#autism erasure

[tetsunabouquet]

I had a movie marathon with my mom just now, where amongst things, I actually decided to watch Ruby Gillman with her as she never saw it in the cinemas with me. I know I keep talking about that movie, but I think it's such a beautiful Little Mermaid inspired remake so I wanted to hear her opinion so bad. It wasn't her favorite but she actually preferred it over Puss In Boots: The Last Wish. She hated the Dutch voice acting and the soundtrack, but the story and animation itself didn't turn her off at all. She actually liked some jokes and the story of a young girl with autistic undertones and her mother just trying to protect her, is a theme our household definitely understands. My mom isn't perfect, I have made it no secret she's also neurodivergent and it causes quite some family drama, but at the end of the day I am still her number one person in the world. On her good days and when I have bad ones, that scene where Agatha is calming Ruby down could have been taken directly from our household. This is actually one of the few things I haven't praised Ruby Gillman so far about, but this is one of its other beauties. The Little Mermaid novel was written by an autistic author writing about literally struggling amongst humans and being a fish out of water. Ariel SHOULD have been an autistic Disney princess. Perhaps in the late 80s, this was overlooked, but the live action reboot? It has ZERO excuse for its disability erasure. If they had actually cared about updating the story in modern day, they should have written her with autistic undertones and preferably have her played by an autistic actress. My mom, when I voiced my frustration about Disney's autism erasure, not only fully agreed but she started on her own complaints of how disabled kids deserve their own princess. Ever since becoming slightly cripple due to an accident, she started sympathizing a lot with the wheelchair community and she's actually grown more passionate about their representation due to that. But Disney gives zero fucks, took a neurodivergent princess away from us and its not fair. But Dreamworks came along, and gifted us a Little Mermaid remake with Ursula/Ruby now being the autistic princess instead. I cannot thank Dreamworks enough for this.

#ruby gillman #ruby gillman teenage kraken #movie marathon #tetsutalk #ariel #princess ariel #autism #neurodivergency #Autism erasure #disability erasure #dreamworks #disney

[ohara-n-brown]

The way people talk over Black Autistic people is... Mind-Boggling. Truly.

There are so many people in the autistic community that genuinely believe that them and Black Autistic people have the same experience, and that everything Black Autistic people go through they go through as well.

That's NOT TRUE.

Black Autistics face more questioning and doubt than White Autistics do.

Yes, all Autistics face doubt.

But when White Autistics face doubt they're often told 'You aren't autistic' - as in YOU in specific are not Autistic.

Meanwhile when Black Autistics face doubt we're often told 'You CAN'T be autistic'. Not just 'You aren't', but you can't.

As in 'You physically, biologically CANNOT be autistic because you are black'.

Do you see the difference?

I've had multiple people say to me 'I didn't know you can be black and autistic', or 'I didn't know black autistic people existed.'

Our mere existence as an entire GROUP is called into question. Because of our race.

No one will ever say 'I didn't know you can be white and autistic' because Autistic Representation revolves around Whiteness.

-

And yes, 99% of people with autism had communication issues.

But if you're a white autistic person you have never had to decode micoagressive racism through the lens of your autism.

- Especially at risk of your safety or life.

Allistic black people already have to carefully choose our behavior and wording with law enforcement under threat of imprisonment or outright on-the-spot execution.

Now imagine having to navigate conversations with law enforcement while also autistic.

Especially knowing that most of the time when a mentally disabled person is killed by law enforcement - they are usually also black.

Elijah McClain and Ryan Gainer - both autistic AND BLACK. Osaze Osagie - also black.

So even if you say that all autistic people experience this, it's very clear that Black Autistic people face it to a higher, more dangerous degree.

We are not 1:1. We are not the same.

This doesn't even factor in things like having to learn to codeswitch or speak AAVE. Or how predominately black schools have less resources for their autistic students.

Or how many professionals in mental health DON'T diagnose black people because they've never studied the Black Autistic experience, and thus cannot spot it.

Or how many Black people that ARE identified to be neurodivergent are instead labeled with ODD or BPD instead.

There are so many layers and factors to this that cannot be ignored.

The autism community needs to get better at understanding intersectionality. We need to get better at representing Autistics of color for ALL levels.

And y'all need to stop talking over Black Autistics. Our experiences are not the same. And that's okay.

#neurodivergent #actually autistic #autism #audhd #neurodivergency #neurodiversity #actually audhd #actually autism #poc #bipoc #intersectionality #racism #anti blackness #antiblackness #black erasure #poc representation

[lawyeronabike]

Book Talk #2: The Mind of Jay Gatsby

A traditional reading of The Great Gatsby focuses on what the novel teaches us about class, bigotry, and the American Dream. It's an important reading, but one that is already well worn. I'm going to assume you are already familiar with it and/or can research it when you feel like it. But this post is not about that reading.

I want to talk about the characters of The Great Gatsby, not as devices to advance theme or plot, but as whole, fleshed out people who are still compelling a near century after being written. So I ask...

What makes Gatsby tick? Why is he the way he is? He has a perfectly normal problem: he wants this girl. He has an absolutely puzzling solution. Throw massive parties. Let’s investigate.

Some people think it’s just the premise of the book, and must be accepted. Some people take Nick Carraway’s view, that Gatsby’s gift for hope is to be romanticized, admired, and protected. I don’t. I think that Jay Gastsby is neither some tragic hero or a plot premise to remain unquestioned. Upon my most recent reading of The Great Gatsby, I discovered a new headcanon that better explains his behavior than any I’ve heard before.

Jay Gatsby is autistic.

Yes I’m playing armchair psychologist. No I’m not qualified. It’s fine, because this a fictional character. Also, it’s a good conversation starter. I’m not the first to think of this (shoutout to tumblr users @thegreatgatsbyglitters & @confirmedpsycho, and @thegreatsandwich on aO3) but it’s not often discussed. It gets far less discussion than the “Nick is gay” reading (which I also buy). So let’s see if we can remedy this.

So the CDC lists the DSM-5 diagnostic criteria for autism. It seems as good as any place to start.

The three main requirements are as such:

Persistent deficits in social communication and social interaction across multiple contexts, as manifested by the following, currently or by history (examples are illustrative, not exhaustive; see text):

Deficits in social-emotional reciprocity, ranging, for example, from abnormal social approach and failure of normal back-and-forth conversation; to reduced sharing of interests, emotions, or affect; to failure to initiate or respond to social interactions.

