Why You Shouldn't Heal Disabled Characters

[@rommdan2716]

- "Healing" a dessable character by giving them legs: ❌ - Giving them a giant mech suit full of railguns and a butler A.I. with a coffee machine: ✅

[@cosmicvoidtree]

The tail guns are to be only used on those who said or say, “WhY doNT YOu JuST gIVe YOursElF fUNCtiONing LeGS?” or some shit like that

[@YouveBeenMegged]

Can’t forget the mini toaster

[@Blue-Pheonix455]

This kinda happened with an Artificer charachter I had, they had a missing hand from an injury. Instead of healing it they mate themselves a grappling hook hand and it was really cool.

[@serperiorandtheanimator9216]

Hell yeah

[@artfoex]

How about getting a new avatar body you can pilot via your mind and date a sexy alien princess?

[@jacobcox4565]

One disabled character I think is good representation is Massimo from Luca. He is missing his right arm yet is portrayed as a very capable person, he is a really good fisherman, his cooking isn't bad, he's a great father figure, he's absolutely fine the way he is. The reason why he's missing an arm also subverts audience expectations, the audience expects a dramatic backstory where he loses his arm due to a tragic accident but that's not the case. He was just born like that and it's never bothered him or others.

[@YouveBeenMegged]

I won’t lie, I legitimately did not notice until much later that he was missing an arm, and this kinda made me go “wait what?” for a sec.

[@JoKeR-hh8rg]

massimo’s honestly one of my favourite pixar characters

[@fisheyenomiko]

Hiccup from "How to Train Your Dragon"! He loses the lower part of his right leg at the end of the first movie (I was very happily surprised when they revealed it), and he just has a prosthetic from then on. (-:

[@everyonegetselfears1444]

I love that no one really cares. ((Edit: I meant makes a big deal about it.)) He just gets to be himself, and they only need a few lines acknowledging his disability.

[@freshcupofangst]

Agreed! Also I literally never noticed he was disabled prior to the scene on the boat where it was pointed out 💀

[@BeijingNoodle]

I’ve got a small handful of disabled characters (one blind, one with some very bad scarring, one with prosthetics and is deaf) and every time someone asks me if I’m going to “fix them” I add one new disabled character Edit: to all of you beautiful people who keep asking if I’ve fixed my characters yet, I see you, I love you, please keep giving me excuses to make more disabled characters, we are gonna rule the damn world

[@sillygoosetaur]

make an army. also if you want ideas I’d love to see someone using forearm crutches or a service pup! possible someone with pots or eds (like i have heh)

[@BeijingNoodle]

@@sillygoosetaur I do have someone with an emotional support dog! I was thinking of giving crutches to one character who has a leg brace. As for making an army, I am definitely working on that lol!

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

@@BeijingNoodle would it be useful for you if I managed to make a video about how I use my forearm crutches? 'Cause my first physiotherapist taught me the "proper" ways in 2015, but I have since developed a number of additional personal preferences, especially for stairs and uphill / downhill movement, because my balance is not the best. Also: there's a difference in how optimally my crutches work, depending on how thick the soles of my shoes are. Because the most common way to adjust crutches (forearm and traditional) is step-wise, not smoothly, with the next adjustment hole being a bit less than an inch away. As I need the extra support most outside and in public places, where I always wear my "army" style boots, when I am at home, the crutches are almost an inch out of alignment (too tall). But I cannot be ar*ed to adjust them every time I go out or come back in, so I just use them a bit wrong when my shoe or slipper soles are thinner. Someone who needs both crutches all the time also at home might get a second pair that is adjusted shorter. Or go through routine adjusting when going out and coming in, especially if the mechanism was easier and cleaner to work with than the current standard. Incorporating stuff like that would make the descriptions & representation more realistic, methinks.

[@bluebutterflies9072]

Same ! I have a disabled dnd character and I hear about healing spells all the time

[@dragletsofmakara1120]

@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 Loving these details!! Really helps to add to relatability!

[@lacewinglml]

God, I created a mute character for a game, who frankly was doing well. Then the dm forced a cure on him. I hated it. It ruined so much that made him him. another character had an accident that left her disabled. I was having so much fun working around her disabilities, creating a life dispite the adversity. The dm kept trying to damsel me, or "fix" me. I blew up. I was dealing with my own disability and fact I'm never going to "get better". Dispite the characters where perfectly fine, happy, and creating thier own life. I just.. wanted to be recognized...

[@Wince_Media]

What's up with dnd players and not understanding disabled people can exist alongside magic?

[@lacewinglml]

@@Wince_Media Often its viewed as "inconvenient" to many dms, as if people who are disabled are somehow lesser or weaker than others

[@Wince_Media]

@@lacewinglml sorry, I feel like I worded things incorrectly. The point is, if the dm finds making a story with a disabled character too "inconvenient", they suck at storytelling. If anything, having a disabled character should inspire more creativity as your character would have to work around things that able bodied characters wouldn't think about

[@lacewinglml]

@@Wince_Media I know right? Seriously I love when people bring more to the table in terms of creative character interactions. Characters like Toph, and Hiccup show it can be done effectively

[@Wince_Media]

@@lacewinglml exactly! Diversity in general just gives people more stories to tell, especially if said stories from from diverse people

[@vernyulkisasszony4708]

I am not disabled myself, but that's why I love Scootaloo from MLP G4. She is pegasus who can't fly. Her wings are still the same size in the end of the series, when she was a kid, they didn't grow at all. They even dedicated an episode to it: When she was still growing up, her big sister figure stated that it's perfectly fine if she won't able to fly, because she can still do other awesome things and she is already accomplished amazing things. It's my favourite episode to this day. It's realistic and encouraging. Yeah, I said I am not disabled, but I can still relate to the "No matter how hard you try, some things are just out of your reach. But that's okay, that doesn't make you less as a person, you just have to work with what you have, and you can still give great things to the world and yourself" message. I love how it's not the cliche "You just have to try hard, and with that, anything is possible." No, people have to accept that not everyone can do anything they want to and instead of trying to be something they are not, they should be focusing on their own strengths and talents. They can still be happy, even if this was not they wanted originally, because maybe that's what they needed.

[@hedonismbot1508]

Yeah, "Flight to the Finish" handled its message well. How her situation was dealt with after that, not so much. There were multiple episodes with her yearning to fly (such as "Surf And/or Turf), multiple examples of technology that could have gotten her flying (hang glider, Tank's propeller, prosthetic wing, etc.), but no discussion of anyone helping her fly. And the one and only time there was any discussion of her finding something noteworthy to do with her life that didn't require flight, it involved a stunt team with a devil-may-care attitude towards safety.

[@matildalitsey143]

Often those cliches are passions and stuff that are important to the plotline.

[@Storm-li1re]

I think when people ask "Wouldn't you want to heal your disability?" they mean "Wouldn't you want to heal the pain that your disability causes you?" which are very different questions. I think many people can't separate the two or don't know enough about disablities to understand what healing the pain around some disability means. My autism makes me highly sensitive to sounds. This doesn't have to be healed. But I do need proper sound protection in most environments or environments that are more quiet. I think the world would be so much better if we first focussed on asking each other what someone needs. It isn't that difficult to ask what someone wants or needs, and this can also be done in the context of a disability.

[@SingingSealRiana]

I think there is a big difference between a disability you lived most of your life with and an aquired disability. People losing their eyesight with age would want to change that very much in many cases, but someone who never saw? How can you miss what you never had? Everything about how you go about you life would change, all the mechanisms you developed, everything you reached would be devaluated in a way. Same goes for someone who newly lost use of their legs and probably experiences the limitations in a compleatly different way, then someone who is settled and competently able to deal with it. I would not want to change my asexuality and parts of me being neurodivergent for life, but I could do without the at times cripling depression and insane pain. It really depends what it is, where you come from and how it effects you therefor. Losing my voice or hearing, would be the worst for me, for singing is very importend to me and my identity, losing my legs on the otherhand, I could deal with it, like I deal with a lot of other limitations already. What pisses me of abut the healing disability trope is, how is holds up a compleatly unrealistic whishful thinking to people, who for the most part, are ok with how they are, or worse desperatly want to change their situation, but have no way to do so . . . It is a cheap bullshit way of thinking, compleatly unhelpful, going against taking control of your own life and make the best of it. It is a toxic mindset to encourage people to wish for someting they dont want or cant have . . .

[@theaureliasys6362]

Yup. Better (as in less uncomfy, stronger, more adjustable) noise canceling headphones would be nice. I wanna hear the train rolling on the tracks, it's soothing. I do NOT want to hear that baby, it's not mine. Also the warning for the door isn't relevant for me and it's too loud, turn it down.

[@HiankoWillem]

This comment- is actually kinda helping me a lot, lol. I left the video with conflicted feelings (being disabled) because yes, I don't want to live in pain and I never understood the separation in... Living in pain and being disabled can be separated. Thank you, I never thought of it as separated :')

[@SingingSealRiana]

@@HiankoWillem wanting/whishing you could change something about your disability is just as valid, as not wanting to, or some parts yes, some parts no. No one has a right to decide, how you have to feel about it. Yeah, it would be ideal, if everyone was ok with how they are and did not want to change a thing, but that is kind of an unrealistic expectation. No one but youself knowes what parts of it make you suffer and which are just part of who you are. You are not defined in all you are by a disability, yes it is part of your life, but not all you are.

[@HiankoWillem]

@@SingingSealRiana Thank you for your kind words, it really helps. I'm in a country in which healthcare isn't accesible to everyone and I never received any help with my disabilities, so it made me feel very sad for a long time because all I was getting was isolation and pain and it "wasn't my fault, but my disabilities fault", so feeling validated really helps in this journey trying to accept it, because yeah, sometimes it can suck but like you say it's part of my life but not all of it. Hope you have a good day!

[@clownmonarch]

This kinda reminded me of a part in homestuck where the blind character gets pressured by a healer to let her heal her blindness, and she repetedly refuses before finally agreeing in a moment of insecurity, and she ends up depressed and irritable, finding the seeing way to experience the world agonizing. True, she has that kind of daredevil blindness where she can basically still see, just in a different way, but i still think it was a very well done and unique story beat where the healer who forcably "fixes" the disabled person is the villain

[@kai-gm9re]

tereziii :) i’d also like to mention tavros, also from homestuck. after an accident, he became paraplegic. he does have his disability “fixed”.. via amputation and gaining robotic legs, which is pretty intense, but it’s never treated as his character arc. nor is being paraplegic. the culmination of tavros’s arc actually comes when he learns to be confident in his own abilities and leads a ghost army, and it has jack shit to do with being paraplegic. ig i just want to point out that while this trope sucks, it doesn’t mean healing a character’s disability in your story makes you ableist by default.

[@a4rosli]

I could imagine anyone who's blind, daredevil seeing or not, after suddenly gaining sight would be extremly overstimulated for quite some time

[@morningstarcollective4671]

Yeah, I really liked how the good-end version of her character, was still blind. And the game-over with her forced-healing, she basically made herself blind again rather than tolerate the utter bullshit that was a kind of sensory experience she hadn't had for most of her life. She only really started functioning again when she covered her eyes again. Not a great representation of blindness, but definitely an amazing representation of how "healing" disabled people actually isn't an unambiguous good.

[@morningstarcollective4671]

@@kai-gm9re I liked Tavros's legs, because THEY STILL SUCKED AT STAIRS. He was STILL DISABLED when he had prosthetics forced on him. And in general, while Tavros is a depressing frustrating character, and it honestly pisses me off that he's the only character in a wheelchair, he at least went through all of SGRUB in a wheelchair (and it's a crime we didn't get to see that). And his having legs again in the afterlife makes sense, his disability was forced on him by extreme abuse. It wasn't some condition he was always going to have, it was him getting injured by an abuser and living with that for the rest of his life.

[@alexdoorn234]

@@a4rosli yes that's also something I need to keep in mind with my oc Kemuri. Kemuri is Daredevil kind of blind but only in physical form. They can see in their mist form but can't touch anything in that form. They are a shapeshifting mist and I imagine it would be weird for them to go from seeing to seeing nothing. Kemu is one of my favorite characters that I made so i'm always happy to improve them.

[@TheCrazeace]

As an able-bodied person who has never really interacted much with disabled persons, I find these videos so educating in how to unlearn some of the harmful perceptions I have on this topic And as an aspiring author who would love to include disabled characters, these videos help me understand why its so important to see disability as something that should be respectfully acknowledged and not cured. Thanks for sharing your own experiences

[@SuperUmizoomi]

Yo, English isn't my first language, is "persons" really a plural you can use? I've seen it before but weirdly enough only when there's "disabled" or a synonym next to it

[@katphish30]

@@SuperUmizoomi Much shorter answer: it's a matter of taste and usually a little precious, but not incorrect.

