I don't see anything intrinsically wrong with writing disabled characters or even with giving canon characters non-canon disabilities. The problem - if it is one - comes from the way its done. If you're coming from a place where it matters to you personally, you are likely to be treating it with a certain amount of respect. If someone is thinking "wouldn't it be great if X were blind/deaf/whatever" as a route to some other end, as is so often the case in H/C fic...well then I suspect it's a lot less likely that the writer will consider the disability as something real.
I see requests in fic-search communities "any fics where X is suffering from...." and it makes me wince. But that doesn't mean it can't be done well.
Such stories, when done badly, aren't without merit, either - I mean, everyone's got to go through the badfic phase at some point or you never learn how to do it right.
I've had a somewhat bad experience in the last few days of people, without reading my fic at all, looking at the headers and the fact that I have written a handful of fics with disabled protagonists, and accused me of fetishising disability.
Well, if they're not even reading your stories first, that's just bull. "They" can't have it both ways: if you want more disabled characters in a media (or more women, or more minorities etc) then along with that goes some (or even most) of the people writing those characters are going to do it poorly and others will treat it as a fetish. Discouraging those who are at least trying to get it right is ridiculous.
no subject
I see requests in fic-search communities "any fics where X is suffering from...." and it makes me wince. But that doesn't mean it can't be done well.
Such stories, when done badly, aren't without merit, either - I mean, everyone's got to go through the badfic phase at some point or you never learn how to do it right.
I've had a somewhat bad experience in the last few days of people, without reading my fic at all, looking at the headers and the fact that I have written a handful of fics with disabled protagonists, and accused me of fetishising disability.
Well, if they're not even reading your stories first, that's just bull. "They" can't have it both ways: if you want more disabled characters in a media (or more women, or more minorities etc) then along with that goes some (or even most) of the people writing those characters are going to do it poorly and others will treat it as a fetish. Discouraging those who are at least trying to get it right is ridiculous.