In which I return from a LONG hiatus to complain about the election here, so that I don't set my FB feed on fire

Let's talk about the election.  Actually, let's not: I really, really don't want to, but I also literally can't think about anything else for any sustained period of time? I do not know what to do about it, so writing seems like my best bet.  Here's what I wrote to the Fishy today, re: the election.

 Thanks so much; it is ridiculously anxiety-making around here right now, for sure. I'm trying to keep it together, but it is so nice to know that other countries see how completely absurd this whole thing is, and are hoping for the best. I've done my part already, so now I just have to wait and hope that things aren't really as bad as they seem. Deep breaths!  I hope you are doing really well... in all honesty, it's probably my turn for the long email, but since I'm relying on my phone for everything since my computer finally gave up the ghost a few months ago, emails are more difficult than I'd like. (I am not nearly as efficient at thumb typing as I am at regular typing.).  (That is in no way relevant to this post, but I did want you to know why I'm not posting all that much: Phone typing is NOT good for blog production.)

Anyways, huge hugs, and a big thank you for thinking of me. This election is definitely the most anxiety producing one I've ever been through, and that takes into account that most of the time Obama was running the first time I was sure he was going to be assassinated before he could ever be inaugurated, so that tells you how bad it truly is. When a guy who believes in eugenics is one vote away from being the leader of your country- whether or not you are one of the ones whose genes are obviously inferior- I think terrified is the correct response. Now I just have to deep breathe my way through a day that most people agree is going to go the right way, and hope that nobody on our side got complacent and stayed home. Love you! Talk soon!

And I'm having discussions with NephTwo (this is the last presidential election he won't be eligible to vote in, which is blowing my mind) about Bush V Kerry - and how the fact that he got reelected has led me to this point of election anxiety, because I can't trust my fellow citizens to do what's right for the majority of us, the minorities of us, or even individual us-es.  I was 100% certain that Bush would not be reelected, but I had apparently living in some sort of Liberal Utopian Echo-chamber, where I just wasn't hearing the people who thought he was doing a good job? and deserved another term? Because all of the sudden, there we were, in Bush, Term Two.  I still have questions about that, to be honest: I have no idea how that freaking happened.  I went and looked it up, because I could not remember how close it was. 50/48 - that's it... two percentage points (and I don't even think two whole percentage points), and the balance of the world tips. 

Our world has been balanced on chads, on presidential pamphlets, on the media's portrayal of a certain candidates foibles or strengths (who you "want to have a beer with" vs who gets Swiftboated, who can "see Russia from their house" vs who's "never gonna be president now", for example), on demagogues and Supreme Court Justices alike. So, yeah, you'll have to excuse me being a little bit nervous about the fact that a person who does not believe that people like me should exist; who does not believe that - or act like - women are equal to men; who can criticize and castigate an entire race, an entire religion, and entire countries and still think that that has no impact on the greater world around him; who does not believe in equal rights for all people, should be so close to the ultimate position of power in our country. 

Even more bitter is that all the things that I believe should have disqualified him from running, let alone serving, are things that SOMEONE in my country is voting for him because of.  There is someone out there right now who thinks that he's got the right approach to Muslims, and that person isn't going away tomorrow, like Trump hopefully will. There is someone out there voting for him, and they're not bothered by the allegations of rape and sexual assault that Trump is facing. Who doesn't mind the way he's talked to Gold Star families, or the way he disrespects veterans. There is someone out there who thinks "Nuke the shit out of them" is valid foreign policy.  Who thinks "illegals" are group of subhumans, and that they don't deserve to live in the same space as the rest of us.  Who believes that 'Obamacare' is the devil, and doesn't care that it has saved my life - or the lives of hundreds of thousands of others.

And those people are all voting (as they should, although I could wish that they just haven't got the time for it today, right? That's not wishing them ill, so much as wishing them busy, which seems acceptable), and all of those people WILL STILL EXIST come tomorrow morning.  All of those people will still be our country-mates come the day after the election, and that's worrisome to me, because some of those people don't think I should exist, that I do not deserve equal rights, or the support of my government in the form of health care or civil rights.  (For multiple reasons, thank you intersectionality!)

There is some real looking hard at yourselves and your choices that Americans are going to need to do, post-election.

I get that my internet experience is tailored to exist as much in the Social Justice Warrior Bubble as possible, both by choice and by chance, but the facts of this election, and this electorate, are startling to me. (To be fair, I think most of us were actually shocked by Trump's accession, if you can take the fact that both liberal and republican media sources were playing the whole thing off as kind of a joke in the beginning as any kind of clue.) And it's not as if, existing in those spaces online, or as myself in public, I am unaware that all the -isms are alive and well in my country. (The ones I personally experience, and the ones I have witnessed happening to others, which I do understand are not the same thing at all.  I'm just saying, I was also not unaware they existed, just because I did not personally experience them.)
But that someone could rise to power, so quickly and with so little opposition, well, that was a shock to me. That's were my own experiences were definitely not enough, because for however much I've been treated badly by people with ableist attitudes or behaviors, I did not understand the extent to which there were still huge swaths of the country who not only pity people with disabilities, but don't think their lives should be lived. I literally could not believe that a eugenicist was being taken seriously in our election (Granted, he did not come out and SAY he was a Eugenicist, but I think if you look at the definition, and you look at what he believes, you can see how many others and I were able to draw that conclusion.) 

