the octagonal table

sigurdbaggins:

Happy Towel Day!

(via fourteenacross)

clawfoottub:

quietbang:

quietbang:

You are right to be angry about the erasure of a character of colour, particularly as it seems to have been done purely for sexiness reasons, and that’s wrong on so many levels it’s hard to even begin
(and the idea of it being open casting is bullshit too, because it might have…

This is the thing, right? Like, this happens everywhere but

especially in the US, where I’ve found that strangers feel no qualms about approaching you in public (note that I have only ever gone to the states for wheelchair basketball, and I have to admit that the sight of 12 women in wheelchairs is unusual if nothing else) and telling you that they’re praying for you, or that you’re an inspiration, that if they live the life you do they would just sit and cry— and politeness dictates that you smile and nod, rather than scream THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME! Like, the parts of my life that are difficult are the chronic pain parts and the serious illness parts- things that actually have very little to do with why I use a wheelchair, and which able-bodied folk experience all the freaking time. Disability is not a character flaw, and it is not an impediment to ‘happily ever after’, and we are not your inspiration porn. And it’s important, ok, it’s important to see yourself in the media you consume and the things that your society values, and it’s important for those people to be real and not drains on society- and it’s one of the ways that, imho, disability representation lags behind other minority representations, because the tropes where a PoC is brought in to teach a moral lesson are fuckingfinally disappearing/have disappeared, but disabled people are still there to be a morality tale, and that’s wrong.

Well, I wouldn’t say that trope has gone away entirely—didn’t The Help win an Oscar like three weeks ago? I’m always losing track of what year it is.

But OH GOD when they want to hug me! I can kind of put up with “I’m praying for you” because for a lot of people it just means “I’m thinking of you warmly”, but it’s still annoying because A)Jesus is not going to regrow my spine, particularly given that was the problem in the first place, v. bad choice of miracle, and B)thanks for reminding me that I can make strangers sad just by existing. And my most favorite, “What happened to you?”. I heard it literally almost every day. At my old job, I heard it multiple times a day, an average of one every three hours. It’s motivated by concern, but it makes me think about how my presence makes people confused and sad, and forces me to decide whether I want to bring them down by discussing my medical history or just blow them off.

This really turned into Gripe Time! But back to fandom, it’s really astounding that there are times Charles isn’t evil. Because he can read people’s thoughts about him and also kill them with his brain.

Oh fucking motherfuck, The Help- I think I’d repressed that.

Uggh. Yeah, the ‘what happened’/ ‘what’s wrong with you’- deeply angering. Like, I wouldn’t go up to a stranger and ask them to recount what is potentially their most painful memory, cos, you know- I have manners.

And yes, Charles is a better person than I - if I had telepathy, I predict there would be a sudden and apparently inexplicable murder spree.

quietbang:

You are right to be angry about the erasure of a character of colour, particularly as it seems to have been done purely for sexiness reasons, and that’s wrong on so many levels it’s hard to even begin
(and the idea of it being open casting is bullshit too, because it might have…

This is the thing, right? Like, this happens everywhere but especially in the US, where I’ve found that strangers feel no qualms about approaching you in public (note that I have only ever gone to the states for wheelchair basketball, and I have to admit that the sight of 12 women in wheelchairs is unusual if nothing else) and telling you that they’re praying for you, or that you’re an inspiration, that if they live the life you do they would just sit and cry— and politeness dictates that you smile and nod, rather than scream THERE IS NOTHING WRONG WITH ME! Like, the parts of my life that are difficult are the chronic pain parts and the serious illness parts- things that actually have very little to do with why I use a wheelchair, and which able-bodied folk experience all the freaking time. Disability is not a character flaw, and it is not an impediment to ‘happily ever after’, and we are not your inspiration porn. And it’s important, ok, it’s important to see yourself in the media you consume and the things that your society values, and it’s important for those people to be real and not drains on society- and it’s one of the ways that, imho, disability representation lags behind other minority representations, because the tropes where a PoC is brought in to teach a moral lesson are fuckingfinally disappearing/have disappeared, but disabled people are still there to be a morality tale, and that’s wrong.

bakerstreetdetective:

Will is friend not food.

(via fourteenacross)

Holy fuck you guys, Scott Thompson is in Hannibal, what the actual fuck.

You are right to be angry about the erasure of a character of colour, particularly as it seems to have been done purely for sexiness reasons, and that’s wrong on so many levels it’s hard to even begin
(and the idea of it being open casting is bullshit too, because it might have been but this is the same shit they said about Artie in Glee and everyone who is a performer or even who lives in the world and is queer or crippled or a person of colour knows that ‘open casting’ means ‘we’ll take the able-bodied white guy, thanks’.)

But I want to say- that feeling you’re all having now, like something has been taken from you, ripped away by men who have more power and who always will-
that’s what I felt like when Barbara Gordon walked again
that’s what I felt like the first, second, and third times Professor X walked again only to be re-paralysed
that’s what I feel like when a last-second, miracle cure/deal with the devil ‘saves’ the protagonist from what the author seems to assume to be a lifetime of misery
that’s what I feel like when my life is used as a morality tale.

and that’s what I feel like every time you write a derivative work that erases or ignores Charles’ canon disability.
Especially when you do it for ‘the sake of a happy ending’.

Will Graham is my spirit animal. And his animals are, in turn, my spirit animal’s spirit animals.

disabledtalk:

“Teachers have held up Helen Keller, the blind and deaf girl who overcame her physical handicaps, as an inspiration to generations of schoolchildren. Every fifth grader knows the scene in which Anne Sullivan spells water into young Helen’s hand at the pump. At least a dozen…

iamrnb:

quietbang:

I got all emotional in the Build-A-Bear Workshop because of this. It’s crazy expensive, but, like… When I think of how badly I wanted something like this as an itty-bitty bb cripple, my heart does a squishy thing. I cannot overstate the importance of seeing people like you in the things you consume and play with.

Agreed, now where are the build-a-bear accessory Crutches, Walkers, and other mobility aids.

They had those too! I was crying, and seriously, it’s sketchy enough to be an unaccompanied adult in a Build A Bear shop, let alone one who’s apparently going through some kind of emotional crisis. There were walkers, crutches, and spina bifida style braces.

Building Radical Accessible Communities Everywhere, dis/diss/differently/abled by Sprinkles McGillicuddy (via fabianromero)

(via projectqueer)