to yet another aspect of the 25th century Booster grew up in. While Rip Hunter and Jack Soo are searching for information of their whereabouts they find out that centuries of information has been lost due to a nuclear fallout. We don’t learn much about this future but one thing we do learn is that eugenics apparently has a place in the post-nuclear government. Eugenics, in general, is known to often have resurgences after and during global catastrophes, war, or pandemics. 

    In this issue it’s revealed that the government hunts down “Genetic Mutations” using people they strictly refer to as “Animals”. While an ‘Animal’ is sent after Booster he tells us that ‘Animals’ themselves have mutations but are raised to be unthinking, ruthless, and loyal to whoever is in control of them. While Animal is a small piece of this story over all, we can use him to look into how the America Booster is from treats people with disabilities.

    Would I say that this character is a good representation of disabled people? Not at all, but it is clear to me what he is supposed to represent. I feel as though the way he is treated is more of a reflection of how a lot of people with mental disabilities/disorders were treated in the media at the time. Animal is shown to have either a limited vocabulary or to be partially non-verbal. When he speaks it is using grunts, made up words, or other sounds. He is large and brutish as well, all of these are tropes that were (and sometimes still are) prevalent in the writing of disabled characters.  

    Though does that mean those traits are always bad? No, of course not. I often find myself feeling the most sympathy for characters like Animal. But instances like this are more like looking at a skewed representation of symptoms me and others have than an actual mirror. It’s a matter of how it’s handled, and here I can’t help but feel torn. 

    We as the readers are meant to feel sympathy for Animal through the arc but it feels as though the narrative treats him more as a tool than a person— which very well may be the point because that’s how the world views him. Animal ends up saving everyone during Booster Gold issue #15, making sure that everyone is able to travel back to the past and escape the cops and his master. In this process Animal sacrifices himself, dying at the hands of his master. Thus he fulfills his purpose to the plot outside of being an actual character himself.

    Furthermore, throughout this arc Booster is terminally ill and is treated extremely poorly despite it. We meet Boderick, Animals “master” and federal agent. He is a cruel man who treats Booster (on account of him stealing a time machine, which is treason in the future) in an abusive/violent manner. A notable scene is when Trixie is begging for them to get Booster help and Boderick taunts Booster’s illness, shoving him out of his chair onto his already broken arm. 

    Within this arc Booster is cured of his illness before his trial and his arm is healed with future technology. Which proves furthermore that they are capable of healthcare but unwilling to provide it to individuals deemed “unworthy”.  

    This story is not the last time Booster will get sick or injured, and in fact it practically becomes a running theme with the character as we move forward. As this three part arc stands in the timeline of Booster Gold, it serves as coincidental foreshadowing of his future.

GAMBLING, Boosters backstory.

    Booster’s backstory gets retold again in both ‘Secret Origins #35’ and ‘Justice League Quarterly #10’. While this is not the first or the last time his backstory will be revisited, I find it one of the most notable. 

    Booster tells his best friend, Ted Kord (Blue Beetle II) and the rest of the JLI, that the main reason he started gambling on his own games was that his mother had a degenerative heart disease and needed to pay medical bills. Booster admits that he couldn’t stop and became addicted to everything gambling brought to him. Addiction itself is a topic that comics in general struggle to portray in a sympathetic light.

      Often people (including writers) will use Booster’s past gambling as a piece of evidence towards a narrative that Booster is a selfish or bad person— and while Booster does have flaws it is harmful to use his backstory to further an ableist ideology. Rather, I feel as though Booster’s addiction and family history is a truthful story of how poverty, disability, and illness can make things like gambling feel like less of a choice as time goes on. 

    A line that gets repeated throughout Booster’s backstories is some variation of “I couldn’t of hurt them more if I were a murderer.” in regards to Booster and his addiction. That quote itself is a reflection of how people view addicts, and in the real world it’s not much different.

    Genetic, environmental, and mental health factors are the main causes of addiction. We see Booster grew up under abuse, lived in poverty, and had a father who also struggled with the same addiction. As previously stated societal shame plays a huge role in Booster’s decision making and view of himself. 

    Continuing with Justice League Quarterly issue 10, within the story ‘Killing Time’, we are told about the Rubenicos. The Rubenicos are a group of sports gamblers who promised to win Booster big money to save his mother, thus kick-starting Booster’s problem with gambling. 

    Only, in this story Booster has a chance to kill Rubenico and insure that his past, in the future, never happens. ‘Killing Time’ while full of action becomes more of an internal struggle within Booster as we see him angry not just towards Rubenico but towards himself. 

    During the climax of the story Booster comes face to face with the chance of killing Rubenico, only Rubenico’s daughter is watching. Ted, stands in the room as Booster tells Rubenico that everything is his fault. But before Booster can kill the man he claims to blame the most, Ted speaks up revealing that the only person Booster blames more is himself. Booster leaves without killing Rubenico.

    Later as the story comes to a close we get one of the most impactful scenes regarding Booster’s view of himself. A conversation between two best friends where Ted and Booster discuss what had happened previously. Booster tells Ted that he had some nerve to step in like he did and Ted explains, maybe but he’s his friend. 

    We get a genuine scene where Ted explains that while Booster may have messed up in the past, he needs to look at who he is in the present instead. Booster balanced the scales the moment he decided to be a hero. Even if it was initially for selfish reasons, as time went on he grew and his perspective of heroism changed with him. 

    The heart to heart concludes with Ted talking about second chances. He tells Booster to stop punishing himself for his past in pursuit of forgiveness— because the only person who can forgive Booster and make himself feel better is himself. 

    This scene also is a reason that in the future Booster ends up viewing being a hero as his atonement for the mistakes in his past and we will see how that challenges him when the cost of being a superhero affects his health.

EXTREME JUSTICE, physical ability vs self worth. 

    When it comes to superhero comics and physical disability it is a real toss up of how things will be handled. These are worlds where magic, hyper-technology, and retcons are abundant. Despite being thrown through walls, beaten down, or even killed and brought back we hardly see the toll on a hero's body as time goes on. Though, sometimes there is an exception to that— and for a moment in the 90s Booster was a pretty good representation of what it’s like to struggle with a new disability and ptsd from a traumatic accident.

