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anti-transphobia · 10 months

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I have so many rants about the kin community saved up. I'm not anti kin as in the initial form of it but I'm anti all the bullshit that's come from ableists mocking it. Like non psychotics mocked psychotic people endlessly and then decided to as a joke invade their community and steal their terms all the while mocking people who take it "too seriously" and continually pushed the psychotic people out until they were forced to eventually make new terms like "delusional attachment"

Huge rant about the past 5-10 years of kin community stuff on Tumblr incoming. Including a LOT of reality checking. Be warned

I see a lot of arguments from non psychotic people that like to "kin" that its not a psychotic thing. And hell, I've seen it from actually psychotic people who do kin who say it too! But while the ableism was evil and unwarranted, what was being said was true: it is a delusion. That is a fact. And part of the old community was....generally not acknowledging this. Because that's reality checking. Which can be dangerous. But the facts still remain - it was a mostly psychotic group. That doesn't make the beliefs any less real or important to the people involved. That's what a delusion is. And there's a lot of a deeper nuance to the kin community and psychosis and how to an extent it helped people with their delusions, but getting too involved made countless people worse. Double edged sword. I remember talking to many other psychotic people in the past who described their troubled relationship to a community that fed into delusions too much and could make it worse. But I'm not going to go into that right now.

Point is most kinners were either psychotic as a whole, part of a system and didn't realize it, had trauma that led to it being a coping mechanism, or hell even an animal regressor. It's a mentally ill thing, and that's okay! And there have always been people that struggled to acknowledge that, which I fully understand, because not only is that the nature of a delusion, but it really really sucks to be constantly bombarded with "it's not real, it's all in your head" and violent harassment from bigots and be told that yeah technically that's correct. Like a gay person being called gay as an insult. Just because it's correct it doesn't make it any less homophobic to mock someone for it. Doesn't mean the response needs to be to deny it though (though once again - I understand delusional people denying it because THAT'S LITERALLY PART OF DELUSIONS. Many people don't acknowledge it's a delusion until they've been out of the community for a while and have gotten better about it, from my experience)

I hate that I have to establish that it's a psychotic thing so hard but I do. Because people want to ignore it. Non psychotics want to downplay their role in what happened to the community. They made fun of kinners. They mocked a group of mentally ill people that were simply too weird for them. "I kin this" wasn't a pro kin joke. It was using that term to reference and make fun of otherkin by saying it whenever you related to something. This idea of "it's just relating to a character" became so pervasive that non psychotic people started to "kin"! They'd say they relate to a character (perfectly normal!!!) or have a strong attachment to one (perfectly normal esp for autistics!!!) and put them in a "kin list"!! So in that sense yeah the "kin" community is non psychotic because non psychotic people started using it for fun. As a joke

They even took "no doubles". Yeah. No doubles is ridiculous in a lot of contexts. Because that context was non psychotics taking it. Psychotic fictionkin said no doubles because it's a fucking delusion. And seeing someone else say they're the same person as you is one, reality checking, and two, *god damned terrifying*. Plenty of psychotic people are paranoid, that only makes it so much worse! "No doubles" was for mental safety. But of course down the line it just meant "I'm the boss of this character you're not allowed to like them as much as I do". It was entitlement. Sheer entitlement from non psychotics who saw the term, didn't even care to understand why people actually said it, and took it for their petty bullshit

The community grew more and more into people who either used kins as a completely lighthearted joke or just to mean characters they're really attached to/are part of their special interests. The problem isn't that people felt deep connections to characters. That's okay. The problem is taking another community's terms to do it. The problem is saying you're kin but then mocking the people who are "too" into it. The problem is kin being reduced to "relatable" so badly that people had to start using IRLs/delusional attachments. To start EMPHASIZING that it was a PSYCHOTIC ONLY THING. People have to beg to not be called kin now because the non psychotic associations make people not take it as seriously as it needs to be. Whether they were never part of the kin community before things got so much worse and genuinely don't know that it did used to be for them, or they are one of the people that were and were forced to abandon their old language. Regardless it's happened. And it's infuriating

I'm tired of non psychotics denying this history. Especially because I'm only referring to events that happened within the past 6-10 years. Not even the older history. Just the fairly recent stuff. They want to hold no accountability. They don't want to acknowledge that their "kinnie" jokes have always just been ableism. They don't want to remember that before they made their kin list, they mocked people for thinking they were animals. Take some accountability. Stop making shitty jokes. Even though there are PLENTY of people who still use kin genuinely, who still have a community, the damage has been done. They have to use disclaimers like "no kin for fun". And unlike the rest of you, still have to be careful and live in fear of harassment

#kinning #actually psychotic #reality check #i didn't go into soooo much here lmao #this is truly just a rundown #I'm not even going to bother going into the nuances of how the community itself affected psychotic people #basically it helped some hurt others helped a bit and then hurt even more #because when it comes to delusions and feeding into them you have to be really really careful #it's never been a 'normal' thing. it's for people who are ILL. and that's okay #it doesn't have to be for everyone #of course psychotic people who speak up on this tend to get harassed so lucky me #kin shit has led to me being harassed in the past when kinning wasnt even involved #basically. im paranoid about other people being me or stealing my identity and thoughts etc etc #in the past this blog actually used to get attention. like. many many years ago. and people were inspired to create their own blogs because #of me! that was fine. but one person copied my theme. like. being buttercup themed (in the past i had her name in my url)#and when i reacted poorly out of one. that paranoia. and TWO. the fact that terfs had created mockeries of my blog to harass me #i wasnt happy about it. this got chalked up to kin drama and i got yelled at by a ton of people for bringing kin drama into shit #it wasn't kinning at all. but because of the perception of 'kin is just liking a character ' thats what it was seen as #not someone who has literally had blogs made to impersonate and mock them who already had a fear of someone else being them or being another #person #that fear stemming from both my psychosis and dissociative disorder #but once again non psychotics dont give a shit and accused me of starting drama unnecessarily #and 'harassing a minor off the site' (they were literally older than me and all i did after initially expressing displeasure was say #that the antisemitic thing they said Wasnt Okay)#theres just so much to say on this topic that i can't because i need to lay the groundwork of this conversation every god damned time #because people wanna deny the type of people that made up the community and the damage they did #once again these communities weren't eradicated but the impacts on the Tumblr community at least were HUGE. twitter also has the same issues #due to all the ex tumblr users there. and general cultural osmosis #but it wasnt and still isn't as big of a thing as it ever was here #anyway if youre a non psychotic kinner who sees this and gets mad. too bad <3 dni

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faecaptainofdreams · 2 years

