#blatant ableism

[schizopositivity]

A large part of the Internet: You can't make jokes about minority groups you are not a part of! Punching down is not just joking, it's bullying! Mental health matters! Mentally ill people deserve to be treated like anyone else!

A large part of the Internet also: *my friend disappearing when I take my schizophrenia pills memes* She's so delulu!! *memes designed to specifically trigger paranoia in people with a mental illness that includes paranoia* Lol schizo whips!!! *memes about lobotomies* Omg this murderer must be PSYCHOTIC!!

#i get so annoyed at the blatant hypocrisy #sanism #ableism #tw sanism #tw ableism #schizophrenic #schizophrenia stigma #schizophrenia #delusions #delulu #delusional #psychotic #mental illness #nd #neurodivergent #psychosis #actuallyschizophrenic #mental health awareness #pseriouslypsychotic #mental health #mental health awarness

[eye-of-yelough]

giggling, twirling my hair, kicking my feet, etc

#thought about anders dragonage incident. many dead many injured #fuck jennifer heplar forever and ever for the blatant ableism that went into writing anders and the general hatred she has for him. but also #thank you jennifer heplar. for this paragraph. the sexiest words that have ever been written. #your daily dose of idiocy #dragon age 2 #anders my beloved

[yellowocaballero]

Omg hi Ms. Yellow Caballero big fan of your work <3 For real though, I'm really excited that your sharing the Weekenders, it was a joy to read and I'm bongocat-ing now that others also get the privilege to read it as well.

Referencing your tags, would you please elaborate of ableism in fandom and, like you said, how fandom treats characters with unpalatable disabilities?

Hi Ms. Bud Lite I'm a big fan of you <3

TL;DR A fear of writing characters of highly marginalized identities shields you from criticism and discomfort, but it's actively stigmatizing to people of these identities and as a writer you really need to get over yourself and write The Icky People.

I guess I'll come out swinging on this one and say that fandom doesn't like severe mental illness. (As a note, when I say severe mental illness (SMI) I mean illnesses such as psychotic disorders, bipolar disorder, substance use disorders, personality disorders, etc)

Obviously, nobody likes people w/SMI. It's just insanely egregious in fandom to me, since fanfic writers absolutely love writing characters or HC characters with depression, anxiety, or a specific variety of PTSD That Isn't Scary. People actively reject any character HCs for a SMI. When people write a character with SMI, they nicely downplay it, ignore it, substitute it for a disorder they like better, or rewrite it. It's completely untolerated, in both headcanons and in fanfiction, and every time I bring it up I always get the most interesting reasons why somebody couldn't possibly acknowledge a character's SMI in their writing. I've heard all of these:

"I don't know enough about the disorder to write it accurately." Do research.

"I'm not X, so I can't really depict it." You probably aren't a cis white man, but you depict those guys just fine.

"It feels insulting to the character." There is no shame in having a SMI.

"I can't understand what it's like, so it's better to be cautious and avoid giving characters stigmatized identities." There are LOTS of experiences that you'll never understand because you've never had them - you just don't want to write anything you're uncomfortable with. People with SMI make you uncomfortable, and you don't want to write anything that makes you feel uncomfortable, or think of a comfort character in an uncomfortable way. SMIs are marginalized differently than solely depression/anxiety/The Nice PTSD, and by refusing to write them you're actively contributing to the stigma.

I think (?) I've spoken in the past about how I believe that the rigorous external and internal policing of writing people of marginalized identities is actively harmful towards efforts to increase diversity of experience and background in fiction. A lot of fanfiction writers are just terrified to write people who they can't directly relate with, because they're worried 'they'll get it wrong' and be Big Cancelled. I think this is negative enough when it prevents people from going outside of their comfort zone, but on a macro level I think this results in people refusing to write characters of marginalized identities as all. It's an insidious thought process, and it's reflected in people's unwillingness to diversity their writing or acknowledge canon diversity.

'Well, I don't understand what it's like to be Black, so I don't want to write Black people'. 'I want to project on this character, so I only want to write them with mental illnesses and identities I have'. 'If I write a marginalized character incorrectly people will yell at me, so I won't write a marginalized character who's marginalized differently than me at all'. Can you imagine writing a lesbian character with a boyfriend because 'you feel uncomfortable writing lesbian experiences'? It's blatantly homophobic. But people do that with disability and race/ethnicity ALL THE TIME.

People with SMI notice that you feel uncomfortable with them. It's obvious. They notice when a character has a SMI + anxiety, and you only write their anxiety. They notice when a character displays symptoms of a SMI in canon, but you write it out. And POC notice when the characters of color are written out. I know we all like to project on the blorbos and relate to them, and in the joys of your own head do whatever, but as a writer if you only stick to identities you're comfortable with you are actively being a worse writer. Which to me is the REAL sin lmfao.

