#accidental ableism

[nicole-ashwood]

I get people are (rightfully) mad about how Life is Strange is being handled, but could you seriously not use "brain damaged" as an insult towards writers you don't like? It's already hard enough for people who suffer from traumatic brain injuries to exist in fandom spaces. We don't need to continue with this ableist insult.

Fixed. Sorry. I grew up in the early 2000's in a Mormon household. Even though I am a transgender female AMAB lesbian who's family have cut her out, I still say and do things unconsciously. Still trying to break myself out of calling things retarded (it's still a valid english word that means stunted or restricted, I just find myself misusing it by accident/unconsciously). 🤷🏻‍♀️

[whomst-am-i]

Sometimes internal biases can sneak up on you. Like I respect the hell out of my disabled friends. But. I did not realize I was mentally infantilizing a 30-year old until I was shocked by her saying that she fucks in her electronic bathroom lift. Like. This bitch might be wheelchair bound but she's got mad pussy. No wonder she's so cheerful all the time.

Anyway. Being progressive means working on yourself. All the time.

[booksandbrainsandsoftthings]

That's your internalized ableism speaking :D start working on how to turn that off!

Just because you are disabled does not mean you understand some one else's relationship with their own disability. Just because you feel chronic pain doesn't mean you know how Is someone else's chronic pain feels. You cannot compare your disability to another person's, we all suffer in different ways.

It's not okay to tell someone in pain to man up and not deal with it just because you can do that with your pain.

[tangents-within-tangents]

Thoughts on Echo as amputee/disability representation

First and foremost, I am not disabled or an amputee and I don’t claim to speak for those communities (and if I was I couldn't speak for everyone). What little I do know mostly comes from this youtube channel (@oakwyrm), this post, and other research I’ve done for my writing (and like one amputee I kinda knew in passing). By all means correct me and add to the conversation, I just have some thoughts I want to share because I haven’t really seen this discussed anywhere

Overview

So Echo is interesting. He is a triple amputee which is pretty rare in media. His disabilities come from extremely traumatic circumstances: injured in a near-death experience, imprisoned and dehumanized as an experiment with no autonomy over what happened to his body.

There are a few moments in the shows where Echo is treated… questionably. Like this bit where Rex uses him as an example of the Separatists' evils to convince the locals to fight back:

To be fair, yeah Echo’s treatment does prove that the Techno Union is not neutral like they claim. The modifications that everyone is gasping in horror at here obviously weren’t made with comfort and accessibility in mind, nor with Echo’s consent. But you still just want to be sure that “They took away his freedom, his humanity, they tried to turn him into a machine” is about using him as a living computer, not the fact that he is missing limbs. 

The Batch is also pretty insensitive toward him and his trauma imo, which is weird considering they've supposedly also faced discrimination for their mutations

Disabled people do have to deal with stuff like this in this day and age so I guess it can speak to those experiences. I think especially him being mistaken as a droid (and Hunter going along with it (bruh)) might resonate with some people. 

Aside from that stuff, Echo isn't really treated any differently as a character/person which is really good (as low of a bar as that is).

We get this moment in CW where Echo contemplates that yeah things are gonna be different now

While also (imo at least) showing that he is still the same person regardless, evidenced by the fact that he just echoed Rex :,) I also think it's significant that he joins the Bad Batch on his own terms and we're given a really emotional scene to specifically show that he's not just like 'lumped in with the other misfits' but that it is his choice to go where he feels his place is.

A lot of people, myself included, are disappointed that TBB didn't have more time to explore Echo's PTSD, but I think the one panic attack scene we did get is really good. Even thought it's minor it at least is an appropriate reaction from a guy who was medically tortured (which is more than I've come to expect from Star Wars shows lol)

And it's really sweet to see Omega showing Echo some empathy and consideration.

It would have been nice to see more of his adjustment period, and other side effects like chronic pain and maintenance, but there’s a lot of daily life stuff the show never had time for (i.e. we don’t know if he removed his prosthetics to sleep, but we also never saw him sleep anyway). His disabilities might take on a background role (much like the character himself sadly) but for the most part they aren’t invisible or erased, nor do they define his character and arc.