That is an extreme I was not prepared for, in this (or any) election.

I have been listening to other people's lived experiences - the fact that there are violent racists in America is not a surprise to me, for example - but I know that I was not prepared for how ardently and publicly people proclaim things that are overtly racist (or sexist, or homophobic, or Islamophobic, or ableist,), and still don't think that they themselves are racist (et al) .  That they can support a bigot without believing themselves to be bigoted is ... a cognitive dissonance I did not expect, and can not comprehend.  I also have not found more than one or two Trump supporters who can actually give me a reasoned support statement for Trump that do not mention Clinton at all - I get being anti-candidate, because I'm pretty sure I'd vote Garden Hose over Trump, but if you cannot find something in your candidate to support, that's also a problem (Garden Hose: putting out emergency fires since forever. Also, helps your plants grow which is two whole positive things more than I can name about Trump, for example.)

Nor was I prepared for the ways in which this election, and who people support (and how they support them) would impact my personal feelings about people in my life.  It's like Melissa McEwan's Terrible Bargain come to life, this whole thing.

There are people in my life that I depend on, because I have to, whom I no longer can look at as trustworthy, because they didn't see the "big deal" about Trump saying he could sexually assault women and get away with it because he's rich.  There are men that I have befriended and trusted that I now have to seriously reconsider spending time with, because they assured me that it was, in fact, "locker room talk", and not aggressive misogyny.  I know of more than one married couple who are having some really devastatingly difficult conversations now, because they are seeing each other differently in light of their reactions to what has gone on during this cycle.  I've been unfriended myself, because I couldn't refrain from calling out bigotry where I saw it.

 And even though I'm most likely better off, it stung, because I thought I knew that person enough to say "Hey: Not cool. Repeating racist things makes you seem racist, I hope you know." (I am including the word 'seem' here even though I think the correct definition would be to exclude it: repeating racist things makes you racist, if you're supporting them. But I was A LOT more circumspect in my actual FB comment, so know that even this would have been seen as a killer blow to our 'friendship.' )

And I've tried to keep my personal Facebook feed as apolitical as possible (which is not to say apolitical, bc that's impossible for me), and had more than one truly frightening conversation with loved ones about race, class, the economy, misogyny (internalized and externalized), and power than I could ever have imagined having.  Sure, some have been positive, but for the most part, I find relationships are scarred by our interactions over this election - where I am mostly seen as a 'lefty loonie' in our family NORMALLY, now I have been placed in full on 'raving banshee' position, even though I have censored myself  8 times out of 10.

It's not something I'm likely to shrug off either - I will remember every "Oh, aren't you naive" and "that's not why I'm voting for him, but it's also not enough of a reason not to vote for him," I've encountered, you can be sure of that. 

In closing, please sweet baby jesus that I don't actually believe in, could this day end the way it needs to? With hope and community and optimism for our future? With the first woman president of our country, on the cusp of bringing a lot of people together to get shit done? Because I would like that a whole lot. 

On another note, though, my NaNoWriMo writing is going great guys, because I am writing about so many explosions! And history making changes! And life altering political policies! And complete dystopias, because I can't see how else this can end! (I predict M A N Y novels that come out of this NaNoWriMo are going to be Hunger Games-esque, because how could they not be?)

#Ableismexists, so we BADD again.

One of the more insidious things about ableism is that - unlike a lot of other prejudices - there's still an absurd amount of debate over whether it even exists or not.  For example: my spellcheck? Still underlining it.  A more widespread example would be a recent Twitter hashtag, #ableismexists, which wound up with a not-insignificant number of retweeters who were arguing that it actually did not - while this was in no way a surprise (but rather an unfortunately common response, in my experience), there was one new-to-me experience: At least one of the most prominent deniers was a woman with a disability herself.

The woman in question made a YouTube video where she - while using ableist terms like 'retarded' and 'idiots' - not only insulted the originator of the hashtag's lived experience, but talked about how loving and feeling pride & claiming as part of his identity his disabled body was 'sick'. Obviously, I do not agree with her, but I also felt like her post (which got retweeted a LOT by non-disabled folks, trying to disprove that ableism was a thing in a  "See: a disabled person doesn't think it's real, so how are we supposed to take it seriously"way) raised a pretty interesting point - specifically, the idea that if you don't experience something, how can you then feel qualified enough to say that it doesn't exist?

