hello

It’s true that my disability is a burden to me sometimes, but not in a way most people would think. I think people assume that I would want to be cured so that I could walk or drive or do things like that. But really the biggest hurdle to me is the social stigma surrounding disability. People only pay attention to people with disabilities if they can use them as inspiration, porn, or as cute little sidekicks to boost their ego, but as soon as they get bored they just kind of cast us aside and move on. I wish that people wouldn’t patronize me, I wish that people would be attracted to me, or not act like they deserve a special place for being attracted to me. I wish that they would take me as seriously as an adult, because I’m 24 years old and people still talk to me like I’m a small child. 

It’s not so much that I want to be able-bodied, but I would kill to just have 10 minutes to not be perceived as disabled. Just 10 minutes. Because sometimes it really does wear you down and it is really upsetting. You can’t just pick and choose which parts of someone are salvageable and make a new person out of that because that’s just not how life works. My disability has influenced every other aspect of my identity. So, if you reject my disability you reject every other part of me. 

I feel like the issue at the crux of that whole cure question is “Would you rather exchange your disability if you could have a wholeness of your humanity instead?” but I would counter that my disability is my humanity. Just because someone is disabled that doesn’t automatically mean that their quality of life must be inherently less than an able-bodied person. I have more strength and wisdom and experience in my pinky finger than most able-bodied people do in their entire body. 

Matthew Fox

John Lennon

Paul McCartney

Ringo too I’m pretty sure

Phil Spector, although he’s now in jail for killing a lady he beat on Ronnie Spector for years and still got into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

Axl Rose

Vince Neil

Sean Penn

Charlie Sheen

Jim Morrison tried to set fire to his girlfriend

Stephen Segal

Tommy Lee

Ozzy Osbourne

Mickey Rourke

Bill Murray

Gary Busey

Tom Sizemore

Christian Slater

James Caan

Josh Brolin

Edward Furlong

I could go on.

The point isn’t that the men on the left don’t deserve everything bad they have coming to them.  The point is where the fuck is all the outrage when the men on the right do it.  So many of our pop culture heroes are abusers and nobody seems to care.

Like, even if we’re gonna stick to the NFL, Ben Roethlisberger patiently sat out his six game suspension for rape and continued on with his career with little outrage. 

Gary Oldman - hit ex-wife Donya Fiorentino repeatedly about the face with a telephone receiver in front of their two children.

Sean Connery - thinks an openhanded slap is justified if a woman is a “bitch, or hysterical, or bloody-minded.”

Josh Brolin - was arrested for abusing Diane Lane in 2004.

Glen Campbell - beat Tanya Tucker and on one occasion knocked her teeth out. Glen actually received a tribute at the 2012 Grammy Awards—the same year that Chris Brown received so much vitriol for performing.

Jonathan Rhys Meyers - was arrested in 2005 after he was accused of beating up his teenage girlfriend and throwing a cellphone at her. The 27-year-old actor later made a counter allegation that the 18-year-old girlfriend had assaulted him. The warring couple were both questioned at a London police station before being released on bail. He was also verbally abusive and threatening to a woman who tried to help him up off the floor during one of his drunken airport episodes. “Don’t you know who I am?” Yes dear, you’re the King of fucking England.

Harry Morgan - best known for his role as Col. Sherman Potter in the television series “MASH,” was accused in July 1996 of beating his wife.

Sean Bean - has been arrested for harassing an ex girlfriend and has been reported for domestic assault.

Tommy Lee -pleaded no contest in April 1998 to a felony charge of spousal battery against his wife, former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson. Lee received a three-year suspended prison sentence, was required to spend 180 days in jail and ordered to pay a total of $6,200 to a shelter for battered women. Anderson, who filed for divorce shortly after the incident, reportedly had hoped her husband would be spared jail time.

Roman Polanski - raped of a 13-year-old girl before fleeing the country.

Eminem - Wrote the song “Kim” about abusing his wife.

Here’s the lyrics: 

Kim: “Baby you’re so precious/Daddy’s so proud of you/Sit down bitch/If you move again I’ll beat the shit out of you”

Kim: “There’s a four year old boy lyin’ dead with a slit throat/In your living room, ha-ha/What you think I’m kiddin’ you?/You loved him didn’t you?”

Kim: “[sound of his wife choking] NOW BLEED! BITCH BLEED!/BLEED! BITCH BLEED! BLEED!”

