Sometimes we deliberately step into those traps

okay, i’m just putting this out here because it needs to be said and i’m sick of letting the bullshit train continue when i could help stop - or at least bring attention to - it. i have a friend who is diplegic and therefore uses a manual chair (her twin was also quadriplegic and in a motorized chair) and when we watch movies with wheelchairs in them, we like to critique the designs.

do you know why mcavoy couldn’t/can’t drive his motorized wheelchair? BECAUSE THE FUCKING WHEELS ARE ON THE WRONG WAY. HANK MCCOY, WHO IS SUPPOSEDLY A “GENIUS”, DESIGNED THE WHEELCHAIR SO THE BIG WHEELS ARE ON THE FRONT AND THE SMALL WHEELS ARE ON THE BACK.

LOOK!

LOOK AT THIS ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. DO YOU KNOW WHY HE CAN’T DRIVE IT? THE SMALL WHEELS ARE AT THE FRONT BECAUSE THEY ARE SMALL AND THEREFORE ALLOW FOR LOTS OF FINE CONTROL, AND THE BIG WHEELS ARE AT THE BACK BECAUSE THEY OFFER POWER. WHEN THE BIG WHEELS ARE ON THE FRONT IT IS SO DIFFICULT TO CONTROL WHERE YOU ARE GOING. IT’S LIKE WHEN YOU WALK BACKWARDS ON A BIKE AND TRY TO STEER STILL WITH THE HANDLEBARS. I SAT BACKWARDS ON MY FRIEND’S MANUAL CHAIR AND TRIED TO WHEEL MYSELF. IT WAS LIKE COMPLETELY REWIRING MY MOTOR SKILLS EVERY SECOND I WAS MOVING. IT. IS. BULLSHIT. AND ALL OF CHARLES’ CHAIRS ARE LIKE THIS!!! HANK!!!!! WTF!!!!!!!

ALSO. Charles would have THE WORST backpain from that stiff-ass unnecessary fuckin metal backrest that goes all the way up. YOU KNOW HOW PEOPLE’S BACKS GET UNCOMFORTABLE WHEN SITTING FOR HOURS ON A LONG PLANE OR CAR RIDE???? YOU KNOW THAT FEELING??? THAT FEELING IS THIS CHARLES’ LIFE, OKAY. HIS BACK HAS TO BE UNNATURALLY STRAIGHT ALL THE TIME. THIS CRITIQUE IS TAKEN FROM MY FRIEND’S EXPERIENCE BECAUSE SHE ALSO HAS A HARD BACK CHAIR AND HAS BEEN TOLD SHE’S GOING TO HAVE AWFUL BACK AND SHOULDER PROBLEMS BECAUSE OF IT. YET HARD BACKS ARE STANDARD AND SLING BACKS - LIKE THE ONE I’M GOING TO SHOW YOU IN A SECOND - ARE NOT! THIS IS BECAUSE THE WHEELCHAIR-GETTING SYSTEM IS COMPLETELY BROKEN AND IT’S SOMETHING YOU SHOULD REALLY CARE ABOUT BUT IT IS A RANT FOR ANOTHER DAY). THE POINT IS, CHARLES’ BACK IS ONE HURTIN’ UNIT IN THIS CHAIR I GUARANTEE YOU. HE OBVIOUSLY DOESN’T NEED IT FOR TRUNK CONTROL. HE HAS AMAZINGLY FREE RANGE OF MOVEMENT ABOVE HIS HIPS. THIS CHAIR IS  B U L L S H I T. HE CAN’T DRIVE, HE CAN’T SIT UP IN A COMFORTABLE WAY. POOR BABY IS H U R T I N G  but right, Hank’s ~~a genius~~

In contrast, look at this chair!

Look at those tiny-ass wheels on the front! The user of this could spin ON A DIME. It’s Nice as Fuck. Look at that back. (Okay I’m not 1000% certain it’s a slingback) but it doesn’t go all the way up the user’s back! That’s some free-range-of-movement-let-your-spine-do-almost-anything-it-wants-shit right there. Since Charles pretty clearly has full use of his trunk in the movies, this would make much more sense. Also, Ann (friend) and I really don’t see why he would want an electric wheelchair when he clearly could have a manual one that allows for even more control. 

