EDIT: Updated the post to put all new Gilrs in one place!
EDIT: Updated the Pocahontas picture!
Modern Disney Girl – MERIDA!
Why short hair?
Merida was a young, teenage rebel. In the movie, she was always against the way of princess lifestyle. And her hair show this very good – in her times woman should braid her hair, cover them – but she always had this “mess” on her head.
What would modern Merida do? She would cut her hair, because many of people would say to her – you have such a lovely, curly, red hair, you should be so proud, don’t shave it, cut it…
But she would surely do that. That fits her character.
Cohabitation in the Twenty-first Century: Rules and Guidelines by Steve Rogers and Bucky Barnes (a fic by notallbees & lickerswish, resident tumblr grannies)
—
lickerswish and I started writing stupid rules for Steve and Bucky living together post-Winter Soldier, and then it somehow morphed into this!?
You can also read on Ao3 😀 (we love kudos: it gives us queer superpowers <3)
(also, if you have trouble reading their stupid super soldier handwriting, drop me a line for the typed version)
This whole thing started because I was bitching about my roommates to notallbees over IM. Everyone who’s ever told me my negative attitude would get me nowhere in life must be feeling preeeettttty stupid right now, huh?
And yes we are the most badass grannies on Tumblr. Clear the road, everyone.
I have to say that a text version of this story hosted online in an easily accessible place rather than being something a reader has to request would be really useful. My partner, who is dyslexic and has visual sensitivity that leads to regular migraines tried to read this fanwork as-is and couldn’t. I haven’t read it, but I am autistic and have associated sensory sensitivity. Both of us use the Reversi theme on AO3 – light text on black background – to reduce the amount of light we have to expose our eyes to, and image files can’t be reversed. I understand the beauty of fanworks that theme themselves after ephemera – letters, notes – but when there is no text version or alt text, they’re also completely inaccessible to screen readers, which people with visual distortion or blindness need to translate text to an audible format. Having a text version is great, but having it be something that people have to petition to read is kind of awkward, and a bit of a barrier to those of us who have social phobias about initiating contact with strangers. It’s an accessibility issue, I guess is what I’m saying.
Paste: The way that the word “compliant” is used, and takes on these incredible sinister connotations throughout the first issue…when did you arrive on that?
DeConnick: Everyone who works in the medical field hates me for that choice, by the way. Apparently, non-compliant patients are nothing you want to cheer for. I don’t remember making that decision. This is a thing I see with my daughter. My daughter is a very spirited 4-year-old girl. And with my daughter more than with my son — when my son is, let’s say spirited, it tends to be, “Boys do that; that’s boys.” And it’s chuckled at, if not encouraged. And when my daughter has initiative or is disagreeable or has a different idea about how she wants to do things, she’s a pain in the ass. She’s a troublemaker. She needs to smile and act nice and not disrupt the system. And I want so badly to protect this[, this] thing about my daughter that I most treasure right now: Tallulah does not give a fuck if you like her. I am so proud of her for that. And I know that there are parents that that will horrify. Please understand that we have a saying in our home, that you don’t have to be nice, but you must be kind. And what we’re trying to emphasize is you don’t have to be compliant; you don’t have to just go along with the way of things.
I haven’t read Bitch Planet or Pretty Deadly yet, but I have to say I approve of the word usage of ‘complaint’ here. Many people, many of them disabled, many of them female or queer or people of colour, have the label ‘non-compliant’ attached to their files simply because they have opinions about their own medical or psychiatric care that do not mesh with those of their primary physician. This isn’t a benign thing – people’s accounts of their symptoms are dismissed, they are forced into courses of treatment or medications that are unsuitable for them, forced into institutions or even die through improper medical or psychiatric care, all because a physician decided their patient was too uppity and didn’t have a right to independently research their condition or make informed choices about what treatment was right for them. Given that disabled people, women, queer people and POC are more likely to be subjected to these forms of social control by medical practitioners, government agencies and law enforcement, the use of the word compliant rings true to many people who have been subject to the whims of these agencies in the course of their lifetime. Just my two cents, from a disabled autistic queer girl, for whom the world has been difficult, but not as horrific as it has been for some of my fellows.