This woman's story is her story - for her, ableism and internalized ableism were not just foreign concepts, but things she found actively oppressing: More than once she said (or intimated) that the closest thing to actual ableism was what 'social justice assholes' were creating by believing in ableism, that accepting disabilities and disabled bodies was an injustice - an ableist trope I myself have had to overcome (more than once, and in more than one way) - that 'accepting' our disabilities was as good as 'giving up', allowing us to 'feel sorry for the poor little cripple', accept a role as victim for the rest of our life.

If that's her experience of ableism, I can see why she'd fight so adamantly against acknowledging it.  My experiences accepting the fact that there are systemic, social, financial, legal, informal, educational, medical, (and a million other forms of) injustices against disabled people has helped me to step out of feeling like a victim, and into feeling like a member of a larger community - not just of people with disabilities who are fighting these injustices, but of any community I have ever been a part of.

I never felt more like someone who belonged on my college campus until a group of girls in my dorm helped me realize that some of the policies the school had in place were creating a completely unfair burden on me - a wheelchair user who, because she could sometimes walk a few steps, was forced to use the stairs during a fire drill and wound up incapacitated for months.  When it happened, I didn't feel as if I had any recourse, or as if it was the school's job to change its policy: It was only the insistence of the women in my dorm, who saw the result of the policy, who made me recognize that the policy itself could be unfair, that the school could be operating under its own prejudices of 'if you can a walk a few steps, you can take the stairs', and that that was an inequality that needed to be addressed.  I didn't feel more like a victim because someone explained to me that the rules were unjust; I felt LESS like one, because now I had something I could fight to change.  My ability to use the stairs was not going to change (no matter how much I may have wanted it to), so the policy needed to.

Figuring out that doctors aren't always without prejudice (particularly when it comes to treating chronic pain patients), has empowered me to step away from more than one doctor who was actively doing me harm. Witnessing that some so-called 'advocacy groups' work against the group they're supposedly advocating for has made me a more conscientious advocate myself, has taught me to listen to the people who are being spoken for, to give them the space to speak for themselves, wherever possible. Recognizing ableism in larger society, and in my life, has allowed me to (among many other things) set more realistic goals for myself, commiserate with and fight for other oppressed groups, speak up on my own/other disabled people's behalves, step out of the mentality that - although my disability isn't something I would have chosen - it isn't something I can live well with.

For me, accepting my disability has been a long and complicated process - I still sometimes struggle with the realization that a lot of things are not going to happen for me, because of my health, and that that's ok.  I still sometimes struggle not to push myself too hard, because it always ends up with dire health consequences when I do. I still sometimes have an issue with feeling like I'm not doing enough to be considered helpful, that I have to miss out on too many 'normal' days with my friends and family for me to be worth them sticking around for. That I still have value even if I am contributing nothing financially. All of those issues (and so many more) are things that I accept are internalized ableism - thought processes that have decided my value as a human being is lessened by my chronic illnesses and disabilities. Accepting that the way I feel sometimes has more to do with a screwed up value system (capitalist societal norms of value being connected to financial contribution, for example) is 100% more empowering to me than thinking that I am worthless because of something I cannot control.

I'm not discounting that woman's life or experiences - if she feels like ableism is a detriment to her personally, and to disabled people on a larger scale, that's her right, and it's her right to say so when the issue is addressed (which is why I'm not linking to her video: I'm not trying to start hate anywhere). But I think to ignore and dismiss and discount the people the tag - and those of you who participate in BADD every year, and millions of more disabled people - is equally unfair. 

Just because it is not your experience, doesn't mean it's not valid. 

To read about some more perspectives on (Dis)Ableism, head on over to the Goldfish's abode: BADD 2016.  

BADD 2015: Where I talk about Fanfiction and Comics, a lot, and you probably roll your eyes.

Welcome to all the Blogging Against Disablism Day readers & writers! I can't believe this is our 10th year! Thanks again to Mrs. Fishy and Mr. Fishy for all their hard work today.  You can go here to see all the great posts (or follow @BADDtweets on Tumblr).  
 
So, I thought a lot about what I wanted to write for today, and wasn’t coming up with anything, so I decided to troll my Tumblr blog for ideas, because there's a ton of good disability related stuff there - If you’re not on Tumblr, you’re missing out on a pretty vibrant spoonie/chronically ill/disabled blogger community, IMO, and my tags there are ultra organized, which is nice.  

And, then, this week, I saw this post  where MasterSkyRocker asks if there are any superheroes who “are representative of those with chronic pain?” and I thought about official canon (as far as I know it), and then I thought of fandom.

And I’ve decided to talk a little bit about my only non-family, non-health-related obsession this year - Fandom (in particular, the Marvel fandom, and -in extreme particulars-, the Avengers fandom & the Captain America fandom) and its diverse representations of disability.  

Because fandom is where portrayals of disabilities are at, people.

Last year, I wandered headfirst into fanfiction, and since then, I’ve been reading So Much Avengers FanFiction you honestly wouldn’t believe it. As in, I have 276 bookmarks, but those are only my favorite favorites, and I've easily read 4 times that amount of actual stories.  As in, I cut my yearly book quota of over 300 in half last year because most of what I was reading was on the screen in front of me, and almost all of it revolved around superheroes and their alternate realities.  