    During Judgement Day, an arc that takes place throughout multiple comics,the league takes on The Overmaster. Booster Gold who was a history major in his past proclaims that the league will win the battle and leads everyone into battle. In the process The Overmaster inflicts a critical wound, cutting Booster's arm off.  Later Booster dies on the operating table as the world's best doctors and his best friend, Ted, try to save his life.

    Only Booster doesn’t actually die. Instead due to all new life and all death being paused because of The Overmaster, Booster stays alive. We instantly see Booster struggle with his body, calling himself a “dead man walking” and proclaiming that because of this event everything he knows is out of the window— that he has nothing to go on for. Amidst this Ted manages to get Booster a prosthetic arm from STAR labs as he also builds him a new suit. By the end of this arc, even as the cycle of life is un-paused, Booster manages to survive because the suit Ted built him doubles as life-support— but this is just the start of this era in Booster’s life.  

    During the Extreme Justice series we get a more in depth look at how this traumatic event affected Booster. His life support suit and arm are revealed to be faulty and causing him chronic pain despite keeping him alive. Often Booster is seen hiding this chronic pain from others. There is even a scene where his life support suit stops working, nearly costing him his life in battle, and he begs Ted to not tell anyone. 

    Outside of the chronic pain there is also the mental health factor. It’s clear that Booster views his body as one of his most valuable assets. Booster in the past has viewed his ability to be a hero as his redemption for his mistakes. He has been a model throughout the years to make money alongside being a hero. Further back than that his physical ability to be a star football player is what helped make the money to keep his mother alive. For the first time, Booster is faced with his body having a drastic and detrimental physical change resulting in body dysphoria.

    Constantly through this series Booster talks down to himself. He refers to himself as a “clock-work man” who is breaking down and considers himself a burden to all of his friends. Booster begins to internalize any jokes or snide comments from his friends that in the past wouldn’t have bothered him. As his anger and frustration with his situation builds, more of a strain is put on his relationships, especially with Ted. 

    Ted obviously doesn’t view Booster in a negative light because of his disability. He cares enough about him to have built him his suit and encourages Booster to come to him with any issues he may be having with it. There are multiple instances where Ted promises he will make things better for Booster as he adjusts to his new disability. While all Ted wants to do is help, Booster views this as once again being a burden to his friend.

      This internal struggle is not helped by the fact the main villain of this arc, Monarch, is introduced by healing a kid's physical disability. Making the kid magically able to walk again. An event that Booster is there to see and instantly begins to consider the possibility of Monarch healing him too.

    Booster grapples to find control in his life during this time. A common experience for many people who have a traumatic event happen to them. He ends up going as far to find his old manager, Dirk Davis, who had stolen all his funds in the past, and takes over his company by force. I personally see this as Booster also trying to prove some worth to both his friends and himself internally. 

    Unfortunately this leads Booster down the road of magically wishing his disability away with the help of Monarch. And that causes problems of its own but eventually everything is fine again. While this may seem to be a happy ending to abled people it actually is a very harmful trope. The idea that disabilities can just be wished away or that someone cannot be whole with a disability is a trope deprived from eugenics— not to mention in general is erasure. I find myself wondering anytime this trope is used, what message are the writers trying to send? 

    While it may make sense for Booster to struggle with internalized ableism towards his disability, and want to wish it away, when you consider the society he grew up within. The narrative going through with this only supports those ideals instead of challenges them.

   What purpose does this arc serve when it ends with Booster's possible growth towards learning he is worth more than his physical ability is cut short? This could have been the perfect opportunity for Booster to confront both the ideals he was raised around and his internalized ableism. 

    This is an arc that is important to me as a physically disabled person and IS important to Booster’s character, but the ending never will sit right with me. 

FISH OUT OF WATER, Booster Gold and Neurodivergence.

    When it comes to neurodivergent characters in comics, we typically don’t get a story outright putting a definition or label to a character. This is especially true when it comes to older comics. Instead Neurodivergence lies between the lines and the actions of a character or how they are coded. 

    There is a decent amount of evidence towards Booster being ND both within and outside of the comics throughout the years. In his introduction series he struggles to fit in. He has trouble understanding the society he finds himself in. Even after years of living in the present he still struggles with social cues, so it can’t be solely attributed to being from the future. Especially when there’s other heroes from the future who don’t struggle. 

  We also often explicitly see him not understand when things are jokes as well. In Justice League International issue 18 we see a moment where Booster misunderstands a joke Ted tells him and drops a bunch of debris in the Free’s neighbors yard.  As he gets to know Ted better he gets better at telling when things are jokes or sarcasm. I think this is helped by the fact Ted Kord is a notably autistic coded character himself.

MODERN DAY, how is Booster’s disabled history represented now?

    Unfortunately in the modern days of comics there are far too many portrayals of Booster Gold and his disabilities that are borderline cruel in their depiction. Rather than tell a meaningful story about mental illness or disability instead some writers turn him into a caricature of public stigma of mental illness. Some examples of this are Heroes in Crisis and The Gift arc from Batman. I won't go into further details about this specific writer's works due to personal reasons, and the fact I feel the works are counter productive to representation. 

    Otherwise the topic of disability comes up in genuine occasionally for Booster still. As disability is still a core part of his backstory that gets retold from time to time, Like in Action comics’ “Booster Shot”. Booster and Superman in that story end up traveling to the future where Clark learns about Booster’s past and meets his parents.  Another occasion of when Booster’s backstory is retold is in the early 2000s when the addition of Booster’s father pressuring Booster into gambling is added to the narrative. 

    Mental health (particularly post-trauma) seems to have taken the spotlight in modern Booster characterizations. In the 52 series we see Booster struggle with stability after the loss of his best friend Ted.  Booster is not only shown to be grieving but also to blame himself for Ted’s death because he was in the hospital during the time.

 He puts all his energy into sponsorships and being a public figure. There’s one point in the story where Booster has a public meltdown in front of the press and superheroes because things don’t go as he planned. His relationships fall apart as he struggles with coping and putting up a persona, often having outbursts towards others. These are all signs  of C-PTSD.

    The exploration of Booster’s ptsd continues in Booster Gold Volume 2. Throughout the series Booster uses time travel to effectively re-traumatize himself over and over multiple times. He tries to save Barbara Gordon repeatedly, failing each time, being traumatized and beaten each time. He attempts to save Ted’s life, destroying the timeline and being forced to see all of his other friends die horribly, then in the end loses Ted once again. Later on Booster continues to visit Ted in the past, hurting himself emotionally in the process by reopening trauma. 

