Day: July 14, 2017

Don’t Take Up Spaces that Aren’t Meant for You

theinfiniteofthought:

urbancripple:

bpdvixon:

urbancripple:

I go to use the elevator in a high rise building only to find a sign that says “Please ask security for access to this elevator”. A week ago, that sign wasn’t there. When I ask the security guard why the sudden change in policy, they said that people from other floors in the building had been abusing their access to the elevator and that they needed to lock it down. 

Let me make this perfectly clear: I could no longer independently access the only elevator available to take me to this part of the building because other people decided to use / abuse a space that was not meant for them instead of taking the stairs right next to the fucking elevator.

Here’s another example: In order to have access to an accessible room on a cruise ship, I have to submit a form stating that I do in fact  have a physical disability that prevents me from using a normal state room on the ship. I have to do this because able-bodied people have, in the past, been dishonest about the level of accessibility they require in order to have access to a larger stateroom without having to pay a premium.

How about this one: I go into the restroom of a massive convention center. Every single stall  in this restroom is empty except for the one handicapped stall in the back, which is being occupied by someone who does not need to use a handicapped stall. I now have to wait for that one person to exit the stall before I can use the restroom. Remember: This bathroom has 7+ other stalls that are built specifically to work for them, but they chose  to use the one space that is available to people like me.

Dear able-bodied people: Handicapped bathroom stalls, seating areas, staterooms, and elevators are not meant for you and you should not use them.

I do not care how big of a hurry you were in and how that elevator got you to where you needed to go faster. Because of you, I have to go find someone every time I need to use this elevator and if I can’t find them I GET NOTHING. 

To you, that cruise ship can house 2000+ people and you have an opportunity to get a massive stateroom at no extra cost if you’re wiling to fib a little. To me, that cruise ship has a capacity of around 12 (the number of accessible rooms on the ship) and if they’re all full, I GET NOTHING.

To you, that movie theater has four really great seats right in the middle that just happen to have a handicapped accessible sign on them. To me, that theater has four seats and if they’re all full, I GET NOTHING.

And let me address the bathroom thing in particular. I don’t give a flying fuck if the handicapped stall was the only one available. You should pretend like it doesn’t fucking exist and wait in line like everyone else. *

Don’t take up spaces that were not meant for you. Because everything but those few precious spaces were not meant for us. 

* Unless it’s literally the only stall in the bathroom or you’re about to absolutely shit yourself. Then it’s fine. 

Story time: I cleaned and stocked portable toilets at a music festival, the main blocks were connected to a really big septic tank but not accessable. The disabled toilets had a tiny tank that would get full very quickly. When not cleaning I would guard the toilet so no one ‘skips the cue’ to use it. When cleaning I couldn’t observe it and it would fill out. The big truck to empty it could not come around to after the day ended, thus people with disabilities would have to either not use to the toilet or find another block and hope that it isn’t filled. No one would understand because ‘noone needs it now’ no they don’t but that’s not the fucking point.

Yes! The “no one needs it right now” thing is the most common excuse I hear about stuff like this. It’s ridiculous.

And just to add some more perspective to this problem, when I park my car in a handicapped space, I purposefully avoid parking in the spaces meant to accommodate wheelchair accessible vans. I don’t need to use that kind of space to get in and out of my car so I don’t use it. That parking space is **not** meant for me.

To be fair though, using a lift instead of stairs is valid in almost all circumstances and I think that is the fault of the building-runners thinking that they should police who uses the lift? Like, not all disabilities are apparent to begin with, but also, someone is just really tired? Or they have a bad knee? Just had a run? Whatever? Let them use the lift

Seriously though, locking up the elevator in a high rise building shows some pretty worrying disregard, right there. It’s there to get people from floor to floor. That’s why it exists. People shouldn’t have to go through security gatekeeping and justify some particular need to use the elevator, for whatever reason.

[In the Hobby Lobby case] technically, the defendants… are the objects themselves, yielding an incredible case name: The United States of America v. Approximately Four Hundred Fifty (450) Ancient Cuneiform Tablets; and Approximately Three Thousand (3,000) Ancient-Clay Bullae.

https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2017/07/hobby-lobby-smuggled-thousands-of-ancient-artifacts-out-of-iraq/532743/

image

(via mswyrr)

This is actually a common naming convention for cases. United States v. One Package of Japanese Pessaries is an actual Supreme Court case, for example.

(via alx-972)

They’re called in rem cases and as far as I’m concerned every single one of them is a gem name-wise. I’ve personally always been fond of United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins, though United States v. One Tyrannosaurus Bataar Skeleton is pretty great too.

(via literaryreference)

The next time the United States has to go vs. One T. Rex, I suggest we let 45 fight it personally.

(via patrickat)

onpanwa:

flickerlight:

frogculture:

marxferatu:

felweed:

monkeysky:

itsbenedict:

collapsedsquid:

bunjywunjy:

someone created a random generator that creates randomized inspirational quotes overlaid on random images in a soothing fashion and each and every image is comic gold

it’s pretty much the best thing ever and here are some of my favorites so far

so good

I’m getting this one made into a motivational poster for my home office

PLEASE GO MAKE SOME OF YOUR OWN RIGHT NOW

The first two I generated:

yes god

I FEEL PERSONALLY ATTACKED

On the Social Dimension of Disability: “I don’t think of you that way.”

aegipan-omnicorn:

clatterbane:

aegipan-omnicorn:

birabeero:

I can’t count the amount of people who have said some variation of “I don’t think of you that way” when it comes up that I’m disabled.

