“Teratical: a coining for people who want to resist/subvert ideas of “monstrosity”

Teratical: an individual whose appearance is stigmatized in a way that society frames as “monstrous”, who is critical of this framing and seeking to reject/resist/subvert ideas of “monstrosity”. A solidarity-building term for liberation-seeking minorities that are the subjects of teratology: intersex people, disabled people, fat people, people with disfigurements, etc.

The term rhymes with “emphatical”. The word teratical is presently an obscure word in English which means “incredible, marvellous” and shares the root terato- (monstrous) that is used in medicine.

Speaking back to teratology

This is a backdoor way of reclaiming of the root terato- (monstrous)that is used in medicine. Teratology is the study of congenital “defects” and continues to be an active subfield of biomedical research. Some related terms include: teratosis (having such a congenital difference), teratogenesis (the development of a teratosis), and teratogen (an environmental substance which causes teratogenesis).

The scope of teratology as a discipline has long included intersex people, people with disfigurements, and a large variety of disabilities. It includes environmental teratoses (e.g. fetal alcohol syndrome) and genetic ones (e.g. Down syndrome). It’s worth noting that teratology has consistently included the study of people whose “monstrous” traits emerged over the course of their life span. Intersex variations which first become apparent at puberty have reliably been within the scope of teratology: congenital means you were born on this path, not necessarily that it was visible at birth.

While fatness, madness, and acquired disfigurements (e.g. burn survivors) haven’t consistently been within the scope of teratology, the point here is for us teratical folks to reframe the conversation. I don’t see a need to limit ourselves to the traditional scope of teratology. Fat people, burn survivors, mad folks, and anybody else who feels the spectre of monstrosity can use the term.

Why coin this term?

Because I want a way to talk about the shared history of intersex, disfigurement, and disability. I want a way for us to talk about our common political struggles. And I want a way to do it on Tumblr without invoking the Discourse around the term crip.

There’s an academic niche which takes a critical disability lens to the concept of monstrosity (monstrosity studies), and I think it’d be nice to be able to tap into that while working to build solidarity between the intersex, fat, mad, disability, and disfigurement communities.

@scifimagpie contributes a verb form, teraticalizing: to subvert notions of monstrosity in ways connected to disability/intersex/fat/etc justice/liberation. In the same vein of how queering and cripping are verbs used to subvert binaries and ideas about ability.

Flag details

The flag is inspired by the Disability Pride Flag and the Crip Pride Flag. Its stripes represent:

• Yellow: the affirmation model of disability. Our existence is not a tragedy. Our lives and our unique viewpoints are valuable. Our bodies are beautiful.
• Blue: the social model of disability. It’s not us who are the monsters: the monstrosity we face is the oppression we face.
• Olive (yellow-green): the eco-social model of disability. The social model focuses on how the interactions we have in our daily lives disable us. The eco-social model winds back the clock to point out that we can be disabled by social decisions made long before we were born. For example, lead pollution in POC communities is a social cause of disability. I think of this model as “social determinants of health” meets environmental justice meets disability studies.
• Purple: the social construction model of disability. “Disability”, “intersex”, and related categories are created by humans, and who is and isn’t included in the categories changes over time and across cultures. Beauty is also socially constructed.
• Cerise (pink-red): the radical model of disability. Disability is socially constructed, but in practice we disabled people don’t actually get to control the definition of disability. So let’s focus on who experiences ableism. Ableism does not act alone: it shares a deep history with racism and cisheteroperinormativity. 

You can learn more about these (and other) models of disability on their Wikipedia page! (Full disclosure: I created and wrote the bulk of the text in the article 😅).

Sub-coinings

While I’m in term coining mode, I thought I’d get the ball rolling on some subtypes:

• Interteratical: teratical in a way that is linked to being intersex (e.g. “bearded lady” presentation of hyperandrogenism, Klinefelter’s)
• Neuroteratical: teratical in a way which is neurological, such as tremors, paralysis, seizures, dyspraxia, autism, etc.
• Musculoskeleteratical: teratical in a way which is musculoskeletal (e.g. brachydactyly, hip dysplasia, kyphoscoliosis)
• Syndesmoteratical: teratical in a way connected to a connective tissue disorder (e.g. EDS, Marfan’s)
• Dermoteratical: teratical in a way which is dermatological (e.g. albinism, vitiligo)
• Fat-teratical: teratical in a way which is linked to being fat
• Mad-teratical / psychoteratical: teratical in a way which is mad/mental
• Enviroteratical: teratical in a way which is linked to environmental causes (e.g. lead)
• Genoteratical: teratical in a way which is genetic (e.g. Down Syndrome, CAH)
• Cryptoteratical: teratical in a way which is unknown or unclear (credit: @scifimagpie)
• Racioteratical: teratical in a way which is amplified by being racialized

Flags and additional subcoinings on demand. 💜

Tagging for archival: @disabilityflagsarchive @disabilityflags @mad-pride @varsex-pride @radiomogai @liom-archive @interarchive”

Coined by intervex on October 5, 2024.