Deficits in nonverbal communicative behaviors used for social interaction, ranging, for example, from poorly integrated verbal and nonverbal communication; to abnormalities in eye contact and body language or deficits in understanding and use of gestures; to a total lack of facial expressions and nonverbal communication.

Deficits in developing, maintaining, and understanding relationships, ranging, for example, from difficulties adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts; to difficulties in sharing imaginative play or in making friends; to absence of interest in peers.

And compare them against the evidence in the book

1. If throwing giant parties to attract the attention of your beloved isn’t “abnormal approach,” I don’t know what it. Furthermore, when Gatsby decides to escalate attempts, he decides to ask Jordan Baker to ask Nick if he will have Daisy over for tea so Gatsby can drop in.

Pictured Above: A perfectly straightforward and reasonable way to get a girl's attention

2. This is most prominently seen in chapter six. Tom and his two riding friends, the Sloanes, arrive at Gatsby’s house on horseback unannounced. Gatsby invites them inside, which is declined. Mrs. Sloane then invites Nick and Gatsby to a dinner party.

Gatsby looked at me questioningly. He wanted to go and he didn’t see that Mr Sloane had determined he shouldn’t.‘I’m afraid I won’t be able to,’ I said. ‘Well, you come,’ she urged, concentrating on Gatsby.

Here, Nick is flat out telling us that the invitation was only extended to be polite, and that Gatsby didn’t realize this. He heard the words, and failed to notice all the other social cues that were saying he shouldn’t accept. He accepts the invitation.

3. Difficulties in adjusting behavior to suit various social contexts. Gatsby has a hard time interacting in a friendly, social setting, and treats a lot of his encounters like business deals. Here’s a clear example.

Nick has just agreed to host Daisy for dinner, just as Gatsby requested. Gatsby then proceeds to offer Nick the chance to make some money. Gatsby sees this as repaying the debt he owes to Nick, and has a hard time comprehending that Nick is doing a favor for a friend.

‘Well, this would interest you. It wouldn’t take up much of your time and you might pick up a nice bit of money. It happens to be a rather confidential sort of thing.’

I realize now that under different circumstances that conversation might have been one of the crises of my life. But, because the offer was obviously and tactlessly for a service to be rendered, I had no choice except to cut him off there.

A diagnoses also requires two of the following four:

1. Stereotyped or repetitive motor movements, use of objects, or speech (e.g., simple motor stereotypes, lining up toys or flipping objects, echolalia, idiosyncratic phrases).

2. Insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior (e.g., extreme distress at small changes, difficulties with transitions, rigid thinking patterns, greeting rituals, need to take same route or eat same food every day).

3. Highly restricted, fixated interests that are abnormal in intensity or focus (e.g., strong attachment to or preoccupation with unusual objects, excessively circumscribed or perseverative interests).

4. Hyper- or hyporeactivity to sensory input or unusual interest in sensory aspects of the environment (e.g. apparent indifference to pain/temperature, adverse response to specific sounds or textures, excessive smelling or touching of objects, visual fascination with lights or movement).

Gatsby fits all four.

The strongest evidence I saw for this is that Gatsby says “Old Sport” a lot.

2. We find evidence for this right at the end of the book. Gatsby’s dad shows a schedule Jay made for himself as a teenager. It plots out his time from 6AM to 9PM.

3. This should prove to be the most controversial subclaim in this post. Some people with autism fixate on trains. Some fixate on dinosaurs. Many autistic people have a singular, overriding interest. I argue that Gatsby’s autistic fixation is Daisy, or rather, the idea of her.

4. Hypersensitivity to sounds. Gatsby spends a remarkably little amount of time at his own parties. He usually is happy to leave the raucous festivities to others. He just hosts. One way to interpret this is an aversion to loud noises, often common for people on the autism spectrum.

One other thing, Gatsby is a bad liar. Holes in in backstory emerge throughout the book as he tells it to Tom or Nick. Furthermore, he can’t even convincingly tell Nick that he was the one driving the car that killed Myrtle. Nick figures out pretty quickly that it was Daisy. This supports a reading of autistic Jay Gatsby because many autistic people don’t realize all the nonverbal signs that give away liars, so they can’t fix them in their own performance when they try to lie.

Why does it matter?

First off, representation matters, but it also affects the themes of the story. His pining over Daisy becomes much less romanticized and much more pitiable. In chapter one, Nick describes Gatsby -

It was an extraordinary gift for hope, a romantic readiness such as I have never found in any other person and which it is not likely I shall ever find again.

More objectively, it could be described as the curse of hope, haunted by a nostalgia for things that never were, and a future that can never be. It is a ceaseless need for the unattainable, a self inflicted torture that can end only varying degrees of sorrow. In this way, The Great Gatsby becomes not just a story of themes and ideas, but of realistic people.

It explains why Gatsby refuses to accept that the past cannot be repeated, that Daisy has a new life and is oblivious to the fact that Nick is in love with him (like I said earlier, this interpretation makes a lot of sense to me).

The first time I read this book, it was a story about the American Dream, about prejudice, and about love. It still is all that, but now, I also see a story about flawed human beings, and about how we all, for better or worse, run amok, changing the course of each other's lives. Seeing all this on a subsequent reading encourages me to read more carefully in the future, to distrust narrators (don't implicitly accept their point of view), and be more quick to notice what kind of people are involved in the story. There are queer and neurodivergent characters in places you might not expect, including the foremost novel of the jazz age.

And if you still don’t believe this theory, I encourage you to mindfully read the book again. It’s not long. You will probably even find evidence I overlooked. Besides, you’re probably overdue to reread it anyway.

