This post contains mentions of the Holocaust, ableism, and eugenics. Please do not read if you are sensitive to these topics.
—————————————
There have been conversations regarding whether the term Asperger’s should still be used in the autism community. This post will explain the biggest issue I and other people have with the label. There’s no way to gently segue into this so I’m just going to start.
The term Asperger’s was coined by an actual Nazi. Hans Asperger worked with the Nazis during the Holocaust. He saved some children who he deemed intelligent enough by giving them the label of Asperger’s and sent the rest of the kids to die.
Some people call him a hero for saving kids during the Holocaust, but he sent children to be murdered because he saw them as genetically inferior. He saw some of us as a “hardly bearable burden” to our families. He believed that they should be put out of our misery.
I do not believe allistics should use the term Asperger’s to describe an autistic person. I do not believe that autistic people should use it for themselves either. However, I’m not saying that you should assume someone is a bad person for using it. I figure that most do not know the history. There are autistics who use the term for various reasons even knowing the history, which I heavily disagree with.
And I’m not the only one who feels this way. I learned this from listening to Jewish autistic people speak on the subject. If you are not Jewish, it is best to listen to those who have the authority on the matter.
Here is a video of a Jewish autistic person explaining how use of this label harms not only Jewish autistics, but autistic people as a whole. She also makes a very good point about Asperger’s being a functioning label.
Here is an article about Hans Asperger being a Nazi.
Some of the information here is correct. However, Asperger did not name the condition he studied after himself. He actually called it “autistic psychopathy,” back when psychopathy meant something different than it does today. A psychologist named Lorna Wing named Asperger’s Syndrome after him decades before it was clear that he was a Nazi. (Source: Neurotribes by Steve Silberman, paperback edition)
To be absolutely clear, I don’t think what Asperger did was okay. It’s just important to be accurate in informational posts.
This post contains mentions of the Holocaust, ableism, and eugenics. Please do not read if you are sensitive to these topics.
—————————————
There have been conversations regarding whether the term Asperger’s should still be used in the autism community. This post will explain the biggest issue I and other people have with the label. There’s no way to gently segue into this so I’m just going to start.
The term Asperger’s was coined by an actual Nazi. Hans Asperger worked with the Nazis during the Holocaust. He saved some children who he deemed intelligent enough by giving them the label of Asperger’s and sent the rest of the kids to die.
Some people call him a hero for saving kids during the Holocaust, but he sent children to be murdered because he saw them as genetically inferior. He saw some of us as a “hardly bearable burden” to our families. He believed that they should be put out of our misery.
I do not believe allistics should use the term Asperger’s to describe an autistic person. I do not believe that autistic people should use it for themselves either. However, I’m not saying that you should assume someone is a bad person for using it. I figure that most do not know the history. There are autistics who use the term for various reasons even knowing the history, which I heavily disagree with.
And I’m not the only one who feels this way. I learned this from listening to Jewish autistic people speak on the subject. If you are not Jewish, it is best to listen to those who have the authority on the matter.
Here is a video of a Jewish autistic person explaining how use of this label harms not only Jewish autistics, but autistic people as a whole. She also makes a very good point about Asperger’s being a functioning label.
Here is an article about Hans Asperger being a Nazi.
I want to preface this whole thing by saying that valid criticism of karl is absolutely okay. mentioning that he travels unnecessarily during covid is okay. saying that he’s made some jokes in poor taste is okay. giving consructive criticism about tftsmp is okay.
what is not okay, is the way that our community talks about and treats karl. and as a neurodivergent person, I refuse to sit back and hold my tongue while people are ableist to him.
for anyone who doesn’t know, karl has adhd. I’m unsure the exact source on that, but he has mentioned it before. just throwing that out there.
firstly, one of the most common criticisms of karl that I see is that he’s too hyper, loud, and/or annoying, or that he talks too much. I’m going to break these down one-by-one just to show you why it’s so weird to say that.
calling karl annoying: probably the most obvious one. this is basically saying that when he expresses his neurodivergent symptoms, that’s just a bother and an annoyance, which is really ableist and upsetting to hear.
