this post was submitted on 23 Mar 2025
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me_irl
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I’m in a wheelchair. And it feels so dehumanising. Because everyone makes an extra effort to never stare at me. I guess they learnt as kids you don’t stare at disabled people, but it feels like the lesson they internalised is you never look at disabled people. So no one ever looks at me except people I’m talking too. It makes me feel quite invisible.
Except kids. They always stare so mu h. It’s kinda weird.
I think the staring is a sign of curiosity. The problem is, our emotionally stunted parents did not teach us how to ask questions and show sympathy which could be a solution to that curiosity.
I remember parents scolding their children for asking “out of pocket” questions about people that embarrassed the parents, and this resulted in them just suppressing their children’s curiosity about other people and their unique life paths.