alright. ableism 101 for gravity falls fans. because we can't ignore it a second longer.
"Ableism is discrimination and social prejudice against physically or mentally disabled people. Ableism characterizes people as they are defined by their disabilities and it also classifies disabled people as people who are inferior to non-disabled people."
^ we are including mental illness under the category of disabled for the purposes of this post, as so many of you can't imagine a guy with ptsd being a person
disability is not worse than death. some people may view it that way for themselves, but you have no right to say it about another person, especially if you are abled. so don't even think about it. disabled life has value, period, full stop. stop calling people with serious brain damage vegetables, empty shells, etc. They have value just by being alive and disabled even if a machine breathes for them and they need 24/7 care
^ yes, some family members and people close to a disabled person will think this way, think that they're being compassionate for "not wanting them to live this way", but again, it is not really their place to have an opinion. they can have emotions about the situation but do not place those on the disabled person, who is likely having loads more complicated emotions than they are. the disabled person's life is just as important as theirs for not being diabled.
do some research before writing about a specific symptom or condition. too many fics about ford having seizures that clearly have no idea what happens after a seizure, let alone the first one a person has had (or at least one so bad it was recognized as such by themselves and the people around them). you don't get diagnosed with epilepsy because an ED doctor who doesn't specialize in this kind of thing looked at you after one seizure and said "yeap, probably". you get an eeg and a seizure study and trial run of various medications (that you cannot just go off of without serious consequences) and a whole lot more. this is a single specific example, but generally speaking, take some time out of your day to read up on what people actually experience and how it affects them. you might actually gain some compassion for them that way (/bitter)
polydactyly is a limb difference that, yes, people are discriminated against for, socially and professionally. it's not inherently considered a disability, but it can be one depending on a lot of factors. what i'm saying is, be normal about ford or i'll kill you.
be normal about autistic ppl. stop writing them as all the same person with the same symptoms regardless of what the character actually does in canon
be normal about ppl w (c)ptsd. their flashbacks do not make them "feral", even if they become violent and uncommunicative during them, and they are allowed to have emotions about the things that happened to them without someone else butting in to tell them how to feel.
be normal about ppl w personality disorders too. you can hc ford with npd all you want, that's cool, but for the love of god, think about who your audience is and what they will take away from you attempting to say that ford is a horrible person who *happens* to have npd.
be normal about ppl w psychosis. hi. formerly psychotic person here. we are not insane or crazy or deserve to be locked up for our experiences. we are rarely violent towards other people and are more likely to hurt ourselves, or be hurt by other people who are not psychotic. our symptoms might seem scary to you, but We are not scary.
TAKE. ABUSE. SERIOUSLY. that's the entire bullet point.
take a character's experiences seriously, because all of them have happened to a real life person out there. "haha stan did sex work for drugs isn't that so funny" no, because i know people who did the same, and it was not funny in the slightest. "haha ford was abused by a loser who can't even tie his own shoes" i can't tie my own shoes due to dexterity problems stemming from autism and muscle weakness, and i was also abused by a loser (aka. every abuser out there) so how do you think i feel hearing you say that. enjoy your lol toxic yaoi but maybe consider real survivors before you go around talking about how stupid ford is for (checks notes) being manipulated and gaslit?
i hate bill, but i am also a survivor of medical neglect and psychiatric hospitalization, and i can understand that bill being sent to "haha grippy sock jail" is not funny. it is horrible and it is disgusting to joke about how he's being medically abused as if nobody actually experiences that. yes, he is a horrible person, but not even abusers deserve abuse. nobody does, that's the whole point. nobody is obligated to forgive an abuser, but nobody should be subject to systemic violence that will go ignored because they did bad things so obviously they deserve it.
don't fucking use slurs. didn't think we had to spell that one out for you.
titsay
germansingergirl
gummygunk
dededos
theartofmadeline
jacobvanloon
blakekathryn