Physical Appearance

Okay this one is bit dicey, bc on the one hand, yes complaints that Echo’s paleness (most likely caused by burns from the explosion or chemical burns from the cryo-chamber) is whitewashing are totally valid. But I also think you can draw comparisons to real life conditions that affect pigmentation/complexion (like you know burns). So while I understand why a lot of fanart will depict him with his original skin tone and with hair, consider that there are real people who have to live with temporary or permanent changes to their appearance, and the idea of “fixing" him by making him look more like his old self can be problematic.

It's also interesting to note that Echo could act as a reversal of the 'disabled/disfigured = evil' trope. He's pale and bald and wears black and red, which is so often visually associated with villains, but we all know Echo is the bestest boy™

The Headpiece

Echo’s headpiece is interesting because within the show we don’t actually ever learn much about it (idk if there is more info in books or whatever bc i don’t have them so?). He didn’t have it in CW so we know it didn’t come from the Techno Union and therefore Echo probably had more choice with it. We don’t know its exact purpose but it’s most likely related to his scomping abilities. When he is hacking with his scomp in CW, before he has his headpiece, it’s clearly very mentally straining:

We don’t see him struggling like this in TBB once he does have it (though that could be bc he got more used to it over time). There doesn't seem to be much of an impact when he removes his headpiece in s3 ep14-15, except that he gets stuck in the ports every time he uses his scomp which is not something we’ve seen before: 

There might not be an exact real-world equivalent, but the headpiece is some kind of accessibility aid. It means that someone specifically designed a device to help him adapt to the changes the Techno Union made, as well as a helmet that integrates it. It’s removable and visually very present, much like a cochlear implant would be. (A lot of people actually headcanon it to act partially as a hearing aid, since it makes sense that Echo’s hearing would have been damaged in the explosion, but there isn't really any indication of this in canon.) The headpiece is never really acknowledged in the show, but I think that's a good thing. It's something he needs/wants and it just exists, completely normalized, and that's pretty cool 👍

Legs

Sigh... So from the very first episode of TBB I was really disappointed that the animation team or whoever completely visually erased Echo’s prosthetic legs (I think we all were, honestly, if fanart is anything to go by). It’s one thing when he’s in armor because he would probably want to protect his prosthetics, but we literally see him in his blacks and there is no indication whatsoever that he lost his legs even though it was not left up for debate at all in CW:

Like ??????!?

This is just really strange to me! Idk what went on behind the scenes with this decision but I don’t really see why it would be that much harder to animate or anything since it’s 3D and they've done it before. We do see some pretty sophisticated cybernetic technology in Star Wars canon that mimics real limbs:

But Luke’s fancy hand is technically 20ish years from now, so Anakin and Maul are more of a representation of what level we could expect here

So yeah, for no apparent reason, his leg amputation is effectively, visually and narratively nonexistent. Which is not great 👎

Arm!

The scomp on the other hand (uh lol!) is the complete opposite and I kinda love it!

At first I, like many others, thought it was a bit odd that they didn’t give Echo a prosthetic arm. Losing hands is basically a Star Wars tradition at this point, so robotic arms/hands are well established within the worldbuilding: 

We aren’t necessarily given a canon reason for why Echo doesn't get a cybernetic arm (again unless it's in some lore book I haven’t read, sorry). General fanon explanations I’ve seen are that he either couldn’t because the Techno Union wired the scomp too far into his nervous system, and/or the resources to give him one were deemed too expensive for a clone (what about his legs tho?), or that he chose not to, usually because he thought the scomping was useful. 

Regardless, I actually really love this choice (and it's the whole reason I made this post), because here's the thing: There’s a lot of problematic tropes out there that either erase/cure disabilities or compensate them with perks (like how pretty much any blind character is actually not blind by some sort of magic power). With amputees that is done with robotic arms. The character is still an amputee or course, and there is still value in that representation, if this story from Mark Hamill that makes me tear up is anything to go by:

but for the most part these characters function like anyone else, just with a limb that looks a little different. It’s no more than a video game skin, an able-bodied actor with a green screen glove. It “cures” the disability, or it actually makes the character even stronger than usual: 

It usually makes sense within the world of the story, but the reason it’s not so great in my opinion is that in the real world we just do not have technology anywhere close to that yet. Prosthetics can more or less replace any mobility from lost legs, but not for all the complexities of a hand (and even if they could the average person wouldn’t be able to afford it).