[@Phos67]

I'm disabled and I want my disability to be cured.

[@gabrielaildikozonda6210]

Same for me, but I'm a 12yr old child who can only share their imaginary stories/concepts with themselves

[@artwilliams8885]

I think it’s great you’re trying to educate yourself in order to be more diverse in your writing! May I ask if you plan to include characters with multiple disabilities?

[@semisocialhedgehog6968]

the sheer horror i felt when my mom told me to stop creating disabled ocs because it meant i was "wishing" to be disabled just shows how some people refuse to understand that disabled people EXIST

[@salemcrow5078]

Wtf?? If writers wrote all their characters based on things they wanted to be, every single one of them would be institutionalized or all our books/stories would be insanely fucking boring. People are wild. Ngl, that almost sounds like something my dad would say.

[@semisocialhedgehog6968]

@@salemcrow5078 FR!!

[@Roadent1241]

I want to talk to her and show her the 95% HEARING SEEING WALKING characters I have when I have lived in a hearing world. But my 'aid is just expensive fashion innit?

[@Roadent1241]

@@salemcrow5078 I'd write myself to being a dragon...! 8D

[@semisocialhedgehog6968]

@WatchMyVideoFor CovidTruth huh? We're talking about people assuming that acknowledging disabled people is "wishing" to be disabled i don't know what is wrong with that??

[@fuumiku]

I’m asexual (and autistic, but funnily enough that’s less relevant for my comment) and I relate to 2:36 hard. The whole "woah if I were you I’d kll myself" is also something asexuals get sometimes. Why tf do we have to put sex on this high pedestral, it’s not anywhere near essential for a happy life, and frankly, much overrated. We are not broken, and I’m happy to be who I am. Ace pride!! :)

[@fuumiku]

Also I gotta say, I love the speedraw format. Your art is super lovely and fun to watch being made! I really love your style

[@fuumiku]

That fricking The House episode I stg /neg

[@maitrinh7959]

ace pride fr !1!1!!1!1 also yeah that one the house episode sucked ass. /vvneg

[@LittleParody]

Aces unite!

[@thelagnificentleader]

Also, as an ace myself, I have to ask: why the hell would you feel tortured in our position? We don’t WANT sex! If you were in our position, you’d feel the same! We don’t FORCE ourselves into not liking sex, we just don’t!

[@Broeckchen]

Now this makes me wonder how you'd feel about Terezi from Homestuck. That character started out blind, then got healed - and actually loathed being sighted. Being "cured" was more traumatic to her than being blinded in the story. I thought that was a fascinating angle...

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

It is also very realistic. Sudden onslaught of new sensory information is a lot for the brain to handle. People who have regained sight or hearing after a longer time of significant visual impairment or hearing loss often describe the experience as confusing, overwhelming or even painful, and need to limit the use of the enhanced ability for months, sometimes years, to avoid anxiety and burnout. A deaf friend of mine limits their full-time use of the hearing aid to work, because sounds are so tiring, and several of their deaf and hard of hearing friends have commented that they do the same. I recently also watched a KZbin video about a woman who had corrective eye surgery in her late 20s or early 30s, and both she and some commenters talked about how unsettling seeing can feel. I'll check if I can find that video again.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

She was 36, I misremembered. Her name is Olivia Durant and she has a dozen videos and half a dozen shorts on her own KZbin channel. The video about her that I saw is on the channel BuzzFeedVideo and the title is: Blind Until 36 & Seeing Myself For The First Time

[@SuperUmizoomi]

And being blinded was already pretty traumatic, it happened via her 'friend' using psychic powers to force her to stare at the sun

[@RoxOn413]

@@SuperUmizoomi said sun being a red giant, very close to the planet, which can and will burn people to death

[@starcycle4308]

I've always said stuff like this would be what would actually happen.

[@FloatyyBrain]

I have an oc who is a wheelchair user and I’m currently learning how to animate because I really wanna choreograph fight scenes for her. I plan to give her one of those wheelchairs that are typically used for dancing (they move more fluidly)with maybe a few modifications. She lives in a magical setting and a common question I get asked is: “Why don’t you just heal her? There’s magic in her world, just heal her!” To which I respond with the obvious: *N o.*

[@Kiralmao]

"healing" the character with magic simply beats the point of having her in the first place, even if true why

[@gailasprey7787]

If I ever get this question about my characters my answer will be simple “No, I like representation and my characters wouldn’t want that. I know them and I know every single one of the disabled ones I’ve made will never answer yes to that question. Not once.

[@minnion2871]

Perhaps it's because people are used to seeing wheelchairs as a temporary aid often used in hospitals by people who are recovering from an injury.... Unless there is some obvious clue that your character was always disabled most people will probably see a person in a wheelchair as injured, and well it's pretty well ingrained in most fantasy worlds with magical healing that all injuries can be healed. I know it's probably annoying for you, but most folks will probably assume wheelchairs are like casts, a temporary hindrance to be used and then discarded once the injury is gone. I guess what I'm trying to say is that anyone trying to "heal" your character is operating under the assumption that they are injured. That they weren't always reliant on a wheelchair for mobility.

[@spy-ik3cx]

I have a ideas of scientist who is really grumpy and short-temperment having a wheelchairs that turn into two modes: one is working like a normal wheelchairs another one is a SPIDER WAR MACHINE WHEELCHAIRS THAT HE USE IN COMBAT AND HE CONTROL THE MOVEMENT LIKE A MECH PILOT

[@alejandroelluxray5298]

Better question: Does this character's wheelchair is outfitted with weapons adequate for any situation? Does it uses range weapons or melee weapons, does it have any protection?

[@martinc9510]

I remember playing a RPG ( not dnd but close enough) and one of my fellow players' character was an armless barbarian ( his arms had been eaten by cannibals ). He resolved combat with kicks, headbutts and bites. During a session, the DM had a genie give him back arms. The intent wasn't to fix him, but create new interesting challenges: he had no clue as how to use his arms and they unbalanced him in combat by flopping around. As a result it was more disabling to have his arms back. He later reversed the "fix" by trading both arms for a new pair of boots with a witch.

[@VenomQuill]

That was a rollercoaster from start to finish, wow!

[@Duhgel]

Now that's hella fun/interesting lol

[@Vivigreeny25]

Okay that’s actually hilarious but also actually good disables rep, which arguably makes it even more funny.

[@plague_doctor0237]

THAT'S CREATIVE STORYTELLING RIGHT HERE

[@martinc9510]

@@plague_doctor0237 He also played a two-headed ogre with his wife once, in a Warcraft themed one-shot. He played the dumb head and she played the smart one. I don't get to play often with him but he always has pretty fun ideas.

[@eidanberg7471]

I think it depends on the disability and mental illness. I have chronic OCD that caused me to break down into a dysfunctional husk for over a month and I would do anything to cure it. Similarly my good friend has multiple sclerosis and he is very hopeful for a cure at some point in his life. But the distinction is that for both of us our illnesses feel like they're inhibiting us from being who we want to be. OCD doesn't feel like a part of me it feels like it's fighting against me. However a friend of mine has a deaf mother and she wants nothing to do with curing her deafness. For her, deafness is in intrinsic part of her life. Sign language, deaf culture, and many other aspects of her daily life and identity are directly tied to being deaf. If a fictional character is going to be 'cured' of a disability then this aspect has to at least be explored. Is their disability something that works against their ideal self? Or is it an incorporated part of their identity they'd rather not change? I find that the problem in fiction isn't necessarily disabled characters being cured, instead it is authors ignoring bodily autonomy or implying that a cure is the only happy ending for a disabled character. If a story only has one disabled character and said character is cured against their will, yeah that's a bad look. But if there are multiple characters with disabilities all of which seek out different ways of dealing (or not dealing) with their disabilities and present a wide variety of perspectives, that's a lot more healthy.

[@benenwren4110]

I don't think the "would you cure your disability?" question maps perfectly between fiction and reality. Deleting my anxiety disorder via medication was the greatest event of my life, but if I saw it portrayed that way in fiction I would feel very insulted... ya know?

[@mouse9831]

@@benenwren4110 putting identity aside, fictional characters get access to fictional means to cure themselves. real life people don't

[@overworkedwarlock94]

Consent and bodily autonomy are the key factors

[@eduardokerber2931]

This. One thing I have with this channel is generalization, the recurrent idea that "this trope is bad and should not be used", when it more often than not depends on what you want to show, if the character has the means to cure and doesn't have ideals that go against it why wouldn't the character take it? I assume the journey of the character led to that being a moment for them, the same if the character has ideals against it, then refusing to take it is their moment or a pivot for their journey. If the means don't exist and the character wants it then you can have a story about self acceptance or about innovation, if the character already accepts themselves then the story could focus on the way they interact with the word, the journey is about the characters and where they end up, I don't get how any of the examples I cited or anything in between is objectively bad/worse or stories that shouldn't be told.

[@Ich-Existiere-Nicht]

I hope you two get better

[@sammy_star_fandoms9120]

fun fact i actually had a character who was "fixed" without being asked and it drove her to madness.

[@sleepy_mushr00m]

I am interested

[@sleepy_mushr00m]

Also I kind of want to do that with a character

[@callmeaprilroseorisha404]

ooooooooooooooooh that sounds like fun can you tell me more

[@sammy_star_fandoms9120]

@@callmeaprilroseorisha404 so basically the character(about 9-10 yo) that was mute an deaf, and her older sisters girlfriend "fixed" her without any sort of permission, of any sort, and overwhelmed this poor little girl, no sort of aids like hearing aids juts snap, perfect hearing, and it hurt her.

[@callmeaprilroseorisha404]

@@sammy_star_fandoms9120 ty

[@KaiahAurora]

Another thing is that if you "cure" a character, the effects of their disability don't just magically disappear as well. I have a character with a curse that acts as a degenerative disease, and after he finally breaks the curse, he still has permanent muscle damage, phantom pain, and a bucket full of trauma, because that's how it works in real life!

[@amelh5591]

I've got a character like this, too. Thought I'd go about it more or less the same way. I'm disabled, but not physically, so I wanted to make sure I was getting it right. Glad to know I'm on the right track at least (although I'm definitely gonna get some beta readers too).

[@SoutaCherry]

I have an Oc that has flowers that grow in place of her eyes due to a failed experiment performed on her, and someone else’s oc kind of burned some away, giving her sight in one eye. She has poor reading and writing skills still, and she isn’t used to light so she had constant migraines in the morning due to bright light. I kept her completely blind outside of the role-play though, to me it just kind of makes more sense.

[@9ightdreamer]

I think if you decide to cure a character's disability/disorder (depending on what it is). I think there should be aftermath effects that they should deal with and slowly progress to be fully recovered.

[@anglepsycho]

I've got an OC who does come back to life from being a genuine accident from the gods but every time she does, she's slower in movements and loses control. So she just leaves the team she's in and isolates unless it is absolutely vital she comes back or unless her mate is literally dying. Otherwise she won't interact even if being tortured from essentially being cold-blooded in the arctic as a comparison, and she's autistic so she has not-cute stims and triggers for responses that piss everyone off and make torture executors hurt her even more to get her to stop moving for a second.

[@evilmonkeywithissues]

@@amelh5591 Don't worry about 'getting it right', friend. You write whatever flows out of you, and if others don't like it, f*ck 'em. You need not be beholden to others in order to express yourself creatively, it's fine to research and attempt to make a relatable character out of empathy, but don't just do it because you're afraid of how people will react. That's grade A censorship, and it's wrong. If you create a character that becomes disabled later in life and you feel like they would want to 'cure themselves' because you believe that that's how you would feel, there's not a thing in the world wrong with that no matter what anyone tries to tell you. The reason being is that you are the author, you have all of the agency in your stories, and if you want to express yourself vicariously through a fictional character then you have every right in the world to do so. Don't let the sensibilities of others act as a roadblock to your creativity, no one knows your creations like you do. I'm not meaning to rant, I just don't want to see people start acting like attempting to stem the creativity of others because they don't like something about the story and act like it is an okay thing to do, because it isn't. Everyone is entitled to their opinions, just as the creator of this video is entitled to theirs. The moment we start acting based on the biases of others is the moment that all creativity in the world dies and we all become sensitivity-safe cookie-cutter people. When it comes to opinion, there is honestly no such thing as right or wrong. You could attempt to make everything as sensible and safe as humanly possible and you would still piss someone off, trust me.

