#privelage

[briarpiranian]

Just heard an abled person tell a story about how they started having nausea, went to the doctor, immediately got diagnosed with gallstones, got surgery and were cured. Just. Like. That.

It reminded me why so many abled people can't understand just how insanely difficult it is to get diagnosed and treated for an uncommon illness, and why they struggle to understand the "chronic" part of chronic illness/disability / the "incurable" part of "incurable illness/disability.

You are privileged if you have never had to:

Spend more time on the phone fighting for healthcare than at work.

Educate a doctor about your diagnosis.

Bring medical research to a doctor appointment because you know your doctor is not up-to-date on the latest.

Fight a doctor to test you for a condition (and then turn out to be correct).

Travel to another state or country to obtain care.

Take out a loan or incur debt to obtain care.

Crowdfund your care.

Be literally unable to find a doctor who specializes in your rare disorder.

Help a doctor calm down because they are freaking out about your condition and you know how to deal with it better than they do.

Constantly explain to friends and family that there is no cure for your condition and/or that you still aren't able to do x/y/z.

Politely pretend you haven't tried or looked into the suggestions that uneducated but well-meaning people give you on repeat to "cure" your problem.

Regularly listen to people say that it's your fault you're not better. That you're just lazy, that if you just exercised, you'd be better, or that you're disabled because you aren't righteous enough (if you're part of a religious community).

Get sicker or more disabled because you can't afford your treatment or mobility aids.

Get sicker/more disabled or nearly die on the floor of an ER because multiple doctors fail to take you seriously.

Et cetera. The list. Goes. On. and On. and On. Because it is. Our. Life. It is our. life. Being disabled isn't temporary.

And if you think this sounds too outrageous to be true, it's because your privilege has sheltered you from even noticing disability beyond the sick inspiration porn it provides you. You haven't had to think about what it might be like to be systemically oppressed, but when you get old, you will. Most likely, you'll struggle with your health, and you'll have no idea how to cope with it, because you never paid any attention to us before. I've seen it happen over and over again.

[shouting-epicenities-at-you]

You know what I really don’t need? Posts talking about how people who have privileges that I don’t will never understand or care about the unique problems I face as a marginalized individual. I don’t care if they’re supposed to be about accountability or whatever; Even disregarding the brash generalizations they make about what constitutes privilege and how all people with privilege are, As someone with self-esteem problems it really gets me in a bad way to be told that people in my life don’t care about me and never will, and that any privilege I may have negates my ability to have compassion for people who are not privileged in the exact way that I am.

Like, it’s really irresponsible to go around saying things like that.

[xulsigae]

"Is it true, that there's a cure?" asks the girl who can't touch people without killing them. "We don't need a cure as there's nothing wrong with us." Says the weather goddess who can fly and be intimate with people.

[bigtransmoods]

“Not all of us have passing privilege.” SHUT THE F*CK UP. Please.

Okay, so today a trans man asked me if he passed and I'll be honest, he had his rather large chest completely on display, rather long hair, and overall was dressing quite feminine. If you looked at him, you wouldn't have to guess that he born AFAB. He kept asking people why he didn't pass either, and so it's like I start by saying. "Maybe binding could help, or overall like a more masculine hair cut." But then I get this rant off another trans man who is basically doing the exact same and telling me, "I'm thinking like our opressors," and "Not all of us have the privilage to pass as well as you do, so stop being transphobic." First all... FUCK YOU. I've worked through sweat and tears to get to the body I have today, when I first came out I didn't pass at all and it was hell BUT I PUT EFFORT INTO IT AND NOW I DO. You can't just expect to put no effort into looking male if you seriously want to be gendered correctly by strangers. Everyone has to put effort in. It's not a fucking privilage. I also love how he goes to me, "Well I have a large chest so it's hard to bind so..." Well LET ME TELL YOU SOMETHING BUDDY. I HAVE A FUCKING LARGE CHEST TOO AND I STILL MAKE THE ATTEMPT, STOP TELLING ME THAT I'M PRIVILAGED JUST BECAUSE YOU CAN'T SEE HOW MUCH IM WORKING AT IT. If you don't want to pass, or if you don't want to make the effort JUST SAY. Just say, "Well I'm happy looking this way," rather than going off about how I'm somehow transphobic. IF YOU DON'T WANT PASSING TIPS, DONT ASK ME WHY YOU DONT FUCKING PASS. You asked me for my opinion, I gave it.

[secondblooms]

So true.

[lyricsandsuch]

“And I got two red pills to take the blues away, oh”

The Weeknd; Privilege

[yellaprincess]

[brooklynmuseum]

“I had faced de facto censorship issues throughout my life as part of the system of apartheid in the United States. In the tape I was bristling at the women’s movement as well as at the artworld and some of the usual offensive encounters that were heaped on top of the racism of my profession.”

So wrote Howardena Pindell in 1992 about Free, White and 21. This intensely personal and political film, whose title comes from a rebellious catchphrase often heard in Hollywood movies of the 1930s and ’40s, was a stark departure from the abstract works on paper for which she was primarily known.

The film was first shown in Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibition of Third World Women Artists of the United States, curated by Ana Mendieta at A.I.R. Gallery in 1980. Confronting the largely white viewing audience typical of A.I.R.’s SoHo neighborhood, Free, White and 21 challenges unrecognized biases and unexamined privileges. Pindell’s personal account of the prejudice she experienced exposed white liberals’ complicity in systemic racism and sparked controversy within the gallery and beyond. Pindell’s motivation, however, was not to put viewers on the defensive but to record, on her own terms, her lived experience as a woman of color.

Howardena Pindell (American, born 1930). Top: Installation view ofFree, White and 21, 1980. In Dialectics of Isolation: An Exhibitionof Third World Women Artists of the United States, A.I.R. Gallery(September 2–20, 1980). 12 min.15 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. Bottom: Still from Free, White and 21, 1980. Video, 12 min.15 sec. Courtesy of the artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York. © Howardena Pindell