#disability politics

[hiiragi7]

Over the years, I have noticed a troubling conflict in the way people speak about disorders and disabilities which are different from their own.

"You don't have tics, you have Munchausen's"

"You don't have DID, you have schizophrenia"

"You're not chronically ill, you're just a narcissist"

This sentiment that you cannot have xyz disorder, are lying or "insane", and must truly have this other disorder instead.

It is as if there are the Good Disorders; those which are Morally Correct to have; those which you are subjected to; those which make your life harder, and the Bad Disorders; those which are Morally Wrong to have; those which you deserve to have; those which make other peoples' lives harder. And so, there is this idea that those with the Bad Disorders attempt to trick others into believing they actually have the Good Disorders, and that this must be called out and these people shamed and exorcised so as to not taint the purity of those with the Good Disorders.

It is what is behind this common demand of "You must acknowledge you have The Bad Disorder and seperate yourself from those of us with The Good Disorder, or else you will further our oppression, harm us, steal our resources, and spread lies about our disorder."

And then I realized, it is that a lot of people believe that Good People have Good Disorders and Bad People have Bad Disorders.

Good People have disorders such as PTSD, anxiety, depression; Bad People have disorders such as personality disorders, bipolar, schizophrenia.

And so, Bad People cannot have Good Disorders. I feel that this also ties into ideas of what "victims of disability/abuse" look like, and the idea of the Good Victim; this idea that in order to be truly victimized, you must be entirely and wholly pure behaviorally, emotionally, physically, racially, and sexually, or else you are considered to be deceitful and deserving of abuse and disability. Those who are "truly" victims are those who are deemed to fully reject their abuse and disability, and who are also deemed to be wholly pure and good.

For those who are held up as Good Victims [of disability/abuse], it is said that they deserve support, justice, and healing. For those who are decided to be Bad Victims [of disability/abuse], it is said they deserve isolation, institionalization, violence, and perhaps even death.

Even within communities for specific disorders, there are the Good Symptoms and the Bad Symptoms, and it is a common sentiment that those with the Bad Symptoms must not truly have the disorder; to imply otherwise would risk the purity of the disorder (or, if it is a "Bad Disorder", it damages the possibility of the disorder someday moving into a Good Disorder status).

This entire structure relies on deeply ingrained ableist ideals and concepts of morality, purity, and dis/ability. It keeps us divided from each other and damages attempts at community.

Dismantling ableism requires supporting each other; when we perpetuate the idea that other disabled people are lying about their disability, that they are not who or what they claim to be, and that they require immediate curative interventions in order to not harm others, we reinforce ableist ideas and stereotypes about disabled people within our communities.

#disability politics #disability #ableism

[racefortheironthrone]

Has Cyclops ever gained enough control over his powers that he didn't need the glasses/visor?

It's not a matter of control; Scott Summers has brain damage from the head injury he received when his powers activated at the orphanage that renders him incapable of fully controlling his powers.

Over time, however, Scott came to feel that his visor was as much a part of him as the assistive device that any other disabled person uses. Thus, when he's been resurrected on Krakoa, he's chosen to be resurrected with that injury and continue to use his visor - much like how Xuân and Takeshi have chosen to retain their disabilities and assistive devices.

(I think it also speaks to an important part of his psychology; throughout his life, Scott has been incredibly repressed in many different ways because he feared hurting others, and he feels more comfortable with the visor's restraints as a safeguard against that ever happening. We can especially see this in his relationship with Jean and Emma, and maybe Logan?)

#xmen #xmen meta #cyclops #scott summers #the mutant metaphor #disability rights #disability politics

[identitty-dickruption]

something that just keeps coming up in everything I'm reading is that distancing oneself from "the disabled" has always been seen as an effective political strategy for oppressed groups, to the point that even some disabled activism has been about distancing ourselves from "the disabled"

over and over again, groups that have been labelled by society as "defective" or "feeble-minded" choose to side with eugenicists. instead of questioning eugenic ideologies, they decide to say "there are a group of people who are too weak to participate in society, but we are not in that group". and we cannot separate those tactics from the social gains that were achieved

#tw eugenics #disability #disability politics #disability theory #crip theory

[unwhitewashthebadbatch]

Dee Bradley Baker says Tech is "almost like someone...on the spectrum". Some autistic people are glad to see themselves in Tech, but others are upset at the lack of breadth his character has. Combined with whitewashing, Tech fits an uncomfortable series of tropes that have been used by Hollywood--and, specifically, The Bad Batch--to stereotype Autistic people.

