Shannon goes off on a disability rant again

Before I get to the rant, let me whine for a minute.

I am having such a hard time finding something to read this weekend. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have books out the yin-yang, and I also know that, seriously, mine is not a major issue. But I can’t seem to settle on one book as something I! must! read! now.

Therefore, I provide you links.

I just started watching the Fangs, Fur and Fey community on LJ, and I noticed when I was going through the archives that I could see that someone posted a spot-on post about disability and stereotyping. The original poster quotes some guy named Colin Barnes, whose babies I would humbly offer to have for him should he ever chance to read this blog. He says the following, which I’m quoting from the FF&F post because it is totally spot on and he gets it exactly.

1. Have your character interact with people as equals. Don’t just have them be charity cases. Show them give as well.

2. Make your character multidimensional. Make them have complex personalities with a full range of emotions.

3. Don’t make the disability a sign that the character is evil.

4. Don’t create a peeping tom feeling to your story. The protagonist’s disability shouldn’t have a voyeur aspect to it. They should be part of a cast of characters, doing an array of things.

5. Don’t make the character’s disability central to the humor of your piece.

6. Don’t use their disability as a way to make them a victim.

7. Don’t make them superhuman in an attempt to compensate for their disability. Make them human. Not sub-human. Not superhuman. Avoid “extraordinary abilities or attributes. To do so is to suggest that a disabled individual must over compensate and become superhuman to be accepted by society.”

8. Avoid stories where the protagonist needs only be tough and have will power to succeed and survive life with disability

9. Don’t make the person with disabilities sexually deviant, or asexual.

10. Don’t expect to create an person with disabilities that represents all disabilities. (Barnes 6-7)

Word! Just word! I’ve mentioned, at least on my LJ, that it’s hard for me to read books featuring disabled characters, because invariably one of these rules gets broken. And it’s been my experience that in romance stories where the disabled character is one of the protagonist, the magical power of healing vajayjay (or cock, depending on who the disabled one is) clears that problem up. Maybe it’s just that I’m a bitter and cynical blind person, but having really good sex has not restored my vision. I’m pretty sure that in most cases it wonh’t. And I think you could achieve a perfectly plausible HEA in a romance and still keep your disabled characters realistic enough that they’re not eligible for the miracle cure.

Oh, and this came up yesterday in conversation, so I thought that the sexually deviant comment warranted more discussion. Someone actually went into paroxysms of joy at the prospect of making love to me when he (naturally it was a he) found out I was blind. Naturally, what I should have done was try to figure out a way to let him, because it’s been a long time since there has been hot Shannon-on-anyone action, but in some areas of life I am too honest for my own good. Yeah, kids. Blind people aren’t any better lovers than anyone else. I’d venture to say that given the blind people I, personally, know, you’re more likely to find blind people who are slightly sexually repressed. And, um, isn’t the whole point of really good sex touching and being touched? I wasn’t under the impression that most people laid in bed and stared at each other as a valid form of foreplay. Maybe it is in some places, but even if I could see, I think I’d be wanting something more than that.