Dear internet,
Things can be ableist. Even if you didn’t mean them to be. Even if you didn’t know the person you were talking to was disabled. Ableism doesn’t just mean saying a not nice word. It means perpetuating negative ideas about disability and disabled people. It means defending your ableism and denying our experience of it.
Also, it’s problematic to go to the dictionary for an end-of-argument “correct” answer because the dictionary reflects the common speech of privileged people. Merriam-Webster, for example, looks for common usage within publications. Within Publications. Do you realize how this seriously limits inclusive language/definitions making it in? Furthermore, for something to make it into the dictionary, there has to be agreement across a wide range of publication types. But because so much of social justice happens on the non-profit and volunteer level, our language doesn’t get published as often or in the same “wide range” of publications as “normal” (read: privileged) language. Also, many of our conversations occur within free spaces, like blogs.
That doesn’t mean that what we have to say is less valid. Just that what we have to say is less funded.
——
If I’ve stepped on any toes here, call me out. I’m exhausted and will edit if I’ve messed up.
Dear internet,
Things can be ableist. Even if you didn’t mean them to be. Even if you didn’t know the person you were talking to was disabled. Ableism doesn’t just mean saying a not nice word. It means perpetuating negative ideas about disability and disabled people. It means defending your ableism and denying our experience of it.
Also, it’s problematic to go to the dictionary for an end-of-argument “correct” answer because the dictionary reflects the common speech of privileged people. Merriam-Webster, for example, looks for common usage within publications. Within Publications. Do you realize how this seriously limits inclusive language/definitions making it in? Furthermore, for something to make it into the dictionary, there has to be agreement across a wide range of publication types. But because so much of social justice happens on the non-profit and volunteer level, our language doesn’t get published as often or in the same “wide range” of publications as “normal” (read: privileged) language. Also, many of our conversations occur within free spaces, like blogs.
That doesn’t mean that what we have to say is less valid. Just that what we have to say is less funded.
——
If I’ve stepped on any toes here, call me out. I’m exhausted and will edit if I’ve messed up.
![fyeahpdp:
[Picture: Background: 8 piece pie style color split with red and teal alternating. Foreground: White guy with glasses and light shadow wearing a sweat shirt over a button down and short black hair. Has a smug, arrogant facial expression and crossed arms. Top text: “ [There’s nothing wrong with “ableism”] ” Bottom text: “ [Disabled people ARE inferior. Therefore, treating them as such is totally acceptable.] ”]
This is one of several PDDs made to represent this tumblr (trigger warnings for the link!).
*tw: ableism](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmtcywiCsT1qgy0fio1_400.jpg)
[Picture: Background: 8 piece pie style color split with red and teal alternating. Foreground: White guy with glasses and light shadow wearing a sweat shirt over a button down and short black hair. Has a smug, arrogant facial expression and crossed arms. Top text: “ [There’s nothing wrong with “ableism”] ” Bottom text: “ [Disabled people ARE inferior. Therefore, treating them as such is totally acceptable.] ”]
This is one of several PDDs made to represent this tumblr (trigger warnings for the link!).
*tw: ableism
ableism monday round up- social cue shaming
What is this” social cue” shaming I keep talking about, and why is it bad? Why am I enraged at the fact that everyone does it? First, understand that it applies to people with autism (hi!) and the fact that we find social rules difficult to follow because they aren’t written in our brains. That means rwe may do things that others perceive as stupid and clueless. Some examples from my life-
pretending to be a harry potter character when stressed.
not understand rules of conversation and thus talking out of turn.
not recognizing trolls and thus feeding them.
asking blunt questions (so you’re gay, right?) perceived as impolite because I couldn’t ascertain the nature of the appropriateness.
talking about my obsessions.Sometimes I just like to be clued in regarding social rules that I didn’t acquire and so don’t know. Other times I like not to be bothered (if it’s not hurting anyone.) From feminists who claim to care about disabilities, though, I consistently get social cue shamed (shakethecobwebs). And it’s not just a little thing. It doesn’t just hurt my feelings.
It reminds me that you’re smarter and more capable than me. It makes me think i’m a bit less human than you. It makes me feel like a child. It makes me feel like everyone else has got it figured out. Not true. When public events happen and I relate them to harry potter, feminists tend to get all ragey, tell me I am too into harry potter and they wish they could go a day without a reference to a silly children’s story. Yay, police my obsessions more, why don’t you.
