Wait...so remember that episode where Dib is talking to the Tallest on Zim's monitor--do the Tallest understand what he's saying and vise versa? OR did Zim give the Tallest a stack of info on Earth's culture and languages ahead of time and they now of a inkling of a understanding of Earth speak? I know they never had a proper conversation, but that post about irken languages got me thinking about it 🤔
I think it’s funnier if the answer is no. Because despite Dib talking to the Tallest non stop, the Tallest never reply. They just stare at Dib and talk to each other about the size of Dib’s head. So the Tallest are watching this small creature with a massive head excitingly make a bunch of noises at them that they don’t understand in the slightest.
Meanwhile Dib is calling the Tallest alien scum and asking for their planet’s coordinates.
This is like when people try to dress up a shitty last-minute art history paper where the prompt is like, “please explain the stylistic evolution of pilgrimage churches in medieval France” but they open with, “why do humans even build churches?”
TL;DR - stfu and fix your website, bumblr. I’m still giving you an F.
[ID: A screenshot from the movie Nimona, showing Nimona, a small white girl with red hair, grabbing the right prosthetic arm of Ballister, a knight in black armour with black hair and light brown skin. He is holding a broken bottle in his prosthetic hand while Nimona admires his arm. Overlaid on the screenshot is white text that reads "Disability Tropes: The Perfect Prosthetic" /End ID]
In a lot of media, prosthetic limbs are portrayed as these devices that act as a near-perfect replacement for a character who has lost, or was born without a limb. So much so that in a lot of cases, the use of a prosthetic has basically no impact on the character beyond a superficial level or their appearance, or it's portrayed as something that's even better than the old meat-limb it's replacing. This trope shows up most often in Sci-fi, but it shows up in all kinds of stories outside of that, even otherwise very grounded ones!
If a story isn't depicting the loss of a limb as the be-all-end-all worst thing that can happen to a person, they almost always default to a perfect prosthetic, functionally curing the amputation with it. But the reality is that prosthetics are FAR from perfect, and as someone who has used them for their entire life I don't think they ever will be. Limb difference is still and always will be a disability, regardless of the prosthetics available, and this really isn't a bad thing.
Why is this trope so common?
I meant it when I said this is a really, really a common trope, so much so that the majority of the media I've seen with amputees and characters with limb differences that released in the last decade or end up using it. Even stories where becoming an amputee is treated like a fate worse than death, ironically, aren't excluded from this. I have a few theories as to why this has happened:
The pessimistic answer is that it's easy. You get to have a disabled character and claim you have disability representation, without really having to do much extra work or research because most of your audience won't notice if you aren't accurate - in fact they kind of expect it. You also, for the most part, dodge the backlash other kinds of disability representation (or really any minority representation) usually get.
The more optimistic reason is that, for a long time, amputees and people with limb differences (as well as a lot of other disabled people) were predominantly shown in media as sad, depressed and unable to do anything, very much falling into the "sad disabled person" trope. As a kid, this was really the only way I saw people like me on screen or in books. And so, the limb difference community pushed back against that portrayal and were pretty successful in changing the narrative in the public's eye. A little too successful. A lot of creatives were genuinely trying to do right by our community, listen and do better, but many simply overcorrected and instead ended up creating stories where prosthetics were essentially cures instead of the mobility aids they are.
I also think the public's general lack of understanding about disability plays a roll in all this. There are a lot of people who, in my experience, believe that the more visible a disability is, the worse it is. Limb differences and amputations are very visible, but prosthetics, even those that aren't trying to be discreet, make them less so. While using a prosthetic is very, very different to a biological limb, you won't necessarily see how in a casual interaction with, say a co-worker or neighbor, especially because there is a very real stigma applied to people with limb differences to keep those things hidden from the public.
There are other reasons too, such as the fact that a lot of creatives don't even consider the connection to real amputees when creating characters with robotic limbs in genres like sci-fi and some fantasy, so they never stop to consider that these tropes could be impacting real people. Amputees are also very frequently used in "inspiration porn" content that uses the angle that disabilities can be "overcome" with a good attitude, downplaying the way those disabilities actually impact us. The prosthetics industry - specifically the component manufacturers, often also push the idea of prosthetics being the only way to return to a "normal" life, both to the wider public and to people with limb differences and amputations (which can add to that sense of shame I mentioned when it doesn't play out that way for them).
On top of that, I also think the recent increase in popularity of concepts like trans-humanism contributes to it as well. these movements often talk about robotic or bionic body parts being enhancements and "the way of the future", and I think people get a bit too caught up on what may be potentially possible in the future with the real, current experiences of people with "robotic limbs" aka prosthetics, now. There are also inherently disabling things that come with removing and replacing parts of your body, things that will not just go away with some fancier tech.
So How do you actually avoid the trope?
So, we have some ideas about why it happens, but how do you actually avoid the "perfect prosthetic" trope from appearing in your work?
The most important thing is to remember that this is still a disability. The loss of a limb, even with the best prosthetic technology or magical item in the world, will always have some inherently disabling aspects to it - and this is not a bad thing.
The key is to not over-do it, lest you risk falling into the old "sad disabled person" trope. So let's go over some of the ways you can show how your character's disability impacts them. You don't have to use all of these recommendations, just choose the ones that would best fit your character, their circumstances and your setting.
The prosthetic itself is just different
Probably the most important thing to address and acknowledge for prosthetic-using characters, is the actual ways in which the prosthetic itself is different from a biological limb, and the drawbacks and changes that come with that. For the sake of simplicity, I'm mainly going to focus on modern prosthetics here, but it's worth considering how to apply this your own, more advanced/fantastical prosthetics too.
