Our good friend and Geek Girl Riot host Erin Hawley aka The Geeky Gimp posted an incredible thread about disability and gaming, and we just had to share:
—
“THREAD: I am proud to be #disabled. I am comfortable w/ who I am. Sometimes my disabilities make life a little harder, like chronic pain and breathing problems. Yet the hardest part of being disabled, for me, is the #ableism I experience on a daily basis. It cuts like a sword.
It’s exhausting to constantly refute society’s belief that who I am is wrong. That my existence is unusual, an oddity, and an automatic death sentence. I know I am a person worthy of just BEING and living and breathing the same air as abled people.
I say all this because of well-meaning comments I’ve heard that say I and other disabled people need access to gaming so we can escape from our disabilities. I need you to know that is NOT why I game. My disability is an integral part of my identity that I don’t want erased.”
I game as a way to have fun, to relax, to socialize, to take part in some escapism – you know, just like all gamers. I actually want disabled characters in games. I want to SEE disability in #gaming. I want people to see the whole me, and to include the whole me.
When you say I use gaming to escape my #disability, you are saying that the disabled part of me is wrong, something I shouldn’t want to be. But I want to be exactly as I am.
That’s all for now. You all are amazing – thanks for the support, always.
THREAD: I am proud to be #disabled. I am comfortable w/ who I am. Sometimes my disabilities make life a little harder, like chronic pain and breathing problems. Yet the hardest part of being disabled, for me, is the #ableism I experience on a daily basis. It cuts like a sword. pic.twitter.com/tJt8N3gqGV
— Erin Hawley (@geekygimp) February 22, 2019
It’s exhausting to constantly refute society’s belief that who I am is wrong. That my existence is unusual, an oddity, and an automatic death sentence. I know I am a person worthy of just BEING and living and breathing the same air as abled people.
— Erin Hawley (@geekygimp) February 22, 2019
I say all this because of well-meaning comments I’ve heard that say I and other disabled people need access to gaming so we can escape from our disabilities. I need you to know that is NOT why I game. My disability is an integral part of my identity that I don’t want erased.
— Erin Hawley (@geekygimp) February 22, 2019
I game as a way to have fun, to relax, to socialize, to take part in some escapism – you know, just like all gamers. I actually want disabled characters in games. I want to SEE disability in #gaming. I want people to see the whole me, and to include the whole me.
— Erin Hawley (@geekygimp) February 22, 2019
When you say I use gaming to escape my #disability, you are saying that the disabled part of me is wrong, something I shouldn’t want to be. But I want to be exactly as I am.
— Erin Hawley (@geekygimp) February 22, 2019
That’s all for now. You all are amazing – thanks for the support, always. ♿️#SoEveryoneCanGame
