Winick 100% had no idea how old Jason was when he wrote the Batman Annual and then later Lost Days, neither did DC and all their artists.
Hush was in 2002-2003, right? Jason’s 18th Birthday was in Detective Comics in 2004, right before War Games.
So, in Hush, Jason was 17. In Under the Red Hood, he’s 18, and One Year Later takes him to 19.
And this is what he looked like at 17 because DC are dumbasses and forgot their own timeline:
The Lazarus Pit works some magic, I’ll tell ya.
Winnick had 2-3 years to work with between Jason’s resurrection and Under the Red Hood (depending on if you have him dying at 14, as implied in the contemporary sources, or 15, as stated in an out of canon death certificate). He wasted like two years straight off the bat with a coma, living on the streets and his time with Talia pre-Pit, but most likely more. He thought he had way more time available than he had and I’ll never let DC forget it because they want to let us forget that Jason died a child and was resurrected a child.
The way that we learn about Helen Keller in school is an absolute outrage. We read “The Miracle Worker”- the miracle worker referring to her teacher; she’s not even the title character in her own story. The narrative about disabled people that we are comfortable with follows this format- “overcoming” disability. Disabled people as children.
Helen Keller as an adult, though? She was a radical socialist, a fierce disability advocate, and a suffragette. There’s no reason she should not be considered a feminist icon, btw, and the fact that she isn’t is pure ableism- while other white feminists of that time were blatent racists, she was speaking out against Woodrew Wilson because of his vehement racism. She supported woman’s suffrage and birth control. She was an anti-war speaker. She was an initial donor to the NAACP. She spoke out about the causes of blindness- often disease caused by poverty and poor working conditions. She was so brave and outspoken that the FBI had a file on her because of all the trouble she caused.
Yet when we talk about her, it’s either the boring, inspiration porn story of her as a child and her heroic teacher, or as the punchline of ableist, misogynistic jokes. It’s not just offensive, it’s downright disgusting.
the reason the story stops once hellen keller learns to talk is no one wanted to listen to what she had to say
how’s that for a fucking punchline
It’s not that I disagree that we should all be aware of what a badass Helen Keller became, because she had a long and amazing career as an activist and yes, a feminist hero. It’s that somehow when people talk about the ableism of the way Helen’s story is told they always seem to forget this: Anne Sullivan, her teacher, was blind. Seriously. From Wikipedia:
“When she was only five years old she contracted a bacterial eye disease known as trachoma, which created painful infections and over time made her nearly blind.[2] When she was eight, her mother passed away and her father abandoned the children two years later for fear he could not raise them on his own.[2] She and her younger brother, James (“Jimmie”), were sent to an overcrowded almshouse in Tewksbury, Massachusetts (today part of Tewksbury Hospital). He, who suffered a debilitating hip ailment, died three months into their stay. She remained at the Tewksbury house for four years after his death, where she had eye operations that offered some short-term relief for her eye pain but ultimately proved ineffective.[3]“
Eventually some operations did restore part of her eyesight, but by the end of her life she was entirely blind. Also:
“Due to Anne losing her sight at such a young age she had no skills in reading, writing, or sewing and the only work she could find was as a housemaid; however, this position was unsuccessful.[2] Another blind resident staying at the Tewksbury almshouse told her of schools for the blind. During an 1880 inspection of the almshouse, she convinced an inspector to allow her to leave and enroll in the Perkins School for the Blind in Boston, where she began her studies on October 7, 1880.[2] Although her rough manners made her first years at Perkins humiliating for her, she managed to connect with a few teachers and made progress with her learning.[2] While there, she befriended and learned the manual alphabet from Laura Bridgman, a graduate of Perkins and the first blind and deaf person to be educated there.”