[@Lakeside80]

I could totally get why it was wrong to do. It's like you finally see yourself represented, only for the character to be magically "cured" and that representation is gone, as well as feeling frustration. Like telling someone with OCD to stop being obsessed and it to magically work. Better rep. is having characters with disabilities live with them and show how to overcome every obstacle as who you are. Plus diverse characters are way more interesting than the "usual", to write a whole new way of living in the world.

[@IceFireofVoid]

Asexuality feeling this too with whatever little representation we get. They always end up getting retconned as something else later like asexuality is just a phase that needs to be corrected.

[@tacothursday7364]

@@IceFireofVoid Yep yep

[@billcipher8645]

@@IceFireofVoid yess there's a weirdly strange connection that for some reason society treats asexual people like they are disabled.. which is baffling

[@unknownentity7964]

I struggle with not wanting a cure. I see disabled advocates educate the world about how a cure isn't everything and I wish I could say I feel the same. Though it's due to the intricacies of my condition. Which for my childhood I just knew it as a disability but as I got older I found out it's actually a terminal illness that has disabled me, if that makes sense. It caused intestinal failure, muscle failure, respiratory failure, liver damage that'll progress to need a transplant eventually, bladder failure, severe immune deficiency,severe spinal curves and bone deformities... and it also probably caused my autism though the links are still being made scientifically. So, yes. If I had a cure for all that, I'd take it. Even having just 1 of those issues could cause death so having so many is living with multiple things that could, and do try, to kill me regularly. It's impossible to separate the disability from the terminal illness aspect. I'm in an electric wheelchair/bedridden because my muscles don't work and I can only move my fingers slightly or have to to my eyes to control technology. This muscle failure means my diaphragm doesn't work, so I'm on a ventilator, and respiratory failure will kill me eventually. So its not even like I can separate the physical disability aspects because it always ties in to the death causing issues. It's a shame that the terminal illness side of disability isn't talked about more because it is a very different outlook to someone with a life long but survivable disability. As modern medicine progresses, people with diseases that usually kill you in childhood are now able to live up to their 20s like mine. So what was thought of as just a terminal disease is actually now something you can live with while disabled for longer. Similarly to cystic fibrosis. You can survive longer with it, but the longer you do, the more disabled you become. I wish I had the balls to have a YT channel because terminal illness is often a taboo topic, or seen as something like cancer where you're diagnosed terminal then die in a couple of years or less. I haven't seen anyone like me talk. People who have a certain death, but at an uncertain time. Always living on the very edge of what medicine can keep alive but in the meantime are still profoundly disabled as a result. I'd love to hear other people's views on the matter. Don't feel afraid to ask or say anything. I'm very open and happy to discuss with anyone

[@bpmfj5422]

Im so sorry you have to go through this. Massive respect from my part for expressing yourself here. Just sending your opinion, no matter to how few, is appreciated. No need for a youtube channel. I think the massive media is not ready, capable, or educated enough to deal with terminal illness and disability. Unless the entire story revolves around it, of course. But for hero flicks, fantasy, etc it is usually an "obstacle" to surpass. Many of which are never explored. It might be because its such a serious matter that it would make a movie darker? I do believe that finding a cure so that someone can live a peaceful life to the extent that they can is not necessarily a story that comes from ableism or "hero complex". It can come from trauma, it can be a power fantasy. How to properly write it though? Beats me, and that might be the reason we don't see it so much. Its terrifying in a way.

[@-redacted2554]

That's how I feel and I'm not even dealing with all that

[@-redacted2554]

@Roxy Lasch that's why I like the owl house she just has magic medicine n I love it

[@lavenderpixel9092]

If you check out his video about arcane on this channel he talks about how it’s entirely different when the characters being increasingly disabled by a terminal illness. I’ve seen other disabled activists touch on the topic too. It’s entirely different because it’s more abt saving your life than becoming completely abled. That said I used to think something could have caused me to be autistic too but after seeing lots of other people talk about there own experiences and looking back more at my earlier childhood and the positive autistic associated traits as well, synesthesia, stronger senses, sometimes special interests, happy stimms, coping stims, picking up on small details, sometimes hyper empathy, strong moral code…I realized not only have I been autistic since birth but it’s truly impossible for me to be myself without being autistic. Also I have another disability that has caused me pain through most of my twenties and while I would like a cure for it I think the reason I’d end a story with pain management is because it’s the reality for more disabled people and not what abled people expect. But I think even that’s different scientists search harder for cures to terminal illnesses. Generally seeing characters that are disabled (without near constant pain or the threat of a terminal illness) cured just makes me feel more strongly the world doesn’t truly accept us the way we are and that the things a lot of us are saying aren’t getting heard. But when I see characters like Scootaloo from my little pony who get accepted rather than cured it makes me cry happy tears. Having characters with terminal illnesses get cured doesn’t threaten that it becomes about saving a life and It’s never bad to want to live.

[@unknownentity7964]

@@bpmfj5422 thank you for your reply! I think I have an oddly idealised view of a KZbin channel, to leave some kind of legacy behind. Messages from myself that will be around even when I'm not anymore. So it makes me feel happy to read that my comment here has been able to do a similar thing, to share my story with others. I agree that media isn't ready yet, given the topics it struggles to portray well currently! The only instance I've seen are the kind of 'sickness romance' fantasy movies/books like the fault in our stars. Where the sick person dies midway and the majority of the story is about their love interest's journey, not the sick person themselves. Or if the sick person is the main character, the storyline is just purely about how terrible their life is, then they die and it's treated like a celebration. Equally not great! It's definitely not something I have any great ideas on how to tackle either. If you have the sick person as a supporting character then it's not going to be able to show the nuance well enough, and if it's solely about them, how do you tackle the death part without making 100% of their life be all about their final moments If I had to say what I'd like to see out of a movie with a terminal character, I'd like it to be about their life. Show the good parts too, and not just in a fleeting montage. Truly go in deep about what it's like to tackle your own mortality as a teenager, what it's like to do that while everyone else is just starting the rest of their adult lives while yours is basically coming to a close. Show that even when very sick, life still can have joy and purpose. That'd only work in a very character driven movie. It doesn't work like usual 'disability representation', where adding a disabled character to the group of main characters would. I'm not explaining myself very well, I apologise. Due to my autism, combined with having just taken my night time meds, my brain isn't allowing me to convey my thoughts very well right now. As a related side note, I play DnD with my brother and his friends. I find that through my character, I can work through a lot of my own issues like a type of therapy. I've had characters that embody parts of myself like my upbringing, my autism, my other significant life experiences. But I've never been able to find a way, or the strength, to put the 'terminal illness/disabled' part of myself into a character, to work through that so to speak. If I can't even manage that, then I can't expect big movie directors to have a single clue how to either! It's something I really want to do, one day though. Right now it feels to personal to do via DnD though. Thank you for listening to my ramblings. I wish I could have written all my thoughts, as I think it's an interesting topic for everyone. Even if it's not in your 20s, everyone dies one day

[@crazylizze98]

I'll be honest here. I'm disabled and I wish I wasn't. I'm broke all the time and basically freeloading in a building for shelter because everyone thinks I can work. Because I am not visibly disabled. If I could work I would. I recently lost a job I really loved because I wasn't stable enough to handle it. In case anyone is curious I am both mentally and physically disabled. Another thing it would be easier for me to connect with people, but due to mental health understanding other people is almost impossible.

[@crazylizze98]

@UniCosmicCometCorn True. Either way it shouldn't be assumed a disabled person can work just because they're young and seemingly stable

[@TheNotverysocial]

A comment of dissent. I did not think I'd find one.

[@crazylizze98]

@@TheNotverysocial not all disabled people are content with being disabled. I know. Huge shocker

[@TheNotverysocial]

@@crazylizze98 I like what I see from this channel, but s/he seems to speak from the point of one genetically predisposed to their situation. Little thought to people who suffered accidents and could feasibly recover from them. Medically sound, and without fantastical elements. I've had a toenail removed after stubbing it too hard and breaking the skin, and spent the better part of several months for it to grow back. A cousin and uncle of mine were bedridden and chair bound after a car wreck and spent the next couple of years in bed and their chair. They are both walking now. I think it is right to speak for oneself, but not to speak on behalf of an entire group or demographic. Not all cures are compulsory or even feasible. To blindly presume no one is ever informed is just as harmful as the opposite thing. Spoken from the standpoint of an Aspie.

[@crazylizze98]

@@TheNotverysocial he's a he. Just a he. And he's never spoken for an entire community

[@000Dragon50000]

There's a unique angle of this being frustrating in dungeons and dragons where I have to make it EXTREMELY EXPLICIT that someone can't just tap my Deaf or wheelchair-using character on the head and mumble their way through a greater restoration and suddenly I'm not playing a character with a disability anymore. That I don't want that to be a part of the campaign, because I wanted to tell a story which INCLUDES disabilities actively. (Yes people tried that with two seperate PCs of mine. Gods fucking damn it I swear.)

[@lucyandecember2843]

Strange decision aswell considering you made the character disabled meaning you wanted to have a disabled character. Like it wasn't a mistake you included that, so why would you want it fixed by someone else. Theres nothing to fix, the character is supposed to be like that lol

[@Oakwyrm]

Good lord. Ableism and DND horror stories all in one, huh? Can't say I'm that surprised but it still absolutely sucks that you had to deal with that. I fully do not understand people who think they know better about what the other players at their table Should be doing, it's truly baffling.

[@lacewinglml]

I've had this happen so often! its annoying!!

[@___i3ambi126]

I read this and the rules lawer in me immediately pulls out the book from my shelf. I hope you dont mind a small rant: Greater restoration doesnt 'heal' disabilities! Not even a little bit. It can heal things like medusa's petrifying gaze or a vampire's bite. Effects from some monsters that can linger. It can also help you stay awake forever, which is probably its most common use. I could see lessor restoration being misread to do those things. That spell can end the paralyzed condition... You know... Like if a monk hit you in a specific spot and you cant move for 6 seconds. It can also end the blindness condition! Like if a wizard casts a spell to block your sight for a minute... Saying it would also 'cure' perminent blindness or make someone stand from their wheel chair is beyond a stretch. Its actively misreading terminology in the game. There ARE spells that can heal curses, which can sometimes be an allegory for disability or may be homebrewed to cause disability. But then I'd put it on the dm to handle tropes tactfully. And a final detail, reading these spells to 'fix' disability actively contradicts the official novels and campaigns! There are many powerful, happy, fulfilled disable people in these books, but as a best case I'll look at Drittz's ranger teacher. The man was a famous powerful ranger when he went blind. At the time he did not like this, and with access to some of the most powerful casters of every type... He is STILL blind. I'm sorry, but greater restoration definitely did not help. And now, after some years with it, he is a famous powerful blind ranger happily protecting a section of forest he likes. If there was one thing he would like to fix, its how people always somehow manage to think him helpless and needing of pity even after he actively saves their lives.

[@respectfulevil9022]

You could argue that there is no injury to heal, because its always been there

[@PhoenixGirl.]

"we are our own people, with our own thoughts and feelings" this should be at the center of our society instead of the hate and bias that is there now

[@YourMid]

It's really upsetting and frustrating that you're only accepted in this world by looks, personality, intelligence, interests, etc. and it's mainly being normal. People say to be yourselves bc it's "good advice" when it's not. People who say to be yourselves are most likely people who have nothing wrong with their body, looks, personality, intelligence, etc. Their just...perfect. And flawless. But in conclusion, instead of being accepted either likable or not, people only care abt getting friends who has a phone, who has TikTok, who's normal, who's pretty, who's smart, who's trendy, who's interests suit their opinion, etc. ☹

[@duncangaming4165]

So deep!!

[@kittygirl0872]

​@@YourMidto be honest.. what is even normal 😕?

[@YourMid]

@@kittygirl0872 Idek. Ppl just want others to be like them but not their own person

[@junipersolis]

TW: Story about an Ableist asshole I'm considered mentally disabled. I play D&D because it's a fun thing. I like building characters and love RPing as them. But the issue is some of my mental illnesses can't be RPed away, so a lot of my characters are on the spectrum to some degree simply because I can't really... Get away from it. I'm very honest about this to my DMs as I still make it part of their personality because it would still effect their lives and how they interact with people. One of my most uncomfortable moments in all of D&D was a DM telling me he was okay with it, and half way through the first session he... 'fixed' my character. He told me, directly, that I didn't "need to play someone who was (r-slur)" just because I "was". I hated that. It made me feel awful and like something was wrong with me for simply existing. Some people don't understand that you can't just stop being something that effects you and your life and will forever. I'm only slightly physically disabled, so I'll never fully understand what people who are physically disabled go through, but I can understand in listening to them. I don't want to be 'cured'. I want to be me, even if it fucking sucks sometimes. We get to choose. No one gets to choose for us.

