Cheeky Not Tragic: Defining Anti-Inspiration Porn
I love selfies.
I am an unapologetic selfie queen, and I'm always ready to defend the value of this modern medium. As a plus sized disabled woman selfies are much more than a fun way to show off my style. They are my ultimate rebellion and my way of building what I call anti-inspiration porn.
As opposed to inspiration porn, a term coined by late activist, Stella Young, which portrays disabled people as tragic figures, or superheroes who exist only to enrich non-disabled people, selfies flip the lens and allow disabled people to tell our stories our own terms.
Anti-inspiration porn is images of what it means to be disabled in real life.
Half drunk selfies taken in dark clubs while spending time with friends.
Sexy selfies taken to showcase the beauty of our bodies, medical devices, scars, and all.
Hospital glam selfies that show being disabled or sick doesn’t stop us from having our own style or wanting to express ourselves. Proof that learning to pass as nondisabled is not the key to living a beautiful, valuable, and amazing disabled life. Being disabled is not something we need to apologize for, dance around, or hide.
These are the photos that depict us genuinely enjoying and loving life, not in spite of who we are but because of it. A declaration that we are beautiful and worthwhile just as we are, selfies show that disabled living is a completely valid way of living, never a consolation prize. Selfies are complex depictions of disability as both a blessing and a curse. They are the images that show that who we are is not problematic, but are also the images that may make you uncomfortable.
Pictures that make no attempt to hide wheelchairs, prosthetics, or scars, and in fact present them proudly. Moments of owning your identity, and your body. Waiting for therapists or doctors appointments, declaring that disability and illness are simply a part of our lives. Shattering the myth that disabled people always take everything in stride, selfies can show us in pain and struggling. They are not poised photos taken by others to exploit, objective, and dehumanize the disabled experience. They are a firsthand reclamation of our awesomeness as disabled people.
Through selfies, we can showcase the complex relationship many disabled people have with the bodies we’ve been given. Instead of providing an outsider perspective on the everyday lives of disabled people, selfies show the intimate realities of our real lives. Instead of painting our bodies and identities as shackles to be cast off and problems to be overcome. Instead of portraying us as lesser versions of our non-disabled counterparts, selfies depict the rich diversity and value of our lives.
By flipping the lens, selfies have allowed us to flip the script. Placing the individual as photographer and subject offers people who exist outside of the institutionalized structures of beauty and normalcy to display ourselves in traditionally off-limits roles. They have the power to disrupt the status quo, and call into question the current narrative of what it means, and looks like, to be disabled in today's world.
Selfies are the ultimate anti-inspiration porn by saying we do not exist to remind nondisabled people that life could always be worse. Disability is not a fate worse than death, in fact, far from it. With disability, we can still be friends, lovers, students, and coworkers. We are everything, ranging from parents and children to bookworms and party girls. They display our bodies, not as something to be overcome, but rather as things to accept, live in, love in, and even celebrate. They are the antidote to the carefully posed feel-good images of disabled people that perpetuate the idea that the only good disability is one that can be overcome. Our selfies are declarations that we are beautiful and worthwhile just as we are.
Anti-inspiration porn shows disabled lives and bodies are not worthy of pity. It demonstrates the complexity of a community, culture, and identity. Most of all, it rejects the notion that a disabled body is a bad body. Anti-inspiration porn, particularly selfies, showcases the power of learning to live with your body, the good and the bad, instead of destroying it.
They say being disabled is not a bad thing, just another way of living.
They declare a refusal to be disgusted by your own existence.
When you're disabled, refusing to hate your body is the most radical thing you can do.
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| [Image description: two blonde young women are smiling in front of a bookshelf. One of them is in a wheelchair, and she is wearing a gray top, and a light pink skirt. The other appears to be squatting and is wearing leggings boots and a tunic top. They are standing in front of the entrance to a bar, and look happy.Text in the bottom corner of the image reads, #DisabledIsNotABadThing,#CheekyNotTragic www.claimingcrip.com] |
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| [Image description: a blonde woman in her 20s is making a goofy face at the camera in a selfie pose. She has black glasses, and it looks as though she is wearing makeup. On her head, she is wearing a headband with black cat ears.Text in the bottom corner of the image reads, #DisabledIsNotABadThing,#CheekyNotTragic www.claimingcrip.com] |
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| [Image description: a blurry selfie of two friends in their 20s in a pub. A blonde haired girl wearing a fuzzy brown sweater who appears to be in a wheelchair is sticking her tongue out, while a boy with light brown hair smiles widely as he takes the picture.Text in the bottom corner of the image reads, #DisabledIsNotABadThing,#CheekyNotTragic www.claimingcrip.com] |
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| [image description: a selfie featuring three young women close together, so all their faces fit in the photo. In the far back is a woman with dark curly hair wearing red lipstick and smiling, in the right corner is a girl with blonde hair in plats wearing dark rimmed glasses and red lipstick making a kissy face. To her left is a girl with long light brown hair who looks like she's laughing and making an inverted sign to the camera. Text at the bottom of the image reads: "#DisabledIsNotABadThing,#CheekyNotTragic www.claimingcrip.com] |
