@schumer.senate.gov seen here cosplaying as Neville Chamberlain. He will be reminded as the cowardly quisling that he is. End ICE. End the DHS. End Trump’s criminal presidency. There is no compromise with fascism.

Good list. Stay safe and keep resisting.

This is your periodic reminder that these actions are not a failure of training or a misunderstanding of orders. These actions are Trump’s personal Sturmabteilung (SA)* working PRECISELY as intended. *Gestapo works also, but the SA/Brownshirts is a more precise comparison.

He's tearing it down. Of course, this was not the plan. The plan was to co-opt the beloved Kennedy Center, turning it into a venue for artists to pay homage to the king, celebrating him as a great man. After all the artists told him to get fucked, he decided to destroy it.

ICE *MUST* be disbanded, and its agents prosecuted for their many crimes. But that isn’t enough. The fascist state can always get new paramilitary murders. The *ONLY* way forward to systematically de-Trumpify the US government. All of it. And then put them on trial, no escape to Argentina allowed.

We fight until every victim is returned home.

I am failing to find words to describe why the surgical mutilation scenes in The Creature Walks Among Us connects so viscerally for me to the Dachau hypothermia experiments specifically. Maybe it’s just the NASA connection. Anyone have thoughts on that sequence and Nazi medical torture?

Political or ideological difference is as much a catalyst to monstrous representation on the micro level as cultural alterity in the macrocosm.

Honestly, still true.

🦓

This comment is so infuriating in how utterly and willfully it misses the point. The “hysterical pussy hats” were not “premature.” THAT WAS WHEN FASCISM COULD BE PREVENTED. Instead misogynistic dismissal of the clear and obvious threat was so much easier and more profitable.

I keep thinking about how much my adult life has been defined by America’s slow slide into full fascism. Also by war. I was two weeks into my freshman year of college, barely moved out of my parents’ house, for 9/11. Now it’s Venezuela - and soon to be more. Obama was a breath of hope, the last one.

The research assistants are hard at work making sure I can’t use the comfy chair for writing. Very helpful.

The DTaP CFP for ATHE 2026 in Baltimore (July 22-26) is now live. Come and join us in considering the work of disabled people in theatre and the performing arts practice, education, and scholarship! cdn.ymaws.com/www.athe.org...

Reminder to anyone who hasn’t considered it yet: Intentional use of starvation as a weapon to control a population is a *War Crime*. And positive election results are not the same and end to American fascism. Now is the time to fight harder.

My neurospicy academic heart feels this so hard.

Obscene.

As good of a takedown as I have ever seen.

Disabled people: RFK Jr. is a dangerous eugenicist who wants people to die. Nondisabled people: DP: Here are examples of his eugenicist policy. NP:... DP: He actually wrote all this out in a book years ago. NP: Hey why can't I get a Covid shot??

Delighted to have found an excuse to use the term “Monster Fucker” in an academic chapter intended for publication. I am hoping my editor agrees its use is actually reasonable.

Important history.

I’ve become troubled by the strong impulse *against* democracy by many young progressives. The attitude that everyone else is too stupid to make good decisions, so they should not have choices in their lives, seems to be becoming ever more common. This is a bad impulse. Human bad choices are…

Disability interacts with every single element of history, and intersectional understanding of oppression is necessary to learn that history accurately. Black American Sign is a beautiful and vital language that should be better known. Learn about it for Disability History Month. 😈

Queercrips on July 1: It’s still Pride, let’s keep up the party. And also the protests. Disability Pride Month just started in the US. Now is the time to fight fascist eugenic policies promoted by Trump, RFK Jr., and all their evil friends. Everyone can fight!

If you were to suggest one work of theory to read, what would it be? A single writer is also okay, but one work would be preferable. Bonus points if it’s on monsters, the gothic, horror, disability/crip, or queer. My suggestion: everyone should read “Monster Culture (Seven Theses)” by J. J. Cohen.

Check it out!

This is a remarkably terrible plan. Even in the “bad pedagogical fads” category, this is an extraordinarily bad idea.

Obscene.

