A rant. / TW

Look at the parents status statistics.

Most of the Disney princesses' trauma is losing one or both parents, which is I would say quite rare IRL. There's a similar tendency in anime.

But you know what is fucking underrepresented yet really common IRL?! Having both parents, they're married, but living in horrible conditions like poverty.

Now, guess where I first saw my trauma represented.

In South Park.

In fucking South Park.

In an adult show.

I saw some animes semi-represent it but they were still like... in Maid-sama the father left and stuff. 

And for years I thought my trauma was not valid because I had both parents, who cares that I was mistreated and so poor my parents were scared of CPS.

But you know what? I moved out for a reason. 

I understand why you may not show SA trauma on a children's show, but still, the fact I had no one to relate to as a child still stung., & I don't see why poverty could not be shown on a children's show. Well, there was some poverty sometimes, yes, but almost always it was due to the character losing their parents and not the character being raised by - let's face it - stereotypical white trash having welfare babies. And this is really common yet people are embarrassed to admit to it, because all cool people I met, and all cool characters I saw on TV were all rich, and even if they were poor, it wasn't due to white trash parents, it was due to losing their parent(s). OFC I know children's shows won't show white trash drinking, but not all white trash drink, some are just lazy or unfit. And it's fucking common for children to be born as welfare babies into such families.

And in real life?! No one talks about poverty. I kept hearing from kids at school about their parents divorcing but no one would admit to being poor. That's why I'm admitting because some people might fucking need it. Just because you have a "full" family doesn't mean it's a good one. They might be abusive. They might be white trash, or just impoverished in general. They might be negligent. They might be toxic. They might be overprotective and nosy. Both parents =/= perfect life. 

Now tell me, was my life really not traumatising?

I lived in rotting, moldy houses with gas leaks and rats, possibly rabid rats running in my walls, at some point I didn't have a toilet, the house I lived in as a toddler was later demolished due to how dangerous that was, it was literally like a ghetto place or something. I didn't have my own room until I was 15, I lived not only with my siblings but also my parents in one cold bedroom. I didn't feel at home at my own house. I prayed for CPS to take me and my siblings away. I didn't receive enough love and affection and had to raise my sister at some point, because my grandpa was so sick my parents had no time for us. My parents used to starve themselves just to feed me and my siblings. And it's only thanks to my grandfather, God bless his soul, that we didn't end up homeless at one point.

So yeah, both parents = perfect life, right?!

I also saw cases of people being poor, but having a single mother and no siblings, like my best friend. Their lives from what I see (ignoring other traumas OFC) are often better than what I've been through. Simply because they might not earn as much as other families, but they don't have many people to raise. While "white trash" have way too many children to actually take care of. My best friend's mother doesn't earn much, but she still managed to get her daughter a place in a private school. IDK, this is kind of like in this episode wherew we see what I'm on about.

I doubt anyone will read this, but anyway, if you did, thanks for coming to my ted talk and remember your trauma is valid no matter what media shows you. :)