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My plans for this morning were very different. I woke up with the intent to blissfully, happily work on my art, but upon reading this on Twitter first thing in the morning, it seems my plans have been shifted greatly. I wanted to ignore this and just go on with my day, but i can't. If i don't say what i need to, it will sully my experience as an artist, and i want to keep pure that which i am passionate about right this moment. When i read this, i went through a wave of emotions -- the most prominent ones being betrayal, anger, disgust, disappointment, and grief. So i started my day. I got out of bed, got dressed, took my medication, and let my dogs out, all while bitching at you in my head. I brushed my teeth, took a shower, and continued to rant and vent at you. Thought about everything i would say about the atrocity i had read, and my scorn. And then...i converted my shower into a bath. I laid in the water, submerged my ears like i love to do, and took some deep breaths. I made myself calm down... I thought about how to compile the image i would display here to say my piece, and turns out, it didn't take but a few taps. So now here i am, with my soup, toast and coffee breakfast, upstairs at the computer, my head bursting with paragraphs of opinions and emotions to express. Now i guess... I'll just get right to it. ----------------------------- Dear Mr. Cumberbatch, It may not shock you to know that I'm Autistic, and female at that. Although you'll probably never see this, if you did, i wouldn't be surprised if that revelation would already cause you to believe my words are hollow, meaningless or that i'm too daft to understand why i'm upset. But in any case, what i have to say must still be said. Every time a cis man i like opens his mouth, it brings me disappointment. Every time i come to love one of you, you always hurt me in the end. Your words, your opinions, your statements, your actions always come back to haunt myself and the communities you negatively impact. Your privilege gives you this sense of superiority, and so often you talk over the rest of us, and assume you know what's best. Everyone else is fodder one way or another, and the thing is, reading and re-reading and re-reading your ableist comments, i actually do not believe you're a hateful person. I believe you were out of your element, and that you feel Autism is something you can just put in a box and label easily. It's a concept that you don't understand, and so when some of us project onto the characters you bring to life, you fear it will have negative repercussions. Well, Benedict, i can assure you the only negative repercussions to be had were by the very words you've spoken on our behalf. Autism is not something to be ashamed or afraid of. I do not consider it a disability for myself. Others may feel far more disabled by it, and some consider it their disability, but in the grand scheme of things, i suspect the term "disability" is thrown around by a society which values "ability" simply as of that to being able to work. Funnily enough, you even acknowledge that you feel someone with extra needs being forced into work is wrong. And that's where the problem truly arises. Because you see, we live in synthetic America; a country born and raised on the breaking backs of slaves and slaughtered Natives. A country that claims itself to be "first world," yet it so Capitalist greedy that its only form of self-support is to extort endless labor from the middle and lower classes. This country provides no good or free healthcare, mental or physical, and is decades behind in the battle against hunger and homelessness. Everything is complicated, and if you're not 100% healthy, able to work 12-16 hours a day, 7 days a week, you're useless. Unless of course, you happen to be rich and/or famous, like you, Benedict. Not that you don't work hard on your movies, not that you don't deserve your rewards, but to sit upon your throne of privileges and judge those of us here fighting for our lives, and pretend to understand something simply because you've "studied" it, is almost comically predictable. It's funny, the study of Autism. A bunch of books, papers, thesis, scriptures, and documents written by white, neurotypical psychologists and behavioral therapists, and forlorn parents of Autistic children capturing their experiences in writing. Movies featuring Autistic people played by neurotypicals; we've seen it all. It's the stuff written and produced by actual Autistic people that is criminally overlooked, and cast aside as useless. When someone wrongs us, and we speak out about it, someone is always there to push back, and claim to know better than us. How can that be...? Looking at you, William Shatner and Sia. For the record, i'm still pissed about all that. I think about your horse's-ass behavior more than you know, or that i would like to admit. So Benedict, how can you sit there and not realize what you said is...honestly just disgusting...? It starts off with you sounding empathetic, curious. You reference the 17-year-old with developmental challenges, and you say the word "shitting" as a descriptive of their experience of life. Now, i happen to be a lover of foul language, and i believe that words are made up, and cursing is something little to be offended by. But there is also context, and when discussing a real human being, with real human needs, with less capability than you... Is "shitting" really the appropriate way to express any sort of empathy for that person? You could've said "defecating," or "waste voiding," etc. Something medical, something professional, sensitive. But no. You chose "shitting." To most people, that goes over the head; it's just basic language, right? "You're reading into it too much," someone will surely tell me. But although i have no degree or fancy piece of paper handed to me by some old bearded guy as a reward for memorizing his endless lectures in some fancy school, believe it or not, i have awareness. I was raised to pay attention to the little details, to not ignore the little things that stick out to me. I am hyper-analytical, and verbal language means a lot to me. The use of "shitting" in this context tells me there's a true lack of sympathy or understanding. It reveals a lack of respect, both for the person and their situation. What was almost an intelligent, thoughtful statement was derailed fully by the use of one simple word that a person uses when they're uncaring, irritated, making fun, or making a point. The point you made was...unflattering, most especially to yourself. I think the worst part about it is you kept fucking talking. Who are you to tell Autistic people how to think, how to feel, how to digest a character they feel a connection with? Who are you to believe it's dangerous, that it's like playing with fire? And what is this statement meant to be: --"going through the reality of it"? So...you believe that those of us who do not have severe developmental challenges aren't truly Autistic? Do you not understand the word "spectrum," or are you simply that one-dimensional? Can you possibly be that ignorant...? Benedict... You have understand, what you said there was...just uncalled for, unacceptable, and incomprehensibly idiotic. Who are you to say what defines Autism? When i project the Autistic parts of myself onto Tony Stark, please know i don't actually believe Autism is only being an articulate, cold-seeming super genius with quick wit or difficulty expressing feelings. Pretty much the entire Autistic community knows that. But don't you think it's interesting, how so many Autistic people do project onto genius characters...? That we see ourselves in them? Does that not tell you something...? Because you see, Mr. Cumberbatch, we are intelligent, and we are brilliant. The trouble with us is our ability to communicate it, or be valued for our strong suits, as our strengths often lie outside the box. What our intelligence lies in is typically not valued by our labor-obsessed society, and thus many of us are doomed to failure on that alone. Intelligence is emotional, it's motion-based, it's physics-based, it's artistic, it's expressionistic -- it's anything and everything a person can master. Most of us may not be Tony Stark, or Sherlock Holmes, but sir i can assure you, those of us who see ourselves in these characters sees them for a reason. There's something beautiful we relate to. Autism is about the coding and wiring of the brain. What others call an illness in me, i call beautiful. My Autism comes with struggles, yes, but what makes life hard as an Autistic person is not the Autism; it's the people around us. Did you know the mean life expectancy of an Autistic is roughly 40 years old? It's not because of the Autism. It's because we live in a world catered only to the neurotypical, where emotions and perception are one-dimensional, and those who are born different always pay the price. (The irony here is everyone treats us like we're stupid and talks over us, yet simultaneously demands we change and alter and disguise ourselves, and learn how to cope in a world that hates us, while neurotypicals throw a tantrum when we ask them to change or give us a break.) Our depression, our anxiety, our clinical habit of being misunderstood and disregarded by others, coupled with extreme self-awareness by many of us, leads to our inability to cope in this world. People don't kill themselves because they're Autistic, Benedict. We kill ourselves because no one listens to us, or has our backs, or believes our problems are real, simply because they're different. Many of us need more attention, care and understanding than others. Is that such a bad thing...? Am i so bad, because i have needs? Because i need affection? Because i need validation? Because i need more understanding for my heightened emotions and more surging hormones? Because when my body aches, it's more for me than the average person? Because i'm more sensitive to my environment? People are entitled to feel that a certain task is too difficult for them. Autism can be tricky, it can be scary and hard to understand at times, and not everyone is equipped to deal with someone with more needs. But i can only have so much sympathy for parents of Autistic children, because those of us who have the capability to mask our Autism are forced into doing so our entire lives. Back in the day, people used to say "Wow, I couldn't even tell!" and, "I would've never guessed!" I used to think that was a compliment. Now, i realize how sad it is that i've grown up in a world where the only way to get by on the skin of my ass, is to be like everyone else. To pretend i'm not who i am, that my spirit isn't bigger than my little mortal body, that i'm not whimsical, colorful, musical, perceptive, unique, unfiltered, bold, loving. That i'm not all the things that make me beautiful as a person, because those things come with side effects, or because those things don't make me a worker, and the side effects are all anyone notices. It's those struggles people feel need to be erased, as if all human beings do not have faults, problems, and struggles. I'm so good at blending into the crowd... I don't like that anymore. The less Autistic i appear, the more enclined people are to love me. How horrible is that...? Imagine not being loved for who you are by the world, Benedict. Imagine saying too much, or too little, or not making enough eye contact, or pausing too long, or info-dumping about the things you love, or just saying or doing or misinterpreting one little thing and instantly being thrown away and branded as "freak" because of it. Imagine needing a little extra validation or patience, and being told by your loved ones "get over it." That's not Autism's fault, that's not my fault. That's the fault of people who think the way you do. Who think we're all mindless one-year-olds in our minds, shitting down our legs, and are incapable of knowing what we want from those around us. Well i have news for you, Mr. Cumberbatch; even those with severe developmental challenges know what they want. We all want love. We all want to be cared for, and supported, and respected. I'll bet every cent i have that the most handicapped, most non-verbal, most thrown-aside-by-society Autistic person in the whole world, could be the happiest person on this fine planet, if they're surrounded by the right people. Nurturers, patient attenders, people who love them and play with them and care for them, who tend to their needs and just appreciate that that precious little life is here and thriving in such a harsh world. I think that no matter anyone's handicaps, developmental stage, or birth-given differentiation in life, anyone can be happy when they are surrounded by a loving, helpful, non-judgmental family, and most especially, a supportive society. And just for the record, that was the appropriate use of "shitting." In case you wanted to know. You think Autism is a disability? I think it's a human evolutionary cry for help. I think it's how humans have diverged, because some of us are tasked with bringing attention to the plight of all of mankind. Maybe Autism is the underdog of Aquarius. Why should only neurodivergent people be allowed to have comfort items and toys and be allowed to rest at work, if they're allowed to work in the first place, or have those things at all? Why must every person in the world be this bizarre standard of "adult?" We are all human, we are all animals, we are all coded and programmed from birth to play, to be curious, to be compassionate. If children can understand the concept of fun, acceptance, and unconditional love so easily, why can't you? Why can't "evolved," "educated" adult men do the same? Why do we judge by things outside