Mod Post: So let's talk about this ableism thing.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

Disclaimer: After writing this, I sent it to the other mods and some friends of mine to check to make sure it didn't say anything problematic, but if they or I missed something important or said something wrong, please don't hesitate to let me know. I'm still learning.

Something's been brought to our attention in regards to language people have been using re: disability, and problematic depictions thereof. It's great that we have a character in this fandom who is disabled, and it's great that there is a lot of interest in writing about him! But there are people on this meme who are also disabled, and insensitive or simply ignorant words can really hurt them. As our goal with this meme is to maintain a space where everyone present can feel comfortable participating, we'd like to keep this from happening, and we hope you feel the same way.

You may have noticed that "ableism" has been added to the list of triggers to warn for. If you're not familiar with the word, it refers to any speech, action, or treatment that hurts, oppresses, or discriminates against disabled people. Words like "cripple" and "gimp" fall into this category. Prompts using these words (with a few exceptions, noted below) will be deleted. So do stories that depict Charles' disability as disgusting or unacceptable, or erase it completely. Language like “the crippled man”, “the disabled man”, and “the handicapped man” focuses on his disability, perpetuating the common mindset that disabled people are only disabled, and never have any other defining traits.

Now, we're not going to ask you to stop writing these stories, because this is a kink meme and it is not our business what you choose to ask for or write about. But we do ask that you warn for it, if you think your prompt or fill contains it. Wanting stories about Charles and Erik having acrobatic post-movie sex does not make you a bad person, but that doesn't really matter to someone with a disability who reads it and is hurt by that erasure. Taking the time to consider if your content could hurt someone is just the considerate thing to do.

Likewise, it’s entirely possible to write about ableism without taking part in it yourself -- for instance, depicting Charles dealing with being visibly different for the first time and showing the ways people treat him. Unless they are part of the prompt (“someone calls Charles a “cripple”, cue him defending himself/the team defending him”), ableist slurs are unnecessary; comments in which the prompter casually uses them to refer to a character are unacceptable. But no matter how you write about it, any ableist content needs a warning.

The mods will treat this as any other warning issue: if we see ableist language or actions in your fill or prompt (or it's called to our attention by someone else) and there is no warning, we will ask you to post it again with that warning and delete the offending prompt or fill. We'd rather not do this, so please just be aware of what you're writing so that we can all enjoy this meme.

Please also be aware that we are not perfect; if you find unwarned-for ableist content that we haven’t caught, please feel free to contact the poster or us about it.

So to clarify: I am asking you to either change your wordings or warn for your content. Not because of politics or what bothers you, but because this is a space for everyone to enjoy their kinks and it's courteous to let people know that you've written content that might upset them.

And appended: took "crazy" out of the post because it's not that relevant to the discussion and I was informed that lumping mental and physical disabilities together was a bit insensitive, which, yes, I see now. I am leaving the computer for a while; if I don't get to replying to you in a timely fashion, that's why.

One more edit. Someone suggested having a "choose not to warn" option. Is this something people can agree on/ are interested in? It's not ideal but it seems like a good compromise so that we can all get back to the meme. 

Comments

[rubynye.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this clarification. *makes a note*

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you for this!

(Um, you have some wonky HTML, though!)

[sandoz-iscariot.livejournal.com]

thanks for this.

[cleo-eurydike.livejournal.com]

thank you so much! I really appreciate this

[(Anonymous)]

Thank you so much for this. The sheer amount of prompts/responses I've seen where Charles's disability is erased ("the bullet didn't paralyze him/gave him a limp/etc") have really bothered me. I think a lot of people just don't understand paralysis (I've seen a lot of "can a paralyzed person even have sex? Wouldn't they not feel anything?)s, and so they avoid having to do research by erasing Charles's disability, but that doesn't make it right.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what's going on with the html. It's perfectly fine in the draft and then Livejournal eats it and spits it out.

[(Anonymous)]

It's bothered me as well. It's not just one fic, it's a lot of fics. I don't mind AU but it bothers me that so many people take something that's a huge moment in the movie and a huge part of Professor X's life and character and act like it simply didn't happen.

[(Anonymous)]

What if you don't consider "crippled" an ableist descriptor?

[(Anonymous)]

And "crazy"? Seriously? :/ That's hardly an agreed-upon "slur" in the academic world of ableist thought, let alone among us crazy people ourselves.

[(Anonymous)]

People shouldn't have to apologize or stop themselves for requesting AUs where Charles can have crazy acrobatic sex. In real life, it would be erasure, but in a kink meme it's something to get off to.

Is every prompt or fill where Charles didn't get paralyzed going to be considered ableist now and deleted if they're not marked as such? What about prompts where Erik wasn't tortured and so never has PSTD? Is that unacceptably erasing HIS mental illness?

A big part of fanfic is wanting to rewrite the parts that upset us into something we'd rather see instead. Look at all the requests for an AU where the "divorce" never happened. Shaming or condemning people who want a different outcome because such a desire "isn't right" is the first step on the road to kink- and fantasy-policing.