#my asks #thanks for enabling me lizzy if i didn't get this out i would have just vagued for the rest of time #even just beyond all of this on a more subtle lvl. HC people with SMI cowards. just do it. its good for you. #the two times me/a close friend have proposed on a fandom server "hey I read X as having a SUD/being on the schizophrenic spectrum' #there was actual fascinating pushback and rejection #people got MAD. #'blorbo wouldn't be an alcoholic he's not a bad person :(' fuck off #i dont use the word often but its ableism and you can be mentally ill and still ableist #if you dont feel educated enough on something to write it then do research #and while research wont give you everything it's a start #if you feel like you can only write people just like you then frankly? skill issue #i mentioned that the last fic was a bit of a spite fic - well #it was scientifically fascinating how the majority of a fandom wrote/acknowledged a character as depressed and anxious #but actively got incredibly defensive when someone suggested that the psychotic character may have had a psychotic disorder #it was so blatant. very annoying. anyway.

[thecruellestmonth]

Yes, poor people insist on eating cheap food and refusing to learn to cook. They wouldn't want better even if they did have the resources, that's just how they are by nature.

Thank you for correcting those ignorant Jason stans. Their headcanons of Jason being a good cook and enjoying fancy food are so seriously harmful.

Cass (who canonically lacks a lot of home skills and greatly enjoys eating other people's food) is one of the best cooks. Bruce (canonically a terrible cook who can't even make a sandwich) "does okay"—sure, it's your headcanon. Alfred, the classy British guy, is logically a great cook and "super posh". We can sum up Tim's unimpressive cooking skills just briefly.

But we need an entire section describing your headcanon about how Jason can't cook and needs to stick to "poverty comfort foods", because he comes from a poor background.

#Jason is such an a-hole and his personality is so repulsive and there are so many colorful ways to hate him. #Why do so MANY of you insist on blatant/veiled classism and ableism and abuse apologism? It's just not very creative or cool. #Jason Todd #fanon #fanon vs canon #canon vs fanon #You know what's a great ''poverty comfort food''?? Canned fruit! Ask me how I know! #I love Cass but when has she shown interest in cooking other than loving to eat? Her tastes seem VERY similar to Jason's in canon. #I mean if she really needs to win ''THE Number One Most-Like-Bruce Except Better'' Competition then she should be a bad cook too. #But tbh I think ''bad cook'' is a really weird trait to assign to fictional power fantasies. Cooking shouldn't be hard for those people. #If you can disarm a bomb and assemble a gun then you can follow step-by-step instructions to cook something simple and wholesome. #So even though Bruce is CANONICALLY a bad cook--I still headcanon that all the Bats are at least decently competent at cooking. #fandom negativity CW #fandom drama CW

[ascendedastarionapologist]

hey astarion likers, and specifically ascended astarion dislikers: stop fucking using delusional or "delulu" as an insult. as someone that actually suffers from psychosis its super gross to have to constantly see yall use my mental illness as a checkmate in your fandom wank. be better.

#bg3 #astarion ancunin #ascended astarion #arguing over blorbos is one thing #thats part of the enjoyment of fandom to me imo #but lets be considerate #the ableism displayed by aa dislikers is so blatant

[aropride]

hot take but the “haha u were mildly rude to a stranger online but really you’re a pathetic loser who can’t even make phone calls or order at a restaurant” brand of epic dunks on here are super unfunny and ableist In my humble opinion

#text #Like idk 🤷‍♂️ but it feels like pretty blatant ableism to me. even grosser cuz this is the autism/anxiety website

[kafkaesquedyke]

The new Velma show seems to neatly fall into this trend of tv shows (paramount heathers, leaked powerpuff girls script) that want to seem progressive by having a diverse cast, while simultaneously wanting to preserve that same edgy, punch-down comedy style found in 'centrist' or conservative media. They want the praise for having female, queer, and characters of colour while still retaining an audience made up of mainly edgy white men laughing at how ridiculous ‘the minorities’ are behaving. It’s a punch-down comedy wolf in progressive sheep clothing.

The fundamental flaw in this logic is that show runners assume the audience that would enjoy this humour will see past that supposedly progressive façade… and that often doesn’t happen. A lot of these specific edgy types see diversity as a red flag and immediately presume some type of agenda. It’s almost like seeing a minority participate in the joke (even though they’re still very much the punchline) zaps all the humour out of it or they can’t understand that the joke is still for them if it isn’t said by someone that looks exactly like them. And because they (especially, but not only, cishet white men) recognise all the jokes from things they like, but don’t find them funny anymore, the only reasonable explanation they have is that diversity is bad and makes it unfunny, instead of realising their inherent inability to recognise and relate to any character that isn’t a white man.

