Fay’s Articles
Article Series
Disability Q & A: On the third Monday of each month Fay answers a question about disability representation on the Mythcreants blog.
Addressing Ableism in Tabletop Role-Playing Games: A series that aims to identify ableism in the core content of tabletop role-playing games, including game mechanics and central setting elements. There will be brief discussion on the reasons these game elements are a problem. However the focus will be on identifying a list of options for ways that participants can alter these games to reduce or remove this ableism.
Ableist Tropes in Storytelling: This series discusses harmful patterns in the representation of disability. It is designed to be useful to both writers and game masters. One of the unique things about this series is that it doesn’t just describe what the pattern is and why it is a problem, it also focuses on how to know if you are following one of these patterns and what to do differently.
Podcasting How To: For those situations where it is hard to find all of the steps for doing something in one place, I’ve made my own personal step-by-step guides. I’ve decided to make some of these available here in the hope that they will make it easier for others.
Stand Alone Articles
Respectfully Depicting a Character Adapting to a Disability: This article is on the Mythcreants blog is a major expansion of many of the topics from Magical Cures and Disability as an Obstacle.
Ridding Your Monsters of Ableism: This article published on the Mythcreants blog is a polished, updated, broadened, and expanded version of my short gaming-focused article, Ableist Monsters.
Five Common Harmful Representations of Disability: This article published on the Mythcreants blog is a polished, updated, and expanded version of my short articles on Villainous Disability, Cosmetic Disability, Helpless Disability, Inspirational Disability, and One-Dimensional Disability that are in the Trope of the Week Series. Its main focus is on how to avoid these negative patterns and do better.
I’m a Sexual Asexual: This personal essay has been published as “Here’s Everything You Learn About Yourself When You Realize You’re Asexual” in Thought Catalog, and as “Sex Has Never Really Worked For Me And That’s Perfect” in Touchpoint.
Why Having Conditional Privilege Is Not the Same as Simply Being Privileged
Gamer Writing Solutions: Using Dice to Create Better Characters
We Need More Room for Disability Representation
Why I Call Myself Neurodiverse
Current Events Show How Broken “We Will Come Back for You Later” Really Is
Five Frustrating Sexist Romantic Tropes
Anger, Entitlement, and Oppression
Celebrating the Long Night of Winter Solstice
Articles Fay Consulted On
How to Avoid Melodrama in Your Writing: This is about what melodramatic writing is, why it doesn’t work, what to do instead, and how to handle emotional conditions like depression or anxiety.
Should You Give Non-Human Groups Marginalized Traits?: “What you should know when making non-humans resemble marginalized people – or privileged people.”
Fay’s Favorite Articles by Other Authors
This collection of the articles and works by other people that I keep coming back to, either because they explain a specific idea so clearly or because they have a deep message that continues to be important to me.
1 in 4 US Adults Has a Disability: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/1-in-4-u-s-adults-has-a-disability-cdc-says/
Animal Vision: Website by A.Z. Andis Arietta with a section that discusses animal vision, with interactive illustrations of deer, hawk, songbird, frog, and fish vision.
Where Are the Women?: Movie rating criteria for analyzing how women are presented on screen.
Straw Bans Are DANGEROUS For Disabled People (video with accurate closed captions): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uRy_0IEwxMw
5 Reasons Why There’s No Wrong Time To Fight For Disability Rights (a detailed breakdown of disability statistics): https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewpulrang/2020/04/24/5-reasons-why-theres-no-wrong-time-to-fight-for-disability-rights/?sh=143e38bd3ac1
Why Person-First Language Doesn’t Always Put the Person First: A short discussion of why many disabled people prefer identity-first language along with some basic rules for using identity-first language.
A Brief Word On My Preference for Identity-First Language: A short and clear article on this topic. “So, I don’t feel humanized by the fact that some people feel the being disabled and being a person are mutually exclusive, and I don’t feel humanized by the fact that people feel the need to distance my disabledness from my personhood in order to treat me like they would treat anyone else.”
The Significance of Semantics: Person-First Language: Why It Matters: A detailed discussion of “person with autism” verses “Autistic person” and why “Autistic person” is more respectful.
Why are queer people so mean to each other?: https://www.dailyxtra.com/why-are-queer-people-so-mean-to-each-other-160978
The Trans Agenda: Queerphobia in the Black Community (Note that this link goes to a short article and a video with imperfect subtitles and some ableist language): https://www.wussymag.com/all/2019/9/5/the-trans-agenda-queerphobia-in-the-black-community
We Need to Talk About Digital Blackface in Reaction GIFs: https://www.teenvogue.com/story/digital-blackface-reaction-gifs
Disabled people don’t need so many fancy new gadgets. We just need more ramps.: https://www.vox.com/first-person/2019/4/30/18523006/disabled-wheelchair-access-ramps-stair-climbing
People Agree It’s Harder To Conjure A Frog With Magic Than Change Its Colour – Suggesting We Use Our Intuitive Physics To Make Sense Of Imaginary Worlds: https://digest.bps.org.uk/2019/06/10/people-agree-its-harder-to-conjure-a-frog-with-magic-than-change-its-colour-suggesting-we-use-our-intuitive-physics-to-make-sense-of-imaginary-worlds/
Blindfolding People Doesn’t Help Them Understand Blind People: https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/8qxdz4/blindfolding-people-doesnt-help-them-understand-blind-people
If You Ever Hurt My Daughter, I Swear to God I’ll Let Her Navigate Her Own Emotional Growth: https://www.newyorker.com/humor/daily-shouts/if-you-ever-hurt-my-daughter-i-swear-to-god-ill-let-her-navigate-her-own-emotional-growth
7 Casually Racist Things That White Authors Do: https://bookriot.com/2018/02/05/casually-racist-things-that-white-authors-do/
How I Use my Phone for Orientation and Mobility: https://veroniiiica.com/2019/01/28/how-i-use-my-phone-for-orientation-and-mobility/
Ecuador legalized gangs. Murder rates plummeted.: https://www.vox.com/future-perfect/2019/3/26/18281325/ecuador-legalize-gangs
The Problem with Oppressed Mages: A discussion of the ways in which depictions of characters with supernatural or magical powers misrepresent the dynamics of oppression.
The Directory of Independent Audio Drama: http://indieaudiodrama.com/
Dissociative identity disorder exists and is the result of childhood trauma: https://theconversation.com/dissociative-identity-disorder-exists-and-is-the-result-of-childhood-trauma-85076
What free speech is and isn’t: xkcd comic #1357
The word “stupid” is a slur: “Why the Words ‘Stupid’ & Other Slurs Against People with Cognitive Disabilities Are Harmful” by belenen
Why it is important to not replicate bigoted tropes in writing: “Diversity, Political Correctness and The Power of Language” by Mikki Kendall
Why Do Men Keep Putting Me in the Girlfriend-Zone?: https://literaryreference.tumblr.com/post/50677204942/why-do-men-keep-putting-me-in-the-girlfriend-zone
Mansplaining: “Men Explain Things to Me” by Rebecca Solnit
Spoon Theory: “The Spoon Theory” written by Christine Miserandino
Fork Theory: “The Forks Model of Disability” by Ozymandias
Making friends with failure: “Be Friends with Failure” comic by Stephen McCranie
The importance of predators to ecosystems: “How Wolves Change Rivers” youtube video
