Stains on a Page

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

Sounds perfect Wahhhh, I don’t wanna
dearsarahjane
teo

The internet is so fucking weird to artists who make anything interesting "thanks! I hate it" "this is cursed" "i love this but i hate this" you realize some people aren't drawing memes all the time right and art can be a medium of expressing complex feelings and writing off ppls expressions as a joke is so weird i hate meme poisoned weirdos

teo

image

Why'd you even fucking reblog this you dork ass loser. You're exactly the type of disrespectful person im talking about that mocks artists' work whether they're joking or not and think that artists don't have feelings just cuz they're online. The world doesn't revolve around your irony-poisoned memebrain interpretations of art. L + ratio + you're a little bitch + get lost

pancakeke

image

memebrained comments are also a huge problem on twitter to the point that they're making non-English speaking artists delete their works/private their accounts because the "jokes" don't translate well and the artists feel harassed.

also it's legitimately important to learn how to communicate without hiding behind memes and irony for more reasons than just this.

xiranjayzhao

Disabled Representation Has Come Farther Than You Think

fandomshatepeoplewdisabilities

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

comicgeekscomicgeek

This is a really good, really important read. 

ipreferferalacademic

A little louder for the folks in the back

dearsarahjane
mage-propaganda

Loving men is fun and good actually. Men can be soft and wonderful and caring and kind. My boyfriend has actually improved my life and I don’t get why I would feel bad for that. If I see any fellow bisexuals pull the whole “too bad I have my (yuck) boyfriend when I could have a good woman :((“ bs one more time I will scream.

Men are hot, they’re handsome, they’re pretty, they’re wonderful. They’re spectacular, they’re soft, they’re caring, they’re silly, their laughs are like music. Men give some of the warmest hugs, and the best snuggles. This goes for ALL men - yes, even the “fat” man you saw, even the punk guy with the tattoos and piercings, and men of color. Men are WONDERFUL. Men aren’t inherently violent, dangerous, angry animals. Can we please stop vilifying men and men who love men please?

xiranjayzhao
birdrhetorics

my great-grandfather had to leave italy in the 20′s because he hit a fascist with a tuba, so if you think I am going to take this sitting down you are going to have to catch these hands and also this tuba

pidgevspigeon

Fun story my Great Great Grandma left Germany in the 1920s because she had family in the US and could get citizenship pretty easily and once she was over in the US she then smuggled over 15 jewish families out by forging family documents so now my aunts are currently in the process of trying to tell the real ones from the fake ones because my great gran just died and there are legally over 100 surviving descendants but we know that math is a lil screwy.

jedda-martele

Sometimes a family is you, your kids, your grandkids, your great grandkids, and the 15 Jewish families you helped smuggle out of Nazi Germany.

philosopherking1887

And your tuba

dearsarahjane
menfucker

stop. stop fucking acting like depression anxiety and adhd and gifted kid syndrome and ptsd flashbacks are the only symptoms of trauma ever. traumatized people have personality disorders traumatized people have psychosis traumatized people have anger issues traumatized people have did/osdd traumatized people have delusions and honestly a lot of these things are SO much more common than you think, we've just been forced to constantly hide it because we're terrified of being sent death threats or told we're faking, abusive, the list goes on. support traumatized people with "scary" disabilities from their trauma, it's not all about gifted kids with adhd and it never was.

foxtomz

I hate how people will only support trauma survivors with symptoms they can romanticize and leave survivors with cluster b disorders (especially npd and aspd), did/osdd, psychosis, and so many more to be ridiculed and demonized. Trauma survivors deserve support no matter how “unappealing” their disorders sound.