    Booster has multiple public outbursts during Booster Gold volume 2, most notably in issue 39. Booster runs into a 16 year old on the street attempting to be a Robin Hood type vigilante. Booster starts to have a ptsd episode, reminded of Ted. He begins to yell at the kid as if he WERE Ted, about how he kept hoping Ted would come back to life like other superheroes but he never did. He shoves the kid to the ground before flying away in the midst of an episode.   

    There are still times when Booster is shown to be physically disabled also. When we have gotten a glimpse of Booster as an older man in modern comics and each time he is depicted as being physically disabled. He has a missing eye and uses a cane for mobility purposes to the point in DC Comics: Generations he uses a metal pipe as a cane in one scene as a backup. He uses a cane as well in the Cybernetic Summer special.

CLOSING,

    Overall I feel as though it’s important to remember Booster Gold when talking about disabled heroes. He has been depicted as being some form of disabled since his introduction to comics in the 80s. To ignore this fact is to let DC comics get away with cruel and ableist modern depictions of the character and other disabled people as well. Disabled people should be allowed to see themselves in hero media as much as abled people are allowed to.  

    I wanted to write this to bring attention to all of the ways Booster is an impactful character, at least to me a disabled fan.This was also a way for me to just infodump and get all of my thought’s i’ve had onto paper.

    Booster Gold is one of my favorite characters ever, next to Ted Kord who is also a canonically disabled hero. One day I might write up an analysis on him as well! 

    I hope that anyone who reads this enjoys this analysis and if you made it all the way through thank you so much!

[thedisablednaturalist]

Office disability culture is so fucked in environmental science and fieldwork. Like the mindset that to do the job you have to be in perfect physical health or you should just quit. Like I'm not talking about something that is 100% physical labor here, everything is mostly achievable with aids and you don't need to be able to do every single thing. But there's this weird like..pride..that my older coworkers have. They work out in the gym and brag about how many reps they did. They tease each other for having medical issues. They don't ask for accommodations because they fear that their legitimacy will be hurt. That it means that they can't do their job anymore. That they won't be TRUSTED to do their jobs anymore. That it will get taken away.

So they FURTHER hurt their bodies by not resting, not taking breaks, not using ergonomic equipment, not using safety equipment. Not drinking enough water. Not using mobility aids when they are so old that it's supposed to be acceptable. They don't use the scooters at the grocery store, they don't use their handicapped placard, they don't use knee pads or compression gloves.

And here I come in, 24 years old, looking perfectly healthy. And I use walking sticks, I sit down a lot, I have my care bag, I have a ton of gadgets for making fieldwork more comfortable, I have boundaries and limits, I wear braces and knee pads and compression gloves. I use my handicapped placard.

They react in one of two ways:

1. How DARE I. I'm so lucky to be young and no one sees THEM having to do all those things (literally nothing is stopping them but pride). Like old man if you need a break take a fucking break. I'm not going to hurt my health to make you feel better about hurting yours. I'm not risking a flare up to spare the 65 year olds feelings. Im gonna take my break and use my equipment cause my boss doesn't care as long as the work gets done. I'm tired of glares from 100 year olds making themselves struggle across the parking lot when they could also be using the fucking scooter. (I never take the last scooter, there's always another available. Also it's not my fault if walmart only provides 2 scooters for the whole store).

2. It shows them its okay. Its okay to need aids. When I first showed up at my job it was very...macho..everyone was afraid of seeming old (theres probably only 3 of us under 30 in the whole department, most people are at least 50, mainly 65 year olds). Then they saw me using my walking sticks, taking my medicine openly, bringing a chair with me when working away from my desk, using my TENS unit. I overheard one lady ask her granddaughter what fibromyalgia was (apparently she had spotted my pain tracking journal).

My older coworker with a bad knee got a walking stick like mine and beamed when she showed me. The grandmother uses a cane and a walker interchangeably and more often. I get asked where I get my little portable fan and pocket heaters and special clothing. Even abled coworkers are doing it. My coworker who's younger than me sets alarms to take breaks now just like I do. People seem more comfortable using things that help them now.

My boss has really struggled. He has a lot of internalized ableism and hates thinking of himself as crippled. He spent his whole life physically active and strong and all these health issues and overexertion are catching up with him. Like he did environmental testing in areas with fucking radon. He did work where they threw asbestos around like snow for fun. He's done a ton of really hard physical work. He grew up with the mentality that pain was just something everyone has to push through. But I think seeing a young person make the choice not to push through is helping him a bit. He wants to make his own walking stick, he goes to the doctor more. We bond over having constant medical issues and I even gave him the name of my surgeon. Yea he still says stuff like "shoot me if I have to use a wheelchair" (not as much anymore since he now knows I use one) but he's getting there.

Yeah so I've had this in my drafts for a bit and I wanted to update that my boss has been walking around with a fucking broken ankle for the past couple of weeks. He thought it was just arthritis pain and eventually couldn't take it anymore and went to the foot doctor. The doctor has no clue how the fuck he's been walking on it. Now he has to wear the boot and he's banned from fieldwork while he heals.

Older people and the elderly need to learn that it's okay to not push through the pain and ask for help. Everyone needs to learn this, and not be like my fucking boss. Go to the doctor, get that sore joint checked out. Get those tests done. Use that aid. Stop walking on a broken ankle just because you can.

[worshipper-status]

💙A General Guide to Taking Care of a Disabled Darling (From a Disabled Yandere)💙

Hiya everyone! I saw someone make a guide on this and wanted to add some more in depth detail as a disabled yandere so I can give you all the best advice on keeping and caring for your darling. Admittedly as someone who's disabled, nothing makes me want to be away from someone more than someone who is ableist so if you want to keep a darling with a disability it's best to be informed. I'm going to approach this as if you are in an active relationship with someone just because that's where a lot of my perspective comes from (as well as from the perspective of my personal disabilities) but if you all want any more advice please tell me! Anyways onto the list!

(Long post below)

1.) Research, research, research

If your darling tells you what specific conditions they deal with write it down. Remember it. Anything. And when you get a spare moment, I want you to pour yourself into research for that condition and generally how disabled people are treated. If you are an able-bodied yandere, you are not immune to ableism and that is the number one thing that will push your darling away. Learn everything you can about their condition. What may help one disability may hurt another. Also if you and your darling are on good terms don't be afraid to ask questions! Take note of what personally helps them. Good example, while hot water is known to help with joint pain and muscle aches it can be really bad for disabilities that cause light headedness and vertigo like POTS (postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome) so knowing what you're dealing with can give you a leg up.

