Reaction Shot
Mar. 9th, 2012 03:58 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
intheheartTitle: Reaction Shot
Rating: PG-13 for cussing.
Summary: Michael has grievances.
Warnings: ableism.
Date: 2015
Notes: Thanks to Kelly for looking this over. <3
When people find out about the OI, they have one of two reactions, and Michael isn't sure which one he hates more.
First there's dismissal-- "everybody breaks bones once in a while," or "but you don't look disabled!" As if looks had anything to do with it. As if everybody breaks a toe when they stub it. He looks young and healthy but his bones are brittle as glass, and if they could see beneath his skin, maybe they'd get it.
And there's the other reaction, his mother's reaction, the sudden overwhelming need to smother him in cotton and bubblewrap, to keep him from ever getting hurt. He gets it most often from girls he's dating, but even total strangers do it-- "hey, you can't do that, you might get hurt!"
Which... no. He is a grown-ass fucking adult. He's lived with OI his entire life, and he's pretty sure he knows how to handle it by now. He's even more sure that he doesn't need total fucking strangers telling him he's doing it wrong, judging him, securely smug in their authority over the poor boy with brittle bones, because heaven knows they, in all their able-bodied glory, know what's best for him.
If he dignifies this reaction with a response at all, these days, he just flips them the bird.
He still can't figure out what it is about disability that makes people treat him like a child.
Rating: PG-13 for cussing.
Summary: Michael has grievances.
Warnings: ableism.
Date: 2015
Notes: Thanks to Kelly for looking this over. <3
When people find out about the OI, they have one of two reactions, and Michael isn't sure which one he hates more.
First there's dismissal-- "everybody breaks bones once in a while," or "but you don't look disabled!" As if looks had anything to do with it. As if everybody breaks a toe when they stub it. He looks young and healthy but his bones are brittle as glass, and if they could see beneath his skin, maybe they'd get it.
And there's the other reaction, his mother's reaction, the sudden overwhelming need to smother him in cotton and bubblewrap, to keep him from ever getting hurt. He gets it most often from girls he's dating, but even total strangers do it-- "hey, you can't do that, you might get hurt!"
Which... no. He is a grown-ass fucking adult. He's lived with OI his entire life, and he's pretty sure he knows how to handle it by now. He's even more sure that he doesn't need total fucking strangers telling him he's doing it wrong, judging him, securely smug in their authority over the poor boy with brittle bones, because heaven knows they, in all their able-bodied glory, know what's best for him.
If he dignifies this reaction with a response at all, these days, he just flips them the bird.
He still can't figure out what it is about disability that makes people treat him like a child.
