#ableism discussion

[ghostfacetheballfondler]

by the way. telling people to not use ableist language isn't silencing abuse victims or taking away their language.

narcissist abuse is just emotional abuse but with an ableist coat on it. i don't care if people don't think emotional abuse counts as real abuse, why not advocate for seeing emotional abuse as valid abuse instead? you are just playing into the "emotional abuse isn't real" crowd by saying narcissistic abuse instead.

and if you are advocating for narcissistic abuse to mean abuse at the hands of a narcissist and/or someone with npd(instead of it being a synonym for emotional abuse), then my question is why do we need a word for this? and there is no unique or special way for people with narcissists or pwnpd to abuse someone. because woah! would you look at that? it is just emotional abuse.

we live in a shitty ableist world which will use any excuse to harm those with mental disorders. i don't care if someone has the best intentions, i don't care if someone genuinely doesn't mean to implicate pwnpd when they talk about narcissistic abuse, it will still hurt us, so get over yourself and fucking stop.

and before the "narcissist doesn't equal npd!!" crowd comes in, i don't care about your language games, fuck off. but even if we accept that statement as true, people with npd will still get harmed by such language. npd and narcissism are and will always be linked to eachother. if you talk about the evils of narcissism, people will connect it with npd.

even if we change the name of npd it won't help. dissociative identity disorder is still widely known as multiple personality disorder. antisocial personality disorder is still widely known as socio/psychopathy. why would npd be any different?

(and idk. i think it is kinda shitty to be like "hey let's change the name of a disorder because i am too stubborn to say selfish instead of narcissist!!")

edit: if this wasn't clear, stop saying narcissistic abuse because it hurts pwnpd! you already have plain ol' abuse, emotional abuse, hell, even selfish abuse too! telling someone to stop saying narcissistic abuse isn't silencing anyone from talking about your abuse when you can literally just change one word and be fine! holy shit

#npd #actually npd #actuallynpd #ableism discussion #narc abuse isn't real

[mogai-sunflowers]

unfriendly reminder that using things like low IQ and difficulty with reading comprehension as insults isn’t the gotcha you think it is. using low IQ as an insult just shows how you equate ID with moral failing/human failing, similarly with those “reading comprehension on this website sucks” jokes.

i assure you, the troll you’re trying to epically own won’t care if you make fun of their IQ or reading skills, but the person with ID or another mental disability who happens to see your “joke” is now reminded that people see them as a laughingstock and not as a real person with real feelings.

i understand that many people who make these jokes have no ill intent and aren’t really thinking about the implications of their words, so im not trying to say you’re a bad person if you make these jokes, but i am saying you should reconsider your words and how they could actually affect someone else because ableism is ingrained in everything and it takes work to root out casual ableism in your everyday actions.

#🌌when the stars align ; reigns rambles🌌 #ableism discussion #this post is not directed at a mutual/friend/follower of mine #but it is directed at someone within the mogai community who i just saw make a very rude comment about IQ #made my blood boil because it was very blatantly ableist

[bookinthelibrary]

The progressive, rich college having shit accessibility (faulty elevators) is so fucking realistic

#sex education #sex education season 4 #ableism discussion #hell my former college rn only has like 20% of it accessible bc of construction and ableism. they just dont care- #-but i wldnt call them actually progressive.... just kinda surface area bc the president of it essentially started the drag ban here in tn

[disabledopossum]

Image description:

Text reads:

"Ableism looks like calling people ‘inspiring’ for navigating asystem that is designed for exclusion, while doing nothing to hold the system accountable."

- Carson Tueller

#Ableism #disability rights #disabilities #abelism #disability #ableism tw #ableism cw #ableism in media #ableism discussion #ableism mention #disability justice #chronically ill

[orchidvioletindigo]

I have never seen this before but my doctor's office is trying to do both Autism Awareness Month and Autism Acceptance Month. They've got graphics up that name both, use language and symbols from both. One has the neurodivergent rainbow infinity symbol sandwiched between a puzzle piece ribbon and a light it up blue lightbulb.

How did this happen? Someone obviously did enough research to learn that both exist, but did they stop before they learned why Autism Acceptance Month exists? That it's mutually exclusive with, fundamentally opposed to Autism Awareness Month? Was there some sort of disagreement about which the office should promote, so they decided to try both?

#ableism discussion #the notes

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

I know we can't diagnose historical figures, but Claudius reads to me as some kind of neurodivergent, perhaps with a developmental disability. The speech difficulties, the movement differences, the bullying he received (including disparagement from his own family), possible sensory or attention differences?...But also his knack for scholarly pursuits, for speaking very well in specific contexts, and when away from his family, a lot of people actually seemed to like him. Reminds me of the neurodivergent adults I've known who blossomed once they found the right environment and had supportive people around them.