So

I think it's actually really super cool that Echo’s scomp bypasses the canonically-established amputee erasure and functions much like a stump would irl. He integrates it into his movements and everyday life and it’s (as far as I know) a lot closer to an everyday amputee’s experience. 

It doesn’t define his character, it doesn’t hold him back, he lives a full life, the other’s don’t treat him any differently, and he’s still a total karking badass 

The only additional thing is that he sometimes uses it as a weapon (which given his story, I think it’s cool to see him taking back autonomy in a way, and we only see that like twice)

And also the scomping, which could be seen as the 'added/compensating superpower' trope. But narratively it's no different than if he was plugging in with a hacking gadget of some kind (he didn't necessarily "need" to lose his arm for it) and it’s not like Echo is completely defined by this skill. Personally, I think it's well worth the positives of him actually having a visible and realistically impactful amputation. 

I see a lot of posts or comments out there that say stuff like “how come Echo doesn’t get a hand?” or fanworks that do give him one and I just think it’s a bit of a shame. If he did get a robotic hand, it just would have disappeared the same way his legs and Anakin’s arm did (aside from that one time he got yoinked by a magnet). When Echo did “get a hand” in the last two episodes there were comments like “yay he finally got a hand! but it doesn’t even work” but I was actually so relieved that it didn’t! Bc for one thing that wouldn’t make any sense, he grabbed it off a droid, it wasn’t designed to implement with his scomp, that would be really complicated. But more importantly because it again refused to erase/cure his disability! It functioned like a real-world cosmetic prosthetic (useless beyond appearance) which is exactly what he needed it for, so that he could blend in better with his disguise.

And he continually took it off throughout the episode and ditched it at the end. He only used it for the necessity of a stealth mission, he doesn’t feel the need to visually “fit in” in his daily life. 

And, last but very much not least, he made a dad joke and from my intel that is very accurate representation!

TLDR: Echo’s scomp is actually really cool from an amputee representation perspective, especially within Star Wars, and I think that deserves some appreciation 

[anti-transphobia]

Random reminder that I HATE Plushie Dreadful!! Those mental illness/disabilities plushes? Typically rabbits? There's been a lot of criticism over them about ableism in the past. Personal feelings about disorders being marketed, formerly partnering with Autism Speaks, etc. But one thing people don't seem to notice is the ableism towards schizophrenics, narcissists, and antisocials! This site with a bunch of beautifly designed rabbit stuffed animals decided to make the schizophrenic and antisocial plushes noticably creepier than most others. The antisocial one at the very least came out cuter than the concept art. But the schizophrenic one is openly based on serial killers. And NPD? The official Twitter account made a poll about what the design should be, made degrading comments about narcissists, and liked comments by people making fun of narcissists. In the end, in order to not make the npd plush TOO special or unique looking, made it a plain brown rabbit with a paper crown (openly saying it's because pwnpd aren't actually special or deserving of a real one). When contacted by pwnpd with criticism/feedback, like they say they accept, they ignored it

Ableism towards disorders people find "scary" or "bad" is still ableism!!! It's still shitty!!!

[justletmeon12]

Got chewed out this week for, among other things, giving the impression that I think I know more about autism than neurotypical psychologists.

Pretending to be neurotypical at work is really fucking annoying sometimes.

[gigifluidcat]

I'm fucking crying. As an Autistic person I feel like I'm seeing a racist joke in a 40s cartoon. ☠️☠️☠️

[raccoonzinspace]

Kind of an odd personal question, but is it ableist for people on the autism spectrum who can pass as neurotypical to use stim toys?

Am I inadvertently stealing resources from other autistic people by using things such as squishes and spinners?

