some things that horror movie culture has taught you are scary…. are just ableist
….clarify?
okay sure. psychosis? scarier to have than to know someone who has it. DID? im more a threat to myself than people around me. wheelchairs and psych meds? are tools that help people live more functional and flexible lives and are not judgments of the persons character and for sure are not scary things. and for real, intellectually disabled people are not threats, but movies love to make them villains because they act different and understand the world differently. and people with notable physical differences? people who’s bodies look different? people with scars, growths, amputations, etc? are literally just people. and seeing themselves painted like monsters on the big screen is absolutely sickening and damaging to how society will see them.
its not only bad writing but its extremely harmful to people who actually live with conditions that are misrepresented in media. when i found out i had DID, my mom freaked out because her only point of reference was Sybil. when i was younger and first went on psych meds, i thought it meant i was set on a track to be a bad person, because in so many movies and video games you find out the bad guy has medication in his bed side table for some sort of psych disorder. the worst thing a hallucination has ever made me do was wake my mom up at 3 AM to check my bathroom to see if the bugs i saw everywhere were real and the worst thing an “episode” of any sort has made me do is hurt myself. my ptsd doesnt make me kill people, my alters dont kidnap people, my autism doesnt make me so morally unaware that ill murder for senselessly, my ocd doesnt make me hurt people etc etc etc
literally the only “horror” is the ableism. and the only way you can write good horror about disability and mental illness is if the focus is on how society and the medical field treat us rather than focusing on how we are apparently so scary, threatening, and bad.
Hello everyone! As I’ve been saying–I finally made my first podcast/video for star wars. This one deals with ableism and star wars villains. I made a meta about this a while ago and decided to make it a podcast! Please give it a listen and like if you have the time !
I also have a twitter where I’ll be like discussing my future podcasts/videos and the progression of my podcasts (and just talking about social justice and fandom stuff!)
@diversehighfantasy and @lj-writes i hope you don’t mind me tagging y’all in this! But this might also be something you and your followers are interested in!
Schizophrenic/psychotic people are especially vulnerable to various types of abuse and we need to talk about it.
If you’re used to doubting your own perceptions and relying on other people for reality checks, you’re much more vulnerable to gaslighting.
If you’re already paranoid, people can easily fuel that paranoia and use it to further isolate and control you.
If you’re delusional or hallucinating, people can manipulate you further into your delusions/hallucinations and use them to control you and abuse you.
If you’re used to ignoring your instincts because they’re rarely reliable, you might accidentally ignore som very real red flags.
If you rely on a person to take care of you, you may be forced to ignore mistreatment because you don’t have other options.
If you struggle to communicate with other people due to thought disorders, disorganized/atypical speech or lack of speech (alogia) you may struggle to speak up and ask for help.
If you have a psychosis spectrum disorder of any kind, it can be used by your abuser to invalidate and dismiss you if you do speak up against your abuse.
So please look out for your schizophrenic friends, relatives and acquaintances – cause we can’t always look out for ourselves.
It would mean a lot to me if you’d consider reblogging this as schizophrenics are usually the ones painted as dangerous and scary, and it’s important to me that people as many people as possible see that we’re usually the ones who are vulnerable and scared.
Hmm I think that’s a natural end for that scene and it’s gotten more than long enough at 3,000 words lol. Time for the pivotal capture scene–I wrote a version of this scene years ago, like in 2014-5? But there’s been so much drift since then, I’m sure it’s going to be very different this time.
Note to self: Never rely on saving website URLs, screenshot everything and save it if it looks interesting. Like half the URLs I saved no longer exist, holy shit.
Got around 336 words in while husband was out with the kid. Was great.
773 words for the day is enough, I think, and I need to think a little about how this scene is going to play out. It definitely has a much different dynamic than prior versions and even my original plans, with more urgency and more people involved. I’m going to have to think about how the balance between the factions is going to work itself out here. The heroine’s sister has really thrown a wrench into the works by sending pursuers, but I can’t blame her because my dumbass should have thought of that in the first place.