Meanwhile, an audience that would appreciate a diverse cast does recognise the comedy for what it is: cheap jokes made at their expense. At most there are occasional jabs thrown in at the white and/or male characters which often don’t relate to these identities in any fundamental or even realistic way. So you have this show that constantly uses their minority characters as punchlines and only includes vaguely progressive, but ultimately pretty universally accepted, messaging hoping progressive audiences will be enamoured with the occasional ‘girlboss moment™️’, while not noticing that vast amounts of regressive ideals.

In the end neither audience feels appealed to and the show is a massive failure. While it might be satisfying to see that these conservative audiences are too blinded by, let’s be honest here, identity politics to recognise something that is clearly made for them, ultimately all that is remembered is that ‘the comedy show featuring a lot of diversity’ failed. And it becomes harder for people who actually want to make media with, and especially for, minorities have a harder time getting any funding. Shows like these are a lose lose situation when it comes to furthering diversity in the media landscape and it’s increasingly frustrating to see this happen again and again.

#most of the criticism I’ve seen so far is hinging on the expectation that this show would be progressive because of the representation #but if you see it as just another family guy copycat you can see all the ‘weirdly problematic stuff’ not as flaws but part of the design #meanwhile most of the criticism coming from conservatives is ‘wokeness ruined scooby doo’ #we can’t assume just because something features minorities that it is for those minorities #especially with the rise of anti-intellectualism and ‘the curtains are just blue’ mentality this seems to happen more and more #they also often feature the surface acceptance of women queer people and poc while still being very blatantly bigoted towards other groups #many of which are discriminated against as well but their activism efforts are not as widely recognised #so you might not have as much blatant racism and sexism but incredible amounts of ableism and fatphobia #meanwhile the more obvious bigotry is either subtler or deflected by characters pointing it out like that erases the joke #this isn’t even touching on how all of these shows also wildly misconstrue the purpose of the media they are adapting #scooby doo #hbo velma #velma 2023 #paramount heathers

[mlmxreader]

people really DO need to examine both their conscious and unconscious bias against schizospec, psychospec people as well as those w NPD, BPD, ASPD, trauma disorders and dissociative disorders bc WHY are you not bothering to do the very basics in changing your language and examining WHY you act the way you do about said disorders?

#saneism #ableism #do better. genuinely. #your fetishisation of us IS just as bad as blatant abuse. #call of duty #cod #nikto x reader #nikto cod #nikto call of duty

[bbygirl-aemond]

me: hmm it's been a while maybe i should check out hotd twt to see if it's calmed down-

hotd twt: jaehaerys having six fingers is proof that hightower blood is inferior

me, deleting the app again: you know what i'm good

#it's the blatant ableism for me like what #people in this fandom really turn to every form of bigotry in the book when bashing characters #also the idea of bashing entire bloodlines is so wild like what did jaehaerys do he's just a little guy

[silkysong]

i feel like theres a fine line between people taking brain damage seriously and treating it like a joke, and its always down to strangers making assumptions on what your personal life is when you dont share every bad day/symptom/flare. is the struggle not valid if its not seen by thousands of people? is the struggle not valid if you try your best to recover and improve and wont let your most vulnerable self be public

#its 3 am im tired and blatant ableism on social media is a forever forever constant

[aconstantstateofbladerunner]

@jelly-as-in-grape-concord made this for me

Tiger’s Curse book 3 is officially the worse book I’ve ever read and Colleen Houck is my eternal enemy.

#tiger’s curse #there’s 2 more books in the series #At this point #i’m just here to see how bad it gets #The third one swiped me on the way out #With some of the most blatant ableism I’ve ever seen outside of old eugenics texts #And that’s on top of all the racism sexism and classism #Plus #it’s bad in regular ways too #Like the protagonist being deeply shallow and useless #While everyone praises how wonderful she is #the fact that all the books are 500+ pages but the plot doesn’t start until halfway through #And the writing is childishly bad #The real curse is that i can’t stop

[thedisablednaturalist]

Hey people who've worked with abled disability counselors/resources (other than doctors)..have you ever experienced ablesplaining? (Like mansplaining but from abled people)

It's kinda frustrating being told that I'm not valid for being a bit scared to start using my wheelchair in the office and that I should trust my coworkers to behave bc of the ADA 🙄 Like that's protected me before

