This sickens me though, because like
“appear to be a young woman who is engaged in life activities” and “awake, smiling and alert”
The disability system (which is built to make it difficult and often impossible to get benefits), doctors, and yeah, a hell of a lot of people, believe that functional moments mean that disabled people have functional lives.
Maybe I only want my social media to reflect the good times I have. Maybe that’s the only form of control I have. Maybe I want to reinforce the positive. You know, the way people are always telling me to? To focus on the things I can do? Not to dwell on it. Not wallow in it or rub it in people’s faces.
But the instant I behave like the person our culture is always telling me to be, I stop being disabled.
“Be disabled, but act normal,” they say. Then they turn around and say “You act normal, you can’t be disabled.”
We are expected to fit the narrative. We are not allowed to “engage in life activities”. (What does that even MEAN? WHAT?) We are not supposed to be “awake, smiling, and alert.” I am forced to conclude that they expect disabled people to be bedridden and miserable at all times. As close to dead as possible.
Forcing people to constantly appear “disabled enough” turns disability, our lives, into a performance for other people. It’s sick. We should be allowed to live our lives and be happy to the extent that we can do either of those things. We should be allowed to exist without harassment or gatekeeping. And the doctors that evaluate people for disability need to be ruthlessly vetted for bigotry of all kinds. (Of course they won’t be, the disability system WANTS doctors who will throw out cases at the drop of a hat.)
I cannot stress this enough: ALLIES, CALL OUT THIS BEHAVIOR WHEN YOU SEE IT.
yousharknotpass
vaporwave
theartofmadeline
tangentwithtanner
amandla
baratheonpilled
stormborns
jacobvanloon
