#like these subtitles are so bad it’s ableist

[leftmysoulbythesideoftheroad]

who writes peacock subtitles? i want to say it’s clearly someone who can’t hear, but at least deaf/hoh people can usually read lips. how does “feel better” get turned into “bye-bye”? and i swear sometimes the subtitles say “thank you” only because you would expect the character to say that. like whoever’s writing them is an annoying mom reminding you to thank your aunt for your birthday present

[am-i-the-asshole-official]

Am I the asshole for hanging out with someone less in-person, and more online?

Here me out first please.

My buddy Austin (he/him) and I usually hang out at least every other week, if not every week. We've been doing this for the last few years after we both got more conformable doing in-person hangouts after the covid vaccines reached the general public in our country.

About a year ago, Austin was in a car accident (not a major one, don't worry) and walked away with a mild concussion (doctor's description). Ever since that car accident, Austin has been super sensitive to sound. In his words, walking across his floor in socks sounds like elephant stomping. His floor is carpet. Typing on a phone is so loud and distracting he can't hear anything else. Birds outside his house sound like they're chirping directly into his ear. He vents to me often that having a regular-volumed conversation sounds so loud it's painful to him.

When I'm over at his house, I try to be as quiet as I can. I'm careful to soft-step around the house and not take my shoes off. I try to shuffle or slide through the kitchen and other rooms that are not carpet so I make less noise. We whisper or half-whisper half-speak to each other in conversation. Movies we have subtitles on and the volume turned down to almost 0%. But Austin still looks like he's in pain by the end of a couple hour hang-out. Sometimes he'll get up and put in earplugs and then come back to continue the hangout. I feel really bad that he's putting himself through so much.

The last few months, instead of always hanging out in-person, I've been suggesting doing something virtual and letting Austin decide which he wants. I figure that if we're gaming, he can wear his earplugs or mute the game and we can use game chat or text each other to communicate. Same with watching movies, we can both adjust our volumes to our comfort levels (and leave subtitles on still. I don't mind them). Sometimes he wants to just do things online, and sometimes he insists on hanging out in-person. It's been about 60/40 online to in-person so far.

We hung out last weekend and first Austin said let's hang out in-person, but the night before we were supposed to hang out, he told me he rather hang out online this time. I was cool with it, but when I let my roommate Geoff (who is also good friends with Austin) know that actually I'd be home most of the day Saturday and answered Geoff's "why are you hanging out with Austin online again?" with "i don't know, Austin probably wants a quiet weekend instead", my roommate started accusing me of infantilizing Austin by hanging out online instead of in-person, that I'm abandoning Austin because his "auditory disablility is too inconvenient for fragile able-bodied feelings" (Geoff's words), and how since Austin hasn't explicitly said that in-person hanging out is too loud for him, then I'm being ableist by assuming things are too loud when he hasn't directly said that I am too loud. I argued that I don't think of Austin as lesser, I just don't want to cause him any unnecessary pain, and it's pretty obvious when things are too loud for him without words, because you can read the "Make it stop" / "No more" expression on his face. But Geoff doubled down really hard and told me i should be ashamed of treating Austin like he's incapable of making his own choices.

I was pissed and just walked out with my laptop. We did our movie day with me on the local library wifi instead. I don't think for a second I've taken away Austin's ability to choose, since I let Austin make the call on in-person or online!! But I'm also completely able-bodied. I haven't even experienced a temporary disability-experience like needing crutches during injury recovery or anything. Geoff has a chronic pain and fatigue disorder, so he has more experience with microaggressions than I do. So I don't know if I'm right about this being a non-issue, or if Geoff is right about me being ableist against Austin's noise sensitivities. It keeps eating at me now, and I don't want to bring this up with Austin since I already know he's really insecure about his new volume tolerance levels. Am I an asshole for doing online hangouts with Austin instead of sticking to only in-person stuff?

[bread-tab]

"stop making [media] your whole personality"

ah... okay. yes. so.

first off:

there's this neurodivergent thing, where you use an interest as a filter for processing the world.

for some people that is called a "special interest," for others with different needs it is more of a "hyperfixation;" there are far more variations than i (or the field of psychology) know how to describe now. if you want to understand the difference there are people who can explain those variations better than me. but i can tell you what it feels like.

you discover something.

it doesn't matter what it is; you find something that speaks to you, something you can connect to, and it becomes a bubble of safe habitat from which you can rest from and explore and connect to all the other parts of this strange chaotic world.

a source of joy. a source of illumination.

it's like you're a person who has lived all their life in dark caves and you find something that glows.

these interests can be anything.

(literally anything; i personally derive meanings that you could never imagine from ✨ drainage ditches. ✨)

but very often, they are stories. tv shows, books, movies, comics, songs, podcasts, minecraft improv streams, cartoons, web serials, whatever

these things are:

tangible. you can hold them in your hands, replay them, turn on the subtitles, take screenshots, read the sheet music

and yet

real. they form a genuine connection from your (isolated, untranslatable) internal world to other (formerly unknowable) people and the rest of the universe

they create meaningfulness

and they exist because humans find these incredibly effective soul-deep ways of communicating to one another.

now, appreciating stories, that's not a neurodivergent thing. that's a human thing.

the point of relevance here is that experiencing an extreme love for stories is a neurodivergent thing.

it's a very common neurodivergent trait which often gets mocked, portrayed as childish, and used as a pretext for infantilization and bullying.

(and it is also a trait of young people in general, to take stories very seriously in a way that looks silly to adults, and that is something that many people (regardless of age) try to bully out of each other.

what good is that doing anyone?)

