Not all cripple punks are chronically ill

aegipan-omnicorn:

avilociraptor:

Chronic illness is not the only disability. Can we please stop assuming all people who are disabled are chronically ill? People with deformed (a term reclaimed by my favorite cripple punk) bodies are being subjected to the cure mantra of able bodied society and they aren’t even sick. They’re being medicalized and it’s awful. Stop being part of the problem by mislabeling deformed cripple punks

THESE PEOPLE DO NOT NEED TO BE CURED. THESE PEOPLE DO NOT NEED TO BE FIXED. THESE PEOPLE SHOULD NOT BE MISLABELED.

When in doubt, look for self identification labels. If they aren’t there, you don’t get to assign them. Not everyone identifies as a spoonie. Not every disabled person is sick. Not all disabilities are caused by ilnesses.

Thanks.

I reblogged this last year. But I’m reblogging again – let’s chalk this time ‘round to “throwback Thursday.”

The word “Cripple” goes back to Anglo-Saxon in the Ninth Century AD (before the English language was English), and it wasn’t used in a derogatory way until the Seventeenth Century (Right around the time that the Medical Model of Disability was beginning to form, btw, and no, I don’t think that’s a coincidence). It was originally spelled crypel, and the root of that word meant “bent,” or “Contracted” – as in: someone whose muscles are so tight that they can’t straighten their limbs… Which just so happens to be one of the diagnostic symptoms of cerebral palsy.

I have cerebral palsy. Therefore, I consider myself to be a first-degree “cripple” (and yup, my spasticity keeps me from standing/sitting up straight, and straightening my arms, so I’m crippled in that original sense, too – I’m left-leaning in more than just politics! ;-)).

However – I am not ill. I do not suffer from fatigue. Apart from high blood pressure and almost undetectable arrhythmia, I’m one of the healthiest people I know.

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This kind of thing is hard to talk about, especially in the Disability Community, because anything remotely like: “Please don’t lump me in with those people!” sounds like we’re trying to fit people into a Disability Hierarchy, with ourselves at the top. And that’s not it at all (at least for me).

It’s more … Recognizing that, while we are engaged in a common fight for our rights and dignity, and we can share a common pride, we nonetheless have different needs.