okay so. i’ve been in the rpc for several years and i’m so tired of seeing a lot of really gross ableist shit that people seem to love doing with their muses, so i decided to make a post about it!
also, please note this is pretty much JUST about stuff i’ve seen people do with their muses, and not the inaccessibility i’ve seen rampant in the rpc - that’s an entirely different post that i will in all honesty probably end up making.
general disclaimer that these are only my experiences, and i am by no means the end all be all of disability knowledge or whatever. if you are physically disabled and/or mentally ill and there is something you’ve seen someone do with their muse that is ableist, please feel free to add it on!
stop saying shit like “crippling anxiety”/“crippling depression” because cripple is a slur specifically against physically disabled people. if something isn’t physically disabling, it isn’t crippling.
“psychotic” doesn’t mean evil. your muse isn’t “psychotic” because they like to kill people, they’re just a dick.
stop using psychosis for shock value/edginess. and the same goes for all of the “scary” mental illnesses. it’s gross when you do that.
also don’t give your muse a disability just to be shocking, that’s also…really gross. if you’re going to give your muse a disability (and by all means, please do! please normalize disability, we’re one of the largest minorities in the world and so deeply underrepresented) please be respectful about it. do your research.
stop using the word “psycho” if you’re not psychotic. as with cripple, it is a slur.
honestly if you’re not psychotic don’t even touch psychosis, you’re not going to be able to understand and yall always end up making it so edgy and scary or whatever. quit that shit.
if you have a muse who is disabled in canon, and you give them a modern verse, they better be disabled in that verse. i don’t give a shit if their disability comes from a trauma that would not exist in a modern verse, do something else. it’s such bullshit to be like “well my muse wouldn’t have been in the fight that caused loss of limb so therefore they aren’t disabled in their modern verse” or some shit like that’s. ableism. that’s erasing a canon disability stop doing that.
you’re a writer i have full faith in your ability to come up with a reason for your muse to be disabled in a modern setting. and if you really can’t think of a reason, either come to me and i will gladly help you, OR you just…don’t need one. you don’t need a reason to be disabled, i promise. you can just have your muse be disabled.
do not write your character being “cured” of their disability that’s fucking disgusting. i don’t care if there would be a way for them to be “cured” in canon, it’s literally tying into eugenicist propaganda to say that disability is something that needs to be “cured”
if you’re abled, do not outright say or imply that your muse feels less human because of their disability. there definitely is a lot of internalized ableism that can cause that, but as an abled writer, you cannot understand what that is like, and you should not be writing it. it literally just comes off as ableist when you do it.
also don’t outright say or imply that your muse IS less human because of their disability like…what the fuck.
also like… mentally ill people and physically disabled people do both face ableism, but the ableism isn’t… the same? it’s definitely similar but i’ve seen a lot of abled mentally ill people talk over physically disabled people and even like. turn conversations about ableism that physically disabled people face into conversations about their mental illness. don’t do that.
if you’ve done any of these things in the past, or incorporated them into your muse, don’t just feel bad about it. fix it. i have full faith that you can rectify your mistakes without making a huge deal out of it.
if you’re abled, you are allowed and in fact encouraged to reblog this. i’m tired of seeing ableism in the rpc and i’m tired of disabled people being the only ones talking about it.