AND OKAY, all wheelchairs should be specific to their users. Some people need more back support. In Ann’s quadriplegic brother’s chair there was a neck brace and little wing things on the side that came out and clamped around his body. Some people’s foot rests need to go out like Charles’ does (whether or not he requires this is kind of foggy, espc. since the overall design is so. asinine.). Some need their footrests to be more in like the orange chair. Some people get tilted wheels, some people don’t. (Also the process for deciding this is bullshit - on government insurance they will only build your chair with the assumption that you will never leave your house and therefore it’s almost impossible to get ‘add ons’ like sling backs and tilted wheels and under-the-seat brakes WHICH SHOULD BE STANDARD, AGAIN, BECAUSE IF YOU DON’T HAVE THEM YOU COULD HAVE MORE MEDICAL ISSUES DOWN THE ROAD OMG THIS SYSTEM IS SO BROKEN). 

But I think we can ALL fucking agree that your wheels should go on the goddamn correct way so you can, you know, steer. And that maybe your chair should be designed more like a mobility assistance device than a fucking 1860′s gentleman’s club wingback for no goddamn earthly reason.

SHIT this stuff gets me riled up.

wow this is really interesting and makes a lot of sense! New headcanon is that Charles only uses the ridiculous X-chair when he’s teaching a class but the second he has spare time he settles into a wheelchair like the one below and just goes “aahhhhhhhh”

@spiftynifty is absolutely right, I was about to criticise his wheelchair as well, but then I noticed that he uses a completely different one when he is actually outside with Hank and Summers brothers (sorry for super bad quality)

Let me reblog this with an addition because YOU SHOULD STILL ABSOLUTELY CRITICIZE HIS WHEELCHAIR. Yes, he uses the manual wheelchair outside. Wanna know why? 

Regular motorized wheelchairs are REALLY REALLY heavy. Charles’ motorized chair, even if its a light weight alloy, is made ENTIRELY out of metal. It’s probably too heavy for wheeling through gravel and across the lawn. He would sink. Also, let me re-iterate, ITS WHEELS ARE CONSTRUCTED ENTIRELY TOO POORLY TO HAVE ANY CONTROL WHATSOEVER. THE *WHEELS* ARE GODDAMN METAL, IMAGINE WHEN ITS ICY OUTSIDE. YEAH. YEAH, IT’S NOT GOOD. And when it’s not icy and he’s trying to wheel across the grass with those stupid-ass wheels – into the pond he goes. Also, Hank put the motor like one fucking inch off the goddamn ground so when the HEAVY WHEELCHAIR inevitably SINKS………. Yeah. Charles is up the creek without a paddle.

As for this manual chair, it is also subpar. Although the wheels are mercifully in the right place, it looks too small for him. The wheels need to come up higher so that when he wheels himself, the rim grips are right there. Also, his arms should be able to go back pretty far on the wheels. Where they are now, you can only get a little bit behind your hips (again, speaking from experience). The high back on this chair AGAIN restricts his movement in this aspect. Charles probably will have shoulder pain that may result in surgery down the road with this chair (because it looks SO MUCH like Ann’s chair and that’s exactly what Ann has been told will happen to her). 

Second of all: I understand you’re just trying to make canon work and are not being bad people (please believe me, I know this), but absolutely no disabled person should have to switch chairs for mobility purposes multiple times a day. These chairs should be built for every day needs. Is wheeling on carpet a bitch with a manual chair? YOU BETCHA! Easy fix: take away the rugs; it’s Charles’ house. Is it more exhausting to go up hills in a manual? Oh my god, I don’t know how people do it, it is the worst. But maybe that’s a struggle that should be shown, instead of magically having him transfer to a new chair whenever a new problem arises? Think: would you like to cart around 47 different mobility devices that you would have to transfer in and out of just because your house and/or your chair, is not built for your life convenience? Maybe they should just build the chair better. It is a part of Charles and it always will be. BUILD. IT. BETTER. Charles is lucky enough to be a multimillionare with his own lab/engineer to build chairs for him. Hank is 100% capable of making a chair that would defy any disabled person’s wildest dreams. Except…. it’s apparently more important that we just make the chair “look cool”. Never mind that 1. It doesn’t, 2. WHEELCHAIRS THAT WORK FOR DISABLED PEOPLE ACTUALLY CAN LOOK COOL TOO!! WHAT A CONCEPT.

I am just sick and tired of the way disabled people are portrayed in film and media 99% of the time. Wheelchairs are not sick gadgets to do whatever the fuck you want with. They are actual mobility devices that millions of people use, and truthfully representing the lives of those people is important. And hey, wheelchairs are fucking cool! They don’t need art direction to make them be chill! They just need good design, that again, reflects the ACTUAL LIFE the character lives. These are MOBILITY ASSISTANCE DEVICES. They are their legs. It is completely impractical and inconsiderate to think that a disabled person should just hop from chair to chair whenever the need arises.

Well, that was almost a spiritual experience. Thank you for that, madneto. I learned a ton from your righteous wrath.

