#diabetes representation

[cripplecharacters]

Hello! First I want to say how much I appreciate this blog, and how cool it is that so many different people from the disability community have come together to share your perspectives on this blog!

Onto my question!

There are numerous characters existing in books, comics, tv shows and movies that have disabilities. Many of them are well known and beloved characters. But 99.9% of the time their disabilities are used as plot devices, traumatic backstory’s, and forgotten unless their disability is useful to add drama or make a slapstick joke. As a fan fiction writer who sees myself in many of these characters, I want to fix this poor and ableist representation when I write these characters. My question is, how can I do that? I want to maintain what makes these characters who they are, including their disabilities, while still keeping them true their development. I want to add that I have researched all of these disabilities in depth, and the information I’m seeking now is how to include them with proper representation.

For example Steve Rogers’ (Captain America) entire origin story is rooted in the erasure of his disabilities. He goes from being disabled and mocked and bullied because of that, to a super hero, who is strong, fast, has enhanced hearing and sight. He’s ‘magically’ cured. What we love about his character is that his newly acquired super powers don’t change his morals and beliefs. But his disabilities have still been erased.

For this character (and other characters who magically go from disabled to abled) would you recommend finding a halfway point? For example, Steve Rogers still gets tall and buff and gains super strength and stamina, but he still some of his disabilities like scoliosis, hard of hearing, or diabetes? Or keeping him how he looks before his transformation, but still having him have his super powers?

Another example (marvel again, because marvel uses disability and subsequent disability erasure as one of its main plot devices) is Bucky Barnes/The Winter Soldier. He is a forequarter amputee who is given a science fiction prosthetic. This prosthetic required invasive surgery and implants (all of which was non consensual). His prosthetic is very strong, stronger than his right arm (even with super soldier serum that already makes him stronger than other humans). This technology doesn’t exist in real life, and this prosthetic (and prosthetics in other media that has amputee characters) is treated like a fix all: like a new arm but even better so then the character who went through dramatic trauma for the plot doesn’t have to be disabled anymore. Here is my conundrum: the winter soldier has a prosthetic left arm that he can fight with is an important part of his character. To not write him as an amputee erases his disability completely, but to write him without his high tech prosthetic also takes away from other important parts of his character. So my question is, when writing this character (and other amputee characters with similar situations) is it best to find a halfway point? Let this character have his advanced super strong and dexterous prosthetic, but have him actually treat it like a prosthetic (for example, he takes it off, doesn’t sleep with it, and knows how to do tasks without it). Or would it be better to make the prosthetic more realistic? As strong as his other arm, he can’t use it like a battering ram, etc. Or would it be more appropriate to find different ways for characters to do what they do without advanced prosthetics?

I would love to hear specific suggestions for these characters but it would be great too if you had some broad suggestions for repairing disability erasure within any existing work of fiction. Thank you so much for all of the hard work you all put into cripplecharacters!!

Hello,

My time has come.

So Steve Rogers is a product of his time. Back when he was created, living with the disabilities he had was far harder. But nowadays we have medications and treatments his creators would've never thought possible- I mean, this was the time when smoking was the treatment for asthma- so consider incorporating those. For some of them, like what's probably rheumatic heart disease from the scarlet fever, a halfway point would probably be best (more on that in a second.) For other things, modern treatments will do just fine. If Howard Stark can create a flying car, he can create iron supplements and blood sugar monitors. Let's see what he has and how he can be accomodated;

Asthma- the serum can strengthen his lungs and lessen the severity, or you can skip that step and instead look at modern treatments for asthma, which include breathing exercises, slowly increasing exercise to improve the body's tolerance, and a lot of medications. Without knowing the type of asthma he has it's hard to know what his asthma attack plan would be, but considering he has no mentioned allergies, it's probably non-allergic persistent. This can be treated with a combination of long-term control medications, which are taken on a set schedule to help prevent asthma attacks, rescue medications that are used as-needed for asthma attacks, and possibly biologics, which are injected medications for people with severe asthma. These medications are a bit similar to immune suppressants, suppressing the body and immune responses that cause asthma attacks. He can also do breathing exercises to strengthen the lungs and slowly build up exercise tolerance. The bigger lungs due to his bigger body should also help.