Funny how I set up the heroine and her elder sister as antagonistic, but the youngest sister Ari has a mind of her own that I should have anticipated. I have no one to blame but my own ableism tbh, I had a vague idea she would be sweet and harmless and not affect the story all that much because she’s autistic. Then she comes in and says “fuck that and fuck you” in her very first viewpoint scene, good for her. She took charge of an overwhelming situation like a boss (help, there’s a stranger in my bedroom and she’s totally gorgeous!!), telling this beautiful stranger how to help her not have a meltdown and then making a decision on her own that was both righteous and merciful. The details of this scene might change depending on the needs of the plot and what sensitivity readers tell me, but at least I learned I need to take a look at how I’ve been treating this character in my plans for the story.
I also adore the fact that Ari and her mutual crush/eventual girlfriend are working against each other despite their feelings. I find that I’m way more invested in this relationship than the one between the heroine and her bf. I think the two couples are going to make for contrasting parallels, with one couple working at opposing purposes before becoming allies, and the other starting out as fast allies but later becoming enemies.
I also got a kick out of the heroine’s boyfriend mentioning his cousin to her and her going, “Oh yeah, I guess I’ve heard of him. Isn’t he a foreign king’s bastard?” Oh, honey. That’s your future husband.
He’s specifically said that he dislikes having his characters (Turing, Sherlock etc.) called autistic, because I guess to him autistic people have to constantly struggle and have, in his words, “the mental age of, I think, an 18 month old.” Why is this dude not canceled yet?
@finnchiladas Pls turn this into a post it’s perfect
It sounds like all the awkwardness of the teen years compounded by not catching social cues in a very demanding social environment. Much love and good thoughts to you ❤️
@fettjango is right, of course, once you learn that you make someone uncomfortable you should stop the behavior. I read it as the anon recounting past behaviors that they won’t repeat in the future, but I can’t be sure of course.
The app is called Be My Eyes and allows blind people to phone or message for help. The app seems to allow video and photos to be sent and the sighted person on the other end can send a message to the blind person, answering whatever inquiry they have.
[This is a set of screenshots about the app called Be My Eyes.
First photo: The overview page for the app. The top says “Be My Eyes- helping the blind.”
Second photo: The preview page on the app store. It shows two phones. The one on the left is titled “Volunteer” and says “Join the community and help it grow.” The one on the right is titled “Blind.” The phone under the title has “Call first available volunteer,” written in large font.
Third photo: More previews. Shows the messages between two people texting each other. The visually impaired person sent a picture of two cans of food, and is asking which one is beans. Another example shows the person sending a picture of their milk carton, and asking if it is expired.
Fourth photo: An iphone lock screen. A notification from the app says “a blind or visually impaired person is calling for help.”
Fifth photo: The profile page of a sighted user named Francis, who speaks English and Español. The top says there are 74,768 Blind and 1,033,846 Volunteers using the app.
Sixth photo: Text that says “Learn how to answer a call. When a blind or visually impaired person requests help, the app notifies multiple volunteers, and the first to respond is connected. The notification might look different whether your phone is locked or unlocked. Here you can try both scenarios.
Seventh photo: A notification from the app on an iphone home screen. The instructions say to pull the notification down or tap it to answer a call.
Eighth photo: The same notification on an iphone lock screen. The instructions say to tap it or slide it to answer the call.]
Please reblog the version of this post with image descriptions. It’s a service for blind folks, posted about in a format blind folks don’t have access to (without the descriptions).
Also, if you’re willing to download and use this app but you don’t go out of your way to add image descriptions to the images you share, please reevaluate that! Contact me if you need help adding image descriptions to things.
This app is actually very useful. The way sighted people are talking about it is not.
Oh yes, that’s been their line for a loooong time. They claimed that when Kylo removed in the interrogation scene and showed a normal, non-disfigured face (handsome to them, I guess), that showed he wasn’t a villain. It would take a while to unpack the layers of ableism and missing the whole damned point in that line of thought. Reylow meta is truly another level of hell.
Rey agrees with me, by the way. In the TFA novelization she doesn’t see him as handsome but unexpectedly ordinary-looking. I mean she has already Seen the face of Finn at this point, folks, she knows what a handsome man looks like.
L.J.'s Obsessions 