And - because I care about issues of representation and disability, and because I live with a number of disabilities, and because I can’t shut the critical thinking portion of my brain off when I’m reading anymore than I can when I’m watching television or out shopping (just ask my niece, who ranted with me about the lack of Black Widow merchandise in the Disney Store the other day), I’ve thought a TON about how disabilities are portrayed, or ignored, or tweaked to fit certain tropes within the contexts of the fics that I’m reading.  

And I’ve participated in more than one Tumblr discussion on the subject, and more than one comment thread on a particularly good fic.  Fandom has opened up a whole new internet arena to me - where we exchange opinions about which supersoldier’s PTSD would present violently and who’d feel more overwhelmingly depressed; about how Hawkeye’s being able to lipread/knowledge of ASL would benefit him in the field vs. the ‘handicap’ of being deaf and dependent on his hearing aids during a battle; about what exactly the Arc Reactor means for Tony Stark’s chronic pain level and his sobriety (or lack thereof);  and now there’s a ton of new meta and headcanon about Daredevil, because of his new Netflix series, that I haven’t watched yet and therefore can’t participate in yet, but I'm coming for it as soon as I can, because Yes, please.  

I have a lot of opinions, is what I'm saying. 

And… so much of it is awesome, and a lot of it is not,  - just like any fiction.  There’s good and bad stories, good and bad writing, good and bad characters and good and bad portrayals of disabled people.  

And yet - the part that strikes me as most important?  The part that keeps me coming back after a particularly bad trope shows up out of nowhere and makes me want to raze an author and their fic? Is that at least they’re being SHOWN.  At the very least, at it’s very worst, in the most trope-y, magical cure, Deus ex Machina crap piece of fanfiction? At least disabled people are THERE.  It isn't enough; It isn't where we stop; but it's something.

Because even when they’re supposed to be there -> Hawkeye’s being Deaf, being the most obvious Marvel Cinematic Universe example - Disabled people are just plain overlooked in the actual canon. 

Sure, Tony Stark definitely has PTSD and panic attacks in Iron Man 3 (As well he should, and I cannot applaud the filmmakers enough for including them!), but Steve Rogers seems to wander along without anybody mentioning that he might be depressed, in addition to being a superhuman, since he, you know, lost all of his friends, his loved ones, his entire time period, and then was unfrozen to unknowingly work for the agency he nearly died trying to destroy. Even if you believe that Captain America: The Winter Soldier is showing his obvious signs of depression (which, eh: yes and no: I’m of both minds on that), they never come out and say it.  Certainly nobody addresses it in any meaningful way.  

At least in the movie.  

In fics, I’ve seen Steve go to therapy - group and individual. I've seen him struggle to share that he's not perfect, and struggle to keep up his perfectionist image.  I’ve seen him rant and rave about all that he’s lost, and have his own panic attacks.  I’ve seen him ignore everything till he can’t get out of bed in the morning. I’ve seen him sleep around, and be unable to watch anything but nature documentaries because the noises on other shows startle him. I’ve seen him be a right bastard until someone sticks out a helping hand, and I’ve seen him recognize on his own that he’s not in the right headspace and work to figure out how to get there.

In short, I’ve seen him as a real person.  With real issues.  That are addressed - within the context of that particular universe - realistically.  (Because, let’s be honest, not everyone has the resources of imaginary -fanon Captain America.)  

Even Bruce Banner - who admits, in the Avengers - to having suicidal tendencies, is basically just assumed to be able to shrug it off and get on with being the Hulk already, in canon.  In fandom, I’ve seen him cry and avoid making connections to other people; and make connections to other people but screw it up; and make meaningful connections to other people and figure out that he’s screwed up.  He’s not stuck being the guy who can’t die even if he wants to, which is all the movie had time for him to be - in fanfics, he winds up being so much more.

Same goes for Hawkeye and being Deaf.  Sometimes it’s a huge deal - where he’s being tortured and his captors use it to their advantage; and other times it’s played for a joke - because if a man survives solely on pizza and coffee, can you really expect him to remember to replace his hearing aid batteries all the time?; and other times it’s barely mentioned except for how all the rest of the Avengers learned ASL really quickly because they’re mostly geniuses or supersoldiers and non-assholes, and most of them want to be able to communicate with their new friend/teammate as much as possible.  

And the list of disabled characters in my particular fandom is still not as large as it should be, and also surely not representative of fandom as a whole, but it’s still amazing.  I’ve read recovering from brain trauma Fitz (actual canon, the brain trauma; less so, the how he managed recovery part); Daniel Sousa on Agent Carter is a WWII vet and amputee, who canonically makes jokes about his disability, and in fandom I’ve seen him hold his own both against and with the Howling Commandoes; I’ve read more PTSD in fanfiction than I did in three years of psychology courses, and - since a lot of it comes from survivors themselves - I’m tempted to say, it’s probably more accurate.  