[@gloomyscribbles]

That's disgusting- People can't just erase a large part of SOMEONE ELSE'S character. I personally don't like rping as a character that has mental illnesses just because I do (If my character had adhd let's be honest NOTHING would get done lol,) but I can see why others do like doing that because they get to be themselves in a cool fictional universe.

[@bugcatcherjacky1334]

The other day I watched a video about a child trying to learn to walk again after an accident and one comment said they'd cry for the rest of the their life it was them and like- No? No wouldn't...

[@Vivigreeny25]

Wow! What a bitch! I’m really sorry you had to go through that. :/

[@onyxtheowl24]

EXACTLY. I suffer from paranoia and general anxiety disorder. And social anxiety. And also autism. And I see them as part of my identity. If someone were to cure them I’d feel not whole. Like a piece of me was stolen.

[@Firewall546]

Oh no, I'm severely sorry.

[@saltydinonuggies1841]

As someone still unlearning their internalized ableism this video actually changed my opinions on some of these things. I've never liked this trope but definitely had some conflicting feelings on things like this, and this video helped me clarify some of my own opinions on the "fixing" trope. So thank you. I've been disabled my entire life but was gaslit out of it until a few years ago so I'm glad to have found creators like yourself willing to discuss these things as they've done wonders with my confidence of being disabled. I'm also tired right now so I apologize if I worded something weird here.

[@Phos67]

I'm disabled and your comment offends me.

[@YouveBeenMegged]

11:20 THANK YOU. This video perfectly describes why I hate organizations whose goal is to “cure” autism. Like, my brain is not broken. It’s just wired differently. You can’t fix something that’s not broken.

[@ihavenoidea2805]

autism speaks moment🤮🤮

[@YouveBeenMegged]

@@ihavenoidea2805 Frrrr

[@soulsurvivor8293]

We are broken Megan. And we likely always will be, even if a cure for ASD is developed. (Edit: After re-reading this part, I have concerns that it may come off as needlessly confrontational. If taken as such, I apologise as it is not the intent. It's likely just my foward and direct thought process from having ASD myself, Aspergers specifically. And yes, I do acknowledge that my brain is "broken" as Megan puts it. I personally find the idea of denying this to be the case to be insulting and patronising. That is, when it's done outside of using the concept to help children with ASD to accept & understand their situation or children without it understand & accept their peer's who do. Living ones life through such delusions will only lead one to being dishonest with themselves with other aspects of ones life. Much like Santa Clause, the Tooth Fairy and the Easter Bunny. I support and encourage raising children with these fantasies, however they should not be indulged in perpetuity for all their lives. -End of Edit) It's highly unlikely to be a cure for existing cases. It will probably be more of a "preventative cure" if anything. Inhibiting the causal factors of ASD occuring from conception. Note, I am speaking from the perspective of having a litany of comorbid Medical, Physical, Neurological and Psychological conditions. Individually they negatively impact my quality of life daily, which is bad enough. However they also interact with & exacerbate one another, essentially causing a constant negative feedback loop. Honestly, I would gladly take a cure for any and all of my aliments. If only just one were cured my quality of life and capability would be greatly improved.

[@9ightdreamer]

Yeah! Im an autistic person aswel and I dont want to cure it either, it would kinda feel like somebody stealing a huge chunk of what makes me who I am. Im not heavily affected with autism so I look and act 'normal' most of the time but there are times where its obvious that Im clearly NOT neurotypical. Im weird and I don't want to fit in with the other teenagers as another copycat with no individuality. To describe autism is that our brain just refuses to do what the other brains are doing and just decides to just develop and wire without actual instructions on how to be neurotypical.

[@NightspeakerR]

Same here I have low Autism and people call it a disease or the fact that people say I am broken, naturally I have grown in love with how I am and like you said in your comment, "You can't fix what's not broken."

[@mohorrochidiscontinuity8153]

Your channel changed the way I do my disabled characters. I learned a lot and realized my way of doing disabled character s u c k s. In the past, I want to put disabled characters in my story; but not making them. . . real or grounded, so to speak. Its a fantasy story, so my blind boy can hear and feel things up to the ante, so being blind doesn't affect him at all, and another character, which is in a wheelchair, has a power that they uses constantly that makes them able to walk. Another wheelchair bounded character can float with his magic chair and can adjust it so they're just floating and they don't need to use their legs! Basically they're disabled for uniqueness. Then I saw your channel. I realized that disability isn't this uniqueness factor in characterization, but an actual thing that a lot of people adjusted to live with it. It feels insincere to make a disabled character while covering all the cons of it with magic; it feels I'm just doing the easy way to not write an actual real and grounded character with these circumstances. The representation isn't going to be there, and it's just. . . lazy. When I saw your videos, I thought hard on my characters, and I decided to change them all. My blind OC would still have enhanced hearing and skills to compensate with his blindness, but it won't just replace his sight. He still struggles, but he prefers not using his hearing and other skills. My wheelchair bounded OC would still have their ability, but they don't use it as much and goes around in their wheelchair. My other wheelchair bound OC -- the one I'm working on, struggles because some places doesn't accommodate for him, and has this special scene where he learns how to dance even with his handicap. Still working and researching and making sure that what I make isn't too unrealistic, but because of your channel, I changed the way I was doing these disabled characters and how they work. And it made it so much better. They feel like humans, interesting, and their struggles feels real and natural. I hope I worded myself good and not so offending; but you really influenced me go out of my comfort zone and actually make diverse characters that doesn't look like I'm doing it just for the sake of 'diversity'. This has been a long rant, but you just really widened my narrow perspective. Ofc what I did in my OCs may be not enough; or still not grounded, but I'm working on it. If not for you, I may be stuck with this 'disabled but cover it with magic' way of thinking, which is, in a way, curing their handicaps.

[@debbiem.6912]

“I am not a tragedy. I do not need to be fixed. My value as a person is not based on what I can contribute to society.” 👏 SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK 👏

[@minnion2871]

Okay, so then what do you base the value of people on if it's not on what they can contribute to society? Seems to me a bit like you're assuming that being disabled prevents one from contributing to society in any meaningful way...

[@evi6629]

Using fantasy magic or science fiction tech to "cure" disabled is not only ableist but also just... by far the most boring option. I have a WIP character who is paralyzed and lives in a world with advanced telekineses and is extremely good at it. People as skilled as her are even able to move people's bodies (which recquires such great skill because carelessly moving a body would seriously injure you with how complicated the body is) And she still sits in a weelchair. It's WAY easier to move a large, solid, unfeeling object she's sitting in than hundreds of small movements to move her muscles without tearing them. And with telekinesis the chair can literally fly. It's easier and way more convenient and the only reason she might choose not to is to make abled people more comfortable looking at her, which she has ZERO interest in.

[@Mojo_3.14]

Pegasus in Flight written by Anne McCaffrey in 1990 is a novel with a similar character and concept. A sci-fi where Earth preparing to finally go beyond their solar system to colonize. A quadriplegic boy who has telekinesis.

[@kaiyodei]

make it intersting. have your character get a parasitic infection that stops the telekinesis.

[@bpmfj5422]

Aren't you in a way removing it as well? True, the visual disability is still there, but are the struggles and day to day differences in life style between an able body person and a person with a disability still there? You know, the little things this channel usually point out?

[@SupremeViola]

@@bpmfj5422 It sounds from the description it's not having a technological or magical workaround for the disability. The person is still paralyzed; using telekenesis for mobility is risky, difficult, and overwhelmingly not worth it on a daily level, so the character uses a magic-assisted chair. There's still aspects of needing a mobility aid whether it's powered manually, electrically, or magically. It reminds me a lot of a friend of mine growing up who *could* walk unassisted if necessary (like, "getting out of a burning building by stairs because the elevator is on fire" levels of necessary), but for normal life it was far safer and more comfortable for her to use a walking frame or wheelchair.

[@ashcar6903]

@@bpmfj5422 I think that a flying chair is the equivalent to an electric wheelchair over one that you push with your arms. You are still disabled you just don't have to expend as much effort. This character would still have the same difficuties in any situation where she'd be outside of her chair (showering, getting into bed or on a couch, getting dressed, sex, etc). If she wanted to use the power for it, it would be painful and effectively reenforce the disability.

[@bleethteed8681]

The problem here is that when it comes to "fixing", it's something we're forced into rather than decisions we make on our own. If I want to "fix" myself, it's on my own fucking terms.

[@dreye3215]

My issue isn't so much with the idea of a cure itself, it's the attitudes of the people who push for them. They generally tend to be more concerned with the superficial aspects of disabilities, rather than the actual struggles of disabled people, and will encourage treatments that focus more on hiding the disability rather than improving quality of life. They'll encourage ABA for autistic people, they'll encourage deaf people to learn lip reading, they'll encourage people to avoid using wheelchairs if they can help it, etc. Curing a disability would solve that disabled person's problems, but it would also allow abled people to sidestep the issue of their ableism, and that's what I take issue with. It's like when people suggest racial homogeneity as a solution to racism, sure, that technically would "solve" racism, and it's an interesting hypothetical that could happen in the distant future, but let's not ignore the very obvious social solutions to racism, that are much more immediately actionable.

[@zakosist]

I always thought wanting to cure disability would actually be about helping the people themself and improve their quality of life. Like why should people avoid using wheelchairs if they actually kind of need it? (like if they are barely able to walk a little, but may be in a lot of pain doing so). It seems kind of evil they want people who already have to struggle with lifelong disability to make themself more uncomfortable (even though that's not the direct goal) for the sake of not inconveniencing "regular people" I have autism myself, and like many others would not really want it cured because it could mean losing a big part of my personality. And I dont generally see it as a disability. But some have disabilities that are truly detrimental to their quality of life and ability to live the life they want to. Its no shame to just want to be healthy

[@phantomthedragoness]

I hate when writers ‘fix’ disabled characters. And that hatred escalates when fanfic writers ‘fix’ characters like Hiccup from HTTYD, or Toph from A:TLA. And while there is that ever present fear of offending the disabled community, its so much more offensive to just simply erase their disability from your work.

[@GhostKitten69]

fanfic writers have been doing WHAT?! 😠 (rhetorical)

[@benenwren4110]

I will forever cherish that moment from star trek where Geordi's blindness is magically cured without his consent and he's just like "no. put it back"

[@bugcatcherjacky1334]

How tf do they 'fix' a lost leg and blindness? Like what is their 'solution'? xD

[@M00n_2tar]

@@bugcatcherjacky1334 They just do this little thing where they go "What if this thing that made them disabled just didn't happen" For example, making it where hiccup did not lose his leg or toph was never blind. Kinda like an au.

[@amandahogan4371]

In the twelve How to Train your Dragon books Hiccup never looses his leg, just fyi when you get pissed at a fanfic that fixes that.

[@sampds]

Honestly, if there was that magical solution to cure disabled people- well, I would be scared for disabled people. If that thing existed, I bet my entire bank account people would be forced to use it, one way or another. In our current capitalist hellscape, people would be forced to use it because corporations and such would try their best to exploit them; accessibility will probably be cut off or restricted because "well, it was your choice to continue to be this way, you are the one being difficult by not wanting to accommodate to our current society" Hell I would be scared for myself; I am neurodivergent, and while I don't consider myself disabled, I know millions of people would prefer me to be neurotypical. I am happy as I am, I love how much I love my interests and hobbies, thinking of a life without that feels like cutting a part of myself; and the idea that I would need to choose between that or having money to survive..fuck it makes me want to cry. Want to help disabled people? Help bring awareness to the lack of accessibility, help to raise funds for people who cannot afford assistive devices; for how disabled people in many places cannot married without losing benefits, or their only option is being poor. Believe, THAT, is something disabled people would really want.

[@YouveBeenMegged]

Agreed. It especially scares me because a “cure” for neurodivergence would likely require someone to rewire and rewrite the person’s entire brain. That just deeply disturbs me. My mom is convinced I hate my autism (I don’t, I just hate the idea that people would treat me differently) and I honestly think she would try to convince me to do it. Let’s just not even go there.