You’re not unreliable – your health is.
shout out to all my chronically ill people who get shit for being late, for cancelling, because their health prevents them, and feel like jerks because of it. It’s not your fault. (via sickfacemcgee)
EXCEPT, what people need to realise is that ‘person-first’ is not the only way and that for certain people and certain groups, ‘identity-first’ language is preferred by many of their number, the d/Deaf/HoH and a/Autistic communities in particular. (neurowonderful has a good links post about identity-first language in the a/A community HERE.) If someone tells you they prefer identity-first language, RESPECT THIS. Don’t feel that it’s your place to tell them they’re wrong/not PC, explain to them that they ‘are not their illness/disability’ or that they’re ‘letting their illness/disability define them’, or ‘giving in to their illness/disability’.
Disability being seen as an exclusively ‘negative, dehumanising’ thing is incredibly problematic. A disability is a thing a disabled person/person with a disability has to live with. It impacts their day to day life, health and abilities. It does not make that person any less human than anyone else. You know what does that? Telling that person what they’re allowed to call themselves or identify as.
IT IS NOT YOUR DECISION. IT IS NOT YOUR CHOICE. IT’S THEIRS.
If you don’t know what form of language to use with someone, take your cues from them or ask them, ‘what do you prefer?’ if it’s important for your interaction.
And don’t use reclaimed words unless you’re entitled to use them. Someone with mobility issues calling themselves a cripple? Someone with mental health issues calling themselves crazy? They’re allowed to. You calling them or someone else that without permission or prior consent? Don’t.
Awww yeah cripple punk all night cripple punk all day
though I’m more of a soft grunge cripple myself
exhibit number infinity of ableist assholes trying to police disabled people’s identity and proving what narrow-minded eugenicist wastes of space they are.
as an autistic person, there is a huge difference between me acknowledging i’m not able to do something because of my disability, and other people assuming i’m not and trying to speak for me
the former is me accepting my limitations, the later is people limiting me
we autistic people can speak for ourselves, maybe not in the way allistic people would expect, but we can. all of us can. you just have to learn our way of doing so instead of forcing us to learn your ways and treat us as burdens if we can’t
The way that we learn about Helen Keller in school is an absolute outrage. We read “The Miracle Worker”- the miracle worker referring to her teacher; she’s not even the title character in her own story. The narrative about disabled people that we are comfortable with follows this format- “overcoming” disability. Disabled people as children.
Helen Keller as an adult, though? She was a radical socialist, a fierce disability advocate, and a suffragette. There’s no reason she should not be considered a feminist icon, btw, and the fact that she isn’t is pure ableism- while other white feminists of that time were blatent racists, she was speaking out against Woodrew Wilson because of his vehement racism. She supported woman’s suffrage and birth control. She was an anti-war speaker. She was an initial donor to the NAACP. She spoke out about the causes of blindness- often disease caused by poverty and poor working conditions. She was so brave and outspoken that the FBI had a file on her because of all the trouble she caused.
Yet when we talk about her, it’s either the boring, inspiration porn story of her as a child and her heroic teacher, or as the punchline of ableist, misogynistic jokes. It’s not just offensive, it’s downright disgusting.