#the great gatsby #nick carraway #jay gatsby #autsitic #autism #neurodiversity #neurodivergent #literature #erasure #representation matters #media representation #classic literature

[dreamlanddeluxe]

I remember when I was still into bfb people babyfied x so much. I don’t know if it’s still a thing that happens I’m not diving into the tags to find out however It’s important to remember he is a weirdo like 4 just a different brand of weirdo. Integral information

#4 and x got watered down to liek. ‘’feral angy baby and soft cinnamon roll’’ so much it made liking 4x SUCK #enough with the erasure of personality traits. they just have autism

[scarletanpan]

I'm glad autism has become more normalized but I'm starting to get a little peeved by nt ppl using autism as like. A verb. Like calling someone's behavior autistic bc they did something and idk they were very thorough and precise abt it. Like they called it 'autistic power' like alright you're using it as compliment ig but you do know its still a disability, right? Like its a thing ppl are, not an action or state. I'd rather not be relegated to the expectation of very specific types of behavior, bc as ppl still struggle to understand, autism is a spectrum that manifests in a variety of ways

#text #sorry for all the text posts ill shut up soon #its just been really getting at me. esp when they assign it to literal animals or inanimate objects like What the fuck are u yapping abt #tbf i do think animals can also have developmental disabilities that are similar to autism but. thats not what im talking abt #it also completely misunderstands autism which. ppl barely even know what it is now #the normalization of it has led to the erasure of genuinely disabling symptoms and its annoying to see ppl keke abt it

[fuchsadler]

Erasure of Existence

I'm fucking tired of this shit. But I'm also so fucking used to it, and I hate it. Like, I feel like I'm so fucking alone in my experiences. And they're constantly erased. And there used to be a time where I just sarcastically thought "well, then I'm nonexistent" but I am so fucking tired of it. And I constantly feel like I'm way too disabled for abled society and simultaniously not disabled enough for disabled society. Yeah, sure, I know I'm disabled, multiply disabled even but who the fuck cares about an Autist with FASD, KMS and disabled eyes, that are just weird but can kinda live a life.

#personal #actually autistic #autism #disability #actually fasd #fasd #erasure #kms #disabled #invisible disability #disabilties #physically disabled #physical disability #neurodivergence #actually neurodivergent

[falsebooles123]

Finding the First Gay Kiss - Diary of a Big Ole Gay 12.25.22

Hey Whores Merry Christmas. Do you ever have a social interaction where you feel like you came off rude but that the other person was still kinda in the wrong. I just don't like people making personnal comments that don't need to be made.

(are gifsets you always make me feel better)

anyway I have 6 more days to watch gay movies before the new year and then I have to figure out how I want to meter this shit out.

I'm firmly withing the 1930s luckily so I can enjoy the benifits and lack of focus that sound film presents so thats nice and I'm also about halfway through the project after spending every waking moment for a month and a half watching old silent films.

I still hate my job and I will be doing my absolute mostest to get out of that fucking sandtrap as soon as I can but before I do that sluts and hobags lets talk about the movies I watched.

Viktor und Viktoria (1933) dir. Reinhold Schünzel

so once again I am posting a gif of a newer remake of the film because you whores can't appreciate fine cinema.

So Victor and Victoria for those not in the know is a film about a women who pretends to be a man who is in fact a female impersanator. sheninigans, (that trope were a woman wants to get dick but she can't cause shes in boymode, (fuck um gay hamlet, Sylvia Scarlet, even the clinging vine in like a really weird way), ensue.

the original is actually pretty fun. Its in german and its a musical so its a little hard to get into the music.

(the lure is actually a really great example of a foreign film which songs still work but thats more because the music is translated more poetically and because the visual language of the musical has evolved. )

The Film shows a lot of feelings torwards the female impersanators that are less nuanced in the general culteral miasma of the earlier decades. Viktor OG is ashamed to admit that he is a female impersanator in a way that implies homophobia. Conflict arises when Policeman come into arrest Victoria for cross-dressing. Not for being a man pretending to be a women on stage, but a woman pretending to a man off of it. Mirroring the way that while the Feminine togs of vaudvilled were reveled and applauded, Those transvestic freaks on the street were not.

overall this is a really fun comedy that helops brind some clarity to the tropes that were seeing in this period and I also love *checks notes* Renate Muller crying like a little bitch after seeing her boy crush deliver a dozen roses to his fiance. Good shit.

Un Chant D'amour (1950) dir. Jean Genet

so this is the only film by director Jean Genet and it is very gay. We start off with these more artsy shots of trying to catch a bouquet of flowers and blowing smoke into peoples mouths and end with what can only discribe as unstimulated masturbation and gun worship. Its a very gay and a curious mixture of lets say 2000s Joe Gage and Robert Yang's Tearoom.

(so the game features you handling peoples "guns" in a bathroom but you get the idea its a lot of male cruising and phallic imagedry.)

this does feature THE FIRST GAY KISS, so far but it is like a few other artistic films like Scorpio Rising that were very underground and also sued for obscenity. So fun times. This film is also bordoring on pornographic. its artsy but once again unstimulated sexual acts in a sexualized manner.

Blonde Venus (1932) dir Josef von Sternberg

so this is a curious but I really don't know how this ended up on the list. Marlene Dietrich is bisexual and there are some vaguly queer aspects, (a lesbian coded character, dietrich apparently flirts with a women while wearing a suit in a blink and you miss it moment), but these are very slim and not entirely noticible.

the actually film itself mirrors things like Manslaughter! and Pandora's Box where you have this powerful sexpot of a women who falls on hard times because of IDK the inherant degenarcy of being a sexual liberated woman. This one has some similar elements to Morocco but to a lesser extant and while I definetly liked this movie because theres this type of golden age glamor and atmosphere that just is so intoxicating. It is simply put not that gay.

One of the things that I have to contend with is that some of the resources I have arn't always accurate or through some miscalculation I simply added a film that was listed for weird reasons. For instance we have Judith of Bethulia which is on this list because oh a pet theory by an academic which is honestly not that strong, Twelth Night by Sandor Sara is on the list because of the name. Turns out the hungarian experimental short film while being super cool and aestetic some absolute kino, it doesn't have anything to do with the play its just the random play that occurs within the film but is never actually shown. The actually film is like a meditation on ruralism and the tedium that comes with it or something.

Slyvia Scarlett (1935) dir George Cukor

Fun Fact: One of my Coworkers told me and I quote "Katherine Hepburn is not a lesbian, she had high functioning aspugers"

which is a lot to unpack. First aspergers tends to imply being high functioning. Second, the notion of high/low functioning, as far as I understand, isn't loved by the autism community. Like it has a lot of abliest notions of assigning moral worth to the ability to create profit which is honestly just a prevelant aspect of capitalism torwards various different handycaps and disabilities.

also this is really fucking important having autism or any type of nuerodiversity has absolutely fuck-all with being gay.

Sure I don't have a smoking gun of Kathering Hepburn eating out some scarlet starlet but I'm also not calling Hepburn a Lesbian because shes wearing pants, I'm understanding her as queer coded because she was a woman who was gender-expansive, who did queer shit in her movies, and also theres a lot of memoirs that explicite confirm that information. Sure I can pretend that this was all a smeer campaign by some hollywood exec or I could take the fact that hollywood was kinda gay and she constantly collabed with the likes of dorothy arzner, George Cukor, and Cary Grant who which by the way whores was most likely pretty bisexual.