our societal norm? Why is my Autism something i have to mask...? The things i love are who i am. Info-dumping is my love language, learning is my passion. You will never understand how beautiful it is inside my brain. You know... It's sad, how for years i have been made to feel that the way i focus on myself, and the fact that i love parts of myself and who i am, is something to be ashamed of. I'm "too into myself." Well now it occurs to me why i'm like this. I have to be, and i have to be loud about why i'm beautiful, because the world is against me. If i don't believe i'm amazing, then who on this big old rock will? I have to be loud about the fact that i am intelligent, that i am wonderful and deserve good things. For years i have battled endless, all-consuming guilt, depression and trauma over myself, swallowing my constant inferiority complex, because in the society i've been born into, there's no goddamn room for failure. The second i show weakness, i'm torn to shreds by the world. Sadly... "weakness" is defined today as simply not knowing how to do something. Even if it's basic, it doesn't mean i'm stupid, or weak. I'm just...different. You will never know what glory toils in my mind. It's a vast, endless, bursting kaleidoscope of colors, stars, pulsating light, visions, faces, voices, songs, music, motion. It never ever ever ever is quiet in my head, except in very tiny moments. I find those moments to be...distressing. I need constant stimulation. The simple fact is i can handle that much motion in my head, because i was built for it. The average neurotypical hardly has dreams, let alone visions and revolutionary ideas. I dream all night, every night, nonstop. My world is paraded by shapes, i can see and dissect any color into every single one in the spectrum. My numbers and letters have genders, colors, personalities, and build and split to make new ones of all kinds. My characters are three-dimensional and layered, my imagination is limited only by the bonds i put on it. That which i cannot make visible is so extraordinary, and i work day and night every waking moment of my life to try and project it, because i know what i see is a piece of creation. I know i have something good to say and wonderful to share. I know that what goes on inside my head is magical, and i wish i could share it all! For years i've been ashamed to praise myself, to talk about myself, but goddammit at the end of the day, i love who i am! Flaws and all! I'm working on me; we all are. I'm making mistakes, i'm falling down and getting up, i'm making friends and having new experiences, i'm bursting with ideas and stories and there's so much i don't have words to describe!! I get excited -- so excited i jump around the room, i make weird squeaky noises and shake my hands, i jitter in place and sing and verbally stim. GOD that's magnificent! I'm so loud and excitable, i'm so passionate about being alive and being on Earth, about learning new things and opening my mind. I cry as easily as i laugh, i feel my emotions in my whole body. I'm an artist, a singer, a writer, a musician, i'm a great friend and a lovely daughter, and i have the spectacular ability to open my mind to new concepts, even if they're taboo or hard to look at. I'm not scared to question everything that falls before me, and pick it apart and learn about it. I accept that i don't know everything, and when someone tells me i'm wrong, i listen to them and try to see both sides of every argument. Sometimes...i simply never draw a conclusion, because some things are not up for me to decide. My mind is a fucking poetic novel. It's chaotic glory, it's never-ending optimism and love and sincerity, and care for the world. I'm intelligent and funny, i'm hyper-empathetic, i love humanity, i love animals, i love the planet. I love exploring, trying new things... Not everyone is like me. So many Autistics i know don't emote the way i do. They don't feel their emotions in their whole bodies, or seldom feel them with much conviction at all. I know Autistics who can't mask like i can, who are far calmer, and who have more needs than me. I know ones who have more extremes, more outbursts, meltdowns, more needs. And they are so, so exceptional as human beings, and so gorgeous. They're so intelligent, brave, hard-working. They've been so unlucky. Not because they're Autistic, but because people have wronged them, misunderstood them, underestimated them, or overestimated them for the incorrect tasks. They express themselves and their beautiful minds in different ways than me. There are millions of levels to Autism, so much that i myself tend to not understand. But something i have learned is that just because someone doesn't emote or digest information the same way i do, doesn't mean it doesn't matter to them. It doesn't mean they don't feel, that their feelings don't get hurt, that they don't love, that they don't know when you talk about them. That they're not smart. That non-verbal 12-year-old in diapers may seem unassuming, but i'll bet big bucks he knows what you think of him. The incredible thing about Autistics is most of us are extremely self-aware, or extremely aware of how others perceive us. We just don't know how to tell you so. I was always raised to be thankful i'm not "disabled" or have "worse conditions." Although i am disabled by something unrelated to my Autism, as i sit here, i don't give my family enough credit. Sure, being raised by traumatized boomers who don't understand me is rough, but my mother did her damn best, and is still trying. My father doesn't like to acknowledge my struggles, but he's never forced me to do something i've said i cannot do. He's allowed me to live under his roof, and i know he always will. I know they care; they just lack grace, and communication skills. They lack things i have nearly mastered at a third of their age, and i suspect it's because they gave me a better life than they were given. I'm not fortunate to not be disabled; i'm fortunate to be disabled, and to be Autistic, with a family that loves me and has helped me through very hard times, and continues to do so. We have our differences and our problems, but life could have been a lot worse for me. This doesn't invalidate my transgressions, but taking this time to say thanks... I needed it, and they deserve it. I remember when i was in high school, i knew a boy in my classes who was Autistic. He was loud, he was fun, he spent his free time dancing around the school, pretending to be a Power Ranger. The other kids laughed at him, tricked him into doing things, took advantage of him, pretended to be interested in him while really making fun of him. I made friends with him. He was so open and kind, thoughtful, friendly, sweet. He always wanted to share his candy or food with me and others; his love language was precious. I always felt bad for him, but only because of how others treated him -- not because of his part on the spectrum. Imagine if all of us let go of that shame we're taught to have. Imagine if we were all comfortable to play pretend all day long, if we all were brave enough to talk about what we love, if we were all so welcoming like him. How can i sit there and call his bliss, his pure, childlike joy, a hinderance? Autism isn't bad. He isn't bad, my friends and loved ones aren't bad, my brother wasn't bad. People are bad... It's hard for me to understand why people get so exasperated over a little info-dumping about random things and unique factoids. As invigorating as it is to hear the same story about my mom's work in care for the elderly every single day for two and a half years straight, it's unfathomable to me how comfortable so many people are with their ignorance. Talking about outer space, bees, plants, human evolution, and so on are fascinating things that, if we maybe all knew a little more about, would drive us to better ourselves and take care of the world. The entire point of being alive is to have experiences and to learn, so... Why is it something no one seems to want to do? Even about the little things? And what's wrong with special interests and hyper-fixating? Sometimes, Mr. Cumberbatch, i think of myself very highly -- secretly. But what if i'm not wrong to do so? People assigned female at birth often have a higher pain tolerance and superior developmental achievements in order to withstand childbirth and survive in a dangerous world where the opposite sex constantly threatens them. I realize you get the easy, happy task of simply ejaculating and then sitting by for nine months while the AFAB carries the offspring and then pushes it out of their body, then feed it with their own body, but does this not make the AFAB a superior human specimen? Perhaps not, but at the very least, we deserve to be seen as equals, and regarded for the power of our bodies, and our emotional maturity. So what if i, as an Autistic, have a superior mind to many neurotypicals? To even you, possibly? I may not be college-educated, and couldn't graduate with anything more than the standard high school diploma on account of a cruel math teacher being unhelpful and ableist to the point that i failed her math class and lost a credit, and perhaps i am the mistress of run-on sentences like this one, but my mind is already far more open than yours, and while being so much younger than you! With having less experience in the "real world," with "real Autistic plight." But sure, go on, tell me more about how you know better than i or my fellow Autistics. Tell me more about how your ego is impacted by us seeing something beautiful and different about ourselves in the characters you play. It was just a couple weeks ago i was raving about you. I was so excited to see you in No Way Home, i was going on about how Dr. Strange is my comfort movie, how "sexy" i think the character is, etc. The hope i had. The love i had. The inspiration your character has given me, my adoration for him, my excitement for Multiverse of Madness. And then i read this and i'm... so hurt. I am now in my third hour of stewing on this, venting, and getting it out of my system, because my head being full of color and emotion has two sides to that coin. The bad has to come out, too, and it takes time. I think the funny part is is in Dr. Strange, you play a character who is arrogant, who sees himself before the bigger picture, and has to be constantly told "it's not about you." And at the end of the day, you came away from that experience seeming to not absorb the message. You are a smart, talented man with a humungous platform -- you could be doing some real good!You wanna know what i think? I think you're not a bad person. I think you have too much privilege as a man in your position, and not enough people have informed you that your opinion is misguided, toxic, and dehumanizing, because not enough people realize that simple fact, too. We all say hurtful things, we all make mistakes and put ourselves first at inappropriate times. I can forgive you for this, i can forgive ignorance and arrogance, but only if you're willing to show progress. Only if you're willing to open your mind, to listen, rather than speak over us. And for the love of God, if you do get into good habits, don't donate to or support Autism Speaks. Just please, please don't. Take my word for it when i say, we Autistics know why we hate it, and that it's bad for us. I like to think i'm a very forgiving and understanding person. I don't think you're a bad guy, Benedict Cumberbatch. I want to see you be a better person, i want to see you make it up to my community, to broaden your perspective. A hollow apology isn't something i or anyone else is surely interested in. Proof of change, of betterment, is what i personally would feel better seeing. Don't be another guy i have to let go of, Benedict. Please be different... We're not going to stop seeing ourselves in brilliant characters. You saw what happened with Chris Pratt, right? People only made his character more gay and anti-religion! If you try to push us down, we will only push our feelings and thoughts onto your characters more. The thing of it is, is that's not actually a bad thing. We don't need some "official" to declare Strange or Holmes or whoever you've played as "officially Autistic." What we've done so far is enough, and for the record, i don't really want a neurotypical to play Autistic characters. I have seen it before, and i find it degrading. It's simply not an experience you can relate to at all if you are not Autistic. Just like i cannot relate to being a person of color, or transgender, and would not like to play those roles. And i know no one wants to see how i would portray a cisgendered, heterosexual white man. But if i were to play a character, and someone saw a part of themselves in me or my character, even if it were something i do not relate to, i would feel honored. I would feel i did someone justice, and encourage them. So don't assume we're hurting ourselves or one another. Just sit back, listen, and broaden your state of mind. You don't need to approach a role going "is this Autism?" That's...ridiculous, as is the sentiment. I know you'll never see this... I wish you would. I wish we could talk about it like adults, have a mature conversation. I wish i could talk to Sia, and Shatner, and discuss with them why it's not their place to assume they know best. But for now, this is all i have. I can only keep being loud, and fighting for myself, and my son, and my friends, and those like me. For my Autistic brother who is dead, for everyone who doesn't live up to the standards of the world. May my brother rest in peace, my all of those like me who have lost their lives due to the odds being against them rest in peace. May this world change for the better. --Signed, One Fierce Autistic.

