#ableism exists

[paperboy-pb]

Paperboy Prologue -- part 3.

[hurenisvoordeburen]

People Who Are Not Disabled Need To Check Out #AbleismExists Right Now

"I really want it to become something that non-disabled people can not ignore."

#ableismexists because capitalism defines a persons worth almost entirely by capability to achieve traditional work or physical action

[paperboy-pb]

Happy Disability Pride Month, PB Nation!!

Did you know that TOMORROW, on 07/07, Paperboy's delayed Webtoon prologue will FINALLY start wrapping up?? Well, you do now!

For those of you who don't know, PAPERBOY is an emotional story about the very real tolls ableism can take on disabled youth; primarily a Special Ed student named Matthew. While the story is not all doom & gloom, be warned that themes of mental illness, abuse, and (of course) ableism are featured.

When Matthew learns that he is being mistreated by his school for his disabilities, he sets a goal to get himself transferred into a General Ed class by the end of the year, in hopes that things'll be better. But it is not going to be easy. And the longer he spends in Special Ed, the more he puts his mental health on the line.

But it won't be all bad. Because along the way, Matthew learns more about emotions. On top of valuable teachings about relationships, disability, and how to better understand others.

[fightingableism]

And and BTW he still can't find a job (link below) Disabled people have such a hard time finding a job even if their disability has nothing to do with getting the job done. Picture Description: Graduate applied for 400 jobs withtout response - until he removed DISABILITY from his CV A university graduate says that he applied for a staggering 400 jobs without receiving a response - until he removed disability from his CV. http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/745614/Graduate-rejected-by-400-jobs-until-removed-disability-from-CV

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

This benefit isn’t like a present from a father. This benefit will reduce the inequality gap and help us make decisions for ourselves. If I have the 500Bs, when I travel by bus, rather that crawl along the floor like an animal to reach my seat, I can pay someone to help onto the bus with dignity. This isn’t a self-righteous demand; it’s the beginning of self-determination. This is the starting point to for us to live with dignity. The time has come to stop the segregation and apartheid that we’ve been living for generations.

Feliza Ali, Disabled Rights Activist in Bolivia, where the disabled protesting for a $72 monthly benefit are facing police brutality. (Huffington Post article)

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

Another “monstrous” character from a NaNoWriMo  past (2007) that I (unwittingly) wrote as a disability metaphor:*

My protagonist was a Vampire who was Not-Supernatural & Not-Immortal, but he wanted people to believe that he was a supernatural being.

Because it’s ultimately safer for him to be surrounded by people who think he’s a fiend with Satanic powers than to risk crossing paths with the  medical establishment.

Here are the details the plot bunny delivered to my brain (before scampering off back to the underbrush in my subconscious):

He was living, mortal, and completely not undead. He did not have fangs. He was not “turned” by an older vampire. He couldn’t “turn” anyone else.

He could eat “regular” food, but without also drinking regular, small doses of fresh, warm, blood, he couldn’t metabolize that food, and all through his childhood, he was sickly, chronically on the brink of death, and constantly hungry. And, despite that hunger, the taste of regular food repulsed him.

As a teen/tween he accidentally discovers his need for blood-drinking, and also that giving in to this forbidden hunger restores, and maintains, his health.

As an adult (when my story actually opens) he’s living in the midst of a community that actually believes in the reality of supernatural vampires, with their own set of superstitions and vampire lore. And these neighbors start to suspect that he is a vampire. And he actually plays along, while still keeping his actual medical disability status secret.

After all, if folks believe he can’t touch them if they’ve got a Bible verse stitched into the back of their shirts (or whatever), and then they do that, they’ll feel safe, and leave him alone.

But if “normal” people find out his secret, they’ll

Try to “fix” him with all sorts of invasive procedures and drugs

Get paranoid about whether he’s “Contagious”

Get him fired, “quarantined” and possibly institutionalized or imprisoned

Deny him access to the blood he needs to live

He satisfies his need in secret by hunting rats in the city’s alleyways at night -- he doesn’t have a human volunteer he can trust.  And nobody notices or cares if rats go missing.