calling karl too hyper: karl just moves around a lot? and only in certain situations. when he’s excited, when he’s anxious, when he finds something funny, he’ll start moving around in his chair a lot or even stand up and crouch on top of it. on top of that, there are multiple instances of him happy-stimming on stream. karl moves around a lot, yes. but that isn’t a bad thing.
calling karl too loud: if it’s hard on your ears, turn your headphones down. people with adhd have a hard time with volume control, so sometimes end up shouting or whispering without really meaning to. and every person with adhd I know gets super loud when they’re excited.
saying karl talks too much: this one makes me shake with frustration because the same people saying karl talks too much are the same people praising dream/wilbur/ranboo for infodumping. why? probably because those three creators do it in a “cuter” (read: less intense) way than karl. when karl infodumps or talks a lot, it’s very messy and all over the place, and neurotypicals don’t like looking at that.
ableism against karl compared to it against other ccs is astounding. and what’s even more disturbing about it is that karl isn’t getting that ableist treatment when he acts like other neurodivergent ccs and acts like a “soft boy.” then everyone is fawning over him and infantilizing him. but once he starts getting louder and more openly neurodivergent, everyone flips so fast to saying he takes nothing seriously, that he’s a clout-chaser, that he’s annoying.
I’mso tired of people saying all this nasty stuff about karl and getting away with it just because this fandom excuses ableism. ableism has become so normalized that it’s started to get out of control.
I don’t know if I already reblogged something similar but I’ll reblog it again
ID: Stop saying OCD when you mean organised. Stop saying depressed when you mean sad. Stop saying ADHD when you mean easily distracted. Stop saying traumatic when you mean inconvenient. Stop saying anorexic when you mean skinny. Stop saying phobic when you mean uncomfortable. Stop saying bipolar when you mean moody. Stop saying schizophrenic when you mean unpredictable. Stop saying psychotic when you mean irrational. Stop saying sociopathic when you mean cruel. Stop saying autistic when you mean foolish or strange. Stop saying triggered when you mean upset or offended. end ID
Cara Reedy’s Being a Little Person in America: ‘We’re Still Treated as Less Than Human’ details the discrimination that people with dwarfism face, and the history that fuels it.If you’re looking to learn about the lives of little people today, I highly recommend this short documentary!!
“There is violence in objectifying people and their bodies. It’s not inspirational that we had to trade on our appearance in order to make a living”
“The oppression of little people deeply rooted in American culture is one of the last accepted forms of discrimination”
Video description start.
A video by The Guardian titled: Being a Little Person in America: ‘We’re still treated as less than human’. The video follows and is narrated by Cara Reedy, a Black woman with achondroplastic dwarfism.
The opening sequence follows Cara as she walks into an NYC subway station and gets on a train. Cara’s narration says: “My name is Cara Reedy. I’m a writer and podcaster living in New York City. I’m also one of an estimated 90,000 people with dwarfism in the US. As a dwarf, or little person as it’s sometimes called, my body is always on display. I’m stared at, followed, had the word midget screamed at me and been discriminated against at work.” Several video clips from other sources of dwarves are shown. One shows someone dancing on a stage. The next is from the Jerry Springer show. A banner on the bottom says, “Stick situations”, and the clip shows two dwarves fighting in an inflatable pool while a show host and audience watch and cheer.
The next shot shows Cara looking out the window of a car as the narration says, “From the way I’ve been treated and from the way the media still portrays us, it still seems acceptable to treat us as something less than human. I’m on a journey to understand why and to find out what it means to be a little person in America today.”
Cara is briefly seen walking on the pavement with another dwarf, and then the video cuts to a sequence of other dwarves talking briefly. These clips go as follows:
A woman sitting on a white couch says, “Little people are kind of like, the last acceptable blackface.”
A wrestling ring with two dwarves and a referee is shown. Narration says, “We believe the same, our hearts are the same, we’re just little, we’re just short stature.” The speaker is shown to be a bald man.
A dwarf woman walks with her husband, who is pushing a stroller. Accompanying them are two kids on scooters and Cara.