So Anne Sullivan, disabled and born into serious poverty, learns the manual alphabet from a deaf and blind friend; passes that alphabet on to her deaf and blind student. This isn’t the story of an abled-bodied teacher swooping in to ‘save’ a disabled child; it’s a series of disabled women helping each other. Helen Keller’s story is the story not of one badass disabled woman, but of two. Anne and Helen were lifelong friends; Anne died holding Helen’s hand.
Also is there a book called “The Miracle Worker”? I thought that was the movie/movies based on “The Story of My Life” by Helen Keller. But I could be wrong. And I didn’t learn any of this in school in general but that’s neither here nor there.
I can recommend the ‘62 version of “The Miracle Worker” with Anne Bancroft and Patty Duke. It’s blatant about Sullivan’s impoverished background and eye problems – her rage on Helen’s behalf isn’t abstract at all, it’s very, very personal. And that’s the most amazing thing about this movie: Anne and Helen are the angriest people on earth. I have no idea if that was erased from the remakes but in the original they are both allowed to have a ton of anger about what has been done to them and what they have been denied.
Anyway, I’ve rambled enough. Here’s a picture of Helen Keller meeting Charlie Chaplin:
omfg I am so mad right now because not only did the kids biography of Helen Keller I read when I was younger erase all her activism, but it very explicitly completely erased anything about Anne being blind herself.
There were scenes of her WATCHING Helen from across the room or yard, and it was all very “oh my, I just MUST save this poor little disabled girl, no other deaf blind person has EVER BEEN EDUCATED and basically it was awful and shitty.
I think everyone should read Helen and Teacher. It’s an absolute brick of a book, hundreds of pages, but it is wonderful. It’s about their whole lives, right up to Helen’s death in old age. It talks about Helen’s feminism, socialism, and campaigning for everything from equal rights to sexual health. Helen Keller was not a syrupy, greeting card girl who existed to make able people feel warm and fuzzy, she was a tireless academic, political activist and writer. She was making noise about the issues she cared about from the moment her partnership with Annie Sullivan began, and she never stopped.
Reblogging because I had no idea Anne Sullivan was disabled and that makes this entire story mean so much more to me.
I read everything I could get my hands on about Helen Keller AND Anne Sullivan when I was a kid. Stay curious!
OK, let me just say that I find it absolutely atrocious that I cannot seem to find an accessible version of this book literally anywhere. Not on iTunes, not on Audible, not on book share, not on regular Amazon… I am incredibly frustrated because for fucks sake, you should let blind people read a book about fucking blind people.
Speech that hasn’t been properly processed is often described as heard as though it was in another language. It’s not that you can’t hear it, you can hear the sounds clearly, it just… doesn’t make sense.
Auditory processing difficulties can be more or less important depending on the person, the moment, energy levels, the environment… They can range from not understanding what’s been said at all, to only understanding something very approximative (which often translates into mishearing the words as similar-sounding words, think of a game of telephone of sorts), to understanding the words correctly, but with a delay (conversations such as “could you pass me the salt please?” “what?” “I said, could-” “Oh, yeah, of course” can occur).
As I said, the environment can affect auditory processing: a noisy environment or one with many sound sources will probably be more difficult to understand speech in. Being able to only follow one person talking at once is thus definitely realistic.
I don’t know what you mean by “his speech skills are disrupted”. If your character has severe auditory processing problems, it could be that he’s nonverbal because he can’t replicate sounds he cannot understand. If he can process sounds well enough to make sense of language at least partially, I’m not sure his expressive language would be very affected. If anyone has experience with this, you’re very welcome to weigh in.
Ear protectors would help if your character has hypersensitivity to sound alongside their auditory processing problems, but I don’t think they always coexist: someone hyposensitive to sounds could also have auditory processing issues.
As for music, I’d say it must depend on the person and on the type of music. In my personal experience, I’ve never made a connection between my auditory processing issues and how I experience music, but there could be one. Once again, if followers want to weigh in, input would be appreciated.
