the issue of 'herp derp'.
okay, so this is probably going to lose me followers but whatever. no one here seems to be saying anything even though there’s a lot of people going NUH UH all over livejournal, so here it is.
herp derp is ableist. it really is, okay. i literally flinch every time i see someone using it, which is ALL THE TIME. it’s all over my dash, all over my follow list - and it’s unavoidable. i don’t think i’ve come across anyone who’s never used it. but it’s just so offensive, it’s unbelievable.
to be fair, i think it’s just a case of not being aware this time round. i remember the first time someone pointed it out to me, and i was like, i thought it was a caveman thing /dies.
so yeah. if anyone reads this, please keep it in mind. it may sound funny but this meme originated from captioning pictures of people in wheelchairs, or people with lopsided expressions. not cool.
Glossary of Ableist Terms to avoid
autistichoya.comI was reminded that I need to avoid using ableist terms like “idiot,” “stupid,” “dumb.” I may have a right to reclaim “crazy” and certain other slurs because of my depression and anxiety, but many ableist terms I’ve used do not fit under my experience. So I’m going to cut them completely out of my vocabulary. This glossary is a good resource for doing that.
Let's talk about spoons
Have you heard of The Spoon Theory? Well a lot of people in the social justice community have. Instead of respecting and trying to understand what this analogy does for people with invisible disabilities and how we suffer daily, they’ve taken it to mean anything that upsets them, especially in the context of dealing with social justice issues.
Yeah, I get it. It sucks repeating the same thing about feminism or any other oppression and can get frustrating and tiring. However it is nothing like having a chronic disability like lupus.
I would know, I’m disabled. I may not have lupus, but i suffer from other things like IBS. I never knew real chronic fatigue and pain until IBS. What a normal person might call out sick for, I just have to deal with because then I’d be calling out sick every fucking day. I still miss a lot of work because of these symptoms, but luckily am protected by fmla.
Sometimes the hardest things to do is wake up in the morning. If I do a task that is more than sedentary, I can be in pain for days. When I am unable to eat because my IBS makes me nauseous, I barely have the energy to get through the day.
This is what the author of The Spoon Theory was trying to convey. Chronic illness is invisible, only we know how we get through everyday, and just like she says it comes with making choices about what you will do that day, because it sure as hell will affect you tomorrow. It explains why we can’t do simple things after a little bit of activity. It explains the limitations put on our life because of our illness.
So when some SJ idiot starts saying they don’t “have the spoons” to deal with something someone said was offensive, I’d wish they’d shove it up their ass.
If you use this expression and are not disabled, you are appropriating a term meant specifically for people who suffer from chronic fatigue and pain. You’re ignoring the true spirit of the analogy and are being an ableist fuckhead for reducing our daily struggle to get by with something that just upsets you.
Even if you are disabled, using that expression to refer to something that is just frustrating and you don’t want to deal with belittles the meaning and what we are trying to convey.
So stop it. It doesn’t make you look more socially aware, just fucking stupid.
Edit: And just to clarify, I suffer from depression and anxiety too, and they certainly have a physical effect that can be explained with the spoon metaphor. The whole concept started from “but you don’t look sick”, which is the host of the article I linked to, and applies nicely to all invisible illnesses that bring chronic pain and fatigue, that make every day a daily battle but you can’t explain to your coworkers, your friends, your family, because they don’t experience it. This is why I hate when the spoon theory is taken out of disability context and made into way to say “i’m frustrated with this argument” in social justice discussions.
Also for clarification purposes, this rant was made in response to what happened on shakesville.
Ableism is mentally ill people having to “act the part” to get taken ‘seriously’ (as if) by the medical industry.
I do my makeup to look “sicker”. I know people who have had to shave their heads to be admitted to inpatient, or who go to the ER in stocking feet so the doctors don’t just brush them off.
They don’t give a fuck how we feel, they care how we look and act outwardly. We don’t matter unless we make other people uncomfortable and then they just want to make us go away.
About “productivity”. What does it mean to be “productive”?
youarenotyou.tumblr.com“The notion of productivity is rooted in capitalist (and, it follows, ableist) ideas about an individual’s value. It is important that we be “productive”, not only when we are at work, but at all times. And what does it mean to be productive? When we are hard on ourselves for not being productive enough, what do we mean? We can try to define what productivity means for ourselves on an individual level, but I don’t believe we can separate it from the aforementioned capitalist and ableist ideas. Especially for those of us struggling with disabilities, I think this is one of the biggest, most common, and frequently unchallenged ways of internalizing ableism and perpetuating it on ourselves and others.”
“I said to myself, ‘I’m not going to let this happen to another mother'.”
—[TW: murder of an autistic person]
Nicki Pecchenino, the mother of a 15-year-old with autism, IN SYMPATHY WITH A MURDERER OF AN AUTISTIC PERSON.
If anyone wants to know why I fight so fucking hard, it’s because news stories like this exist. Because the only way this is a sympathetic story is to sympathize with a FUCKING MURDERER. Someone who murdered their own son because he was autistic.
Because the real tragedy is on the part of the murderer. FUCK YOUUUUUU.
aboutmaleprivilege, you can no longer call yourself an "intersectionality-aware space".
5 days, a Deaf person politely requested a transcript several times on an audio post on aboutmaleprivilege.tumblr.com
Not only was this request denied, a moderator (read: Redd) called him a “fucktrumpet”, accused him of “harassment”, and even of calling her a racial slur.
5 days later, no evidence of the racial slur or harassment has been provided. I can only assume that Redd considers asking for a transcript “harassment”.
I hate the phrase, but Redd, you need to check your Hearing privilege. You are so caught up in it that you believe the only possible reason someone could have requested a transcript was because they were racist and/or wanted to harass you, instead of, you know, actually being Deaf.
It would have taken you next to no effort to provide a transcript. Another blog has done so, and you were even linked to the text. All it would have required is a quick copy and paste. And instead of doing so, you continued showing your hearing privilege and acting like a spoiled, stubborn child, until Callan kindly added the transcript, 4 days after the incident.
The audio post has now been completely removed.
To this date, an apology has not been provided by the blog officially, nor the moderator responsible, although few of the mods have come forward with personal apologies.
I feel as if I should also mention one of the mods made a post on her personal blog calling the Deaf person in question a “dick”, and posting “proof” that he had harassed Redd and called her racial slurs. The proof? An old post stating his blog was not a personal blog, and that he had once reblogged someone the mod disliked. This was clearly some kind of pathetic attempt to discredit him and derail the discussion about the incident, instead of owning up to the mistake.
aboutmaleprivilege, you are an ableist blog. You refuse to accommodate those who are disabled, even when your mistakes are pointed out to you. You are so far caught up in your own Oppression Olympics that you believe the only possible reason a transcript may have been requested was because of racism. Newsflash: not everything is about Redd’s skin colour. A Deaf person simply wanted to know what was going on in an audio post; it has nothing to do with your race and to continue to attempt to claim this is pathetic.
You are ableist. You will continue being ableist until an apology is issued from the blog and the mod in question. You cannot claim to be an intersectionality-aware space, yet refuse to accommodate those who are disabled.
Check your Hearing privilege.
-ModB
(For those who are interested, here is an official summary of what has been dubbed “Transcriptgate”)
Five Things About Ableism You Should Know
disabledfeminists.com
Ableism is discrimination against people with disabilities, including the expression of hate for people with disabilities, denial of accessibility, rejection of disabled applicants for housing and jobs, institutionalised discrimination in the form of benefits systems designed to keep people with disabilities in poverty, etc.
Read the whole article here.