A new speaker says, “We need to be allowed to tell others what it means to be a little person.” A dwarf in a motorised wheelchair is shown lecturing a university class. They are revealed to be the speaker and say, “So that’s what we’re fighting for.”
The title card shows underlined white text on a black background that reads: “Dwarfism and Me”. The next shot is a view of traffic from a car with text that says, “St Louis, Missouri.” Cara is shown riding in a car with text that introduces her as a journalist. Her narration says, “I’ve come back to my home of St Louis to understand how the perception of my own dwarfism began.”
Cara greets and hugs a Black man with a cane and an older man getting out of a car. Her narration explains, “I was born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism.” She and her family are shown sitting on a couch. Her father, Sidney Reedy, says, “The first thing that happened, you’ve just been delivered and I thought, ‘oh what a gorgeous child.’” Several clips of baby Cara with various nurses are shown as her father says, “And the aide said, ‘oh my God, look at her, look what’s wrong with her!’ ‘Look at that, look at that.’ Well, two other aides hustled him out of the room.” Back on the couch, Cara asks, “What did you guys feel like? What happened?” Sidney replies, “We looked at her and we were like, ‘are you blind? This is a perfect child. She’s gorgeous.”
Cara’s mother says, “My first instinct was to protect you because I knew, you know, that it wasn’t gonna be easy.” A brief shot is shown of baby Cara with her mother, followed by several still images. The first is of an older Cara sitting at a school table with classmates. The second is one of her being carried bridal style by a teenage boy. The third is of her at some event with several classmates. Her narration says, “Once I get to high school, it changed, when I really started to feel it at like 14, 15.”
On the couch Sidney says, “Do you remember and we went to the Natural History Museum, maybe, in Chicago? There was a group of Cub Scouts. One of the cubs saw you and pointed you out to the others.” Cara nods, and Sidney continues, “Well, the display cases were large and you were trying to kind of duck around the display case. And that was just—” Cara cuts in and says, “That used to be my tactic, was to hide behind things to like get away. You don’t want to be seen and, like, pointed at.”
As she continues speaking, more photos are shown. One shows her with three friends, presumably her friend and their respective prom dates. The next is a photo of young Cara in a white dress with flowers in her hair. Cara’s narration says, “It was the first time I realised that people don’t even realise that they’re prejudiced, they just do things because they think it’s, well, of course this is the way it is.”
The outside of her house is briefly shown, followed by a shot of a basketball hoop. Now outside, Cara says, “There’s no one happier than a happier kid, which I was often, but I also … when there’s disappointment it’s pretty low and I had quite a few knocks. It taught me very early to fight and stand up for myself.” She is shown back inside looking at a photo album with her family. One of the photos shows young Cara with face paint and a red and white apron. Back outside, Cara continues, “When you hit a certain point in your adult years, it does wear you out.”
The next sequence shows Cara on a train. Her narration says, “I want to hear from others in the community, so I’m headed to meet Rebecca Coakley, a former Obama appointee who oversaw diversity efforts from the administration. Two of her children also have dwarfism.” Cara is shown walking up to a house and is welcomed inside by Rebecca, a white woman with dwarfism. Inside, Cara greets a small child with, “Hi.” The child says, “Hi.” Cara says, “How are you?” The child smiles shyly and says, “Good.” The camera briefly pans over to another small child, who is smiling.
A scene of Rebecca in the kitchen is shown, followed by a photo of her with President Obama and a group of others. She is then shown sitting on her couch, with text introducing her as a Disability rights activist. Rebecca’s narration says, “When I worked in the administration, I had a meeting with the civil rights leader who told me that he found it so inspirational that President Obama would hire a handi-capable person like me. You know, it’s a great example of charity that you’re here and I remember just being like, OK we just need to move on at this point because otherwise there’ s going to be an incident, I don’t want an incident.” A shot is shown of her children at the table eating. Back on the couch, she says, “People don’t believe the shit that averages say to us until they actually witness it and then it’s like, they’ve been pulled out of the matrix and they’re like, oh my God. This is a real thing.”
Cara asks, “Why do you think that the prejudice still exists?”