I feel for Claudius, and I may be projecting, because I was also a weird little bookworm with a speech disorder, neurodivergent, clumsy, and got bullied. I was lucky: my parents were also weird bookworms who got me speech therapy and otherwise let me be myself. And our family didn't live in Augustus' self-inflicted fishbowl, constantly scrutinized by the public and forced to act "normal"...

Augustus actually looks like the nicest of Claudius' relatives, based on the letter excerpts Suetonius provides. Surprising, since he was so obsessed with his and his family's image, and came down hard on Julia the Elder, Julia the Younger, and Agrippa Postumus. He still shows ableist sentiments, but has more positive things to say and hope for Claudius' potential than the rest of the family does. I can't help but wonder if Augustus' own chronic illness as a youth made him more sympathetic here...

(Suetonius, Claudius, 3)

#seriously claudius' other relatives are MEAN #claudius #ableism discussion #octavian #jlrrt reads

[disabled-queer-culture-is]

Survey form covering a handful of experiences (primarily with ableism, both on the personal level, societal level, and institutional level) had by the physically disabled

All questions are optional, and the survey is anonymous. For the purposes of the survey, physically disabled is defined as "any medical condition that impacts one's ability to physically function (i.e. movement, energy, muscle control, motor skill, etc.)"

If you have the time, please fill it out and share it! It's for an essay I have to write for school about an issue I face in life, and statistics are required, so I'd like to collect some data myself. Thank you!

If you feel a question does not apply to you, please feel free to skip it.

I am limited in the options and questions I can provide by my own experience, especially as I am a US citizen, so many of these (especially insurance and benefits) will likely be more tailored to the US healthcare train wreck.

#spoonie #actually disabled #physically disabled #physical disability #disabled #disability #survey research #chronic illness #brainfog #ableism discussion #chronic pain #chronic fatigue

[furbearingbrick]

y’all when you’re asked to not be condescending and/or ableist towards people who have trouble distinguishing the difference between fiction and reality:

#ableism discussion #Brick speaks #im tired #also people who can't process sarcasm #undescribed images

[verdanturfwind]

Idk if anyone else here reads pokespe but I'm pretty emotional about this and I need a place to spill my feelings where people might understand so. Here I go! I love the RSE arc for the most part, it's easily my favorite pokespe arc. However, it's REALLY telling how Wally, the green-palleted character who works to summon rayquaza and could've been the perfect emerald of the trio, was shelved for some original character. I thought he might've died or something but no! He's alive and he even came back for the ORAS arc! This is the only time where a canon character was replaced with an original guy. It's so fucking weird and it feels targeted.

I can't help but see the only chronically ill rival in the series be shelved like this and think there were some weird motives. And when I complained about this people told me "oh he couldn't be a dexholder because of his illness!" when Norman literally created accessibility devices for him and he had so much support from the other dexholders. As someone who's chronically ill in the same way as Wally I'm just. Augh.

They basically set him up to be a dexholder in every way only for him to be replaced with some original guy that's the fandom's darling and if anyone discusses this they'll be attacked by his fans. EDIT: It’s come to my attention that Emerald is also a disabled character. I still think Wally should’ve been the dexholder instead of an original character. I also made an unintentionally ableist remark towards Emerald in my frustration and I profusely apologize for that. I’ll reread the emerald arc, but I still think it was not right for Wally to be shelved.

#shark nibbles #pokespe rse #trainer wally #rival wally #pokespe critical #ableism discussion #they both should've been dexholders #if you make an original guy you shouldn't use that original guy to replace someone #yellow didn't replace red green or blue

[aliencatboyz]

this post gets to go on main. reminder that psycho is in fact an ableist as hell term, cannot be separated from that ableism, and to take those facts seriously

#evil words #ableism discussion

[ghostfacetheballfondler]

narc abuse truthers will be like "i'm not ableist against people with npd you guysss :( i swear i only use narcissist in a way unrelated to npd!!" and then will reblog posts with these tags

[image id: #narc abuse #npd is fake #narcissism #anti npd #tw narcissistic abuse #tw narc abuse mention #narc abuse is real #surviving narcissism]

#tw ableism #ableism tw #ableism discussion #death to ableists #actually npd #actuallynpd #npd #narc abuse isn't real #i'm disillusioned. narc abuse truthers are beyond help. nothing you say to them matters because they have their heads too far up their ass

[mogai-sunflowers]

MOGAI BHM- Belated Day 20!

happy BHM! today i’m going to be talking about the history of activism in Black disabled communities and Black disabled intersectionality!