As a general note, try to avoid telling them to exercise, meditate, do yoga, go on a diet, etc. If that stuff could fix out conditions we already would have done it, and for certain conditions, it can make symptoms worse. Please listen to your darling on what they specifically need. Become an expert on every facet of them and their opinions on their disability. If you're reading this you're probably a yandere so it's not exactly like research is hard for us.

2.) Have supplies on hand

Being disabled and going anywhere usually requires some level of forethought, or effort. So try making it easier by having supplies on hand. Here's a list of stuff I keep on me at all times to aid with m disabilities when I'm out in the wild!

Pain meds of choice

Instant hot packs

Instant cold packs

Hot and cold pain cream (BIOFREEZE IS EXPENSIVE BUT IT WORKS SO WELL)

Electrolyte drink or drink mix with water

Compression items for different joints

Blood pressure reader of some kind (I use a fitbit tbh)

Headphones

Sunglasses (Sun is to bright, don't judge)

Fidget toys

My mobility aid

Now this is what I personally carry on myself. What you can carry for your darling is going to vary on who they are, where they stand in your life and what their disabilities are. (Note: If you know someone with POTS and they have a flare up, being able to provide an electrolyte drink during the episode may help get you on their good side, especially if they know you as someone they can rely on for that. Don't hold me to that advice all I know is I would probably marry someone if they did that for me lmao.)

Adjust to what they personally need. There's a lot of other items that could be useful to have on hand depending on what their disabilities are, such as different types of OTC meds you could grab, specific compression items, heart rate monitors, glucose monitors, vomit bags, incontinence products, if legal marijuana products, etc. It's all based on what they struggle with which is why step one is research. You can't build a medical supply kit if you don't know what you're trying to treat.

3.) Be their advocate

This is the me lecturing you about ableism section. Your darling whether physically or mentally disabled has to put up with a LOT of bullshit. Ableism is very deeply rooted in our society, so often you're gonna see your darling in certain situations. Strangers asking whats wrong with them, people claiming they don't have what they say they have, saying their faking for attention, saying they don't really need XYZ support item, etc. You need to learn to defend your darling the correct way.

It's going to vary from person to person, from situation to situation, but your best bet is shutting shit like that down. some stranger walks up to your wheelchair using yandere and asks what's wrong with them? Tell them your darlings medical history is none of their business. Someone says their lazy for using their supports? Stand up for them. Say they need these supports and being on a fair playing field with everyone else isn't lazy. At a doctor's appointment and your darling is AFAB and the doctor's trying to blow off their symptoms? Tell them what you've seen. Ask the doc what they would do if your darling wasn't AFAB. Tell them to mark lack of treatment in charts. Make the doctors cover their asses. You in these settings are your darling's biggest resource.

But also...

4.) Learn when to shut the fuck up. Don't put your foot in your mouth.

You (if you are an able bodied yandere, which is my target demographic with this) reading this, probably struggle a lot with being ableist and don't even realize. This is where listening to others is gonna win you a lot of brownie points. Sometimes, you need to advocate, sometimes, especially in disabled spaces with your darling, you need to learn to shut the fuck up and listen. It will usually benefit you greatly to not speak over your darling in these settings because it can give you a lot of useful info on how to deepen your relationship and also not be an ass to them. In the beginning, there's going to be times where you say hurtful shit. Move your pride to the side and apologize. You are not immune to having bigoted ideals. General rule of thumb, if your darling wants to speak first, let them, you can give input afterwards. And if they specifically tell you to shut up in a certain setting because you're talking over them, shut up.

5.) Okay now for the fun stuff. Love languages!

With people who struggle with disabilities, they may express their love languages in different ways. Acts of service may carry more weight if your darling really struggles with tasks. Quality time may matter more if they're bed ridden and bored out of their mind. Here is a very general guide of love language actions for disabled darlings.

Acts of Service:

Cleaning their room for them

Doing the dishes

Taking out trash

Doing their laundry

Making doctor's appointments for them

Taking them to and from doctor's appointments

Refilling and picking up their prescriptions

Quality Time:

If they're in a pain flare, keep them company, even if it's just napping with them!

Watch shows with them if they're struggling with doing anything that requires a lot of movement.

Run errands with them, so they can have help with difficult tasks like carrying heavy objects, or talking to customer service representatives.

If they're unable to leave the house but able to move a little bit, suggest video games, board games, or some fun low energy activity together

Go to doctor's appointments with them. Like be in the physical room. You'd be surprised how much it helps if your darling wants the assistance.

Words of Affirmation:

ENCOURAGE THEM

SERIOUSLY BEING DISABLED IS SO FUCKING HARD

THEY GOT OUT OF BED TODAY? PRAISE THEM!

THEY DECIDED TO MAKE A MEAL INSTEAD OF EATING ONLY DORITOS? PRAISE THEM!

EVERYTHING THEY DO REQUIRES MORE EFFORT THAN THE NORMAL HUMAN YOU BETTER FUCKING BE PRAISING THEM FOR THAT SHIT

Physical Touch:

Okay, gonna get the caveat out of the way, some conditions will cause physical touch to be painful. Find out from your darling if that's the case. Otherwise...

Does your darling struggle with hygiene? Do they trust you enough to be naked in front of you? Shower together. Not even in a horny way, taking showers while disabled fucking sucks man. Having someone to help me wash myself helps a lot. Bonus points if shower chair is involved.

Massages. If your loved one needs a lot of creams or ointments, put them on for them, work them in carefully. If they're more pain treatments, a deeper massage may also help work those knots out. Just be careful and be gentle and slow. Listen to your darling. Pay attention to their responses. Whether they're leaning into or away from how hard you're kneading. Just communicate clearly for this. Don't hurt them on accident

Cuddles. I'm gonna be blunt. Sometimes, your darling will end up stuck in bed barely able to do anything. Cuddle them. Being stuck is so much less lonely that way. Also bonus points for nap time being a quality time thing.