One major thing that most people writing amputees fail to acknowledge is that prosthetic limbs are not fleshy-limbs with a different coat of paint. They do the same basic thing their meat-counterparts do, but how they do it is often drastically different, which changes how they are used. A really good example of this is in prosthetic feet. There are dozens of joints in a biological foot, but most prosthetic feet have no joints or moving parts at all. Instead of having dozens of artificial joints to mimic the real bone structure of a foot, which are more prone to failure, require power and make the prosthetic much, much heavier for very little gain, prosthetic feet are often constructed from flexible carbon fiber sheets inside a flexible rubber foot-shaped shell. This allows the bend and flex those bones provide, without all the drawbacks that come from trying to directly mimic it. Making the sheets into different shapes makes them more ideal for different activities. E.g. feet made for general use, like walking around the city, are simple and light, shaped to encourage the most energy-efficient steps, while still allowing their users to do things like wear normal shoes. Feet made for rough terrain often have a split down the middle of the foot to allow the carbon fiber sheets to bend better over rocks when there is no ankle, and some newer designs also include a kind of suspension using pressurized air pulled from the prosthetic socket to allow some additional padding. Running feet have large "blades" made of these carbon fiber sheets to absorb more pressure when the foot hits the ground, and redirect the force that creates to propel their user forward as quickly as possible.
[ID: A photo of 4 prosthetic feet. On the left, the foot is covered with a black shoe, the one to it's right consists of a small, carbon fiber blade, split down the middle, in roughly the same shape and size as the previous foot. Next to the right is an even simpler and smaller carbon fiber foot with no split, and finally is a very short foot that is vaguely rectangular in shape. /End ID]
These are some of my own prosthetic feet I've had over the years. The two on the right are designed to be used by someone who is less mobile, and the ones on the left are made for someone who is more active. As my needs changed over the years, I've used different designs and styles, and keep the old ones since my needs do tend to fluctuate.
There are also robotic feet available that are designed as a kind of "all-purpose" foot that use an electronic ankle which more closely mimics a biological foot, but they are not very popular as the mechanism adds a lot of extra weight and it requires a battery and power to work, with many amputees feeling the jointless carbon fiber feet do a better job at meeting their needs.
The same goes for arms and hands. "Robotic" hands that mimic a meat hand exist, but they aren't really that popular, even in places like Australia where the prohibitively expensive price tag isn't as much of an issue due to government programs that pay for the device for you. Instead, most arm amputees who use prosthetics that I know prefer simpler devices that do specific tasks, and just swap between them as needed, rather than something that tries to do it all. A big part of this is because the all-purpose hands can be clunky. they often require manual adjustment using the other hand to do simple things like going from holding a deck of cards to putting them down and picking up a glass of water, for example. The few that don't require that, I've been told, are often temperamental and don't actually work for every person with a limb difference.
Altered Proprioception
Loosing a limb is a big deal and this is always going to have an impact on the body in some way that won't be solved with a fancy piece of tech. One such example is how limb loss effects your sense of proprioception. This is your sense of where your body parts are in space. It's how you (mostly) know where your foot is going to land when you're walking, or how you're able to do things like lift up a glass of water without needing to actually watch your hand do it.
Your brain does this by creating a mental map of your body, but this map doesn't get adjusted if you loose a limb. If that map doesn't accurately reflect your real body, you're not going to have an accurate sense of proprioception. This might look like a leg amputee being a bit less stable on their feet, or like an arm amputee needing to look at their arm or hand to be able to grab something with it.
Those born without their limbs who take to using prosthetics often have a lot of trouble adapting, as their brains aren't used to having that limb in the first place, whereas an amputee's brain can sometimes be tricked into using their outdated body map to help them adjust to the prosthetic (though its impossible to line it up perfectly). Prosthetics that directly integrate with the nervous system, while rare, do exist, and even this direct connection doesn't completely erase this issue for reasons doctors aren't quite sure about.
This is something that does become less of a problem with time. Eventually, someone proficient with their prosthetic will learn to compensate, but their sense of proprioception will never be 100% perfect. At the end of the day, no matter how it attaches, a prosthetic is still not a natural part of the body, and that will always cause some issues. It also means if they aren't practicing it all the time, they may have to relearn how to compensate for it.
Extra weight
You also have to remember that a prosthetic is not a natural part of the body, like we already talked about, and so no matter how good it is, your brain will most likely always interpret the weight of the prosthetic as something attached to you, not part of you. This means that, even though prosthetics are actually a lot lighter than biological limbs, they feel so much heavier. This is because, while a meat limb is heavier, a lot of that weight is from muscles which are actively contributing to the limb working, so it doesn't really feel like its that heavy. When you have less of your meat-limb though, you have even less muscle to work with to move this big thing strapped to it, so it feels heavier. The more of the limb you've lost, or just didn't have, the heavier the prosthetic has to be, and the less muscle you have left to move it. It's for this reason that a lot of amputees and people with limb differences get tired faster when using prosthetics. Some of us are fit enough where you almost wouldn't notice the extra effort they need to put in, but once again, just because you can't see it from the outside, doesn't mean it's not an issue.
Avoiding Water
Most prosthetics also aren't waterproof, and so prosthetic users have to be very careful about when and how they come into contact with it. For amputees with electric components, contact with water at all will likely damage the device. This can even include especially heavy rain, something I was told to avoid when I got my electronic knee prosthetic and something I assume would also apply to arm amputees with complex, electronic hands.
