(no subject)

[chordatesrock]

I do know that accessportrayal is my community and I can make arbitrary decisions about it if I want to, but since the access_fandom crowd is a big chunk of potential membership, I feel like asking opinions. I've been considering adding my own article, not about a specific disability, but about disabilities that magically go away, because I've had this happen to me and putting those experiences into words could be useful for writers who choose (against all attempts to persuade them otherwise) to go that route with their characters. Do you think that's a good idea (especially for fanfic writers who have no choice) or will it just encourage more of this kind of plot twist?

Comments

Re: Well...

[ysabetwordsmith]

>> I actually wrote a post about "curing disability and what to consider when you DO go there" a while back which touched on some of these points. <<

Signal boosted. That's a very
good essay.

>> I suspect part of the backlash against the cured!disability portrayals isn't just because of the subject matter but because the portrayal is unrealistically positive and doesn't reflect what sudden change is generally like <<

I agree. Another aspect that
often bugs me is one you mentioned,
identity. I eventually figured
out that it was part of what
bugged me in Birds of Prey
with the evolving subplot of
Barbara Gordon working on a way
to walk again. Because I wanted
to watch Oracle, and she was
still wanting to be Batgirl,
and it just always rang a little
off-key then.

>>not the same disability but as mentioned in the post, going from a person with an overt stutter to a person that was read as fluent after speech therapy really did my head in.<<

*hugs* I can sympathize.

Me, I don't like taking my glasses
off. I've done it for some
photo shoots, but I prefer having
them on -- not just because I
can't see much without them, but
because they're part of my
identity in this particular body.
If they aren't there I feel lik
something is missing. *ponder*
Which is apparently common for
pieces of adaptive equipment,
especially for people who don't
hate theirs. So if somebody
like that lost the connection,
it would be as disorienting as
gaining a disability in the
first place, because they'd be
losing a part of themselves.

And almost nobody would understand
that, which would drive them nuts.