(this is what pops up when I type in Randolph Scott x Cary Grant)

But lets get into the actually movie. so this starts off with a classic Cross Dressing plot. Katherne Hepburn like oh let me just go full boymode and she sticks to it for a extremly long time. The only time that she stops is when she's literally trying to fuck a man. A man btw who absolutely was planning on fucking her in boymode. This entire movie is literally just a bunch of queers being like, "OMG we couldn't kiss that would be gay" and then winking at the haes code.

(I was trying to find that snl skit where ben alleck plays an ex-gay at a conversion therapy camp and hes doing this thing were his ex-gay boyfriend is trying to kiss him and instead of telling him to stop hes literally just opening his mouth so that there lips don't touch and its honestly kinda an amazing setup. fuck I'm going to have to make a gifset so that It exists.)

What I'm getting at is that not even Cate Blanchett could make a movie this gay and not like pussy just a little.

As You Like It (1936) dir. Paul Czinner

so this got added because I tried to add all of the cross dressing shakespear plays to my list at some point before I decided I had enough and needed to start getting to the watching phrase of this, (that moment was in my memory last week or something), This film is kinda gay but like I said in my review on LB its cause the play is kinda gay.

Rosalind has a female simp in the form of her cousin, whose like constnatly being snooty over the fact she has a boycrush and there is literally a whole scenaria where her boycrush comes up to her in boymode and is like how do I get over her.

and shes like "yeah what if I this twink just pretended to be your girlfriend bro" and hes like hell yeah.

This is "straight guy uses my ass as a a fleshlight" gay this is I'm not gay dude I'm just horny and my girlfriend won't put out gay. What I'm saying is that Laurence Olivier is a DL Cruiser who doesn't want to admit that he kinda likes dudes. which is fine come out when your ready orlando but this shit is gay and also you know who else was probably bisexual WIlliam fucking Shakespear of Avon. the bard of avon more like the bottom of avon am I right ladies.

Ok on to the last thing.

The Magyk Lantern Cycle Dir. Kenneth Anger

I've been trying to watch through all of Kenneth Angers films in order. which is differcult since many of his juvanalia is hidden or unaccesable from me. but I have managed to see so far, Fireworks, Eux D'artifice, Puce Moment, Scorpio Rising, and Inaugeration of the Pleasure Dome the Last two being actually on my list. His films are kinda hard to parse, there intense, mentally, visually, thematically but at the same time watching something like Anger or Deyen or Brakhage or some shit are honestly just super cool and make me feel like a bad bitch. While i'm on this subject shoutout to Le Cinima Club which has a lot of cool stuff like this.

I will update you more next week with gay shit. Once we get to the actually new year I will have to reassess how hard I want to go with this project.

UP NEXT: A LIST OF MOVIES I CANNOT FIND.

#queer cinema #firstgaykiss #viktor und viktoria #blonde venus #Slyvia Scarlet #As You Like It 1936 #homophobia #autism #queer Erasure #transphobia #diary

[zeroar]

(Posting from mobile so not sure if this will be formatted as I wish...)

Three things to add to this video. Biphobia/bi-erasure, an answer to the question asked, and ableism.

One: "non-practicing bisexual" is probably supposed to mean a bisexual person who appears to be in a heterosexual relationship. But the words make it sound like the times in-between orgies (you need at least two other people of different genders to be a "practicing bisexual", right?). Regardless, bisexual people are bisexual. Calling them non-practicing is absurd especially when they are literally in a relationship with someone. If they were overly chaste or something, maybe it would make sense for that. When we are in a relationship with people who appear to be the same gender, we're called gay and when we are in a relationship with people who appear to be a different gender we are called straight, but both are "practicing" our sexuality.

Two, and it's a two-part answer: autigender is the idea that the gender of an autistic person is colored by being autistic. It can mean different things for different people but generally we present our gender as we see ourselves or we don't particularly feel attached to our gender as an aspect of ourselves. This is strongly related to why we are more likely to be queer and trans than other neurotypes. This means that being with a cis, male, autistic person can be drastically different from being with a cis, male, allistic person (and similarly for cis, female persons). At the very least, autistic men should be less likely to suffer from machismo and overtly posture like allistic men do. (On the other hand, we are more likely to be narcissists so even if autistic persons aren't as likely to be overtly posturing about how big or tight their genitals are and all that entails, we may still be vainglorious in other ways).

The second part of the answer as to why the meme seems relatable is recalling again that we are more likely to be queer than allistic persons. Further, cis, female autistic persons are more likely to be undiagnosed. So it's very likely for a bisexual person to fall for an autistic person of a different gender because it's more likely that bisexual persons are autistic and we get along better with the same neurotype. (Scientifically, the defining characteristic of autism is traditionally our social difficulties, but these are not only less of a problem when people of the same neurotype are interacting, autistic people have less miscommunication between ourselves than allistic folks do between themselves).

Third: there are a couple subversive ableist things mentioned in the video. I imagine they are not deliberate which is one reason why I am talking about them, to inform others to be on the lookout and try to be better.

"touch of the 'tism" is extremely ableist in maybe not so obvious ways. In the video, it seems to be a way to say "autism, but not the bad kind". In other words, it's the latest iteration of "Asperger's" or "high-functioning" or whatever other nightmare we've come up with to say the same thing.

You cannot separate autism from the autistic person. We're more likely to be introspective and think deeply, more likely to be repeatedly reminded of the every day lies and betrayals allistic folk not only don't mind but don't even notice. We're more likely to have extra sensory needs and a host of concomitant conditions.

The desire for an autistic person without extra needs is understandable in that if you can find a partner (no matter their neurotype) without extra needs then... they... need less.

Didn't intend that to be a tautology, but I wanted to explicitly state that on its face, it makes sense. That is, everything else being equal, your partner having more desirable qualities and less undesirable qualities makes sense? However, being able to pick and choose partners like they're models of a phone seems pretty removed from reality to me and is one of those thought experiments that doesn't survive reality, but the commodification of love is not one I've ever particularly understood. People listing down qualities like "they have to be brunette with big boobs and a thick dick" makes me question how other folks ever enter into any meaningful relationship or if other people even experience love as it is written about in stories and how I perceive myself experiencing it.

But this is reality, and when it comes down to listing out what you look for in a partner, "being autistic but having no drawbacks from being autistic" is not just unsettling, it's fetishization. (The things I described above are fetishization as well by the way—or is fetishism the more appropriate word?— it's not limited to things like race and neurotype)

I've forgotten the exact words of the video, but "men with just a touch of the 'tism are so nice!" sounds a lot like, "Autistic people are so good at math" and "bisexual people are so sexual" and all these other "positive" 'isms.