Disability (n.): 

a physical or mental condition that limits a person’s movements, senses, or activities.

I have permanent paralysis in my shoulder, arm, and hand from an injury to my brachial plexus. My range of motion in that arm is about 40% of what a typical, uninjured arm would be, not to mention my underdeveloped strength, dislocated shoulder, and the resulting scoliosis. I could go on. Based on the simplest, literal definition, I am definitely disabled, because at the very least, compared with a typical body, my movements are limited.*

So, why am I always hearing “I don’t think of you that way”? 

Often a person says it to relieve their own social discomfort or cognitive dissonance, either because I’ve self-identified as disabled or because they’ve said something disparaging about disabled people. Examples:

  • My boyfriend’s mom says she has “crippling self-doubt.” My boyfriend says, “bad word choice,” gesturing to me. She does a double take, looks my way, and says “Oh, I’m sorry, it didn’t occur to me because I don’t see you that way.”
  • My college roommate and I are chatting and I mention, in a neutral tone, that I am disabled. In the voice of someone finally expressing something that’s been bothering her, she says “I don’t know why you think of yourself that way. I don’t think of you that way.”

In the first example, my boyfriend’s mom uses “crippling,” (cripple (n.): a person who is partially or totally unable to use one or more limbs) as shorthand to say that her self-doubt prevents her from normal activities, or at least from the activities she’d prefer to take part in. When my boyfriend points out that this metaphor implies physical disability (such as mine) necessarily means abnormal, negative, or useless, she experiences discomfort. She relieves it by saying, “I don’t think of you that way,” preserving the abnormal, negative, or useless associations in her head with physical disability. Because she sees me as normal, useful, productive, I must not be disabled. The definition of disability shifts from a value-neutral description of physical or mental difference to a negative social role, in order to exclude me.

In the second example, my roommate does something similar. Although I don’t express sadness or anger when calling myself disabled, it makes her upset, and she pushes back. That’s because, rather than seeing disability as a value-neutral physical or mental difference, she sees it as a negative social role. In her mind, by self-identifying this way, I’m insulting myself.

The problem with both these lines of logic is twofold:

  • The definition of disability shifts at will in order to protect the nondisabled person’s perception of disability as a negative attribute.
  • Inclusion and exclusion into this social role shifts at will in order to protect the nondisabled person’s perception of disability as a negative attribute and attitude toward disabled people that they do “think of that way.”

If I’m not disabled, then I have no way to explain why I was told not to become a lifeguard, or why men routinely refuse to date me because my “arm is just too weird,” or why strangers approach me to tell me how great it is that I’m out living life. I lose out on putting a name to these negative experiences (which is a necessary part of healing from them and fighting back) in order to protect nondisabled people’s shifting definition of disability.

Worse still, if I’m not disabled, then disabled people are just the faceless, abnormal, negative, useless Other. If, as soon as a person because a valued figure in your life, they’re excluded from that group, it is far too easy to dehumanize, objectify, and disenfranchise that group. 

*I wouldn’t trade that limitation of movement for the world, as it’s caused me to develop an interesting set of physical skills that nondisabled people lack along with character traits that are integral to my personality. But that’s for a different post.

“If, as soon as a person becomes a valued figure in your life, they’re excluded from that group, it is far too easy to dehumanize, objectify, and disenfranchise that group.”

Wow. Thank you for putting this into words so well. I’m going to use this.

Good description. “I don’t think of you as X” seems to function similarly in so many contexts, and it’s depressing.

And it occurs to me again that similar attitudes may well help explain the otherwise baffling figure that “nearly half (43%) of the British public say they do not know anyone who is disabled”. When it’s hard to see how that could even be possible, in reality.

There is also possibly the question of how closely do you need to know someone before even counting them when asked about it.

But, that kind of response (not to mention “just a third (33%)…said that they would feel comfortable talking to disabled

people”) would make a lot more sense if actual disabled people existing in front of them were getting excluded from this very negative stereotyped mental image of The Disabled.

“
But, that kind of response (not to mention “just a third (33%)…said that they would feel comfortable talking to disabled
people”) would make a lot more sense if actual disabled people
existing in front of them were getting excluded from this very negative
stereotyped mental image of The Disabled.

“

True, that.

“Oh? Grandma? She’s old, yeah. But she’s not “Disabled”. She just can’t see very well, anymore, and has to use a walking frame when she goes out, now.  But she’s doin’ pretty good, considering she’s pushing 90. So it’s to be expected.”

It’s that “It’s to be expected” that’s the key. “Disability” as a social construct is a marker for whatever breaks and/or challenges the “normal.” That’s why, in the American news media, financial aid programs are often described as being for “the Elderly and Disabled” – two distinct groups.

And this is why, I think, accommodations for wounded war veterans are lauded, while the exact same accommodations for disabled civilians are called “Government waste” and “Political correctness gone mad.” Because the cultural narrative has a place for the wounded veteran of war to fit into – “It’s the price ‘we’ (healthy, able bodied civilians) pay for our freedoms” – while the kid who happened to be born disabled is nothing but a burden, and a drain on the GDP (and notice how, even the lauded war veteran becomes the public property of society as soon as they returned from the battlefield with a disability).

fakeleftist:

if I was a corrupt politician with a history of human rights abuses I would be dying for a photo op with Trump bc all I’d have to do is look slightly annoyed and everyone would praise me and forget everything bad I’ve ever done