Help them with "intimate" tasks they may struggle with. Showering together goes in this category but for a broader purpose, this category exists. Once again this has to have that layer of trust, but this is things like helping them get dressed, helping them feed themselves, helping them brush their teeth or manage their hair (PLEASE DO RESEARCH ON THEIR HAIR TYPE FOR THIS).

Receiving Gifts:

Help them pay for medical supplies if you can afford it. It doesn't need to be a power chair. If you want to just buy someone some ibuprofen, or a heating pad, or just like... some small item that may help them, I promise you it will matter. If they mention running low on a critical medical supply that's OTC and you have the money for, just buy it for them.

Buying them things that can keep them entertained in bed or inside the house is also a really nice thoughtful item.

STREAMING SERVICES!!! IF YOU CAN PAY FOR A SUBSCRIPTION OF THEIR CHOICE TO ANY STREAMING SERVICE THEY WANT. GIVE THEM SOMETHING TO BINGE WATCH WITH YOU WHILE STUCK IN BED.

This one is a little more tailored to me, but if your darling is like me and appreciates monthly subscription boxes with surprise items in them, consider a "spoonie" or "chronic illness" box. They are usually pretty surface level stuff but the items in them tend to be nice and veer in the self care category so it's an option to consider.

Don't give them "Get well soon cards" unless you know FOR CERTAIN that whatever is plaguing them right now can actually get well soon. Most disabilities you can't recover from. There is no "get well soon" for most of us. Don't give us a reminder of that.

Anyways! That's my list. Feel free to add onto this if you all have any other ideas. If you're ableist in my notes, I freely block and report so don't test me.

Have a nice day!

(I didn't proofread this, please cut me some slack if this is all over the place)

[dizzeeflower]

I guarantee you there is one manifestation of disability that almost everyone on this planet has actively laughed at and made fun of. yes, even you

can you guess what it is?

it's something there are constant gags about in media, something people mention in passing as a joke

something that if it presented itself in a public space i guarantee in most situations would be openly and loudly mocked (and if not humour, most people would at least express disgust)

don't believe me, do you?

✨ incontinence ✨

yep, it's incontinence. (get your giggles out now folks)

I am partially incontinent due to a fun cocktail of mental and physical disabilities and i know for a fact this is where people will stop reading, have a little laugh, and move on thinking this isn't worth the read anymore

but please, if you want to be a true disability ally, stick around and listen.

5% of the world population is estimated to be incontinent to some degree. 1 in 20 people (and no, that is not just elderly people)

so yea when you're in the grocery store, or at the gay bar, or seeing your college theatre's rendition of Grease - chances are there's a good handful of people in the crowd who struggle with incontinence.

it might be just someone who has minimal stress incontinence - something very common in people who have been pregnant - or someone who has adhd and forgets to go to the bathroom, missing the cues from their body that they are desperate, or yea it could be the 85 yr old grandma who wears diapers.

the point is, all of these people deserve respect for their bodies. everyone does. and this includes bodies that malfunction sometimes.

'omg thats so funny im gonna pee myself' 'reddit boys can go piss in ur little baby diapers' - great comeback bestie, but can we move on from them now? im gonna be honest these don't offend me personally, but it's worth being aware of where the humour of these comments comes from. its rooted in ableism

but something that does offend me and something that genuinely triggers me to have panic attacks and can push me into an anxious depressive state for days at a time, is when a character wetting themself is used as the butt of a joke on screen.

i'm thinking season one of stranger things. yeah, most of us know the scene right? when eleven forces a bully to pee his pants in front of the whole school? yep, triggers my ptsd right good that one does. and my siblings ptsd. and im sure many many many more ppl with incontinence (or even ppl without it who had the unfortunate experience of an accident in school)

if you found it funny, i dont care at this point. keep doing you. i dont blame you, okay? but i just want to ask that you reconsider WHY you laughed. 'because he pissed himself' okay but WHY is that funny? 'older kids and adults arent supposed to piss themselves' yea well it happens sometimes to most people at least once, and to 1 in 20 people much more often than that. so WHY is that funny?

keep asking why why why... and if in the end you can't think of WHY, then maybe there isnt a reason for you to laugh at it except that you've been taught to by osmosis. because everyone else laughs

dont give up here, because this is where i want you to really think. is it worth it?

is it worth laughing at something just because everyone else is, and risk 5% of the population going into a self conscious spiral, a panic attack because of your mocking, making them think they will never be accepted?

obviously u making a "im gonna piss myself" comment while laughing does not put 1 in 20 ppl into a panic attack, but u get where im coming from now i hope

so if you're still reading, im guessing you want to reconsider some of your behaviours and comments about this subject. thank you! now that you've realised where these jokes are rooted, you're going to start noticing a lot more often just how much this disability is mocked in society.

but what else can you do to help?

consider sticking up for us because understandably incontinent people dont tend to stick up for themselves lest it out us as incontinent. because admitting that is still met with laughter and disgust. help us jumpstart the incontinence acceptance by speaking up for the silent minority whenever an incontinence joke comes up in class/family gatherings/general conversation (this is my opinion, any other incontinent folks are v welcome to challenge this if u would rather ppl didnt for whatever reason!)

another thing you can do is - you won't like this - dont call ppl disgusting for buying adult diapers with silly animal characters on. unpopular opinion here on tumblr dot com, i know

but listen: incontinence products are disability aids! pullups, incontinence pads/pants, adult diapers, these are all disability aids. not products of k!nk, not things to snigger at in the pharmacy.

and would you complain about someone putting hello kitty stickers on their walking cane? would you think it gross for someone to doodle little stars and affirmations on their wheelchair armrest? is it wrong if someone wants pink hearing aids instead of a nude coloured ones? no?

then don't laugh if someone wants lil hearts on their pullups, and don't fake gag if you happen to see purple patterned adult diapers on ur dash. sometimes humans just like to decorate their bodies and extensions of their bodies. this is just that. and lets be real, plain white nappies just aren't the vibe sometimes

~ while we're at it, ppl with stoma bags are beautiful and deserve to wear whatever they want to feel comfortable and handsome as hell 😘 ~

and let me address the elephant in the room. yeah, some people have a f3tish for this stuff (just like anything can be made into a f3tish). whatever. if ur against that stuff then idc pls dont talk abt it in the tags and comments. anyway it is NOT an excuse to find actual disabled ppl disgusting for needing these aids.

