Even With The Excuse Fo Rbubba And Thomas Being That They 'can Make Noise' It Doesnt Mean They Right Away Can Give Full Coherent Sentences - Tumblr Posts

Please stop making mute characters speak in fic

I've been sitting on this and stewing on it for a while but I keep seeing it and it bothers me to no end and it's disability pride month so.

Stop erasing the muteness of characters in fanfic and headcannons.

So often I see fics or hcs where a character that's canonly mute or nonverbal or semiverbal is just suddenly completely able to talk normally and are just like...shy or soft spoken. It's messed up, and it's ableist.

Making a mute character a selective/situational mute is excusable in some cases, but if a characters muteness is a vital part of them, why are you changing that?

Why do you feel like you're so super Y/N special that a mute/nonverbal person would just get over it and fully talk to you because you're ✨special✨ ??? Or is just it that writing muteness is just inconvenient or annoying for you??

Sure, most mutes can speak, I certainly can and I certainly do when I'm comfortable and have the energy. But I'm not cured of my disorder because there's situations where I can talk or people that I can talk to. I'm still a mute, I still go nonverbal, that doesn't go away because it annoys someone or because I'm comfortable talking around some people.

Seeing muteness/nonverbality consistently erased across fandom is so fucking disheartening. It makes me feel even more that my muteness and/or nonverbality is annoying and inconvenient and something to be "fixed" than I already do.

Erasing a disability because you don't know how to write it or you think you or your oc is so goddamn special that it'll just be gone when your blorbo falls for you/them is ableist and it's fucked up. And real people with these conditions or disabilities are going to see that and feel like a burden in a place that's meant to free us from that feeling because we already deal with it every day out in the real world.

If you can't write it, figure it out or don't write that character at all. Get better.