#Dr. Strange #Benedict Cumberbatch #Autism Acceptance #Actually Autistic #Autistic Pride

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fellowstrangetownappreciator · 3 years

Text

Curious and autistic-coded

Hello there! April draws to an end and with that I think it’s high time to hurry up and write this. What does April have to do with anything, you ask? April is the Autism Acceptance Month. So what better month to do this?

Unfortunately I didn’t make it. I failed. It’s already 1. 5. when I’m posting this. But at least I tried to deliver on time.

In this mini essay I’ll present my case about why I think the Curious brothers from TS2 Strangetown display autistic-coded traits and my personal takes on it.

It’s basically your average headcanon post but with a funny top hat!

0: Preface: What do I mean by “autistic-coded”?

When a character is coded as something, it means that they have traits that are associated with the demographics in question to make the consumer knowingly or not link the character with the demographic, although the character's "label” is never explicitly disclosed.

In the nutshell, it means that there are canonical reasons to read the characters as autistic, although you won't find the word "autism" anywhere in the game nor in the developer's commentary.

In this particular case I do believe that the developer may not even be aware of the code, as there is no evidence to suggest otherwise. If there is, I’m not aware of it and I would be happy to learn.

So, let’s start!

1: “The white male who is very good at science”

Unfortunately autistic representation in pop-culture has a long history of being rather straightforward in which traits the characters often have. This stems from the belief that autism is “a boy’s disorder” (that’s why some autism charities to this day use blue in their symbols). Among popular examples of autistic-coded characters are Big Bang Theory’s Sheldon Cooper and Death Note’s L and Near. I’m sure you can think of more but you’ll find that most of them are men and either explicitly white or racially ambiguous white-passing. They also tend to be gifted in tech, logic or other science-y activities.

There’s nothing wrong with that! Nothing wrong with being an autistic with those “stereotypical” characteristics and there is nothing wrong with people being represented. What is wrong is the monotony and afab people/people of color being underrepresented which leads (among other factors) to harder access to diagnosis and resources for those people in real life. But! That’s a topic for a different day. (and not for a simbrl, mind you)

Back to the Curiouses! I just wanted to say that autism in media is traditionally associated with characters whose gender presentation, race and interests align with theirs. Those characteristic thus make a very convenient template for autistic-coding.

2: Inconsistent performance, huge gaps between strengths and weaknesses

Pascal, Vidcund and Lazlo are very skilled Sims by default, extraordinarily even for their age. Pascal has a skill maxed while his younger brothers both near maxing theirs.

But as you can see in Pascal’s default skill panel, apart from Creativity, all his other skills are extremely low, 0 points for Mechanical, Body and Charisma, 1 point for Cooking and Logic and his second best skill, Cleaning, has only 3 points. The same situation can be observed in Vidcund’s and Lazlo’s, except their strong suits are Logic and Cooking respectively.

Huge discrepancies within performance in different cognitive areas is a common trait found in those on the autism spectrum. We’re often talking extremes here and the scale of the difference is the defining factor. Everyone has their strengths and weaknesses, it’s just in neurodivergent people those tend to be unusually noticeable.

I think that skills, simplified as they are, are the closest The Sims has to possibly simulate that because they track the character’s performance and expertise in different areas and allow comparison. In real life, of course, this comparison is not nearly as possible and exact, nor desired, but for all our analysis-loving enthusiasm, here we’re still talking fictional characters.

3: Struggle with social cues

It is widely known that one of autistic traits are difficulties with processing social situations, picking social cues and successfully replicating socially desired behavioral patterns.

But these three are Sims, are they not? They cannot possibly display this trait, since they’re programmed the same way as others.

Yes and no.

It is true that there is no specific in-game feature that would allow Sims to behave with explicit neurodivergency in mind* but with the right combination of traits they can simulate behavior that really hits close to home for neurodivergent players.

*at least not in TS2, TS3 has traits that simulate some possible neurodivergencies but their names tend to be rather... ableist unfortunate and they’re not relevant to this post since they’re not autism related, and even if they were, we’re focusing on TS2 exclusively

Let’s take look at Lazlo here. He is, indeed, a playful soul. He likes to goof around, tell jokes, make others laugh. And since he’s very close to his brother Vidcund, close enough even to Tell Dirty Joke (an interaction that needs quite a high relationship to unlock), he autonomously does just that.

And oh boy, does Vidcund disapprove.

