At the end of the Hell Year of 2021, a post on Reddit's famous'AmITheAsshole?'subintroducedtheworldtothe dim orange cat, Jorts, his smart tortie friend Jean, their well-meaning but misguided friend Pam and their supervisor. The post, and its legendary update, gave us all alittlejoyandlaughterinthelastdaysofaterribleyear.
My ridiculous brain couldn't let go of the obvious (to me) workplaceaccommodationsmade,andtheloveandcarefor a colleague whose skills lay outside the norm. So it didn't let me rest until I wrote this article, which went a little viral after Jorts shared it. I assumed it was going to be mocked for taking something fun and turning it into somethingserious,soIdidn'tspendanytimeeditingit,but the opposite happened. People from all over the world started talking about 'buttering the cat'—giving people accommodations they don't need (and which often make thingsworse)insteadoflisteningtowhattheydoneed.
Jorts has gone on to become an icon for workers' rights and organised labour, Jean is the anticapitalist claw behind the soft paw, and 'buttering the cat' is now standard lexicon in thedisabilitycommunity.
(The first draft was called 'Jean And Jorts: the extended metaphor for workplace accommodations nobody needed but my brain insisted on ' , but Jorts got in touch tosayJeanthoughtpeopledidneedtohearitandhe'dshareifIchangedthetitle)
Jean & Jorts: the extended metaphor for workplace accommodations nobody asked for
I tried so hard not to write this, but one of the problems with having a writing brain is that it just goes and does its own thing, running headfirst down dark alleyways and into cornfields to see what connections it can make. After four hours of trying to sleep with my dickhead brain writing this behind my eyes, here you go: Jean and Jorts As MetaphorForDisabilityAccommodations.
I really don’t have the will to structure this as a properly argued piece because it’s mostly a joke extended well past breaking point, so I’m just going to headline the comparisons and add some pictures of my own very silly orangeboyasanincentivetokeepreading.
ThisisTaliesin. Heoftenlooks likethis.
This is almost entirely tongue-in-cheek, though I do harbour a tiny hope it might get the point across to some peopleasthegeneralabledpublichaveamuchgreaterwill to grasp disability in animals than in people (‘look at this doggie living his best life now he has wheels!’ vs ‘look at the poor unfortunate wheelchair-bound human invalid’; Noodle the dog has a variable condition and can do things some days (yay!) and some days needs to rest and be cared for (also yay!) vs ‘you are clearly just faking because you coulddothisthingyesterdayandnowyousayyoucan’t’).
Caveat: we are obviously, for the purposes of humour and space, leaving aside the ‘orange cats and ethnic minority sensitivity’ aspects (thought that was just an issue for certain weirdos in Scottish politics), and we are ignoring for the moment the language used very affectionately about the orange *cat* regarding his intelligence or lack of, becausehe’sacatand,whilewe’remappingreactions,heis *stillacat*.
The saga of Jean, Jorts, Pam and the unnamed supervisor gives us both a lot of joy and a useful depiction of different approachestoworkplaceaccommodationsfordisability.
Jean the tortie cat is a smart, sensible, caring employee of what appears from comments to be some kind of facility where trauma is managed. Jorts, while neither smart nor sensible, is just as much of a valued and effective worker, because the job is matched to his skills, abilities and interests. Jorts enjoys belly rubs, sleeping on boots, and getting cups stuck on his head, but his key skill is his friendliness. He is there to comfort, engage and reassure people and he does his job very well. It doesn’t matter that he doesn’t have the same skills that Jean has, because she isfillingthatroleandheisfillinghis.
Taloften getshimself stuckinside theradiator bed,and Spritewas notnearlyas helpfulas Jean.
Theideaweallhavetobeperfectsuper-employeeswhocan do everything is exclusionary, and many disabled people wouldbeabletohavemeaningfulcareersifwewereableto match our skills and abilities to work rather than being dismissed out of hand because we aren’t able to do, say, a full-time job or need to work from home, or can’t do heavy lifting even though that’s not part of the job (a standard trickofjobrequirementstoweedoutdisabledcandidates). Jorts has important, valuable skills and he is being allowed to thrive in a workplace which sees him and rewards him forthem.
