bittergrapes:

wanmaru:

Black/asian/latino/etcetera people: no objective inferiority; discrimination based on ungrounded prejudice

Homosexual/bisexual/etcetera people: no objective inferiority; discrimination based on ungrounded prejudice

Transgender/genderqueer/etcetera people: no objective inferiority; discrimination based on ungrounded prejudice

You need to stop comparing discrimination based on these traits to “ableism” or “fatphobia”, Tumblr. Abilities aren’t social constructs. Being able to see IS objectively better than being blind, being able to walk is objectively better than being unable to walk, being physically fit is always good thing better than not being fit. It’s sensible to say that abilities don’t determine your worth as a human being, but having abilities is objectively better than not having them as they grant the individual a higher degree of freedom and choice. If you gained the ability to fly it would be a good thing, regardless of the situation.

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no.

The reason that disabilities are disabilities is because the society in which they live inordinately favors people whose bodies can do certain things over people whose bodies cannot.

Let me give you an example. There have been several cases where the blind have been able to teach themselves to use a form of echolocation to orient themselves. Imagine if society were then constructed to favor people who can use echolocation: buildings no longer had lights in them because it was assumed that people would know where to go regardless of how light it was, and signs were only in Braille. Everything was touch-friendly but not sight-friendly because it’s expected that people will be touching things to figure it out, but not seeing them.

Suddenly, having vision and not echolocation is a disability. You are subjectively inferior because your society has subjectively chosen to favor this one skill or ability over another, and you therefore face discrimination based on ungrounded prejudice that sighted people are weird or gross or bad.

“But I can see! Objectively this is better than echolocation!” You’ll say. “I can see where I’m going and can orient myself by sight instead of by touch or echolocation!” But it doesn’t matter, because this hypothetical society wasn’t built to suit you.

Disabled people have some incredible skills that many temporarily able-bodied people don’t. For example, many people I’ve interacted with who use wheelchairs for mobility have some of the best proprioception I’ve ever seen; they can literally turn on a dime because they’ve used a wheelchair for so long that it’s simply become part of their person and they account for it accordingly. Autistics like myself can logic ourselves out of a paper bag. And the list goes on. But because our society favors certain skills over others, these things don’t matter, and they are still considered disabled because of the one or two senses or processes that don’t work in the commonly accepted way. That is why it’s ableism. Because no body is better than another, and you ‘objectively’ thinking that some are is pretty hateful.

^^ Commentary <3