"stop making [x] your whole personality"

listen, you. get down off that goddamn embankment and climb down into this ditch with me. dip your toes in this oily water. watch the stars and city lights ripple into constellations you've never seen

now look me in the eye

you need to understand that no matter what lowbrow, cringey, problematic or otherwise not-to-your-tastes drivel you might be complaining about today,

you are talking about the phenomenon of creativity

you are talking about a transcendent catalyst of human emotion

and yes that includes the overmilked disney franchises, it includes the formulaic shippy fanfictions, it includes whatever brightly-colored cartoon this website is obsessed with this year (and will be having incredibly dramatic meltdowns over next year), it includes the cheesy action movies and the fanservicey anime and the badly-designed video games and the milquetoast tiktok "literature", it includes the indistinguishable scribbles of some random five-year-old and/or famous fine artist and/or precocious elephant

i get it. you care about real life and touching grass and shit. you have taste. just take the stilts off your horse for a second, okay?

i know you're probably sick of "let people like things" discourse

i would just like for you to stop for a second and take a deep breath, and let the stench of whatever is in this mud puddle wash over you (yeah i know, ew, but you'll be fine) and consider

what is so bad about having a cringey personality, anyway?

and maybe you will think better of making "stop making [some silly moment in the universe] your personality" into your personality and maybe you will come off as a little bit less of a snob/ableist/ass and maybe you will have a slightly better outlook on life among humans.

that's all. yeah you can get out of the gutter now. thank you for coming to my ted talk—

ooh wait, look, a bottle cap

[purpleskelet0n]

Heads up to any moots/followers into pressure (roblox game) !! It's not gonna be a dni but just know that I really don't like the creator, theyve been ableist several times (especially towards people like me) and refuses to add certain accessibility features into the game (like subtitles) so it's made the game impossible for me to play! I've seen their apology and while some people forgive them It just left a bad taste in my mouth

Again not a DNI, not hating on any fans or trying to get anyone to stop being a fan, just know that I don't like it. Not a vague post either it's just been around my circle of moots.

[spiderh0rse]

freeman's mind notes part 9, e41-45

e41

all lasers all the time

sees a warning sign and promptly tries to obstruct the laser

wants to reflect this very dangerous laser through a disco ball

he'd love to let the laser gradually burn a hole out of the building

gravity hates him so bad

he'd want a big room with a trampoline

insulted by some guy and promptly abandons him

MIND. PLEASE STOP BEING ABLEIST

thinks the sirens would be a good alarm clock sound

actually shows concern for a guy who's been shot

SO relieved to be outside

it looks like an anemometer but it is Not

HATES being beeped at by the turrets

thinks there may be a meteorology department

the science team makes their own explosives

has read The Art Of War

considers being exploded not a terrible way to go

"whoo hoo hoo!"

ALMOST feels like he doesn't need more stimulants today

he doesn't think his suit can stop mortar shells

e42

mentions a rocket launcher....

damned dam

ICTHYOSAUR ALERT

[gibbering]

"BOMBS BAD BAD BOMBS BAD BOMBS BAD"

just plain ol rambling in fear out here

just in love with saying "damn" and "damned" every chance he gets here. He is on a dam

still struggling to stay afloat

"underwater 'ah-hah!'" GSIIENDKD

flooding the canyon would make him feel better

air is for losers

"wahhhhh gahhhhhh"

checks a corpse for money or snacks. will Not give the man fare for Charon

growls :grins:

slur count six. It's not the r slur but hey. Variety.

needs a surface to air missile

curse of formatting :/

e43

jiving with the idea that some unnamed force wants him dead

he thinks that he was MEANT to die in the test chamber but since he didn't (due to being "hardcore") reality is slowly unravelling. I just played a Friendsim route where this was a plot point.

he concludes that this makes him the most important person in the universe

gordon freeman has become Based (thinks there is too much money funneled into the military)

says an incorrect plural of "cactus" and corrects himself

this is subtitled as [screaming] but it's more of a "mnnnyeaheaheah" noise

he does NOT look like a helicopter

he likes math. No tolerance for bullshit. Math works or it doesn't. Clear defined rules that stay clear and defined. Some of these comments are mine and not his. I like math.

he doesn't smoke!

does clarify he doesn't smoke tobacco. peyote, yes. Mulls over other methods of taking it being better though

straining noises

YAAAAH AAAAAH WAAAAH

doesn't seem to recognize the tentacle. He definitely has brain damage between the head trauma and repeated electrocutions.

the desert tricked him. The desert.... THE DESERT....

yells all silly at some headcrabs

implies he yelled all silly at some scientists to claim his lab space for work. Didn't need a shotgun for that

the first situation in two days in which a grappling hook would Not solve all his problems

sand in his suit :(

e44

new intro. First surface portion of the game.

he feels like he's escaping from prison

seems pro-union

notices that going outside just makes stuff worse for him every time

wonders, perhaps sarcastically, f the planes are gassing him

turret beeping is a DEATH SENTENCE for it

echo! :D

he's got the best comeback of all. A spas-12.

he doesn't mind people talkin trash about him if they get shot after

doesn't much like heights

would love to slide down that big ol pipe

no breakdancing on the cliff

"dahdahdahdahdah..." Followed by a growl

[whimpering]

he can't read his mind

he hates the tin foil hat people. Not because of the conspiracy (owls) but because of their means of defence

bad bridge... Wants a grappling hook so bad but admits it may not work here

[breathing heavily]

the CLIFF is following him- no. Nevermind.

didn't realize Black Mesa was built into the mesa proper

no longer trusts catwalks

afraid of spiders

he could SLIP on these SHELLS

"is that..? Oh my god, it's a rocket launcher." You can HEAR the awe in his voice

he just sounds as calm as he ever sounds all series

interloper!

so happy to have used a rocket launcher :)

"whhuuuh"

a universe that entirely wants him dead wouldn't give him a rocket launcher so some part of the universe wants him alive

knows a fair deal of greek mythology

screams at a near miss with a cliff edge

he just wants a helmet :(

put the water park on the cliff edge

e45

we know this one.

he can't see where he is on the gps trackers

his water park! It's here! No wish needed!

HATES the military theme to the park

modern major general :D

this was where I would put Gordon's Hal. IF HE HAD ONE (don't worry about that if you don't know Hal, for my tumblr fellows)

complains about mmg being dated but that is actually the point of the original song. The idea was to just talk to fast no one would question that it was all common knowledge

that said it's impressive that he's memorized it and can sing it while he's running and shooting people

the new lyrics too are solid. Some syllables are. Questionable for the tune, but overall quite fine

"Ah."

I think some fans got mad at him for calling the tank an Abrams when it wasn't. Whatever!

buttons!