I'm an autistic person who is considered good at math, but loads of us are rubbish at it. Conversely, I'm a bisexual person but I am also on the asexual spectrum so if you're unicorn hunting I'm probably not what you're looking for.

The classic quote in the Autism community goes something like, "high-functioning means your needs get ignored, low-functioning means your abilities do."

I'm not saying you cannot prefer autistic people over allistic people. We tend to have a lot of positive qualities. But talking about us like our autism makes us more attractive while casually excluding any autistic person who would be too undesirable by somehow ranking how much autism we have is weird and pretty similar to what that nazi Asperger did, sending the undesirable autistics to be killed in gas chambers while saying the desirable ones have qualities that can benefit the nation.

To be clear what I'm saying, autistic people who appear to be only "slightly autistic" (whatever that means) can usually maintain a public front or façade and, if they're diagnosed and actively working on masking, might have a lot of accommodations and practices that helps them maintain that façade for their own safety. The closer you become to an autistic person, the safer they might feel around you to the point they relax some of those guards and appear more obviously autistic. That's a good thing! It takes so much energy to mask that it regularly drives persons from marginalized groups into burnout.

Closing notes...

Just a reminder: the video person is symptomatic of our society and is probably not aware how deeply unsettling fetishizing autism is. Additionally, autistic people are more likely to be queer than allistic people, so there's a reasonable chance the person is autistic themselves, especially if they find themselves more attracted to autistic persons than allistic persons. Please don't attack the person for their unknowing ableism. TikTok doesn't have the character limit to help me talk to them and the video seems to be pretty large in views so it seems extremely unlikely positive change could come by addressing them directly from a random internet person.

I obviously can't control how you react to another person and I'm not asking you to be inauthentic. I am only asking that you consider intent and harm caused. I'm using the video as a presentation slide to talk about a societal problem, not as an effigy or piñata, and definitely not as a scapegoat. If you found that video via my post, then please don't attack another person in retaliation because of it.

Also, I know some autistic people defend "touch of the 'tism" and use it themselves. You can probably guess, yes, I consider this internalized ableism along the same lines as Aspie-supremacy and clinging to being "high-functioning". Being autistic is not inherently a bad thing. The issue more often than not is how society views and interacts with us.

#actually autistic #bisexual #ableism #fetishization #biphopia #bi-erasure #neurodivergent #autigender #autism #functioning labels #touch of the tism

[drchucktingle]

who is sweet barbara????

chucks wife

wildest thing about sweet barbara is that i have talked about her ON AND ON AND ON since my first online post all the way up until this very day (nearly a decade) but nobody seems to notice her because i am queer (she even appears in tinglers and is on the cover of EXPEDITION TO THE FROZEN LAKE)

it is almost as though when you are bisexual your hetero presenting partners become a ghost

in the early days all i would hear online when i would talk about her is: 'chuck is playing a character of a CONFUSED GAY MAN' instead of the VERY OBVIOUS OTHER CONCLUSION that bisexuals exist. imagine that

to be clear that is not at all what this kind asker is doing. this ask is wonderful thank you for your question YOU PROVE LOVE

JUST SAYING i have always found the larger reaction to sweet barbara very interesting and an amazing little social experiment in bisexual erasure

also reason i do not wear a ring is because 1 this tradition kind of makes me feel weird it is okay that others like it but there is a feeling about it that is personally not for me and 2 in a very LITERAL way i cannot wear any jewelry because of my autism i just cannot wear rings without getting riled up and having a dang breakdown

#love is real #bisexual erasure #sweet barbara #tingleverse #buckaroo lifestyle

[patricia-taxxon]

not to "i knew all along" the situation, because obviously I was none the wiser, but my only experience with james somerton's work was watching that thing he did about luca and finding his analysis really annoying. like, saying that luca is exclusively a gay movie & any attempts to read it differently are tantamount to gay erasure, including comments from the director. i watched luca, at the time it was my favorite pixar movie since wall-e (until turning red dropped of course) and it's really just too broad and simple to justify what he said. It really felt like a white cis gay man overfitting the 1 axis of oppression he'd ever experienced onto a story that just says more than he gives it credit for. Luca doesn't enforce a romantic reading on the two leads, and being a little monster who's bad at pretending to be human speaks to more than just queerness.

I really wanted to avoid doing this in my furry ethics video, cus I read autism into like 20 different media properties that either intended no such subtext or clearly spoke to other identities' experiences of alienation from the human species, i.e maus or pom poko. i wanted to present my readings as mainly stepping stones of personal discovery AND to eventually imply that being both human and inhuman is far bigger than just autism, in the bit where I circled back to Maus.

so i guess i can thank mr. somerton for that

#cilantromixture #mini essay

[thunderstomm]

I was originally not going to make a post about this, but after seeing a few other posts about it, I wanted to make my own. I have a LOT to talk about.

TW: Transphobia, Homophobia, Ableism

If you don’t know what I’m taking about- there was a post made by a user, who’s name I will not disclose or share, who discussed how they would rewrite the new Monster High G3 Cartoon. While some of the points were mundane, or points of preference, others made me very uncomfortable, as they got rid of much of the diversity that G3 has brought into the Monster High Universe. I want to quickly go through three of the points that I felt were erasing these steps in diversity, and my thoughts on each one, and why I think that it’s iffy, to say the least.

First is the statement “all of the couples from G1 will stay together”. While this may read to some as a preference for the old couples, in the context of rewriting G3- it comes across as the erasure of both couples involving a neurodivergent character being the subject of a crush, and being seen as desirable and loved (Manny x Twyla), and what probably was the intended couples they wanted to seperate, the canonically queer ships. In particular, this is most likely against Clankie (and POSSIBLY an s2 ship which I won’t say by name because some people want to go in blind. Instead I will refer to it as 🧡💚.). In this rewrite context, wanting to take away queer relationships which many writers and designers for Monster High have fought for in many shapes and forms. G1 never had explicit queer characters, the closest things being a scrapped SDCC diary entry (Valentine x Spelldon), Post-Ending 3rd party statements (Clawdeen is a Lesbian, Rebecca x Venus, etc.) and implied characters (Kiyomi). While these are okay, they are NOT the same as explicit queer couples, which are arguably more important to push forward in the talk and scope of present and future representation.