#mod ch #tech #star wars #the bad batch #tbb #tbb tech #tech tbb #unwhitewashTBB #star wars the bad batch #tech fanart #disability pride month #autism tropes #video #dee bradley baker #swtbb #sw tbb #disability politics #Youtube

[variousqueerthings]

When the Royal Shakespeare Company cast Arthur Hughes in 2022, the headline in the Guardian was “‘There’s a truth to it’: RSC Casts Disabled Actor as Richard III.” The motive behind the cripping of Richard III in recent years, however, is not simply that a disabled actor can connect with and portray Shakespeare’s disabled king better than an able-bodied actor. If we see this attitude as the aesthetic motivation behind the cripping of Richard, the political motivation has exerted more force: A disabled actor playing Richard III exemplifies the recent push for fair hiring practices in the English-speaking world.

#richard iii #disability politics #theatre #art #off the back of watching cumberbatch's uninspired portrayal on hollow crown #oooh im so eeevil *yells* *is a dick* deformed and eeevil #smthin smthin if i had a nickle for every time id seen cumberbatch play disability in an uninspiredly evil way id have 2 nickles #between this and frankenstein

[aibidil]

"People—crippled or not—wince at the word cripple, as they do not at handicapped or disabled. Perhaps I want them to wince. I want them to see me as a tough customer, one to whom the fates/gods/viruses have not been kind, but who can face the brutal truth of her existence squarely. As a cripple, I swagger."

—Nancy Mairs

#disability #crip punk #disability politics

[your-actual-therapist]

the many fallacies of the high-functioning adhd person (or why you should get the damn pills)

i am a therapist and also a late-diagnosed adhd person. and by late-diagnosed i mean that i just got diagnosed a couple of weeks ago and apparently all my clients have known i have adhd since the day they met me.

the common objection (read: my objection for the last several years) to the bare fact of "you should 100% go get neuropsych testing and maybe get on medication, learn better coping skills, adapt your work environment to fit the way your brain works, be open about how adhd affects you and what accommodations you need, etc." is "oh, but you see, i can actually get shit done when i need to."

it's true. i have a successful private practice. i've written several published books. i own my own home. it is clean. my dog is not neglected. that was why i called myself "well."

the thing is, though. neurotypical people tend to do those things...well, not effortlessly, exactly, but without the self-hatred. the self-blame. the all-nighters before a deadline. the endlessly ping-ponging back and forth between a thousand browser tabs and the one tab that contains the thing i actually need to get done. the stress. forgetting shit and remembering it and then forgetting it again. developing the elaborate organizational systems that prevent you from forgetting shit. trying to mitigate the effects of my symptoms on my partner. family. clients. the toll on my body and brain all this untenable stress takes, because untenable stress is the only way i'll get things done.

picture someone who uses a mobility device but can walk some distance without it. can they technically get across certain parking lots? sure. does it take the same effort for them as it takes someone with typical mobility? no. does their ability to walk mean they don't have to think about the number of steps they have to walk that day, today's level of pain tolerance, or whether there's a place to sit in the building once they get there? no. would it be frustrating for them to hear "but i thought you could walk!" from me if i saw them use their mobility device or park in an accessible space? of course. should they spend all their time worrying about whether they "really" need their mobility device? whether they're taking resources from people who have it "worse"? whether they're exaggerating how hard it is to get around because they "can" walk in a pinch? whether the fact that their mobility issues are less visible than others' means they're less deserving of accommodation? also no.

picture someone whose income is low but who is basically staying afloat. are their bills paid? sure. can they technically afford to splurge on a video game if they eat eggs for dinner for a little while? sure. does the price of that video game mean the same to them as it means to someone with a lot of spare cash? no. does it help that person to pretend their video game budget's the same as their rich friends' budget? hell no.

i'm not comparing any of these situations to each other, but i think it's useful to talk about the way we think about Other People's Life Stuff vs. Our Own Life Stuff. i think it helps us be kinder to ourselves and to people who share our experiences. i often caught myself thinking "why can't [sibling who also has adhd] just be on time and get shit done?" in a way that i'd never think about someone with a more visible condition, and that wasn't right.

my point is that whatever my level of adhd-related impairment is or was, there was never any point in minimizing it. there was no benefit to me or anyone else in pretending i wasn't struggling. i did no one any favors by not getting those magic pills that have greatly improved my life. i helped no one by refusing to ask for help or pretending the ways i sneakily accommodated my "quirks" were for any reason other than neurodivergence.

my point is that it can do harm to pretend that "high-functioning" means anything but "looking like a typical person but also expending so much effort on behaving typically that it detracts from your happiness and health."

my point is that mentally putting myself in a category separate from people with "actual" problems who needed help did not help those people at all and did jack shit to reduce the stigma of neurodivergence. those people were me, and i needed help. you do not stop needing help once you reach a certain threshold of socially sanctioned functionality. if my goal was to pass myself off as an "absent-minded professor" (my parents' and every single one of my teachers' and supervisors' favorite nickname for me) rather than a Genuinely Impaired Person, then congrats, yay to me, i successfully shot myself in the foot.

and maybe that was what i needed for a while because i was not in a place where being open about it and getting the help i needed was necessarily safe. but not anymore. and now it's time to use the rest of this addy to get cracking on some writing projects because i am on fire today.