"nyyeehhhhh,,"

valley girl mind

he wants this tank so much

astounded that bullets managed to EXPLODE a tank

his knees are wobbly again. Methinks he's recovering from the adrenaline of the past five, very hectic minutes

if he were a general facing someone like Freeman and soldiers didn't work he'd just use nerve gas on the guy

[newhologram]

"wow im sowwy i have such low spoons i couldn't possibly put an image ID in my post, can someone else do it for me uwu"

just admit you don't give two shits about people who use screen readers. you wrote up a whole ass text post with an image but your energy magically stops when it's time to be inclusive? lmao no. if you can't spare the energy to add an ID to that then don't post it at all you fucking cunt. and you don't get to act like it's a massive fucking burden on you that you have to shove off to someone else. actually vile behaviour from someone who's literally complaining about ableism. i hate this shit ass community

^ So this is actually ableism. ^ Lots of very nasty ableist projecting here which is disappointing but quite common on this site.

Chronic pain, fatigue, and brain fog are a thing. Limitations are a thing. My pain and meds wrecking my cognitive function, my symptoms demanding I take a break so I don’t go into the red and puke are a thing. My very nerve pain from using my hands is literally why I had to give up so many things, and why I can’t edit or type that much in a given day. It’s called disability for a reason.

(I queue most posts after chipping away at them. Only some posts are spontaneous.)

This is why we even use the concept of spoons. If I need to stop and save spoons to drive an hour to my doctor appt, or even just save them to cook a meal later, then I HAVE to do that. And I’d rather post something and ask for assistance from others who feel up to it than have a post keep sitting in my drafts for months and months. I have 2 year old posts I just can’t get my brain working for.

You’re so close with “energy magically disappeared”—so close. Bc that’s actually how disability and chronic illness is. Moment to moment we don’t know how we’re going to feel or when we’ll need to take a break.

It’s so funny bc the reason my backlog has gotten so much bigger over the past 3 years is bc I take so long to subtitle clips and write ID’s.

I’m not mad at you, but boundary-wise, it isn’t okay for you to take out your frustration with the community on me just bc I’m an easy and accessible target to anon rage at. I would recommend talking about this stuff in your journal or with a trusted friend or mental health professional before running off to say mean things you may later feel bad about.

Thank you to those who have always helped to ID things without judgment or projection. It seriously means so much bc I’ve got a lot on my plate with my health and home and job rn. I’m grateful for your kindness and for you seeing me as human and not just a content creation machine. I’m glad to be part of a community that understands that it’s okay to ask for help and to help each other. I’m glad we don’t have this unhealthy mindset of “I MUST do it myself or I’m a bad person.”

🙏🏻💙🥄♿️✨

[hippo-pot]

American Sign Language media content for receptive skills practice

Made this list because I really could have used it earlier on! My rubric is that it needs to include Deaf people signing, and that SimCom doesn't count (it may be present, but it can't be all there is).

This only includes stuff I've actually seen (or partially seen). Also, I'm including some warnings about what you may *not* want to watch, because again, I really could have used those warnings myself.

Easy (i.e. has subtitles and/or voiceover available, IIRC)

Mostly speaking:

CODA (movie; comedy/drama; on AppleTV+)

Kinderfänger (scary movie. Note that it has a 3.7/10 on IMDb. I personally liked it fwiw. not sure if it's streaming anywhere)

CODA (short film; on Kanopy)

Master of None S2.E6: New York, I Love You (TV show episode, currently on Netflix)

Wild Prairie Rose (drama/romance, currently on Peacock)

Queer Eye S8E4: Protect the Nest (reality TV, on Netflix)

CSI S11E13: The Two Mrs. Grissoms (crime show, Hulu)

ANTM Season 22 (the one with Nyle, obviously. I had to get this from the library on a DVD that, get this, had NO captions available. Not impressed. (The ASL was voiceovered))

CSI NY S3E12: Silent Night (crime show, Hulu). I found this one pretty ableist/audist (but it's hard to explain why without spoiling the whole thing - here's the summary if you're fine with spoilers: https://csi.fandom.com/wiki/Silent_Night) also the camera work sometimes seemed more interested in making the signing look artsy rather than making it legible lol

Sue Thomas, F. B. Eye (Peacock) - some episodes have lots of signing, some have none or close to it. Honestly it's pretty racist (the show came out 2002-2005. A lot of episodes are about terrorism, and they're constantly justifying racial profiling). If you can stomach that in exchange for surprisingly decent Deaf rep, here's a (probably incomplete) list of the ones with at least one non-Sue Deaf character, with a * if there are multiple: The Signing, The Heist*, He Said She Said, Girl Who Signed Wolf, Homeland Security, Bad Hair Day, Into Thin Air*, The Holocaust Survivor*, Elvis is in the Building*, Did She or Didn't She, The Fraternity*, Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, Troy Story*, Endings and Beginnings*. But yeah, I can't exactly recommend it, just trying to be honest about the pros and cons.

Switched at Birth - I really don't recommend this one either. I understand some people like it, but I have to give my disclaimer that if you watch a couple episodes and think "Well, I didn't like that, but maybe it will get better," lose that hope right now. To me, it only got worse. There is soooo much SimCom (yes, even later in the show when everyone should have learned to sign. Do NOT think there will be more or better signing later on). Daphne's actress has Meniere's disease; in a Reddit AMA, she said, quote, "Technically I am not deaf," so I really question why she was cast as the main Deaf character. Regardless of how she identifies, she is playing an experience she has not had; she isn't a native signer (she started learning in high school, not at age 3 like her character), and when she speaks in the show, she FAKES a "deaf accent". Also, this show is not as lighthearted as it looks, there are some truly disturbing plotlines that just get brushed over. Maybe you love this kind of drama - power to you. I'm just asking that if you watch a couple episodes and don't care for it, quit. Read some episode summaries on the wiki if you need to satisfy your curiosity, but don't hold out hope and watch almost 2 seasons' worth while feeling worse and worse about it l like I did. Moving on:

All or mostly signing:

Deaf U (reality show, on Netflix)

WHAT? (movie; comedy, silent movie; on Prime)

Blue Apple (creepy short film) https://media.gallaudet.edu/media/Blue+Apple+%281994%29/1_wke1swj2 also like. click around on the website. Gallaudet has soooooo much media available (plays, films, etc)