While it is okay to prefer the G1 ships, in the context of bringing them back for G3, it erases these queer couples, and ignores the lore and universe of G3. In G3, Cleo and Deuce are exes. And if you don’t like that, you can still watch G1!! It’s not magically disappeared, the movies and shows and music is all still out there, and most of it is free! But, erasing Clankie, 🧡💚, and other potential queer ships in G3, for the preservation of a m/f ship isn’t okay.

On the subject of erasure, there is the statement “Frankie is still non-binary, but now uses she/they pronouns”. A character canonically using they/them in cartoons, especially ones made for kids, are uncommon. Honestly, I don’t even know if I could name 10, and that says more about the state of non-binary representation than it does about me. While changing the pronouns of a cisgender character to gender neutral ones is often done in fandom, and often not a point of issue, taking a character who is canonically non-binary and solely uses they/them and giving them typically gendered pronouns erases that under represented group, and allows for transphobes to ignore the “they” in “she/they”, and only use “she” for the character. This is an issue in real life too, for many who use multiple sets of pronouns, including myself (they (preferred) / he) ! We deserve both of their sets of pronouns to be used, and people who only use they/them deserve to be referred to by and as they/them. These changes hurt everyone.

Then, we come to the one I see the most talk about, and the one that made me audibly yell “what the f-?!”- taking away Twyla’s canon autism diagnosis, and symptoms & traits, and replacing it with autism coding, so that she is easier to identify with. First of all- easier for who??? Neurotypicals ?? It is incredibly rare to see a character on kids TV outright say “I am autistic”, and Twyla is wonderful as representation. Twyla will not resonate or be relatable to every person- but that is true for all characters, not just autistic ones. Autistic people are not a monolith, it is a spectrum, with many different ways to present itself. Also… taking away all of her traits and symptoms to make her more relatable? These traits and symptoms are what would have made her “autistic coded”, and without them, you have a character who is NT.

Autism isn’t a quirky word you can use to describe anyone, it is a disability, that myself and many others have, and see misrepresented time and time again. And to say that a good example of it is not good, and would be better off to be erased and replaced with coding is insane. Coding is okay, but that’s all it is. Real spoken representation matters so much to me, and so many other people, even if the characters we see are not identical to us in those symptoms and traits they exhibit. These characters should not be changed, but rather, more autistic characters, with different presenting symptoms and traits, should be introduced !

You can like G1, you can prefer G1, but that does not mean that you have to make a sanitised version of G3, that makes it identical to G1. In terms of representation, there is no arguing that G3 has G1 beat. The poster said on their post that “any new characters would be made more relatable”, but… to who? Because I relate to a lot of the G3 characters more than the G1 ones, and I grew up loving G1! It’s not been wiped, all of the media still exists for you to watch, and make headcanons for ! If you like G1- good for you! But please, stop trying to make G3 exactly like it. Because change is inevitable in these kinds of reboots, and it allows for the representation some want to take away.

Thank-You for those who read all the way!

#thunderstomm #monster high #monster high g3 #monster high g1 #okay to reblog #please reblog ! #Tomm talks #is this controversial?? I don’t think so but. maybe.? #Frankie stein #Twyla boogeyman #draculaura #clawdeen wolf #lagoona blue #Cleo de Nile #manny fair #kiyomi haunterly #Kieran valentine #spelldon cauldronello #deuce gorgon #(:

[cripplecharacters]

Tag Directory

[large text: Tag Directory]

This list is not exhaustive, but covers the most common tags we use!

Last updated: 02/05/2024.

Disabilities:

#Albinism representation #Autism representation #ADHD representation #Blindness #Brain Damage representation #Burn Survivor representation #Cerebral Palsy representation #CDD representation [Complex Dissociative Disorder] (includes DID, OSDD, etc.) #chronic illness representation #chronic pain representation #Deaf character (includes Hard of Hearing) #DeafBlindness #Dwarfism #Epilepsy representation #face difference (includes facial scars, burns, etc.) #GAD representation [Generalized Anxiety Disorder] #Intellectual Disability representation #Learning Disability representation (dyslexia, dyscalculia, etc.) #Limb Differences (includes amputations) #mobility disabilities #mysterious disability #mute representation #Nonverbal representation #OCD representation #personality disorders #POTS representation [Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome] #PTSD representation #Selective Mutism representation #speech disability representation #spinal deformities (includes scoliosis, kyphosis, lordosis) #SCI representation [Spinal Cord Injury] #Schizophrenia representation #Tourette's Syndrome representation

Aids:

#AAC users [Augmentative and Alternative Communication] #ambulatory wheelchair use #assistive technology (includes Braille) #canes #crutches #guide animals (includes both dogs and miniature horses) #feeding tubes #hearing aids #knee scooters #mobility aids #prosthetics #eye prosthetics #rollators #service animals #walkers #wheelchairs #white canes

Frequent Topics:

#combat and disability #fantasy setting (includes SCI-FI etc.) #fantasy disabilities #fantasy ableism #fantasy species #fantasy tropes #historical fiction #magic aids #parasports in media #sign language representation

Tropes:

#cure trope #faking disability trope #fetishization of disability #disability as punishment #disability erasure #disability negating superpowers #mask trope #tropes

Other:

#acquired disability #accessibility (for making things accessible to readers) #art reference #carers in media #disabled character ideas #recommendations (various media about disability, mostly not writing related) #sensitivity reader #terminology #writing descriptions #more information needed (for when we need some additional info before answering - if you've sent an ask, you can check if it's in there)

#mod sasza #navigation #long post

[xxlovelynovaxx]

Screenshot:

Cool, cool, I guess I'm using you, as an intersex transneufemmasc gender nonconforming person who experiences transmisogyny, because you're such a pick me that OTHER TRANSMASCS EXPERIENCING TRANSMISOGYNY IS ABOUT YOU. I guess every single gnc AND gender conforming non-passing transmasc talking about having experienced transmisogyny is actually just fucking tokenizing you personally.

Oh, and "I'm so transmisogyny exempt that I was transmisogynistically attacked but it was misdirected and didn't hurt me (I can't admit it hurt me. I'll be attacked by my own community if I admit it hurt me. I'm not allowed to have feelings about this or I'm one of the bad ones. Being a man and expressing being upset at marginalization is (trans) misogynistic) like??? Hello???

You're so terrified of being wounded that you're taking knives already in you and twisting them around and around and around!

