The Rise of the C-Punk Movement

Mel Kennedy

Trigger warning: this article uses a potentially offensive term

Associated most with the movement in the 1970s, punk is a genre known for its hatred of the establishment and acts as a base to air frustration, hatred, and anger. Known for being loud and often considered aggressive, punk bands like the Sex Pistols were shouting their way across the UK, smashing up their instruments and equipment as they ‘bashed’ the government and caused anarchy. The fashion was loud, bold, and demanded attention.

In 2014, a disabled punk movement for physically disabled people known as Cripple Punk, Cr*pple punk or c-punk began on Tumblr in 2014. The founder was Tyler, a young person who posted a photo of themselves using a cane and smoking a cigarette, which was met with negativity because many assumed that their disability was caused by the smoking. Many other physically disabled people took selfies to show their support using the hashtag #cripplepunk.

The movement actively rejects the labels society places on physically disabled people, drawing on the anger and frustration with the establishment and helping other physically disabled people to fight ableism – both external ableism and internalised ableism. It fights the ‘Good Disabled’ narrative, or the ‘good cripple mythos’; the idea that disabled people are either inspirational or pitiable.

C-Punk is a movement of accepting individual physical disability and challenging the narrative of an ableist world. Search #cripplepunk and the stories of other disabled people will appear, people who have felt emboldened enough to go out with their aids without feeling shame, inspired to write songs, create art, talk about their experiences, pictures of badges and t-shirts with slogans on, wheelchairs and canes with spikes and decoration.

The full description on Urban Dictionary is as follows:

“A movement that is exclusively by the physically disabled for the physically disabled. It’s about rejecting pity, inspiration porn, & all other forms of ableism. It ejects the “good cripple” mythos. Cripple Punk is here for the bitter cripple, the uninspirational cripple, the smoking cripple, the drinking cripple, the addict cripple, the cripple who hasn’t “tried everything.” Cripple Punk fights internalized ableism & fully supports those struggling with it. It respects intersections of race, culture, gender, sexual/romantic orientation, size, intersex status, mental illness/neuroatypical status, survivor status, etc. Cripple Punk does not pander to the able bodied.”

the ‘rules’ of the movement:

· cripple punk is not conditional on things like mobility aids & “functioning levels”

· always listen to those w/ different physical disabilities & different intersections than yourself. do not speak over them

· disabled people do not need to personally identify w/ the words “cripple” or “punk” individually to be a part of cripple punk

· able bodied people wishing to spread the message may only ever amplify the voices of the disabled

· able bodied people may never use uncensored slurs themselves but never censor our language

· able bodied people must always tag things like reblogs with “i’m able bodied”

· physically disabled people wanting to be a part of the movement who are uncomfortable using the slur may refer to it as “cpunk”

C-Punk carries on a legacy born from the disability movement and one of its best-known slogans ‘p*ss on pity’. A song inspired by the movement is DisabledAF (Disabled & Proud) with a closing line that speaks volumes for the movement – ‘I’ll be disabled as f**k until I die’.

We are not ashamed.

C-Punk isn’t just a movement, it’s a lifestyle.

Note:

Tyler sadly passed away in 2017 – they were credited on their Tumblr account as ‘the original cripple punk’.

References:

Tyler (n.d.). disgaybled. [online] crpl-pnk.tumblr.com. Available at: http://crpl-pnk.tumblr.com/.

The Rebelwheels NYC Youtube Show. (n.d.). CREATIVE CHALLENGE! [online] Available at: https://rebelwheelsnycshow.tumblr.com/post/169474350410/creative-challenge-sing-this-song-at-protests [Accessed 3 Jan. 2021].

Urban Dictionary. (2019). Urban Dictionary: Cripple Punk. [online] Available at: https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Cripple%20Punk [Accessed 3 Jan. 2021