#And I remember seeing this post that Longtail retiring is not really a show of the continuous ableism in the series but rather that Longtai | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

werewolfcave · 1 year ago

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tags by @bumblebeerror

"Cinderpelt should've been a warrior, cats can function perfectly fine with 3 legs" "Jayfeather could've been a warrior, blind cats navigate well with their other senses" "Briarlight could've gone on patrols, have you seen how well cats with paralyzed legs get around?" OK but that's not the point at all. Let's stop talking about that. It doesn't matter if it's technically true. The books present us with these situations where we, as readers, are meant to understand that these characters are unable to fulfill the same duties that their able bodied Clanmates can, regardless of the accuracy to real cat biology. The lens we need to use to examine disability in Warriors isn't "can they function like abled cats?" It's "If they can't function like abled cats, what are their choices and what does their quality of life look like? How are they treated?" Because that's where the real issues are.

#this is genuinely a very good point #like yes Jayfeather could have been a warrior he could have learned but because of his dream sight they weren't willing to accommodate #for him in that way. Additionally Brightheart only GOT that accommodation because Cloudtail put in the time and effort to accommodate for #her in a way the rest of the clan was not nearly as willing to do. This comes back to the very real question that disabled people face and #that is the question of how are we accommodated for? It's not like WC has the fucking ADA or anything there is no law telling them to #accommodate for their clanmates so instead it is up to the cats who genuinely care to help because it is the right thing to do it's how we #continue to survive is we help eachother and we do see snippets of this with the care elders are shown but often disabled characters are #not given that same kindness OR are shoved in the elders den. Longtail is an interesting example because he both chose to retire and #is accommodated for by Mousefur who guides him along and helps him get a better picture of what's going on #And I remember seeing this post that Longtail retiring is not really a show of the continuous ableism in the series but rather that Longtai #no longer felt fit to be a warrior while he is adjusting to his blindness. And that post resonated with me as someone who suddenly #became somewhat significantly disabled out of the blue after getting COVID and how it was a struggle for me to do my regular activities #anymore. I even had to stop sitting at my desk and started laying on my bed due to the levels of exhaustion.#this then wraps back around to OP's point of what are the choices they have what is the quality of life they will now face and when we look #at how being accommodated is not entirely the norm we understand that question more and more. I find that reading the disabilities #in this book series under this lens very much lends more to my experiences as a disabled person because I find that there ARE things #I either can't do or genuinely struggle to accomplish and would not want to be continuously doing as my day job or something not if I had #literally any other option.#wc

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