Diabetes- there's a massive range of insulin pumps, blood sugar monitors, sugar tablets, and whatever else have you that makes life for diabetics. He'd also benefit from a diet plan, which will take in his level of diabetes, what his pancreas can handle, and potential problem areas to create a diet that works for him and helps him avoid hypoglycaemia and hyperglycaemia.

Astigmatism- contacts, or just some form of glasses or goggles. That's assuming his vision is bad enough to need correction at all, because some people with astigmatism can get by without. He's gotten this far without any form of corrective lense and he's not a long-range fighter, so he might not even need them. Still, they would be useful for him to have in his day-to-day life.

Rheumatic fever- this is one of the biggest problems. Rheumatic fever and scarlet fever mess the body up bad, and I'm willing to bet these are what cause his cardiac arrhythmias (irregular heartbeat.) The serum could strengthen his heart. He can also use a vast range of hypotensives (for the high blood pressure,) any number of heart medications, maybe anticoagulants to reduce risk of blood clots, a pacemaker or other implants, maybe surgery to replace damaged heart valves, and regular check-ups on the health of his heart. If all else fails, a heart transplant might be on the table.

Bone deformity- the treatment is going to depend on which bones, the severity of the deformity, and the cause. They didn't specify, so you can find what you think you'd best be able to work with and go from there. Treatments can include surgery, braces, physical therapy, and some medications that can treat the underlying cause.

Scoliosis- probably can just be left alone, maybe a little physical therapy to help him reduce pain. If you've decided he has a severe case, he can get surgery to straighten his spine. (Personally, I would love to see a character with scoliosis who has rib cage deformity.)

Nervous trouble- probably an anxiety disorder, can be treated through a combination of therapy and medication

These writers didn't live in a time where a soldier could have these disabilities, but now we do. There are treatments available for him that can help him, things the writers never could have imagined back in the thirties. He can still be a super soldier with his disabilities.

As for Bucky, take my opinion with a grain of salt because I am not an amputee. But you're right, him losing his arm and Hydra forcing a replacement on him is a huge part of his story and would be incredibly hard to change. The easiest way about it would probably be to keep it the same, he loses his arm and Hydra gives him a new one, but he gets rid of the arm once he's free.

The arm has failsafes in place to protect his handlers and he has no idea what kind of risks it holds, like if it has a tracking device that could lead them right to him. It's a liability and could put him in danger. He also didn't want the arm in the first place and, based on the scratch-mark scars where the metal meets his shoulder, he has tried to remove it before. Plus, if something goes wrong, he can't fix it. That arm is centuries ahead of modern technology, created by Hydra top scientists, it's a titanium alloy, he has no idea how it works or anything about how it was made, the tools required to fix it are probably hundreds, thousands, even hundreds of thousands of dollars (or tools that only exist because one Hydra guy created them, meaning Bucky can't get them and probably can't recreate them-) look, he has a high school education from a century ago. There's no way he's going to be able to fix or even maintain such an advanced piece of technology. Even if he did somehow know how to do it, he doesn't have the funds to do it. Sooner or later, the arm is going to be a problem. So he would probably get rid of it. Tony Stark would jump at the chance to help him remove it, he would love to get to stick it to Hydra.

Getting rid of the arm can also be a freedom thing. It marks him as the Winter Soldier, it's a symbol of Hydra's control of him. By getting rid of it, he's one step closer to being free of their hold on him. He doesn't need the arm. The movies demonstrated that he's perfectly capable of getting by without it, showing him easily running his little goat farm in Wakanda without his bionic arm or even a realistic prosthetic, just using his remaining arm. (Additionally, did you see the look on his face when they gave him a new one? The exhaustion in his voice as he asked where the coming fight was? He did not want that new arm, he wanted to keep happily existing peacefully on his farm and having the arm meant he couldn't do that. He wouldn't want a new bionic.)

For Bucky, I would recommend letting him ditch the bionic as part of his quest for freedom.

In general, my main recommendation would be accessibility and medicine rather than magic cures. If you have any other specific examples because Marvel very, very rarely did disability representation right, feel free to ask if you need help improving them. It's my passion. You have no idea how excited I was seeing this in the ask box.

Mod Aaron

Hi!

