Thread by @NataliaSylv

A thread on fitness & ableism.
I love exercise but exercise hasn’t always loved me, or bodies like mine. The fitness & wellness world is full of problematic tendencies: how to participate without contributing to the toxic positivity & ableism so widespread?
#DisabilityPrideMonth

There's a “you can do anything you set your mind to” ideal that, by the same token, perpetuates the belief that disabled people are lazy, that our disabilities or illnesses are all in our heads.

And yet, I want to take up space here. I want it to be better for us.

Because it took me years to get past the physical & emotional trauma of PE & locker rooms & movement never made for me. Bc (for my body, not everyone’s) exercise helps my pain & headspace. Because for years doctors told me what I couldn’t do...

& it’s only recently that I’ve learned to listen to my body for myself. Even when I was “athletic” growing up—on the volleyball team in high school, years of dance—it was with the fear my disability would be “found out,” & all the ways I tried to disguise my body’s limitations

would be exposed & I’d let everyone down. I also didn’t want to be seen as athletic “despite” my disability. I just loved to dance & play volleyball. So I did.

But the games I had to play to feel I belonged were exhausting.

When I was writing Vero's audition for for mermaid troupe in BREATHE & COUNT BACK FROM TEN, I knew she’d make it (this is not a spoiler)—but I wondered if readers would think it “believable” that she beats out other non-disabled athletes for the spot. bit.ly/3O8PAe4

That’s the thing about ableism: people think they know our bodies more than we do. I never want to validate it with an explanation. I have so many of thoughts re: fitness & accessibility & how exercise as a cure-all is harmful & erases disabled people & our varied experiences.

For today, though, this is me & I belong here. #DisabilityPrideMonth