And it’s not JUST that they’re there and varied and (mostly awesome, because that’s why I’m reading about them in the first place), it’s that they’re REAL PEOPLE in fics.  They have sex.  They have bad days and great days and setbacks and breakthroughs.  They use adaptive technology to their benefit (and, all the better if they can rope Stark into making it for them). They feel sorry for themselves without abled people sitting around telling them to buck up. (Sorry: gratutious Bucky Barnes pun!) Or if the abled people in their lives do tell them to suck it up and get on with their lives, THEY GET TOLD TO STUFF IT.  They have families and worries and they're superheroes (or not, AU-of your choice), but they're people. Authentic representation for the win!

The fact that disabled people show up in fanfiction is amazing to me for a few reasons.  First, because I read so much anyways, and while I knew that large portions of people - not just disabled people, but also LGBTAQ people & people of color, for example - were not being represented in the mainstream stuff I was reading, at least not to any significant degree, I didn't know that I had other options.  But here? In fandom?  Can’t go a page of fics without finding an asexual Steve, or a Falcon who’s got his own storyline, or a Fury who never discusses losing his eye, but makes sure you know he’s seeing right through you just the same.  And now I want that in all of my fiction - I'm reading with a breadth and width that I never thought I'd be able to find, since it wasn't in my local bookstore.

And I'm not talking "specialty fiction" or anything like that: I want romances with disabled characters, I want adventures with them. I want sad stories and happy stories and erotic stories and parenting stories - I want to not have to go searching in a different corner of the store, is what I'm saying.  I want it all in one, all together, and now I know where to find it. 

And I think I’m particularly drawn to these stories since a lot of it also comes from writers with disabilities (or from other marginalized groups), who long to see themselves in the heroes they love, and figure out a way to make it happen.  I mean, is there anything better than being able to write someone out of a panic attack because you’ve had to fight your way through them yourself? Or to be able to -finally - explain to someone who doesn’t live with the overwhelming, all-encompassing aspects of chronic pain just how bad it truly can get via the hole where Tony Stark’s heart used to be? Or what touch aversion actually feels like, emotionally and physically? Or the idea that it's fine for me (and sometimes my friends) to make a joke about my disability, but if you're using it as the butt of your joke, well: Son, just don't. 

Are there downsides to fanfiction’s portrayal of people with disabilities?  Sure.  Definitely.  In the Marvel fandom alone, I can think of at least 6 different active arguments you can go discuss on A03 or Tumblr.  There’s a ton of talk about removing Bucky’s arm (and agency); about how calling people ‘trash’ (which, for some reason is sometimes seen as a positive in this fandom?) when they’re disabled is also pretty freaking ableist (or not, YMMV); about how having Deaf Hawkeye in the comics but not in the movies is sort of a sideways move towards representation, if anything.  That's not even starting on pre-serum Steve, and how he can be portrayed using every single bad disability trope you've ever read, or how de-seruming Captain America can so quickly wander into "oh no: please tell me you are not going there" territory. 

And there so many more examples, because authentic representation doesn't come easy, no matter who's writing it, or what audience they're writing it for.  Because sometimes abled people don't know the pitfalls to avoid when they're writing disabled characters, whether it's in mainstream fiction or fanfiction. And those misrepresentations can be harmful, absolutely.  

But there’s going to be disagreements and downsides to ANY portrayal of disabled people, and, as always, I think the answer lies in listening to the people themselves.  Like how blind people are asking that Netflix provide description services so that they can actually watch the show with the superhero who is most like them, and Netflix is listening to them.  Or when Deaf people applauded Matt Fraction’s Hawkeye comic for having pages and panels only in ASL. Or when a fic writer gets commentary from people with a specific disability that calls them out on somewhere they've screwed up and they don't get all huffy in return: These types of interactions can - and regularly do - happen in the fanfiction community. I know many authors who give constant credit to their beta readers - some of them have the disabilities that are being portrayed, and do their best to make it seem as accurate as possible.  And when they miss the mark, there are so many discussions about how, and how to fix it, and... I almost never see that in 'mainstream' fiction. It's heartening and hopeful. 

There’s nothing better, to my mind, than a fic that gets recommended by someone who knows. Who has lived it.  No higher rec than someone saying (as they often do) “Seriously: This author gets it right → that’s what dysphoria feels like to me!” and suddenly you’re understanding someone else’s life & experiences in a way you couldn’t have before.  

That’s the best of what reading good writing can do, and I find myself constantly wanting to say to people, “I know it’s Avenger’s Fan Fiction, and that’s not your style/fandom/regular cup of tea, but listen: change the names and read for the people.  Read and get it in a way you didn’t before.”  

