This is Ableism: in Fandom Spaces

what it says on the tin. if asks are closed, it means i currently have a lot to queue OR im under immense stress and cant handle asks at the moment.

[thisis-fandomableism]

Ableism in Fandom, huh?

Doesn’t the constant poor representation of disabled characters in fanworks piss you off? Do you have nowhere to talk about it?

Well, now you do.

I’m Mod Levi, it/its pronouns only. I am currently the only mod here.

Radqueers, Radfems and TERFs, and narc abuse believers: This blog is NOT FOR YOU. Mod is a trans man who is suspecting NPD.

List of subjects that MUST have a warning before the content of the ask:

Sexual abuse of any kind

Incest

(If media is included) Flashing/Strobe/Bright colors

Rules:

No syscourse that has NOTHING to do with this most of the time. Of course, asks about poor plurality rep is allowed, however.

Don’t say shit like “But I do that and I’m not ableist!!!!”. You’re more than likely part of the problem.

Do not disregard the fact that disabled people can be ableist too.

Typing quirks must be easy to translate. I will not post asks with overcomplicated ones.

Ableism submissions are tagged “#this is fandom ableism”, unrelated submissions are tagged “#not fandom ableism”.

[thisis-fandomableism]

I was run out of a recent fandom because I have brain damage and I struggle with social cues and reading between the lines. This fandom mean girl turned all my friends against me because she wasn’t clear on her boundaries so she blocked me when i apologized and my friends decided I was evil. This fandom is ableist one person called me concussed because i criticized a character they liked and when I said they hurt my feelings they told me it wasn’t that deep. You know for a fandom with characters who are outcasts they are very ableist to other outcasts

this is ableism in general, honestly.

can we NOT call folks with brain damage concussed for stupid things. sure, i would feel pissed if someone criticized my favorite character, but you do not need to be ableist over it holy hell!?

[thisis-fandomableism]

So there’s this character I love in my favorite (Korean) cartoon. He has robotic prosthetics (I have no idea what they’re called, I am so sorry. Is it bionic prosthetics?), but they’re very realistic so he just looks like an able-bodied person.

Now, it does already feel a little weird to me that the show only ever addresses the fact he has prosthetics when he does some cool action stuff (so the thing is like, his prosthetics are super strong n stuff) but... eh.

But anyways, what I don’t exactly like about this show’s fandom, at least in the part of the fandom that is from my home country, is that... they often refer to him as half-robot/just straight up robot.

Which, I might not have a say in this since I’m personally not disabled, but that genuinely sounds very dehumanizing to me.

So I think this is either subtle, maybe unintentional ableism from the fans that are from the same country as me, or they just lack media literacy and can’t comprehend that he is just human. with prosthetics. and Not a robot.

This is fandom ableism.

I won’t make much of a comment as I am not physically disabled, but I will say: it is VERY fucking dehumanizing to refer to someone with prosthetics as a robot. Full stop.

[thisis-fandomableism]

Major photosensitivity warning!

The flash warning is less than a second and is literally flashing on screen with other text. In the caption there is also a warning, but there is no time to check there before flashing starts.

(I can’t figure out how to add a video so it is a gif.)

this is ableism in general to be honest.

i hate when videos do that dude

[thisis-fandomableism]

extra context for the character headcanoned as blind because of wearing sunglasses in dim spaces: its technically less of a headcanon and more of a thing people are reading into canon, if that makes sense? Like assuming that the character is blind in canon because he wears sunglasses. There is no other indication that he is meant to be blind in the show, sunglasses are his only aid, and there is nothing in the dialogue that might indicate he has any vision issues. As far as I remember his outfit, including sunglasses, is actually supposed to be a reference to the Matrix? Anyway it's a combat heavy show where his ability to fight matters a lot. I've also seen people try to argue that he has an ability in canon that would explain why he's able to fight by detecting where all his enemies are without needing vision, but that seems different than saying he's blind because he wears sunglasses idk

Context [Link]

Yeahh that makes more sense in relation to the previous ask. Definitely counts.

[thisis-fandomableism]

pokemon fandom keeps failing the "be normal about the three most popular autistic coded men from gen 5" challenge and making them into zoroarks

it's especially egregious for N because his character arc is about how his father dehumanizes him by denying his humanity, calling him a freak without a human heart.

This is ableism within fandom spaces.

[thisis-fandomableism]

not sure if this counts but I recently found out its a common interpretation for a character in a show I like to be seen as blind... because he wears sunglasses even in dark areas. He isnt even the only character in the show who does that, he just happens to wear glasses that hide his eyes completely

While I can see it being a simple headcanon, it is certainly offputting based on context. I’m unsure of if it counts myself, but I will say it is odd.