[@craftycake277meow5]

This sounds like something out of a horror movie

[@TinNguyen-rl2xr]

As a person with autism I gotta say if the cure fixed physical disabilities and memory based disabilities As long as I don't have to suffer diabetes or dementia in fine with my mind being changed

[@sampds]

​@@TinNguyen-rl2xr Is funny because that's the question, isn't it? This reminds me of a tumblr post a few years ago, showing a scene from an X Men movie (I don't remember which one) Where one of the characters is happy at the idea of a "cure" to stop being a mutant, and another character saying there is no cure because there is nothing wrong with her. The narrative and the audience are inclined to agree with the second character, someone pointed out "Dude, (second character) can change the weather with her mind, her (the first character) cannot touch anyone without killing them in the process" And that devolved around how people who are part of the disabled community and people with mental disorders could have this exact scenario happen to them. Let me put myself as example; as I said, I wouldn't want anyone to force me to take my neurodivergence away, is part of who I am and is a part of me that I love. However, if someone told me they could give me a shot and I would stop having depression, I would do it in a heartbeat. And you may be reading this and being like "duh" because yeah, no wonder I would want that. But it is an interesting concept, how there are situations and people who would love a cure, and people with other conditions who are sick of the world acting as if their existence was a tragedy. And yet, they are all put in the same category.

[@TinNguyen-rl2xr]

@@sampds I mean it's a simple reasoning When a disability is part of your mental personality ( like ADHD ) it's different then something like being blind or having dementia

[@khanolval9848]

After hearing this I kinda wished there was an arc, in which a charchter with like ADHD or something had it "fixed" but it ended up being worse for them it would be reallly nice to see, and in the end they were actually fixed and went back to the way they were

[@avamyers9715]

i mean, i do have a story with something similar. essentially my character after a heavily traumatic experience, gains severe deafness. They can only hear really really loud stuff. And they have powers associated with music and in order to stay alive in a warzone of a world, they have to learn how to work around it. this ends in them discovering the height of their abilities and basically a lesson in that music is all about the feeling itself. they are able to produce one of the most beautiful music the world has ever heard by just trusting their pitch, some muscle memory and through vibrations essentially. when they were presented with a cure for their deafness, they decline stating that 'i have reached my peak without my hearing, it would be nice to not have to teach people sign language to converse with them or hear the laughter of my friends again. but ultimately i will stay deaf, it has become a deep intrinsic part of who i am'

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

As I understand it, there was something along those lines in the TV show "Monk" where the titular character was given medication for his psychological issues and became pretty much useless until he stopped taking them. This arc seems to be pretty much loathed by every person with OCD I've heard comment on it, because most of us would rather not have a corner of our brain screaming at us 24/7, making it uncomfortable to see a character forced to choose between 'being useful' and not existing in a constant state of stress. Not to meantion that it seemed to imply that the OCD was the only reason he was useful to begin with, when really it's pretty unlikely that it would be helpful for very much. The closest thing to 'useful' OCD I can think of is my own situation, and that's purely because I'm trying to go into to disease control, and most of my symptoms are related to fear of contamination. I honestly do think that my fear of contimination is partially responsible for why I'm as good at figuring out what convoluted way a germ can get from point A to point B, but that's becuase a corner of my brain is freaking out about it 24/7, which means I've spent a lot more time thinking about it than most people - making it more related to experience than the fear itself.

[@the-fish-factory]

homestuck has something like that

[@elciervoparaguayo3756]

In homestuck Terezi regains her sight during the sixt act but regrets her decision and begins to wear a scarf that covers her eyes

[@ashcar6903]

This isn't direct representation, but please watch Everywhere, Everything, All at Once. One of the writers figured out he had ADHD because the main character of the movie was actually planned to have ADHD. If you have ADHD it is REALLY obvious that that was their intention. They have a scene about the main character being talented and having a bunch of different hobbies and aspirations but never being able to make progress and she is trying to overcome a feeling of wasted potential. I could write another essay just about my feeling on this movie, but I don't want to spoil it. It is just *chefs kiss*

[@naelpontes8444]

"My value as a person is not based upon what I can contribute to society", oh gosh, thank you for that. I really needed it.

[@naelpontes8444]

@caitlyncarvalho7637 the keyword is what you "can" contribute, instead of contributing at all. When society wants someone to contribute, it already kinda states what is useful or relevant, especially when it comes to modern society, capitalism and all, where being useful means "being apt to work nonstop". Meanwhile, contributing can be anything, maybe helping someone, maybe watering some plants... There's plenty of ways for one to contribute, and it doesn't involve only working.

[@LuvHaebom]

While I’d never want my mental disabilities to go away such as my autism, I wish I didn’t have to deal with my physical disabilities, as they’re incredibly painful

[@firebladeentertainment5739]

bit of a counter I have an invisible disability (red green colour weaknesse) and i REALLY wish i could get rid of it, to be easily be able to see colours and tell them apart and my brother is hard of hearing and would prefer to be able to hear clearly. But what i DONT want to get rid of is my Disassociativ personality (i do not consider it a disorder anymore, we have some mastery over it), since its a fundamental part of myself. what i wanna say is, curing a disability is not by default always bad but the disabled person should VERY WELL be allowed to choose, WHAT gets cured, what they consider a great nuisance in their live, not what others think it is. what other think is a minor disability could annoy the person having it MORE then their other, by society considered major disability. (I still dont understand why some people with missing limbs REFUSE to get a prosthetic though, might be my transhumanist mindset where i would just be giddy to get a new body part if i would be missing one)

[@TinNguyen-rl2xr]

Money

[@pocketluna3607]

@@TinNguyen-rl2xr I'm not an amputee, but from what I've noticed of people I watch, some arm prosthetics are more trouble than they're worth and it's easier to go through the world without them.

[@KingOpenReview]

About the amputee thing, I imagine part of it is that the prosthetics aren't actually that good yet, yet there's a lot of maintenance that has to go into them.

[@firebladeentertainment5739]

@@KingOpenReview research into it is HEAVILY underfunded in my opinion

[@peterbonucci9661]

I'm red-green colorblind. I've come to think of colorblindness as "differently abled." I can see better in the dark than anyone else I know. I can see colors in the blue green area that other people can't. I can tell dark colors apart that other people see as black. I don't think of it as a disability, but getting to tell red and green apart would be nice. I have a chronic illness that would have put me in an institution if I had been born 20 years earlier. I would give it up in an instant, if I could.

[@kitdoesstuff_official]

Thank you for speaking up about this! There is only a handful of shows that don't heal their disabled characters. One of them is My Little Pony Scootalo is the perfect example of not healing a disabled character and if you haven't seen it, you definitely should! Her arc is just amazing

[@dragletsofmakara1120]

Didn’t like Scootaloo personally, but loved her arc. Wish they had focused on her more.

[@_kaleido]

Tempest Shadow from the movie didn’t have her disability fixed either

[@kitdoesstuff_official]

@@_kaleido yes that's also true!

[@errortryagainlater4240]

There was a pony with a prosthetic leg in one episode, I think she was a fashion designer.

[@kitdoesstuff_official]

@@errortryagainlater4240 yeah she was! I think it was Rainbow Roadtrip

[@hihilt2589]

Personally I think a lot of the issues that come from the "fix the disability" trope is how it's fixed. All you really need to "fix" a disability is to limit to almost none the negative impact it has on the character's life. Like how Hiccup lost his leg so he built himself a prosthetic that allowed him to do all the stuff he needed to do while riding toothless, plus the standard stuff. Prosthetics, medication and therapy are literally all that's needed. not actually taking the disability away entirely but provide the character with the tools they need to live their life in the most self sufficient and autonomous way possible. Everything else is either bs or a way for people to gain pity points for their characters without having to deal with the consequences of the conditions. As for real people, I do agree that people should refrain from asking a disabled person if they'd like to be fixed if they could

[@lunacarf]

And the prosthetic leg helped him (Hiccup) in situations in which his real leg would not, such as when he accidentally stepped into a bear (?) trap on the ship of dead dragons, and the bear trap clamped down on his prosthetic limb, but didn’t cause him any pain, as his real leg was gone already.

[@cartoonking1789]

I don’t know, as someone with a weak heart I’d want something to “magic away” that and have a strong one.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

And that is entirely valid. Each one of us is free to daydream whatever we wish. The criticism in this video is about how media represents disability, how stereotypically limited arcs most disabled characters get still today.

[@omegahaxors9-11]

And you're the one making that call, not someone else. That's the main point. The problem is that 'cures' are often poorly thought out and forced onto people in media.

[@НикитаДенисов-у9ы]

In "Steel ball Run", one of the main characters is Johny Joestar, paraplegic jockey, whose motivation is healing his disability. This motive is natural because we're seeing that his trauma is a burden to him. At the end, he restores his legs, though he lost his friend in process. This works as a motif because he thinks that it's going to bring his number from negative to zero, he was seeking to restore his status quo.

[@diegodankquixote-wry3242]

I was thinking about that when I originally listened to this video. If I had to guess Oak detests Araki if they know of jjba but if Oak does it, the inevitable Steel Ball Run video will be a hoot.

[@ryanratchford2530]

5:40 but isn't all fiction a thought experiment? I have chronic back pain and am easily fatigued (though certainly not bad enough to compare myself to others) but I don't see my pain as a part of my identity. I see it as something that afflicts me and my struggle makes part of my identity. But so too does my depression and dyslexia. I'm not less of person because of my disabilities but I would be happier imagining a way to get rid of these. Cures wouldn't make me more of a person but they'd enable me to define my life and identity on other more positive things. Like how in my childhood I grew up in a low income home, but now as an adult I have some disposable income to go on days out with my friends. My early life condition--external factors than negatively affected my life that contributed to defining me--improved over time so that now new external factors can positively contribute to my life & identity. I find certain fantasy healing as an escapism to imagine being without pain which would be nice. Sucks that it can't happen in real life--but it shouldn't mean we shouldn't think/hope/aspire to cures right? I believe in the good of slow but eventual advancement of medical & societal technology to constantly progress further & further until we can help as much people in as many ways as possible. Also I think the eugenics point is a bit too out there. What's wrong about eugenics is the involuntary enforcing of people's bodily autonomy. That's different from individuals having access to choose to have medicine and technology that can heal make their lives better. And to your question of what should count as a disability, I'd say whatever the individual sees as a chronic disadvantage, pain, inconvenience or struggle of their life. If magic fix all buttons exist, they should only cure what the individual wants cured of their own body.

[@TheNotverysocial]

Totally. I like what I have seen of this channel, but it is full of sweeping generalizations, same as the writers that are being so harshly criticized. I think all options should be allowed to be explored, especially when things like broken legs in accidents that leave one bedridden or stuck in a chair don;t always leave them there for the rest of their lives, depending on how they were injured. I've relatives who have been in car accidents who were immobile for years, but made full recoveries. It isn't dishonest or harmful to portray something realistic like that in film or plays, especially when fact based. Avoid "Always" and "Never", because life is not black and white like that. And there are some who actually believe in escape. Relatability, morals, and allegories have place in some stories, but they aren;t vital to telling a good one across the board altogether.

[@TheNotverysocial]

no. This channel and its followers tend to prop disability up on a pedestal, and there aren't many dissenting opinions. This leaves the blanket statement "Do not cure it, ever" But given there are IRL cases where people who have been temporarily blinded or crippled have made full recoveries depending on how it happened, I think those kinds of real stories deserve to be told just as much as those who are left permanently immobile, mute, etc. I agree about the points of knowledge and consent too, but treating fictional characters like they are real people is disingenuous. It's not honest.@caitlyncarvalho7637

[@NotYourEchochamber]

I believe the way the story and character is written makes a huge difference here. A character who's thoughts and feelings aren't explored at all just magically getting cured feels weird and I don't think just randomly curing someones d&d character is okay in the slightest, there are instances in which a cure is the best outcome. My partner has had rheumatoid arthritis since his childhood. That's a terminal illness that gradually worsens over time. It causes strong joint pain that gradually gets worse and spreads to any joint in the body. Joints lock in place, eventually the legs give in, fingers and toes curl up untill they become unusable. Arteries clog and eventually, a heart attack or death related to respiratory issues in inevitable. The reality of this condition that brings forth disability is near constant, excruciating pain and an early death. Opioids likely don't work on joint issues either, the only pain relief you often have is cannabis. You may feel like you've been hit by a truck for doing as much as sleeping. I doubt anyone with a condition like that would turn down a cure. This is nothing that builds your character, but takes more and more from your life quality. I don't see how curing a character with that sort of illness is offensive to anyone. I know there are disabilities that aren't as hard on people and it's wonderful to see stories that include those who learn to live with their bodies the way that they are, though there are a lot of disabled people who would like to get rid of their disabilities, for what it takes from their lives.

