reading a paper on quality of life among 45-to-70-year-olds with Down syndrome:

“Individuals expressed a desire to be allowed to go to bed when they wanted to.”

:(

Imagine.

I lived in a room and board that failed the burrito test. (”If you’re not allowed to get up in the middle of the night to microwave a burrito, you live in an institution.”) No one stopped me from going to bed, but they did tell me I had to have my lights out by 10, and that I had to be out of the house by 10 the next morning. When I complained to my outpatient program that I needed more help than I was getting, they threatened me with board and care, where my cell phone would be taken away and I would lose contact with the outside world. My case manager sounded so damn smug, like he had caught me out, when he said, “if you’re really as helpless as you say, then you need to be in a board and care.” Like my only options were struggling to do things I couldn’t do, or surrendering my life to an institution.

When I tried to talk about these things with other people, they always rationalized it away. (I told my dad once that my caseworker was reading my e-mails as I wrote them, demonstrating extreme disrespect for my privacy, and he said, “Well, she’s probably making sure you don’t use the internet to goof off.” I was 22 years old.)

 People tend to mock the idea that telling an adult when to go to bed, when to eat, etc., is a human rights violation, even though they would find it outrageous and absurd if anyone came into their lives to do the same thing to them.

And this is what people seem to think when they tell disabled activists we’re just not disabled enough to understand that some people really do need to be locked up and deprived of all autonomy.

Do you know what I hate??

When I was growing up any time my brother upset/hurt/was rude to or downright nasty to me I was told “he’s just doing it to get a rise out of you” “he’s just doing it to annoy you”

Like??? I know?? I know he’s being mean to upset me. I know he’s saying horrible stuff to annoy me. And guess what?? I’m annoyed!!!!

I was literally told not to be upset, because his intentions were to upset me????

How is that not upsetting? Especially to a young girl??

THE GASLIGHTING STARTS EARLY.

As I was relentlessly bullied, I was often told not to react because the reaction was what they wanted, and that they would stop bullying me if I did not respond. In reality, no, they just tried harder. All the advice ever taught me was to bottle up all the pent up frustration and misery, so ultimately what changed was that no-one knew how badly I was suffering. Nothing is changed by inaction.

legit.

a good thing to do for your friends with anxiety disorders: if you have a question you need to ask them or something you need to tell them, explain the subject of the question/the statement in the same message as your opening one!

so basically: instead of saying “can i ask you a question?” and sending just that (which, as a person with an anxiety disorder, makes my anxiety go into hyperdrive) go “can i ask you a question about ___?”

it’s a little thing but honestly few things make me anxious like “i have a question for you” or “there’s something i need to tell you” without immediate explanation. thanks!

“call me, nothing is wrong, just wanna talk on the phone” would be so much better than “Call me.”

Actually please to all of this please.

YES PLEASE.

And if you say “call me” and your friend asks what its about actually tell them instead of going “call me and find out”

all of this so much. if you send me a message saying "hey are you busy?" i assume you're about to tell me about why you hate me and i'm the worst person on the planet

Cute Decals That Transform Any Door Into an Adorable Animal or Dragon

Inspirational.

The fucking state of journalism in Britain

It just gets worse and worse

These people are paid actual money for what they do.

the british press everyone

Every damn year. 

I need to learn how to draw a decent Batman pic.

So what you’re trying to say is that women people prefer well-drawn pictures of their favorite superheroes over really shitty indie comics about boobs?

Sounds right.

Are we supposed to feel sorry for the person whose humor comic featuring a disembodied pair of breasts on the cover is getting passed over? Incredible.

this feels like it should be a parody but it isnt and that’s hilarious

maybe try not being sexist unfunny douchelords next time

HEY, WE DO A HUMOR COMIC ABOUT [SOMETHING THAT LOOKS EXTREMELY SEXIST] HEY WHERE ARE YOU GOING

No, no way is this a serious complaint (I said to myself). No one’s that un-self aware. This has got to be a parody about gross “indie” comics skeeving up the con atmosphere, and the schadenfreude we’re totally intended to feel at their failure.

So I went to the OP’s tumblr to check context and.

They are serious.

That is more hilarious than any punchline actually in the comic. I’m honestly crying with laughter right now.

wow cry me a THOUSAND tears about how hard it is for white men to get into the comics industry by drawing tits

I can think of very few female comic readers who wouldn’t choose the Green Lantern image over a comic with nothing but boobs on the cover :P If the OP wants female fans as their target audience, they need to make some changes or expect not to get any of their money.