Rebecca replies, “You can’t erase vaudeville, you can’t erase the fact that our people were bought and sold across circuses as actual literal property. The fact that our people were forcibly bred to create more entertainers.” Several black and white clips play. The first is a line of dwarves in wedding clothes. The next is a man and a woman on a stage dancing for a crowd. The next is a dwarf man knocking a man in a fat suit to the ground in front of a group of spectators. Back on the couch, Rebecca continues, “The fact that we still have people perpetuating a lot of that doesn’t help.”
Cara says, “People in our own community.” And Rebecca repeats, “People in our own community.” A clip from a show is shown where several dwarf women in American football jerseys get in a fight, with one grabbing a platter to hit the others with. The next clip shows a dwarf man dancing on a stage with a city skyline backdrop. It is revealed that he is dancing for a panel of judges on a show. Rebecca says, “When you see shows that perpetuate the idea that we’re clowns. That doesn’t make it easier for those of us out here trying to change the world for the better and get humanity to perceive us more as humans.”
A black and white clip is shown of a dwarf in clown makeup shaking a child’s hand. The next is a colourised clip of a dwarf and an average in fighting shorts. The dwarf is circling the average. The next is a colorised clip of a dwarf at a baseball game being handed a bat and throwing it at the ball. Cara says, “The fetishisation of dwarfs has long been part of American popular culture. From the mid-1800s to the mid-1900s, the bodies of little people were objectified as entertainment at sideshows and exhibits. In the early 20th century, midget villages were built. Miniature cities that average-height people could tour and watch people with dwarfism live their daily lives.”
A black and white sequence shows one of these miniature cities, with a few average people walking among a crowd of dwarves in formal wear. The next clip shows an average standing on a box surrounded by other average people. Directly in front of him are a few dwarves, and the average in the middle is saying, “I’m going to show you the size of these little people, by having them sit down one in each one of my hands.” He picks up two of them and shows them to the crowd as he says, “And when you go in here, you’re going to see 158 of them.” A shot of a crowd is shown as Cara says, “America’s obsession with our size has left a lasting and damaging image that has continued to this day.”
Next, Cara is shown walking up to another house. Her narration says, “To understand more, I’ve come to meet Marc Hartzman, a sideshow enthusiast and author.”
Marc opens his door, and he and Cara both say “hi” and “nice to meet you.” Inside, Marc pulls a photo out of a display case and hands it to Cara as he asks, “Did you get Tom Thumb. And his wife?” The photo is a sepia photo of Tom and his wife in their wedding clothes. Cara’s narration says, “He also collects vintage images of dwarves.”
Cara and Marc are shown in his couch. He is introduced as the author of American Sideshow. He is showing her photos in a book as he says, “I think she was the world’s lightest woman. I think ever. These are the wild man of Borneo. But their real names were Barney and Harem Davis of Long Island.”
Cara asks, “What was the attraction seeing little people in sideshows?”
Marc occasionally gestures at his book as he answers, “With anyone in sideshow, it was they were somebody different. Right, so you had the tall people, you had the super-thin people, the very heavy people. Anything that was different and then you have of course the little people. And so this was something you didn’t see very often. Because they thought they were cute little people and ‘look how adorable they are.’ They were unique and they were dressed up like a perfect little miniature adult. I find it inspirational always that these people were able to take the situation they were in and make the most of it and live a life. They were in many ways really extraordinary.”
Cara responds, “To me it kind of dehumanises people that have differences. For you, like, you’re seeing this and like this has changed but for us, we still see this. Like, in our life.” Marc makes a noise of acknowledgement. Cara goes on, “Seeing midget villages that’s something that gets screamed at me a lot. Like, just in the streets and stuff. So when you see it written down and that people were—”
Marc interjects to ask, “The term ‘midget,’ you mean?”
Cara answers, “Oh yeah, like people just scream stuff at me.”
Marc asks, “People really say that at you?”
Cara nods and says, “Every day. Every day.”
Marc says, “That’s amazing. I would think people would look and try not to look.”
Cara says, “It’s just, I see these voyeuristic photos of these people’s bodies, and that’s me going on the subway.”
Marc says, “Right.”
