And now I'm wondering whether vampirism/being a werewolf/etc are disabilities for the purpose of the challenge? Do you want to go there?
This reminds me of the "is Gaila a person of colour?" question that came up a while back.
There are definitely fictional characters whose magical conditions are treated very much as metaphorical disabilities. But fandom doesn't seem to have any hesitations writing about those; it's fic dealing with real-world disabilities that tends to be in short supply.
Inevitably there are going to be some blurry boundaries (you have some characters, like River, where a real-world disability -- mental illness -- has an sf/f cause), and there are going to be cases where people disagree.
But personally, I'd like it if the festival encouraged people not to go the "being a ghost is totally a disability!" route.
no subject
This reminds me of the "is Gaila a person of colour?" question that came up a while back.
There are definitely fictional characters whose magical conditions are treated very much as metaphorical disabilities. But fandom doesn't seem to have any hesitations writing about those; it's fic dealing with real-world disabilities that tends to be in short supply.
Inevitably there are going to be some blurry boundaries (you have some characters, like River, where a real-world disability -- mental illness -- has an sf/f cause), and there are going to be cases where people disagree.
But personally, I'd like it if the festival encouraged people not to go the "being a ghost is totally a disability!" route.