For those with non-electronic prosthetics, water can be hazardous for different reasons. If the prosthetic has metal components, water may cause them to rust, especially if it's salty water. Other prosthetics have foam covers to give the illusion of a limb with the general shape of muscles and fat, but these covers do not come off, and if they get wet enough that water seeps all the way through, it is very hard to dry it and they may become moldy. Finally, cheaper modern prosthetics may also float. Many are made of very light-weight materials and some have pockets of air trapped inside them. For leg prosthetics in particular, this means a user might, at best, struggle to swim with them on, but at worst, may get flipped upside down and become trapped underwater - something that happened to me as a very young child. On the flip-side, older prosthetics were usually made of heavy materials like wood or steel, and so had the opposite problem, acting like a weight and pulling a person down if they were to wear them in the water.
Water-safe prosthetics do exist, I had a pair of prosthetic legs as a teenager that were hollow, and designed especially for me to swim with fins on when swimming in the ocean, and Nadya Vessey, a double leg amputee in New Zealand even got a mermaid-tail prosthetic made especially for use in the water. Most amputees though just swim without any prosthetics at all, and in 99% of cases, this is the easiest and safest way to go.
Prosthetic-Related Pressure Sores and Pain
Many people with limb differences also experience pressure sores from their prosthetics. Modern prosthetics typically attach to the body using a socket made of carbon fiber or fiberglass, held on either by pressure, using a vacuum seal or through a mechanical locking system built into the socket. No matter the specifics though, the socket has to be very tight in order to stay on, and this means that extended periods of use can lead to rub-spots, blisters and pressure sores. Many socket prosthetics also use silicone liners to add extra padding, but this means wounds caused by the pressure can't breathe, and bacteria in sweat has nowhere to go, meaning if the person doesn't rest when one of these wounds occur, it can very easily and quickly turn into a serious infection.
In a properly fitting prosthetic, used by someone who has fully adjusted to them, this doesn't happen often, but it is something most amputees and people with limb differences have to at least be mindful of.
Some new prosthetics use a different method of attachment, called Osteointegration - where the prosthetic attaches to a clip, surgically implanted into the person's bones. While Osteointegration avoids many of the issues like pressure sores that come from a socket, they have their own issues: mainly that they are incredibly expensive, and as of right now, have a pretty high failure rate due to the implant getting infected. Because the implants are directly connected to the bone, these infections become very serious very quickly. Many people with Osteointegration limbs have to be on very strong medication to keep these infections at bay, and they are generally considered unsuitable for anyone who is going to regularly come into contact with "unclean" environments.
Maintenance
[ID: A screenshot of Winrey, from Full Metal alchemist Brotherhood, a white woman with blond hair hanging out the sides of a green hat. She is measuring a piece of metal from a prosthetic she is making while Ed, the prosthetic's owner, gives her a thumbs up in the background. /End ID]
Finally, prosthetics also require maintenance from a specialist called a prosthetist, and they don't last forever. Some parts, like a foot or hand, can be reused over an over, but the sockets of a prosthetic need to be completely remade any time your body changes shape, including if you gain/loose weight, you start experiencing swelling, or you're just a child who is growing. Children in particular need new prosthetics every few months because they grow so fast, and as such, their prosthetics have to be made with this growth in mind. If they go too long without adjustment or an entirely new prosthetic, it can seriously impact the child and their growth but even small adjustments can be costly, depending on where you live.
While prosthetics are built to be sturdy and reliable, they need a lot of work to stay that way. The more complex the prosthetic, the more work is needed. Complicated electronic components may need to have regular maintenance done by your prosthetist or even the specific component's manufacturer, and depending on where you live, this might mean having to send your prosthetic limb away for this to be done. While my prosthetist technically has the skills and knowledge to do the maintenance on my electronic knee, for example, the manufacturer forbids anyone not from their company to provide this service, meaning my leg needs to be shipped off to Germany once every few years if I want to keep the warranty. This has the unfortunate side effect of sometimes your limbs getting lost in postage (shout-out to Australia Post, who lost mine twice), meaning it can be months before you get it back or get a replacement. Usually, you'll be given a replacement in the meantime if you need it, but walking on a leg that isn't yours, even when its correctly fitted, always feels a bit weird (maybe that's just me though).
Not every difference is Inherently Negative
We've talked about some of the negatives that come from having a prosthetic, but not every difference is negative or even really that big of a deal. In fact, often times, it's these little moments in the depiction of a disability that go the furthest and make it feel the most genuine. My amputations effect me from the moment I wake up, to the moment I go to bed, but that doesn't mean every single way it impacts me is always inherently bad or negative.
For example, back when I was working a normal job and going to university, I would often come home, throw my legs off at the door with the shoes still attached and get into my wheelchair, the same way you might throw your shoes off after work and replace them with comfy socks and other comfy clothing. This is something I've only ever seen on screen once, with Eda from the Owl House (and she wasn't even an amputee yet, her limbs were just detachable)
[ID: an screenshot of Eda from the owl house, a very pale woman, laying on the couch in a bathrobe, her hair in a towel. She has taken her actual legs off, throwing them to the other side of the seat. /End ID]
After that, my day mostly looked the same as most other people working a 9 to 5, I'd make myself dinner, watch some TV or play some games, maybe do some extra work at my desk or chat with friends. The only difference is that it would all be from a wheelchair, mainly because my prosthetics were heavy and it was just easier to use the chair around the house. The fact my afternoon and evening routine was done from a wheelchair wasn't a bad thing, it was just different. Likewise, I also don't sleep or shower with my prosthetics on, for the same reasons most other people wouldn't take a shower or sleep in thigh-high, steel-capped boots.
