1:02am June 7, 2014

Reblog if you’re an adult who proudly reads YA.

youneedacat:

I should also add some commentary here:

As a DD adult this choice gets not only questioned, but seen as evidence that I’m not a real adult. I read YA and I read straight-up children’s books, including picture books. They aren’t the only books I read, but they’re most of the books I read, and that means something different as an adult with a developmental disability than it does as any random adult who can get away with it. In the wrong situation, I could have all of my favorite books confiscated and donated, thrown away, gotten rid of, or otherwise destroyed. Because that’s what Normalization is all about in practice, being “age-appropriate” and denying us any rights to anything “not adult enough”. Including defacing or destroying property that belongs to us, not them.

Yes! >.<

My dad used to threaten to get rid of my YA/Kids books all the time. (Even when I was 17 and still technically in the target age range). He would say as log as I kept them it would be a sign that I wasn’t a “real adult” and was proof of my “mental issues”. He would then say I could argue why I should keep them , but no argument was ever enough. Then at one point I realized that it should be my decision. And so I decided to just say “no” and if he tried to take any books I would shield them with my body. It was scary. (After hearing me say “No!” again and again and not back down he got confused and walked away. But it could have gone differently.)

But really, it’s every person’s right to read what they want.

TL:DR -

Adults are adults. No disability, or interest, or choice of reading makes someone not an adult.

Wow that’s scary. My parents luckily see nothing wrong with having “childlike” interests at least to a point. But I did have a time period where I was being told by a shrink that I wasn’t a real adult and that I had to do all these bizarre things (including overcome a severe sleep disorder by sheer willpower) to prove I was “really an adult”, which I failed of course. He insisted that because I was in the system, I would never be an adult, and he would control my life forever, because he could tell my parents anything about me, and they would do it. He threw a massive tantrum when my parents let me move out without consulting him first. I think if I hadn’t got out from under his thumb he would have tried to get them to get guardianship over me or something, so I’m glad I got out of there when I did. It was hard enough just convincing Social Security I didn’t need a representative payee. Guardianship would’ve been much worse.

Here’s to no adult ever having to prove they’re an adult again. :-(