#fandom ableism

fluff isn't ruined by incluing disability

smut isn't ruined by including disability

happy endings aren't ruined by including disability

escapist fantasies aren't ruined by including disability

including disability doesn't require a phd in disability studies

including disability doesn't require a focus on suffering and tragedy

including disability can be as simple as, at minimum, a good faith choice to periodically note how a character interacts with their immediate environment and/or other characters

robby was trying to make sure she didn't fall [while] walking[,] as the cripple was no help with his one good leg

you're telling me this man who spends his time on a swat team when he isn't leading an entire emergency department—with all the physical demands that come with that—is not only "no help," but a useless cripple when it comes to *checks notes* helping guide someone somewhere?*

multiple people commented on your post explaining that you cannot use this word and that it is highly offensive, and you deleted all their comments and restricted who can comment further. i sent an ask saying it was messed up and that you should apologize, and you ignored it.

this is how ableism is perpetuated. this is how it is spread. i am making this post to try to help stop it. please take a moment to reflect on why you thought it was okay to use this word disparagingly in reference to a canon disabled character and apologize. don't try to pretend it didn't happen, and certainly don't try to silence disabled people who were attempting to educate you on why what you did was messed up

I used to be a Harry Potter kid. I have nostalgia for the series just as much as a hate it. Its honestly kinda a weird feeling but I digress. Obvs I dont support JKR and I dont support the series at all, no matter how important it was to me as a kid. The series is icky and I think I recotnized that even as a kid

I remember little ol me reading the books and feeling kinda bummed about Hagrid, cause while I was excited for the rep I didnt like that they made him the reckless bumbling idiot. I felt like he deserved better :( second book only really made that worse (side note, but I had other gripes not just with Hagrid. I always felt kinda icky reading about Crabbe and Goyle an Neville too cause they reminded me of me and some of my friends in my special ed class getting taken advantage by people pretending to be friends because they thought it was funny to fuck with us)

Then the fourth book came and I kinda didnt like the series as much anymore. Between Umbridge being described as ‘toadlike,’ Hagrid being a halfgiant (which could have been a cool exploration of culture, racism against mixed folks, as well as deformimisia but no…) and then they had Moody and I was excited because this was another disfigured person in a teaching role and I really liked Lupin and hoped this guy stuck around

And then they deliberately made him really scary and went through all the trouble to show just how creepy he was… and I know that they had the whole “hes really not that bad” moment with Neville but the whole “torturing and killing a spider” thing was still really gross and I know it wasn’t really Moody but it still hurt because thats how they portrayed him and continued to portray him what little times he showed up

I found the scenes and descriptions of Voldemort over all really disheartening cause he was painted as being inhuman… you could make the argument he was meant to be portrayed as more snakelike and yeah I can see it in some instances but a lot of other stuff is just inexcusable

As much as the series is nostalgic just cause I read it as a kid, it also feels really icky. It felt icky then I think I was just desensitized. It hurts seeing yourself in a book and on a screen being portrayed as a monster and I think it gave me some really bad internalized deformimisia and disfiguremisia :(

This is deformimisia.

Yeah, Harry Potter is filled to the brim with problematic things, and ableism is definitely one. Literally every character who has disabled traits gets mocked, demonized, or infantilized for it.

its "harassing" now to *checks note* tell people if theirs a sterotype in their writing.

Anon Is it reasonable for someone to tell a writer "hey, i'm part of this race/sexual identity/disability that you're writing about, and your depiction is very stereotypical and problematic. You need to take this work down or rewrite it?

A friend of mine considers themself anti-censorship but thinks that if you write about an identity you aren't a part of and receive criticism for it and don't take down/change the work, people are allowed to set you straight. ("Set straight" in this instance means making posts that say "this person is racist/homophobic, so report their account and do not support them", making burner accounts to com- ment on all of their posts about how bad the fic in question is or calling them racist/sexist, or spamming the fic with ag- gressive comments). Their argument is that freedom of expression stops when your expression involves stereotypes or misinformation about marginalized groups, since it affects real people. I'm having a hard time disagreeing with them to be honest.

the response:

no, it is never reasonable or justifiable to harass anybody. period. I have already talked about this before but you (general you) someone is racist or homophobic or a bad person in real life just because they write about fictional stories that are taboo and "problematic" in a way that is "problematic". I have always praised "write whatever you want, however you want" and I mean writers can and should write whatever they want, however they want. what art someone creates does not reflect their real life moral compass or who they are as a person. my advice for your friend is to close the tab and move on. because while I get how frustrating it can get and while their feelings are valid, fanfiction is not an activism and fanfic writers do not owe anybody anything. fanfic writers write for themselves. they don't write for anybody's approval. or at least I write for myself, not for anybody's approval. no, people are not freely allowed to "set someone straight" if it's a hobby that that someone does for themself and their own enjoyment. "but what they write is harmful" actually it's words on a screen that you (still general you) choose to read, you can stop reading anytime you want. and if someone else reads it and thinks "oh everything that is written in this fanfiction must be true in real life because it's portrayed as such in this piece of fiction, I will change my entire moral compass now" then chances are that with or without the fiction they consume, they are already troubled - if they can't separace fiction from reality - and they need help the problem is them not the writer or how they write their fic

no one needs to take anything down because it pissed someone else off. "taking something down because someone else doesn't want people to see it and so they believe they have the power to control what other people see and what can be created" is literally a fascist tool and what censorship means. so your friend cannot claim to be anti censorship if they think a work that offended them specifically should be taken down, otherwise I promise you there would be no fic about taboo contents or "problematic" ships. because these fics still offended someone and there are people (pro censorship folks) who believe these fics should be taken down because it offended them.

anti censorship means no censorship, no censorship means no censorship. it does not mean "works I personally think is morally goop enough can stay but works that I personally find too offensive must go". "but it affects real people". no, it doesn't. it's a work about fictional characters. not you. "but it's about marginalized people who are real" it's still a fictional stories about fictional characters. by your friend's logic, works that contain topics like violence, murder or SA also affect real people because violence, murder and SA happen to real people in real life too. go back and read what I've already said:

"if someone else reads it and thinks "oh everything that is written in this fanfiction must be true in real life because it's portrayed as such in this piece of fiction, I will change my entire moral compass now" then chances are that with or without the fiction they consume, they are already troubled - if they can't separate fiction from reality- and they need help. the problem is them. not the writer or how they write their fic."

also… good luck trying to report works you don't like on ao3, a no censorship site that was created specifically to host and give platform to works that are deemed "offensive, harmful and problematic" by pro censorship folks.

admin answers #anti censorship #profic #writing #writer

writeblr #writers #fanfiction #fanfic #fandom #fandoms writing community #ao3

sterotypes do affect reality. we cannot claim that they don't. "oh but its fiction-"

yes many characters who face racial sterotypes are not real people. because they're sterotypes.

https://compass.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/spc3.12862

Im getting a bit ranty please excuse me