Because maybe the Avengers aren’t your favorites (You’re wrong, but that’s ok, you can stay anyways), but if understanding people is, and you’re just being a snob because: ew, fanfiction? Then you’re missing out on some amazing writing, and some amazing portrayals of disabled people.  And, until they start showing up everywhere else like they should, I’m going to keep finding them where I can.  

(PS: If anybody’s interested, I can put together a list of recommendations, because: some of these should definitely be shared.)   

Hulking Out (BADD 2014)

So I knew BADD 2014 was coming up, and my brain has been... uncooperative.  In fact, it has been pretty uncooperative for anything besides reading Marvel fanfiction and carving out random hours of time to spend with my family for about a month now. :shrug: It happens. But a confluence of all three of these things happened over the weekend, and it seemed like too much of a good thing to pass up, so here we are.  Please be warned that this is completely ridiculous and that I KNOW I am stretching the metaphor a little bit too far - OK SO FAR - but... :shrug: It happens. (Also: some spoilers for The Avengers & maybe random comic book knowledge?)

----

During a sleepover with my niece and nephew this weekend, my (soon to be 8 year old) niece and I were playing with modeling clay while I was making dinner. Mostly, this consisted of her making a thing, showing it to me, and then setting it aside, or asking for help with a particularly difficult part of the construction (making a Bruins 'B' for her brother required a cookie cutter, as neither of us could make a B that would suffice, for example).  But, at a certain point, I'd gotten all the ingredients cooking and was just sort of waiting for things do be done, and so I sat at the table with her and started to make a figure of my own.

I chose the Hulk because a) I know how to make basic figures in clay, b) the green was closest to me, and c) LilGirl and I had been talking & reading about The Avengers just prior to dinner-time. We chatted a bit about Hulk and how he'd become the Hulk (origin stories - not always appropriate for children!), and how he's usually a 'normal' guy, except if he gets hurt or angry or there's dangerous situations going on. She remembered that her favorite part of The Avengers movie is when Hulk  smashes "the bad god-brother" and laughs "Puny god". She even demonstrated for me with the clay in her hand.  I told her how the old TV show of The Incredible Hulk used to make me so frightened I'd hide behind the couch every time poor Bruce Banner changed into the unbelievably large (to then 5 year old me) Lou Ferrigno, but that once he WAS the Hulk, he seemed ok; even nice, mostly... If you were nice to him. And how he always seemed so sad, at the end of the show, walking off down that highway, twinkly, piano-theme music playing behind him, which led us to talk about how hard it would be to make friends if you were the Hulk. I finished up my Hulk as best I could - his face was still not great, but at least his arms stopped falling off - and she finished her sculpture, which she then gave to me. She'd made her brother a Bruins 'B', herself a smiley faced self-portrait, and me, a copy of my wheelchair. I oohed and ahhed over it, and then the next steps of dinner took over, and I asked her to start clearing off the table while I got the rest of the food together and found her brother.

A couple of hours later, when we were finished eating, cleaning up, and playing games, she went to give her brother the B, and I was going to show off my new clay wheelchair, when I looked to where she'd put them aside, and found Hulk, standing in the chair. LilGirl explained to her brother that she'd made the chair, and I'd made Hulk, and when he asked, "Why's he in the wheelchair - he's a superhero...?" She made a face like he was being ridiculous and answered "So? Superheroes can have wheelchairs -" When he went to say something else she looked to me "Can't they Auntie?"

Before I could respond her brother butt in (the two of them are not great at letting each other finish sentences, but that's what siblings are for), rolling his eyes: "Of course SUPERHEROES can, but HULK doesn't use a wheelchair, because then he wouldn't be Hulk." Now they were both looking at me. Um... OK.

"Yeah, I mean, of course: Superheroes DO use wheelchairs" I rolled into my room and brought out my Oracle trading card, showing her the lovely and super-amazing Barbara Gordon in all her technological splendor. "We've talked about Oracle before, right, how she used to be -" "Batgirl" her brother put in. "Right." LilGirl took the card, gave it back - "Yup, I remember. But Batgirl is not an Avenger, right?"

I laughed and thought about explaining how Batgirl isn't even in the same universe as the Avengers (mostly), but... thought better of pushing my luck. "Right. But... Um Hawkeye - in some versions of the comics: He's deaf, so he has a disability and is an Avenger. And... " Nope: not going to explain PTSD to an almost 8-year-old, but... "And Iron-Man, in the movies he has a panic attack, and sometimes that can be a disability - anxiety disorders."

"And I guess it isn't exactly super-normal that you change into a big green monster when you're angry either" suggested her brother, ALMOST apologetically. "Well, I'm not sure disabled and normal are exact opposites there, bud" I corrected him gently (because you try and correct a 14 year-old any other way), "but yeah, I think maybe Hulking out could stretch into the disability category if we really tried, because it's something in his body that he's not always got control over and a lot of disabilities -" I gestured to myself "are kind of like that. Cousin Sara once called her seizures Hulking out." (Our cousin has epilepsy.)

