whalenwhimsy

[whalenwhimsy]

Disabled Representation Has Come Farther Than You Think

You’ve Just Been Conditioned Not to See It.

I recently got into a huge fight with an abled friend about disabled representation, in which he was completely convinced that the stance he held was that of an ally. He’s a long time friend of mine and I know he really did think he was fighting for us and coming from a place of trying to help us.

And it really got me thinking about the way abled people perceive disabled people. And how that message is internalised and reinforced in so many ways.

My friend was trying to say that characters like Cyborg, Misty knight, Daredevil, Toph, Edward Elric, Bucky, Nebula, etc were not good representation. And he at first refused to listen to me (an actual disabled person) when I was like; no, we like that. we love that. we LOVE seeing badass and competent and sexy disabled people. It’s validating and empowering.

His argument was that it didn’t really count because nobody saw them as disabled and that it would be the same thing as saying Gamora is black representation.

While I understand where he was coming from, both of us also being black, it was hard to get him to understand how it wasn’t the same thing.

Gamora is a black actress painted green to portray a green-skinned alien. She has black features, yes, but within the narrative she very much is not a black woman. She’s an alien.

But a disabled character is always still a disabled character. Regardless of how high tech or SciFi or magical or fantastical the world or universe is; an amputee with a prosthesis is still an amputee. They are still disabled. Yes, even if their prosthesis shoots lasers.

And other characters, like Toph and Daredevil, who are both blind, have superpowers/superhuman abilities that allow them to overcome their disability. That does not make them less disabled.

Their blindness still impacts their everyday lives. They can’t read. They can’t draw. They don’t know what things or people look like, or what color things are. They can’t read someone’s facial expressions during a conversation. They can’t follow a map without assistance.

When I asked my friend for examples of what he considered good disabled representation he said Professor X, Oracle, and the Thinker. And that made me pause and I won’t lie, it upset me. It felt degrading. I got kind of angry at him and it got a little heated.

Because what he was saying is: the smart one in the wheelchair that never actually joins the battle because their body is too frail? Those are the only good disabled characters? The ones who still need to be protected and treated tenderly and are physically weaker?

Do we only exist when you can view us as some subhuman lesser other that you can take pity on?

But it’s not only my friend who thinks this way.

I’ve seen quite a few arguments online about people who don’t think Edward Elric is disabled, despite being an amputee.

Who don’t think Cyborg is disabled, despite the fact that his entire power set is due to a life support and mobility aid device.

And my friend was shocked that I, and many other disabled people, find these depictions of strong and confident and capable disabled people empowering. He fully expected that I would find those depictions offensive.

And that’s when it really hit me.

The issue is not that characters like Bucky or Toph or Daredevil are bad representations of disabled characters.

The issue is that people don’t perceive them as disabled. They’ve internalized this belief that disabled people have to be weak and delicate and fragile and in some way physically inferior.

They’re only considered disabled if they’re tragic and/or weak. Or ugly. People love to project a tragic subhuman otherness onto disabled people who are ugly.

If they’re cool and badass that confuses them. That doesn’t fit with the narrative that’s been built in their heads.

The idea of a competent, confidant, and strong disabled character, especially a cool disabled character is just so completely foreign to them that they don’t even consider it.

Now I’m not saying that depictions of disabled characters like Oracle or professor X are bad or harmful. We need representation of disabled people who aren’t strong and don’t have superpowers and maybe don’t feel particularly empowered. That’s a genuine representation of many disabled people.

It just isn’t the only one.

I think the issue with disabled representation is not that it doesn’t exist (as I’ve seen many abled people online claim in our defense) but that we need to shift the way we think of disabled people so we stop overlooking a lot of the really cool and badass and awesome disabled characters we do already have.

So if you read this far through this essay, please stop for a moment and consider the preconceptions you have about disabled people.

Have you ever overlooked a disabled character because they were strong, powerful, charismatic, or, (God forbid!) SEXY?

And if so, I’d ask you to take some time to examine in yourself why you don’t think of disabled people as being able to be those things.

Mod Izzy

[whalenwhimsy]

[whalenwhimsy]

playing an elf inquisitor really feels like

[whalenwhimsy]

Crow

[whalenwhimsy]

i miss him :(

[whalenwhimsy]

[whalenwhimsy]

“While many people think fanfiction is about inserting sex into texts (like Tolkien’s) where it doesn’t belong, Brancher sees it differently: “I was desperate to read about sex that included great friendship; I was repurposing Tolkien’s text in order to do that. It wasn’t that friendship needed to be sexualized, it was that erotica needed to be … friendship-ized.” Many fanfiction writers write about sex in conjunction with beloved texts and characters not because they think those texts are incomplete, but because they’re looking for stories where sex is profound and meaningful. This is part of what makes fan fiction different from pornography: unlike pornography, fanfic features characters we already care deeply about, and who tend to already have long-standing and complex relationships with each other. It’s a genre of sexual subjectification: the very opposite of objectification. It’s benefits with friendship.”

