Ableism

Fighting ableism is something we can get behind, even if Firefox's spellcheck doesn't recognize either the U.S.ian spelling “ableism” or the U.K. spelling “ablism” as a word. However, we can also get behind the idea that some people take it too far. Nor are we too hot on the acronym “TAB,” meaning “temporarily able-bodied.”

Ableism discussion began on the first page of the our very first post, three threads down from the top. It was about “spoon theory,” with some Gentlefailers grousing about people who extended the metaphor to mean “out of energy,” and others grousing about special snowflakes whose frequent use of the metaphor indicated that they were best avoided. Discussion about “spoons” continued on page four. However, the biggest source of ableism wank for us in the beginning was Vividcon.

The mother lode of ableism-speak is Feminists with Disabilities (FWD). FWD is perhaps best known for its Ableist Word Profile, a compendium of horrible oppressive words like “ special,” “ scab” (in the labor sense), “crazy,” and “weak”; as well as terrible things like asking someone, “What's your damage?” or casting aspersions on their intelligence. FWD was staffed by such eminent SJ warriors as Annaham, Ouyang Dan, and s.e. smith.

Also see Triggers.