In your own stories, this might look like giving your characters similar alterations to how they go about their day. Let them take their arm or leg off when they're resting or relaxing, show them taking a few minutes longer to get ready because they have to put it back on, show them doing some things without it. Arm amputees in particular tend to get very good at going about their days without their arm prosthetics, and leg amputees often either learn to get around more relaxed spaces like their homes using a different mobility aids like wheelchairs or crutches, or just through hopping if that's something they're physically able to do.
Even when everything is going well and working as intended, your limb-different character won't wear their prosthetic 24/7, no matter how much they love it. There doesn't have to be something wrong with it or painful about it to not want it glued to them at all times, just like you can love a pair of big heavy boots but not want them on when you're trying to sleep.
For more action-focused stories, being an amputee, also changes things like how you fight. The specifics will vary from person to person, but for example, when I did Hap Ki Do, a Korean Martial art, my instructor heavily modified when I learned what techniques. Beginner-level kicks and most leg attacks were impractical for me, as the force from the kicking motion would usually cause one of my legs to fly off. I also couldn't jump very well, due to some complications with my original amputation that made my stumps too sensitive to withstand the force of landing again. So I ended up learning a lot more upper-body attacks much earlier than it is typically taught. By the time I got my green belt, I was practicing upper-body techniques usually saved for black belts - including weapons training that I could use my secondary mobility aids for, like crutches and my cane in a bad situation. Many holds that rely on creating tension in your target are also less effective on amputees, because either the anatomy that causes those holds to be painful just simply isn't there, or the body part in question can just be removed to escape.
Whether we're talking about the negative things, or just neutral differences that come with using prosthetics, you don't want to go too far with any one example. The key is to strike a balance. Of course, the old writing advice of "show don't tell" also applies here. It's one thing to tell us all of this stuff, but unless we actually see it play out, it won't mean much.
How NOT to avoid the trope
Before we move on, let's focus for a moment on some common things I've seen that you SHOULDN'T do as a way to get away from the trope.
The Enhanced Prosthetic
A lot of sci-fi in particular will take prosthetic limbs, make them function exactly the same as a biological limb, but add something extra to it. This does change the way the prosthetic functions and is used, but it usually still ignores the actual disabling parts of having a prosthetic.
A really good example of this can be seen in pretty much any futuristic setting, but personally, I think Fizzeroli, from Helluva Boss is the best one to demonstrate what I mean. Fizz is a quadrilateral, above knee/above elbow amputee with highly advanced prosthetics that function, more or less exactly like the limbs he lost, but with the added benefit of being super-stretchy. Fizz is an acrobat and a clown in service, at least initially, to Mammon, one of the Seven Deadly Sins. These prosthetics help him perform and we even do see how they change little things like how he walks and just goes about his day, but the show still treats them like natural arms and legs, but better.
[ID: A screenshot of Fizzeroli from Helluva Boss, a white-skinned imp with 4 black, prosthetic limbs, dressed in teal a nightgown as he lays in bed, reading from a list /End ID]
We see that he never takes them off, even when sleeping, and when he needs to use them as regular arms and legs, they do everything he needs, perfectly fine - at least when they're working correctly. The only time he ever even takes them off or has any issues with them, is when they break in season 2. The word amputee is never used to describe him, as far as I remember, and the fact he is one never really comes up at all, except for when they break or when the story focuses on how he lost them.
Which brings me to my next point.
The Glitchy/Broken Prosthetic
One way I see people try to avoid the perfect prosthetic trope, is to take the prosthetic and break it or otherwise make it unreliable by having it malfunction, but not really changing anything else.
This approach is heading in the right direction but still kind of misses the point of the criticism a lot of limb different folks have with the depictions of prosthetics in the media. Yeah, prosthetics do break down and some do require extra maintenance, but if your character's prosthetic is still exactly the same as a biological limb (or even better, in the case of the "enhanced prosthetic") when it's not broken, and the only time their disability is treated like a disability, is when it breaks, you're not really addressing the issue. Real prosthetics, like we discussed, even when functioning at 100%, exactly as the manufacturer intended, don't function the same as a meat-limb. They are fundamentally different, and the glitchy/unreliable prosthetic completely ignores all of that.
Once again, Fizz is a really good example of this - the only time his prosthetics are not perfect, is when they break or are malfunctioning (despite the criticism, I do genuinely love Fizz as a character, but he unfortunately does fall into a lot of disability tropes).
[ID: Another screenshot of Fizzeroli, this time in a torn up jester outfit, looking down, panicked, at his prosthetic arms which are fully extended and laying motionless on the ground, with his left arm visibly short-circuiting with electricity around it. /End ID]
Now this isn't to say you can't have your character's prosthetics break down or malfunction at all. just that this shouldn't be the only way you differentiate the prosthetic from a biological limb. You should also be mindful of how or why they're breaking. A typical prosthetic isn't going to break down randomly from normal use unless something is very, very wrong or your character just has a terrible prosthetist (which unfortunately, does happen). You might experience issues if you try to make the prosthetic do something it just wasn't designed to do, or expose it to something it wasn't designed to deal with though (e.g. submerging an electronic prosthetic in water and trying to use it to swim).
Just add Phantom Pain
Another common pitfall I see when people are trying to avoid the perfect prosthetic trope, is to just give the character in question phantom pain - which is a side-effect of amputation where your brain's mental map of the body doesn't acknowledged you lost a limb. Your brain tries to fill in the gaps, since there is no signals coming from that part of the body anymore, and assumes either something must be wrong and so you should be in pain, even when you actually aren't. Alternatively, it can also happen when your brain was so used to feeling pain from that area before, in the case of people who had chronic conditions before they lost their limb, that it just keeps remaking those old signals itself.
