"People with disabilities for the most part get what you mean when you talk ...

 

 

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"People with disabilities for the most part get what you mean when you talk about not having capacity..."

via Liquor&Spice on 2/20/11

"People with disabilities for the most part get what you mean when you talk about not having capacity for something, and thanks to the prevalence of the spoon theory, 'spoons' is pretty well understood, especially online. For nondisabled people, however, these concepts are both alien because they don't get the underlying issue; it's not that we are tired and don't feel like doing something, or do not want to. It's not that we are trying to get out of doing something or are interested in avoiding responsibility. It is that we either cannot do something, or can only do it at great personal cost, and we must weigh whether that thing is worth it."

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s.e. smith @ Cuteifying Disability – this ain't livin' (via notemily) I might have linked this before? But it's still awesome. (via criptheatrequeer)

I also want to add this quotation:

I have a hard time talking about these things in cute terms because these things are not cute. They are scary and frustrating and intimidating.

I like the language of 'spoons' because of the quantization, the idea that each task requires a discrete unit of energy. I also have a hard time with using it for myself because it doesn't account for the importance of self-care in my life. It's not so much that I have limited energy so much as that if I fail to perform adequate self-care, my energy will become limited. Then we get into issues of what constitutes self-care, because my self-care doesn't necessarily look like your self-care, and oh, look, I suppose it's time for me to write a blog post.

(via pastthestorm)

I've tried explaining my current situation using spoons but a lot of people don't get it. So right now, I have sealed myself of from the world mostly and I'm letting that speak for me.

(via definatalie)

Hm. I never thought of spoons as cutesy. When I read the essay, I thought it was a useful metaphor.

But honestly, this video about Black women, stress, and infant mortality was a game changer for me. After watching that, my explanation for not doing something/taking longer to do something/having a harder time doing something is basically a big ol' bag of, "Cuz fuck you."   Like if someone asks, "Why'd you take a nap instead of going to class/work/exploitative capitalist thing?"  My answer would be, "Oh, because fuck you. But how was your weekend though?"  And then I'd go about my day, giving and withholding fucks however I please.

 

 

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