From my personal experience playing them, their relationship usually takes quite a hit from every cheeky joke Lazlo throws Vid’s way. They usually autonomously repair it very quick but it happens often.

But that’s a standard behavior. Vidcund’s very serious, he doesn’t take well to jokes.

No. I mean technically yes, Vid is definitely a grumpy old plant dad but, at least in my game, he tends to accept Lazlo’s jokes. All kinds of them, actually, except for the dirty ones. And Pascal, who technically has even lower Playful points (0 in comparison to Vidcund’s 4), doesn’t seem to mind Lazlo’s poor attempts at grown-up humor.

But! What is it that makes Lazlo try still? What drives him to attempt to make Vidcund laugh with a dirty joke over and over again? (and fail?)

I my interpretation, Lazlo doesn’t do that on purpose, he is just really poor at evaluating “dirtiness” of a given joke and frequently misinterprets Vidcund’s cues. The animation of a dirty joke being rejected even supports that as Vid doesn’t signal his discomfort with any exaggerated easy-to-read facial expression until Lazlo gets to his punchline.

No only that but as I mentioned, the invisible lines between spicy and too vulgar are often hard to thread. I can recall many times I thought I was saying a witty quip on an “adult” topic and was met with awkward silence or someone shushing me because “that’s not how you speak in public”. I can well imagine myself in Lazlo’s shoes.

A situation of social cues being misinterpreted or ignored can be observed also in Vidcund. Programming-wise, those are just his low Niceness and extreme Shyness showing but combined they again paint a picture of a very neurodivergent-looking behavioral pattern.

He often behaves like the concept of politeness or social rules doesn’t exist because the combination of the aforementioned traits makes him come off very blunt (lecturing and shoving telescope-peepers with no warning whatsoever) and distant (having a high chance of rejecting simple small-talk socials).

(That’s Jasmine Rai casting the “Summon Vidcund” spell.)

Yes, I am fully aware that it makes a stronger case for him being an a**hole than autistic but... there’s no reason he can’t be both. Not all autistic people are sweet cinnamon buns, all personalities you can think of can be neurodiverse and, for some their neurodiversity can even amplify their inconsiderate ways, as I believe it is the case with our dear grouch Vidcund.

4. Their bios

“No matter what happens, Pascal believes there is a logical explanation for everything. In his free time, he practices home psychoanalysis and collects conspiracy theories.”

(that’s how I imagine practicing psychoanalysis looks like, sorry Freud)

“Serious and exact, Vidcund strives to fit the universe into a nice tidy package. He has an unnatural fondness for African violets.”

(let’s collectively pretend those are African violets)

“Not as studious as his older brothers, Lazlo got his degree in Phrenology. He likes to call phone psychics and spends hours trying to bend forks with his mind.”

*error: screenshot of Lazlo bending forks not found*

(but here he is hanging out with Erin Beaker, the closest thing to “calling phone psychics” you can actually do in-game)

Both Pascal’s and Vidcund’s bios point to a pattern-focused worldview with a strong emphasis on rationality as the center-point that anchors the way they understand the world around them and build their principles on. This “pattern-ization” of thinking is a common autistic trait, with rationality being a popular theme because emotions tend to be difficult to access and asses for many of us.

Lazlo’s biography is an outlier. But it still has something significant in common with those of his brothers: All three of their bios allude to a potential special interest of sorts.

Special interests as an autism-related term are very specific, in-depth and long-term hobbies or areas of expertise that make an autistic person happy and they tend to go to seemingly exhausting lengths, often at the cost of other areas of knowledge and most likely the person’s ability to talk about anything else for a long enough time. (a loving hyperbole, no disrespect meant) Mine are my characters and cats. An even more intense but a short(er)-term passion is called a hyperfixation.

Them potentially having a special interest is yet another possible autistic-coded feature.

5. Wait. Why does it matter?

Right. What does it matter if a Sim (A SIM) (or two or three) is autistic? What do I hope to achieve, pushing my autistic Curiouses agenda down your throats?

I got to write a long rant-piece about some of my favorite TS characters and I feel like I can finally die satisfied.

Apart from that and me sharing my happiness of finding some good pixels I can relate to, it is a matter of representation.

Remember by the very beginning I wrote how most of the representation our community gets in media tends to be just a one specific type of character?

And how the Curious brothers seem to fit the stereotype to a point?

There is something I omitted, something I saved for the last on purpose.

The role. The role in their story, the role in the society the piece of media portrays.

We often see neurodiverse, autistic or autistic-coded character as children, students, villains, lone savants, victims in distress, comedic relief sidekicks, either very vulnerable and needing protection, or detached and having their role defined only by their academic prowess or their special interest/profession.

What we rarely get to see them as, are... parents.

That’s what many of us autistics are or plan to be someday in the future. The dogma around autism has started to dwindle relatively recently and there are little to no examples of autistic adults being the care-givers for once in the media around us.

The Curious brothers are just that. They are chaotic, they are eccentric, they can be a little too much... but they are dutiful and loving fathers/uncles to their little aliens they raise.

They make it work. Even if they face difficulties, even if they don’t exactly fit the standard.

“Sometimes, a family truly can be three brothers raising alien babies, and it’s beautiful.”

It encourages us to define family by love rather than traditional structures and it shows us that portrait of a functional neurodiverse family we need to see.

And goodness, is it a powerful sight.

#the sims 2 #the sims #ts2 #simbrl #pascal curious #vidcund curious #lazlo curious #autism acceptence month #headcanon #actuallyautistic #autistic curiouses agenda #please someone take tumbrl from me

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luna-rainbow · 3 years

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I’m so sad that it looks like Wanda’s going to be the main villain of Doctor Strange 2. I know it’s what a lot of people want and that it’s a famous storyline with her, but just because a story is iconic or famous doesn’t mean it’s not ableist as fuck. I don’t understand it, I thought that we were tired of seeing women portrayed as going mad and becoming evil but everyone seems to be actively rooting for this. Idk I guess I’m just so tired of my two favorite characters (Bucky and Wanda) being constantly vilified by Marvel, not to mention their horrible vilification of people with mental illness.

That was exactly my reaction to the news too! (This might devolve into a long off-topic rant). Of what little we've heard about Dr Strange 2, there's 2 things I'm worried about.

First, I'll talk about Wanda because my rant about Dr Strange went for wayyyy too long. When I heard the news I was unsurprised (because of WV ending) but also annoyed. Wanda's entire character arc so far, and particularly in the series, was about reconciling with the depth of her trauma and controlling her powers. This girl has been through a lot, and she gets things wrong a lot too, but consistently, she is trying to do the right thing. Her growth throughout the the movies and the series was all centered around her desire to not hurt people, but also her struggles to manage her own pain and not let it manifest in a way that hurts the people around her. The resolution of WV was her willingly give up the illusion that she craved - the family, the home, the brother, her love - so people stopped being hurt. Given MCU's poor track record of carrying through character development, I feel like her becoming a villain will just mean they will ignore all the growth she's made and negate the suffering (and sacrifice) she put herself through to give it up. Sure, she caused the problem in the first place and people were hurt, but her loss and grief as she wiped her sons and Vision from existence is real.

And yes...it will continue to perpetuate the message (as TFATWS did with both John and Bucky) that people with PTSD are not only sad, they're raving mad and murderous and need to be kept away from society for their own good.

In the next part of my essay I'm going to talk about Dr Strange, so feel free to skip.

I really looked forward to his first movie (cocky surgeon, good cast, magic) but I walked out disappointed. It wasn't bad, per se, but the plot seemed eerily parallel to Iron Man (cocksure millionaire learns humility) without having the heart of Iron Man. I think part of it is because there was nothing grounding Stephen - Rachel McAdams' character was no Pepper for sure. It also never brought Stephen back to his real life to show us what the real world consequences of him becoming a superhero meant, so it existed in this weird sort of vacuum of time-space, which lessened the impact of his character development. The emotional climaxes were all derived from short term relationships. I feel like this is the first movie MCU really fumbled the characterisation - you can see the great actors trying to make something out of what little they had, but we just never got the heart of Stephen Strange. We don't know what holds him to this world - as we do with Tony or Thor or Steve - we don't know what he's fighting for, what or who he loves, what he sees in the world that makes him want to put his life down for. Remember this is a guy they established as a self-centered cynic right at the start. I just didn't get a moment where he looked at the world and thought, "Ah...as much as humans are nasty little shits, there is still some beauty in this world that's worth protecting." Not me and my cynicism on full display.

