as small as a world and as large as alone

12:29am July 24, 2014

soilrockslove:

portmanteaurian:

I’m skeptical about the idea that people can appropriate disabled experiences in the same way they can culture

Like…if you experience something that is similar to my experiences, and that is similarly debilitating

I don’t care if you have the same Disability Label I do, we still have a bond there.

Especially for psychiatric stuff, where diagnosis is mostly just based on identifying a collection of symptoms? If you have one less symptom than you need to earn the label, it doesn’t make the symptoms you DO have any less real

Clatterbane:

#seriously  #also they’re generally shit at recognizing patterns  #and applying appropriate labels  

And besides all that - if you have certain experiences, you have those experiences.  There’s no way you can be “appropriating” them.  They are happening to you and you can talk about them.

And if certain ways disabled people make their lives better also help you - it’s ok to do them!

(Of course there are ways of being a dick when talking about disability, and it’s better if people avoid being a dick.  But that’s a separate issue)

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