Like at best, you personally managed to shrug it off because of having a good support system (extremely uncommon for all trans people but especially groups struggling with erasure), having other identity privilege (in which case congrats on ignoring the lived realities of more marginalized transmascs than you), or whatever.

At worst, you're actively suppressing trauma or similar which is not healthy and in fact often leads to harmful and toxic behavior like???

I want to feel for this person, because I truly understand where the urge to do this comes from. You get told over and over and over that you are a nonmarginalized ally in your own community and you don't want to hurt the people you care about so you shove down all the pain so far that it cuts off the nerve and you become numb to it and you present yourself as a good little sacrificial lamb privileged man who knows his place and grovel for scraps from a tiny vocal minority of a community who are petty bullies who never grew out of their pick-me and mean-gender phases.

(Note, I'm only specifically targeting patterns of behavior with that statement, which is gender-neutral on purpose. Trans people of all genders are guilty of this shit.)

And listen, I know I'm an outlier as an intersex person, as someone who is both transfem and transmasc, as someone who is ambiguous in every sense of the word. But just fucking. LISTEN to people. People are the most reliable narrators on their own experiences with marginalization! Transfems are not the authority on what non-transfems experience, just as transmascs are not the authority on what non+transmascs experience!

CRIPES, it's almost as if marginalized people don't hold the sole knowledge and authority even of bigotry that primarily targets them! It's almost as if bigotry isn't neat and clean and is in fact based in, idk, NOT respecting people's actual identities?! It's almost as if the person bleeding at the end of the day is the target and victim of any kind of bigotry?!

Fuck, man. I'm tired of this shit. The disabled community in general does it. The neurodivergent community does it. The autism community does it. The ADHD community does it. The personality disorder community does it. The mobility disability community does it. The chronic illness community does it. The cognitive/intellectual disability community does it. The plural community does it. The traumagenic community does it. The endogenic community does it. The dissociative disorder community does it. The general queer community and general trans community does it. The transfem community does it. The transmasc community does it. The nonbinary community does it. The ace community does it. The aro community does it. The lesbian community does it. The gay community does it. On and on and on and on and ON.

Your identity makes you an authority on your own lived experiences. Your time in a community, if you listen and learn, can often make you at least a reasonably reliable authority on broader experiences within that community - though only if the community itself is diverse in terms of other identities, and you are aware of the privileges and marginalizations you hold and how they are intersectional, and make an effort to make space for people who are comparatively marginalized to you.

And as this post demonstrates, there's a reason for that paragraph of caveats. You will always have more authority to say "this marginalized identity DOES struggle with this" than "this marginalized identity DOESN'T struggle with this". Because the thing, is, the former is saying "at least some of us face this". The latter is saying "none of us do, and if anyone says they do they're either lying or their experiences don't count and are not worth mentioning". If you say "none of us face this (or if any of us do it doesn't matter)", you're probably not fucking listening.

Having a marginalized identity also doesn't make you a reliable authority on what other identities do or don't experience, are or aren't harmed by, what they can and can't reclaim, the levels of violence and hate they face, the struggles that directly result from their identity (so, not just ones that come from external bigotry), and so on.

I dunno. I face danger from both transmisogyny and transandromisia daily. I have actual physical traits that are demonized or otherwise used to abuse me in common with both trans men and trans women. Most of these occurred without hormonal or surgical treatment; those that were made more prominent or occurred due to gender affirming care also straddle that line. I live in a barely red-violet area in an increasingly fascist state. I'm profoundly disabled and am unable to move, for more reasons than just money alone at this point. I'm sick and getting sicker because of abusive and ableist doctors. I have no energy left to fight. I may never be able to receive treatment for my most severe disabilities because my specific manifestation of the combination of MCAS, POTS, chronic pain, and likely ME/CFS eliminates MOST treatment options for those and my other disabilities. I'm also fat, am dealing with ongoing severe trauma from multiple sources, and am considered as "mad" and "stupid" (cognitive disabilities) as I am considered "crippled". I live far below the poverty line supporting myself and my partner on a single SSI income and a tiny stipend - one which still reduces my SNAP benefits to $23 per MONTH.

Like, I'm fighting the intersection of a half dozen different marginalizations. I'm out here LIVING the theory you're arguing about. I don't have time for people "well ackshually"-ing my real, ongoing trauma and oppression. I don't have the energy to hold understanding and compassion for people actively feeding into erasure of that!

Oh, and aside from intersex people, AMAB transmascs who face transmisogyny exist, asshole (@ the screenshot). Not that assigned gender actually is a reliable indicator of whether or not someone experiences transmisogyny either, but since people like them typically mean "AFAB trans person" when they say transmasc and "AMAB trans person" when they say transfem, it's worth noting. But that IS, btw, what people mean when they say tma/tme reduces people to their genitals. At least, their infant genitalia. Because sure, maybe a few people acknowledge that bottom surgery exists or tokenize intersex people to defend their use of it. But in common use, "tma" is only ever extended to people who are AMAB (or "AMAB-adjacent" if intersex, which itself is massively intersexist) and "trans enough" (which usually means being a womanhood or "femme enough", and only begrudgingly allows even transfem butches, let alone AMAB nonbinary people, into the term).

That's without even getting into how, even if some trans people MAY be LESS LIKELY to experience transmisogyny, none are truly ever "exempt". None of us sicko genderfreaks (in cis people's eyes) will ever be safe from transmisogyny for as long as it still exists.

I'm just. Exhausted, y'know?

#transandrophobia

[defectivegembrain]

In some situations it feels like people are bringing up higher support needs autistic people not out of a genuine desire to acknowledge them, but as a kind of stock phrase making up for lack of nuance or a get out of jail free card to say whatever they want about any other autistics. Like no, your assertion that autism isn't a disability, or isn't ever a visible disability, is not actually made any more accurate by saying "except for higher needs autistics". No, you're not making a very good criticism of those views if you think the only problem with them is speaking over higher needs people. You're still agreeing with the erasure of a hell of a lot of people. Shut up about the mythical tiktok autistic who doesn't experience any issues outside of the minimal quirks they show online. That person doesn't exist.

#actuallyautistic #ableism

[disabledunitypunk]

There is a troll going around trying to sow discord in the disabled community.