More shots from inside Marc’s house are shown as Cara’s narration says, “I left feeling like Marc didn’t quite understand how harmful sideshows were and their effect on how dwarves continue to be seen. There is violence and objectifying people and their bodies. It’s not inspirational that we had to trade on our appearance in order to make a living.”
A wide shot of a city is shown with underlined white text that says, “Indianapolis, Indiana.” Cara’s narration says, “Remnants of the sideshow continue to exist. In Indianapolis, I’ve come to meet a traveling group of dwarfed wrestlers, called the micro wrestlers.” She is shown walking up to a trailer with a group of people outside, one of whom is an average who shakes her hand. Her narration says, “Jack Hillegass runs the show, a full-scale WWE-type event with an entire cast under five-feet tall.”
The wrestlers are shown exiting the trailer, and then the video cuts to clips inside. Cara’s narration says, “In the venue, there was an excitable, heavy-drinking crowd that more than once mistook me for a wrestler.” She is shown walking through a crowd. The next shot introduces two of the wrestlers, with Cara’s narration saying, “Jacob Brooks is from Mississippi and has been wrestling since high school. He earns $300 a night wrestling under the name Little Show the Redneck Brawler.”
Jacob and Cara are shown talking. Cara asks, “Was this always your dream to be a wrestler?”
Jacob says, “Yeah.”
Cara asks, “Like, this was it?”
Jacob says, “Yeah, this is it. You know, because I don’t really know what else I can do. I mean, I’m pretty good at it. I gonna get up there and do stuff that they’d never thought they’d see a little person do. Because, my man, you know, we bleed the same, our hearts are the same we’re just little. We’re just short stature.” He is shown oiling his leg.
Cara asks, “What was it like growing up? The two of you? As little people, you were the only ones.” The camera pans to a man who is presumably Jacob’s brother.
Jacob answers, “Yeah, like our dad he grew us up, he’s like, look worrying, world’s not gonna feel sorry for you because you’re short. Whenever he found out that we wanna wrestle, he’s like, ‘you sure that’s what y’all want to do?’ I was like, ‘yes, sir!’ He was like, ‘if you go and do it, you’re gonna be the best at it.’”
A clip of the crowd is shown as an announcer says, “Micro camp’s number one, from the barren lands of Mississippi, this is the Redneck Brawler, Little Show.” Jacob is shown approaching the ring in the center of the crowd with his arms raised. Inside the ring, he speaks into a microphone and says something unintelligible, followed by, “I’m going to chew them up and spit them out. Because I am the Redneck Brawler!” At these last words, he points directly at the camera as the crowd cheers.
Cara narrates over shots of the wrestling. She says, “I was ready to hate what I saw but I was impressed by the athleticism and talent of the wrestlers. They fly through the air, fling each other across the ring, jump from the top ropes. But at the same time, there was lots of laughing from the crowd. More than once I heard people say how cute they thought they were, and I couldn’t help but feel that our bodies were yet again being exploited for the sake of entertainment.”
She continues, “Backstage, I spoke to the owner Jack Hillegass.” She is shown talking to Jack, the white average who had shaken her hand outside the trailer. She asks, “What’s the attraction of micro wrestling?”
Text introduces Jack as the co-owner of Micro Championship Wrestling as he says, “It’s not the wrestling. People are here for the little people, and they leave intoxicated because they couldn’t believe the athleticism that they saw.” More wrestling clips are shown.
Cara asks, “Do you ever feel like you’re exploiting little people?”
Jack answers, with a few shots of the wrestlers interspersed with shots of his face. He says, “You can’t exploit someone if they’re doing something they love. You know, these were kids that were born with a disadvantage in life and they were told, you’re not gonna be able to work normal jobs like most people. Now they’re living their dreams as professional wrestlers. This is like my third group of little people who have worked for me and this by far is my most talented and most cohesive group of kids.”
A shot is shown of someone taking a picture of Jack with the wrestlers on a mobile phone. The photographer says “Here we go, one two three, say ‘micro.’” The people being photographed say, “Micro!”
