Rejecting the Good Cripple Mythos: This is why we need cripple punk.

The post attracted a flood of hate mail, saying that disability isn’t something to be proud of, that disabledThe label "disabled" means so much to me. It means I have community. It means I have rights. It means I can be proud. It means I can affirm myself... More people shouldn’t smoke, or that a movement that “leaves out healthy people” isn’t punkEverything that was normally supposed to be hidden was brought to the front.Punk subculture - Wikipedia The First Rule of Punk: Be Yourself Our Second Rule of Punk: Reframe The... More. Trewhella took screenshots of the messages and added them to the post, writing, “This is why we need cripple punkIt's about rejecting pity, inspiration porn, & all other forms of ableism. It rejects the "good cripple" mythos. Cripple Punk is here for the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking... More.” Other people with disabilities started reblogging the post to add their own selfies, and tagging posts with crippleSome people with disabilities call themselves “crips.” “Crip” used to be a mean word for disabled. It is short for “cripple.” But some disabled people call themselves “crips” on purpose.... More punk. To Trewhella’s surprise, a movement was born.

Realizing they were the leader of this new movement, Trewhella slapped together some rules and principles. “Cripple punk is exclusively by the physically disabled for the physically disabled,” they wrote. “Cripple punk rejects the ‘good cripple’ mythos. Cripple punk is here for the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking cripple, the addict If addiction is like misguided love, then compassion is a far better approach than punishment.Can You Get Over an Addiction? - The New York Times In her book Unbroken Brain,... More cripple, the cripple who hasn’t ‘tried everything’ […] Cripple punk does not pander to the able bodied.” Unlike the common inspirational depictions of disability, cripple punk allowed disabled people to be bitter, messy, and honest.

Cripple punk grew into not just a movement, but a communityWhat I have always been hoping to accomplish is the creation of community.Community is magic. Community is power. Community is resistance.Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-First-Person-Stories-Twenty-First-ebook/dp/B082ZQBL98/ https://www.amazon.com/Disability-Visibility-Adapted-Young-Adults-ebook/dp/B08VFT4R9T/... More.

Source: How a teen punk led a movement for disabled people online – The Verge

I’m glad to see Trewhella and cripple punk get a compassionate write up. The cripple punk community and ethos are foundational to StimpunksStimpunk combines “stimming” + “punk” to evoke open and proud stimming, resistance to neurotypicalization, and the DIY culture of punk, disabled, and neurodivergent communities. Instead of hiding our stims, we... More, inspiring our name.

Stimpunks rejects the good cripple mythos and is here for “the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking cripple, the addict cripple, the cripple who hasn’t ‘tried everything’”.