Have a few additional suggestions: your character may need subtitles when watching videos (if he lives in a modern setting), and he might be more comfortable with nonverbal forms of communication. He may have learnt to read lips to some extent to supplement what he hears. Phone calls in particular could be very difficult for him.
-Mod Cat
With regards to music, I do find that my enjoyment is impacted by sensory processing. While I can usually enjoy music played quietly,
music becomes painful
when I am tired and struggle more with auditory processing. I find that music that I don’t know and music that is unpredictable becomes painful first, but even songs that I know well and enjoy become painful when I am tired. It’s almost as if I am listening to a poorly-tuned radio – I can understand if I pay very close attention, but there’s lots of static and noise in the way.
Music can also be disruptive. Your character might not be able to have a conversation if music is playing, so music would be an annoyance in lots of situations (shops and restaurants in particular). Ear protectors can help the character filter out the background noise – it physically stops them from hearing some of the background noise, so the speech isn’t competing with so many other sounds – but I am not aware of this commonly being used, at least not for much of the time.
-Mod Snail
I have ADD and Auditory Processing problems, but not Autism.
I tend to hear ALL noise. In public, that means the 4 conversations around me, the background music, the TV in the corner, etc. Often which one I’m mainly following switches randomly, making conversation hard.
My husband, who is Autistic, feels like he goes deaf if there are too many conversations. He got tested for hearing loss several times. When his brain doesn’t know which sound to process, it feels like it sometimes doesn’t process any.
He also has problems parsing sentences. Parsing is knowing how to divide a sequence of sounds up. I said ‘pierced ears’ recently and he heard ‘Pierce tears’ and couldn’t figure out any other possibility. Sometimes people act like he’s stupid, or being obnoxious, because he translates what they’re saying in ways that seem ‘silly’ or ‘weird.’
I listen to most music at volume 1 or 2, and only when alone. I’m old enough to really miss analog music players, where you could turn the dial until it was barely making any sound; rather than having to stop at 1, which is still too loud. But when my surroundings are to loud, I sometimes put in headphones and play music loudly (maybe a 5 or 6) to give me something to focus on. It hurts my head, but less than bouncing between all the different surrounding noise.
I’ll also wear hoodies, headscarves, etc. to block out some surrounding noise. But that might be more my sensory processing problems, not my auditory ones.
My husband prefers music without lyrics. If he really likes a song with words, he’ll go look the lyrics up. Otherwise, they’re meaningless.
I don’t listen to audio books, because I need to see faces to follow speech. I prefer being in person to listen to a lecture, rather than listening online. Both the Husband and I watch movies with the subtitles on.
I DO have problems with language at times, but I’m not sure if it’s related to auditory processing. I call it ‘word salad’. I’ll try to say things, but the wrong words come out. It’s especially bad with nouns, and names are the worst. All of my cousins (and husband) are ‘other Kevin’. I have to point and make frustrated gestures a lot. But, again, I’m not sure if that has anything to do with how I process sounds.
This is for the Anon who asked for the fluffy fic with Clark yesterday, I mis-read the prompt and wrote this instead, but I’m also working on the actual prompt lol. Basically, everyone enjoy some sick Clark and adorable Jon with a special guest appearance by Damian.
The sneeze shook the apartment in something like a small earthquake that both made Jon dash to save his mom’s favorite china and feel like he was in one of those old movies his parents liked to watch. Except that he wasn’t protecting his mom’s dishes from a natural disaster, but more of an unnatural one.
“Dad.” he whined.
From his parents room he heard a sniffled, “Sorry.”
He reset a teacup, stared at it like that would root it in it’s spot the next time his dad sneezed, before sighing and moving the whole set to the center of the kitchen table. Then he went back to the mug of tea he’d been brewing and pulled the bag out, leaving it in the sink to carry carefully into his dad.
“Hope this helps.” Jon said, handing the mug over.
His dad cupped the mug in both his hands, and breathed in the steam. “Me too. I didn’t hear any shattering, did you save Mom’s stuff?”