Scarecrow (creepy short film), also a Gallaudet production https://ssl.gallaudet.edu/videolibrary/?embed=16500 tbh there's not a ton of dialogue in this one, so maybe don't watch it if you don't like slow pacing

Don't Shoot the Messenger (raunchy YouTube series about an interpreter)

Barbie in ASL (On Max. It's the movie Barbie, but with a Deaf interpreter in the corner)

PBS also has some stuff with ASL interpretation. I didn't check everything so I don't know if they're all done by Deaf interpreters, but I recognized Jeremy Lee Stone as the interpreter for (at least some of) the Arthur episodes, and Lisa McBee for (at least some of) the Daniel Tiger ones https://pbskids.org/videos/american-sign-language-full-episodes

speaking of Jeremy Lee Stone, his Youtube channel is a great resource: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J9HZ1JdV1Us

as are Nathie Marbury's storytelling videos https://www.youtube.com/@dawnsignpress/search?query=nathie

other kids' stories and resources for kids: https://www.youtube.com/@RMDSCO from Rocky Mountain Deaf School and https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLhbEjnwOPpyIHotZrGLu68OGeEZlTuvbg from Texas School for the Deaf (some of these are captioned or follow along with a book that they show on screen, but some aren't)

a few nonfiction Youtube series: Daily Moth (general news), Atomic Hands (STEM education), Quantum ASL (STEM education - just a couple longer videos, the rest are basically dictionary entries), BEHEARDDC (prison abolition), Joel West Barish (travel), Rogan Shannon (queer topics), Melmira (interviews)

Sign with Robert (available for free on both Kanopy and Tubi): this is mostly just general ASL teaching, but there are some episodes specifically labeled receptive practice where he tells jokes and stories (25, 26, and 29 - for 26 and 29 they play the stories twice, with captions the second time so you can see what you missed, it's actually super nice haha)

her specific channel doesn't have much, but you can just look up Melanie McKay-Cody, who does research about Indigenous sign languages (she is herself Cherokee). Lots of videos from her all over Youtube

SoCal Stories (interviews with folks including Marlee Matlin, CJ Jones, Bernard Bragg...): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d8T937th3Qg&list=PLwR2tgM-4_AYjBRvj3GWqWRjjMiZz_w8u this is part of the Youtube channel Convo Communications, which has tons of other stuff I haven't explored

ASL music videos: this list was curated by a Deaf person so I trust it https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLx1wHz1f-8J_xKVdU7DGa5RWIwWzRWNVt

Deafies in Drag (Youtube comedy series)

Reverie (short film, drama. Heavy themes) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiFWE6Mtpu0

Perfect Match (short film, drama / sci fi) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IxE65yzMgyE

The Witnesses (short film, satire) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u9iQ_hjXDg

4 translations of MLK's I Have a Dream speech: Richard Bailey https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5H2-3O-NJFg (no captions or voiceover), JC Smith https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qUmdM965Si8 , Takiyah Harris (rough video quality on this one) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RiyG_h1tnZE , Missouri School for the Deaf students https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-mmxJByigac

Intermediate

Mostly Speaking:

Sound of Metal (movie; drama; on Prime) (the late-deafened characters are not played by Deaf actors, but there's still a lot of Deaf actors. Most of the signing is mid-movie, and if I remember correctly, some is not subtitled, while some is)

Children of a Lesser God (movie; available on Kanopy). The signing isn't subtitled (it's mostly voice-interpreted by another character) and also it was very hard to understand - I gather it leaned more toward SEE? So that's why it's in intermediate.

Star Trek TNG S2E5: Loud as a Whisper (on Paramount+): no subtitles; most of the signing is voice interpreted, but not all. All the ASL is in the 2nd half but there's still a good amount, I thought

All or mostly signing:

look up Gallaudet Theatre Arts on Youtube. There's actually a variety of levels here (of the two I've watched, Bunnicula has voiceover, but Midsummer Night's Dream doesn't. The audio/video quality isn't great on any of it). I'm listing it as Intermediate because for e.g. Shakespeare you can just look up the script of the play and have it in another tab to check what's going on.

Sign (short film; some sexual content) https://vimeo.com/157890479 I was able to understand most of this, which means it's a loooot easier than the Shakespeare, but yeah, no subtitles, no voiceover, no help

The Deaf Family (YouTube sitcom) (don't be fooled, only the first episode has subtitles) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r1uuntQOPnw&list=PLx1wHz1f-8J9KzkK5lLO3z0wk64eUzo3Y

Not going to list anything hard because I haven't made it through anything hard, but bonus warning categories:

Doesn't have as much signing as you'd think

(ranked roughly from most signing to least signing)

The Circle, Season 5 (reality show on Netflix. I did really enjoy the Deaf contestant but I definitely wanted more)

Fargo, season 1-ish (show; horror? On Hulu) I only watched a few episodes but Russell was only getting like 5 min screen time per episode and i wasn't enjoying the show otherwise, so it wasn't worth it for me personally

Zoey's Extraordinary Playlist S1E9: Zoey's Extraordinary Silence (jukebox musical TV show. On Peacock)

Only Murders in the Building (mystery show on Hulu) - I did enjoy this show, so for me it was worth watching all of it, but if you're not interested, you could save time by only watching the 7 episodes with Theo in them

The Family Stone (I did enjoy the movie though tbh. on Hulu)

Curb Your Enthusiasm S12E3: Vertical Drop, Horizontal Tug (TV comedy, on Max) Troy only gets like 5 min of screentime 😭 he's an Academy Award winner...