They hug, and then Cara is shown saying, “I left with sort of like a complicated perception. In one hand, like, they’re super athletic, they’re very talented at what they do, so I guess my problem is that when you’ve got a marginalised group, like little people, like us, does it hurt the cause? And I don’t know.” More wrestling clips are shown, and Cara continues, “Do we tell them to stop doing it? Just because some drunk people can’t see past their height. I don’t know. I don’t know.” She shakes her head.
A wide shot of a city is shown with underlined white text that says, “Los Angeles, California.” Cara’s narration says, “Los Angeles, where for generations the image of little people has been defined.”
Cara is shown walking along pavement with a Latina dwarf. Cara’s narration says, “Selena Luna is a Mexican-American actor, who’s trying to change that representation. She’s featured in Pixar’s Coco, starred in Margaret Cho’s the Cho Show and toured with Dita Von Teese’s burlesque show.” Clips from each of these are shown as Cara mentions them.
A building labelled, “Improv comedy club” is shown. Cara’s narration explains, “Lately she’s been focusing on her stand-up comedy career.”
Selena is shown performing on stage. She says, “So over the holidays, I went to a Christmas party with a host, took it upon himself to hire a bunch of little people to dress up as Christmas elves and hand out appetisers. All night, party guests kept coming up to me, it’s like, ‘oh well, where’s your little uniform?’ What? Like a little bitch just can’t be at a party?”
The crowd, including Cara, laughs. In the next sequence, Cara and Selena are sitting on a long white couch in front of a decorated wall with a neon purple sign that says, “Hello darling.” Cara asks, “What’s your view of using your comedy to change the representation game for little people?”
Text introduces Selena as an actress and comedian. She answers, “If I try to illustrate to people that we have regular experiences like anyone else, I mean that’s what I talk a lot about my marriage, you know, I have a normal-sized husband, and I talk about that, and people are shocked that I’m not married to like a Keebler elf, you know?” Cara laughs. Selena goes on, “I don’t understand how little people are kind of like, I don’t know how to say this, the last acceptable blackface in the world portrayed in entertainment as a creature, a mystical monster. Why is it not important for little people to be represented in a dignified manner?”
Cara says, “I think everybody who has support for us has to kind of come out of that and work through it and it can take a really long time. When did you have that moment where you were like, I’m going to figure this out?”
Selena answers, “When I was 35 years old, where I turned the corner and I finally accepted this is my circumstance, I need to live with it without anger, without resentment and create a life for myself that I create, that I make work without depending on outside validation.”
Cara is shown in the back of a car. The city goes by as her narration says, “Like Selena, I had to push past my own anger to create a positive identity for myself.”
The next shot is from the back of a university lecture hall. Cara’s narration says, “Joseph Stramondo, a professor of philosophy and bioethics at San Diego State University has written much about embracing that identity.”
The video cuts to the front, where Joseph is mid-sentence and is saying, “a particular kind of action that violates our duty.”
The next shot shows Cara walking alongside Joseph’s wheelchair somewhere outside. They are then sat at a table, and Joseph is saying, “There is thousands of years of mainstream culture defining the meaning of what it is to bea little person but to them that identity is the Oompa Loompas, a freak show.” Cara is shown nodding. Text introduces Jospeh as a Professor of philosophy and bioethics. He says, “The question is, do you think I understand that this has the potential to be a positive identity? That can originate from the community itself and that isn’t placed upon them? In order for the community to succeed in defining itself, we need to be given the cultural space to do that, right? We need to be allowed to tell others what it means to be a little person, in a sense, right? So that’s what we’re fighting for.”
A shot is shown of Rebecca, the first person Cara visited, walking with her husband and kids. On a bench outside, Cara asks her, “How do you see their future? And do you have hope that the world’s going to change so it’s gonna be better for them?”
Rebecca answers, “I would like them to not really feel like their expectations have to be perceived through like an abled gaze, that they can have a career, that they can have a family, the skills and knowledge that they need to push back.” The sequence ends with an extended shot of one of Rebecca’s children riding their scooter.