and heres the funny thing: you usually can't tell if someone uses diapers for a f3tish or for their disability, or possibly both!

so you're gonna have to not attack random ppl on the internet bc you don't know what their life is like (what a shocking new hot take)

if a 46 yr old balding man with a beer belly and chest hair who isn't visibly disabled mentions he uses diapers, don't assume he's a creep and its a k!nk. it might be, sure, but it might be a condition or disability that you have no right to comment on or judge him for.

so if youre squicked by it just block and move on, don't send anon hate, dont make a post about how these types of people make you sick. you might just lose a valued mutual who was secretly incontinent and thinks you hate them for it now (whether this is right or wrong, its often how these things come across)

(btw if anyone fuckin talks abt k!nk on this post im going to scream directly in ur ear :) make ur own posts and don't bring any f3tish discussion onto mine)

had to get that out of the way unfortunately because this is a condition that is so unfortunately overrepresented by the f3tish side. i wouldnt have to talk abt k!nk on many other posts about disabilty aids but this one unfortunately was necessary

it's exhausting

imagine having a disability that requires aids thats almost EVERYONE winces at, laughs at, mocks loudly. and then to come on tumblr, the place that is meant to be full of acceptance from strangers in similar circumstances, queer and disabled and poc - but the moment your aid is brought up in discussion its seen as something disgusting and the property of freaks and creeps and people who are evil and want to do children harm

it's exhausting, like i said

i dont have much else to add honestly, im shit at writing cohesive posts (especially when im physically shaking with anxiety bc woohoo announcing to possibly thousands of ppl that im incontinent) but if anything i just hope you will question yourself if you laugh at this stuff in future

im going to go back into my little anxiety hibernation hole and never open up about this condition again ✌🏼

as for the incontinent population, we’re pretty silent about this condition so it’s easy to forget abt us. but please just keep us in mind and stick up for us when u can

— for clarity: incontinence is not ALWAYS a disability, it is a condition that can affect ppl on a sliding scale. for some it is a mild inconvenience, for some it severely impacts daily life. for some it is the only physical condition their body experiences, for some it is a symptom of a predetermined mental or physical disability such as generalized anxiety disorder or paraplegia. whether or not it is considered a disability, acceptance of ALL incontinence is a good step to eradicating this source of ableism —

no one has to reblog this but pls consider it if this has opened ur eyes a lil and u wanna open some more

[xxlovelynovaxx]

I feel like there's two things that get lost in the weeds a lot when discussing gendered oppression of marginalized men, specifically in how "there's no such thing as systemic misandry!" gets tossed out by transandrophobes and people discussing transmasc oppression alike.

And those are:

1. Something can be systemic and harmful and still not be oppressive. Toxic masculinity is just patriarchal misandry. Just because (white, abled, cishet, etc) men who conform to it benefit from it and are privileged, doesn't make it not gendered harm and bigotry against men specifically.

2. People get so caught up in the idea that there has to be a clear OPPRESSOR group which benefits from oppression for oppression to exist at all. Which, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that (white, abled, cishet, etc) men DON'T benefit from oppression of women and gender minorities. But people forget the concept of hegemonical oppression - that rather than a specific group oppressing, a system like patriarchy can be responsible for oppression.

And I think under that understanding of oppression, patriarchal misandry could be considered a form of oppression itself, with room for the nuance and complexity of the fact that the harm it does scales inversely to how much privilege a man is able to access by conforming to said hegemony.

Like, we learned that patriarchal expectations of masculinity harm men too in feminism 101. I am a firm believer in the idea that ALL violence is gendered - that intersectionality means it has to be, and that it's NOT just Violence:Woman Edition, Violence:Nonbinary Edition, and Violence:Basic Edition. ALL identities matter when looking at oppression through an intersectional lens, particularly when talking about the idea that other marginalizations affect your ability to conform to patriarchal hegemony and access male privilege!

Oppression isn't a zero sum game. People who are oppressed can also be oppressors. There are systems under which everyone is oppressed in some way and only the degree of oppression significantly affects class dynamics. Hell, just about every oppressive system ends up harming the people who benefit from it, at least in small ways, and sometimes in large ways dependent on their other marginalizations.

Impoverished abled people are affected by ableism to the point they could be considered oppressed by it, because aspects of ableism and classism are identical and interchangeable. Perisex trans people are affected by intersexism, because intersexism, transphobia, anti-gender-nonconformity/patriarchal gender roles, and sexism are all one big blended mess.

Basically, oppression, while related to ontological identity, is so highly dependent on ability to conform to hegemonical standards; which itself is highly dependent on ability to conform to ALL hegemonical standards/kyriarchical standards. One can be partially or even fully denied access to privilege, to acceptance as a member of the oppressor class and therefore the ability to benefit from said oppression - all on the basis of inability to conform to a different standard of systemic hierarchical power.

This affects different intersections of identities to varying degrees. In some cases, it may not be possible to be fully denied access to privilege or membership within an oppressor class on the basis of other marginalization. Identities which have a more physical or material root seem to be affected in an entirely different way than identities that are strongly subjective and internal. Identities like race, disability, sex (particularly intersexness) and so on, seem to be more self-similar in this regard than they are to identities like neurodivergence and plurality, gender, and ethnicity, despite the significant overlap between multiple of those categories.

Some forms of oppression that involve multiple of these identities - transphobia, neuroableism/sanism (against both primarily mental and primarily physical neurological disabilities), and so on, also sit more squarely in the middle of the two groups.

It is also worth noting that oppression of identities that have corresponding physical/material aspects is still highly social in nature, and based in social categorization of arbitrary physical features.

More to the point, though, gendered oppression seems to be uniquely ubiquitous under patriarchy. Men do face unique violence for being men - for the nuance haters, this doesn't mean that it's worse violence, that women oppress men, or any of that other garbage. Some of the violence men face is still universal violence that all people face. Some of it is universal, but manifests in unique ways dependent on gender - for example, the emotions considered acceptable to display openly based on gender, as there is no gender for which openly displaying all emotions is considered acceptable.

Some violence is also unique to men - either to (nearly)* all men, or to specific subgroups of marginalized men.

*There are exceptions to this, of course: the people who are able to achieve complete or near-complete conformity to hegemonical standards, and billionaires (as class is heavily weighted in determining conformity to hegemony, particularly in a capitalist society). These exceptions are often used to claim that no one in a group ever experiences oppression on the basis of the specific identity the exceptions gain power through.