General Information-

There is often a huge erasure of the intersection between the history of Black civil rights justice, and disabled civil rights justice. It’s not necessary to examine just because many key Black activists from history were also disabled, but because structural ableism has always had a disproportionate impact on Black disabled people.

First of all, Black communities have higher rates of disability. Disabilities that someone isn’t born with can be caused by many things- unhealthy living environments, injuries from unsafe working conditions, lack of access to quality healthcare, living in impoverished areas that don’t have consistent access to food or healthy water- and all of these things happen much more on a systemic level, to Black communities.

Black people have historically experienced much less safe working conditions due to white employers taking advantage of them. This can lead to work injuries that cause permanent disability. Another huge issue is that the redlining system, which assigned “value” to different zip codes, one of its “value” criterion being whether or not it was a majority Black/brown area, has led to a huge deficit between the amount of functioning businesses and healthcare centers in majority-Black areas, meaning that, to this day, many Black communities have much less direct access to healthcare. Environmental racism has led to many impoverished Black communities having few quality grocery stores, and the stores that ARE there, have incredibly high prices, leading to systemic issues of malnutrition and food-related chronic health conditions and disabilities having higher rates among Black communities.

Additionally, many disabilities which can develop from unsanitary living conditions, have immensely higher rates among Black communities- so gentrification drives many Black and brown people into poorer, less sanitary neighborhoods, causing increased risk of health problems.

Historically (and presently, for that matter), ableist concepts and structures like eugenics, have been extremely racialized. In examples like the Nazi regime, eugenics was employed because it was believed that disability was a “corruption” upon the “master Aryan race”. Disabled people were targeted, ESPECIALLY Jewish disabled people and non-white disabled people, for “tainting” whiteness. Eugenics has always been not just about eliminating disabled people, but eliminating Black and brown people. Eugenics history is just as racist as it is ableist. Programs carried out under eugenicist governments, like forced sterilization, majorly targeted Black and brown people- thousands of Black and brown people, both women and men, were forcibly sterilized because eugenicists didn’t want Black and brown populations to grow larger.

Another often overlooked aspect of Black disability intersectionality is how disability functioned during slavery. Not only did the physical and psychological horrors they faced cause enslaved people who had been born able-bodied and able-minded to develop disabilities, but already-disabled enslaved people were often valued even less than their able-bodied counterparts. Physical and mental ability, or “soundness”, was a huge factor in the transatlantic slave trade, so disabled enslaved people often were forced to ignore the limitations of their disability so that they didn’t get punished for not completing their work, and forced to hide their disabilities if they could, as many disabled slaves were not bought and instead were abandoned in the woods. Disability was often seen as just an excuse to be lazy, meaning many white plantation owners didn’t believe that Black peoples’ disabilities actually counted, they thought they were just being “lazy” to get out of having to do work. The history of claiming that disabled people are just “lazy and refuse to work”, is deeply rooted in anti-Blackness.

So, understanding the history of ableism is key to understanding Black history because they have always been intertwined. 

Black Disability Activism and Activists-

[Image ID: A black-and-white photograph of Brad Lomax, a thin Black man with a small afro who uses a wheelchair. In the photograph, he is smiling and wearing a fancy grey suit. He is holding a microphone on his lap and is speaking outside on a stage. End ID.]

Disability rights activism in America was heavily intertwined with and influenced by the Civil Rights Movement. Social change began to be at the forefront of the American consciousness, so even many white disability activists were inspired to action by the Civil Rights Movement. One example of success on the Black disability activism was when, after the forced sterilization of two young adolescent Black sisters, Mary and Minnie Relf, Black women activists worked with the Southern Poverty Law Center to file a lawsuit on behalf of the two sisters. This lawsuit resulted in the successful case of Relf v. Weinberger, which outlawed federal financial support for involuntary sterilization.

Another integral figure in Black disabled history is Fannie Lou Hamer, who suffered lifelong disabilities from having polio as a child, and who also spoke up against the forced sterilization of Black women and other women of color, after she herself was sterilized against her will during a medical procedure. She also experienced disability from injuries she sustained when she was violently beaten by police after participating in a bus sit-in in the whites-only section of a bus. 

Fannie Lou Hamer helped to found the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party, which helped to counter efforts by the Mississippi Democratic Party to block Black voter registration. She helped organize the Freedom Summer for voting rights, and she openly protested against forced sterilization laws at a march in 1964, where she shared her own experience with being forcibly sterilized against her will. She co-founded the National Women’s Political Caucus in 1971. One thing she is known for is saying “I am sick and tired of being sick and tired”.