/sarcasm

#chronic disability #chronic pain #working while disabled #disability #spoonie #wheelchair #im worried if i let her know im frustrated she'll drop my case #like even just having two years experience with a wheelchair has made me experience so much more blatant ableism #so sorry that im more careful about showing that side of myself to people i dont know well #like its my fault for not disclosing my disability sooner! and she keeps defending my boss #even though ive told her of the ableist shit hes said #which has made me uncomfortable disclosing my disability to him

[phatcatphergus]

q!mike was dressed in a luffy skin and kept twerking on and shouting over the eye workers during their negotiations with q!bagi, but you don’t see any of those people posting thinly veiled hate over that. hmmm i wonder why…? /s

It’s because qtubbo is a woman

#okay but fr I’ve said how people treat tubbo characters like female characters for yearssss #he doesn’t need a boyfriend and he’s an individual outside of his relationships #he’s also allowed to be an asshole and lash out and not sit and look pretty all the time #but alas #people refuse to treat him with respect and without blatant ableism and misogyny #anon asks

[engagemythrusters]

hm the mask would be good for kanan's eyes if they were chronically dry. which ig would make sense if the saber fucked up his eyes. do kanan's tear ducts function normally? not sure. but the mask would be good for keeping out wind or dust or pollens or anything that would irrritate his eyes.

#i doubt that's the intention the animators had in mind tho #it was probably 'we cant show this guys eyes' #'kids would be disturbed' #or something. #the ableism in star wars is extremely blatant #so i would not be surprised if it was that reason exactly #kanan jarrus #star wars: rebels

[min0uet]

actually i'm making this its own post: gonta gokuhara would not fucking talk like that. i don't care what the localization said because they were WRONG. caveman-talk gokuhara dialogue you are my sworn enemy and whoever at NIS made that translating decision is going to hell if i have anything to say about it

#sorry i dont know why i care so strongly abt this #its probably a combination of the ableism and the blatant disregard for good translation practices #hi. i have autism. #harold.txt #danganronpa #ndrv3

[puppiekit]

you know what probably a warrior cats hot take but NightHeart 100% has BPD (coming from someone who has BPD) so seeing the fandoms blatant hatred for him is hilarious and ironic. Scrolling through the NightHeart posts on this sight is on par with all the hate posts I see about my disorder on the internet not even exaggerating you people say the same exact stuff

Like cmon... You cannot tell me this isn't him

Honestly though it seems to me that the fandom has 0 issue sympathizing with or understanding the perspective of neglected/traumatized characters, but only when they express symptoms that are mild and/or can be glorified by the plot. Traumatized characters that turn around to become meek, soft-spoken, people-pleasers, or riddled with anxiety and fear are automatically recognized as traumatized, and what they have experienced is always taken into account when addressing their behaviors/worldview. Same with traumatized characters who turn around and try to overcompensate for whatever it is that they have experienced (eg. BlueStar growing paranoid and isolating herself after the betrayal she faced from TigerClaw, and also ditching StarClan because she feels as though they have taken enough away from her.)

… Traumatized characters who don't trust/like their peers, who express anger and recklessness and resentment, however? As far as most fandoms are concerned, they are just mean, cruel, and potentially evil, even if they aren't violent, and even if they dont want to harm others. (… probably doesn't help that most of the villains in the series project their own issues through anger though). If a character who is traumatized turns to anger, most people don't bother trying to take their experiences in account for their behavior, and sympathizing is out of the question… Can I blame them? Not really. It's makes sense not to like a character who projects their hurt and insecurities onto others. But the refusal to at least acknowledge why NightHeart is the way he is continues to shock me - people have more sympathy for literal villains and murderers lmfao.

Like this fandom is ridiculous. Not only because most of the things people hate about him is actually nothing more than the fault and biases of the writers themselves, but because for *years* the fandom was begging for a character that had real depth and real issues and a solid personality. Now these same people are whining because said character isnt a soft owo anxiety-ridden baby like friggin AlderHeart. Like no hate I love AlderHeart but from what I see people only gush over him and his bare minimum representation of anxiety because he hardly shows any symptoms that aren't already infantalized to hell and back by the internet. I mean just look at how the fandom treats GooseFeather... Dude never once acts out of malice and lives a life of isolation and genuine suffering, and yet the fandom consistently demonizes him and says awful things about him. This fandom needs to cut the crap lmfao

#wc #warrior cats #nightheart #opinion #i just find it kind of ironic that the fandom is always whining about ableism and mental health #but isnt afraid to show blatant hatred and disregard for a pretty accurate depiction of a disorder #its annoying actually