Well in the comic he’s in a big flying chair he somehow controls with him mind despite not being a telekinetic, so… comic book/film logic. Also… world where people mutate and have powers. So… 😉

Oh, you’re right! Just because it’s a science fiction universe means the wheelchair equipment should be totally bogus and shitty! Like how in Avatar, another movie with incredible beings and special effects and a paraplegic, he has a completely shitty wheel-

Oh wait, no he doesn’t. He actually has a really rad wheelchair that also folds via this amazing bar in the back that I’ve never seen before but that is super cool. Look at how much reach he can get with that almost nonexistent back rest, too. Okay, this is a good chair.

Well, okay then, how about Prometheus? That was an incredibly high-tech movie. They probably were just too concerned about making the chair look cool to pay any atten-

Wait, sorry, that’s wrong again! The chair that is in Prometheus for about two minutes is designed better than Charles’ manual that gets about comparable screen time in XMA. Look; even though Weyland’s presumably going to be pushed mostly in that chair rather than propelling himself, they still gave him a low back. And wheels that fit his height.

Look, I know you’re just trying to make a joke. But you have to understand that flippancy about inaccurate disability representation feels incredibly callus to many disabled people and the people that love them, especially when that representation is so hard to come by (and we end up getting absolute maggot shit like “Me Before You” half the time, but that’s a rant for another day). 

If a story is set in a sci-fi world, the wheelchairs should be just as badass as everything else in that world and JUST AS FUNCTIONAL. Again, let me stress that Charles’ chairs are CUSTOM DESIGNED and should therefore have as much thought and technological power put into them as anything Hank is building. But, you may say “This is in the 80s! They don’t have all this fancy new stuff”  To which I would respond, Hank built Cerebro. He has built multiple fighter jets. He has the capability to build a FUNCTIONING yet still badass chair that was light years ahead of its time - which is honestly what it looks like they’re trying to do with these shitty ones. 

Yet Hank (aka the costume/production designers - whoever is in charge) does not. In Charles’ chair design, looks are prioritized over functionality to the extent that functionality is basically nil. Absolutely no handicapped person would choose that. Does Hank design all his Blackbirds so that they can only be operated if the pilot is upside down but the steering apparatus is right side up? Or with the jets pointing in so that anyone in the cabin would be roasted as soon as they turned on? God, that would be a shitshow, wouldn’t it? He probably figured he shouldn’t since it was, you know, bad design. Never mind that the Blackbird and Cerebro probably aren’t in use every day, unlike, of course, Charles’ wheelchair.

Once again, there is no excuse for this. It’s time we started giving the disabled community the representation they deserve in film/tv/etc. etc. etc. 

You ever notice how like…. Every girl is pretty

Absolutely false. Not every girl is pretty. Some are, some aren’t. That’s life. And a pretty subjective concept.

anyway…..every girl is pretty

A N D R O M E D A

Nick Wilde + his nicknames for Judy

mass effect: andromeda + posters

The tols Vs. The smols

So what you’re saying is…in order to be a part of the dark side you must be above 6 feet tall?

You must be THIS tall to Join the Dark Side.

proof

now this makes so much sense

Originally posted by destroythesith

IT KEEPS CHECKING OUT

So, I had a sudden horrible thought and

*scREAMING*

Paris in Disney’s The Aristocats (1970)

Rey’s Dwelling | Script to Screen

The Perfect Explanation of Privilege – In One Powerful Punchline

“The Pencilsword” is a comic strip by Toby Morris, an illustrator from New Zealand. His most recent comic, “On a Plate” hits hard at the heart of the issues of concerning wealth and privilege.

How many times have you heard the “I’ve never been handed anything on a platter” argument in regard to social security and other social benefits?

Toby wrecks this argument by showing how two children can grow up, be loved and supported, and yet still have two very different outcomes.

Make sure to follow all the way to the end for the powerful punchline. This comic is an increasingly sad reality for far too many of this nation’s children and families.

Reblogged from the source since someone deleted the text at the bottom.

this is so amazing

Not gonna lie this got me a bit emotional.

Unknown (via mofobian)

u kno when u keysmash but the jumble of letters dont convery the right Feeling so u gotta backspace and re-keysmash to turn ur HKELSXPXA to a KVFGKA

hey since I just told a friend this and they found it helpful: if you’re having hallucinations and are having trouble distinguishing what’s real and what’s not, use your phone’s camera and take a picture of the thing you might be hallucinating. cameras don’t hallucinate.

hey maybe reblog this for other neurodivergent people to see please?

sorry you haven’t seen much of me lately it’s just that everything in the whole world is overwhelming

if i don’t say anything about my faves in the tags it’s probably bc what i was going to say was too extra even for me