“There is a cyborg hierarchy. They like us best with bionic arms and legs. They like us Deaf with hearing aids, though they prefer cochlear implants. It would be an affront to ask the Hearing to learn sign language. Instead they wish for us to lose our language, abandon our culture, and consider ourselves cured. They like exoskeletons, which none of us use. They don’t count as cyborgs those of us who wear pacemakers or go to dialysis. Nor do they count those of us kept alive by machines, those of us made ambulatory by wheelchairs, those of us on biologics or antidepressants. They want us shiny and metallic and in their image.”
― Jillian Weise, "Common Cyborg" from Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-first Century edited by Alice Wong.
Edit: Updated. Sorry for the incorrect attribution. I didn't have a copy of the book readily available and assumed deaf authors I follow on social media were correct when they were sharing this quote. Thank you @themathomhouse for bringing this to my attention.
Rest in Peace to Disability Rights Activist and Author Alice Wong (51,she/her)
I woke up today to find out that Alice Wong has past away as of November 14th at the age of 51. Not only was her work deeply impactful to the disabled community, but she was only just beginning to be a disabled elder - she was younger than my mother. She was brilliant, unabashed, and dreamed of an inclusive future. If you haven't yet, please go check out her books:
Her writing reshaped how I viewed my own body and mind, and encouraged my further reading on disability, community care, intersectionality and radical love. This is a devastating loss, and I wish her family and friends well as they mourn this amazing woman.
So saddened to learn that human being, author of Disability Visibility, activist, and friend Alice Wong has passed on.
The first image is the last photo of her posted in her Instagram (@disability_visibility) on November 3, with the caption:
"Just dropped my ballot in the ballot box in front of city hall to make sure it’s there in time! Vote YES on Prop 50! 🗳️
#ElectionDay image description: Asian American woman in a wheelchair wearing sunglasses and denim vest and pants. She is holding her mail in ballot and is next to a large ballot box at the corner of San Francisco City Hall"
Second image alt text: black text on a yellow background : “This is Alice’s friend Sandy Ho, posting. Per Alice’s wishes, this message is being shared at the time of her passing.
Hi everyone, it looks like I ran out of time. I have so many dreams that I wanted to fulfill and plans to create new stories for you. There are a few in progress that might come to fruition in a few years if things work out. I did not ever imagine I would live to this age and end up a writer, editor, activist, and more. As a kid riddled with insecurity and internalized ableism, I could not see a path forward. It was thanks to friendships and some great teachers who believed in me that I was able to fight my way out of miserable situations into a place where I finally felt comfortable in my skin.
We need more stories about us and our culture.
You all, we all, deserve the everything and more in such a hostile, ableist environment. Our wisdom is incisive and unflinching. I’m honored to be your ancestor and believe disabled oracles like us will light the way to the future. Don’t let the bastards grind you down. I love you all.”
There is a massive issue with the way people behave about what is and isn't "morally right" about dating or hooking up with specific types of people.
No, it isn't immoral to date or hookup with an adult who has hypogonadism or hormone-resistance who hasn't reached (and may never reach) typical "sexual maturity." They are still adults, you're being intersexist.
No, it isn't immoral to date or hook up with an adult with dwarfism because they "look like a child." Stop saying they look like children, you're being ableist.
No, it isn't immoral to date or hookup with a psychologically mature sysmate who is ageless, agefluid and sometimes an adult, or incapable of aging physically but capable of aging mentally. You're being ageist and ableist, age in plurality is nuanced, not black and white.
No, it isn't immoral to date or hookup with a sapient animal sysmate. If they can communicate with you and understand human social concepts, then there's nothing non-consensual about it.
No, it isn't immoral to date or hookup with an undead sysmate, because again, if they can communicate that means they can consent.
And as a side note, there is nothing immoral about experiencing harmful attraction or arousal, so long as you don't assault anyone. Thoughts and feelings are morally neutral, the way you choose to treat others is what matters. So even if you're attracted to a child, animal, or corpse, you are not "evil". There is no such thing as an "evil" disorder. You're a person.
Wasn't sure if I should post this here, on @this-is-varsexism-transphobia, or on @this-is-deformimisia, so I'm opting for all three.
From "Guide Dogs Don’t Lead Blind People. We Wander as One"
by Haben Girma in Disability Visibility, 2020
Mylo beelined for the elevator, and then, reading the braille labels, I pressed the button for the main level. The doors opened, and I directed Mylo across the lobby toward the front doors. “Right.” He turned down a hallway. “Right.” He turned into a room that felt empty. “Sorry, not this one. Mylo, left.” I gestured for him to go back to the hall. “Right.” He turned into the next room.
The delightful aroma of food and coffee at last wafted over from the far wall. “Here it is! Forward.” After I ordered my hard-earned breakfast, another wedding guest approached us.
“Haben, hi! It’s Michael. Who brought you here?”