[thisis-fandomableism]

People faking/'acting out' tics for Ticci Toby cosplays holy fucking shit dude

Why did nobody ever think "hey maybe let's not pretend to have tics while cosplaying a character who's bullied for his tourettes"????

And people only ever accused cosplayers who clearly have tics OUTSIDE of the Toby Rogers cosplay of faking

This is ableism within and outside of fandom spaces.

[thisis-fandomableism]

Went looking for plural fics for a game Ii like and a good chunk of them were smut. Kinky smut.I mean like over the majority

Nothing wrong with smut or kinks! But hey, why are you ONLY ever "exploring" plurality in a sexual kinky context? That's really weird actually!!!

this is (likely) ableism in fandom spaces.

this is the case with age regression and intersex characters too!! i am ALL FOR writing kinky smut, don’t get me wrong, but when that’s ALL anybody writes, especially about these topics, that’s just. weird???

(shameless self advertising but i made this osdd brash investigators fanfiction [link] that isnt smut if you wanna read that)

[thisis-fandomableism]

pinterest. every time i see fanart of a character drawn by the artist as disabled, injured, mentally ill, OR EVEN JUST DIFFERENTLY FORMED (think cleft lip) there are SO many comments like "why are they like that" "i want to tip their wheelchair over" <- this one i actually saw btw "i feel bad for them" SHUT UPPPP SHUT UP. ILL KILL YUO

this is ableism in fandom spaces.

[thisis-fandomableism]

hi yes me here again to rant about how the Mixels fandom hates children again!! So in the episode "Every Knights Has Its Day", there's a character named Mixadel. He kinda serves as the antagonist of the episode. I hesitate to say he's a villain because he's in middle school, but he does drive alot of the stories conflict. Mixadel's personality is very much that of a jerk who thinks highly of himself. However, by the end of the episode, he realizes the error of his ways and changes for the better. The Mixel fandom seems to forget the fact Mixadel changed by the end of the episode since, just like Snoof, they treat him like this horrific monster. Guys, this is a middle schooler. Sure, he did alot of bad things, but he changed and fixed his mistakes. "But his arc was rushed and bad!" I will admit it could've been done better, but Mixels is one of those shows that got BADLY screwed over (as in, its second season was cut down to only having 4 specials) so I give the fact Mixadel's redemption was rushed a bit of leeway. Idk if this counts as fandom ableism, but just more of the Mixels fandom clearly having a bias against children. -💚

This is ageism and, potentially, fandom ableism.

[hopethesillyheartwitch]

If I had a nickel for everytime a green character that was a child got hated on by a small section of their fandoms for being "Mary Sues" to the point where it got genuenly concerning, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't alot, but why has it happened twice???

[thisis-fandomableism]

I'm not sure if this is fandom ableism but it's something I've wanted to rant about for a while now. Trigger warning for child abuse, victim blaming, abuse apologia, and ableist language. In the show Mixels, there's a character named Snoof. In the episode he appears in, he's portrayed as selfish, self-centered, and as someone who wants to be seen as special. Already, we have a character that can be seen as NPD coded. Another thing is that Snoof is heavily implied to be a child. One character called him a Bambino, which is italian for young boy. Keep this in mind as it's very important. Snoof, a CHILD, is treated very poorly by the people around him. Mainly, his own brother, Krog. Krog throws him to the ground, calls him "completely deluded" (which....yikes.), and there's even an ENTIRE SCENE where the rest of the cast (all of which minus one (Snax) being adults) CHASE HIM AND ATTEMPT TO CAUSE HIM HARM. So, how does the Mixels fandom react to this? Easy! BY SAYING THE CHILD WAS THE BAD PERSON AND FEELING SYMPATHY FOR HIS ABUSER.

It literally took my friend making a rant on her Wattpad account for people to realize "hey Krog's treatment of Snoof was bad actually". I may have gotten info wrong since I haven't watched Mixels in a long time, but this is my rant. -💚 anon

This is fandom ableism.

YIKES dude.

[m34tcr33p]

"this character is literally hitler"

>look them up >theyre under the age of 15 >have immense trauma >probably had a mental break before their "atrocities"

it wwad immaturity and ableism

[thisis-fandomableism]

Chronically ill character is just used as angst device for their brother. For every fanfic about the loneliness she felt back then there's a zillion angst fics for her brother and how it affected him and while it certainly did like??? They just see her as a plot device because her group isn't popular in the fandom

Also in an what-if au thingy the game did she didn't get hospitalized for *checks notes* Playing Tennis.

(This is about Saki Tenma from project sekai btw)

This is ableism within fandom.

Can anyone actually take disabled characters seriously?? They aren’t a plot/angst device, and it really brings into question how these people feel about real disabled folks.

[thisis-fandomableism]

Fandom Ableism is the constant talk of people or characters in the Saw fandom being “delulu”.