[@elliot__agares]

I almost abandoned a fanfic when the author "healed" the blind main character, like b**ch why the fuck would you do that??? The whole fanfic was about how the abuse he went through damaged his eyesight forever and that now he has to learn how to live in a whole different world who doesn't understand why he's blind, why would you do this????? Also there was another where the character was mute, learned to live his life as mute person, and hated when people talked shit about him because of this, and then after 10 to 20 chapters of this, they just introduced an OUT OF NOWHERE way for him to be able to talk again, and 5 chapters later when they realized people didn't like it, they made the character mute again, but now forever as if It was before, like, why did you "heal" him in the first place, the whole story was about him dealing with an ableist world while being famous and having a disability I'm not reading a fanfic who has a disabled character waiting for them to be "healed" But also, people that have a disability have bodily autonomy, if a disability is hurting someone a lot, they have the choice to be "cured" I've seen people who have to fight against their disability because it ruins their lives, it hurts them and they are miserable because of it, so they want to get rid of it But also, some disabilities are part of people's lives, I've seen people that are deaf or blind that don't want anything to do with being "cured" because it's part of them, they went through years and years of learning, and dealing with it, and being who they are, and it's a part of them, to them being "cured" is like erasing a part of them So i think It all comes down to what the person that actually has the disability wants to do, it's about bodily autonomy and if they are erasing a part of them or if they are now happier because they can live without (a example) paranóia, extreme fear that prevents them from doing basic things they wish they could do without breaking down or being extremely fearful or anxious because of it

[@Phos67]

I can tell you live a privileged life.

[@selkiara1272]

​@@Phos67 How?

[@esppupsnkits4560]

The only time “fixing” or “healing” a disability makes any sense in a story is if it’s an acquired disability, such as being caused by significant injury. And even then, if there’s a creative way to deal with the acquired issue, use the creative alternative instead of just fixing it! Because some acquired disabilities also have no cure or effective treatment, like brain injuries. Characters and real people born with disabilities don’t usually know any different from their disability and therefore usually do not wish for it to be removed.

[@thelilartzy]

Reading the comics makes me realize that people view my mental illness (ADHD) as a disabling disability. I never realized that because the people in my life always said their were people in worse positions and every time I actually started to show my disability they talked down to me. It’s crazy.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

Hi, autistic ADHDer here. It sucks that people around you were dismissive and didn't want to discuss your experiences or encourage you to learn actual, unbiased information about our condition. I have enjoyed the KZbin channel "How to ADHD" a lot and recommend it warmly. It has given me, among other things, a vocabulary for discussing my brain. I now call myself multiply neurodivergent (I am also dyslexic and hyperlexic, and have complex post-traumatic stress disorder = C-PTSD).

[@edorasmarauder5761]

Whenever I talk about it, there's always that one guy, or multiple people, that's like, "WOOOO! YEAH!" implying that they have it as well, so experiences vary.

[@kilaz7071]

As someone with adhd also I feel like they just aren't friends as if someone went up to Me telling me about their illness I'd be a little overwhelmed if they actually were ur friends they suck

[@KaleidoAbridged]

There was a horror movie I saw when I was way to young for that kind of stuff. It was about a blind girl who got an 'eye transplant'? and she was able to see. The first half of the movie is her recovering in the hospital, since it's a horror movie, she can see ghosts now. She doesn't like seeing at all. At the end of the movie, she sees a bunch of grim reapers gathering in an area, implying an impanding mass disaster. She warns people to clear out of the area, saving everyone's lives. Theres an explosion and she loses her eyesight again, she lives happily ever after since the ghosts are now gone. It's what came to mind when you said disabled characters never have a happy ending. Seeing for her was more than a curse than a good thing and she was happy to go back to normal. But it was a long time ago I've seen the movie and I don't remember the exact details, it's the Eye from 2008, it's a remake of a Hong-Kong film I believe. I don't know if it's a good movie or not, since she still needed to see the grim reapers to save the day, although that's the US remakes addition for 3rd act drama.

[@Trazen4]

Remake of a Japanese film. Original's better.

[@AnAngryMagpie]

Homestuck has something similar

[@fisheyenomiko]

@@Trazen4 . "...and she was happy to go back to normal." I LOVE the way you put that! I've seen the original; it's MUCH better. Oh, and it's a cornea transplant. In fairness to the film(s), this is a real operation, and has been around since (looks it up) ... 1905?! Holy... So, yeah, it's not as if this is some fictional sci-fi/magic cure thing; this is an actual thing people can get right here in the real world.

[@errortryagainlater4240]

@@fisheyenomiko 😂 yep, a lot of surgeries are way older than people think lol. And there's evidence that a lot of archaic procedures (like trepanning) did actually work!

[@Z3RO5286]

So are cures bad apparently?

[@yami1389]

I've always thought that telling people they should be fixed is just so damn lazy. It's just excusing the lack of accessibility and understanding from the society. Yall go ahead fix yourselves so we don't have to do anything to help you live a more comfortable life. I'm not even physically disabled and it sickens me so much. Instead of asking people whether they'd rather live without pain (which is its own brand of disgusting. I lived in constant pain with periods of excruciating one every two days for around four months and I almost gave out, and if someone asked me that I'd have probably stared biting) maybe, just maybe, make sure that they can live as comfortably as possible?

[@myribunt5261]

Totally agree, I know it's picky but I don't like "Health and happiness" like why not just happiness ... Some people are unhealthy that's just how it is. Sorry if that's just me being way to picky. It's just language showing how society is

[@yami1389]

@@myribunt5261 i don't think it's picky at all! I don't like it when people assume that you can't be happy unless you're perfectly healthy. No one really is. And happiness never lasts forever, it comes and goes like every other feeling we have. Everyone can be happy, no matter the condition they're in. I absolutely agree with you

[@TinNguyen-rl2xr]

If you are in constant pain it's way harder to be happy then if you where healthy in that part

[@yami1389]

@@TinNguyen-rl2xr you don't have to be healthy to not be in constant pain tho. I was saying society should focus on making lives more comfortable and not 'fixing' them, and that includes medicine research. I was lucky enough that my kidney recovered and my pain stopped, but many people are never going to fully recover and should be granted at least partial relief from the pain. Strong pain meds are what stopped me from doing something very stupid when I was sure the pain was never going to stop. But it's possible to be happy and on pain meds, you don't have to be healthy for that. Moderate comfort is all some of us need.

[@xsellepoch9954]

“So we don’t have to do anything to help you live a more comfortable life” The doctors and scientists working and doing research to find cures and treatments to the ailments and conditions that people have ARE doing something to help them live a more comfortable life. Or actually, just to help them live *period* :v

[@shadowwarrier4416]

Even though I have been disabled since I was born (kind of) I still have hard time coming to terms with who I am. I expected that 21 years would be enough but I guess not. I have no words to explain how happy I am finding this channel

[@DogLover1718]

Some disability’s can be cured? Like if someone has a accident that puts them in a wheelchair sometimes with physiotherapy they can learn to walk again

[@FoxFireNaruto]

I'm glad I found your channel. We all need to listen to others' perspectives to unlearn the bs we've been raised on. It is wild that it just now sunk in for me that removing a huge part of person's identity , of how they interact with the world and other people, would in fact be incredibly traumatizing. Like how could it not be? Is that even that different than the concept of "conversion therapy" to turn someone straight? In terms of fiction there are definitely conservatives that write with gay characters solely to "fix" them and push that agenda. Really any "fixing" of a character is very telling of the author's world view...

[@stadbab]

what you’re saying is what i’ve been screaming from the rooftops since i was five years old and barely aware of my cerebral palsy. i am not a checklist of problems for the world to solve. i am not broken. i am whole and perfect the way i am. amazing video, friend :)

[@Drayiss]

Late reply here! I don’t have a disability, but I have been diagnosed with depression. I wouldn’t change that for the world! …Except maybe the taste of the SSRIs :p

[@TheNetherLord5240]

for me, being disabled is a huge part of my identity. sure, I hate the pain, but it makes it so much better when I'm able to do things quicker or lift heavier things than even my abled peers. If someone took that away, I'd lose the community I found myself in. I would feel just like every other person, and no one wants to feel like that.

[@clueingforbeggs]

Personally, I'd only ever write a cure for a disability if it's 1: A disability I have myself, 2: Chosen by a character, whilst other characters with the same disability do not choose the cure and live perfectly happy lives, and 3: The fictional world this is in allows access to greater support, care, medicine (as in, like tablets you have to take each day etc), and aids than we have, showing that that has also improved over time. But also, I don't see myself ever writing a cure. I prefer to play around with what fantasy or futuristic aids, medicine and support would be available, and what the benefits and drawbacks of these would be, and how society helps disabled people. Cure narratives just don't interest me.

[@Ziffelzoovop]

This reminds me SO MUCH of the conversation I had on a road trip with my boyfriend. He brought up the hypothetical of being able to "fix" disabilities. I was instantly against it, he was confused. He's fully able bodied and able minded and grew up in a family with no disabilities. I have a few invisible disabilities and grew up with disabled people in my extended family. It was an entirely new idea to him that disabled people don't want to be "fixed". He had a hard time getting it until I said something along the lines of "Look, taking away all disabilities will erase an entire view of life. We will be LOOSING something if we did that." I followed it up with explaining that my disabilities have shaped me into who I am. I would not be the girl he's fallen in love with without them and I LOVE who I am. Sure it would be easier to reach my dreams if I wasn't disabled how I am but then I don't think I would even have the same dreams. I like how I am.

[@NeedyBoBeedy]

in the recent jojo fighting game, josuke heals johnny’s legs in one of his cinematic moves and immediately breaks them again

[@BunnyNuit]

I agree with this, Ik it’s not comparable but I have ADHD and anxiety and at my old school a random person asked me once if I’d be happier as a neurotypical person. I think that I actually would get rid of my anxiety, bc I don’t like being scared to talk to people or anxious about situations other people find ok and normal. But no, I wouldn’t trade my ADHD away because it almost pulls me together into who I am. Everyone’s always seen me as the bubbly, over excitable childish girl who’s really clumsy and always late to everything. But yeah, if I could get rid of my anxiety I definitely would.

[@LittleParody]

Out of curiosity, have you ever tackled the Warrior Cats series when it comes to disabilities? The series is notorious at this point for how HORRIBLY it treats disabled clan cats, which are always either thrown into the Healer role (because they are "incapable of doing anything else because of whatever disability they have") or straight up killed off (they literally killed a deaf kitten once in the books). And it's an ongoing issue, considering there is apparently a scene in one of the more recent books, where a main character is sitting between life and death and some of her ancestors are telling her something along the lines of "If you go back to the living world, you'll likely be permanently disabled because of your injuries, you'd be better off dead". While it can be argued "Irl, disabled cats would have a hard time surviving out in the wild", it's also an argument that doesn't hold much weight in the context. I don't know why anyone would try to apply realism to a book about cats with an organized society, religion, fighting styles, and, on occasion, magic-like powers.

[@mariethedicedragon5977]

I have EDS; would I get rid of the pain? Sure... but I can't change that, and I've accepted it and moved on.

[@alsy6813]

Thank you for this video! I am autistic, and have always been very wary of this trope, yet, as someone who is not seen particularly disabled (just a lazy and awful human being), and whose struggles are more rooted in related mental struggles such as c-ptsd than autism itself -- I must admit I could not fully understand your opinion about it. It's not to say I don't think healing disabled characters is fine, but that I, too, have thought about the question of "fixing", knowing exactly that something is fundamentally wrong with it but being unable to find the words to decide what is. You calling it "a thought experiment" that your life shouldn't be turned into finally made me realise why I believed what I did, and I thank you for that. Any fictional world, no matter how close or distant from ours it is, will still always be a reflection of our reality, and more than that -- a reflection intentional; as such, it's important to think about concepts not only as how they exist in the universe you create, but how they relate to the real life, and the real experiences of real people. That's why, while firstly creating my world, I intentionally limited the healing magic to make it useful for people with disabilities, but not to eliminate their existence. And now I know the words to explain this choice to those who may ask why I am so cruel to my characters and don't want to make their lives better by making complete healing possible.

[@ms0kitty448]

I actually just watched Wreck-It Ralph and realised that Vanellope could be interpreted as a disabled individual (who had to deal with big systemic problems) and I loved that at the end she got to keep her disability and it was completely by her choice 💖

[@StarrySkyyyy]

Same! in the past I didn't pay much attention to her character, but after I developed tics and later got diagnosed with Tourette's, she's become very special to me

[@itsvale6371]

Damm, i didnt think about that, when i was a kid i thought she would be cure like always, but when she didnt i thought it was kind of nice and cool bc it felt like a superpower or something, now i realize it can also be interpreted like that

[@ghostsurfer23]

I appreciate videos like this. I've been able-bodied my entire life and my childhood-teenage years were pretty sheltered in terms of experiencing/witnessing other peoples' life experiences and worldviews. And yeah, my knee-jerk reaction to something like this is "why WOULDN'T you cure a person's disabilities?" I understand that's wrong, and I'm definitely trying to unlearn reflexes like this. So hearing a break down of specifically why it's a problematic mindset is helpful in my own journey, so thank you!