Jorts has an excellent employer who recognises their duty to provide accommodations to make the workplace more accessible for employees who need assistance. It is the obligation of the employer to create access, rather than the employee to ‘fix’ themselves. If an employee struggles to open doors and accidentally locks coworkers into closets because of this, a doorstop is a perfect solution – it doesn’t requireobservationorpermission,itmakestheclosetsafer for both the disabled employee and their coworkers, and it doesn’t require the disabled employee (cat) to beg for assistanceeverytimetheyneedhelp.Obviously,ifyouhave a human employee who is locking their coworkers in closets,pleasecallHRandpossiblysecurity.
Of course, the tension in the post arises from Pam’s insistence that Jorts needs to ‘learn’ to open doors, or groom himself, or do the other things which are not in his job description but which are ‘for his own good’ even though he has found support and solutions which work for him. Unfortunately, Unnamed Supervisor’s approach is actually quite rare in workplaces, and Pam’s is much more common. Disabled people are taken on as projects, or as charity. The aim is to teach us to be more ‘normal’ rather than to allow disabled people to determine our own needs and solutions. We probably have a good reason for sleeping inaboottrayinsteadofonafluffybed.IassumeJortsdoes, because I know Tal here has refused every single comfortable bed I’ve ever bought him in favour of sleeping inweirdpositionsontheedgesofshelves.
Oh,excepttheDeathStar.He’llsleepintheDeathStar.
Yes. People like Pam are well-meaning. They want to help us,andthinkthisisthewaytodoit.However,itshowsshe does not see Jorts as a coworker equal to herself, worthy of respect and autonomy. From the thread responses, it seems like she has worried that Jorts’ lack of specific skills might make him less valued to her boss than Jean, who has been thereforsometimeandhasmorewell-recognisedskillsets, but Pam has missed that everyone else already does treat Jorts as an equal member of the team and it’s her fixation onhis‘failings’whichiscausingherconcern.ThisisaPam problem, not a Jorts one, but that doesn’t mean Jorts doesn’t get hurt in the process of being used as a fixerupper.
And it isn’t just Jorts who gets hurt. Jean has had an uncomfortable health issue triggered which required medical treatment. This could be looked at as an example of a phenomenon known as the ‘disability dongle’, a term coined by Liz Jackson to describe abled people deciding to invent something they think will help disabled people, without considering the disabled people’s needs or how it will actually work in practice. Usually we’re talking about robot exoskeletons to climb stairs instead of, you know, ramps and lifts, and the disability dongle is typically a tech solution,butI’mjustgoingtosquintabitandmakeitfit.
Pam identified something she sees as a problem: Jorts not grooming himself very well. Even though Jorts has already worked out a solution for this – Jean helps him groom himself and seems happy to do so, and the employers are willing to get grooming care support if needed – Pam thinks he needs to be taught how to do it, because she assumes the issue is that he doesn’t know rather than there’s some kind ofotherbarrier.Shelooksitupandfindsthebuttersolution usedbysomepeoplewhohavecatswhodonothaveaJeanto help.
Now, here’s the thing: instead of using butter, which is at least a recognised (if somewhat arbitrary) solution, she decides that margarine is a reasonable substitution. She does not check whether cats are able to consume margarine safely, or what the side-effects might be, because she assumes she knows what she needs to know. Margarine can be substituted for butter in cooking, so must be the same when applied to cats, right? Poor Jean will tell you this is not the case, once she is allowed out of thecloset.
OursolutionstoTal’sdesireforwaterdonot fithisneeds,ashetellsusatfourinthe morningeverymorning.
Abled people spend a significant amount of time designing things they just assume will work for disabled people because they think that disability awareness is a matter of *morals*andnotpracticality.Theythinkthat‘beingagood person and having good intentions’ is enough to understand what’s needed, because they’re trying, and that’stheimportantthing.
Nope.