Nondisabled neurodivergent and plural people, for example, are treated as though if they don't face ableism, they aren't oppressed for their neurotype. Trans men, men of color, disabled men, and other marginalized men are told they "only" face transphobia, racism, ableism, etc, in a way that is entirely nongendered and lesser/easier than what trans women, women of color, disabled women, and other women face.

The fact that manhood is treated as more of a contributing factor to whether someone is a member of an oppressor class (and therefore, not oppressed on the basis of that identity) than stuff like class or race to me is the biggest indicator that that analysis is faulty. A nonbinary billionaire has significant power over impoverished binary cis people. White women oppress men of color. While oppression is complicated, some intersections are relatively simple, and any analysis which ignores the material reality of oppression in these situations is flawed.

Maybe it's the way that victimhood is treated as both passive and virtuous and victims as therefore above criticism for any behavior, while oppression is treated as synonymous with aggression/being an active and enthusiastic perpetrator of violence and therefore ontologically evil. Maybe it's the dehumanization and objectification (non-sexual, for those who don't know it can be used outside of that context) of oppressors and aggressors. Maybe it's simply the aggressively binary and cis lens of rad/ical feminism that is so deeply ingrained in modern gender theory.

But people seem deeply reluctant to analyze the fact that people with identities they've deemed inherently oppressive and therefore evil can be oppressed, sometimes on the basis of the very identity considered inherently oppressive. Gender in particular is one that people refuse to approach with nuance, despite that it is itself multifaceted and heavily interrelated with and inextricable from other identities.

Transness, distance from or adjacency to the gender binary, masculinity and femininity and gender conformity vs nonconformity, sex conformity, conformity/nonconformity to the sex dyad - both via medical means in either direction and via perisex/intersex identity, type of transition, ability to fulfill gendered expectations and roles on the basis of other identities such as cultural, abled/disabled, subcultural, attractional, and other identities... these are all aspects of gender identity. Oppression on the basis of any one of these can mean that you are oppressed for your gender as a whole - intersex people's genders, for example, are both heavily policed and tokenized for our being intersex, even for intersex people who are cis and binary.

One aspect of gender identity - even one that is sometimes separate from internal identity, such as presentation, not conforming to hegemonical expectations can be enough to not just completely bar access to the oppressor class on the basis of gender, but to itself cause the ENTIRE gender identity to become marginalized and the people of that identity to face oppression for it.

Trans men, gender nonconforming men, intersex men, altersex men and cis men who take HRT and/or pursue surgeries that align their body with perisex female standards (for lack of better phrasing), butch and femme men, queer men, disabled men, men of color... all can be specifically oppressed for their marginalized manhood, because the marginalization of their manhood comes from an inability to conform to hegemonical standards of manhood.

So, is it really even true to say "systemic misandry doesn't exist"? Patriarchal masculinity is systemic, harms men, and marginalizes any manhood specifically that does not conform. Its oppression of marginalized men isn't a side effect or collateral damage, but rather a feature of the system itself. By so aggressively gatekeeping conformity to hegemonical masculinity and the benefits that it grants, the patriarchy reifies itself and encourages its own perpetuation.

Is systemic misandry real? Is the idea that men can be oppressed specifically for their manhood on the basis of not being able to conform to an arbitrary standard of manhood a useful lens for analysis? Does the concept of systemic misandry further our analysis of how the patriarchy works and how best to dismantle it?

I believe so. At least, I believe more so than "if you acknowledge that men are hurt by the patriarchy you're an MRA incel!!1" It's almost as if gender dynamics under patriarchy are extremely complex and nuanced and oppression isn't simply "evil cackling villain enjoying squashing innocent victims' hopes and dreams", because oppression is based in access to hierarchical power which itself is EXTREMELY heavily dependent on ability to conform to the standards of whoever and whatever systems hold power!

Additional note: If you actually want to have a conversation about this, I'm open to talking. If you just want to tell me I'm wrong or somehow bigoted because you disagree with my analysis, lob ad hominem attacks my way, or simply maliciously misread this post and respond to things I never said, do us both a favor, don't waste both our time, and block me. I have less than zero energy to deal with bullshit right now.

[librarycards]

any readings on how physically disabled people are "interrogated"/put under extreme scrutiny (referring both to treatment in medical settings and then social settings where strangers act entitled to our bodies/histories?)

So, to preface: I see a lot of discourse about physical disability exclusive things on here, and while I understand why people are compelled to prohibit, say, the figure of the "able-bodied ND" or w/e from "interacting" with this or that post, this is not something that is widely practiced in actual disability organizing spaces, nor in disability studies broadly (there are always exceptions, but i am speaking about the state of the field as a whole).

that is not to say that lateral ableism, as well as forms of ableism that affect certain experiences more than others, are ignored or irrelevant. it is instead to impress upon you that disability is not a term bounded by certain diagnoses, symptoms, or ideas of "objective" impairment. instead, disability is a political and politicized relationship to systems of medico-legal, social, and deeply carceral ableism, AS WELL AS a tool around which to organize and advocate for shared principles of interdependence, self-determination, and liberation from the aforementioned systems.

in fact, the focus on delineating categories of disabled people - whether in gradations of "severity" or in isolating certain types of experience to solely the "mental" or "physical" realm, reifies the false perception that disability is a concrete and static "thing" to be analyzed and categorized objectively, furthering the very norm of scrutiny and disbelief you want literature deconstructing. for this reason, i put little stock in the kinds of hard divisions i see floating around on here, mostly by people who haven't "done the readings" or, it seems, partaken in social or activist groups that are politically disabled/crip.

with this being said, there are a number of excellent works on the scrutiny under which disabled people are placed! here are a few:

Marta Russell, Capitalism and Disability (rigorous marxist analysis of, among other things, the surveillance and forcible impoverishment of SSDI recipients and applicants)

Mel Chen, Animacies (fixation on children meeting 'developmental markers'/terror at "chemical-induced" difference and ensuing blame game if and when they 'fail')

Alex Cockain, Troubling narratives about dis/ability and the social encounter [...] (looking at the ways abled anxieties about disabled presentation/interaction play out from a CDS perspective)

E. Krebs, Baccalaureates or burdens? Complicating "reasonable accommodations" for American college students with disabilities (about the abusive "accommodations" process in higher ed)

Audre Lorde, The Cancer Journals (Lorde documents her experiences with invasive, abusive, and autonomy-denying medical staff and laypersons alike in light of her decision not to get a reconstruction after her mastectomy due to breast cancer)

Loyd, Secor, and Ehrkamp, Geopolitics of Disability and the Ablenationalism of Refuge (on the policing of legible/legitimate disability narratives in refugees)

hope this helps!