Another important Black disabilities advocate is Lois Curtis, who was also a self-taught visual artist. She confronted the ways that segregation impacted Black disabled people. She had intellectual disabilities and was schizophrenic, and for much of her early life, she was forcibly institutionalized despite wanting to live in her own community. In 1999, her lawsuit resulted in the landmark case L.C v. Olmstead, in which she argued against the forced institutionalization of people with mental disabilities. This case resulted in the declaration that forced institutionalization of mentally disabled people was a form of segregation and discrimination and therefore an illegal violation of the earlier landmark Americans with Disabilities Act.

A Black disabled woman named Johnnie Lacy was a huge part of the independent living movement that Lois Curtis represented, and she helped found the famous Berkley Center for Independent Living in 1981 and served for more than a decade as the director of a nonprofit called Community Resources for Independent Living. She worked to educate others about Black disabled intersectionality.

Jazzie Collins was a Black disabled transgender woman who served as an important member of San Francisco’s Senior and Disability Action group. Sylvia Walker was Director of the Center for Disability and Socioeconomic Policy Studies and the Howard University Research and Training Center. She also served as Vice-Chair of the President’s Committee’s on the Employment of People with Disabilities. She was a champion for disability rights and her research helped lead to the Americans with Disabilities Act. Donald Galloway was a blind Black man who served on many various disability councils and boards and made a huge impact. So many other Black Americans have made crucial progress in the disability rights movement- including Brad Lomax, who is widely hailed as a bridge between civil rights and disability rights movements.

Brad Lomax, who was a wheelchair user due to his history of multiple sclerosis, was a fervent civil rights activist who was a member of the Black Panther Party. This membership led to one of the most memorable and notable disability rights protests of American history: the capitol crawl, when disabled activists marched to the capitol building, abandoned their mobility aids, and began crawling up the steps to the capitol. This protest was huge- and it is widely considered that it would’ve failed without the help of the Black Panther Party who, at the quick direction and action of Brad Lomax, provided shelter, support, food, and water to the capitol crawl participants. Brad Lomax sustained one of the most important disability rights protests of history.

Black disabled history is not a thing of the past. It is ever-present and ever growing.

Summary-

Disability disproportionately affects Black people in America because of environmental factors, systemic racism in healthcare, exposure to more unsanitary living conditions, and many other factors

Eugenics, forced sterilization, and forced institutionalization has historically dramatically targeted Black and brown people

Black women’s activism led to the illegalization of federal funding for forced sterilization

Many Black civil rights leaders, like Fannie Lou Hamer, were disabled and combined Black and disabled activism

Lois Curtis and Johnnie Lacy were two Black women who were integral to winning more rights for mentally disabled people to live on their own without forced institutionalization

Brad Lomax was a disabled Black Panther whose crucial leadership of the BPP during the capitol crawl sustained its success and led to its completion

tagging @metalheadsforblacklivesmatter​ @intersexfairy​ @bfpnola​ @cistematicchaos​ 

Sources-

https://www.childtrends.org/publications/5-things-to-know-about-racial-and-ethnic-disparities-in-special-education#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20students%20of%20color,disabilities%20than%20are%20their%20peers.

https://www.nationaldisabilityinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/disability-race-poverty-in-america.pdf

https://ihpi.umich.edu/news/forced-sterilization-policies-us-targeted-minorities-and-those-disabilities-and-lasted-21st

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/09687599.2014.931652

https://twu.edu/media/documents/history-government/Autonomy-Revoked--The-Forced-Sterilization-of-Women-of-Color-in-20th-Century-America.pdf

https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/fannie-lou-hamer

https://sdaction.org/about/disability-history/

https://psychnews.psychiatryonline.org/doi/full/10.1176/appi.pn.2020.7b27

https://digitalcommons.wou.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1283&context=his

https://the-art-of-autism.com/disability-history-month-lois-curtis-artist-and-disability-advocate-paved-the-way/

https://www.centerforlearnerequity.org/news/johnnie-lacy-an-advocate-for-independent-living/

#mogai bhm #mogai #mogai community #bhm #black history month #blm #black lives matter #ableism discussion #racism discussion #antiblackness discussion

[orchidvioletindigo]

So uh. I spoke with my disability lawyer today and found out that the mental health evaluator the government sent me to shotgun diagnosed me with borderline personality disorder and didn't tell me.

From what I'm reading, clinicians diagnosing BPD and not telling their patients appears to be a thing that regularly happens.