The important thing is that it actually provides a solution to a problem, and if you don’t speak to disabled people before buttering them with margarine, you may find a horde of angry people who don’t really care that you thoughtyouweredoingagoodthingwithyourweirdramp if it’s so steep it’ll tip a person into traffic, or your metal studs in the pavement help one group of people while providingamajorsliphazardforothers.
1 – workplace accommodations are the employer’s obligation and should be suited to the needs of the employeeinawaywhichprovidesdignityandfairness.
2–mostpeoplehaveskillsandabilitieswhicharevaluable and, if they are not forced into a generic box where they areexpectedtoshowcapacitytheydon’thave,willthrivein therightrole.
3 – hiring disabled people is not charity – we provide value and labour – and we are not there to be ‘fixed’ or to learn how to be ‘normal’. We are there to work, and we are human. I mean, Jorts isn’t. He’s still a cat. You get what I meanthough.
4 – actually speak to disabled people about what they need before implementing your own ideas about what you think willbenefitus.
5–donotapplymargarinetoyourcoworkers.
6 – my brain is ridiculous but I’ve done it now so I’m going tobed.
Talhelps.In the wonderful way #DisabilityTwitter has of doing things, has been created as a way of asking ‘is the thing you’re doing because you want to be helpful actually hurting people?’
‘areyouactuallyhelping orareyoubutteringthecat?’
AndafriendhascreatedtheTamarianphrase to signify a person whose access needs have all been met andwhoissupported.
I love people. humans (including Pam, yes, be good thing and is learninghow
‘Jorts,hisfurunbuttered’
Q: What if I don't know what accommodations I need, or theyvarydaytoday?
I've been doing this a long time and still when I had my student support assessment, they offered things I'd not even considered but which helped so much! So a lot of it is having experienced, preferably disabled people deciding what's 'reasonable'.
If you don't have that, which is expected because it's vanishingly rare, then asking #DisabilityTwitter what accommodations have worked for them is useful, especially if youfeelcomfortabledescribingwhatyoustrugglewith.
There's also this brilliant resource from The Job Accommodation Network which lists types of disabilities and suggested accommodations (not exhaustive, obviously, but tonsofideastoworkfrom):
https://askjan.org/a-to-z.cfm
And as for changing needs - that's the reality for many, and it's long past time workplaces began to catch up. Once accommodations are seen as both rights and something which facilitates success, we can treat them as an ongoing conversationratherthananadversarialbattle
Q:WherecanIfindoutmoreaboutJortsandJean?
You can follow Jorts on Twitter at @JortsTheCat, where he posts regular photos of both kitties and tells stories about falling in trashcans, supporting workers and how to unionise.
Q:WherecanIfindoutmoreofyourwork?
Youcanfindmeathttps://linktr.ee/FionaRobertson,where all my contact details are along with links to my blog, poetry and the free zine 'Your Life Is Not Over: A Book Of Apocalypses And How To Survive Them' I wrote for newly disabled people with poetry and a lot of tips and tricks on adaptingIwishI'dknownatthebeginning.
Thanks,firstofall,toJortsandJean.Thankyou forbeingsuchalightandforallyoudofor workers'rights.
Thankyoualsotothedisabilitycommunity,whokeepme educated,laughing,ragingandalive.
Thankstomyfamily:DougforbeingmyJean,Talfor beingsuchagoodkitty,andSpritefortheyearswewere abletoshare.Wemissyou.
ThankstoTheresaAntoffformanyoftheimagesand printsinthiszineandforputtingupwithmegushing aboutanotherinternetcat.
Thanksto@ginfizzesforcoining'BecomeUnbutterable'.
Doodlevectoronthefrontcoverbyrawpixel.comvia www.freepik.com
Otherimageseitherphotosbyme,orphotosofJortsand Jeanrunthroughhttps://www.deeparteffects.com/
Before Jorts the Cat was a workers' rights leader, he was just a sweet potato doing essential work withhisfriendJean.
The world found out about him when a wellmeaning coworker buttered him, trying to fix him, but Jorts didn't need fixing! He just needed to have his particular skills and struggles adaptedto,likeallofus.
I wrote a ridiculous article about what we can learn from how Jorts' boss dealt with the situation,anditbecameathing.