The Disability in Fanfiction Ring

Because apparently, sometimes, raping and torturing a character just isn't enough.

I stumbled across this by accident-I used to be a member of Webring back in the days when most people still had their own fanfic sites, and everything hadn't yet congregated onto Livejournal and Blogs. When Yahoo decided to close down Geo-Shitties, I figured there really wasn't any reason to move my fanfic site-most of the stuff on it was for fandoms I'd long since abandoned, and if I ever got into them again, or grew nostalgic, I've got back-up discs.

But I still have my membership with Webring, and ever so often they send me e-mails, trying to lure me into restarting my site on their servers.

Now I like Webring because it's got a directory, and by perusing the directory, you can find some of the most batshit insane stuff I've ever seen in my life.

How I've missed this till now I don't know. Maybe I saw it once, and was too terrified to look at it, for fear of what I'd find.

I present for your appraisal The Disability in FanFiction Ring In which you can find fanfic about characters from both shows where disablity is canon (House, MD, Dark Angel, Friday Night Lights, Blind Justice, Daredevil, etc), as well as fanfic for characters who are NOT disabled (including, but not limited to, Harry Potter, NCSI, Stargate, Supernatural, The Sentinel, Due South, Naruto, Lost, Card Captor Sakura, X-Files, McGyver, and many more). They even include helpful charts so that you can find your fandom stories by disability (Blindness and Paralysis/Physical Handicap seem to be the two biggies here, though you also get deafness/being mute).

I haven't actually read any of the stories here, so I can't make any judgement on their quality. I've skimmed through a couple where I was familiar with the fandom; in some cases, the disability appears to be permanent, in others, it's a temporary thing. While I'll admit to occasionally torturing characters I'm fond of (we always hurt the ones we love), I've never done anything permanent to them that leaves them disabled for the rest of their lives.

And why, I'm thinking, would you want to make Dr. House any more miserable than he already is? I did note the X-Files stories are almost all Krychek/Mulder and involve paralysis/physical handicap, which doesn't really surprise me, because Krychek/Mulder slashers seem to be a strange group to begin with. But what's the point in making McGyver blind? And writing a story where Daredevil's blind is simply following canon (unless you take away his ability to sense things, in which case you're just showing off).

The wonders of fanfic. Just when you think you've seen it all, you stumble across yet another little pus-ridden pocket full of horrors. I will not lie; this is the sort of thing that keeps me digging through the dreck. Just so I can show it to all my friends here at wugwuh.

Um. Nothing on the site indicates the users are fetishizing disability (from what I've seen). In fact, my first thought was that it may have been created by a disabled person who wanted to index fic that acknowledged and included disability, which doesn't happen too terribly often in fic.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this, at all.

Still strikes me as a cheap way to get two characters together. A large portion of the stories here are slash, and the relationships always seem to blossom AFTER one of the pairing is hurt). I don't mind a little h/c in a relationship, but getting a couple together after one of them goes blind and becomes dependent on the other seems a bit creepy to me. Still, to each there own. I'm probably just reading more into it than is there.

This seems very...odd. Its not an experiment. It seems like they want to knock these characters down in some way, only permanently. Which is very weird. Very weird in a kind of creepy way. I don't think I'm articulating very well why this bothers me.

Its like they've put the caharcter in some cheap "overcoming adversity" plotline even though in some cases the character already went through it solely for their circumstances. They're trying to break the character for no other reason than because they can.

At last! A chance to write some Blind Tuvok/7 porn during Year of Hell!

Miss Prince wrote:

Um. Nothing on the site indicates the users are fetishizing disability (from what I've seen). In fact, my first thought was that it may have been created by a disabled person who wanted to index fic that acknowledged and included disability, which doesn't happen too terribly often in fic.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this, at all.

I agree.

I'm also a little bit bothered that you lump in going blind with being raped and tortured.

Cyberwulf wrote:

Miss Prince wrote:

Um. Nothing on the site indicates the users are fetishizing disability (from what I've seen). In fact, my first thought was that it may have been created by a disabled person who wanted to index fic that acknowledged and included disability, which doesn't happen too terribly often in fic.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this, at all.

I agree.

I'm also a little bit bothered that you lump in going blind with being raped and tortured.

Yeah, its not quite that. It feels like that, the same idea, but done in a different way. These writers are associating a disability with weakness. A way of bringing someone down, when most people with a disability like deafness, blindness, inability to speak, etc. just function in a different way. Can't hear the alarm clock? Well, they make ones that cause your bed to vibrate, and fire alarms too. Sign language is becoming more prevalent, and cell phones help considerably. Its how I communicate with my deaf customers, by texting.

The prevailing idea in these fics seem to be that forcing a disability on these characters makes them less. I have seen fics where the idea was worked in wonderfully, with the character learning to cope in a different enviroment. But these are mostly written as cheap plot devices to make a character need to be "saved", in the same vein as those aforementioned rape & torture fics.

Maybe they'll have Extreme Ghostbusters. That has a canon paraplegic in it.

And then there's Family Guy, and Alien: Ressurrection... I like characters with disabilities. Sex or no sex.

Rabid Badger wrote:

Still strikes me as a cheap way to get two characters together. A large portion of the stories here are slash, and the relationships always seem to blossom AFTER one of the pairing is hurt). I don't mind a little h/c in a relationship, but getting a couple together after one of them goes blind and becomes dependent on the other seems a bit creepy to me. Still, to each there own. I'm probably just reading more into it than is there.

"Honey, hand me my hairbrush."

"...AGGH FUCKDAMMIT THIS A PENIS!!! PENIS IS NOT HIRBRUSH!!!"

Cyberwulf wrote:

Miss Prince wrote:

Um. Nothing on the site indicates the users are fetishizing disability (from what I've seen). In fact, my first thought was that it may have been created by a disabled person who wanted to index fic that acknowledged and included disability, which doesn't happen too terribly often in fic.

I see absolutely nothing wrong with this, at all.

I agree.

I'm also a little bit bothered that you lump in going blind with being raped and tortured.

I'm with Cyberwulf. People who have been raped or tortured can still read and watch porn and football.

Seriously though, "A bit bothered" is a big step up. You've learned to ever so slightly relax your anus while on the internet, and have become a passive-aggressive butthurter instead of an aggressive-aggressive butthurter.

Rabby wrote:

They even include helpful charts so that you can find your fandom
stories by disability (Blindness and Paralysis/Physical Handicap seem
to be the two biggies here, though you also get deafness/being mute).

Do they have stories where the characters are French. That's the hottest type of disability. [You must be registered and logged in to see this image.]

But I'm with Princey and Cybey. This is far from the worst thing on the internet. It's not even necessarily bad. I'm sure that are plenty of crappy fics in there, though.

Sheba wrote:

"Honey, hand me my hairbrush."

"...AGGH FUCKDAMMIT THIS A PENIS!!! PENIS IS NOT HIRBRUSH!!!"

...I'd read it.