#disability justice #disability politics #disability #actually adhd #neurodivergent #neurodivergence #therapy #therapists #psychotherapy #adhd #living with adhd #adhd post #adhd things #just adhd things #psychology #its the neurodivergency #neurodiversity #adderall #add #mental health

[bunnygrl-femme]

listen i'm also in the camp of anti surveillance spy devices but you gotta think about what you're actually telling people when you say shit like that about smart home devices. i'm disabled and mostly bedbound and i can control my own lights for the first time in years and i can control my tv without struggling to move my fingers around a remote control because of my smart home setup. i have to give up my own privacy to do it and i'm not happy about it but you have to think of them as accessibility devices too. predatory accessibility devices i'll give you that, they absolutely pray disproportionately on profoundly disabled people like me who rely on them for day to day life and harvest data from vulnerable folks who can't live without them and i'd really rather google wasn't listening to everything i said. but there's a good number of people in the world who don't get much choice at all and they're not even that much of a minority or exception. maybe instead of taking your anger out on people who use these devices you could use the same energy to target companies, not for creating smart devices, but for using disabled people's accessibility devices for unethical data harvesting and spying. i can promise you that telling people they're Bad and making Bad Choices for using these things isnt going to do much other than make people feel like a bag of shit for relying on them.

I'm gonna be honest with you anon, on two things. 1:) I don't know which post you're talking about. These are absolutely things I've said, and things I think, but I don't recall the post. And 2:) you are absolutely right. I never considered smart home devices in terms of accessibility. This is my abled privilege, that I never had to see the world with this lens before. And you're right on another count; capitalists absolutely pray on disabled people's need for accessibility to buy and sell their privacy. And we should put the pressure and the blame squarely at the foot of the capitalists who target disabled folks.

I'm taking an L on this one, y'all. And I'm shifting my politics to be more intersectional with disability liberation. Thanks for educating me, anon.

#asks answered #anon #disability politics #disability liberation

[goldilockstheory]

The DWP considering means-testing PIP is just vile. 

#So many people are only able to work because they have PIP #it's so ridiculous #but then it's never actually been about saving money and has always been about punishing and killing people #UK politics #disability politics

[trans-axolotl]

7 pages into my essay about how to survive a plague and brilliant imperfection 😭 this finals season is killing me

#personal #I think this essay will be good tho #it’s about cure #disability politics #and aids activism

[hiiragi7]

Endogenic Plurality, Disability, & Ableism

Note: For simplicity's sake, this post will be focused on endogenic plurals without a CDD, and uses endogenic interchangeably with "endogenic without a CDD" to be less wordy. Disability and disorder are also used somewhat interchangeably here.

I've been thinking more on the "do endogenic plurals experience ableism for being plural" debate, and something which I really would like to explore more in discussion is how plurality's proximity to disability impacts the ways in which endogenic plurals are treated.

While I see some fair points in each argument, statements such as "if you don't have a disorder, you do not face ableism" and "endogenic plurals only face misdirected ableism" are vastly oversimplifying the actual issues here to the point that they are actually misleading at best and harmfully incorrect at worst.

I have been reading Cripping Intersex lately and it has changed a lot of the ways in which I view disability politics. One thing that this book has made very clear: Saying "I do not have a disorder" does not prevent you from being subjected to discrimination based on an ableist system, and in fact rejecting the disability framework entirely not only does nothing to dismantle that ableism but even reinforces it.

This is not to say that endogenic plurals are "actually disabled/disordered", but rather that plurality as a whole has a proximity to disability in such a way that it is almost inherently subjected to ableism. There is absolutely a socially and medically enforced view of self which excludes any sort of overt plurality, especially in a Western colonialist context. Whether your plurality is actually disordered or not, that does not matter when you are working within a systemic framework which seeks to eliminate anything not defined as normal or acceptable. It doesn't even matter if your plurality is non-pathological; if it is not socially accepted as "normal", it is treated as disordered and to be fixed.