Going from deaf or hard of hearing to having super hearing is a bit tricky. I'd recommend this way of doing both:

The ranges that are affected by his specific hearing loss stay hard to hear (with only very mild improvement if any).

The ranges that aren't affected get amplified, possibly even to a debilitating degree.

For many deaf/hoh people, hearing things, especially if the sound is louder than we expect, is very overwhelming. The solution above somewhat mimics the experience of wearing hearing aids, but since they are his powers they can't be removed the same way. (It would be very interesting to explore that through the lens of paralleling forced oralism...)

Mod Rock

[dreemurrsightings]

Yippee! Welcome back pals! Here i present you, gay people!!! Yay!!

[terriblepersongreatseamonster]

(Please bear with me through this forthcoming ramble, because I've had all of 6 hours of sleep in the last two days and I'm a bit all over the place. Hopefully this will be coherent 😅)

I don't watch Bridgerton (that's a whole other post that I don't feel like typing out write now), but I've been fascinated by what I've seen on here from this newest season.

I turn 40 this year, and depending on your age you either think that's getting old or you think that I'm still relatively young. I bring this up, because what I'm seeing about Penelope and Colin is honestly something that I never thought I'd see.

Since I was twelve, I've dealt with weight issues. (At this point in my life, I know it's due to PCOS and some other health issues). I am barely 5'0" and typically fit into the 18/20 size clothes.

Being a teen in the late 90s/early 00s meant I didn't see people who looked like me get to be the romantic lead. Girls who looked like me were relegated to being the funny, supportive friend in the background. We got bullied and reminded that we weren't worthy of love or success because of our size. We went to school dances alone and sat on the bleachers while our friends slow-danced with their dates. We didn't get the love story, we got to watch someone else have the love story.

For such a long time I believed that my value as a person was tied to my weight. No matter what I did the weight wouldn't budge. Hell, I'm on Ozempic for my diabetes and I'm starting to think I'm the only person on the planet it doesn't cause weight loss for (it does however do a marvelous job of controlling my blood sugar, and at this point a healthy A1C is the thing that matters most).

I went on a few dates in my 20s with men who used my size as their reason to not continue dating (and yes, they all knew my size when they asked me out). When I started dating my husband, I went into it fully anticipating that no matter how much fun we might have he wouldn't be able to see past my size. I was wrong, and am so grateful for that.

It was only about 2 years ago that I started learning to see that I was far more than my weight. That whether I was my current size or managed to somehow be 100 lbs lighter, I'd still be the same person on the inside. I'd still have the same talents and skills, the same personality and humor. And while I've grown to see & love myself for who I am, it's still a day-by-day thing that I struggle with.

So, seeing this:

And this:

It hits me in a way that is hard to explain. I never thought I'd get to see something like this. Never thought I'd get to see someone my size and shape shown as beautiful and desirable.

Look at this woman, she is absolutely lovely:

I don't really know how to end this because now I'm crying. I guess my main point is that I feel seen and it's been an emotional rollercoaster.

And I may have to turn Netflix back on so I can see this season 😅

[5ynthet1c4e5thet1c]

Flags in order: GERD, arthritis, migraine, undiagnosed and hidden disabilites, EDS, cardiovascular disorders, high blood sugar, low blood sugar, hearing loss, visual impairments

I made disability pride flags for different disabilities I have that either didn't have flags or were made by someone that was a bigot! I hope you like them! They are all meant to have the same white and black stripes as the white and black in them represents the community we have in each other and hardship/struggle that every single one of us face.

These are free for anyone to use but op is endogenic safe, supports contradictory labels, supports mogai/liom, and is anti radqueer/transID

[aureliacetinn]

Ring of blood stability is a glucose checker/companion for your ttrpg

works with both dnd and pathfinder!

can get for PWYW on my ko-fi now https://ko-fi.com/s/57da2a2e5b

remember diabetics can also be adventurers

big thanks to technomancer kyle for advice: check out his kofi here https://ko-fi.com/s/57da2a2e5b

[closetnerd62]

Can someone draw Peter Spankoffski with an insulin pump please? Homeboy needs to monitor his blood sugar somehow.