Jon nodded. “Nothing but a few cushions tumbled off the couch.” he kicked his foot behind him and tried to look anywhere but his sick dad.
Most people already knew this, or suspected it, but Superman didn’t get sick. Neither did Clark Kent, no matter how many times he used it as an excuse. Jon sometimes caught colds, but they’d become rarer as his powers had developed. His dad was not developing powers, and had no reason to be ill, he hadn’t even been close to Kryptonite in a long time. So this, sneezing, coughing, and nose blowing was making Jon feel all kinds of upset, but mostly helpless and he was pretty sure feeling helpless was his least favorite thing to do.
“I’ll be fine.” Clark gave him a wobbly smile, so unlike his usual confident one.
“You’re not supposed to get sick.” Jon said, turning his toes in the carpet.
His dad looked like he was going to say something but then his nose scrunched up again and Jon was already running for the next thing that might easily fall when his dad sneezed again. The neighbors were going to think a
ll kinds of strange things about them, either that or be surprised at the random tremors running through the building.
When he returned his dad was blowing his nose into a tissue, at a much quieter level than the sneezes were. He balled it up and tossed it into the trash can across the room that was almost half full with used ones already.
“I hate magic.” Clark sighed, and picked the mug back up.
I don’t know if you have considered this but stop smoking in areas where people are forced to wait at. Don’t smoke at crosswalks. Don’t smoke outside doorways. Don’t smoke at bus stops. People with asthma or other breathing conditions or people that idk DON’T WANT TO BREATHE IN YOUR CIGARETTE SMOKE are trying to get to places and need to be able to breathe. Stop smoking in crowded areas. stop smoking in crowded areas. STOP FORCING NONSMOKERS TO SECOND HAND SMOKE.
please im begging you. i feel like im dying every time i go into the city and smokers are on every corner. i cant breathe
Can’t you just like….not stand right next to the person smoking a cigarette?
Can’t you just like, wait until you’re not around someone to smoke? Like Jesus, I smoke damn near a pack a day and I have the basic human decency to not smoke around non smokers because it just the polite thing to do. Why is asking smokers to be considerate of others such a big deal? Would you want someone forcing you to not smoke? I didn’t think so. So why would you want to force someone to inhale your cigarette smoke?
And don’t smoke in marked non-smoking areas! Especially if the building owner has told you multiple times NOT TO SMOKE THERE.
EXACTLY THIS. Like, I can’t not stand at the crossing? If I’m standing at the bus stop its because I need to catch a bus? You don’t need to blow smoke around, my asthma isn’t that bad but I know people who could literally die from inhaling your smoke? Please, have a bit of consideration and decency.
^^^^^
It is also worth noting that while second hand smoke is really, really bad for people like me. I’m asthmatic and cigarette smoke is a huge trigger for me. I’m allergic to tobacco exposure often leads to me struggling to breath. And if you smell like smoke, don’t be insulted if I stand far away from you because even if you aren’t actively smoking, it’ll still trigger an asthma attack. It isn’t worth it to me.
Also it’s not just asthma. I get really nauseous and it can induce a migraine or if I have a headache make that into a migraine. I do try not to complain or anything but I really dislike walking down a crowded street (where I can’t move away) and there’s like three people walking and smoking in front of me. I know that’s a specific example and that’s because it happened to me over the weekend. I had to stop walking and sit down for the nausea to subside.
…but where are they supposed to smoke? They’re already outside, there’s already a shit ton of laws that prevents them from smoking inside ANY public place, not to mention a bunch of businesses also make their campuses smoke free, too.
I get that it’s a vice, but so is sugar, alcohol, caffeine, and using our smart phones for 16 hours a day. Seriously, where else are smokers supposed to smoke? Until our society collectively agrees that tobacco should be banned (never going to happen for so many reasons) we should at least let smokers smoke in public.