Social cue shaming is when you rudely tell me what is appropriate- what normal, allistic people do- without me asking for you to. Its you telling me to get back in line. Be more normal. Quite frankly, it’s dehumanizing but it’s quite common in activism/feminism.
Just something to ponder.
For the last fucking time, calling MacMaster “crazy” isn’t helping ANYONE. He is not “crazy”, he’s a privileged douchefuck who decided to appropriate queer and a WOC identity because he COULD — by that count every other privileged douchefuck alive today is “crazy” too.
Internet, get your shit together.
I don’t understand this mentality. Why is it so hard to believe that perfectly healthy, societally normative people are also complete arseholes? If you look at this the other way around, you wouldn’t meet a neuroatypical person or someone who has troubles with their mental health and automatically assume that they’d do something like this, would you? MacMaster is a perfectly neurotypical person. He is also a massive doucheface and I would not be averse to punching him. That’s really all there is to it.
Because ableism makes “sense”, considering this is how we’re programmed, to police and see every non able-bodied, ‘mentally-sound’ person as a monster.
Yep. A sure way to stigmatize someone in an ableist society is to suggest that they have a mental illness. Because everyone “knows” that mental illness means you’re lesser. This also serves the convenient function of separating us (the nice normal neurotypical people) from them (the scary neuro-atypical people).
MacMaster’s actions speak for themselves. What he did was horrible and fucked-up on so many levels. I fail to understand why it’s necessary to cast him as non-neurotypical in order to further stigmatize him. His actions do that well enough by themselves.
tw ableist slurs
Crazy stupid retard dumb idiot spaz.
Yes these are oppressive words.
Yes you are contributing to the oppression of mentally disabled people every time you use them.
period.
i want to address this.
Anonymous asked: spoon theory is for INVISIBLE CHRONIC ILLNESSES such as fibro, cfs, lyme’s, and lupus. mental health issues that have physical component like depression and autism are not the same. you are appropriating it from the invisible chronic illness community. you are being ableist.
——-
anonymous, unless you are Christine Miserandino, you cannot say that spoon theory is for invisible chronic illnesses. especially since she says herself, in the article that she wrote introducing the spoon theory:
I think it isn’t just good for understanding Lupus, but anyone dealing with any disability or illness.so uh. you know. stop it.
(via theoceanandthesky1)
When you shame me for missing social cues it doesn’t just piss me off. It makes me want to cry, go hide in a corner. It makes me feel less than you, a little kid you’re ordering around. It makes me feel ashamed for not getting it. It fills me with rage only after i’m just like a little kid crying in the corner. It hurts me. Actively. Real pain. It makes me feel subhuman, it reinforces you and other people thinking I am subhuman. It makes me feel ashamed of who I am and it fills me with self doubt. Please keep that in mind before you tell me what I should and shouldn’t do.
ok can everyone who doesn’t have a phobia just stop trying to justify using phobias to describe heterosexism and cissexism
seriously do you even know what you’re talking about probably not because you don’t know what it’s like to be so afraid of something you literally cannot move and then have that mind-shattering fear commonly associated with beating up gay people which by the way pretty much exclusively leads to people getting away with hate crimes and to people with actual phobias being told to just get over it because what they’re afraid of isn’t really harmless or whatever well guess what you can’t just logic away a phobia it doesn’t work like that so really just fucking stop it
![fyeahpdp:
Privilege Denying Gal- Blonde [Picture: Background: 6 piece pie style color split with pink and blue alternating. Foreground: White woman wearing a long sleeved blouse and silver bracelet with long blonde hair. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she has a smug expression. Top text: “ You’re too high-functioning ” Bottom text: “ for your opinion about autism to count. ”]
I hear this at least once a week, usually from parents of autistic kids. Usually they’ve known me for less than 10 minutes.](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lmi7zg1qZb1qgy0fio1_400.jpg)
Privilege Denying Gal- Blonde
[Picture: Background: 6 piece pie style color split with pink and blue alternating. Foreground: White woman wearing a long sleeved blouse and silver bracelet with long blonde hair. Her arms are crossed over her chest and she has a smug expression.
Top text: “ You’re too high-functioning ” Bottom text: “ for your opinion about autism to count. ”]I hear this at least once a week, usually from parents of autistic kids. Usually they’ve known me for less than 10 minutes.
