#disabled gtws

[mar-im-o]

I'm not gonna respond to the initial ask bc the original poster asked to disengage, but I do want to talk to yall about something

If you benefit from any form of being the majority (maybe you're abled, or white, or skinny, or cisgender, or whatever), you 100% do hold biases. You hold implicit prejudices in the forms of racism, ableism, transphobia, fatphobia, etc.

Implicit prejudices don't mean you're consciously holding them. It means you've been taught to benefit from them and hold them unconsciously. You may not realize they're there. You may not know you're benefiting from them. But they're there.

And I don't say that to convince you that you're a bad person. I don't know you!! But genuinely I don't think you are. I think you're a person living in an unfair society, and that's okay. It doesn't make you evil. It makes you human.

But the most naive thing you can do is pretend you don't have these biases. To pretend you aren't contributing to ableism or racism or fatphobia I'm some manner

Because you are.

Don't beat yourself up over it. Don't hate yourself. You're okay. You're not a bad person.

But you are prejudiced

Be conscious of it. Catch your thoughts and beliefs when they move in that direction. Pay attention to what systems you benefit from

Be conscious. Be kind.

And be aware.

[buggs-art]

Scar tells wonderful bedtime stories!

The composition of this one was a real headache urgh

[mar-im-o]

I really appreciate your discussion abt disabled Scar rep. I wouldn't consider myself to be disabled, but it's really been eye opening on the implicit bias I have against disabled ppl. Working on an au rn and I'm planning to do some research for Scar's wheelchair design

Hi!! I'm really glad to hear this!! I hope you're doing okay!

Genuinely as a disabled person myself it was really jarring to sit in disability studies and realize I'm still biased. It's not an easy thing to swallow.

I know it has to be for a lot for other people too. I've gotten a lot of people arguing against what I'm saying, but I'm hoping even more are realizing things about themselves and the world and are willing to learn like you are! That makes me really happy to think about

[mar-im-o]

Alright alright it's been a while so I'll say it at least once

Put badass charismatic pirate scar in a wheelchair or you're a coward

[mar-im-o]

on the whole disabled scar discussion and coming from someone who's chronically ill and a fellow wheeler,

fully agree that it's okay to change the disability, especially considering that scar himself has been general with his conditions (etc not giving a specific disorder)

and it's so important for people to make c!Scar physically disabled too imo. it's so annoying watching the narrative of "his character isn't disabled!" and then excusing it for oh disabilities are hard to draw/write, wheelchairs are difficult to include, tubes are hard to write

then... learn?

if you want to write a character who happens to be disabled, you don't just throw yourself in. you learn how it works and hear others perspectives.

like i personally project a LOT when i write Scar, i'll write his experiences to mirror my own and even then i do a lot of research to ensure i'm not misrepresenting. i find no issue with people doing the same or taking creative liberty when it comes to "cc! scar has a nmd but when i write c!scar he's a potsie with comorbid disorders"

and imo he should always be a wheelchair user, whether ambulatory or not. it's so ??? to make a character who is a non-ambulatory wc user suddenly only need a cane (many even doing it where he only needs it every now and then). it's not hard to make the minecraft world seem accessible/possible for someone physically disabled when the same minecraft world has shit like watchers, dragons, endermen. like brother if you can write about grian having avian instincts then you can write(+draw! as a writer i'm probably focussing on that side a bit much) about disabilities+experiences that are well documented/taught on

i am hARD rambling here but i'm just grateful this shit is being discussed bc this community is riddled with ableism (and fatphobia etc)

I really appreciate your perspective! Thank you!

I'm an ambulatory cane user so I'm always eager to hear from wheelchair users on their perspectives. I worry sometimes that I'm being a bit too dramatic on this, but it's really good to hear your opinion on the matter too!!

tldr

Make!! Scar!! Disabled!!!!

[mar-im-o]

Saw some discussion about whether or not to draw c!scar with/without wheelchairs and tubes. I think it is important to also listen to what he himself said about this when asked about it.

He has a short video on his GoodClipsWithScar channel titled "Scar on fanart including wheelchairs"

In summary, he said he does not mind either way about his character having or not having a wheelchair, but he does not picture himself with the tubes as much as he does with the wheelchair.

He emphasized that he does not want to hinder anyones creativity.

Yes I've brought this point up a few times!

When I talk about representing c!Scar in a wheelchair it's not because I'm parasocially defending cc!Scar when he didn't ask for it. And I'm not doing it for his comfort.

I advocate for it because the reasonings behind not drawing Scar in a wheelchair are often ableist, and I want people to be conscious of that fact! I want them to realize that choosing a make c!Scar non-disabled is often born out of an expectation that a lack of disabilities is more common/acceptable. People are consciously choosing not to draw him disabled because of their own biases. That's important to address!!

[mar-im-o]

This conversation on removing Scar's wheelchair has me thinking of if you change Scar's disability but keep the wheelchair. For instance, I have read fics where Scar is in a wheelchair because of a traumatic injury, usually one that leaves him paralyzed from the waist down. This isn't cc!Scar's actual disability, but it does mean c!Scar uses a wheelchair. Not all wheelchair users are the same ofc. This is kinda a bunch of disjointed thoughts sorry. But do you think that Scar being disabled regardless of why is more important than getting an accurate portrayal of Scar's actual disability? To me, this particular question is really tricky, but I'd love to hear your thoughts.

I don't think changing the disability is problematic at all, but I would love to hear from other chronically I'll people on this matter

In my work I usually keep the same disability for the sake of that representation, but I don't think changing it is necessarily evil.

It's good to keep in mind that we don't want to up-play the tragedy model of disability as much as we can, though. So we don't want to be like "he's disabled because something horrible happened to him". It's better to be like "he's disabled because people are disabled sometimes! It happens!"

[mar-im-o]

Tagging everything regarding Scar as disability rep with "disabled gtws" going forward