Excuse me, who are those devotees?
Oof gosh. So that post wasn’t to call anyone out in particular, I was just reading some academic discourse on the amputee-devotee community.
So I don’t think there is much inherently wrong/bad about the amputee-devotee community, especially because for disabled folks, it can be so hard to overcome the imposed asexual identity on their bodies that they might find power in claiming their sexuality with devotees.
The part that grossed me out about some devotees is their view that women need them to be their saviours. Not only in terms of helping them financially and protecting them from the harsh, cruel outside world, but also that if amputee women reject them, it is a sign that the women feel ashamed of their disabilities. That is what was really gross to me. Like please just take your rejection in peace. She doesn’t like you because you are a gross unpleasant person who fetishes her body, not because she is ashamed of her disability and doesn’t love herself.
Another major aspect of devotee culture I am uncomfortable with is the low-key stalking culture. Many devotees will follow women around - around stores, around streets - and even disseminate their image and information to other devotees without the consent of the woman. That is creepy and not okay. Their excuse is that they “stay a good distance away” and “no one gets hurt in the process” but tbh it violates her privacy and is just REALLY creepy. Just don’t. And then even worse, they pull the nice-guy-friendzone-brony-fedora-wearing-atheist rhetoric of “Well if they didn’t reject us so much, we wouldn’t have any need for this clandestine activity [of stalking these women].” No.
Again I want to say that there is nothing inherently bad about the relationship amputees and devotees develop IF it is mutually consensual - amputee women can find empowerment in their sexual control over these men, or they may enjoy feeling taken care of in a traditionally patriarchal sense - there’s nothing wrong with enjoying that. It just needs to be mutually beneficial and each party just needs to be respectful of the other (mostly devotees need to start seeing individual amputee women as separate human beings and not a fetishistic category).