This sort of ableism is not only related to ableism more common to DID, but ableism as a whole. It is related to disability as a socially prescribed status through discrimination rather than black-and-white categories or objective truths regarding disorder and non-disorder. It is related to how saneism defines what is and is not normal and acceptable, rather than what psychology or the medical field defines as "actually" pathological and disordered (though it is important to acknowledge that these two systems heavily interact, as well, and that oppression impacts how the medical system defines pathology).

I reject that ableism towards endogenic plurals is simply "misdirected". To call it "misdirected ableism" is so often used to say that endogenic plurals are not the intended target, but I argue that they absolutely are included as intentional targets because plurality as a whole is a target, explicitly named or not. The determining factor for ableism is not whether someone is "really" disordered or not, but that they are treated as such due to societal standards regarding acceptable and unacceptable ways of being. When "unacceptable" is equated to "disordered" through a saneist lens, you are treated as such - and, you are, therefore, vulnerable to ableism.

I heavily agree with those who have so far spoken about how what people call pluralphobia is so often just ableism (though I also view it as often intersecting with anti-spiritual/religious views and racism), however I feel that we need to take this conversation even further to examine exactly how ableism works and who it affects. This post is also not meant to say "endos are oppressed for being plural", but rather that endos are oppressed through the same ableist systems that affect all plurals/people with CDDs and to expand on that to open conversation about it.

On a final note, I'd like to reflect on how rejection of disability has gone for various movements in the past and how that relates to the modern plural community and its approach to "plural acceptance".

As someone who was diagnosed with autism in the 2000s and saw a lot of push from autistics back then to de-medicalize autism to avoid further forced "normalizing treatment" like ABA, I can say that rejecting the framework of disability and ableism did not help us to dismantle systemic medical violence against autistic people and even isolated many severely disabled autistics who rely on medical interventions and support.

As an intersex person, I can say that the intersex community rejecting the framework of disability and ableism did not help us to end "normalizing treatments" against intersex people and even isolated many intersex people who do identify themselves as being disordered due to their intersex condition.

And as a person with DID, I have learned about how the empowered multiples movement had attempted to reject the framework of disorder and ableism to avoid medicalization and forced fusion, and how that did not help systems who did need medical intervention nor did it do anything to dismantle medical violence or stigma against multiples.

Any sort of wider "Plural Acceptance Movement" that comes into existence will fail if it is not also simultaneously and inherently a disability movement, and this is not just due to the existence of CDD systems. Seperation from disability does not exempt you from ableism or ableist frameworks and systemic oppression. CDD or not, we all as a community are impacted by ableism and cannot find any widespread acceptance while ignoring that. Plural acceptance is disability acceptance.

#syscourse #sysconvo #sysconversation #ableism #disability politics

[racefortheironthrone]

seems to me that for someone known to be on a wheelchair Charles Xavier is walking out and about more often than not. Is this an accurate portrayal of him?

Discussed here:

#xmen #xmen meta #professor x #charles xavier #disability politics #disability

[identitty-dickruption]

wondering if there is something to be said for the social model of disability as an imperfect step in the right direction. I'm not pro- the social model by any means, but. the number of times I have encountered people who are not even aware of the social model, or who are aware of it but have some pretty big misconceptions about it... I just don't think the world is ready for a conversation about how flawed the social model is

I do think it's important to change the way we use the social model so that it can best serve the disabled people who are most vulnerable. but. the fact is that most people think that their choices are either the medical model or the social model, and I would much rather we move forward with the social model than see disability politics go backwards

idk. I can see arguments from all directions, and ideally (imo) we would all be able to publicly critique each of the models in such a way that could build up some kind of beautiful unified model that really works for us. ideally I would be able to go out to the abled public and talk about the political-relational model or the socio-cultural model. I am just not convinced that we're there yet

#disability #disability politics #I think we all need to get better at thinking complexly about our political goals #and how those goals can be met in the real world

[capableism]

What the ADA really thinks about service dogs

What are some differences between humans and animals? The scientific  community would answer intelligence or behavior. Humans are civil and part of  what Peter Singer calls a "moral community." We have rules, while animals have  natural selection. Even though it is proven, all animals have "cognitive empathy"  and adjust to different needs in their community. Humans are self-centered and  instinctively want to categorize things as part of early cognitive development.  Piaget's theory describes this categorization as Schema. It is a natural way to  learn. 

Children are curious. Someone with a visible disability may be challenging  to understand because they can't immediately identify and categorize us.  

Animals and people can learn to adjust according to De Waal's research. Living beings have the instinct to protect their own for the survival of their  species. Humans dominate the planet, but that doesn't negate other species'  intelligence or needs. Studies of animals and disability converge when  discussing the issues of service animals.