Like the broken/glitchy prosthetic approach, this also doesn't really address the issue with the perfect prosthetic trope, because it has nothing to do with the prosthetic itself. Phantom pain doesn't come from the prosthetic, nor does it effect how they're used, and so including it doesn't really address the issue of the prosthetic being functionally the same as the original, biological limb. This isn't to say that you shouldn't include phantom limb sensation or pain as something your character experiences, but just keep in mind that, when used on it's own, it doesn't counter the trope.
Also, just be sure to do your research, everyone's experience with phantom pain is different and it's not something everyone with a limb difference even experiences.
Why is this trope even a problem?
Alright, so we know what the trope is, we know why it became so prevalent, ways to avoid it and also how not to avoid it. All good information, but why is this trope even bad? Why should you try to avoid it?
Outside of just wanting to portray a real disability that effects real people more accurately in your creations, the prevalence of this trope actually contributes to a lot of real-world issues, especially when it's as overused as it currently is.
I've talked before about "the jaws effect" - where the depiction of something in the media, especially something that the public is widely uneducated on, influences how people see it in real life. The Jaws effect specifically referred to how the popularity of creature-feature movies featuring sharks, like Jaws, caused the belief that sharks were monstrous killing machines to become much more wide-spread, even going so far as to influence decisions about laws and policy surrounding real-life shark preservation and culling in some parts of the world.
But sharks aren't the only thing this has happened to.
Disabled people are so thoroughly misunderstood by wider society, that when tropes like this one become popular, people can and often do start to believe the misinformation they spread - in this case, believing that our prosthetics are a perfect replacement for a biological limb, and that getting a prosthetic means you're not disabled any more. While this can be annoying and cause small scale issues for some of us, like people giving us a hard time for using disability accommodations we very much need, it can also impact us in systemic ways too. If the wrong people believe these tropes, it can and does have a very real impact on the lives of disabled people through things like changes to policies to make it harder for amputees and people with limb differences to access financial assistance for other things outside of our prosthetics we may need assistance with.
Conclusion
Despite the very real harm tropes like this can do when it's overused, I don't think it should go away entirely. Some of my favourite pieces of media even use the perfect prosthetic trope and there are even some kinds of media where I even think it's somewhat unavoidable.
Characters with perfect prosthetics in kids media in particular, especially when talking about side characters, can help to correct some of the other stereotypes kids may have seen elsewhere - such as prosthetics being "creepy" or "scary" - in a way that is casual and easy for them to understand. The problem with the trope, in my eyes, is it's excessive overuse. It's the fact that it seems to be the only representation amputees and people with limb differences are getting now. Not every story with a limb-different character can or even should delve into the reality of what using prosthetics is actually like, but we need at least some stories that do, without it being this majorly depressing thing.
Damian was unwilling to even consider accepting your presence. He’d been sure that you were a passing source of entertainment for his older brother, who couldn’t possibly hold positive regard towards anyone other than himself.
Jason had brought you to the manor with him while he dropped in to discuss some things with the old man. You’d told him you’d be fine to hang out with Damian until he was done, to which he scoffed and wished you luck.
So you approach the couch tentatively and smile despite the lack of attention on you, “Hi Damian.”
He merely side eyes you and says nothing.
Having expected this from him, you continue, “What are you watching?”
“The Discovery channel.” He says shortly.
You frown, furrowing your eyebrows.
He glances at you, unamused. “What?”
“Why are you watching the Discovery channel?” you ask him.
“It’s educational.” He tells you, like it’s obvious.
You nod slowly, “Yes, but…what else do you watch?”
“The Discovery channel has many different series’,” he tells you with discernable disinterest.
You tilt your head at him, “Don’t you watch shows for kids?”
He glowers hearing that, “Why would I do that?”
“…Because you’re a kid.”
He shakes his head, basically waving you off. “I wouldn’t waste my time.”
You’re not really sure why Damian is the way he is just yet. You know he only came to live with Bruce relatively recently and before that lived with his mother somewhere far. Jason’s mentioned in passing that his upbringing was a bit unorthodox and his mother is a sore subject. You don’t know Bruce well but you can take a guess that his parenting priorities don’t necessarily lie with letting kids be kids.
You shake your head, “It’s not a waste of time. Not if you enjoy it.” You pause. “It’s okay for you to be a kid, Damian.”
He looks at you like he has no idea what you’re talking about.
You sit up more, turning to face him completely. “I can’t imagine pushing yourself so hard all the time is good for your brain. Or your body.”
That gets his attention. “…What do you mean?”
You take a deep breath, “I mean a part of normal human development involves fostering happiness through recreation and leisure. Entertainment like that functions as a stress reliever which is necessary for you to operate at your highest capacity. It’s like recharging your body and it’s important to do, especially when you’re young and can burn out quickly.”
He frowns deeply, furrowing his eyebrows, “Oh.”
You nod, thinking. “I can’t imagine your diet is any different than your dads, then.”
His posture straightens, “I eat to make me stronger. That is good for my body.” He says it like it has to be.
Your brow furrows at that as you nod, “Yeah, it is, but do you like it?”
He grimaces, “What does that matter?”
You pull back a bit, blinking at him. “Do you eat snacks, Damian?”
“Snacks are for—” he cuts himself off. “No I do not.”
“What if we watched a movie and made popcorn or something?”
He considers this with an obvious great hesitance, looking you up and down like he’s expecting you to pull out a knife any second.
“You could be wrong,” he says eventually, quiet.
You nod for a moment. “But what if I’m not?”
He eyes the rug on the floor, chin still held up. “What…do you suggest?”
You pucker your lower lip and shake your head, grabbing the remote. “Anything you want,” You flip the screen to the children’s movies, scrolling through the options. “You might like The Rescuers. Or Robin Hood. It’s about someone who steals from the rich and gives the money to the poor.”
