Ugh, don't get me started on the projection of privilege by the privileged. You know better than I do it's a very common tactic, whether we're talking gender, race, or sexual orientation, to accuse the disempowered group of being privileged, or to confuse accommodation and privilege. Just add disability to that list. Lots of members of the more mainstream group are uncomfortable with their privilege and would like to deny it, or want to justify their bigotry, or have resentments they need an outlet for. Variations on the main theme of "fucking sad."
And thanks for the heads-up! I had no idea what term to look under. The Wikipedia entry itself is fascinating. Do you have any other literature on disability perception (visible or invisible) and ableism you'd like to recommend? As a total n00b I need all the help I can get.
Coming from a place of privilege and ignorance, I am a little bit nervous about including disability in my writing. It's not a big thing, though, since the biggest difficulty as always is developing the story. It also helps that I'm not writing about disabled characters, I'm writing characters and they have disabilities. Maybe I'll write something blatantly inaccurate or condescending, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable will set me straight and I can fix it (a big advantage of internet fiction). Heck, I'll be thankful to have readers period, much less readers who know enough to give me a talking-to.
Tangential bitchiness: I really hate it when people are all "I'd love to write about disabled/minority characters, but I'm soooo afraid I'd get it wrooooong!" Which by itself is understandable, but whatever happened to research and listening? And when that hangup becomes too big the implications get rapidly unfortunate, such as: A character in that grouping is so different as to be unrelateable, even non-(dare I say sub-?)human. It's so othering to believe disabled or minority characters are somehow fundamentally different. I also dislike the implied sympathy-trolling, like "I'm SO socially conscious but people are going to be MEAN to noble me!" Whatever. If you're human you make mistakes, and if you make mistakes you might be lucky enough to be called out on them. It's not the end of the world, and it's certainly no excuse to a) try to earn points for nobility in DEIGNING to write about the LESS FORTUNATE and b) not even do that socially-conscious writing because you're just too delicate a flower to do the work of, you know, actual research and take the risk of being wrong. Do one or the other, but you can't have it both ways.
My, I seem to be a boiling pit of rage today. Sorry for the filibuster, I will get out of your hair now. :)
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branchandroot
no subject
Date: 2012-06-21 03:44 am (UTC)And thanks for the heads-up! I had no idea what term to look under. The Wikipedia entry itself is fascinating. Do you have any other literature on disability perception (visible or invisible) and ableism you'd like to recommend? As a total n00b I need all the help I can get.
Coming from a place of privilege and ignorance, I am a little bit nervous about including disability in my writing. It's not a big thing, though, since the biggest difficulty as always is developing the story. It also helps that I'm not writing about disabled characters, I'm writing characters and they have disabilities. Maybe I'll write something blatantly inaccurate or condescending, but hopefully someone more knowledgeable will set me straight and I can fix it (a big advantage of internet fiction). Heck, I'll be thankful to have readers period, much less readers who know enough to give me a talking-to.
Tangential bitchiness: I really hate it when people are all "I'd love to write about disabled/minority characters, but I'm soooo afraid I'd get it wrooooong!" Which by itself is understandable, but whatever happened to research and listening? And when that hangup becomes too big the implications get rapidly unfortunate, such as: A character in that grouping is so different as to be unrelateable, even non-(dare I say sub-?)human. It's so othering to believe disabled or minority characters are somehow fundamentally different. I also dislike the implied sympathy-trolling, like "I'm SO socially conscious but people are going to be MEAN to noble me!" Whatever. If you're human you make mistakes, and if you make mistakes you might be lucky enough to be called out on them. It's not the end of the world, and it's certainly no excuse to a) try to earn points for nobility in DEIGNING to write about the LESS FORTUNATE and b) not even do that socially-conscious writing because you're just too delicate a flower to do the work of, you know, actual research and take the risk of being wrong. Do one or the other, but you can't have it both ways.
My, I seem to be a boiling pit of rage today. Sorry for the filibuster, I will get out of your hair now. :)