That cigarette in the morning at the bus stop might be their version of a cup of coffee in the morning, the little thing that makes their morning more tolerable. I get that it’s a public nuisance and people are allergic (I’m one of them, mom smoked my entire childhood and I have residual asthma from it as a result) but the open air in public is all smokers have left to them.
A more tolerant society is built by small steps and actions like just letting the miserable smoking cunts have their cigarette outdoors while they wait for the bus, as miserable as you are having to take public transit in the first place. I’m not even arguing for smoking inside (though I still think it’s stupid that bars don’t allow smoking. Guess what honey, if your favorite hangout is a den where men kill their livers with liquid poison, then you literally have no right to bitch about the air quality of such a place. You don’t go to bars to eat, you go to restaurants for that. A bar that happens to serve food you like is not a pre-requisite for your entitled attitude dictating that your experience in a place that is primarily dedicated to slowly killing their customers be more healthy on your lungs. You don’t see vegans yelling at normal restaurants for serving animal products…wait….bad example) but for fuck’s sake, are you trying to tell smokers their only recourse is smoking their cigarettes at home?
Cuz if that’s the case, I better not see any exceptions for vaping or marijuana. “Vaping is harmless water!” Don’t care, I find the clouds obnoxious and the smells make me gag…almost like my throat involuntarily closes up, almost like I’m allergic to the smell! And marijuana is self explanatory but I’ll just leave it here: contact high is real, and not everyone enjoys the smell. In fact, my best friend’s mom is ALERGIC to pot!
If we’re going to seriously complain about smokers smoking in the very last avenue they have available to them, then I don’t EVER want to see ANY kind of public smoking or tolerance for alternative smoke in the public, ya dig?
Did… you read the specific part of my post where I said “where I couldn’t get away”. Like. I don’t give a fuck if someone is smoking at a bus stop or in public. But if it’s in a confined space where I have no ability to remove MYSELF (because I’m not going to go around and police other people’s behaviour) then I’m going to be pissed because it’s inconsiderate.
Rules about smoking are like rules about nuts. They’re there because people might die or end up in the hospital.
Smoking at bus stops is understandable. It would be nice if you stayed to the side of the stop so I could keep my sister safe on the other side. It would be nice if you stayed close to the other smokers so there was a safe place SOMEWHERE on the block I could wait.
I don’t want to take the little sister back to the hospital, again. I don’t want to be in so much pain I can’t figure out how to get OUT of the situation, because my headache has shut down my problem solving abilities.
[Loni (Literary_zealot) Tweeted: “It’s a privilege to just laugh with your friends and say, ‘There’s always Canada’. Not everyone has that option.”
Coffee Spoonie replies: Literally, Disabled folx cannot immigrate to Canada.
They don’t get that I cannot ‘lol move to Canada!’, bc Canada doesn’t want my crip ass.”]
This is something a lot of people are not aware of. Canada will deny people permanent residency on the basis of certain health conditions if they cause ‘stress’ on the healthcare system (or if they are a danger to public health or safety). It’s an attempt to prevent people taking advantage of Canada’s universal healthcare, but unfortunately even if someone is immigrating for legitimate reasons, there’s a good chance they’ll be denied (it may be overlooked at times, but that doesn’t change that a family of refugees could be denied immigration if a kid has down syndrome)
We’ve still got a lot of shit to work on here
Many countries have similar laws.
New Zealand does.
iirc so does the UK
“an attempt to prevent people taking advantage of Canada’s universal healthcare” i know people will argue economics and all but if someone has a need to “take advantage of” this country’s healthcare, they have a need to immigrate here. healthcare is a right, despite the way it’s treated as a privilege.
Holy shit, this is huge news for me. I’m planning to move there in 2-3 years. I need to do some research. Thank you for posting and sharing this info.
Reminder to every one that there are VERY few places you can immigrate to from the United States with out an advanced degree, a job, and a set amount in provable savings. Immigrating anywhere is never easy and requires large amounts of planning.
kiragecko 