"Plus, how you said that sometimes the Hulk - or the doctor who is the Hulk - gets so sad because people don't understand him? That's the same, right?" Lil Girl offered and I was kind of stunned. Because -although we talk about it a lot, how people don't always understand about me or how much it can hurt when you want to do things but you just physically can't - I wasn't sure she really ever got that part of it before. Shows what I get for underestimating her. "Um, yeah, kiddo - I guess that would be the same kind of thing, really. Sometimes being sick can be wicked lonely." Her super-sweet brother shoved his chair closer to mine and put his head on my shoulder.

"So see: Hulk could need the wheelchair." LilGirl gloated at her brother, never one to let an opportunity to best him pass. I rolled my eyes at him, because he's older and we share the experience of little sisters, if nothing else. And then I said "He could: but even if he didn't use the chair, he could have a disability. Lots of people do. You can't always tell." 

"Well, this Hulk needs a wheelchair." she said, showing it off. "He looks good in it too," I agreed, "although you probably could have told me that before I spent so long making his legs strong enough to hold him up, you  fruit loop."  She laughed, and we got ready to watch a movie and call it a night.

While I realize that not everyone will be on board with the whole Hulking out/disability metaphor (and I'm not sure I'm 100% behind it myself, as my brain cells would need MUCH better focusing skills then they are currently capable of), when I was thinking of BADD, and what the hell I was going to write about, it was this conversation that I just kept coming back to.  There's a lot I could say about it - I could talk about the power of representation, and having books and media that accurately portray characters with disabilities in a way that helps CHILDREN especially create a more realistic view of their actual world.  I could go on and on about how great it feels that some of what I'm actually hoping these children in particular are learning is actually getting through (Empathy! We can haz it!).  I could definitely ramble at length about how much I miss Oracle even though I love the current run of Batgirl. 

But really, I think, for me, this was about how often we underestimate what kids can understand, and how they understand it. To LilGirl, there was no reason that Hulk couldn't both be canonically Hulk and use a wheelchair: at eight, that limit doesn't exist for her. By 14, her brother, on the other hand, has more experience with the actual Hulk's story, and knows that (in canon) Hulk would never need a wheelchair. Which was also fine, because, to him, having no control over your body whenever you get angry seemed like a disability in and of itself. Sure, neither used exactly the terminology I would have preferred (normal =/= non-disabled, for example), but that's small potatoes compared to the big stuff. The big stuff here being that neither one of them thought it was even the tiniest bit absurd that Hulk - whatever his disability might have been - would be a superhero. There was just enough "Well why the hell not" in both of their attitudes to make me proud. (And not enough "But they're special BECAUSE OF their disability" to make me worry about running headfirst into super-crip territory.)

Because WHY THE HELL NOT??? is basically how kids work, and we should do a better job of living up to that, all around.

PS: Here is our Hulk, complete with his chair. My favorite is the push handles in the back of the chair, because I like to picture Captain American rushing into battle, pushing Hulk's chair while Hulk smashes with Cap's shield.

PPS: In case you haven't heard it, here is a link to The Lonely Man, which is the actual title to the theme song from The Incredible Hulk, which I didn't know until right now. The song still gives me the sads, though.

In which the world thinks I hate animals (again)

Aside from one anonymous angry e-mail I got about the fact that I didn't like a certain drug, the only truly negative feedback I've ever received on this site was the time that I had the gall to suggest that the act of acquiring a pet was basically saying to me that I was unwelcome in your home*. The pro-pet contingent was up in arms over my suggestion that pet ownership precluded us (meaning me and whomever the pet owner might be) from having a certain kind of relationship; the "you can't tell me what to do in my own home" response was also quite vociferous; and the worst response - a well written, but sharply pointed "if your friendship comes with those sorts of conditions attached, I'm better off not knowing you" - was something that I had been completely unprepared for (especially considering I thought the person who had written it and I were, at the very least, friendly) and stung quite a bit.

    It was surprising to me then, and continues to confound me now, that the limitations placed on relationships by my illnesses are seen as unreasonable, extreme and beyond understanding, while the limitations that people voluntarily impose on relationships - say, you don't date smokers because you don't like kissing someone who tastes like tobacco, or you're not really friendly with people who go to bars all the time because you've outgrown your barhopping stage - are seen as completely normal, routine, and worthy of respect.

Let me break it down for you a little bit more - Take my example of pets. If you own a pet, it is an actual impediment to me being able to spend time in your physical space. I know that your cat's litter box doesn't smell to you, and that your dogs would never dare to shed, but for someone like me (who is allergic to all sorts of dander and fur, and hypersensitive to smells), your animals are indeed as much of a physical barrier in our relationship as the stairs going up to your apartment, or the perfume you can't seem to remember not to spritz before meeting me.  I have had to leave more than one family occasion because of a reaction to an animal (or the detritus that the animal has left behind, no matter how well you think you've vacuumed), and more than once, I have been either hospitalized or required additional medical attention (or a new drug regimen) for the same reason. [Trust me: there is nothing like a course of steroids to convince me to send my regrets next time.]