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

If you want to learn about how other disabled chronically ill and/or neurodivergent KZbinrs & Co feel about how we are represented in various media, I have collected a public playlist of 30+ such videos. You can click on my icon and then on the link to my channel, or search for: "Disabled & Co people critiquing media, companies, platforms, representation & accessibility" I hope this is useful!

[@debbiem.6912]

Another aspect of -I’m disabled and I don’t want to be cured- that was mentioned in the video, is that I don’t know who I would be *without* my disability. Autism is an INTEGRAL part of who I am and cannot be separated from me. (A reason for many autists preferring “autistic people/autist” over “person with an autism” but that’s something for another time). I would lose far more than I would “gain” by being “cured”. Like was said in the video it would take *years* to adjust to life as an abled person. So much of my personality comes from my autism that if you were to take it away, you’d be taking away a major part of my identity. Uh, that’s my thoughts anyway.

[@cakeghoul]

when i was diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome, (Technically Autism Spectrum Disorder now) I felt fucking horrible. I wanted to be normal and to fit in. I thought weird=bad back then. So I did my best to try and hide my autism and emotions at school, cause I wasn't sure whether emotions were normal either at the time. As I grew older, Through various stuff, I learnt it's ok to be weird. In fact its fun to be weird. Ever since i started high school, I threw of that façade of "normal" and I've never looked back. When I was younger, i would have done anything to be "normal" If for some weird reason there was a cure or some shit I would have done it, no questions asked. But I wouldn't be me. I would never be me again. I would simply be a shell of my former self. Hence why I'll never put a "cure" plotline in any of my stories. But if for some reason I do in the future, I'll fuck with the whole concept and have my characters regret it if they do take that cure.

[@amelh5591]

Aww, yay! I love that. My experience was a little different. I was generally disliked and treated like a weirdo all through my childhood, and I used to fantasize about my parents approaching me out of the blue and telling me there'd always been a secret reason why I was so different from everybody else. In some of these fantasies I was a demigod; in others I was just autistic. In any case, it was because I knew I'd never be normal and really wanted to understand why. Well, surprise, surprise! When I was 17, my parents told me they'd known I was autistic ever since I was a little kid and hadn't told me or gotten me diagnosed because they didn't want it to be an excuse. So yay!! I'll admit, there was a lot more stigma surrounding ASD back then, and I'm not sure a diagnosis would have done me a lot of favors in elementary school. But I'm glad I know now. I finally get to feel like a real person. Wouldn't be who I am if I were allistic, and now that I understand why certain things are harder for me, I can finally look at myself with love and patience. For the first time in my life, the person I am is someone I actually wanna be. I wouldn't take that back for anything.

[@splatmaster3846]

I’m constantly terrified of being hated because I’m autistic. I’m honestly surprised that people want to be friends with me.

[@BinglesP]

I am diagnosed with the same thing, as well as ADHD. I'm an almost-obsessive sucker for novel/weird/experimental things, so I think it fits my interests and identity. I'm perfectly fine with having daily Adderall dosages(though I guess it'd be convenient if I got the effects automatically when I get to live on my own) but I wouldn't want it to be fully "cured".

[@pleromaprism7581]

If people really want disabled characters to be cured, change the society of the story, not the characters, disability is only disability when society fails to accommodate for differences within the human condition when proper accommodations are standared, normalized, and face no opposition then are disabled characters no longer disabled, for example do you consider a person with glasses disabled or not,

[@heartsteme8329]

That's a great viewpoint, thanks for that addition!

[@ivycresent5968]

Yes society should change to accomate to a degree that there is no oppresion and they are no longer disabled within society, but just like how many people who wear glasses choose to get lasic to fix their bodily failing, I can't see why a cure wouldn't be prefrable to sociatal accomadation if both were an option.

[@pleromaprism7581]

@@ivycresent5968 i can see an issue, culture and identity issues, and I don't just mean for neurodivergent disorders, deaf people have a long history and rich culture as well that creates a unique context and identity for a deaf person involved in the community

[@TinNguyen-rl2xr]

I mean if your missing a leg that's not normal I'm sorry about your feeling but humans are post to have legs

[@heartsteme8329]

@@TinNguyen-rl2xr Did anyone even say humans are "supposed" to have a disability? Some people just do, that's a fact of life. We can't change that fact, but we can change how we structure our society to fit the needs of disabled people. Also it's really rude to come to a disabled person's comment section who specifically explained how they hate it when people tell them how they're "supposed to be" etc and do exactly that.

[@myStitch11]

I just want to say, thank you for using your VERY needed voice about media and representation of those with disabilities. What’s kinda funny is glasses being so normalized I don’t even think of my own glasses as a disability (though get reminded at my work in food service every time I am hit with steam and need to take 10 seconds to see again). Your videos have really helped with this comic/show I have been working on as I want this world the alien character is brought into to have better services for disabilities than our current one. It was originally focused on making aids for mental disabilities more accessible (meds, therapy, aids, doctors who believe them) as I made the main character has undiagnosed ADHD and the mentor realizes and suggests the services as “it’s okay to ask for or need help. Everyone needs help in some area to excel at who they want to be. Whether it’s chemically, physically, or emotionally, it is alright to need an aid.” Though your videos have really helped with thinking through how physical aids need to be in mind for my world. Like your HTTYD video I realized I need to have my mentor character allowed to remove her prosthetic arm, not constantly attached 24/7

[@nomisunrider6472]

Honestly I feel like the whole curing the disabled trope would be a lot less problematic (and also a lot less prominent) if the language of cure and treatment hasn't be historically used to strip people of their autonomy and humanity. I understand that some people with autism want a cure for it. That's fine, it's their body and their choice what they do with it. But I do not have any faith that our society will give them or me that choice.

[@hedonismbot1508]

Trouble is, if you use that as an argument against researching cures for things that can't presently be cured, then that is no less a violation of autonomy than forcing a cure on someone who's happy the way they are. Either way, you're invalidating what the other person wants out of life and demanding that they conform to your philosophy.

[@nomisunrider6472]

@@hedonismbot1508 I am not arguing against researching cures. (Although researching cures in a for-profit health system is an entirely different tangle of issues). I am arguing against the implication that disabled people need cures to be people, because far too many people will use it as an excuse to ignore disabled people's autonomy.

[@naomistarlight6178]

Big demand for happy endings, it's just I think a matter for authors of recognizing happy endings are not one standard model, each one is tailored to the main character and reflects who they are as a unique individual. That means some people's "happy ending" can and should include still having a disability. I get that what we really need is an accepting society more than "cures", but as a fantasy author I can see the problem bc it's hard to write a strong magic system and a world big on wish fulfillment and giving heroes happy endings, if you're also going to have disabled MCs. But magical drawbacks and curses that can't be cured for a variety of reasons can be written in too. It's really about the able-bodied author not being able to imagine his or her own "happy ending" with the condition someone else has, even though millions of people with such conditions are still happy.

[@softnoobgirl73]

Ok here is an idea. Instead of getting healed the character is able to get better acomadations

[@alyssafitzgerald83]

I’m kind of in a middle ground in terms of healing disability. My main disability that impacted me growing up was being Hep-C positive, something I had since birth. There wasn’t any option to treat it when I was first diagnosed, but new options presented them selves in recent years and I took it. Then there’s my other disabilities, being born with a speech impairment and chronic migraines. The migraines can only be managed with me avoiding triggers, managing stress levels and keeping my emergency meds on me. The speech impairment came with having ears too small that was “corrected” when I was an infant. The surgery made me have to essentially relearn my native language with a speech teacher who had a vastly different dialect, resulting in questions like if I was adopted or assumptions about my comprehension of material. So someone did “cure” me with no physical repercussions without my consent. The cascading social consequences though did cause me trauma with isolation and being subtly marked as ‘other’ to this day. I understand why the surgery was approved, mishearing words would keep me trapped in lower level class despite my comprehension of the material. Which would have the effect of limiting my ways to get above the poverty line. This video kinda clued me in on how much I resent it though. I don’t “look” disabled because glasses are normalized in our society but am. I’m glad that I was cured of Hep-C, only because my fears of it being transmitted to someone else cased more anxiety than the fatigue from fighting an illness and not knowing that’s what my body was doing. I was also an adult when I did that treatment so my autonomy was respected. My migraines are just something I manage and have to work around in a world where all the lights are just slightly too bright and sounds too grating. I resent my autonomy being denied as a child when it comes to my hearing and resulting speech impairment, even though those two things are heavily intertwined with who I am now. Maybe I’m not in the middle ground but see disability in a more wider terms to also include transmissible diseases, not just hereditary ones, as part of the broader spectrum. Because for transmissible diseases it’s not just about the bodily autonomy of person who has it but the people around them as well as they could be potentially infected.

[@pumm3lfuff]

i saw some say that people who were glasses are (technically) disabled but its so normalized in society no one bats an eye and it changed my whole perspective. i wish that more disabilities were more normalized in society

[@emjakos3548]

I think an important note to add to this is that characters aren't people. Characters are reflections of people made to tell a story, even if a person was to be "better-off cured" (whatever that's supposed to mean) it doesn't mean that it applies to characters.

[@mpd1732]

As one of the "new channel members" squad, I have to say that I've been going through and enjoying your videos a lot. I really love diversity in fiction and do want to see more of a push for positive disability representation in media, especially since I strive to do so in every one of my works.

[@callumarcher8111]

I always come out of watching your videos with a new perspective that I hadn't considered before, fantastic stuff.

[@seventy7swords224]

New here, as an aspiring author(and more importantly someone wanting to just learn) I find your videos very insightful and had 2 questions. At the end of Naruto we see our 2 main characters lose an arm while fighting each other, one choses to have it healed through important plot device that presents ability to heal(although it’s more of an organic prosthetic, but for the sake of the question I wont get into that) and the other does not, seemingly as an acceptance of consequences, working around it for the rest of their life. Both proceed to be badasses in sequel media with their disabilities only being relevant when necessary. With that out the way my questions are: 1. In narrative situations that present the “elephant in the room” of magical healing vs. disability , is showing some characters seeking it and others not a good way to handle it. 2. Can parallels between disability and themes ever be done right, whether it be for protagonists, antagonists or other.

[@noahr.7144]

10:00 that would be an unbelievably interesting story. Like imagine if there was a magic cure all for all physical ailments and basically made someone "perfect". But that cure all happened to someone whose accepted themself and was happy as they were, maybe even fought to get where they were in life. Like imagine following that emotional journey. Like they had it forced on them and the story breaks down every struggle that comes after

[@breanna2265]

I think it'd be interesting to have a story where there are two disabled friends and that magical cure comes out and one chooses to take it. But the one who takes the cure has their life completely turned upside down because of it and the one who chose not to take the cure has to help their friend get through their struggles.

[@troydonna]

couldn't agree more, taking someone's existence as a thought experiment is just wrong and cruel, in real life it's impossible to be "fixed" so even if I would want that, I can't so why would you bring that up, that's fucked up

[@serperiorandtheanimator9216]

I do have a few disabled characters myself, and i find when writing them, their disabilities are something they are born with or are basically irreperable. The thing I learned is that you should give them things to help them out. Understanding their disabilities is far more interesting to me as a concept and seeing how you can work with it and give them a life they can be perfectly happy in is one of the joys of writing these characters- because you get to be really creative with it. For example- one character I have has legs that he can't stand up on. He can move and crawl around on the floor like a centipede (because he is part centipede), but he cannot physically stand up. So another one of my characters gave him his childhood wagon to ride around in for people to pull him around in, or to help him get around since they don't have access to wheelchairs. So instead of just like magically healing his legs, I just gave him something that could more easily move around. Kind of like how you give a prosthetic leg to an amputee who lost their leg- - its not regrowing the leg, but at least they'll be able to walk around and be balanced. I think that acknowledging that you can't just HEAL some things is really important, and that its also important to acknowledge that you can still LIVE with a disability. Not just SURVIVE with a disability.

[@James-nr2hi]

Has someone with two mental disabilities (autism and dyspraxia), I have asked ask myself the question of "if I could be "cured" would I want to be" many times. And I realized that the answer is no, not really. I don't think there's any point. I'm pretty happy with my life. Sure I have to work twice as hard as the people around me when it comes to most aspects of life, but I'm kinda used to that by now.

[@Lightning.S]

Man the "I need a society who doesn't look at me and see a checklist of problems to solve" goes hard.

[@killuanatsume]

I say it depend. For example, I read a fanfic about a character that became blind because he got t*****ed, the character hated it because it was a reminder of what happened he was eventually offered a possibility of seeing again with a healing potion he accepted in the end he was able to see with glasses, well, end the fanfic isn't over yet.

