I have triggers. I am disabled.

[info]**vom_marlowe** is not the voice for all the disabled. She is the voice of a group of disabled people who have mobility challenges, but believe it or not, the disabled are a much bigger group than her group. Despite her volume and her certainty that she is the chosen representative, the Great Disabled Hope, she does not speak for all disabled people. She has no idea what it's like to be blind or deaf or mentally challenged. Her opinion is useful when it comes to people requiring assistance with mobility. She does not speak for me.

[info]**impertinence** is not the voice for all who have triggers. She does not speak for me. Her triggers are about assault, sexual or otherwise. One of my triggers happens to be fire and heat. But to many, my triggers are impossible to warn for, but that doesn't stop it from being a trigger nonetheless. Her opinion is only good for people who have had encounters with assault, and that's all it's good for, because she certainly doesn't speak for me.

I disagree with both of them passionately, vehemently. I resent them and their sanctimonious nature, and their insistence - intentional or not - that they speak for everyone with triggers or disability is repulsive. That fandom continues to look upon these two for guidance makes me want to vomit. However, they are the two loudest voices who drown me out and frankly, I'm sick of shouting because their message, for one reason or another, has proven more palatable to fandom in general because their methods involve a lot of coddling that I find patronizing and condescending in real life, and it's just as bad over the internet. However, that is just MY opinion. I have not and will not insist that my way is the best way, because people are at different levels of capability depending on various issues, some of which they have no control over. But for vom_marlowe and impertinence to insist that their ways should apply everywhere is, in my opinion, sheer insanity.

I am a disabled person with triggers. I find ways to live a happy life with both. Fandom used to be a respite from the ugliness, but with this wank, I find that the ugliness is from within, from people like vom_marlowe and impertinence and their cadre of supporters who are so steadfast on their insistence that they are right that they shut out other voices because they are so convinced that their methods of dealing with disability and triggers are the only way, because so many of their well-meaning but pathetically ignorant supporters amplify their voices.

They will probably discount my opinion because it has been expressed anonymously. Fuck them both if they do. Do they really think that they've made it safe for me to express my opinion when both of them have ensured that people will be out for my blood the minute I do express my stance, even though we're supposedly on the same side, even though we have the same issues? Of course not. This is fandom.

More power to you, ladies. I'm tired and I'm done.

- 7/7/2010

*****

July 2012: Good discussion of what triggering is.