Fugitivus Discussion Forum

Yeah - it is somewhat subtle ableism, in the sense that a person who's relatively sympathetic to disability issues, but not directly affected by the particular ones mentioned, can easily read over it and not notice what's wrong with it. By now, I've seen enough of these things that the instant something says "be optimistic" or "be happy", I scrutinize it for various -isms.

On a similar note, this music video. Some generally-aware-of-social-issues friends of mine presented it as a good message, because it's positive towards a few specific minorities, but if you give it a bit more scrutiny, it just falls to pieces.

I really should have picked up on that, because of my own depression. I guess I just never associated it with ableism before because the idea people CAN do something about their own depression by pure force of will is still ingrained in me.

I can't hear that music video, as I have no sound on my computer, but given what you said and what I've seen of it, it seems like that woman is being really egotistical. Like, "Oh look at me, I'm such a sensitive soul." Maybe I'm being too judgmental though. :+

Eli, that is a fantastic response to some insidious bullshit.

Gotta love the eternal trap of depression: you should smile more! People will like you. Oh, what do you mean you're depressed? You smile all the time!

I do certainly recommend showering as a way to be awesome if it is within one's means, but whoever wrote "it's not hard" has clearly never had one of those days where merely getting out of bed is positively Herculean.

Eli, you are rocksome. And way more eloquently snarky than I think I'd manage under those circumstances. I'm doing really damn well for me right now, and smiling and showering/washing my hair daily is still not an everyday thing (I rarely shower on days when I neither work nor train, which means I usually shower only 4-5 times a week - and this now that I'm doing *well*). As for leaving the past behind me - fuck you, poster-making person. Just fuck you. I'd LOVE to leave some of that shit behind, but it's a part of me. Grrr.

It isn't good for your skin to shower every day! And it's even worse for your hair, if you wash it every time. If I showered every day, I would be looking *much* less attractive; broken skin is no fun. Unless you do sweaty exercise or don't use aluminum deodorants, it's pretty unnecessary.

I have noticed that my hair is less oily if I only shampoo it every other day and only condition 1-2 times a week. I still feel bad about not showering every day though - too ingrained into me, I suppose.

My skin is all dry from showering today, and I waited an entire week before doing it. If I showered every day all the dead skin would probably just make my acne worse. And my acne is bad enough as it is, thank you very much.

Heh. I, on the other hand, have to shower every day when I can because if I didn't I'd forget how long it had been since the last time.

Hmm, I didn't mention that I'm not the only one who wrote on the board. Someone else had already written "So if you're not any of these things, you're something less than awesome? Wow, life sucks for a lot of the population"

Before this morning, another hand wrote "UH, THIS WAS SUPPOSED TO BE FUNNY. can we all be nice to [name]?" (presumably [name] was the person who put it up, and the writer is someone else). I just wrote back, "Not when it is funny at my expense".

Aw man. So cool that someone else got to it first. And so cool was your response. *Head bangs.* \m/