In the back of a car, Cara looks out the window. Scenes from the video are repeated as her narration says, “I’ve spent the last few months exploring dwarfism in a deeper way than I ever have before. I’ve realised that the oppression of little people deeply rooted in American culture is one of the last accepted forms of discrimination. In many ways, it still defines our lives but the people I’ve met during this journey have made me understand that there is a thriving movement to reclaim our identity based not in the way society sees us but by the way we see ourselves.”
The video ends with a cut to The Guardian’s logo and the credits, which read: Dwarfism and Me Director, camera, edit: Tom Silverstone Executive Producer: Katie Lamborn Reporter: Cara Reedy Colour Grade: Lee Eaton Sound Mix: Guy Hixon
Ableists like furiousgoldfish amaze me because there is no winning. If we talk about our symptoms, we’re just admitting how abusive and evil we are. If we don’ttalk about our symptoms, we’re lying so we can better deceive and abuse people. The only way someone like them will “accept” us is if we’re dead.
According to people like this, there is no recovery for people with NPD. There is no support, there is no place where you can safely discuss your symptoms; if you develop NPD after a traumatic childhood, you’re a monster, should be kept from being able to reproduce, and are destined to do nothing but abuse until you die.
No offense or anything, but I don’t think it’s usthat sound abusive…
Addressing all my mutuals here, stop reblogging their posts about abuse, no matter how relatable they might feel to you out of context. They 100% include cluster B people and trans people in their definition of an abuser.
Good good, does this help to clarify? I think I figured out what was happening?
That makes sense, yeah. I just… It feels like there’s a war in the disabled community–visibly disabled versus invisibly disabled, able-bodied neurodivergent versus physically disabled, blind versus seeing but otherwise disabled, etc.
And I don’t just mean on tumblr or among kids. I was thrown out of a RL disability support group, average age 42, because “yeah but you look normal so you don’t need to be here.” That coming three days after I was asked to leave a public function in the town square because my medical equipment (a TENS unit clipped to my waistband and a cane) was “scaring the children present” and “you’re young and I don’t want to have to explain to them that young people can be cripples.”
So I am always super wary of people who respond to invisible disability stuff with “yeah but other disabilities…”
Wowwwww I’m so SO sorry to hear this, I had no idea. As I said, I’m fairly anti-social and i’m a hermit so I don’t really swim in many offline circles to begin with hahahahah. I definitely don’t blame you for being skeptical of that person’s comment under such circumstances. *hugs if wanted*
That said, I have paid dearly in my life for the knee-jerk need (mostly abled) adults have to insist that kids/youth don’t get sick or hurt or whatever. This erasure & denial leads to actual abuse of ppl like you and I and sooooo many others. I’m going to try to make public education about this issue a part of the mandate of the #InvisiblyDisabledPplExistmovement.
It’s time to make the INvisible VISIBLE by proudly and publicly talking about our experiences as invisibly disabled people.
Despite popular belief and community infrastructures, #InvisiblyDisabledPplExist. This ignorance and reduced community recognition and assistance can cause us lots of unnecessary difficulty, pain, and even death.
This means it’s time to start a movement to end the ignorance about what it “means” to be disabled.
Please use the hashtag #InvisiblyDisabledPplExist to not only make signs over disabled seating and other areas, as mentioned in tweet 4 above.
We must also talk about our many many stories of being invisibly disabled in a world where the public doesn’t recognize our existence (like mine).
Pls boost, post, take pics, and tweet your own disability awareness post-its!
Change starts with us
This is a nice effort for a good cause and all, but you’re also blocking information from people who can’t use their legs.
Ah I think I see what you mean, thanks for the constructive criticism. I think I actually did block info in the first photo and that’s not good, whoops - I’ll try not to do that in future.
But I have to say, blocking bus #s is harmful to us all, not just ppl who cannot use their legs. Also, I initially covered the bus #s for the picture so that I didn’t give away too much about where I lived, but then I forgot to move it off of the info so it’s not blocking it. The second image isn’t actually covering anything meaningful though - that I can recall anyway.
Regardless, this is a useful and good reminder for me & others in future. Thanks!
It’s time to make the INvisible VISIBLE by proudly and publicly talking about our experiences as invisibly disabled people.