Hopefully, this clears up the idea that just locking the animal in another room while I am there means that everything will be fine.  That is far from the most likely outcome.  The most likely outcome is that my allergies or asthma will start up the minute I walk through your door - even though I've already taken prophylactic meds, just to be there - and that it will go downhill - to varying degrees - from there.

I am not saying that you can not HAVE pets: Although I have somewhat of a reputation now as an anti-animal person - I do not, in fact, dislike them.  I think puppies are adorable and little kitten feet are so scrumptious and padded and purrfect that I can't even.  The truth is that I have had to harden my heart to these snuggly little guys out of necessity: so that it just isn't one more thing that I can't have. Trust me, though -> I binge watch cute animal shows, and am definitely not immune to the allure of a waggely tail.

BUT, let's just be clear about the facts here - your pet-friendly house is significantly less (and sometimes completely un-) NTE-friendly. Those are just the truths of the matter, and me saying so doesn't make me some sort of barbarian animal hater: it just means that I'm pointing out the limitations that your choices are creating in our relationship.

It means that I don't get to drop everything and sack out on SisterCh's couch for a week to help after Baby D is born, because an hour in her four room, four cat apartment, and my skin is raw and red and raised, and my nebulizer ain't cutting it anymore.  That is not to say that sometimes I don't bite the bullet and choose the nebulizer and the hives and the steroids and the ER, because I value the people I love and want to spend time with them - the same way I hoard spoons until I have enough to visit my 3-steps-up sister or UJ and his 'your wheelchair won't fit through the entryway' house - these are just the kinds of sacrifices spoonies like me make all the time.

Pointing them out does not make me the Wicked Witch of Whereever Petless People Live.   It literally is just me asking for the acknowledgement that maybe your having animals or steps or a husband who bathes in Axe body spray are all things that I have to accommodate: And that sometimes? I am just not capable of doing so.

It would be a nice change of pace if everything stopped being my fault. 

If people could recognize that that I might love to just be able to drop in for a few minutes and a cup of tea, but with those steps, it'd cost me a week's worth of energy, and I can't do that right now.  If someone would acknowledge that part of living with a brood of cats, dogs - or even toddlers who bring home every germ from day care - is that sometimes your friend/sister/cousin with the wackjob immune system can't come to birthday parties, or girls' nights, or potlucks.

Something I often feel that gets overlooked is that part of the ease of a relationship - the familiarity and flexibility and fluidity of it - is hampered not JUST by my illnesses (which are not choices, btw) but also by your life decisions - having animals, living in a 3rd floor walk-up, only having late night parties, etc.  It's not that there is anything wrong about any of those choices, but let's just stop making this all MY issue, all MY fault -

YOU have made decision that work out great for you 98% of the time: Happy puppy smiles! so many great neighbors! Living in the suburbs! Drinking till the bars close!-  but I happen to fit into the 2% that's leftover and kind of sucks.  The inconveniences and unfair factors related to your choices - like having to lug your groceries/stroller up those three flights of stairs, or having to walk your dog during a blizzard , or having to wake up the morning after you've closed down the bars- the stuff about your choices that hinders rather than helps. All the stuff that is just part of the deal, and goes along with the decisions you've made.

And me not being able to hang with you or babysit your kids fits into that 2%. It's not about fault - because I'm not trying to BLAME anybody for having animals or stairs or whatever - but it is about getting the fact that I am NOT at fault, if you can see the difference. 

It's all in the perspective, and if I can just get people to see that I'm not saying you have to make different choices, or you have to only do things in a way that means I can participate (Because, truth? That is boring. I can participate in very few things, and would not like everybody to have to scale back to my level), but I am saying that you need to realize that your choices have consequences for our relationship, and that sometimes they will really suck.

It's seeing things more from a "well, I've got cats, so you can't come here, it seems reasonable to me that I should go there instead" kind of perspective instead of "well, I've got cats, so I guess you don't want to ever come here, the end."  It's about having a relationship with others where it's not all about me asking for things that people see as accommodations and impositions, and more about acknowledging and framing it as "hey this is OUR issue; how do we go about getting around it?"

Unfortunately, too often, the procedure in my life has normally been

• Barrier = Can't Do/Go = People Eventually Stop Asking Me To Do Things or 
• Barrier = Go Anyways = Get Much Sicker = That Was Really Unwise instead of 
• Barrier = Can't Do/Go = People Help Me Figure Out A New Plan. 

Because sitting out on things is really starting to chafe, and having people assume that just asking me - knowing I can't go because of X or Y - is good enough is really getting old.

 No: it's not good enough. If you're really interested in maintaining a relationship with me, asking me to do things you know I can't do (like drive or show up at your inaccessible apartment) and saying "Sorry you can't make it!" is no longer good enough for me.

Let's figure out how to do better.

*I tried to find that post, but haven't managed it yet. If I do, I'll update with the link.