I've had this discussion before, and I will have it again. And I realize that the accusations of me being oversensitive will pour in as they did last time
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I understand exactly what you mean. I have a seizure disorder, for which I take daily medications. It blows my mind (so to speak) that, as recently as the first third of the 20th century, epileptics were still being institutionalized because they were somehow "mentally deficient" as opposed to having an organic brain disorder (and yes, I know that sometimes seizures can lead to brain damage/cognitive impairment. That still shouldn't warrant automatic institutionalization, unless there are no friends/relatives to help, and the person cannot take care of themselves
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When I'd ask him politely to stop, he'd tell me to "grow a thicker skin".
Oh, I hate that so, so much. It's just obnoxious and rude, for one. And for another, it really frustrates me when someone thinks that somehow, I should be forced to deal with something that hurts me rather than them stopping doing that thing because they're a decent human being. Which goes to prove that they're usually NOT very decent human beings whatsoever.
Unfortunately, sometimes, you don't always have the choice of disengaging with such people, especially if they're family or close friends of family.
I don't think it's "cute" or "funny" when some idiot wants to belittle what I've gone through, either with "seizure jokes" or "on the rag jokes".Agreed completely. It's not clever, cute, funny, or anything else like that. It's wrong and hurtful and shows a lot of ignorance and pantlessness. My lady bits don't work the way they're supposed to, either, leading to problems of a different sort. But I also really hate the "on the rag" jokes. I'd like to ask
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*cringes* I am guilty of the things you have mentioned and I hope I have not been doing that recently. Frankly, I think the word "ridiculous" does the job quite handily for dismissing things such as the aforementioned conservative politics without invoking privilege.
Believe me when I say I am also very, very guilty of using this type of language without care or concern and there was a time (embarassingly recently) when I would have been one of the "you're too sensitive!" people. I am not proud of that.
I don't want to hold myself up as this shining beacon of rightness. I won't even deny that I've got plenty of internalized ablism (re: mental illness) built in and that it is something I've struggled with, so I'm as guilty as anyone of doing these things. And this is as much me typing out a warning to myself as anything.
But once it is something you become attuned to, it really stings and it hurts when folks you really liked/respected show that they have no intention of listening when you say "this hurt me and it hurts other people". But I'd rather it sting than to go on being part of this fucked up system of privilege and abuse and oppression we're in.
It seems to me that part of the point of life is to continually strive to improve yourself. You're doing that in the best way I think anyone can, by changing your thinking. I cringe when I think of how ignorant I used to be about a lot of things, this being one. I'm also not saying that I'm doing it right by a long shot; what I am saying is that I think you should give yourself credit for how far you've come as well as looking at how far you have to go. :)
Ugh. "Lame" is one that really gets me, for personal reasons. I have seen a lot more calling-out of it than I expected to, though; oddly, I've seen it most on the stupid_free communities and spin-offs.
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Oh, I hate that so, so much. It's just obnoxious and rude, for one. And for another, it really frustrates me when someone thinks that somehow, I should be forced to deal with something that hurts me rather than them stopping doing that thing because they're a decent human being. Which goes to prove that they're usually NOT very decent human beings whatsoever.
Unfortunately, sometimes, you don't always have the choice of disengaging with such people, especially if they're family or close friends of family.
I don't think it's "cute" or "funny" when some idiot wants to belittle what I've gone through, either with "seizure jokes" or "on the rag jokes".Agreed completely. It's not clever, cute, funny, or anything else like that. It's wrong and hurtful and shows a lot of ignorance and pantlessness. My lady bits don't work the way they're supposed to, either, leading to problems of a different sort. But I also really hate the "on the rag" jokes. I'd like to ask ( ... )
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I don't want to hold myself up as this shining beacon of rightness. I won't even deny that I've got plenty of internalized ablism (re: mental illness) built in and that it is something I've struggled with, so I'm as guilty as anyone of doing these things. And this is as much me typing out a warning to myself as anything.
But once it is something you become attuned to, it really stings and it hurts when folks you really liked/respected show that they have no intention of listening when you say "this hurt me and it hurts other people". But I'd rather it sting than to go on being part of this fucked up system of privilege and abuse and oppression we're in.
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