hell&highwater

cause like. becoming disabled is horrific. BEING disabled is not inherently horrific, but the sudden jarring change where you no longer even know your own limits, or the slow frustration as you gradually lose a skill you previously had; that can definitely be wildly upsetting and traumatizing to go through. not to mention the horror of navigating the world as a disabled person, being treated as lesser and like you can't/shouldn't even advocate for yourself. And don't get me wrong, a disabled life does not have to be constantly awful, but i think we all have awful moments where we hate it.

i understand the frustration with abled people ONLY ever creating art about disabled people to coo at how sad and horrible it is, in much the same way that it sucks when every gay character dies. but it's in tension with the very real horror and despair that disabled people often experience. in this way, playing with body horror as a discussion about disability can be very powerful (look at Metamorphosis).

pregnancy.

lots of people think pregnancy is inherently horrific! and it sure can be, for a lot of different reasons. exploring the body-horror aspect of pregnancy is like. a Trope, and not a bad one.

I have been pregnant - happily, intentionally, zero-regrets-ly - and I can recognize it can still be body horror, even if it doesn't horrify me personally.

and the post begins

because otherwise it gets kind of visually confusing to parse, which is annoying to some folks, including me

GRANTED not everybody uses the same theme or even the same update. you might have noticed my version of tumblr is earlier than yours (I don't like the new button setup)

but still, it's just about being polite