Oh god… he edited the original post to “Apologies to anyone offended by the cover.”  … Not “Apologies, I made a really gross and alienating statement.”  He does this in another post, as well trying to justify it all.   /facedesk

Wow, this is a perfect example of the creative blind spots I’ve been talking about. This comic was not intended to be satire. The OP completely missed the significance of having just a pair of boobs on a magazine cover and its effect on a female audience. In the OP’s own words: “In the original script I said there was a comic being held up without specifying what was on it, so Paul just drew a pair of breasts and I put the page up because at the time I saw nothing wrong with it, and when I put it on tumblr, the unfortunate implications never crossed my mind until they were pointed out to me.”

There was no sexist intent behind this comic (or clever expose of sexism), but this clearly illustrates how so much offensive content gets released in comics, games, and other media. It looks okay to the people making it. This is why we need women, PoC, and LGBT people in industries that are dominated by one POV. We need to start viewing content through more than one lens. I talk about it at length HERE.

(emphasis mine)

Complete and uncensored, the reason many people take issue with the comics world (and other media dominated by homogenous culture). Straight from the horse’s mouth, unintentionally.

I had to read that comic three times to believe it.

This deserves a second reblog.

ahahaha i assumed the point of the comic was ridiculous sexists sulking about fake fans until i read the comments

In a better world, where bullshit gets checked:

“Ok, so you thought the boy made a bomb.”

“Yes.”

“And instead of evacuating the school, you pulled him out of class, arrested in front of everyone, then interrogated him, on the premises without getting the children to safety?  So, we’re going to put you up for criminal endangerment of this entire school”

“Well, uh, maybe we didn’t really think it was a bomb”

“Oh, ok, so instead you lied to police and federal authorities in order to bring up false charges against a minor for… kicks? I mean, you’re basically picking between which charges you’d like to go up on here.   Let me know, so we can get the paperwork right.”

Johann Hari,

Does Capitalism Drive Drug Addiction?

(via bigfatsun)

It’s not your brain; it’s your cage.

(via moniquill)

Send Dorian To University

Dorian is one of my closest friends and has provided so much emotional support to me when I’ve been struggling. When I was writing up my dissertation a few months ago they were always there for me when I was feeling overwhelmed and anxious. They’re one of the kindest, funniest people I know, and I am so lucky to have them in my life.

Dorian’s family have been through a lot recently - their landlord recently found out they’re gay and is refusing to renew their tenancy, so they’ve spent months searching for anyone who will rent a house to a family on benefits. The local council won’t help, claiming that it doesn’t count until they’re on the street with their one year old child.

They started university at the age of 19, but had to drop out due to mental health problems. “I failed university, ran out of money, and found out I was pregnant. I assumed I’d never be able to go back.”

This year, they applied to do the course they’ve always dreamed of studying - Archaeology and Anthropology - and were accepted to Manchester University with an unconditional offer. The university is putting the support in place that Dorian was lacking the first time round as they now have diagnoses for a lot of the disabilities that made it difficult the first time, and it’s starting to look like they might be able to achieve their dream.

The problem, of course, is money. In the UK, the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition raised tuition fees from just over £3000 a year to £9000 a year. They claimed this wouldn’t put poor students off attending because you can just get a loan from student finance. Easy!

Except student finance are refusing to fund the first year of Dorian’s degree, claiming they’re too much of a risk because they dropped out due to disability once already. Dorian has appealed multiple times, with medical evidence, but student finance won’t listen. If they can raise the money to pay for their first years fees, student finance will fund the remaining two years.

The university will accept the tuition fees in three installments, so if we can raise £3000 that will pay for the first term of Dorian’s degree. We’ve already raised £1820, and before the coalition that would be over half way to the years fees.

If you want to know more about Dorian’s story in their own words, we’ve created an indiegogo page where anyone who wants to help can donate - even small donations really do help. We’ve put some perks up for contributors to show how grateful we are for any donations people can spare - things like tarot readings, handwritten thank you letters, baked goods, handmade wooden badges and even DIY deed poll kits!

I really believe that we can raise the money to get Dorian to university. If we can it would mean the world to them and all their family.

We’ve now raised £2186, so we’re £814 away from the first installment of fees. If we get to £3000 and Dorain knows they can pay the first terms fees and start their course it would take a huge weight off their shoulders.

samoyeds are really just stage-3 evolutions of pomeranians.

Unevolved pomeranian

American eskimos are the awkward stage 2 evolution

Final evolution is samoyed. Ancient legendary pokemon.

skookumthesamoyed 

Yes!

owning these three dogs might have replaced owning a pug and a leonberger as my ultimate dog goal

there’s a picture of a dog meeting pluto n the dog look so hype to meet him i can’t stop laughing

IM SCREAMING THAT HE HAD TO DO THIS

he is so tired of yall lmaooooooo

WHY DID HE HAVE TO DO THIS?????

what is the context of this what have i missed

i need to know what this is about help