this secondhand living just won't do

[musesfool]

There was fic this morning:

Dig for Fire
X-Men: First Class; Charles, Alex, Scott Summers; g; 760 words
"I have a brother."Seriously, I don't even know. If I were going to start writing XMM fic again, couldn't it at least have been angsty Charles/Erik instead of something about Scott? I mean, really? Why do I keep choosing to write stuff that

Comments

[kita0610]

So, I was talking about this with Scrollgirl earlier, but I'm gonna say it again.

The whole idea of this character's mobility being returned to her being treated by fandom as a default bad thing *really* makes me uncomfortable.

I don't know a damn thing about this character, so maybe I am missing something important, and I'm certainly willing to hear you out about that possibility.

But you know, my husband has nerve damage to his back and spinal cord, and he is slowly losing mobility and sensation. Slowly and fucking painfully. We have no idea how far it's going to progress before it stops, but it's becoming obvious he is going to wind up unable to walk at some point in the probably not too distant future.

And it doesn't make him special or heroic any more than it makes him tragic or pitiful. He's just a guy dealing with a really sucky situation. And in some ways, it's made him a tougher person because he's HAD to be, it's made our relationship stronger because that's had to be too. So ok, journey, whatever.

But you can damn well bet that if someone offered him a re-set to the time before his injury, he would fucking take it without hesitation.

So yeah, I understand she is a comic character, but words like ableism and diversity have real world implications, and when I see people say things like "X person shouldn't have greater mobility because diversity in comics is more important" (simplifying the issue a bit, I know) it just. It feels like a cause is being put ahead of an actual human being. It hurts a lot. Someone's mobility doesn't define them- that's what disability rights are about.

Thank you for listening.

[musesfool]

Someone's mobility doesn't define them- that's what disability rights are about.

Well, I feel that's exactly the thing about this change, though. Barbara's mobility hasn't defined her, and this change makes it feel like the PTB at DC think it does, that she can't be a whole person or have a fulfilling life or make a contribution without the use of her legs, and that's just not so, and it's been proved by her story arcs over the years. She has grown as a character, and created a new type of hero role for herself in the DCU. And as far as I know, she's the only member of the Batfamily with a visible disability, which I imagine means a lot to people who have mobility issues. To take all that away - to take away the past 7 or 8 years of her life (which is about 25 years in real world time, I believe) and what she's achieved, to give her a role any character could fill - a role that she'd already given up within the story before she lost her mobility, and which has been filled well by her successors - feels wrong to me.

But you can damn well bet that if someone offered him a re-set to the time before his injury, he would fucking take it without hesitation.

And if that were possible in the real world, the choice should totally be up to him.

I'm so sorry this discussion has been hurtful to you, but I hope this clarifies my feelings on the subject a little more. You've definitely made me think more about it and why I feel the way I do.

[kita0610]

It clarifies a little more, yeah. It's good to know she was a hero before she lost her mobility, and that she continued to be such after as well. Much less "look, a crippled person can be a hero too!" after school special, which is sort of what I feared her arc had been.

And I do get the importance of visible heroes with mobility issues. I appreciate the conversation having more... nuance, I guess. Rather than just- oh hey, she shouldn't be allowed to get a reset because then there aren't any people in wheelchairs or whatever.

Anyway, thanks for your reply.

[musesfool]

Yeah, she's the original Batgirl, and she'd retired from the position before she was shot and lost her mobility, and so she forged a whole new hero persona for herself, which they now may be retconning out of existence. We don't really know how they're going to handle it, which is probably part of why there is so much uproar.