Recently read a book with a nauseating amount of virtual signaling. “This is why you MUST love the disabled character; my word, aren’t they brave!”
No, just no. I had a youth minister missing an arm; a good friend missing a leg; another missing fingers from their hand; lots of friends with chronic illnesses. I’ve known women with rough pregnancies – bedridden and/or hospitalized for months. I recently spent half a year helping a parent recover from a trip-and-fall followed by a partial hip replacement; a frustrated adult going from unable to stand without fainting proceeding through round after round of physical therapy for months until able to do nearly (not not all) of the pre-injury tasks again.
Are they brave? Absolutely yes. Do they amaze me? Yes. Do they cry, and curse, and make mistakes? Also true.
At the end of the day, they are PEOPLE and sometimes they are shitty and sometimes they are grand. But the challenge they face didn’t make them noble. The challenge didn’t define them. They are PEOPLE.
No one has to love a character just because they are disabled.
There is no need to go over and over again about “courage and strength in overcoming.” In a romance, a little is fine, as one does fall in love with all aspects of a person. But it shouldn’t be the defining aspect.
My attempt: Honestly features a disabled character. At turns, Troy is snappish, seductive, happy, frustrated, and caring. Kassandra, main Point of View character, calls him out when he is snappish and frustrated. Neither of them treat the disability as a “superpower” or a “get out of jail free card.” The problem just is; like a single mother with a three-year-old, some things just are part of life.
Two ending thoughts
- Let the disabled characters in stories be people. Let them experience all the aspects of life and the emotions related thereto.
- Have disabled characters in your writing. Everyone who lives any length of time will experience at least temporary disability – a broken arm, a respiratory illness, pregnancy. Most will experience a chronic problem with time – arthritis being the most common culprit. Let physically challenged people be seen. Everyone should be able to see themselves in fiction.