"Spoonie" is a term for people with chronic illnesses that result in a limited amount of energy: for more information, see this amazing article here.
This meme is based on similar memes that include pictures of animals with text applicable to a certain group of people; the animal here is a sloth, and the group of people are spoonies.
I think that spoonies and sloths are viewed in similar ways by nonspoonies and nonsloths: people see both groups as lazy. This is very unfair: spoonies and sloths cannot help the fact that we need more sleep than healthy humans, and we cannot change our biology. It upsets me how we used the word "sloth" to mean "lazy" and how people see sloths as some kind of joke because I relate to them so much. If sloths were truly lazy, then they would not have survived to this day. Sloths may sleep a lot, but they still have biological/evolutionary advantages: their claws give them the ability to live in the trees, for example.
One of my biggest inspirations for this project was the spoon theory, cited above, which helped bring together an internet culture of people with chronic illnesses that lead to fatigue. Another was chronic illness cat, which is similar to this meme but on a larger scale including all chronic illnesses.
One of the beautiful things about chronic illness cat is how it gives those with chronic illness the opportunity to laugh at the difficulties we face, and how it connects those of us with it. There have been many times where I've seen a chronic illness cat image and thought "yes! I'm not alone!" That feeling that you aren't alone is one of the best things about memes.
To make the meme, I used the website Meme Maker to make sure that I had the font correct. I wanted to use the colored backgrounds seen in memes such as chronic illness cat, but I wanted to capture the branch that the sloth in this picture was sleeping on, and a colored background didn't feel right.
In our class, I really enjoyed Yasmeen's self-concept. I enjoy the vulnerability and openness she showed with her emotions.
I love how she was confident enough to be vulnerable with her art.
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