[(Anonymous)]

Seriously. Maybe I just don't love being mentally ill enough, but as far as I'm concerned, being crazy is bad and it's bad that I'm crazy, and it's quite okay if you want to use the word crazy to describe something bad.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

Consider that there are people who do. The fact that it doesn't hurt you is great, but it does hurt other people. I'm not saying you can't use that word (especially in reclamation, I have absolutely no right), just asking you to warn for it.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

As a noun? (Which is the context I meant it in) I mean, if everyone on the meme thinks it's a fine word to use without warning, then great, I'm cool with you using it, but I'm coming from a place of not knowing and I want to prioritise people's access to the meme over people's reluctance to use warnings.

However, I am open to discussion and suggestion. If I'm totally wrong on this, I'll change it.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

Is every prompt or fill where Charles didn't get paralyzed going to be considered ableist now and deleted if they're not marked as such?

No.

This is a kink meme. You can request whatever you want and I will not police that. What I am asking is that you think about if the wording your prompt could hurt someone. "Acrobatic post-movie sex" is not a hurtful thing to request. "Pretend Charles' injury never happened or happened differently because I don't want to read about it" is. Just keep it in mind and warn for it if it comes up, that's all I ask.

[(Anonymous)]

Does crazy even get used as a noun? How? "You're a crazy"?

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

Yes, and just so. Or "those crazies who think that First Class was a bad movie." I've seen it fairly regularly, actually -- maybe it's just common slang where I'm from.

[(Anonymous)]

I've heard "crazies" but never ever in the singular. *shrug* If it's okay to use crazy as an adjective, you might want to clarify that, since most of the time, that is how people use it.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

I've heard it said that "crazy" as an adjective is also hurtful but what I don't want is to make it into a battle of principles. Mostly it's the physical disability stuff I'm concerned about. If people want to use "crazy" as an adjective I'll let them unless someone requests warnings for it.

[(Anonymous)]

The anons above don't seem concerned about the wording of the prompts/stories, though, just about the very fact that they exist and are abundant and popular.

Sorry, I'm not going to apologize for wanting the movie to turn out differently. I'm not sure what wording would be acceptable when apparently my very desire to see a non-disabled Charles is considered ableist.

[(Anonymous)]

well, it's not good that i'm "crazy," and it's not bad, either. it is what it is. i just wish people wouldn't use the word crazy to describe things that are bad (or things that are awesome-- i.e. "that was a crazy stunt you did there!" because being "crazy," while not being bad, isn't fun)

so, i'm glad that it doesn't bother you: more power to you. but it does have a terrible history behind it of stigmatizing the mentally ill and making them subhuman.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

Specifically I was speaking to its use as a noun, but it hasn't been a problem and it was mostly used as an example. As long as it doesn't become a problem (or as long as no one complains about it or requests warnings) I'm not going to be specifically looking out for it.

However, the point of warnings is that you might not have a problem with the content, but someone else might, and that someone else is who the warning is for. I'm not asking you to change your content -- just warn for it.

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

It's unfortunate that the abundance of these stories is causing people pain, but I'm not here to say what people can and cannot request or write. All I can do is ask that people use warnings so that readers who don't want to read stories like that can skip over them. I'm not asking for apologies, I'm just asking for a little bit of courtesy in the future.

I'm going to add this to the post: "I'm asking you to either change your wording or warn for your content." Is that clear enough, do you think?

[(Anonymous)]

Is "psychos" going to be similarly policed and deleted? "Maniacs"? "Hysterical"? "Nuts/nutcase"?

Why is it acceptable as an adjective but not a noun?

Why is "the disabled man/the man in the wheelchair" going to be policed and deleted when other epithets ("the tall man," "the German") will not? What if it's a story told from the point of view of someone who would notice that feature of Charles first and think of him that way after?

Are you guys going to be reading through every fill and policing every mention of Charles's disability or lack thereof? Why is the priority suddenly on making this place a safe space for people with disabilities instead of any other feature? Isn't deciding a kink meme should be a safe space in terms of subjective content an extremely slippery slope? Can't there just be a general warning that there might be erasing of disabilities (and divorces) for the sake of kink?

[(Anonymous)]

maybe request it in such a way that suggests that you're not erasing his disability, but merely delaying it for another moment in time? i'm not sure

[iambickilometer.livejournal.com]

The reason I'm not specifying the adjective form of "crazy" as well is because I, as a mod, do not have the energy to check each comment for it and there is so much argument about it that I would rather leave it to individuals to make their own calls unless it becomes a problem in terms of people feeling threatened or getting hurt.

This kink meme is not a safe space. I am merely asking people to be courteous, which is apparently too much for some people to handle. There is absolutely no way I can be everywhere at once and read every comment, even with the whole mod team. Adding a warning takes seconds, it's not that hard, I don't understand why it's such an issue.

I don't want to delete comments. I would rather do pretty much anything than have to resort to that. But I also don't want people to feel they can't come here because they don't know what to expect, and if everyone just uses their judgement and leaves warnings where necessary, then there's no issue.

And as for What if it's a story told from the point of view of someone who would notice that feature of Charles first and think of him that way after?, I'm only asking you to warn for it. That's all.