Queer as Folk S1E4: F*ck Disabled People (on Peacock) (Nyle is in it but I don't think he even ever talks to anyone else who can sign? He's mostly communicating via writing)

Not Worth It

What the Bleep Do We Know: we attempted to watch this "doc" without realizing beforehand that it was all pseudoscience. Honestly, I'm not even sure there was signing in it? I think there was a little

Wonderstruck (2017). There are multiple Deaf actors on the roster. But not one of them gets to sign *anything* as far as I could tell. (One plays a character who hasn't learned to sign, I think at least two were playing hearing people (I do support Deaf actors taking hearing roles, but not if you're gonna take that as an excuse to do the reverse.... which this movie did.....), and some must have had barely any screentime). Two hearing actors get to sign (also the signing doesn't start til like the last 20 min of the movie), and two other hearing actors briefly fingerspell. 👎

Intentionally Didn't Watch (the summary was that bad)

These included Deaf people despite not really wanting them to exist!!!! (think along the lines of forcing ppl to get cochlear implants)

Scrubs S6E16, "My Words of Wisdom" https://scrubs.fandom.com/wiki/My_Words_of_Wisdom someone described this episode to me in a bit more detail than the summary here, and yeah. not good

House S5E22, "House Divided" https://house.fandom.com/wiki/House_Divided legit infuriating

[thatonebabybat]

Okay. Long rant ahead, but... I'm bothered by those ppl who use "SaYiNG GoTH IS A MUsIc SuBCULtUrE IS ABLEISt BC DEaF PeOpLE CaN'T LIStEN TO It--" as a reason for why they think they can call it an aesthetic or a fashion style. Like.

1. Blind people can't see aesthetics so what are you getting at here exactly?? Is liking aesthetics bad because some people can't see them? Your own logic is working against you here tbh..

2. The people saying this generally aren't deaf and therefore probably shouldn't be speaking for the deaf community. (I don't intend to either, so if you're deaf and reading this and there's something you'd like for me to correct or work on, please feel free.)

3. I'm sure most goths would be chill w a deaf person hanging out w them as long as they understand the history and are participating in the community in some meaningful way. Like, they might not be able to hear the music, but they may still be able to read/appreciate the written lyrics, or maybe they can't hear the music but they still enjoy clubbing and like participating in goth nights… And there are still deaf music artists so that's always an option too- Plus, some deaf people can still like music on occasion bc hearing aids have gotten really advanced, so to lump them all together as being completely unable to enjoy it at all is strange… There's a lot of ways a deaf person could still be able to chill in a music subculture. I don't think anyone is intentionally excluding deaf people from the scene. I would like to think most people would be understanding in that specific scenario.

..Doesn't explain why an able-bodied person with access to as much music as they could ever possibly want through the internet gets to totally ignore it though. I think it says a lot that these people are aware of their privilege to be able to listen to music and participate in the community in that way, but instead decide to use disabled people as a shield for why they shouldn't have to put in even a tiny bit of effort before claiming a 40+ year old subculture for themselves. They don't actually care about making goth more accessible, if they did they'd be subtitling music videos, or posting the lyrics and translations of goth songs to lyric sites, or making more efforts to make goth events more comfortable for disabled people… But no. It's just about them.

4. Even if someone decided being goth wasn't for them because they were deaf and couldn't hear the music, no one is saying you're a lesser person or "bad" somehow for not being a goth. Like. Deaf people can be goth. But becoming a goth isn't a requirement. If it's not your thing it's not your thing, but it does mean a lot to the people who have been in the subculture for a long time. If you like the fashion and not the music, just use another word for it (alt/darkalt is a personal favorite of mine, but there's other tags you can use too) and call it a day, no one's judging you for that. It's not like people who don't like goth music can't express themselves with fashion or moodboards, I'm fine with that. I like doing that myself. Just don't call it goth if it doesn't have anything to do with goth music. Don't flood a music tag with completely unrelated content. It's rlly not that hard. Idk why people get so hung up on NEEDING to use this one word for things that have nothing to do with that word. It's absurd the lengths people will go just to take over someone else's label when it's totally unnecessary.

I'd love to hear thoughts from the actual disabled community on the topic though. What do you think goths could do to make the space more accessible? How do you feel about these kinds of arguments?? I'd like to get to know more about the subject.

[fuck-abled-people]

is it ableist when tiktok users add captions/subtitles and replace words they say out loud with emojis in the text?

like someone will say dick out loud in the video and the caption has the eggplant emoji or something instead of just "dick"

maybe it's not that big of a deal but it's kind of irritating to me and i kinda wanna know what other people think about that.

- 🦷

So it definitely is, but in this case it’s structural ableism not the specific content creator. Unfortunately if “bad language” is in the captions, tiktok will take the video down or drag it down in the algorithm so no one will see it.

So in order to get the video seen, the creator can not properly caption the curse words. Which is super fucked up, and very ableist.

The ableism is coming from the policies of the site itself in this case.

[bughugz]

the amount of academic media i've had to consume that doesn't appropriately subtitle is so infuriating and like choosing to only subtitle heavily accented people or other languages especially in an educational film is so weird and it's giving ableist and racist subtitle the whole damn thing that was so painful to watch and it wasn't even a bad film in a lot of ways it was really great but if it were accessible and if the creators clearly weren't making assumptions about their audience through the lense of their whiteness it would've been so much better 😭😭😭

[matoitech]

remembering when the galo ova came out w the official english subtitles and english dub and i felt crazy bcuz theres a scene where one of galos coworkers calls him like a deragotory insult for an autistic person bcuz he was acting too autistic bcuz galo is autistic and galos reaction was an autistic person reaction and that was very obviously the point of all this and the allistic fans were just like continuing to completely ignore it so they could keep feeling ok abt making jokes that r kind of lame and shitty anyway but like Especially bad in the context of saying it abt disabled ppl and i felt like a fucking crazy person abt it. seeing allistics continue to write essays abt how galo wasnt Severe Enough to Have Autism but they would still like to keep being ableist anbt him plz and thank u :3 and well maybe.. the ableism is a metaphor.. for.. HOMOPHOBIA.. bcuz galo cant be gay and autistic at the same time. anyway i dont think abt like All That as much anymore its been years and if i start thinking abt it i just make myself feel either crazy or pissed off. its so funny to me now bcuz like everyone can just say very obviously that the autistic character is just autistic for real right like r ppl at the point where they can stop trying to appeal to ableists and just admit that. r all the allistics gone at this point its been like 5 years they have to be

[royalarchivist]

hey, can u not censor swear words in ur transcripts, heres a post explaining why

but in short: its considered ableist and infantilizing to censor anything in transcripts, especially swear words, cause not only are you giving hoh and deaf ppl a different experience from hearing ppl, but ur also infantilizing them by disallowing them from hearing something as simple as the words "fuck" and "shit"

deaf and hoh ppl are not innocent lil pwecious uwu soft beans and have just as much rights to hear swear words as hearing ppl, and by censoring swear words ur just being ableist, infantilizing and disrespectful

so yea, when it comes to transcripts do. not. censor. a. single. word. nobody cares if censoring words its a part of ur typing style or if its uncomfortable to fully type out swear words, accessibility for disabled people should always, always, ALWAYS come first before ur typing style

I've responded to something similar in the past, but I know there are a lot of new folks that have followed recently and things tend to get buried on the blog, so it's worth reiterating.

