sundries

[rm]

In the last panic to get ready for this trip.

Anyone here want do so some basic web development for Erica and I? Not a whole lot of $$, but also not something hard. It's an afternoon of your life in all probability. Drop me an email if you're interested, we'll be in touch probably when I get to Switzerland. -- Done!

When you stand up and decide to make stuff, especially stuff that's challenging or confronting in theme and style, a lot of stuff can and will go wrong. The people you thought were on your side won't be, not just with an absence of support, but sometimes with judgments that can seem a little startling. This can be extra hard when you're doing work about a topic or a life you're supposed to be embarrassed by.

So let's be clear. I'm a queer woman working with another queer woman on a show about sex work that features a character with a disability who is an adult with his own life, history and sexuality. The show also contains a lesbian romance and two awesome M/F friendships with sexual overtones that provide some romantic ambiguity. These characters are not dumb, and they're not doing sex work because they can't do anything else.

The show is not targeted at women vs. men or gay people vs. straight people. It's not a "wink-wink, nudge-nudge, celebrate your bachelorette party with us" show (although you can if you want). We think what's identificatory about of the piece is the theme of persona and the gulf between who you are and who you want to be. And we think what gets people in the door ranges from "oooo, hot chicks in fetish gear" to "woman changes her life" to "people singing about the weird hidden worlds of New York."

This is a story about longing for a world you can only buy half of and how we fill the gaps.

Sound interesting? You can help us by either donating towards making our workshop production come true and/or spreading the word.

Randomly, a friend noted last night that I often use the construction "person living with a disability" and she said that that read as me being really uncomfortable with people with disabilities. So, I just wanted to tell you what I told her, which is a) I'm sorry if I gave anyone that impression and b) it's an artifact in my writing from when I was writing a lot of material for the website Disaboom, which requires that construction as part of their writers' guidelines. I'll try to pay more attention to this one.

Profiles of several subway preachers.

Now, I have a lot of laundry to do, a pounding headache, and a flight to catch. More later.

Comments

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

Re: subway preachers:

Of course the guy who thinks the world is ending next year is in charge of a pysch ward. Let's hope he keeps his work and personal beliefs seperate.

The "person with a disability" question reminds me: I've been wanting to do a blog or you tube video about the terms "crazy", "mentally ill", ect. I always tell people I have "a bipolar condition", because I am annoyed by "mental illness". For one thing, illness assumes that I can be cured, and unless gene therapy gets really good in my lifetime, I won't.

[bizetsy.livejournal.com]

I'm annoyed with "mental illness", as well, for people in general. So much pathologizing in the world these days!

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

As someone with several incurable illnesses, some of which are disabling neurotransmitter problems, I do not feel that 'illness' implies cure. It implies that there might be treatments, perhaps, but treatments don't always work (something the laypersons don't always understand).

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

That is a good point, a lot of things without cures are commonly referred to as "illness". So maybe I don't have a good reason for being rubbed the wrong way by "has a mental illness" vs. "has a bipolar condition".

It's true, most people on the outside of the issue don't realize the medication and treatment rotation that can be common for people with chronic conditions.

[feyandstrange.livejournal.com]

Hey, if it bugs you, it bugs you. I'm just on a one-cripple mission to try to explain to folks that "illness" doesn't mean "curable, treatable, minor thing", since illness got me this wheelchair and doesn't plan on getting any better. ;)

I usually either specify the brain problem I'm referring to ('I have anxiety') or use something like 'neurotransmitter imbalance'. I have audio processing disorder, learning disabilities, and some flavors of what's commonly called 'mental illness', so I've got a lot of stuff in the brain basket. It would be neat to have a catch-all term for what we used to call 'mental illness' though, since in that particular case, it seems to have a lot more pejorative attached than physical illness does. (I think fewer people regard me as a useless drain on society because I have arthritis than because I have treatable crazy, even though it isn't the crazy which permanently disabled me.)

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

Yeah, there's a condensending tone to "mental illness" which I don't think is entirely imagined on my part. A lot of people mean it neutrally, but something about it sets my teeth on edge. Pathologing? I don't know.

(Coming back to this discussion after having had a colonscopy and spending a couple of days either fasting or sleeping.)

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

I have several incurable/degenerative diseases. There are medications that can slow the damage, but it's absolutely incurable. I think if we call incurable diseases of the body illnesses, then it's reasonable to consider diseases of the brain illnesses too.

Honestly, I think the division is artificial and maybe does harm. If we thought of mental illnesses as needing treatment and managing the way, say asthma or arthritis need treating and managing, people wouldn't have to deal with as much stigma and internalized prejudice.

Yes, there's a stigma against disabilty, but it's not strong enough to make people out right scared to get help when they need it because of what people will think. Also, no one thinks you should just "suck it up" if you are seriously injured in a car accident, even though it's just as impossible to "just suck it up" when it's major depression or bipolar disorder, for example. I think that kind of judgemental crap from friends and family makes things worse for way to many people. I'm also all for properly funding people getting help, because at least in the Us we generally don't do that.

I hope this doesn't come off as assholish. I'm really tired, so I may not be making as much sense as I think I do.

I absolutely positively think you have an absolute right to be pissed off or bothered by anything you please.

[i-amthecosmos.livejournal.com]

No, it all makes sense. I want the stigma to erase as well. You make a good point-the people I know with incurable physical diseases have diseases. Sometimes they sub-divide them into "autoimmune disorder" or "genetic illness", but they're still illnesses.

I don't know. I always thought "mental illness" was marginalizing. And I actually don't mind "crazy", which some people loathe. (And considering it gets used all the time to mean "a little frantic", maybe I should hate that more. Instead, I use it that way like everybody else.)

My personal way of handling it is to say what I have ("bipolar type II", often followed by an explanation).

(It only took me a while to answer back because I had a coloscopy and was either weak from fasting and laxitives or knocked out from anthesthia!)

[gwyd.livejournal.com]

Aiyee!

I hope you feel better soon.