Sorry, the purpose of the long rant above is to say - it sounds like they're turning Dr Strange 2 into an ensemble movie, and we already know how the last solo-turned-ensemble fest went. Stephen Strange really needs at least another solo movie to develop him. I want to see more of his rivalry with Mordo. I want to see how he balances his superhero duties with his real life. I want to see his relationship with Christine develop into something more substantial. I don't want him to be in a movie where he gets dragged along by the plot, gets sidelined to introduce new tentpole characters, and only saves the world because that's his superhero duty. Side-eyes TFATWS.

That said, it's being directed by Sam Raimi, so maybe there is some hope.

#dr strange #wanda maximoff #stephen strange

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roses-bel-air-darling · 3 years

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*Watching an adorable Tik Tok on a relationship with Touya HC’s

Comments: “I feel he would be straight up toxic.” “He didn’t bother saving Twice.” “Just because he faced trauma doesn’t mean he should be a killer.”

Me: Y’all, your good/bad victim complexes are showing. Now excuse as I proceed to bang my head in a wall from your stupidity (don’t get me started on the Twice comment, tell me you don’t have reading comprehension without telling you don’t have reading comprehension)

Plus, there are people out there thinking he would be straight up abusive like his father with Rei. I don’t see that, looking into Touya he wouldn’t seek a relationship in the first place, but if he did I don’t think he’d be as bad as people think or as toxic. Sorry for the rant, people are bloody irritating

Answer cont'd 2/2: (Oh, and to add on from the ask I sent regarding Tik Tok… don’t forget the “he is a smelly bacon man” 🤢 Gotta love people making fun of scars and invalidating his trauma. People also forget these are fictional character and not real people but people can’t seem to separate fiction from reality and think your into real life murderers as well making you an awful/weird person (to clarify, I am not into real life murderers. It horrified me to learn Ted Bundy has a fandom)

I totally agree with what you have said anon. 👍

As much as some people like to paint dabi as toxic, abusive and or a misogynistic gaslighting rapist who plays with his partner's feelings.

They don't understand his character. He's far from that.

Hey remember the part in the broadcast that dabi practically called out his dad forcing rei to have kids for his goal and enji basically confirmed it in the press conference? Not I want to argue but even if it was coerced that still doesnt make it ok, that's still bad. Dabi knew his mother was a victim of his dad's ambitions as much as he is and his siblings. That pretty much confirms his views on abuse.

In canon speaking terms, having a relationship is the very last thing on his mind as he's focused on getting revenge on endeavor for the abuse he inflicted on the family. And not to mention he pushes people away to keep his fire from overtaking him.

Like as I said many times that his emotions are linked to his fire and he feels intensely. And twice's death confirmed how dabi felt towards him. Dabi was hellbent on making hawks suffer. And defending twice internally when trying to save him over Hawk's statement that twice was just unlucky, calling hawk's standards screwed up and before dabi knew how torn up twice felt with hawks double crossing.

With those statements on Dabi's and shigaraki's scars, it's disgusting and completely ableist. Look I don't care if people are joking. It's in bad taste in my opinion.

I stay away from both twitter and tik tok over those statements and toxicity in those platforms of the fandom. Mha twitter is covered in bad takes, incest and pedophilia fantasies and art of the kids with the adults. Look I don't give a shit if you came at me defending over that type of 'art' and people put their heart and soul creating it. It's still disgusting. ❌

And the final statement over some people on this fandom who go after the villain stans just for liking them and making metas explaining or analyzing their behavior and actions is not even being a 'murder apologist'. But hey go ahead and excuse the guy who abused his family for 20+ years and yet to do anything about it and the other guy who murdered someone in the name of 'heroism'. But hey, what am I even talking about right?

Anyway just because we like characters that tend to do bad things, doesn't even mean we like actual murderers who killed innocent people and have their lives robbed from them and hurting the people who were close to that person. Please learn how to separate fiction from reality.

And I think those people should actually go use that energy to people who actually support real life serial killers and dictators who committed genocide and don't care over what happened to the victims of the killers but hey let's go after people for liking fictional villains cause they are considered the worst right?

Sorry for the long response, just wanted to share my opinions on it and I agree with your statements strongly. Have a good day or night anon!

#mha #my hero academia #bnha #dabi #villain stans #league of villains #tomura shigaraki

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sir-phineas-lost · 3 years

Text

Follow-up post

So I got a reply to my comment about the ableism in Ironwood’s character arc by @swapauanon and then they immediately blocked me. Since I am sometimes a petty bastard I decided to make a separate response anyway.

The first thing I would like to point out is that this person does not actually address my points in any way throughout this lengthy rant. My comment was all about the behind-the-scenes comments from the creators and they only responded with in-text examples and their interpretations of them. Those are important sure, and I will talk about those, but they don’t exactly come off as arguing in good-faith right from the get-go.

Okay, so I don’t TYPICALLY acknowledge RWDE’s beyond blocking them, but I think it’s important to separate how Ironwood views himself versus how the writers view him.

Because Ironwood’s entire downfall is his misunderstanding of how humanity works. He denies his own humanity, and sees maiming his vulnerable flesh and replacing it with unfeeling machinery as ridding himself of his own human weaknesses.

Except at the end of the day, he can’t cast off his VERY human soul, and his refusal to acknowledge that he can’t and SHOULDN’T do that are ultimately what leads to his downfall.

I have seen this “Actually it is just Ironwood himself that is ableist” argument before, and I don’t think it holds any water. While it is true that he begins to see compassion as a weakness, he never expresses the views you say he does about his own machine parts. And if you want to talk about how Ironwood sees himself vs how the writers see him you really can’t do so without talking about framing and subtext. When we get scenes that emphazize Ironwood’s machine parts to make him look intimidating or use his passive superpower (described as “hyper-focus” by the creators themselves) to shut off his empathy, that is the writers telling us that these physical aspects of Ironwood makes him less human.

Meanwhile, what V8C12 was TRYING to convey (even if it was horrible in its execution), was that it’s one’s SOUL that defines them, not the body that houses it.

Literally NO OTHER CHARACTER with mechanical parts added to their body views themselves as less human.

[...]

Penny doesn’t angst over not being human, she angsts over being treated like a soulless tool. (Which is why I don’t like that they turned her human. Had they set up that she’d wanted to be human back in Volume 2, it would’ve been one thing, but they don’t establish that Penny wanted to be human until AFTER her mechanical body has been discarded.)

So here they outright contradict themselves. They start off saying that no other character views themselves this way, and then go on to say that Penny does (but only after she has been turned human). And like, points for admitting that scene was bad, but they seem unwilling to consider that maybe the fact that the writers did include that scene tells us something about the way the show at large views disability. They seem to think they can just write it off and move on like this instance of Penny absolutely seeing herself as inhuman can just be ignored. it also disregards that this isn’t just Penny expressing how she feels about herself. When Penny gets her human body she expresses surprise that hugging someone makes her feel “warm inside” even though she has hugged people countless times before. This is not a villain saying that having machine parts makes you less human and being proven wrong, this is a hero saying outright that “wow, my mechaniocal body made me unable to appreciate this simple human interaction, but now that I have a flesh-body I can”. Things like this is why I do not buy the argument that it is only Ironwood who thinks being part machine makes you less human.

Mercury doesn’t angst over the loss of his legs, he angsts over the piece of his soul his father tore out.

[...]

While Yang DOES lose her arm and angst over it, she doesn’t view herself as less human because of her prosthetic.

The closest we get to a LITERAL “cybernetics eats your soul” story is with Cinder, and she doesn’t have ANY cybernetics, just a parasitic leash that’s slowly consuming her flesh and threatens to eventually consume her mind if she doesn’t get rid of it. And if/when she does, I imagine she’ll replace that with a mechanical arm.