[@Marrianno]

Honestly I think the same. It depends. Also heres actualy another blind person that I know of that might serve as an example of someone wanting a cure. It's a character from visual novel, he was an artist but became blind due to being experimented on(tho it can be classified as torture). Obviously he absolutely hated being blind, as it prevents him from drawing, plus his blindness significantly increased his insecurities and is a painful reminder of traumatic torture that he went throu. Obviously it's a lot, and he 100% whould want to return his lost sense.

[@Kit_AshVR]

I have a character who went from having a stutter to bing completely mute due to a traumatic injury. There was a time where I was in rps with this character I had many people try to “cure” them or intentionally try to infantilize them and have their characters be their “savior”.. I got so annoyed with it. Petra is such a comfort oc and I love them dearly, I could never imagine changing the way he is. (Btw Petra is genderqueer as well and she uses all pronouns)

[@alexandrite9100]

"I need accessible public spaces, and time and access to medications I need to survive. I need a society that doesn't look at me and see a checklist of problems to be solved" It's exactly this. Thank you for expressing so well what I feel but didn't know how to say

[@lillysage9763]

Not me cheering through this whole video because god is it nice to hear someone else say what I'm constantly thinking about our "Cure or die" tropes in media.

[@LemonPartII]

I am invisibly disabled. My disability heavily effects and restricts one of my internal systems, my energy intake and use, and can cause medical emergencies on the daily for me. It’s a highly stereotyped disease, a stereotype that I hate the idea of; for that, I won’t be disclosing what my disability is. Plus, it’s none of your business. If someone offered me a “cure”, or tried to force a “cure”, I’d punch them in the face. I don’t need a “cure”, I am not broken in the first place. I don’t need a “cure”, my life is worth living. I don’t need a “cure”, I am not sick. A “cure” would also invalidate so much of me. It would invalidate the trauma I’ve gone through because of this. It would invalidate how close I’ve come to death. It would invalidate my coma. It would invalidate my day to day suffering. It would invalidate nights of lost sleep. It would invalidate a central part of me. And if we took a step further, said my anxiety, misophonia, ADHD, and sensory processing disorders where disabilities, I wouldn’t take a “cure” either. My mind isn’t broken, it just functions so differently from yours you can’t understand - and that’s partly the fault of those around me, who couldn’t understand, who abused me because of that, who turned my brain around. I would not take away so much of me; my creativity, my views, my interests, the unique way I’ve viewed the world - as I’ve been told - that I’ve come to know. “Cures” for any part of me aren’t worth it. Just because I, and many, many other people aren’t your “normal” or your “perfect”, doesn’t mean were “wrong”, “weird”, or “broken”.

[@cracktoon_powerscaling]

Good luck punching anyone lol

[@LemonPartII]

@@cracktoon_powerscaling k? Thanks? I’m not sure what you want me to react…something like “Oh the horror! I can never possibly recover!”?

[@Ashurion-Neonix]

I grew up penalised for every "abnormal" thing I did. Became highly ableist, thought disabilities were a burden to society and that the world would be better if I killed myself. All this distracted me from my mental development and I fell further behind which resulted in more scoldings. It wasn't until I was able to spend time with other autistics that I realised the only inconvenience was needing slightly more care, and that the issue was on others for expecting me to just stop doing that stuff. I'm now beginning to understand myself and others. Same happened with my depression, anxiety, independence skills, sleep schedule. Trying to "help" in the wrong way tends to just make the underlying "issue" worse.

[@namiburali5611]

2 minutes in and Im thinking of that exchange with that one Warcraft character where some magical wind chime of light tries to impress its will on him and he absolutely rejects it. 100% refuses. "the light will heal your scars." "I AM MY SCARS!"

[@azortoonz]

I myself am an aspie, and for a long time i didn't create autistic ocs because i was ashamed of it. I felt like a weirdo and I tought i need to hide it. But after years I started to accept that part of me and right now I have 3 ocs with autism and planing to make more of them. But i'm still kinda afraid of abelistic comments that they are "bad representation", "they need to act less autistic" or "cure them". But I will try to be strong and proud

[@Amy_the_Lizard]

Was kinda worried that one of my characters might count, but since hers is a very slow natural recovery that's actually the expected outcome for her issue I guess I'm still good, since in her case it would be weirder for her not to have significant improvements...(issue in question is Broca's aphasia caused by being hit with an axe while wearing a helmet; since she's only in her early twenties, and it was a milder case to begin with, her expected prognosis is pretty good.) I also have a character that's initially suffering from pretty severe PTSD, and while it never goes away it DOES improve a lot over the course of the story, since she got away from the situation that caused the trauma, and has a supportive friend group.

[@curiouslittlefrog]

I’m doing an interview as a disabled person about disability in media.. in two hours and I’m nervous waTching KZbin and this popped up on my algorithm. PERFECT! thanks for giving me more insight for talking to someone about this!!

[@curiouslittlefrog]

Omg hey I have EDS too! Crap collagen pals!!! Love, your autistic non-binary frog friend :)

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

​@@curiouslittlefrog *waves* in faulty connective tissue solidarity

[@chronicallyexhaustedyt]

i love that you're discussing this because as a disabled person myself, i understand this deeply. last summer, i was at my friend's birthday party and their brother saw me taking my medicine. he literally said, "if i had to do that everyday, i'd just kill myself." i wish i was joking. it was so dehumanizing to hear him say that having my condition makes my life completely worthless and that the only way to deal with it was suicide. later that day, my friend and i had to leave an activity because of a health problem that was potentially fatal. her friend kept complaining that we were just "doing everything i wanted to do" when i literally was sick. needless to say, a day that should have been a fun memory was turned into a day that makes me want to cry whenever i think about it.

[@slyuchi7206]

Hmm, I am not disable but I found myself relating to a small portion of this video with my glasses, I don't want to get rid of them, not ever, it honestly sucks that I have to pay fortunes just to see, and I would appreciate if my eyes weren't painfully dry 24/7, but I don't want to get rid of them, as dramatic as it may sound they are part of my identity, they are a part of me and I don't want them gone even though I could schedule the "miracle" surgery any time. So I guess I just wanted to say thank you for bringing this very foreign experience to a place where I feel like anyone who WANTS can understand it easily

[@Zeno11Salazar]

I must thank God I have come across channels like yours to help me understand people not only different from me, but how society still has a long way to go before letting people outside of what they consider normal to be normalized. Thank you for helping others like myself understand your kind perspective more.

[@immagetitdone0]

The worst thing is when I use the disabled bathroom in my school (which is basically the staff bathroom with a disabled sign next to the door) and when I'm washing my hands, one of my classmates comes and tries to come in and then jokingly pretend to be disabled. Also one of the people in my class said that they want to be disabled to use that bathroom. And sometimes one of the other people in my class asks questions about my hygiene and questions like "Can you get pregnant?" like, great way to alienate someone. Ask me questions about my personal life that really have no weight and meaning to you. Let me be your little person to run your curiosities through for fun. Sorry for the rant! TL;DR: I hate when my classmates pretend to be or say they wish they are disabled to go to the disabled bathroom, and I hate when people ask me invasive questions about my personal life. If you're reading this, you are amazing and never give up hope.

[@mythicalgirl2005]

One of my books has a blind protag and in the sequel I want to have her go on this undersea quest, and I was initially going to have one of the gods in the universe of the story temporarily grant her sight to make it easier. However, now that I know it's problematic, I will not be doing that.

[@ride-playerbb2818]

That moment when Darth Vader of all people is one of the better disabled characters out there. He lost all four limbs _and_ got burned really badly, forcing him in a crappy mechanical suit and hindering his natural abilities. What does he do? He learns to adapt to his new living conditions. He learned new fighting skills and developed new techniques that would work better for him compared to when he was more agile. He uses his fearful appearance and reputation to his advantage. The result is that you don't even realize that he's less powerful than he should be. Not only that, but he's still as skilled of a pilot as ever

[@Rattraptmnt]

As a person with adhd if someone asked me if I wanted to "cure" it, I would say no it's not always fun to live with it but i wouldn't be who I am without it

[@zwarrior1]

Whoo boy this gave me a lot to think about, even as a disabled person myself. I mostly agree with your points, especially the frustation of ableds/"normies" imposing their assumptions on how their way life is soo much better and why wouldn't you want to be fixed? Ugh... That being said, I don't think the idea of a "cure" is always inherently bad. I think it depends on the person, their disabililty and above all personal agency. Disablity is such a broad umbrella with varied levels of personal impact. Does that person want to change something about themselves, how would that happen and how does that affect the life afterwards. These are cool ideas to toy with in stories. As valid as those about different disabled people. But yeah, blanket easy cures suck in stories. Not only are they insulting, they're just kinda boring, Like, this cool unique character with unique experiences and worldviews is now like everyone else, cool I guess? Personally, I would love a cure, at least partially. I have a form of Muscular Dystrophy that weakens pretty much all the skeletal muscles in my body. I have been in a wheelchair for most of my life but more importantly have been unable to breathe and have been reliant on a ventilator to live. This essentially removes all independence as I need someone around at all times just in case something goes wrong I don't suffocate and die. If I could snap a finger and "cure" this part of myself, I absolutely would. I can't of course and I'm okay with this. But it does bug me when I see other disableds preach that we're fine just the way we are and don't need to change. This sounds nice and empowering but it misses some finer, fringe cases in my opinion. Sorry just venting a bit. Really enjoyed your video. Love seeing other disabled youtubers. Keep making vids and I'll keep watching.

[@roadbreach]

Personally, I would LOVE to be fixed because I never asked for autism. I never asked to be made intentionally defective.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

I am confused -- what do you mean with "made intentionally defective"?

[@roadbreach]

@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 I used to be Christian. If I'm to believe that God made me, then he made me intentionally defective.

[@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023]

@@roadbreach If you want to share: what prompts you to use the word "defective" about yourself? For context, I am nearing 60, a late diagnosed autistic, dyslexic ADHDer and culturally Christian living in Finland, EU. I have a few chronic somatic illnesses in addition to being multiply neurodivergent. Yet I do not relate to the word "defective" -- different, yes, and I certainly have health challenges on and off. However, as all nine of my closest friends including my husband and adult children have turned out to be some type of neurodivergent and they each have one or more somatic diagnoses, too, I have come to view all of this simply as human variability.

[@roadbreach]

@@ronjaj.addams-ramstedt1023 It’s because of SECEP, that I have this hatred for having autism. It's because of SECEP that I am more aggressive to people online, and even less patient than I could ever be. I had nothing of actual substance in common with any of the other kids in my homeroom, they were all obnoxious fuckheads that I wanted nothing to do with. I was so done with SECEP that I physically attacked a SECEP principal in 6th grade. It's because of them that I NEVER want to be included in the "Autistic community", and do not see much value in having friends. One thing I will never let go of, was when I was about to graduate 5th grade a SECEP was ridiculing my face because I had the gall to upset at her. She went on stage at graduation and had the gumption to say "a teacher should be loving and kind" AFTER RIDICULING A CHILD FOR BEING UPSET. I would gladly rather be the most cookie-cutter man imaginable than have anything that set me apart from the rest.

[@illiengalene2285]

First of all, let me take a wild guess, Ehler Danlos Syndrom? Second hi! I am autistic and getting into diagnosis for EDS myself. And I FEEL that pain, literally. I have been working with a dislocating hip since I was 3 months old, keeping me together as best as they could. I know this, but I know people may not like this comment: Abled people are unable to empathize with disabled people, because they don't have lived their lives with ANYTHING they had to live with or they can't put up the mental effort to attract their left handedness or their birthday or their physical attributes. They live in a world where, when you got to great lengths, you can change most of those things. 'But it doesn't impact their lives as much as left handedness!' Tbh, not in the pain department, necessarily, but! You kinda get singled out, you need special, mostly more expensive stuff like pens, scissors, binders etc. And it makes your 'different'. It changes what you do, on a fundamental level, but is as valid as doing everything right handed. One of my best friends was FORCED to become right handed and I see the damage this caused. Low self esteem, selfhate, depression. That's not worth fitting in, isn't it?

[@ohrats731]

This video reminds me it’s time teacher stop having kids read Of Mice and Men in school…. No I take that back, it should be read in discussed in terms of George is not a good person for murdering Lenny and did not do him a kindness. Sure we can’t go back and time to the 1930s and expect people to have modern understanding and resources for cognitive disabilities, but it’s really creepy how the book treats it like George is sadly but gently putting down his dog because it’s the right thing to do and modern readers go “yeah that’s so sad for George, I could only hope to have his strength and will to do the right thing even when it’s hard”