I do agree that there are a lot of issues with subtitling and transcriptions in media, especially in the past few years, and I'm glad we're seeing more conversations about it, particularly after this disaster started circulating:

Ugh.

But this ask is about my blog and not about film industry stupidity, so let's focus on that.

As I've repeatedly said, I don't leave things out or "censor" things because I think people are too innocent to see a curse word online (because let's be honest, that's stupid). However, I do think it's a bit unfair to assume I have bad intentions, let alone ableist intentions, with my transcripts!

I started this blog mainly because I wanted to share clips with friends, and I didn't want to clog up my main, but the posts started getting more attention than I expected. Every once in a while I started adding quick transcripts here and there, and full transcripts on rare occasions. I started doing subtitled videos after translating a few clips for the KarmaIand community, and then I kept it up because it's fun and good video editing practice. For me, the determining factor for whether or not I do something is ultimately a matter of, "Do I have time?", and I usually don't! Today, I'm using that handful of minutes to respond to this instead of working on video stuff.

I took a quick glance through the blog and I'd say only 70% of posts have any kind of transcription (if I'm being generous), and even less have full transcriptions. This blog isn't meant to eat up my time; it's a side hobby I'm not getting paid for. I'm just sharing goofy clips because they make me smile, and I hope they can make other people smile too. This blog isn't a priority for me, and it's not an official / professional archive, nor do I want people to treat it as such!

As far as the "Nobody cares" part, I care!!! I rely on subtitles for everything I consume, and I'd genuinely love to be able to write full transcripts for every single video every single time and not "censor" things so I can help other people like me. But like I've said before, I can't, and that's a topic I'm not going to get into because it's nobody's business! ¯\(ツ)/¯ I hope you can respect this boundary. It's not a matter of me having a "typing style".

Ultimately, this is my take on the matter: if it's a choice between doing transcripts to the best of my abilities or just posting things with no transcripts or subtitles at all, I'm always going to choose the former.

Even though I'm sad and disappointed that some people are quick to assume the worst of me and my intentions solely because of what I put (or don't put) in the description of a goofy little MCYT video, I do appreciate your passion anon, because this is a big issue! Unfortunately, this is as much as I can help, but I'm of the belief that any effort made in good faith is better than no effort made at all.

For folks who want full transcripts that are very professional, I highly recommend checking out @mcyt-transcribed! They've got a great team, and they've even transcribed a few of my videos, which is nice! I've always appreciated what they do, and I think they deserve a lot more love and recognition.

I know this is a very long post and not what people signed up for when they followed this blog, but I like addressing this stuff because I feel like, in this community especially, people tend to have a habit of letting things fester. And that sucks! We're all just here to watch people make jokes and play block game, after all. I think open communication is key to resolving most issues, and even though people won't agree on everything, I hope they're able to walk away from the conversation without any hard / hurt feelings and with a better understanding of the other person.

[ebtks-reviews]

High Tension(2005)

Sink Spoilers for High Tension(2005)!

Right after reviewing an awesome movie like the descent I get to review a shit movie with a homophobic premise! :D

High Tension is a French originating film released in 2003 then got a wider release with an English dub and English subtitles in 2005, thus, the 2005 release date.

This movie was bad and not just in a bad plot but beautifully shot but also in a shittily shot way. I don't like to criticize too many stylistic choices made by foreign films because I, someone born only 5 years before the release of this movie in America, won't understand the low budget earily 2000s French horror genre with amazing accuracy. I can only judge what was put Infront of me and it was... Bad. Like. Real bad.

I'll get my basic review out of the way then when can address this movie's homophobic and potential transphobic/ableist side.

Without all the gross bigotry this movie jerks off too, the movie itself is mid and didn't even get to the big set piece it was teasing the entire movie. It starts off with friends Marie and Alexia going to Marie's family's home they just purchased not 6 months ago. This fun friendly drive has a little bit the sapphic "undertones" this movie boasts but not explicitly. It's very clear to anyone with a gaydar that Alexia is supposed to be a butch lesbian and I originally thought she and marie were a couple, only later did I discover they were just friends during a late night kitchen conversation where Marie says she broke up with her boyfriend and asks Alexia when she'll try to get one. In the middle of this drive, the movie remembers it's a horror movie and dose a full neck twisting terminal whiplash 180° into n*crophilia having a random dirty crazy truck driver make a severed head give him head then throws it out the window. No warning. No reason.

I'm fully aware European films are notorious for being full of sex and sexual violence but this was unnessesary. It's clear this movie was inspired by things like Hostel and Saw. Grungy, dirty, exploitive and green. Saw is one of my favorite franchises, if not mostly for nostalgia reasons being some of my first horror movies, so you'd think this movie would be up lane. The movie wasn't shot badly and it wasn't boring necessarily but the big build up of expectations just wasn't there and the twist was both unexpected and nonsensical. The gross trucker guy breaks into the family home, kills the dad by shoving his head through the wood banister and taking it off with a dresser being shoved. I love inventive and intense kills that rock the audience and being one of the first kills of the movie (that we see), it wasn't too bad. The graphics could use some work as there was a very visible cut but this was definitely a low budget movie so I don't blame them for the split. However, instead of doing a nearly decapitation (which would of made sense), his head just explodes like it was under pressure. It really wasn't but ok. Then the mom is killed with a ton of stab wounds as our protag is hiding in their closet. Then he chains up the daughter/Marie and runs out into the field after her little brother. The guy finds him and shoots him and, through alot of confusing nonsense, eventually ends up with a chained and gagged Marie behind him in his big van and alexia hiding with him.