(I moved a few parts of their post around here because it made more sense to me to talk about these quotes together)

I feel like this highlights how much this person completely ignores the core argument of what makes the themes in RWBY ableist. They focus way too much on the literal and whether the characters “angst” over their humanity. But like I have said before, thie main issue here is theme and subtext.

Mercury doesn’t “angst” over his legs, but that doesn’t erase the subtext inherent in the fact that he still lost his legs (and presumanbly the piece of his soul) at the same time as he joins team evil.

Yang is probably the best take on a disabled person with a prosthetic in the show. I will give it that. I don’t think there is anything particularly wrong with how it has handled this storyline, but I do think it sets a certain expectation for how it thinks a “good” person should handle their disability. Because Yang basically deals with her lost arm by seeing her prosthetic as an “extra”. She creates a distance between herself and it instead of seeing her mechanical arm as actually part of herself. Again, nothing inherently wrong with that but combined with the Penny-nonsense it creates a pattern of seeing machine parts as inherently inhuman and “lesser”.

The point about Cinder is where the argument relies too much on technicality. Sure, Cinder’s new arm isn’t cybernetic, bhut it is still a prosthetic and it is unambiguously presented as evil and corrupting.

So, no, it’s not the fact that Ironwood has prosthetics that makes him less human, they’re simply a symptom of his view of “soft” traits (kindness, empathy, forgiveness, and flesh), as weaknesses to be sacrificed for the “greater good”. Basically, while I know this term gets misused a lot, Ironwood embodies toxic masculinity. The idea that showing any emotion other than rage and pride is “shameful” and “unmanly”. The idea that brute strength matters more than strategy. That taking unnecessary risks to achieve your goal is “brave” and “daring” and not “stupid beyond belief”. Plus, I want to point out that WINTER HERSELF said that Penny (as a robot) was more “human” than her.

Again, this completely ignores how Ironwood and his prosthetics are framed by the narrative. The idea that all of his flaws are based in toxic masculinity and have nothing to do with his disability is just not very supported by the text or by word of God (again, it was the creators themselves who said that losing his arm was “symbolic of losing his humanity).

And Winter’s words to Penny aren’t very positive either. The point being made there is that Penny was always human “underneeth” her robotics, which sounds good until you realize that this still frames her mechanical differences as negative. They are treated as a prison for the “real” Penny and the narrative explicitly tells us that they have made her unable to feel certain emotions.

It’s just that searing off that flesh after breaking his own Aura serves as a good visual metaphor for Ironwood giving up his “softer” traits to accomplish his goals, even if there was a better solution staring him right in the face (i.e. the rings were EXPOSED and he could’ve just nudged them out of alignment to get to Watts).

This feels like a really big reach on their parts to justify their idea of Ironwood as stupid on top of everything else. It relies on assuming things about fictional technology that was never explained in the show itself. I mean, if the rings are so easy to nudge then what is even holding them in place?

Either way it doesn’t really matter because the message of the scene is the same. If the point is to signal that ironwood is willing to give up his softer traits because he is also willing to give up his soft bady, then that also tells the viewer that being able-bodied and being capable of compassion/kindness/etc are synonymous.

It has nothing to do with the metal, and everything to do with the “Mettle”.

I have no idea why they would bring up the fantasy neurodivergence the writers added in through word-of-God as if it somehow makes the show less ableist. “Mettle” as it is described by the writers, is not a character flaw. It is a chronic condition.

Edit: Seriously, I hope you realize that the hatedom makes it VERY hard for any criticism of the show to be taken seriously when the very VALID cricisms are downed out by “Adam should’ve been an anti-hero!” and “Fascism is good, actually!” leading to those of us with ACTUAL constructive criticism getting lumped in with you lot!

I am curious what they think “constructive criticism” looks like since apparently “Hey, constantly equating robot parts with inhuman behavior is shitty and ableist, please stop” doesn’t cut it.

Anyways, fuck this guy. If they want to be taken seriously maybe they should think about why they had to make such a long-ass rant to dismiss criticism of very basic ableist tropes.

#rwby #rwby meta #meta #rwby critical #rwde

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definitely-not-a-wasp · 2 years

Note

Hey 👋! I'm here to listen to you rant about Mike Maximum Ride from the sewers

Hi Nonnie! I'm finally starting on the third (!!!) installment of my MR rewrite, which is where I finally introduce Mike, and I love this minor character from the sewers with all of my heart.

TW ableism.

Also, long post.

Look, canon is ableist as FUCK but Mike is still an incredibly intriguing character as a child genius who had a bright future and still got fucked over by society and was blamed (by the narrative and by MIT) for being in his situation even though, again, he was a child who was trying to navigate the world in the best way he could. Canon introduced him as aggressive, sardonic, and vaguely off-putting, which I think compliments our protagonist Max, who is aggressive, sardonic, and off-putting to the average person. Let's look at one of his introductory dialogue.

"You guys on the run? You in trouble?"

"Why would you think that?" Fang asked calmly.

The kid rolled his eyes. "Let me see. Maybe because you're a bunch of kids sleepin' in a subway tunnel. Kind of clues me in, you know?"

Okay, he had a point.

"What about you?" I asked. "You're a kid sleeping in a subway tunnel. Don't you have school?"

The kid coughed out a laugh. "MIT kicked me out."

Immediately, this establishes him as someone who is observant, incredibly intelligent, and not afraid to speak what's on his mind or ask questions. It also, more importantly, establishes him as someone in the same situation as the flock. A fellow kid who should be at home or in school, and is instead sleeping in a subway tunnel. This would be a great way to showcase how the flock isn't as alone as they think they are and not nearly as 'freakish' as they were lead to believe.

The conversation continues, and Mike is shown as someone who uses very, very similar language as Max and the flock, to the point where Max and Fang are put on the verbal defensive for the first (I think???) time in the book. And then he starts (very offhand and flippantly, which I enjoy) saying that, in essence, that he's in the sewers subway tunnel because he's medically psychotic and refused to take his meds.

And this is where the narrative stops framing him as "bluntly inquisitive, and wildly intelligent euqal-to-the-flock" and instead goes down the "crazy homeless schizophrenic who is medically negligent" route, with the implication of "the flock is similar but BETTER than him". I resent that! Canon is trying hard to implicate one thing, but what is actually said is implying something entirely different, seen in this dialogue below.

"Wouldn't take my Thorazine. They said, no Thorazine, no school."

Okay, I'd been around wack-job scientists enough to pick up on some stuff. Like the fact that Thorazine is what they give schizophrenics.

"So you didn't like Thorazine," I said.

"No." His face turned hard. "Or Haldol, or Melleril, or Zyprexa. They all suck. People just want me to be quiet, do what I'm told, don't make trouble."

Canon is showing what is supposed to be ye olde "person with mental illness is destroying their lives because they refuse to take their meds", but let's consider this logically. Mike is around the flock's age— let's bump that up to seventeen at most, but more likely 15 or 16. Assuming he is schizophrenic (which I'm going to assume for argument's sake), symptoms very, VERY rarely manifest before age thirteen. That meant his doctor cycled him through four different antipsychotics over the span of four years AT MOST, while he is also trying to go to college. Antipsychotics are also well-known for having really awful side effects, especially for children, and for not having the best regulations in place. Thorazine itself can cause muscle spasms, trouble breathing, and seizures in patients that take it long-term. And his doctor prescribed FOUR DIFFERENT MEDS over the years, which implies that these meds weren't working for him.

(the fact that "his face turns hard" and he loses his flippancy also points to the fact that this wasn't a choice he made lightly— he's opinionated and hard set on not going through that experience again, even if it means he's homeless as a result.)

So, this is the picture being painted: Mike was a child genius that got into MIT when he was young. He was diagnosed with a psychotic disorder and put on meds that didn't work + caused bad side effects. He was put on different meds that didn't work and caused other, different, bad side effects. Repeat until he decided fuck this and refused to take any more antipsychotics because, at this point, my guess is that the only thing they're doing is making him sick. MIT promptly put him on academic probation.

