#limb deformity

[this-is-deformimisia]

Can removing the 6th finger on newborns count as deformimisia?

And the fact that's this surgery is sort of kinda pretty common and never being discussed

This is actually a massive form of deformimisia that I was going to eventually make a more in-depth post about, so I will take the opportunity to do so now!

The removal of extra/duplicated body parts on children is a blatant act of mutilation and violation of physical consent and bodily autonomy.

This happens to people with extra/duplicated limbs (toes, fingers, feet, legs, arms, etc), extra/duplicated craniofacial traits (lips, mouth, nose, eyes, ears, etc), extra/duplicated torsal traits (ribs, spine, etc), and even extra/duplicated organs (though sometimes the removal of these traits are life-saving, if the duplication is incomplete in a manner that disrupts organ function - but its not always medically necessary, and thats the point I'm getting at.)

This also happens to people born with body parts that are not usually seen on the human body (ie; humans born with tails).

Oftentimes, this mutilation is done under the guise of "reducing future ableism" (ie; being bullied for looking different), but in reality, by eradicating differences, you're just reinforcing the ableist beauty standards that would cause this bullying in the first place.

Another "reason" that is often given is that it's "removal of unnecessary body parts", especially when the extra parts are non-functional. But why does something need to be functional to deserve to exist? What if the person in question comes to enjoy their extra parts? What if they wish to decorate it with tattoos and body modifications? What if they just appreciate its presence because it's part of their body, and that makes it special?

This holds a great range of similarities to certain forms of coercive intersex medical interventions/CIMI, particularly the mutilation of accessory breasts/nipples, split/duplicated reproductive organs, split/duplicated genitals, and/or the "unecessary" presence of a sex trait in someone that "doesnt align" with the rest of their traits. This intersection of experiences with medical mutilation are extremely important to address and acknowledge.

[this-is-deformimisia]

when people treat your body as inherently needing a trigger warning and / or call it "body horror".

This is deformimisia and disfiguremisia.

[this-is-deformimisia]

question about this blog: wouldn't it be better to use something like "facial/limb/torso difference" instead of deformity? because deformity or disfigurement have very negative connotations, whereas "difference" is a lot more neutral.

i can't think of a neutral way to say deformimisia while being clear what you're talking about (looksmisia..? maybe? but that sounds more about anything that isn't conventionally attractive, rather than specifically body differences), but in all other cases it would be easy to say "difference" instead

(if there's a reason you aren't, feel free to explain it)

Treating "deformity" and "disfigurement" as bad words is akin to treating "disabled" or "fat" as bad words.

This is like telling people to say "differently abled" instead of disabled. Its needlessly watering down a term that doesn't need watering down. Why should deformed and disfigured people need to adopt a new word for themselves?

"Deformity or disfigurement have very negative connotations" - so does words like autism, psychosis/psychotic, narcissistic, sociopathic, psychopathic, brain damaged, and a great range of other disability terms. Hell, even the word "disabled" is treated with very negative connotations.

These negative connotations are from ableists misusing them, twisting them, demonizing them. Why are we, as disabled people, expected to change our language when people misuse our experiences as insults? Why aren't we instead criticizing and standig up against people who use our words to mean something negative?

So no, I will not be avoiding the terms deformed and disfigured. If you are uncomfortable with people using those terms, you do not need to use them.

[this-is-deformimisia]

This could be entirely in my head but I feel like a lot of fan artists for The Pitt avoid drawing Jack Abbots prosthetic leg.

(If you don’t know in the Pitt one of the characters is a below the knee right leg amputee and I feel like fan artists do anything in their power to avoid drawing his prosthetic)

This is deformimisia/disfiguremisia.

A lot of excuses I have seen from people avoiding drawing prosthetics is "well, i don't know how to draw them!" and I think this reflects a wider issue of art communities not teaching people how to draw disability aids or any disability traits, really.

[this-is-deformimisia]

I both write a lot of characters with all kinds of deformities and visible differences and am part of a source for writing disabled characters where I'm one of the "specialists" on this topic. And it is legitimately impossible to do research for practically anything that isn't plastic surgery. Image references, living with something, how certain things will impact how the character interacts with the world- you cannot find anything beyond plastic surgery to "fix" it. People come to me for help because their research can't find the information and the reason I disover they can't find it is because it doesn't exist on the world wide web, even in my scientific and academic resources. Even things that might be a matter of health, the only info that exists is "we do thus surgery so the person looks more 'normal.'"

Deformisia is that the only information available is often from the plastic surgery perspective

This is deformimisia.

I've noticed this. It's very disheartening. Attempting to research leads to the sobering realization of how ableist the medical field is.

[this-is-deformimisia]

the amount of things we just straight up can’t hold/use because they’re too fucking big for our hypoplastic hands

especially the one time when our art teacher made the class use this giant stapler thing to put canvases together (was that cheaper than buying different sized canvases? maybe wdk) and she kept seeming annoyed when we asked her for help. like sorry we literally can’t use the tool you’re making us use wg 🙄

This is deformimisia.

You (general you, not you anon) cannot expect everyone to be capable of the same tools. Its just not possible. Even something as simple as finger size or lefthandedness can render a tool impossible or difficult to use.

[this-is-deformimisia]

I have femoral retroversion and congenital LLD. I lowkey hate it when my friends walk too fast. Like, I use a cane or a crutch, SLOW DOWN

This is deformimisia. It may potentially be unintentional, but they should attempt to be more mindful and accommodating to your needs.

[this-is-deformimisia]

im not sure if i have a a like disfigurement but my legs are different lengths and my parents like. refuse to adress it

This is deformimisia.

Sounds like a form of significant leg length discrepancy (LLD), which can be congenital (born) or from muscle atrophy. It can result in movement disabilities, such as limps and leg pain.

Its a serious condition and your parents refusing to address it is a massive issue.