[mcyt-rep]

PHYSICAL DISABILITY REPRESENTATION*

*this is part of the "disabilities" section, to see mental/neurological disabilities, click here

GoodTimesWithScar/Scar (unnamed(?) neuromuscular condition)

Ironmouse/Mousey (Common Variable Immunodeficiency, or CVID (thanks nonnie, but I can’t post the ask because I hit post limit for the day on main and that unfortunately extends across blogs))

Skizzleman/Skizz (Multiple Sclerosis, or MS)**

Etoiles (Diabetes Type 1)

Billzo (Diabetes Type 1)

**skizz is in both the physical and neurological disability sections for MS because it's a physical disability, but is also classified as a neurological disorder. at least according to google idk im not an expert (dw guys i corroborated and all that good shit)

[type1diabetesinfandom]

Just a reminder that representation is subjective, and something that speaks to you may be the same thing that infuriates someone else with the same represented condition! Be kind!

[ponzien]

- My diabetic Lover

Summary: Reader’s stomach and thighs are sore so Spencer helps her register her insulin shot<3

Pairing: Spencer Reid x Female!Reader

Category: Pure fluff!!

Begging more people to write diabetic reader I need to be seen😵‍💫🥹

Y/N

From the second the needle grazed my skin I felt it. With a loud groan I collapsed backwards onto the bed, my arms and legs sprawled out in a star fish position. This was my 7th attempt and I was about ready to give up and risk a hospital visit.

“No luck?” My boyfriend, Spencer hummed from the doorway. I shook my head. “You’ve tried everywhere?” He raised a brow.

“Everywhere I can reach” I scoffed. “Now I need another needle, I can’t just use this one again, can you grab the pack for me?” I pouted.

He complied and grabbed the box of pen needles, prepping my pen for me. “Can I try…please?” He asked, a smile threatening to appear on his lips.

“You know what… that’s not a bad idea!” I smiled and turned around. “Do you know how to do it?” I asked, already knowing the answer.

“Actually, I went to a 4 hour course on it to help when my friend’s son got diabetes.” He stated matter of factly. “Of course you did” I snickered.

“So you tried thighs and abdomen but not your arms right?” Spencer asked as he primed the needle. “Basically” I shook my head.

“Let me try your arm maybe?” Spencer shrugged and pinched the skin. Waiting for my approval. I nodded and he skillfully did it without warning so i didnt flinch.

“Oh thank god” I sighed in relief. “I thought I’d never be able to eat.” I smiled and ran to the kitchen as he threw away the needle and closed the pen.

“I should let you do that more often” I laughed as I threw my arms around his neck and kissed him.

“I wouldn’t mind helping out every once in a while but maybe you should go with your insulin pump if this is going to be an issue” Spencer laughed.

“Yeah…”

___

Hey! Sorry if I portrayed any part of this wrong, I was recently diagnosed and I’m still learning a ton so yeah! Also sorry that it’s short, my post hospital energy levels are disgustingly low

[warning-heckboop]

Hey TNT while we're on this trend of adding medical equipment wearables, can I have some diabetic stuff, thx

[blackkat15]

Not me making the MC for my Stanley Parable fanfic a type one diabetic.

[thedisabilitybookarchive]

'Sweetblood'- Hautman, Pete

Disability Rep: Type 1 Diabetic

Genre: Contemporary, Realistic Fiction

Age: Young Adult

Setting: USA

Additional Rep: Goth Culture, Vampire Subculture

For more information on summaries, content warnings and additional tropes, see here:

[franticvampirereads]

Swamp Thing is one of the DC characters that I didn’t know a single thing about. But I really enjoyed the plants and the nature and the southern summer vibes that I got from this. So now I kind of want to do a deep dive into his character/background. Another thing I really liked about this graphic novel was the twins dynamic. They were yearning for stronger connections but were having trouble relating to each other after some family drama. In the end they were able to overcome that, if not in the way they or I thought they would. So. This is getting a solid four stars and now I have some researching to do.

[pvtjoker22]

Diabetes in Media

So, ummmm, not the character I was expecting to make my follow-up post about but ah well...

So I suppose Godzilla is canonically a diabetic in this script.

10/10 representation

[wolfshystuff]

Stacy from Turning Red is my favorite because she has type 1 diebetic and i have it too so i'm very happy for the representation!

[verdanturfwind]

Asthmatics 🤝 Diabetics

A lot of things, actually