Representation in media

[untonuggan]

I am having a lot of feelz lately when I do recognize something in my health experience or queer experience in mass media represented and it's not just "oh look and inspiring story about how lazy we all are if we don't run a marathon like this kid in the special olympics" or "don't get close to these two women in love, they're about to experience a horrible fate to remind us all that queers can never be truly happy!"

/o\

A show which has been counteracting these depressing trends and giving me warm fuzzies, which I will pimp *again*, is Switched at Birth.

I won't go into the particulars of how this scene came up, because spoilerz, but:

A character with an invisible disability (Person A) who was closeted about it was talking to a Deaf character (Person B) who is strongly involved in the Deaf community. They were frustrated that someone they knew had a physical disability (Person C) that was interfering with their ability to sign, and thus have a really close form of communication (versus lip-reading).

Person A told Person B that, "[Person C] is probably a hundred times more frustrated, because it really sucks to have your body betray you."

[mic drop]

I'm sorry, I lost my shit. For several days. Someone on ABC FAMILY just spoke my truth to millions of viewers while navigating the waters of intersectionality and hiding disability and that being a legit choice and that there are different types of disability and it sucks and it's no one's *fault* and there's all kinds of adjustments and grieving that happens when you have a new diagnosis.

Excuse me while I recover from my swoon

***

At the suggestion of kaberett , I've been checking out endometriosis.org.

There is one article (by a doctor) called "Is endometriosis all in your head?" about the psychological effects of how long it takes to get an accurate diagnosis, and how often people do start believing that they are imagining or exaggerating the pain. Which just. Yup.

Anyway, this one section in particular literally made me weep with relief that a doctor somewhere actually recognizes this truth in my life:

Facing the local emergency room

Lastly, she will probably eventually be forced to meet the local emergency room healthcare providers because of an episode of severe pain.

Healthcare providers in emergency rooms are liable if they do not rule out everything from appendicitis to pregnancy to sexually transmitted diseases.

This means that our young patient will be forced to have an examination, pregnancy tests, cultures, blood work, and usually an ultrasound or CT scan. When all is done and no answers are provided except that she has none of the above, she leaves the ER with her head held low and some pain medication. Worse than that, she feels physically violated by the experience.

For the patient, it is not a lot different from being physically assaulted anywhere else.

Emphasis mine.

***

So, does anyone have any recs for fic or books or media or whatever that will give me similar tingly feelings of "omigod other people feel this too??"

Comments

Kiss Me (2011)/ Kyss mig (original title)

[untonuggan]

I'll start:

I really enjoyed seeing Kiss Me (2011), a Swedish film about a woman who's engaged but finds herself really attracted to her stepmother's daughter.

Yes yes I know, all the tropes about coming out and women who can't make up their damn minds.

This film does a pretty good job of handling those, though. Is actually sexy (as opposed to "here's an awkward kiss and now the lights will fade"), but not grapically so. IDK, may not be for all viewers out there. AND there's some good stuff about sort of...identity politics, any more of which I share will be spoilers.

In Swedish with English subtitles. I found it on Netflix (US). cn: there is a LOT of smoking and some fair bit of drunkenness in this film, along with some scenes with an angry shout-y man, but not physical domestic violence.

Dreamy, sexy, rehab heaven

[jesse_the_k]

The Gymnast
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0473074/
Is SO sexy. An older woman, injured thus no longer able to compete, thus unsure who she is (since gymnasts train so hard from such an early age). she's in a loveless het marriage.
A younger woman who's all about the silks -- the magic acrobatics with huge parachute fabric -- looking for a partner to take her act to Vegas.

I don't need to spell out what happens, but seeing these powerful bodies moving, twisting falling flying in the silks, and finally making love in them. WOW!

Younger woman is Korean, adopted by Jews, while older is generic wasp, so there's some exploration of those issues. But mainly: I want to rehab like that from any injury.

Re: Dreamy, sexy, rehab heaven

[untonuggan]

ooooooo

[pipisafoat]

(on that website i tried to look at the "your first consultation" page but it was like "here's a pdf!" and there ... was no pdf? idk if you have successfully found that pdf and can send it to me, sometimes websites don't show pdfs to macs for whatever reason. but if not no worries.)