Disability and the curing thereof

[kazaera]

[semi-related to the current debate going on about h/c bingo, but I'd been thinking about this stuff before I'd heard of that challenge.]

I sort of expect to be hit with rotten fruit for the title alone. Um. At least read it through before you shoot?

Comments

[theo_harrison]

I like this post a lot.

I'll admit that one of the reasons I tend to stay clear of disabled spaces (for want of a better term, I'm low on spoons atm) is that if I could be able-bodied and sane I would do it in a heart-beat, and I don't like being lectured on how I'm Doing Disability Wrong. But even though I'd definitely take the magic pill I'm apprehensive, because I don't know who sane, non-crippled me is. (And even I, who wants a cure, finds it problematic that practically every fictional disabled character ever wants the cure. People are people; fiction not showing the spectrum of attitudes to our own disabilities that exists IRL reduces disabled characters to stereotypes.)

I may have gone off at a tangent, my brain's been frazzled over the past few days. If I have then I apologise.

[kazaera]

*hugs* at being told you're doing disability wrong :( I get why people can be vociferous about not wanting a cure, but that is really not good. And, I mean, I'm pretty at the other end of the spectrum re cure - was considering whether to mention that as far as I can tell my mindset is pretty unusual among stutterers but hey, I exist too - and I wouldn't want the autism cured because I think it's a fundamental part of my personality (and also, considering I'm a mathematician and autism is associated with skill at maths this would be slightly thoughtless, but mainly the "replacing me with another person" thing)... but, if there were a way to cure the executive dysfunction without fundamentally altering my personality I'm not so sure I wouldn't go for it

[theo_harrison]

*hugs*

I have similar feelings about my bipolar disorder, in that it's a massive part of my personality and I just don't know who I am without it, but in my case it's so destructive to me that I would get rid of it and find out. I'd do it and just desperately hope that I don't hate the new me, that my friends and family accept the new me (already having some issues with that one since Richard and I met while I was on haloperidol... and now I'm not.)

I just object to it being framed as not just what every disabled person hopes and dreams of, but a) their biggest goal

This part I am in so much agreement with. Even though I would take a cure, it's not my biggest goal (that would be total world domination a nice little gallery/studio/cafe, with funding so I can make various classes and facilities available to people who wouldn't otherwise have access. If I had a wish I'd take the gallery; it's my happy place.) And, tbh, I'm in so much trouble with my physiotherapist atm for not doing my exercises it's not even funny. She asks if

[kazaera]

I sort of get that re EFD? It's, I suspect you cannot actually separate it from my personality but it has caused and causes so much blodoy trouble and is the #1 candidate for bringing my life crashing down around me. And at the moment I say I don't want it cured but at the moment I am sort of functional and it is under control ish and that might change. Not the same, obviously, but. Also, have mental health issues I have learned to work around but if I could
snap my fingers and nor have to worry about my self-esteem collapsing at any provocation... :( and many many hugs for you.

This is actually a reason I worry about writing certain disabilities/newly acquired disabilities because I know I would be tempted to downplay what is going on in an effort to portray disability as not horrible and something you can live with but that is also wrong

okay this keyboar d is KILLING ME

longpost is long

[aiffe]

Well, X-men does address this! See: the Mutant Cure. Being a mutant is considered to be universally bad, and there are enough cases where the mutation is dangerous or harmful to the mutant or others around them to make a pretty good case for this. But mutants don't see it that way. I bawled when Mystique was cured. It was such an incredible sense of loss. I'd have rather seen her dead than "cured

Re: longpost is long

[aiffe]

There's also the fact that cures aren't purely the realm of fiction. In China, recently, they cured a case of blindness with stem cells. As medical science grows, cures are becoming less the realm of fantasy, and more the realm of reality. I do have a problem with every disability getting cured in fiction. (For the same reason I have a problem with how every time a major character has a baby, a plot device turns it into an adult in about a day.) But I don't think it's wrong for fiction to explore this territory.

Something I would like to see addressed more often is the non-perfect cures. For example, cochlear implants, from what I've read, don't let the people who use them hear sound as you or I hear it. They hear tinny, 8-bit sound, sound that's unnatural and jarring. They often have a low opinion of sound in general, and don't see why everyone's so enraptured by it. Being deaf is often more comfortable than this aural assault. Your stuttering therapy, likewise, doesn't give you the experience of being a person without a stutter.

Re: longpost is long

[kazaera]

FYI want to respond to this but my wrist fucking ow

later

Re: longpost is long

[aiffe]

*hugs*

You are braver than I. I gave up on typing with phones ages ago. Sorry I wordvomited all over you, too. XD

[shobogan]

God, yes. The entire "cure" plotline would work so much better if the complexities were actually addressed. Some characters, I think, would respond first with "how dare you think I need a magical cure".

I've pondered this both in regards to real life and fiction. Personally, well, if someone suddenly cured the constant pain, I'd be pretty damn joyous, but I'd also feel odd - it's been six years since I've lived without it. If someone tried to cure my myriad mental issues? I don't think I'd let them. Because how much of who I am would change too?

Fictionwise...while Marvel's most prominent person in a wheelchair is probably Xavier, DC's is Barbara Gordon. And I'm still not sure how I'd feel if she was given her legs back, even if it was done well (without devaluing the life she's made since she was shot, actually addressing the complications). There are entirely too many people who think she needs to be, to be a legitimate hero.

[spartanwerewolf]

I enjoyed this post. When writing disabilities, I don't magically fix them, because hey, that's a huge part of you, and honestly, I don't even know who I'd be if I wasn't the way I am. I'd love to be "fixed" physically and mentally, but the idea of it is terrifying, because you're basically losing a huge part of how you've self-identified. I suppose I'd learn to function "normally" the same as I'd adapt to anything else, but it would be hard.

[zoeiona]

I've seen this done well precisely once, and not in fic but in the play Molly Sweeney. Major perspective!fail on the part of the temporarily-able-bodied, most of the time...