meep

I have each students pretend they got hurt and need a band-aid. Children love band-aids. I ask the first one where they are hurt. If he says his finger, I put the band-aid on his finger. Then I ask the second one where they are hurt. No matter what that child says, I put the band-aid on their finger exactly like the first child. I keep doing that through the whole class. No matter where they say their pretend injury is, I do the same thing I did with the first one.

After they all have band-aids in the same spot, I ask if that actually helped any of them other than the first child. I say, “Well, I helped all of you the same! You all have one band-aid!” And they’ll try to get me to understand that they were hurt somewhere else. I act like I’m just now understanding it. Then I explain, “There might be moments this year where some of you get different things because you need them differently, just like you needed a band-aid in a different spot.” 

Whether it be a wheelchair, cane, brace, or something else, please, please use it. If it saves you from pain and struggle, then you absolutely can, and should, use it!!

It's a common response to feel embarrassed or undeserving of aids, but you're worth so much more than that conditioned response. If it helps you more than it hurts, it's yours to use.

And that’s so wrong. That’s just as wrong as assuming non-intersex, cishet middle-class white guys are the Perfectly Normal Human of which everyone else is an imperfect copy.

We’re not made from a mould. We have endless variations and they aren’t divergence from some Perfectly Normal Copy, they’re literally the way life functions. There is no perfect copy. There are only variations, some of which have the privilege of being normalized.

But privileged people see themselves as the default, and “too many differences” can seem “made up” to them, because they’re not used to relating to people who are different. Unfortunately we mentally ill/disabled people absorb this idea too and it’s really hard to unlearn it when we’re stuck in a society that’s constantly reinforcing it.

The fiddle-string snake (Imantodes cenchoa), also known as the blunthead tree snake, is a species of rear-fanged colubrid snake endemic to Mexico, Central America, and South America. They are known for their slender bodies and large heads, of which the eyes make up 26%. Their excellent vision helps them hunt for frogs, lizards, and reptile eggs.