: Re: How can I portray body horror and still be sensitive to people with disabilities? Building on my answer in Proven psychological or scientific means of scaring people?, I'm working on a universal
To the best of my understanding, the main problem with the zombie genre is that it positions decay-disease-disability as non-human evil to be eradicated, and as a threat to humankind. (I don't necessarily agree with that statement, but that appears to be what the guy in the video you link to is saying.)
If we accept that premise, the way to write more PC body horror would be to break this connection. Some examples of how one can do that:
Maybe you tell the story from the POV of the zombie. His yesterday friends and family treat him as humans usually treat zombies in the genre, only he isn't in fact a crazy monster hungry for human flesh. (Doesn't have to be specifically zombies. The subject of being unfairly marginalised because of one's disability would be familiar to the group you want to build up.)
Maybe the story isn't about surviving/defeating the monster, but about finding a cure. Maybe the MC has to observe his own degeneration, or the degeneration of a loved one.
Maybe what is being inflicted on the victims is not "ugliness", but beauty - some dictator makes everyone look like Holywood actors, against their will.
Those are just off the top of my head, more examples can be found.
More posts by @Steve161
: Dead children in pre-modern setting The reality of pre-Industrial Revolution times was that about half the children born died before age 5. It would be a mistake to think that parents cared
: In the background of the Future As I've mentioned multiple times, I'm writing a military sci-fi novel. The focus of the story is war, and that happens far away from Earth. However, I'm starting
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