I passed the credit to Mylo; constantly confronting ableism is tiring work. But someday the world will recognize that a Deafblind person charts her own path through the unknown. For now I know it—and so does Mylo. He takes his lead from me.
April 30th to May 1st is the Pagan holiday of Hexennacht (also known as Walpurgisnacht, Beltane, and other names, depending on where you are). It's chosen as the day to honour those who fall victim to superstition and pseudo-science.
Sadly, this isn't only about remembering the witch trials, the Satanic Panic, or past persecution. People today suffer from failing medical systems, hate speech, purity culture, and misinformation.
The Satanic Temple came up with this idea. They're pretty chill, really, not actual devil worship, but a human rights movement against arbitrary authority and theocracy. (I've just started researching them, but it's not easy since I have to wade through a lot of unrelated occult stuff... and a lot of backlash. I'd recommend taking hate posts about them with a handful of salt since religious people are not happy with them, some even pretending to be in with them to make themselves seem legitimate.)
Disability Visibility: Fanfiction, Art, and Fandom Content
Year number two! Header by @veryinactiveartist
What: An event to highlight disability visibility in fandom! Writings or art MUST include some disability. You can write for anyone of any fandom. The header includes characters with canon disabilities, but you can write for any character, x oc, or x reader as long as someone has a disability
Examples: Jack Abbot x Robby Jack getting fit for a new leg
Joel Miller x reader with diabetes
Bucky Barnes with a blind OC
needs to have some mention of the disability for representation, but not necessarily centered around disability. Whatever you're feeling.
OTHER THINGS INCLUDING DRABBLES, DOODLES, HEAD CANONS, MOODBOARDS OR EDITS WELCOME!
If make a tik tok edit or post to another site like ao3 or divientart, just send the link over!
Fics, drabbles, and art (including headers or any other fandom expresss) can be NSFW, friends, romantic, canon characters only, x reader, solo fics, ETC. If you want to explore a bonus chapter within a series you already wrote, that works, but,
MUST BE NEW CONTENT!
Who: Anyone who wants to make art or write a fic!
Where: Tumblr, but if you want to post on ao3 and send a link that works!
When: April through the last day of May!
Why: It's important for all of us to look at the beautiful diversity of this fandom! As a disabled person myself, I want people to be able to feel seen and represented.
Rules: I'll try to keep it simple
Minor characters are allowed, but obviously no NSFW minors. You want to write for Toph? Go ahead as long as not explicite
No minors!: simple
Non-disabled people can write, and disabled folk can write for disabilities they do not have, but do research: Reach out to friends who have a disability you want to write about. Watch youtube videos. Read book and blog posts. I'll link some resources at the bottom!
TRY not to fall into trope or harmful traps. Again, I'll link tropes in the bottom, try our best!
Try to end light. This is about the beauty of diversity. Like with my pride event, I'm not naive to hardships the disability community faces and we can explore that, but lets not let that be the main focus.
Readmore: Use the READMORE option! I'll reblog all fics but ONLY if theres a readmore
Add alt text to any pictures. I am so bad at this but I need to get better.
And this isn't a rule but a few notes. try to avoid the inspiration porn shit. If you don't know what it is, look it up and if you're still not clear you can ask me!
And as always with my events, I want to encourage you to think beyond the standard x fem reader. It's all wonderful and beautiful and write what you'd like, but if you wanted to write reflecting your experience as a black disabled woman or a trans disabled man or writing about Santi's experience being queer and disabled I WOULD LOVE TO SEE IT ALL!!
Events tend to not have a lot of art, so I'd really love to see artists participate too!
HOW: SEND ME THE LINK ASKS OR DMS! asks in preferred so I can keep track. Due to internet safety, I wont look at anonymous links. If you have to be on anon bc you use a sideblog (looking at you, Haru!) then tag me in your fic or post, I'll open up a dm with you on that blog and you can send it there. I''ve had issues in the past trying to keep things organized so this is best for me! Everything will be reblogged, and if its a success, a masterlist.
I'm mostly in the Pedro Pascal, Oscar Isaac, The Pitt and marvel DC fandoms so i expect to mostly see from these groups, but every fandom is welcome here!
I am so excited to see what you all come up with!!!!
Disability Visibility Project: An online page talking about disability issues. The sight is ran by Ali Wong. She also has a book of essays from different people called Disability Visibility, I HIGHLY REC. We read this book and used this site heavility in my intro to disability class, its why I named the event this!
Ableist tropes in media
Youtuber who is a friend of mine, Andy
Deaf awareness by same youtuber
Another youtuber I like
Disabled palistinian comedian
If anyone has other links they recommend im all ears!
I also open for any questions, and if any other disabled tumblrinas wanna open up for questions, comment below! You totally dont have to, but a wider range is always great! I have a few physical and mental disabilites and like I mentioned, I took a class. Im also good friends with the tuber i linked above and he's done a lot of disability advocacy and I've learned a lot from him, So I feel confident but if theres another I dont know I'll open it up! Any input or ideas are welcome!!!