If you see this message in your inbox:

[Image ID: An anon ask reading "It is deeply irresponsible of you to promote the neurodiversity movement. The founder of the movement - a certain Japanese "Baedell" trans woman (one of those denyers of transandrophobia) named Kasaine - is a petulant destructive asshole who has torn apart numerous autism conferences, alleged murder and anti-epileptic or anti Asian sentiment or whatever simply for conferences refusing to browbeat a severely autistic nonverbal young man into turning off his flash camera. (Never mind that she could have just you know looked away.) I have spoken to countless Blacks, Asians, Hispanics, American Indians and others who also disagree with Kassaines utter petulance, as well as that of those like Amanda Baggs (a blatant faker/liar who I refuse to call by her "trans name" but you might know her as Mel.) She was also making the patently false claim that she had Rett syndrome. She also is deeply anti-physical disability, believes the abled can be cripples and believes that there is no difference between any disorder that affects the brain. I tried talking to (blog name is crossed out) about this and she sent me to your blog, let her explain her deep deep misconceptions." /end ID]

First of all, the term neurodiversity was coined by Judy Singer in 1998.

Secondly, I'd like to point out that even if the flash camera statement was true, epileptic seizures can cause severe brain damage and even death. There is absolutely no reason that an autistic person using the flash on their camera, regardless of support needs, should take precedence over someone's own life. If an autistic person refused to stop using it, ideally they would have been separated, but in the end the epileptic person would have a higher priority support need!

"She could have just looked away". Could she? How dark was the room where this was occurring? How reflective was the environment? How bright was the flash in contrast to ambient light? How willing to risk her life are you?

Thirdly, the transphobia. "I refuse to call [them] by [their] trans name". Translation: I think it's acceptable to deadname and misgender trans people if I don't like them.

Finally, the ableism of calling neurodivergent people who reclaim cripple (for reasons including but not limited to: being physically disabled as well; feeling their neurodivergence physical disables them despite not having a strictly physical diagnosis; acknowledging the long history of usage of the term against neurodivergent people including in medical literature and refusing to erase their own experiences being attacked with it; for rejecting the false dichotomy of mind-body dualism and understanding that the brain is a physical organ that is heavily integrated with every other physical organ and can therefore not be separated from it; and so on).

Note the dogwhistle: "believes the abled can be cripples". The anon does not even attempt to dress it up as "the physically abled". They openly state they believe neurodivergent people are abled, without even the caveat of "except those who also have physical disabilities". Even with that caveat, however, neurodivergence can and often is disabling. Sometimes it is severely so.

This further contributes to the erasure of high support needs neurodivergent people, aside from being inaccurate to the vast majority of neurodivergent people. While nondisabled neurodivergent people exist, they are the minority, and disability is an opt-out label for neurodivergent people, not an opt-in one. Meaning, if you are neurodivergent, you are disabled by default unless you identify out of it for whatever reason (usually for reasons like nondisordered plurality or finding the framework of the social model of disability most fits your experiences).

This is even aside from the actual discourse about who can reclaim cripple. Calling all neurodivergent people - even all neurodivergent people who do not identify as physically disabled, "abled", is abject ableism. I don't care what you think about cripplepunk discourse. If you absolutely feel you must debate the subject with the mods of this blog (both of whom are physically disabled, and who have made our position exceedingly clear), please do so off this post. True to the nature of this blog, solidarity and unity in the face of an ableist harassment campaign is necessary.

Let me also be very clear. The person being referenced in the crossed out part is the victim of a harassment campaign and has never sent anyone to any of these blogs. This ask is being sent in mass to blogs - seemingly blogs belonging to disabled people, possibly those who post in the neurodivergent or neurodiversity tag. They have nothing to do with this. I have censored their name anyway to attempt to preserve their anonymity, but if they wish to make a statement about this, we are happy to platform it on this blog to reach more people.

If you receive this message, please delete it. We hesitated about whether or not we might be making a mistake by platforming it, but figured that as it is making the rounds anyway, informing people was the better option.

Tagging any applicable tags for reach.

#neurodiversity #neurodivergence #neuropunk #cripplepunk #unitypunk #disability #ableism #autism #dyspunktional #mod stars #harassment

[official-locke-writing]

Hey guys, I know I've been serious-posting quite a bit more than usual lately, I just wanted to talk a bit more about how (and why) I write my characters the way I do in terms of realistic portrayal and my take on mental health issues in fiction, mainly Creepypasta and Slenderverse.

It seems like some people take me for an able-bodied, mentally stable human being "looking in" on mental health who assumes that I know everything because I Googled some stuff. I can see where this view can arise, as I have never truly spoken about my disabilities or personal life much at all. It occurred to me that you don't know much about me, or why I am so passionate about things like this.

So, let me be transparent.

Yes, I have studied abnormal psychology as a focus in college, but that is not the source of my interest in exploring mental health in the fashion that I do. I have a literal shopping list of physical and mental health obstacles that I deal with daily, and being able to understand it better and connect with characters who share a more accurate depiction of the struggle feels more personal to me than a more standard "fanon" depiction of Creepypasta characters. It's how I like to write things.

I have Marfanoid Habitus Syndrome, Ehlers Danlos Syndrome, childhood-onset Rheumatoid Arthritis that is in later stages now that I'm an adult, along with heart conditions like Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS), heart valve abnormalities, and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. I deal with Borderline Personality Disorder and autism which can cause episodic confusion, emotional distress and panic attacks. I am not asking for sympathy by saying this. I just have these things, and it's a part of my life.

Needless to say, I know what it's like. I really do, which is why I have such passionate interest in rewriting Creepypasta characters to be the way that they are. I just thought you guys would like to know that my differing views on how I would like the characters to be should not, in any way, feel like an affront to your depictions. I may not agree with them, but whatever, y'know? It's the internet. Differing depictions should not equate to waging war about who is right.

I will address this specifically to the people who want to "call me out" on being ableist because I changed some mental health depictions regarding my Toby rewrite to be less noticeable: Mental health issues are not always the forefront of someone's personality nor behavior. I can promise you that people think I'm normal on first look because all of my medical conditions are "invisible." It comes with the package, and I think anyone with an invisible disability can agree with me that the original stories in the fandom are... incredibly strange and even a little offensive. I'm not a fan.

And I will state, I know this character is outdated and I am not bashing the creator, and I am well aware of their need to be detached from this character due to the poor writing, but Ticci Toby does truly belong to the fandom now, and the fandom has held up these pretty wild design choices. I'm looking to change that in my personal depictions and hopefully foster a healthier way of using these characters to cope.

I love you guys; I hope I'm making sense here and am trying to touch base with you all in hopes of clearing up some misunderstandings. I'm not participating in the erasure of disabilities; I'm participating in realistic writing.

#creepypasta #slenderverse #character design #blessed be the wicked