This explains why he's not in school, but why the hell is he in the sewers subway tunnels instead of with his parents?

This could only be done with speculation, but considering psychotic disorders are in-part genetic and psychotic people are at higher risk of abuse, my guesses are that his parents were deemed unfit to care for him due to similar disorders, or they're assholes. Either way, they're not in the picture, and he wouldn't see CPS as an often because chances are (from his perspective), they would try to put him back on antipsychotics that do more harm than good.

In short, Mike— someone who got fucked over by society because, frankly, society doesn't want to deal with his issues in a way that would actually help him— would be a very complimentary character for the flock in TAE— a family who is getting fucked over by society because society doesn't want to admit that those issues even exist. So they both wind up being children stuck in the same sewer subway tunnel. They have a lot of similarities, and probably would have gotten along great once Mike and Max stopped pissing each other off. JP himself writes "he reminded me a little bit of us: He'd chosen to live a hard, dirty life, being free, instead of a taken-care-of life where he was like a prisoner"

And then JP had to ruin it by including the line directly after that, which I am not quoting because it ✨includes a slur✨. Fuck you, JP.

Anyway. Justice for Mike from the subway tunnels sewers.

(My rewrite involves a lot more Mike for the above similarities to the flock's predicament, the fact that he's a cool hacker man, and the fact that re-write Max has PTSD with psychotic symptoms, so she is going to take a liking to the smart kid who seems to like them (or, at least, shows some solidarity to fellow legal minors in the subway tunnels) and appears to know how to handle his psychosis better than she does. Plus, he's pretty ride-or-die, so once he's forcibly roped into shenanigans the first time, he's pretty firmly on board with any and everything. Not like he has anything better to do at the moment.

Eventually I'm going to do a character sketch for him, but until them I have a Xavier Roger faceclaim I'm working with, but with cooler undertones, less muscule, and darker eye-bags. Boy does not sleep. I also have his outfits/fashion sense picked out.)

#Maximum Ride on Main #Mike (Maximum Ride)#The development from Grey from the Subway to Mike from the Bronx is going to be fun #Mike has a lot of Bronx pride considering he spends most of his time in Manhattan #People kept recognizing when he stayed around Morris Heights and that was awkward AF so now he stays in Manhattan for the most part

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gryphsdeadbones · 4 years

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hey from one nd person to another the comic where fm gordon says a slur seems kind of in poor taste. ik ur not intentionally making light of it and tht occurring in fm should be criticized but while you dont make it out to be a good thing making jokes about it and calling him a "slurboy" is kind of questionable? it makes it seem more like a plotpoint and angst rather than the creator of fm genuinely fucking up in the past (and having moved on from it)! i think exploring fm coming to terms with being nd is a good idea but this isnt the best way to do it. if you want me to explain my point more lmk if/when u post this and i will! someone already made a post abt it but it was kinda strongly worded and i wanted to approach you more calmly because i genuinely dont want to call you out or start drama or anything ;-;

first off thank you for being civil and patient with me i appreciate this ask a lot- also this got long- im not in a flying rage or anything when i bold or emphasis text, i just needed it also for my own readability and since im not the best at wording- hopefully this hellsite works and my response is under the cut

i would like to know how is it in poor taste when freemind explicitly gets clocked at the very end for saying it. the entire point of the comic was to show that saying the r slur has existed in his source and is bad

im not sure how much more direct i can get, with the disclaimer/warning list growing longer and longer and out there for a huge sign that says “this au can get dark as fuck and these subject matters are treated seriously/not something to mess around with.” Like yes, there are some jokes in the asks and other comics, but that specific comic is not supposed to be “haha thats funny”. it has a serious tone using a rough sketch style bc i was super tired and wanted to vent

was it just the direct reference to it that just made people uncomfortable? because thats 100% understandable, and i made sure i tagged it appropriately (although admittedly, a little bit late since i thought the filter would catch at least the main thing)

i think what some people somehow got from it is “exploring sensitive content = endorsing said content” which! that is not the intent! i absolutely do not want people saying that word! I don’t want people thinking that is any way okay for this character to say

its more of a damned if i do address it, damned if i dont.

if it never comes up, people are gonna assume that ‘oh this character says slurs and is shit, surely the creator or fan-creator MUST be okay with it and woobifies freemind and absolves him of any mistakes’ or something like that. no. this asshole has an arc and i want to do it right. its serious and i think it shouldn’t be shoved under the rug

and people just. dont want to read for context for whatever reason. theyll start watching it and get taken aback by the slur and start blaming me ‘hey you never warned for this’ when very early on i keep mentioning over and over ‘you dont have to watch it if you dont want to! This has slurs and 2000s internet brand humor/style’ You really dont, I’m not forcing you to watch it- Literally all you need to know is either canon half life or hl/vrai. thats it. fm mostly follows hl1 with very slight changes.

so i had to make something that:

1. warns people who arent aware and dont want to go through my asks or about/warning pages (for whatever reason) and just want to see the art

2. also NOT downplay freemind’s canon assholery. listen, i kinda despise writing mean and cruel characters, theyre hard to do, and a lot of people get shit for doing it wrong or people going “character = author”

i’ve also considered leaving the bubbles blank, but then people could fill it with whatever they want, then blame me for being vague. or they’d fill it in with a different kind of slur that freemind has never used, even if he MIGHT be the type to do that. I needed to explicitly mention that it is ableist slur. There are shitty racist and other problematic jokes, but never those kinds of extreme racial slurs to my knowledge.

Although I do see your point that maybe joking about it outside of the serious stuff might not be the best route. The slurboy jokes are getting stale, and I will try a better way to remind people.

The thing that gets to me is that it feels people are more than ready to defend either Ross Scott or Gordon Freeman the fictonal character himself. I don’t??? really care for Ross Scott, so I don’t know if he’s ever brought it up specifically. I’m not really calling him out or cancelling him. Idc for some white man’s feelings, im only bringing the timeframe of That era and reworking it to fit in This current era.

And I hate to break it to people: Gordon Freeman is a blank slate character, you can project whatever the hell you want on him as long as it’s not freakshit illegal garbage. The machinimas (fm, hl/vrai) do have SOME characterization that I want to nail down. It fucking sucks when characters are ooc, and I’m trying not to do that, even if it means sacrificing some comfort. But still mostly staying in my comfort zone if that makes sense

Now about the callout that I do not want to engage with the op directly:

Honestly im very surprised the comic was called out when i just. thought my stuff is relatively tame on exploring the bad shit canon freemind does. ive seen him in fancontent where they really dont hold back and its still played off as ‘kinda funny’ tone.

I really don’t know if people just want any reason to hate me for whatever reason. That’s fine I guess, I can’t please everyone and they dont have to like me.

But like. isn’t it so much easier for the op of that to block me and the post and move on. Why kick up such a fuss. I can see that thinly veiled death threat of a vague. That’s pretty fucked up- Like holy fucking god, you do not have to like my stuff. I’m not holding you at knifepoint to like my stuff. I’ve specifically made two different tags (one general au, one specific au) if anyone wants to blacklist it for their own reasons I do not need to know. I don’t want to know.

You’re allowed to be uncomfortable. You’re allowed to unfollow/blacklist/block.

However you just don’t go ranting about it for something you horribly misinterpreted. If it bothers you so badly, literally just. drop me a message to clarify. thats it. or save yourself the time and block me.

I’ve blocked the op for both our sakes, but if anyone wants to send this post to them, then thats fine. I don’t want anything to do with them.

I don’t want to link the post and blow it up. I just want shit clarified, dropped and we can move the fuck on with our lives.

If you’re reading this and don’t know what the post is, please don’t bother. I do not want people going after the op with threats, please keep it civil, I’d prefer if you don’t engage with the post at all on my behalf.

Despite this huge wall of text, I do not want this to be a big deal, so please don’t ask me about the details.

As for anon, feel free to dm me either on here or. Maybe on discord if you’d still like to suggest or have something more cleared up. I’m still willing to hear any kind of feedback, and i want to thank you again for being reasonable about this

#Anonymous #ask #jdb faq #ask to tag #long post

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