Then they get to a gas station, Alexia manages to hide in the store and when the guy walks in and asks the attendant for some booze, the guy kills the attendent and Alexia hides in some bathrooms. This movie, litterally stated by its own name, is supposed to be scarey and intense. However, I really just couldn't get into it enough to feel that tension and there were rarely any jumpscares that justified the tension with a punctual point. Even without knowledge of the stupid twist (I did a little research to know what kind of gore/violence/etc was in it for any potential triggering content but didn't get spoiled), I wasn't nervous or on edge. I wanted the protagonist and Marie to survive but I just was not super into it. The guy drives off with Marie, Alexia calls the cops then follows the van with the attendant's car. She ends up following the van down a dark path, somehow the van ends up behind her and starts ramming her, runs her off the road. Alexia gets out of the burning vehicle and runs to hide from the bad guy in some green houses. This was the first time the movie was actually tensionous for me. Alexia then fights with the guy, kills him with a pretty good and brutal death scene then gose and saves Marie.

Plot twist Marie pulls the knife on Alexia and calls her a psycho and runs away. Then the movie reveals the big "twist", Alexia is the big dirty bad guy and the movie keeps flipping between showing Alexia running after Marie and showing the big bad guy running after her. Marie hops in a car to hide with a guy, Alexia comes in and kills the guy and tries to kill Marie. It ends with marie escaping the car and when Alexia threatens her with the big saw on the cover, marie relents and tells alexia she loves her, they share a kiss, marie stabs alexia and it flashes forward to alexia in an asylum staring at Marie and scareing her then the movie ends. Basic synopsis. Now let's talk about why I call this movie base-level homophobic and nonsense. We'll start with the nonsense.

The way the movie is shot there is no way for Alexia to be the bad guy because it doesn't make any sense, unless some of those scenes are out of order or not real. How is she in the back of the truck busting out the door while also driving the truck. How is she in the car behind the van and in the van. How is she beating herself to death. The twist doesn't make sense unless you ignore big glaring time jumps and impossibilities. How did she get both the van to the woods and walk all the way back to the gas station, grab a whole ass mustang and drive that all the way back to the woods and intentionally crash it nearly ending her own life. The car's burning wreckage doesn't just dissapear. Of course the twist is unexpected, it doesn't even make any fucking sense! I'll bring up one failed plot point specifically though, that being that this whole movie, though not explicitly, seems to be suggesting that not only has Alexia been killing lots of women in the area (but it's never brought up in the movie) but also obviously taking them to a second location we, as the audience, never see. A whole 2/3rds of this movie is Alexia racing to free Marie from the bad guy whose taking her somewhere in a truck and we never know where or see where. All this build up for a location that doesn't exist and not in a cool emerald city way.

Finally, I'm gonna address the homophobia. As stated in many French reviews, this film implies lesbianism/Sapphism makes one insane. The inciting incident is litterally started by alexia seeing Marie in the shower naked by accident then rubbing one out to her then killing the whole family. This is not a Lowkey movie where the crazy killer just happens to be a lesbian, the whole twist is that she's a lesbian. It takes the very real violent and untrue stereotype that butch sapphics are all violent, abusive and predatory, especially towards femme sapphics and straight women. It makes a monster out of gender non-conforming women, often butches. It's homophobic and plays into the homophobic idea that butch lesbians are just like cishet men aka they won't take no for an answer from women. That masculinity is inherently predatory and straight women should fear butches the same way they fear men and that butches will rape, hurt and kill them to get them "like all gay sex freaks". They literally spell it out by switching between Alexia appearing as she does naturally, as a butch, and a big dirty hairy man. It is not a shocker that this movie was made by a cishet man.

The only other explanations that could be tied to why Alexia sometimes sees herself as a big dirty creepy man is due to 2 other reasons. One is DID , which some suggest since it would make her 3rd person views of the situation make sense but it could be easily waved away as her simply disassociating from her crimes or show her innocent subconscious fighting her evil consciousness. However, this is still a bigoted plot line as its ableist towards those with DID (who have no historical affection for violence or murder. Infact, those with DID are more likely to be murdered or taken advantage of. The idea that DID makes you violent is an old and deadly stereotype) and still homophobic. The second is that she's transgender and the big man is how she really wants to see herself. This is much less common as a theory and as a transgender person, this doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me. There's no real suggestion that that's how she actually wants to be perceived and if it was the intention, it'd just be transohobic on top of the homophobia and ableism.

All in all, I did not enjoy this movie. It's mid and boring AT BEST without all the bigoted shit and fundamentally intolerable including it's stupid twist and lesbophobic undertones. It felt like, for once for real this time, the creator had an agenda and desire to harm lesbian/sapphicss and he succeeded in showing them in the most negative and some how even more bigoted light than he stsrted with.

0/10 sinks. Don't waste your money on this movie.

[firstproqenitor]

I want to respond to this post but I also don't want to be put on blast for being annoying or whatever so I'm just going to say it like this

A lot of replies to this post are talking about how people only do this because they need plot or story to be spoon fed to them or whatever but as a movie talker with, if I may say so myself, pretty decent media analysis skills, let me explain myself a little.

One. Talking about what's going on helps me process things. I have trouble following along sometimes. Especially when there's no subtitles. No I'm not calling you ableist or whatever, I don't care. I'm just saying I /hate/ not knowing if my confusion is intentional confusion or if I'm just missing context already given. And I do miss things a lot, even in my favorite media. Which is why I rewatch/listen/play things a lot, or he'll, half the time when I'm going into a movie I'll read the plot online so I can follow along better.

Two. Its also a method of engagement. A lot of times I'm also asking questions about why characters are doing things, or making predictions of what will happen. Theorizing what would be more emotionally satisfying to happen vs what will actually happen. I find it fun.

Three. I'm actually just making fun of the movie. Like, you're right. A lot of media today is bad. They're written bad and characters make no sense. When I'm like "why did a character do this" or whatever, half the time it's in exasperation because the authors just make character decisions based on what would be # cool or # epic instead of what's thematically satisfying.

