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IDC if you personally like being called "deformed." the vast majority of the visibly different community has shifted away from that word in favor of "visible/limb/facial difference" and you don't get to speak for all of us about our comfort with that word. speak for yourself. don't declare "deformed" to be the appropriate word for everyone with a visible difference and definitely don't accuse "visible difference" of being a euphemism akin to "differently abled"
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can we. can we Please Stop using strabismus as a funny haha joke/as something to be grossed out about. Pretty please everyone
[ID: various screenshots from the wonderfully weird world of gumball. the first has characters with phones in their hands and zombie-like expressions, all with exotropia. the second image shows gumball and darwin dazed from cologne fumes. gumball's left eye notably is exotropic. third image is richard with wall eyed and bloodshot eyes. end ID.]
i've been really excited to watch the new season of gumball but i'm just constantly thrown off by how the artists constantly make fun of strabismus, mostly exotropia (eyes point outward)
i don't get why visible disabilities (or disability in general TBH) are still an acceptable target for jokes in media. real people look like this. why are we making fun of that???
having strabismus doesn't make you silly, disgusting, loopy, or "stupid". it's a real disability and i'm sick of seeing artists using it as a quick and easy visual shorthand :(
strabismus isn't even the only target! someone who has crooked/yellow teeth is untrustworthy. someone who drools is "dumb" and childlike. someone with trouble balancing is drunk/confused/has brain damage. someone who god forbid has facial scars is a villain and wants to kill everyone!!!
all visible differences deserve actual, proper representation. not used to frame us as unintelligent, or make us look scary, or as the ten millionth joke making fun of the way we look. we deserve to be seen as real people. get new material.
Visibly different* people can still be really hot or attractive or good looking. Not "in spite of" our visible difference either. We can just be really hot and people can find us attractive and want to date us. And not despite our visible difference.
Visible difference refers to when your body itself looks different, e.g. a facial difference or limb difference
Hi, writer here!
I don't have any disabilities myself, but a character I'm working with does (a man with erbs palsy), and he's the antagonist. I didn't realize that giving villains disabilities was a trope, but he's always had this disability since he came in my head, and I think it would be wrong to remove it. The main character also has a disability (PTSD), and I was wondering if this... cancels out? I want to make sure I'm not furthering the weird prementioned trope.
Thanks a ton!
Hello!
There's a lot to consider here.
For one thing, it can't exactly "cancel out" because it doesn't really work like that. Disabilities aren't one size fits all. They're different and when it comes to representation, each one comes with its own history of stereotyping, ableist tropes, and social context that needs to be considered.
With this in mind, there are some MAJOR differences between a character with PTSD and a character that has a physical, visible disability -- especially something like Erb's palsy that causes visible differences in their body.
Characters with visible disabilities (and especially those whose disabilities cause visible differences in their body) are almost always portrayed as the villains in their stories. Think of characters like Freddy Krueger (Nightmare on Elm Street), Dr. Poison (Wonder Woman), and most Bond villains.
I don't think I've ever seen a character like this in any role but the villain.
Meanwhile, there are plenty of characters with PTSD who have other roles. Tony Stark (Iron Man) is a hero, Judd Ryder (911 Lonestar) is one of the main protagonists, several characters from the Hunger Games. While I'm sure that are villains with PTSD as well, they're far fewer.
There's also the issue of how villains with PTSD are portrayed versus those with visible disabilities. Many 'villains' with PTSD (Bucky Barnes/Winter Soldier, Jason Todd/Red Hood, etc.) are portrayed as characters that have been through a lot and need healing/love. They usually get a redemption arc.
On the other side of this, visibly disabled villains don't get that. They're portrayed as simply needing to be stopped.
I have... a lot more to say on this subject but the point here is that no, it doesn't "cancel out". If your disabled character is problematic or ableist in some way (which I can't say based on what info is included here), that isn't something that can just be magically fixed by throwing in a character with PTSD.
There are a few things you can do to make some improvements to your concept, though.
First, I'd suggest checking out some of our posts on writing disabled villains. You can find most of them in the pinned post or by looking through the #villains with disabilities tag.
They have a lot of good advice that you might find beneficial.
If you'd like to send another ask with more specific information on your character after you've done that, then we can help with workshopping them.
Cheers,
~ Mod Icarus
DON'T call people with physical/visible differences "deformed/disfigured" unless they're okay with that, please. Don't use it as a term to describe us all.
One person with physical/visible differences isn't the spokesperson for us all. No amount of people saying it's fine will make it universally fine.
I'm not deformed/disfigured. So don't use that on me.
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god imagine what it would've been like to grow up surrounded by people who looked like me and moved like me and being taught to play wheelchair sports from a young age and being shown how to use my limb difference to my advantage and seeing people who looked like me live normal lives. but no i spent most of my life being yelled at for tripping over and taught to wear baggy pants and sat on the sidelines for PE because teachers were worried i'd get bullied so anyway everyone with a congenital limb difference deserves a million pounds and a gun
facial difference culture is seeing your own face used as a joke or storytelling tool instead of just, you know, a face.
Okay I see this is an issue for people besides myself and I guess we're all too nervous to ask the question so we just say the thing and ask for forgiveness if we're wrong and if we are wrong for it, and for Y'all who we're talking about, it probably fucking sucks to have no one just. Fucking ask. And have everyone nervously dance around the subject of Describing Your Body in a well meaning attempt to be sensitive
So I'm taking the plunge to aid in the education of and strengthen our relationship with eachother as a community
People with deformities, is "Deformity"/"Deformed" a fine word to use? is it the preferred word to describe the people in your community?
Yes. Deformity, like disabled, is Not a dirty word. Please use it.
No. There is actually a better term the community generally prefers (tags)
I don't want to speak for the community, but there's a term *I* prefer (tags)
I have complex feelings about it. (tags if comfortable)
I understand where it stems from because I'm in the same boat, and putting it plainly, it's because we live in a shitty world that's given the word a negative connotation and has neglected to go out of its way to teach us jack shit about each other. Regardless of what the most popular answer is, I think this medical terminology deserves to be seen as neutral instead of negative.
Note: I am. Just a person. Please be courteous to the fact that I live a life outside of the internet and am impacted by the things people say to me, even online.
and also keep in mind that I literally do not want to hear from you if you are not a part of this demographic. These people are sorely underrepresented and it is their turn to speak about themselves.