the reason the story stops once hellen keller learns to talk is no one wanted to listen to what she had to say
how’s that for a fucking punchline
It’s not that I disagree that we should all be aware of what a badass Helen Keller became, because she had a long and amazing career as an activist and yes, a feminist hero. It’s that somehow when people talk about the ableism of the way Helen’s story is told they always seem to forget this: Anne Sullivan, her teacher, was blind. Seriously. From Wikipedia:
“When she was only five years old she contracted a bacterial eye disease known as trachoma, which created painful infections and over time made her nearly blind.[2] When she was eight, her mother passed away and her father abandoned the children two years later for fear he could not raise them on his own.[2] She and her younger brother, James ("Jimmie”), were sent to an overcrowded almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (today part of Tewksbury Hospital). He, who suffered a debilitating hip ailment, died three months into their stay. She remained at the Tewksbury house for four years after his death, where she had eye operations that offered some short-term relief for her eye pain but ultimately proved ineffective.[3]“
Eventually some operations did restore part of her eyesight, but by the end of her life she was entirely blind. Also:
"Due to Anne losing her sight at such a young age she had no skills in reading, writing, or sewing and the only work she could find was as a housemaid; however, this position was unsuccessful.[2] Another blind resident staying at the Tewksbury almshouse told her of schools for the blind. During an 1880 inspection of the almshouse, she convinced an inspector to allow her to leave and enroll in the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, where she began her studies on October 7, 1880.[2] Although her rough manners made her first years at Perkins humiliating for her, she managed to connect with a few teachers and made progress with her learning.[2] While there, she befriended and learned the manual alphabet from Laura Bridgman, a graduate of Perkins and the first blind and deaf person to be educated there.”
So Anne Sullivan, disabled and born into serious poverty, learns the manual alphabet from a deaf and blind friend; passes that alphabet on to her deaf and blind student. This isn’t the story of an abled-bodied teacher swooping in to ‘save’ a disabled child; it’s a series of disabled women helping each other. Helen Keller’s story is the story not of one badass disabled woman, but of two. Anne and Helen were lifelong friends; Anne died holding Helen’s hand.
Also is there a book called “The Miracle Worker”? I thought that was the movie/movies based on “The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller. But I could be wrong. And I didn’t learn any of this in school in general but that’s neither here nor there.
I can recommend the ‘62 version of “The Miracle Worker” with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. It’s blatant about Sullivan’s impoverished background and eye problems – her rage on Helen’s behalf isn’t abstract at all, it’s very, very personal. And that’s the most amazing thing about this movie: Anne and Helen are the angriest people on earth. I have no idea if that was erased from the remakes but in the original they are both allowed to have a ton of anger about what has been done to them and what they have been denied.
Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. Here’s a picture of Helen Keller meeting Charlie Chaplin:
omfg I am so mad right now because not only did the kids biography of Helen Keller I read when I was younger erase all her activism, but it very explicitly completely erased anything about Anne being blind herself.
There were scenes of her WATCHING Helen from across the room or yard, and it was all very “oh my, I just MUST save this poor little disabled girl, no other deaf blind person has EVER BEEN EDUCATED and basically it was awful and shitty.
I think everyone should read Helen and Teacher. It’s an absolute brick of a book, hundreds of pages, but it is wonderful. It’s about their whole lives, right up to Helen’s death in old age. It talks about Helen’s feminism, socialism, and campaigning for everything from equal rights to sexual health. Helen Keller was not a syrupy, greeting card girl who existed to make able people feel warm and fuzzy, she was a tireless academic, political activist and writer. She was making noise about the issues she cared about from the moment her partnership with Annie Sullivan began, and she never stopped.
Living your life now and doing things you care about.
Not putting your life on hold waiting for a cure
But, some kinds of acceptance talk end up putting destructive kinds of pressure on people. And I think:
It’s ok to like or dislike being disabled. It’s ok to like some aspects of your condition but not others
It’s ok to want treatment and to be frustrated that it isn’t available
It’s ok to pursue treatment that *is* available
It’s ok to work hard to gain or keep certain physical or cognitive abilities, and to be happy or proud that you have them
It’s ok to decide that some abilities aren’t worth keeping, and to be happy or proud about moving on from them
All of those things are very personal choices, and no one’s business but your own
None of them are betrayals of acceptance or other disabled people
The point of acceptance is to get past magical thinking.
It means seeing yourself as you actually are, without being consumed by either tragedy or the need to focus on overcoming disability. It means accepting where you are, and living now, without putting your life on hold waiting for a cure.
Acceptance creates abilities. Acceptance makes it easier to be happy and to make good decisions. But acceptance does not solve everything, and it does not come with an obligation to love absolutely every aspect of being disabled.
knitting in the dark 