This is sooooo awesome, I definitely hadn't already decided not to pursue official PD testing because I didn't want a highly stigmatized diagnosis following me around. 🙃

#health issues #personal #ableism discussion #well anyway I think I'm the discouraged type and may also have OCPD #I better win my case after this

[just-late-roman-republic-things]

Just finished Suetonius' biography of Claudius, and I can absolutely see why Robert Graves wanted to write a novel about him. The first sections made me feel so bad for Claudius, and somehow people kept bullying him even after he became emperor. Even Suetonius mocks him, dismisses his accomplishments, and actions that were neutral or positive in Augustus' biography become negative when applied to Claudius.

I don't know much about Claudius, so I pulled up Wikipedia's article on him as a starting point. Some possible historiographical issues Wiki brought up:

Claudius was the first emperor chosen by the praetorian guards, rather than formally approved by the Senate, and this may have prejudiced the senatorial class against him.

Claudius expanded the imperial administration, relying more heavily on his freedmen for duties traditionally given to senators, and this increased senatorial resentment. Suetonius' portrayal of him as dominated by his wives and freedmen may be a a warped portrayal of this.

Claudius was seen as vulnerable, and several attempts were made to overthrow him; he responded by executing the senators involved and taking greater precautions with the rest.

The Flavians partly rehabilitated his image - at least in comparison with Nero - but overall he was mostly treated as forgettable.

I also wonder if people may have judged him for not performing masculinity "correctly" or for his disability. It's hard to tell. Suetonius' account might have exaggerated that in the same way he otherwise portrays Claudius as ridiculous.

The wiki article paints a much more competent picture. Conquered Britain (via his generals), built aqueducts, tried to improve Italy's food security, expanded citizenship, and was actively involved in courts and public administration. And there's no doubt that he was intellectually capable, given his extensive scholarly writings. I don't know enough to judge if he was a good emperor overall, but he was clearly trying.

He might have been forgetful, scatterbrained, a poor judge of character, or good at sticking his foot in his mouth. Some of Suetonius' examples there may be real. But those traits aren't the same as being generally incompetent. In fact, considering how many conspiracies Claudius managed to foil, perhaps he was more cunning than Suetonius gives him credit for...

I'll have to read more to have a proper Take™️here, but so far, my best guess is that Claudius was no fool* - his family just assumed he was because of his disability and/or quirks. And that lens may have spread to how other people viewed him, too. It's very common for adults to slot kids into a role, and the kids learn to behave in ways that confirm that role: the golden boy, the class clown, the tomboy, the nerd, the delinquent...that's why you often have to leave your childhood home, and join a community where nobody knows you, to really find yourself. But Claudius, who spent his whole life in the public eye, couldn't do that.

(*Of course, even if he did have an intellectual disability, he'd still be deserving of respect, just like anyone is. A person's dignity shouldn't be dependent on how "able," productive or useful they are.)

Incidentally, @theromaboo, what are your thoughts? Both on Claudius' abilities and accomplishments, on his potential health issues or disabilities, and on how historians portray him?

#ableism discussion #suetonius #claudius #jlrrt reads #historiography #jlrrt essays

[saltminerising]

i'm an autistic person who doesn't emote like at all and i ignore that part of fae lore, i don't think it's ableist to not like that certain part of the lore? people are allowed to pick and choose the parts of lore they like until someone decides it's ableist to pick and choose certain parts i guess... i'm sorry i just don't like drawing all my fae staring blankly, i like drawing expressions. that doesn't make me ableist that just means i like drawing expressions and all my favorite permas are faes. it's literally just personal preference with lore, it's not an attack on autistics if someone wants their faes to emote... idk. i don't see the faes not emoting as representation for people like me, it just feels like a random piece of lore. i think we should put ableist up on the high shelf

❄️

#ableism discussion #ableism

[undervaluedagent]

Thinking about that time I had a full-blown meltdown before a concert and instead of the admins trying to understand that yes, I do have autism, so sometimes I will have meltdowns, I was lectured about improper conduct or something and banned from performing in the next concert. Like I'm sorry, what exactly did you want me to do, stop having the meltdown? Believe me, I would have LOVED to do that, I really wanted to perform but I couldn't! And the biggest thing:

Why is it that we have to choose between doing things that other people do and actually being seen as disabled? It's like when you participate in activities, any understanding of your disability goes out the window, because I guess real disabled people can't do anything outside of staying out of the public eye and being disabled? Why is it that whenever we show disability symptoms, we're either threatened with being kicked out or actually kicked out?

Are we just too difficult for you?

#actually autistic #neurodivergent #ableism #ableism discussion #disabled #undervalued files