And then, he’s woken up in the middle of the night, when one of his superstitious, misogynist, neighbors gets it into his head that my protagonist is responsible (through those supposed Satanic powers) of causing his pregnant wife’s hemorrhaging,  and so offers his teenage daughter as a “sacrifice in trade” (trading an unwanted daughter for a hoped-for future son).

My protagonist realizes almost immediately that the girl has been physically abused, and is far safer with him than she’d ever be if she were to return to her community...

So... the two become a de facto family, and ... go on the run ... or solve crime together ... or ... I dunno.

Like I said, the plot bunny scampered off into the underbrush with all the other details.

Anyway, I tried to tell my aide about my story idea, and she just couldn’t understand why he’d want to be thought of as a supernatural monster instead of a natural human with a medical need.

But that’s how dangerous it feels to live with a disability in an ableist society.

When I started, I didn’t realize I was getting autobiographical until I started writing his childhood memories of being constantly examined by doctors, and the general atmosphere of doctors’ exam rooms.

*You see, it’s taken me a while... It turns out that my characters are amalgams of people around me, and since I was mainstreamed all through school, I was the only disabled person in the room, 99% of the time. 

[capricorn-0mnikorn]

My “Eureka! moment”: WHY folks don’t believe Ableism Exists

People who deny the reality of Ableism think all “-isms” begin and end with a false belief about ability or capacity.

It’s true that someone with chronic illness and/or chronic pain is physically weaker than someone healthy.

And it’s true that someone with an intellectual disability is not as “smart” as someone without one.

And the people who deny the existence of ableism (seem to) think we’re arguing those things are not true. So the very idea of Ableism is something they treat as a joke -- like laughing at those who say the moon is made of cheese.

But actually, those of us who are trying to fight against ableism are talking about something else entirely.

It came to me after making this info-graphic showing the relationship between “Ableism” and other “-isms” (inspired by this article: “There is ableism somewhere in the heart of your oppression, no matter what your oppression might be.” by Mel Baggs (aka @withasmoothroundstone) :

[Image description: a block of text, divided into four sections. The the first section, stretching across the entire width of the block, is bright yellow with black text that reads: "Ableism: The belief that the value of a human life is best judged by a Measure of Ability."

Above that, reading left to right, are three sections titled "Racism:", "Sexism:", and "Homophobia:".

The "Racism:" section is brick red, and reads (in white text): "Blacks are natural thugs because they're not as smart as Whites, and they can't control their emotions" (”aren’t as smart” and “can’t control their emotions” are underlined in yellow). A yellow arrow points to this from the section defining "Ableism," and yellow text reads: "That's ABLEISM."

The "Sexism:" section  is dark teal, and reads (in white text): "Women are better off married to men, because they are weaker, and are less rational" (”they are weaker” and “less rational” are underlined in yellow).  A yellow arrow points to this from the section defining "Ableism," and yellow text reads: "and that's ABLEISM, too."

The "Homophobia:" section is lavender, and embedded in the upper right corner of the sexism section; it reads (in white text): "Gay men are corrupting our culture by being effeminate and undermining healthy Masculine Values" (”being effeminate and undermining . . . Masculine Values” is underlined twice, first in teal, and then yellow).  An arrow with a teal point and yellow shaft points to this from the box defining "Ableism," and text (in teal and yellow) reads: "That's SEXISM, which is ABLEISM."

Description ends.]

Instead of arguing that assumptions made about the Disabled are false, we in the Disability Rights movement are arguing that:

The assumptions made about the disabled lead to very real social and legal consequences.

And those consequences are unjust.

Even (maybe especially) when the assumptions are true.

The Ableism-Deniers react to our points as if we’re asking the whole world be made softer for our benefit -- for every stone and every knife to be transformed to cotton fluff and foam rubber.

But we’re actually saying: “Stop throwing stones at us and stabbing us!”

I’m not sure how we can make that any clearer -- how we can convince people that the social consequences of inequality are not inevitable.