Happy Disability Pride Month to the people whose number of illnesses—mental and/or physical—go into the double digits.
God, it is HARD juggling all of it sometimes, right? And it’s hard when people don’t believe us, or think we made all this up for attention. No, I wish I didn’t need help with all these illnesses, I wish I didn’t have such a large number of them. I’m suffering. This isn’t for attention.
Happy Disability Pride to all the people who are “too young to be this sick.” There are TONS of us who are young and sick. Ableists should look at those numbers instead of looking at us with disbelief. We’re here. We’re the proof that there isn’t a such thing as “too young” for this shit. Yeah, I have 9 mental illnesses and counting, and I’m stuck in bed at 25, what’s it to ya? Oh no, I’m too young? I’m right here. I. Am. Right. Here. We. Are. Right. Here. The Proof That We Are Not Too Young. “Too young” doesn’t exist.
I’m trying to think of a way to articulate my feelings on like… what cripplepunk actually means. There’s a lot of talk on who can call themselves a cripple but not too much on how like… if someone describes the economy as “crippled” they’re saying it doesn’t work. If someone is described as having “crippling” social anxiety, they mean that person is so anxious they can’t function in society so they might as well be a cripple.
Cripple means broken and useless. We’re seen as a bad and redundant part of society, something to be fixed or forgotten about.
CripplePUNK is about taking that place in society, really a not-place, and saying yeah, I AM worthless to most of society, people don’t want to be me or be around me because I make them uncomfortable just by existing. We’re considered the lowest of the low and the most useless of the useless. We used to be called invalids for a reason. And fuck you my life is worth it anyways. I’m going to give my worthless life the meaning I choose to give it. I’m not going to spend my entire life trying to be a good cripple and do all my physical therapy and eat perfectly and be nice to people who “didn’t mean it” and everything else to try and be worthy of respect from people who think my life is worth than death, I’m going to do what I think is worthwhile and if you don’t like me or like the way I live then you can go fuck yourself.
If you’re not willing to take on all the baggage of being a cripple, cool. A lot of people don’t want that, but cripplepunk is about throwing your disability and your ‘uselessness’ to society back in their face and experiencing disability on your own terms.
It’s also acknowledging some people DON’T make it and their lives were just as worthwhile no matter how short.
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