You can argue that these are all annoying or irritating and I should shut the fuck up and I won't necessarily disagree with you, but I'm just saying, that it's not because I'm not paying attention or I expect my hand to be held, it's just because that's how i watch movies lol

[literaphobe]

dude so sorry about the weirdos :( i was super excited to see ur post-mcc takes and i hate to see people being ableist dicks for no reason hope ur doing ok !!

yeah honestly i just think most of them are so goddamn dumb n have no fucking reading comprehension and some of their attempts to ‘counter’ me are so bloody goddamn stupid that i am praying for themmmm i don’t wanna directly interact bc they’re dumb n they’ll probably cry about how they’re getting cyberbullied by anons (VERY ironic how some of them said i shouldn’t have posted a ‘bad take’ if i wasn’t ready to get ‘clowned’ like ok then don’t dogpile someone if ur weak ass doesn’t want anon ‘hate’? lmfao) but i remember one of them being like ‘ughhhhh 🙄 op ur so dumb if people are short in basketball that doesn’t mean we make the basketball hoop easier to reach!’ and that’s such a lousy comparison to make that completely LACKS compassion too like damn i’m sorry but when people have adhd or they’re colorblind schools that aren’t EVIL will be like oh i see! do you need extra time to complete assignments and exams? is there are anyway we can assist you on questions that have color identification involved?

and yes, mcc isn’t school but they are run by people with COMPASSION. and the willingness to make changes if they see how badly affected some of their players are? like, they’ve made changes to buildmart before, notably the subtitle that pops up n shows what the name of a block is when u go near to it! and that’s great! but some of you are acting like it’s laughable to want different/further changes upon review? its like giving someone a monocle and then laughing when they say ‘these help, but i think having something like prescription glasses can help even more’ and when people say shit like ‘god, x just affects a minority of the players. most of them are just fine’ DO YOU HEAR… YOURSELF

i don’t think i need to recontextualize that sentiment to show how devoid of awareness that is. who cares? who cares if the only issue w buildmart is how it disproportionately affects people with colorblindness and the only colorblind player was george? (he isn’t. btw. but he arguably has the worst case of colorblindness) or that buildmart disproportionately affects people w adhd n there was only one player who had it? scream and cry about how it’s not that deep all you want, i KNOW so many of the people who tried to mock me didn’t watch any of the povs i was talking about. like didn’t some of y’all cry about how parkour warrior supposedly gave someone a panic attack? if that’s valid criticism then (which i think it is! i do think that parkour warrior became flawed after all the difficulty reworks and if it was so upsetting to certain people then a rework of the game is needed) why isn’t any of this stuff valid now? and why is it so hard to believe that someone also had a similar reaction playing build mart?

and another thing. like i see ‘oh if it bothers you so much then don’t play mcc? every game gives u anxiety should they remove every game then?’ like look. i have anxiety and adhd. anxiety is Not neurodivergency. there is a big difference between an entire event being a huge trigger and giving you panic attacks at every potential turn and 1-2 games that you physically are unable to play like a neurotypical person because your brain structure prevents from doing things that could be CHANGED to help you and others like you. if someone just can’t handle the pressure of a competitive event like mcc and it makes them crack and suffer bouts of anxiety that is a Health issue. it is a health issue and if they want to step aside from something that hurts them in its Entirety, then that’s fine. but if someone can’t find sand blocks n cracked gold blocks bc they can’t detect the differentials in the shades of the colors n all that would need to be done was perhaps. changing the colors to be much more distinct or the textures of the blocks to be easier to identify without color then… why can’t people Want that. why can’t people ask for that

i understand! that people are being toxic and rude n overshadowing people’s victories n perhaps even shitting on the people that won on like, twitter or something. i get if you’re mad that people on dttwt are sending hate or something like that! but this isn’t twitter! i never once implied that mcc was a bad event or was being run by bad evil mean people who rig the whole thing. don’t take your grievances out on me! don’t interpret my posts in bad faith and then cower and cry wolf when u find out people who see sense are willing to stand up for me! and if u wanted to see if i was complaining about the winners of this mcc like some people were after the last few mccs as well then you could’ve scrolled down my blog and looked at my other posts instead of having weird preconceived notions about what i am or what i stand for. its possible to feel happy for others’ success while still wanting changes to be made to certain games. like. survival games gave mcc15 red rabbits the win. but i still think that the point system needed to be reworked after that bc it gave too many coins. u can be happy and still think things can change/improve to be more fair/make the event better. which is what noxcrew DOES. they want to make changes not because they think they’ll get hate if they don’t but because they care about their event being good and they have integrity about it and that’s why they take feedback on this stuff all the time. ultimately, the decisions they make as event organizers and minecraft developers are theirs, but it doesn’t mean people can’t speak their minds

[forwhomtheblindbellstoll]

For anyone who wants to help make Tumblr more accessible, but feels like that they couldn't contribute enough, let me reassure you that any little step you do can mean a lot!

Do you have low spoons and don't have the ability to scroll through the notes or write even a brief description? That's fine! just tagging it #not described can help a user know to block those posts and instead focus on the content that IS accessible. Heck, I usually like posts to check for descriptions later and go through those when I have more energy.

Your descriptions don't have to be perfect either! Sometimes people add things I missed to mine, or I don't know who a person is so I keep it vague, and that's okay! Even a basic description can help someone know if the picture is super important, just a reaction, or even something unrelated to the rest of the post.

I rely on audio transcriptions because I have hearing issues, and even just knowing a song is playing helps me know that I'm not missing something crucial just because I can't hear it!

Anyway, for anyone who was like me ages ago and was like "wow its nice people are making their blogs more accessible, but I couldn't do that much work" I assure you not only can you, but you can do whatever amount you are capable of and not have to worry about anyone looking down on you. This community is very nice and we will never think you did a bad job just because you keep descriptions short, or sometimes just reblog images without any caption.

Literally the only time I have seen this community complain about a description is when people put just wrong things, use chatspeak outside of quoting, or use text that makes it just as inaccessible. My biggest peeve is when people put commentary in subtitles and that is simply because all of these things hurt more than they help

If you want to make your blog more accessible, here's your sign to do it! Even if that just means trying to reblog descriptions and tagging anything that doesn't have one as not described. Even if the best description you can think of is "a woman clapping." And even if it means that you just not use colored text very often, you are helping! If everyone contributes a little bit that means there's a lot more accessibility in a very ableist world.