If so, I sincerely apologize for that and I'll stop doing it.

[xxvampkitt3nsnugglz]

unfortunately this doesnt belong on r/unpopularopinion.

[nerves-nebula]

OH that post about facial differences reminds me- what do people with facial differences prefer to be called? Is disfigured/facial disfigurement off limits? I've seen people use it to describe themselves and say that it's not a bad thing to be disfigured, but they might be doing it in like a reclaiming way and idk if it's generally considered neutral or bad to say someone ELSE is disfigured. do y'all prefer the term facial differences? are there other terms i should avoid and/or use more?

[joelletwo]

squinting. no energy. can i explain enough context to even ask. am i low threshold for reading into potential horniness w these two or are they already being horny. over houses extremely metal withdrawal self injury that hes just like. no comment indulging. and kneeling in front of him to not correctly treat as per houses withdrawal self harm instructions. as they both ignore whatsherface [i dont have subtitles idk how to spell her name]

[fennthetalkingdog]

I was just watching the Alt-Right Playbook today and I had the realization that a lot of what the dude was saying about white people could've easily applied to me. Like, I was raised with the same colorblind approach he was talking about, and I haven't started paying attention to race until the last few years (noteably, the intersection of when Trump came to office, when the pandemic happened and all the anti-maskers and qanon folks crawled out of the woodworks, and when I realized I was queer/trans). Since then, I've had a lot of conversations with my parents about race, black history as told by black people, and politics, and I have an actual stance politically other than "Your poltics need to be internally consistent." But I'm having the slow, quite cold realization that, if I'd not been black, trans, and queer—or even if I hadn't been trans/queer—I could've been a much different person than I am today. If I'd been white, then I could've oh so easily fallen into the trap of not seeing racism or not seeing issues as being systemic, and if I'd not been trans/queer (or had trans/queer friends), it's extremely likely that I would've become the kind of "I love people but I don't believe gayness or transness is real" that my parents actively believe. So... I don't really have a punchline or overall conclusion about this. I just wanted to post it to keep myself accountable, I guess.

[spidermanifested]

bido might not be like. disabled in a recognizable real life way but him being a chimera and having gone through LITERALLY dehumanizing medical abuse is a Large Chunk of why i get so pissed off when people "soft sweet baby :)" him. like it hits very personally. as does "the devils nest is a nuclear family and greed is the dad of all the chimeras uwu" im so glad i havent seen that take in a long time i would be forced to start taking drastic measures

[slugass]

GACHA LIFE 2

I’M GONNA TRY THE SHIT OUT OF IT BUT NOT THE GACHA SYSTEM BC I DON’T WANT BLUE CYAN DUDE NAMED AFTER AN ABLEIST SLUR AND GENERIC YANDERE CARICATURE ALSO NAMED AFTER AN ABLEIST SLUR

I DON’T CARE ABOUT THE GACHA SYSTEM I JUST WANT TO MAKE CHARACTERS

[iwanttobepersephone]

Btw, random thought I've been having a lot recently, but you're not ableist for being annoyed sometimes, you're abelist if you use that annoyance to say someone else doesn't deserve something (oversimplification)

If a friend of yours is probably autistic and constantly needs things explained, interrupts without realizing, and is very active and emotional, you're not ableist for needing a break sometimes or getting frustrated. If you tried to say they're not a good person or that they shouldn't be allowed in your friend group because of that, well,, you prolly are, atleast accidentally (I know plenty of people who have done this without realizing, take a second and think if you have before, and if possible I would say to apologize)

If a friend of yours has a physical disability and can never do anything with you, you're not ableist for being sad about it or starting to feel down when all the plans you try to make don't work. It's a different situation if you try to say that they don't get to be sad, it's their fault, or if you don't listen when they find something they can do, though

It's not about thoughts or feelings, it's about actions, and you're not a bad person for not liking someone or for being a bit tired of them sometimes

I'm really only making this post because there are a bunch of people I know irl that throw the word ableist around in situations where it REALLY shouldn't be used, and situations like this are most common.

[agayconcept]

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