I had a wonderful time at the 2nd International Conference on Folklore and the Gothic, Wednesday and Thursday at Morgan State University in Baltimore, MD. Thank you to the Department of World Languages and International Studies for hosting us!

Delightful.

The Disability, Theatre, and Performance Focus Group for the Association for Theatre in Higher Education is hosting a day of virtual readings of plays by, for, and about the disabled community, on Friday April 4, 12-8 PM ET. Price is $20. All three readings are included, so please stay for the day!

Minnesota is trying to add “Trump derangement syndrome” to “draptomania,” “sluggish schizophrenia,” & “agitated delirium” in the Most Abusive “Diagnoses” in Psychiatric History Hall of Fame. I wonder if RFK Jr.’s “healing farms”/concentration camps will “treat” it, & if it’ll be possible to refuse.

I have been belatedly introduced to the existence of this workshop on disability and philosophy. Check them out!

There are many reasons I’ve been struggling to write the past week. Burnout, exhaustion, pain, and sickness are all on the list. But more than anything, I’m realizing how much I don’t want to write this paper about the end of rights for disabled people in the United States.

I have vivid memories of an article from grad school (so almost 20 years ago) about Batman and Catwoman, kink, furries/other erotic “animal” imagery in history, and construction of identity in gender and sexuality. It’s connected deeply to Susan Sontag in my mind. Anyone have a clue what this is?

How could you not want to know the bear schedule?

Tagging @purplezebrav.bsky.social to maybe take a look at this as well. They’ve been a disability activist for some time and I think it’d be something they would be interested in reading.

Does anyone have access to the article “Sexual Participation within Fan Cultures: Considering a Sed Toy as a Mode of Reception for The Shape of Water” by @eddiefalvey.bsky.social? I need it for a chapter in an upcoming edited volume and can’t afford the individual fee as an independent scholar.

Tentatively plotting a listicle/guide for excellent go-to resources on disability and theatre, so that no one who means well is led astray by Google. So many of the algorithm’s choices range from incomplete to outright offensive, and knowing how to assess a source is more than beginner knowledge.

I will add, the widespread interest in disability scholarship, pedagogy, & praxis is heartening. There is a sea change in awareness of the topic & desire to do better at access and inclusion. Please don’t stop because you aren’t an expert YET! Just bring an expert into the project & keep learning.

On a closely related note, I am available to guest teach/for theory & syllabus support/give contact with other experts. For theatre labor, please reach out to DTaP to send CFPs, audition notices, hiring calls, etc to our mailing list. You CAN find a qualified person! Nothing About Us Without Us!

If you want to write/create about disability & you are not an expert, get a co-author that is. Qualified experts on every element of disability, crip theory, madness, neurodiversity, etc are everywhere. If you can’t find someone interested, consider that your project maybe ableist or fatally flawed.

Disability - like all marginalizations - is an area of work that demands expertise. This includes disability culture and arts, history, rights activism, theory, etc. Writing from the dominant position, without serious topic study, while merely “meaning well” is not good enough. List to experts!

The Journal of Consent-Based Performance Special Issue on Disability just came out. I am so proud to have been a part of this fantastic project. Check it out now!

This is going to be an amazing event. I’ll be there. Will you?

Quoting @miamingus.bsky.social is always a challenge, as her analysis is so insightful that I struggle to cut down selections. Sadly just writing “please read this entire blog before returning to my paper” seldom works in practice. Thank you for your work; it has made me the crip scholar I am now.

The grotesque and the monstrous are interrelated in many ways, but there is one vital difference: the monstrous is attractive as well as repulsive. It’s fascinating and often eroticized, though usually in deeply disturbing ways. The push of disgust without the pull of attraction is not monstrosity.

This is your periodic reminder that I am available for dramaturgy, disability access and representation consulting, guest teaching, and individualized support on theses and dissertations including but not limited to theory development and locating sources. Please reach out if interested.

I had the privilege of judging tech and design work for the VA High School Thesby Awards. It’s always fun working with that age group - we can see the artists they are becoming and the childhood they are outgrowing. Was super happy to see so many disabled kids excelling in theatre. Gives me hope.