You hand him the remote and he slowly moves through the list. You watch him look over the selection, eyes slightly wider than usual.
“What about “Bambi”? It has small animals in the picture.” He points to the little icon on the left of the screen displaying the baby deer and friends.
Your movements stutter. “Oh, uh…I don’t think that’s the movie for you.”
He tilts his head at you, “Why not?”
You take a deep breath and turn your head over your shoulder towards the kitchen. “I’m going to make popcorn, yeah?”
“Okay.”
You smile and nod encouragingly and stand before making your way to the kitchen.
Damian watches you go before thoughtlessly standing himself and trailing slowly after you. By the time he gets to the kitchen door frame you’ve already opened up a packet and are placing it into the microwave. You don’t stop at that, opening up the fridge to pour out a small glass of coke.
The popcorn is nearly done when Jason approaches from the hall, stopping next to Damian and peering into the doorway to see what’s so interesting.
He’s surprised to find that the thing Damian had been staring wide-eyed at was you, making snacks.
He looks again at his little brother, heeding how his gaze was somehow closer to fear than skepticism. But he’d seen that look before, when he’d first come to live at the manor it was the only expression he conveyed for at least two months. That look of shock that he was being treated so kindly, with such thought behind it. Jason hadn’t seen that look in a while, but couldn’t find it in him to be surprised that it was you who brought it back out.
For someone as trained as he is, it takes Damian an embarrassingly long time to register his brother's presence. He tries to play it off as though he’d always known, adjusting his posture to stand taller, chin up. He turns to face Jason, suddenly somber. “She is an adequate choice of a partner.”
Jason’s face contorts, looking him up and down, “…Thanks?”
The rise of doctors describing functional or psychogenic symptoms as "not real" symptoms should genuinely disturb everyone.
It harms those with functional/psychogenic symptoms, because yes, the symptoms are real, regardless of a lack of organic cause. They aren't lying or faking them, they're just not organic in nature.
And even if you don't give a shit about individuals with those types of symptoms (you should), it should still worry you if you're disabled, especially if you're a part of another marginalised group (especially women tbh). You're more likely to be assumed to have functional/psychogenic symptoms, and if doctors believe you do, they won't test for other stuff, or only do very basic tests. Like having any kind of functional/psychogenic diagnosis or suspected diagnosis on your records will hinder any other attempts to seek medical help because everything gets blamed on that, even if (like me!) you have proof that there's other stuff going on (eg positive test results). This means that you can be very definitely physically organically ill, and still be refused tests and treatments based on assumptions.
And then when those symptoms get labelled as "not real"...well, suddenly those with functional/psychogenic problems are basically being called liars, fakers, etc, and can't get the help they need to a, recover/improve, and b, get the support they need whilst/when they have symptoms. (And hey, guess what, if you have neither of those things, you're not gonna get better and may in fact get worse!) And those who've just been assumed to have them are going to get labelled increasingly as liars and fakers as they get increasingly sicker from the "not real" symptoms, risking long term damage from the "not real" symptoms.
(Post inspired by a conference I went to in which an actual doctor stood up in front of hundreds of people and described how it's hard to tell if a teenage girl with anxiety has real stomach pain or not. Because if your stomach hurts from anxiety, it's actually fake, the pain doesn't exist I guess.)
Oooo what are the reasons you think Vox and Angel not being attracted to each other is very important to their dynamic? Share em pretty please?
okay so the thing about Angel is that he reliably derives a sense of power from his own objectification. a huge part of the persona he puts on, especially in the early episodes, comes down not just to sexualizing himself but reminding people, incessantly and at every opportunity, who he is. he brags about the creepy fanmail he gets, he offers his ‘star power’ to the hotel, he shows off his films to people he has no sexual interest in, on and on. it’s one of the things husk directly calls him out on in masquerade—’nobody in that hotel cares who you are, how famous, how hot. so you might as well just cut the act.’ and it makes sense! while we obviously don’t know the original terms of his contract or exactly what motivated him to make it, in practice being hell’s big sex symbol is what he gets in exchange for having sold his soul; it’s effectively the only form of power he has available and the only thing that Val can’t take away because it’s as intrinsic to their dynamic as all the ways that angel is disempowered. not to a mention a functional substitute for his non-existent self-worth, which is part of what made ‘loser, baby’ such an important moment for his character. there’s also the fact that angel is, generally speaking, under no obligation to fuck the public (and in fact one might argue it would depreciate his value as an asset if he was too easily available)—for once, he has the ability to actively deny people access to his body. even if the way he’s talked about and treated by strangers appears violating from the outside, to angel the most defining factor is how he gets to react. which incidentally would mesh well with the idea that Val punishes him with traditional street-corner prostitution or fucking ‘greasy truckers,’ taking away the privilege of withholding sex from people considered unworthy of his status
and obviously this is a double-edged sword, because being desired for angel also means being exploited and dehumanized, if not violently abused. the dynamic that empowers him is just as likely to hurt or degrade him depending on the situation, and it can’t be separated from the ways in which angel is materially disempowered. but still, it’s not entirely illusory. there is a level at which the wanted will always have the wanter at a disadvantage, no matter how negligible that may be.