— Francesca Coppa, “Introduction to The Dwarf’s Tale,” The Fanfiction Reader (via francescacoppa)

Someone put it into words. I gotta sit down

[whalenwhimsy]

[whalenwhimsy]

So maybe Mama was right. I did get into some trouble. —The Mighty Nein Origins: Jester Lavorre

[whalenwhimsy]

i don't just "condone" or "apologize for" everything my favorite fictional characters do i encourage it actually. if i could help them i would.

[whalenwhimsy]

Elf Host: “Hello everyone, and welcome to tonight’s episode of Casting Rolls, where a bunch of us fantasy creatures sit around and play nerdy-ass voice actors”

Various fantasy creatures in unison (but the orc is the loudest): “WE PLAY NERDY-ASS ACTOOOOORS!”

[whalenwhimsy]

Transcript:

Hey, Big Al, why do all the people in my life with ADHD have such a weird sense of humor?

Oh, that’s ‘cause we’re all super understimulated.

What does that even mean?

Imagine that the inside of your brain had an itch that you really couldn’t scratch, but that itch was actually boredom, but that boredom was actually pain.

Oh, I see, yeah, that- that helps me none, zero at all. It also sounds pretty terrifying.

No, it- it’s really not a big deal, you just kinda have to learn to restructure your life around it, including comedy.

Okay, so how does it affect the way that you interpret comedy?

So a side effect of understimulation is that your brain is constantly and more often than others’ active. You’re always thinking, you’re always analyzing, you’re always trying to problem solve. Because of exactly that, normal comedy and normal humor is a bit predictive, and doesn’t really land with people with ADHD.

So what does land with people with ADHD?

Stark, abrupt chaos. Because it cannot be predicted, nor calculated.

Okay, so what would that even look like?

Why did the chicken cross the road?

Okay, why?

The Fitnessgram Pacer Test is-

[whalenwhimsy]

To myself, raised in an environment that glorified and romanticized restriction and suffering:

There is no victory in skipping dinner, or lunch, or breakfast, or morning coffee, or dessert.

There is no victory in refusing heaters and air conditioners and fans and heated blankets.

There is no victory in denying yourself sleep, or showers, or movement, or water, or a comfortable bed, or taking the elevator vs. the stairs.

There is no victory in refusing pain meds and heating pads and ice packs and medical help.

There is no victory in punishing yourself needlessly, in telling yourself that this pain you feel is because you are bad to the core and deserve it.

There is no victory in choking back your laughter and your tears, to keep an imagined equilibrium of safety that is really just a dry, cracked, empty, endless emotional desert.

You are here. You are in this body, and this body is yours. You deserve good things. You are alive, and that is messy and loud, and messy and loud are okay.

It’s okay to live abundantly. It’s okay to make mistakes, it’s okay to indulge. This paralysis of self-punishment, self-restriction, self-loathing is not healthy or good for you.

[whalenwhimsy]

D’yever go for a nap thinking “this’ll help clear my head” and you wake up worse than you were before? Yeah.

Also apologies if you see me putting the wrong words in places or getting words mixed up with others. I’ve been having a silent migraine (migraine without pain but all the other symptoms) for the last few days and sometimes my words get mixed up when this happens. So if I say something and it makes no sense, it’s me not you, feel free to ask for clarification lol

[whalenwhimsy]

ok listen… you r literally the only person i’m telling this. just.. don’t tell anybody bud, but

i couldn’t sleep, so I decided to just start flicking through some internet TV things, like Netflix, Crunchyroll, etc.

and I found

{{ VOICE QUIVERING }}

this ANIME~~~~

called “SHE AND HER CAT”.

and it’s just it’s about

this girl and her cat.

but… it’s from the perspective of the cat. who LOVES HER.

SO MUCH.

and… the whole show is just about how happy he is to be her cat and how he thinks she’s amazing and the best ever

it’s a whole SHOW ABOUT HOW MUCH THIS CAT AND HUMAN LOVE EACH OTHER

AND HOW HAPPY HE IS TO ALWAYS BE THERE FOR HER

AND, AND, AND THE SECOND EPISODE IS JUST THEM REMINISCING ABOUT THE FIRST day they met…

and i SWEAR ON MY LIFE, I am a grown 30-year-old man with a successful business

reduced to literal tears

because it made me miss having a cat SO MUCH that I just cannot deal without ranting on Tumblr!!!

I mean come on… 

She always comes home exhausted.

She brings the smell of a faraway town I don’t know.

I live in my own time, and she lives in her own time.

So these moments when my time and hers intersect

are more precious to me than anything

it’s SO MELODRAMATIC AND SO SWEET AND IT MAKES ME SO HAPPY 

FULL ON TEARS. 

OUGHH MY HEART…

[whalenwhimsy]

[whalenwhimsy]

having a job is very weird bcos by and large your coworkers will be a variety of ages and you will not all be at the same stage of life. your coworker will be like, well I’m off home to spend time with my husband & child, what are you going to do with your evening? and you’re like, well, I plan on playing Rollercoaster Tycoon for as much as it as possible