So you're cool with transabled people
”Frankly, idk! I’m physically disabled myself and idk entirely how I feel about transablility as a concept because I haven’t done all that much research into it. I don’t think people should pretend to have disabilities they don’t have (i.e pretending to be blind), but body integrity dysphoria is a real thing that people experience and if they want to pursue surgery or something to make themselves happier, that’s their right. As long as they aren’t trying to claim that they can speak on disability issues they don’t actually deal with, they aren’t materially harming disabled people and it doesn’t matter how I personally feel about them. And I don’t think a lot of people who identify as transabled are doing so out of malice, so I think any sort of position on transablility should keep in mind that it is an expression of people’s real feelings and struggles and they shouldn’t be demonized for those feelings. It seems like an issue that needs to be handled with compassion and understanding and not blind anger.
Here’s the thing: I don’t see how this actually hurts anyone.
For one, this is exactly what I saw people say about nonbinary people all throughout my childhood. I saw people complain that all NB identities online where “cloudgender” and “stargender”, or that people would say they were “trans out of spite”, and point at that and say how those people weren’t really trans, and in fact, they made the real transgenders look bad. And all that accomplished was bullying kids online and making me repress my own weird identity for years because I internalized that gender had to make sense to cis people to be valid. So I’m not going to take “well, teens on tumblr act weird about it!” as a reason why this concept is intrinsically harmful. I’m extremely mentally ill, I’m physically disabled and it has fucked up my life, and I don’t see how someone making cutesy flags on their personal tumblr to express their personal feelings is hurting me. Again, the people who this are most likely expressing their real feelings, and I don’t see how shaming them for having those feelings is helpful. Weird people online are not responsible for or even really able to impact the wider system of ableism and sanism.
Also, from some quick research, it seems the term “transabled” was coined by a man who co-ran an organization for BIID to have an easier term for people with BIID, so I feel like the differentiation is arbitrary and seems similar to dividing binary trans people and people who use neogenders.
If someone has dysphoria over their body, and it distresses them, I’m not going to tell them they are an awful person for having those feelings or expressing them or seeking to alleviate them. I can imagine how distressing and lonely that feels, and how comforting it can be to know you aren’t the only person to experience something strange and upsetting. I’m not gonna begrudge people for forming a community and making language to describe themselves. Especially given the potential for self-harm; if people feel strongly enough about their desire to be disabled that they would harm themselves, then from a harm reduction standpoint, the best thing to do is listen to them about their needs and provide them with support.
The biggest forces of ableism in my life are not being able to work, my city being extremely inaccessible, the ableist medical system, and both internalized ableism and ableism from abled people in my life. I have bigger issues to worry about than people making flags online about wanting to be paraplegic. They do not impact me or my life.
And these people are humans, not cardboard cuttouts without emotions. When they are doing things, they aren’t acting out of malice, they are expressing themselves. Even if making flags and terms online was materially harmful, seeing as these are feelings that they are not choosing to have, I see the best response as being education and conversation that leads to mutual understanding. I see transabled people, including the weird cringy tumblr ones, as people expressing their struggles and desires and experiences. I’ve been too hurt by people mocking weird identities they don’t understand and insisting people expressing their struggles are personally responsible for systemic issues to turn around and do the same thing to another group, just because I don’t understand them or they make me uncomfortable. Disabled and mentally ill people have so many bigger issues to deal with- bullying transabled people is much easier than dealing with those issues, and it gives us a feeling of control or like we are able to do something, but all it does is cause more suffering.
a long long time ago - in a galaxy far away - I thought I was transabled. I always preferred BIID as a label though. I thought I shouldn’t have 20/20 vision and that there was something wrong with the way I see. But my optometrist disagreed with me because I could figure out the chart thing. - turns out I have an astigmatism but that’s not the point.
I never told a soul about this, just did a few little things that seemed quirky but made me feel better - wearing an eye patch for a while.
I actually entered a study on BIID out of a university in Nova Scotia to try and be a data point.. But between the initial interview in 2016 and the follow up interview in 2019 I discovered my autism and transness. Suddenly I wasn’t transabled anymore.
Turns out I do see weird but its not my eyes, its my processing speed. Turns out wanting your boobs chopped off from the day they started growing is a trans thing.
As a result of my history of BIID I fully accept people who say they have it. Even if it is a result of something else they have but have not been diagnosed/accommodated for. If you have a chronic nerve issue with your right knee, maybe it feels ‘broken’ in some way where you conclude that it isn’t supposed to be there but no doctor has ever taken your pain seriously. I fully believe that people have BIID and are transabled, and I think it is a failure on the part of the medical community.