But Vox doesn't want Angel, sexually or otherwise, and that's a big part of what makes the violence he enacts so uniquely disempowering. The defenses and coping strategies Angel’s developed in response to the kinds of trauma he regularly undergoes do not work with Vox. And we know that Angel reacts badly to that. In the early episodes where Husk and Angel are still scrapping with each other, it’s Husk’s challenges to the quality of his work and desirability as an infamous sex object that visibly bother Angel the most, prompting actual anger instead of more exaggerated sexual harassment, and when Husk rejects him outright in Masquerade he responds with a rant about how many people would kill to be propositioned by him before running off to court the attention of shady strangers, with the implication that he may have been actively looking to get himself roofied, or at the very least was accepting of the possibility. Point being, Angel is very attached to his self-image as an object of desire, and is willing to get himself hurt in order to have it affirmed. Paradoxically enough, the lack of (literal, explicit) sexual violence involved in their dynamic makes things worse, just because it’s something Angel is already so used to coping with and compartmentalizing. Vox puts him off balance precisely because he doesn’t operate like Angel’s other aggressors, and what happens to him in S2 is new in a way that doesn’t just bypass his defenses but obliterates them. So basically, it’s all about keeping things as awful for Angel as they can possibly be. Sorry, Angel.
Another less important but still salient reason coming from Vox's end is that I don't think it really meshes with the reasons Vox has to hate Angel in the first place. Operating purely on the information we have now and not assuming any future reveals, Vox's fixation on Angel feels less like frustrated desire (e.g. Alastor) and more like projected self-loathing in the form of jealousy and fear—and not just with regards to Val, either, though that's obviously a big part of it. Angel simultaneously represents a lot of the things Vox wants (Val's obsessive fixation, the ability to derive empowerment from what Vox considers shameful, being Wanted by everyone everywhere for what Vox likely perceives to be very little effort) and the things he fears most (loss of control, disempowerment and degradation, Val turning on him). Angel is like a twisted funhouse mirror reflecting everything Vox could be, and the only appropriate response when you’re faced with something like that is to smash it until you can’t see a resemblance. Sexual attraction isn't necessarily incompatible with all this, but it does complicate the dynamic in a way I find more distracting than engaging. That, and it doesn't really fit in with how I'd describe the flavor of Vox's self-loathing. Angel isn't an external object for Vox to chase but a symbolic representation of himself, and I think Vox's most sincere response to that is going to be repulsion!
... I suppose there isn't, strictly speaking, any reason I think it's especially important that Angel isn't attracted to Vox, it just seems so catastrophically unlikely I didn't think to specify otherwise. Though Angel being openly repulsed by Vox's everything probably isn't doing any favors for his shrapnel bomb of an ego, so that's always a fun bonus.
One caveat: I do still think there’s an at least somewhat sexual element to how Vox revels in seeing Angel suffer, if only in a peripheral sort of way. Like, come on, why do we think he had a pre-edited footage reel of Val beating Angel Dust just hanging around on hand if not to jerk off to (and Val fucking knew it, too). That being said, I don’t this comes from any particular interest in or draw to Angel Dust himself and is more a function of his general sadism + satisfaction at seeing an object of hatred and envy suffer because that means he's winning (+ maaaaaybe some projected masochistic tendencies courtesy my previous point about his motivations for hating Angel, but don’t you even worry about that) It’s not a motivation for his behavior so much as side effect of it. And it definitely doesn’t translate to any desire to fuck Angel himself—in this house it’s violence and voyeurism only.
warnings: nothing!!! i’m a linguistics student so i’m praying all talks about language and morphosyntax are accurate lmao. explanations for any linguistic terms are at the end if you're curious!!
✮ When he first meets you, a transfer student who came a little later in the year, he doesn’t think much of it. He’s stoic, but not emotionless, so he’s surprisingly willing to help out even if he seems reluctant or ticked off about it.
✮ He doesn’t immediately give you a full run down or jump into elaborate explanations about how you misspoke or any cultural differences, but he’ll give a quick, short correction. Under his breath and low.
✮ And in comparison to how he corrects Yuuji on things, with you, there’s almost no judgement in his tone. Purely because he knows everything is so foreign to you, and you can’t get used to a new country over night, especially one so far away from home, and maybe even in a different continent depending on where you’re from!
✮ And he’ll never refuse to answer questions either, his responses may be clipped and short at times, and maybe they even lack the appropriate amount of context, but he’s one of the only people that doesn’t make you feel stupid. Even Yuuji and Nobara have laughed at times, and despite it being friendly and teasing, not at all serious, it can still make you feel silly or ignorant. But Megumi? He doesn’t laugh.
✮ He’s lightly huffed a short laugh once or twice, rare for him I know, but it’s always followed with advice and gentle correction. Which is far better than being laughed at with no explanation.
✮ And it’s all simply because he knows you can’t help it. Stupidity and wilful ignorance irritates him, but that isn’t the case with you.
✮ Even the way school functioned was a culture shock to you, probably even more-so considering Jujutsu High was even different from ordinary Japanese schools, not to mention ones from your home country. But still, you adapted without complaints.
✮ Your Japanese might lack complete fluency, the syntax may confuse you, your pronunciation may be off, you may forget to bow when necessary, but the dedication it takes to learn a new language and to adjust to another country’s norms? It’s admirable, you’ve put in the effort, you just need some extra help. Not people laughing at you.
✮ You try, and you continue to when you don’t get it quite right. You don’t turn your nose up at any foods you haven’t heard of even if they’re so incredibly different from what you would have at home. You don’t scrunch your face and make inconsiderate comments at anything new. You try, you’re respectful, considerate, and you make an effort. That’s what matters.
✮ Quite often, you forget words. You still think in your mother tongue despite needing to speak in Japanese, which is inconvenient at the best of times. Exact translations can be difficult, or maybe you’re thinking of a slang word from back home that doesn’t even have a translation in Japanese. And it frustrates you.
✮ He can tell.
