#edit: when i queued this i thought i would have rewatched the show by now. whoops

[shimmerluna]

To be honest, a big part of why I dislike the fact that YR doesn’t explicitly address ableism is because I think this fandom in particular would benefit a lot from the sort of discussions a show that takes so much care with these topics could produce.

With the way people talk about Sara’s auDHD, Micke’s addiction, Kristina’s breakdown, and even August’s ED/addiction, it’s clear a lot of you view mental illnesses/disabilities as a choice someone makes or a punishment they can deserve/earn. There’s a difference between one’s disability being used as an excuse and it being a valid reason/explanation for actions the person still has to take responsibility for that few of you seem to recognize or care about, and treating these characters’ disabilities and mental illnesses like something they earned/deserved bc of something they did implies very harmful beliefs about real disabled people. 

On top of those implications, the only disabled/mentally ill character people treat with nuance and care is Wille, the main character who gets all the excuses/explanations. To a disabled person (i.e. me), it appears that some of you refuse to care about/empathize with disabled people on your own. Instead, you view us as morally bad and alien at the first sign of symptoms, and you only change your mind when an explanation you deem satisfactory makes us palatable or relatable to you. Since it's currently Disability Awareness/Pride Month, it's a good time for some of you to learn how to see both us as people and our disability without lengthy justification or respectability politics.