What If They Always Called You A Creep?

Today I read a guest post on Dear Author by a woman named Kris who took it personally when people described the terrible behavior of Kathleen Hale as “crazy, mental, batshit, insane”, etc. She writes about how abelist it is to use words that describe mental illness to talk about someone being an asshole. As someone with mental illnesses, Kris took those words personally.

If she can find people using derogatory words associated with her disability to describe a stranger offensive, I wonder if she can imagine what it’s like when words are directly used for what you are?

In other words, what it’s like to be a dev and to have every person talking about it in media ALWAYS use the word “creep” along with it.

In this case these words weren’t being used to describe the mental illnesses that Kris has. No one was saying bipolar disorder is “batshit.” They were saying someone behaving badly was “batshit” but not that the person behaving badly had bipolar disorder.

Imagine if every time anyone talked about bipolar disorder they always said “Pathetic” or “Stupid” along with it.

If you think words hurt, then maybe you should consider that the way people talk about devotees is horribly inappropriate.

I never know when I might come across someone talking about devs and without doubt every time they will use the word “creep” or “creepy.” It’s like they aren’t even aware that we’re right here. We’re seeing what you say. We’re hearing that insult and it is wounding us.

It feels to me like people find it totally acceptable to act like devotees aren’t real people. This is the kind of thing that makes us secretive, that drives us underground, that makes us terrified to admit who we are.

When you do it, you are calling this innocent little child a creep. Not because of anything that she has done but just because she is in the category of being a devotee.

This is a picture of me when I was six years old. Was I a devotee then? Absolutely. I didn’t know the word for it, of course, but I did know that when I saw people with disabilities it made me tingle between my legs. I couldn’t understand what that meant and I was so frightened of it. I had those feelings from at least four years old.