✮ He sees the furrow of your brows, hears the irritated huff you let escape, and can practically smell confusion and contempt. But over time you learn you can turn to him, quietly explain what it is you long to say. And with an equally quiet whisper, he gives you the word. Just the word, no ‘I think you mean-‘ or ‘The word is ___, it means-‘. None of that. Just a singular word.
✮ God, sometimes he even knows the word you want to say before you even turn to him when it’s obvious enough.
✮ Although, what’s harder than speaking Japanese, is writing. When you first start to learn, it’s the bane of your existence. Of course, you practiced before transferring. It would be idiotic to transfer to a Japanese school having not attempting to learn the basics, but it’s still terribly difficult. Even after months.
✮ And Megumi? You’re his sweet girl, of course he helps. He isn’t overly enthusiastic. He doesn’t dish out overwhelming praise, nor does he berate or disparage you for mistakes. He just nods, and says ‘Yeah, that’s it’. Or clicks his tongue and says ‘Close, but it’s more like this’ even if you aren’t close at all, and writes for you so you can see how it’s done.
✮ This can go on for an hour or two, almost nightly, until you’re confident. In his dorm, an extra chair pulled to his desk, in your pyjamas. Just his desk lamp and the low hum and light of his TV on whilst he teaches you.
✮ And in the same way that you try, he tries too.
✮ If there’s a restaurant that serves food from your country, maybe you’re feeling homesick, he’ll go there instead of getting his favourite. He’ll order what you say is good because ‘you’d know better than me’, and even if he doesn’t like it? He’s not calling it gross, or gagging, or spitting it out. He’ll still attempt to finish it, but if he can’t? He simply says ‘maybe this just isn’t for me’ and he’ll slide it over to you and order a new dish.
✮ Because let’s face it, Gojo’s probably fronting the bill, even if he doesn’t know.
✮ Listens to you talk about home, the culture there, what school was like for you, the city you’re from, cultural holiday’s. Anything.
✮ And when he starts to learn your language? He begins to understand why learning Japanese was so difficult for you. The word order and morphosyntax? It’s so different.
✮ Verbs are in an odd place, the use of pronouns is completely foreign, and the slang makes no sense. He’s making new sounds that he’s never had to make before. This is what learning Japanese must have been like for you. And it only heightens his respect.
✮ He watches movies from your childhood with you when you’re especially home sick. Subtitles on because either there is no dub, or the dub just doesn’t hit the same for you. He doesn’t mind, he’ll read.
✮ He loves you. That’s it. And that’s why he tries so hard, because you did the same for him.
hi!!! i’ll just explain some terms i’ve used here or provide explanations for certain things i’ve said!! :)
syntax: word order, rules that govern how words are arranged in sentences so that they make sense
morphosyntax: the combination of morphology with syntax. syntax is word order, morphology is how words are constructed. we need both of these to form functional sentences
‘sounds he’s never made before’: when you look at the international phonetic alphabet, there’s a plethora of sounds beyond the basic 26 letters in the alphabet. for example ‘c’ can make an ‘s’ sound but also a ‘kuh’ sound. and the ‘th’ sound isn’t even in the regular alphabet, but it is still a sound used in many (but not all) languages. so, some languages may not use a certain sound very often, or they may not use a certain sound at all. so going from a language that doesn’t use that sound at all, to a language that uses that sound very consistently is insanely difficult because you need to train your tongue to work in sync with your brain (in a way) to make that noise, since you have never needed to make it before.
All children raised religiously are being abused. They're sweet now but in thirty years see who's voting for Trump Jr or who ever the fuck.
ok let's talk about it. for context i've been working with children aged 2-6 in both school and home settings for almost 10 years and have met kids raised in basically every major religion in the world. I was personally raised completely agnostic.
religion is not inherently abuse. religion is a moral framework. All religions have the potential to become high-control groups or perpetuate abuse, and certain religions are more prone to those issues than others. that does not mean that teaching your child about the god you believe in is abusive. the abuse comes when your religion perpetuates a lack of choice, which, as I have already explained, most of the religious children i have worked with are not experiencing. Religion at such a young age is often primarily about stories, which preschool aged children LOVE. The bible functions similarly to, say, a my little pony episode to these children, in the sense that it's a fun story they get to experience which teaches them an age-appropriate moral lesson at the end. (and by and large, these kids are only getting the age-appropriate stories and lessons. I do not know any evangelical children who are being taught about the rapture and i don't condone that kind of fear tactic, but again, that's not what's being discussed here. we're talking about RELIGION, not high-control groups that happen to use god as a mechanism to perpetuate their abuse.)
in that same vein, religion in preschool aged children largely functions as a moral framework, which, in certain situations, can genuinely be very helpful. the christian and muslim children I have worked with especially are very often the ones that are the best at resolving conflict. they understand the concept of "treat others the way you want to be treated" and they're able to articulate it to their peers at an age where their morality is still developing and children often think in very black and white, self-centered ways. With rituals like prayer, church, etc, at such a young age they tend to consider them bonding activities. they have friends at their church or temple. their entire family prays together in the same way an agnostic family may enjoy a family dinner. again, I'm not denying that these rituals have the potential to be used to control or abuse, but they are not INHERENTLY abusive. they're normal. religion is a normal part of life for a VERY large percent of the population. telling your two year old about heaven isn't inherently going to strike the fear of god into their heart. more likely it's going to make them tell their babysitter, very earnestly, that when they go to heaven they're going to bring their legos so that we can all play legos together in heaven.
it is very likely that you, personally, have people in your life who are privately religious and you never even knew, because religion is not inherently a public statement of identity nor is it necessarily conducive to fringe or radical beliefs. it is a part of the human experience. you need to learn to be normal about religion.