[itsaspectrumcomic]

man ok idk if youll be able to advise on this or something but like. do you know anything regarding dealing with like internalised ableism?

i live in a rural part of ireland, right? and idk what it is about rural ireland but some of the people are heinous. my school is in a small miserable-ass town and like. God, man. not everyone sucks, of course but like. jesus lol additionally i have a ~mildly ableist~ mother (a "we're all a little bit autistic" and "erm. youre not disabled because youre not in a wheelchair or blind/deaf" etc etc type stuff. + "npd = bad person" which isnt particularly good for me specifically because i have npd (that i both Cant get an official diagnosis for, for various reasons, and im not really Looking for one either because i know what i am and its not like you get support for it because ~ooh scary narcissist~.)

and like. idk if this is Obvious but that can kinda cause a weird-ass relationship with You (being Me in this case, yk how it is with the second person perspective when. ranting) and The Concept Of Being Disabled. like, objectively. im disabled. im autistic, ive definitely got adhd (that im hopefully going to get examined for at some point cause college stuff requires it for the disability forums and stuff. gotta love that. fuckin 80% comorbidity right?), ive got a laughable number of repetative strain injuries, i have a sensory processing disorder, an endocrine disease that effects my Entire cardiovascular system, a spine that felt a lil quirky and bent in too much. so on a so forth

but also like. it feels wrong to call myself disabled. yk, like im doing a disservice to all the other ~actually~ disabled people (being Anyone but me lol) (none of this is At All helped by the fact that my mother refuses to listen to me regarding Jack Shit about my health in Any way. "oh you nearly passed out on top of a hill because of your cardiovascular condition? erm youre just not exercising enough actually" "you dont have depression [said while i was filling out an assigned mood diary after being forcefully brought to camhs for Reasons" like. shut the fuck up and Listen to me please. at least Entertain the idea that i could be right about something for fucking once lmao. cause ive been right about EVERYTHING regarding my mental health so fucking far so. fuck off /nay ofc) (also man. like, even if you ignored the physical issues ive got im still disabled on account of being autistic. like, motor function is fine, despite being a lil clumsy and/or unsteady sometimes but like. my emotional needs are Fucked. think of the response youd get if you asked a. fuckin. 8 year old or something to do algebra. but with a very emotionally stunted and traumatised 17 year old lol. lmao, even /lh)

so like. if youve got. any advice or whatever on any of this thatd be Super cool + no pressure obvs. sorry this is a whole. like. fucking essay's worth of Random Guy Complaining To You On The Internet lol

-🐢 <- just so i can find this again if you respond. i Like Turtles. i am Normal about the tmnt and also turtles The Creatures. i wont talk at length about turtle mutant anatomy (i am deceiving you)

Internalised ableism is a really hard thing to deal with, especially when you're surrounded by people who constantly re-enforce it. I've also spent a lot of time worrying that I'm not disabled 'enough' to deserve certain accommodations, that I'm making an unnecessary fuss. But the truth is, autism IS a disability and if there are accommodations that can help support you, you deserve access to them. You're not taking away from others with disabilities by advocating for yourself.

It's taken me a long time to understand this and I still worry sometimes. What has helped is talking about my experiences with people I know understand, like my therapist or best friend, and learning about the experiences of other autistic people through books, social media, YouTube and even real life.

I'm sorry your mother and others aren't being understanding - remember that's a them problem, not you, and try to spend your time with people who do understand.

🐢🐢🐢 <- the turtles wish you luck

[sophieinwonderland]

hey so anti-psych-pro-endo is currently seeking to have a conversation with you but feels that you are ignoring them. I feel its good to atleast respond to them but we understand if you just would rather not

Lots of people want to have conversations with me. Unfortunately, after getting my ask box down to 160 at the end of last year and being hopeful I could get it down to 100 by the end of this year, it's since ballooned to over 200 that I'm failing to keep up with. All while syscourse is getting more chaotic and I feel the need to try my best to keep up with that while defending our community from people seeking to harm it.

And between there, I want to be able to just make posts about topics I actually want to talk about. Things like my Dimensions of Fronting post or more "Plurality of..." I was planning on trying to get out a "Plurality of... Rogue" to coincide with the ending of X-Men 97. I never even started that!

That rambling ask that I wrote to them and never sent wasn't even about them really. I was hurt because someone else, who had been a longtime mutual, had blocked me for my views and I was going to send that ask to someone I knew they followed just so they'd have to see it. It was petty and stupid of me, and I realized before finishing the ask how petty and stupid I was being, which was I never sent that ask to them. (At the same time, I felt like I invested way too much work into it to completely delete it, hence posting it on my blog with no tags. Call it sunk cost fallacy. 😜)

Getting into a drawn-out argument over this isn't something I'm interested in though.

Some people just aren't ever going to be on the same wavelength or share the same values. People who know me know that I can be very critical of the psych industry for a lot of things. Historically, the psych industry perpetuated a lot of ableism. Too many people have been abused by individual psych doctors. There's too much clinging to tradition. And on top of that, we have a pharmaceutical industry that is digging in, bribing doctors, and leading to medication being overprescribed across both physical and mental health fields.

But I also know countless people who rely on it, were able to heal because of it, and who might be dead without it. Overall, I see it in the current age as a force for good in the world. And I want to see an even better psych industry that is more inclusive, helps more people, and can take stronger steps towards dealing with corruption and abuse.

I've heard them. I know why they feel how they do. And that's why I know nothing I say will change their minds. But nothing they say will change mine. So what's the point? Is there anything to be gained by having this conversation while our community is under fire from sysmeds?

I don't think there is. I'm okay agreeing to disagree on this and work towards our shared goals together. Or if they'd prefer, I'm okay with going our separate ways and working towards our shared goals separately. But this conversation doesn't seem beneficial nor enjoyable to me.

And if I don't think it will benefit the community and I'm not having fun with it, then I don't see a point in dedicating more time to it. 🤷‍♀️