Wrote a song, “‘97 Bonnie and Clyde,” about murdering his wife and disposing of his body in the presence of his child

‘97 Bonnie and Clyde: “Oh where’s mama? She’s takin a little nap in the trunk/Oh that smell (whew!) da-da musta runned over a skunk”

‘97 Bonnie and Clyde: “And mama said she wants to show how far she can float/And don’t worry about that little boo-boo on her throat/It’s just a little scratch - it don’t hurt, her was eatin/dinner while you were sweepin and spilled ketchup on her shirt”

‘97 Bonnie and Clyde: “Here, you wanna help da-da tie a rope around this rock? (yeah!)/We’ll tie it to her footsie then we’ll roll her off the dock”

Made fun of Tommy Lee and Pamela Anderson’s domestic abuse case in “The Real Slim Shady”

Elvis Presley - According to “Elvis Presley. The Man. The Life. The Legend.” written by Pamela Keogh. Elvis was immensely abusive towards Priscilla. He was stationed overseas during WWII where they met. He often lied to her parents to get her to spend the night. He would have sex with her, and would give her amphetamines. (The amphetamines were distributed by the Army to help him sleep, and he gave them to everybody.) When the war ended and he went home, he forced her to come with him. She was expected to sit at home while he had affairs. He didn’t even want to marry her, it was simply a publicity stunt. Elvis was immensely controlling. He made Priscilla dress the way he wanted (and would yell at and insult her when she wore something that he didn’t approve of), do her hair the way he wanted, and wear as much make up as he wanted her to. 

i mean, lately, it’s presumably because the hit broadway musical hamilton is out there reminding everyone that tjeff was The Worst. but i’m gonna take this opportunity to give you a run-down of every historic reason why tjeff was The Worst

i could end the list at “slave owner”

furthermore, he was even more racist than most 18th century racists. i don’t have the time or energy to list all the racists things he did, but there are a lot, just google it

like when his pal tadeusz kosciuszko died he stipulated that the money from his american estate should be used to free and educate jefferson’s slaves and in response he was like. “i can’t read suddenly. i don’t know”

he was a huge hypocrite who claimed to support the ~small independent farmers when the only interests he really cared about looking out for were - you guessed it - the interests of wealthy plantation owners, which is probably his biggest contribution to the legacy of american politics tbh

also, remember how he wrote the declaration of independence - including the original draft where he waxed philosophical about how slavery is an abomination - even though #1-3

sally hemings

he had no idea how the economy works. a good deal of his political career was spent arguing with the federalists about why taxes are bad and banks are scary. one time he tried to ban exports, like, entirely, because he just didn’t foresee any negative consequences to that brilliant idea, apparently

he was a generally obnoxious person who not only spewed baseless accusations against his enemies every time he was challenged on all his horrible ideology, but he didn’t even have the balls to do it himself, he usually employed a whole gang of followers to do his public shit-talking for him

he actually kept a burn book where he collected rumors about people he didn’t like. i wish i was making this up lmao this actually happened!!!

a big fan of indian removal and/or forced assimilation

there’s gotta be a lot else i’m forgetting right now, i’m just thinking off the top of my head

basically he sat around at monticello spinning around in his swivel chair while his slave-concubine brought him bowl after bowl of mac and cheese, meditating on liberty and equality with so much moral myopia he could’ve been the antihero protagonist of an amc prestige drama

jefferson had alexander hamilton over at his house for dinner parties quite a bit (hamilton, for his part, often entertained at his own house but never invited jefferson, i can’t possibly imagine why). and on the wall in his house, jefferson had portraits - actual portraits, hanging, on the wall of his home - of isaac newton, john locke, and francis bacon, bc jefferson was the most pretentious fuck of his time. anyway, at one of these dinners, alexander asked tj who these men in the portraits were (altho no one can ever convince me that he didn’t already know) and jefferson was basically like “these are my personal holy trinity! the greatest men who ever lived!” and then went on about each of their great accomplishments and influences on the world and all. after he finally finishes his spiel, alexander is quiet for some time, looking pensive, and then he says, “well, no, julius caesar was the greatest man who ever lived.”

now, nobody knows exactly why hamilton said this. in general tho there are two theories. for one thing, it’s possible that he just genuinely admired julius caesar as a statesman. that wouldn’t particularly surprise me, knowing what we know about hamilton’s political beliefs (which is a lot). however, even if that is true, i’m more inclined to believe the other prevailing thought, which is that alexander hamilton was a little shit who just liked to say things that he knew would upset thomas jefferson.

and it worked! (it often worked. teej took the bait all the time, so it never lost its appeal.) jefferson, in all his ~enlightened~ capital-r Reasoning and nominal love of small government and rule by “the people,” was shocked into sputtering speechlessness. he could not believe that someone would say such a thing!! to the point where he told this story to other people for decades, like “hey can you believe this? a real person actually said that!!!!” dude was so bothered.