 Politics define animals as "equipment" that has functions and not feelings. They serve to perform tasks. The law  separates humans and animals by ignoring natural emotional interactions  between humans and animals. Reasons that people need a service animal  varies. The fundamental reason is to help them be "more productive members of  society" (Oliver, 111). This belief that disabled people inherently make lesser  contributions to society is ableist. It extends the thought that disabled people  cannot just be an equal part of society. In the hierarchy of  disability, there is a line drawn between what an "acceptable disabled person  can do." Those with severe conditions are closer to animals that humans "mercy  kill" Severe disabilities render a human less valuable.

A service dog can be a tool to lessen the burden of disability on society. "The  fact that service dogs are seen to provide independence for the people they  serve shows that we discount our dependency on non-human animals." (Oliver,  113) 

The rise of emotional support animals demonstrates that humans need  animals beyond functionality. The ADA does not recognize emotional support  animals like service dogs. "We built walls and fences, corrals and cages not only  to regulate their (animal's) physical proximity but also, and moreover, to keep  them out of our moral community." (Oliver, 117) This question of morality and  ethics surfaces in animal and disability rights. Disability rights are human rights.  

Animals are living creatures that share the planet and ethically deserve respect. Otherwise, humans would be "animals" crossing a line. According to De Waal's theory of learned adjustment, "it could go in multiple directions– if animals learn  another animal is vulnerable, they might take advantage of her, abandon her,  help her or accept her" (Taylor, 17). I believe humans are as capable as any other animal of choosing among available options. Morally we have the option to be good or bad. Humans "discount" animal connection possibly to maintain lines and categories where everything fits.

When something is unfamiliar, we can either reject it or learn from it. Studies between humans and animals are separate because we're not "one of those" animals. But the same logic of morality and ethics influences the politics of human life.

Sources

Taylor, C. (2020). Animal crips. In S. Jenkins & K. S. Montford (Eds.), Disability and animality:rip perspective in critical animal studies (pp. 13-34). Academia. https://www.academia.edu/45026461/Disability_and_Animality_Crip_Perspectives_in_Critical_Animal_Studies?auto=citations&from=cover_page

Oliver, K. (2020). Service dogs: between animal and disabilities studies. In S. Jenkins & K. S. Montford (Eds.), Disability and animality:crip perspective in critical animal studies (pp. 13-34). Academia. https://www.academia.edu/45026461/Disability_and_Animality_Crip_Perspectives_in_Critical_Animal_Studies?auto=citations&from=cover_page

#service dog #Ada #animal studies #disability studies #emotional support #emotional support animal #pet owners #disability community #service animal #disability laws #disability politics #mobility aid #disabled independence #bonding #interdependence #animal rights #animal regulation #americans with disabilities act #learned adjustment #cognitive empathy

[dreamofbecoming]

just saw a discussion on fb where people were trying to decide if depressed/mentally ill people dealing with fatigue were “allowed” to use spoon theory language to describe their experiences, and Boy do i feel some type of way abt That

like, as someone with both physical and mental disabilities that *all* cause pain/fatigue/physical mobility issues (tbh yes i count executive dysfunction as a mobility issue in certain contexts), i feel like i have the experience necessary to compare the two and say that they absolutely affect my life in similar (but distinct, obviously) ways, and that spoon theory is a useful tool to discuss them both.

i don’t appreciate the attitude that mental illness is somehow less taxing or less demanding than physical illness, or that mentally disabled people can “appropriate” the language of disability from physically disabled people. first of all, mental illness often leads to, exacerbates, or causes physical illness, and vice versa. second of all, the abled world hates us all, buds. we all suffer under abled hegemony, and trying to parse out who “counts” or who “has it worse” is useless and stupid and harmful.

stop being weird and gatekeeping the language of disability, and start focusing on supporting each other in a society that wants us dead.

#disability #disability politics #chronic illness #mental illness #spoon theory #ableism #ironically i didn’t have the spoons to get into it on fb #plus i never post on there anymore anyway #i just check it once a week to make sure all my cousins are still fine #but ugh that convo just ruined my whole day #why are we putting ourselves against each other when we have a common enemy????? #personal

[houseofpurplestars]

Senate trying to pass a bill that would force you to use your government id just to use the internet. That means no anonymity at all, ever, and that every pro-Palestinian organizer is immediately a target that the government can track. And they will use it explicitly to come after protestors and organizers.

#KOSA #us politics #censorship #free palestine #free gaza #i stand with palestine #palestine #gaza #solidarity #disability