Despite popular belief and community infrastructures, #InvisiblyDisabledPplExist. This ignorance and reduced community recognition and assistance can cause us lots of unnecessary difficulty, pain, and even death.
This means it’s time to start a movement to end the ignorance about what it “means” to be disabled.
Please use the hashtag #InvisiblyDisabledPplExist to not only make signs over disabled seating and other areas, as mentioned in tweet 4 above.
We must also talk about our many many stories of being invisibly disabled in a world where the public doesn’t recognize our existence (like mine).
Pls boost, post, take pics, and tweet your own disability awareness post-its!
Change starts with us
This is a nice effort for a good cause and all, but you’re also blocking information from people who can’t use their legs.
Ah I think I see what you mean, thanks for the constructive criticism. I think I actually did block info in the first photo and that’s not good, whoops - I’ll try not to do that in future.
But I have to say, blocking bus #s is harmful to us all, not just ppl who cannot use their legs. Also, I initially covered the bus #s for the picture so that I didn’t give away too much about where I lived, but then I forgot to move it off of the info so it’s not blocking it. The second image isn’t actually covering anything meaningful though - that I can recall anyway.
Regardless, this is a useful and good reminder for me & others in future. Thanks!
It’s time to make the INvisible VISIBLE by proudly and publicly talking about our experiences as invisibly disabled people.
Despite popular belief and community infrastructures, #InvisiblyDisabledPplExist. This ignorance and reduced community recognition and assistance can cause us lots of unnecessary difficulty, pain, and even death.
This means it’s time to start a movement to end the ignorance about what it “means” to be disabled.
Please use the hashtag #InvisiblyDisabledPplExist to not only make signs over disabled seating and other areas, as mentioned in tweet 4 above.
We must also talk about our many many stories of being invisibly disabled in a world where the public doesn’t recognize our existence (like mine).
I keep meaning to bring this back but I’m always too poor and am a terrible anti-social hermit. I’ve gotta get bigger post-its and better markers, which are surprisingly expensive. I also wanna contact my local news agencies about it as a movement I’d like to start (with their help), but I don’t wanna give away my real identity.
Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can make a bigger splash with this movement given these limitations???
That said, I’d also very much love it if others would help me by making a handful of these post-its and spreading them around too (especially on public transit).
ETA: Also, if you DO spread these post-its around, pls also take pictures of it and share those photos and perhaps also this link on any and all of your social media (e.g., facebook, instagram, twitter, tumblr, etc! using the hashtag!! PLS!!!)
Anyway someone got triggered and spammed a shit ton of black lives matter and reverse racism doesn’t exist bs on snapchat and like?? How dumb can you get??? Reverse racism DOES exist ok??? And how about ALL lives matter ok if you want equality you shouldn’t be treated differently than white ppl when it comes to police shootings and shit. You shouldn’t be treated like a special snowflake bc our ancestors were shitty ppl ok
Ew pls stop, this is all so very very B A D.
Everyone, pls block this racist & ableist asshat (inclusionist, btw).
angry angry angryvery very angry at the way not only children but autistic children specifically are treated like just another thing to film
talked to my mom about meltdown videos and she said “well they need to share their struggle” and “its a way to say ‘look what i have to deal with! stop making fun of my kid because its hard already’” and “its a way to find other people with the same problem”
problem
quiet part said out loud
fuck. fucking hell
we dont get to bekids we just get to be problems
i dont care if its hard. i dont care at all. i dont care about autism mommies’ feelings i dont care if they need support, you dont GET IT by filming your children in their most vulnerable state, i dont care i dont fucking care about autism mommies at all. if youre putting your kids meltdown on the internet you’re being a BAD PARENT and should feel like a BAD PERSON because you are
if you want support you go “any tips from adult autistics on managing my kids meldowns?” on facebook and then you listen
you dont film your kids crying in walmart you dont DO that
do you think you deserve to be filmed in your most vulnerable moments and put on the internet to be called a “problem”. if you dont then why do you think your kid does.
whys your kid not deserving of basic respect and privacy to you. why dont you think they deserve that
If I’m feeling extremely distressed to the point of a meltdown, the last thing I’d want is a camera in my face
yesterday at the mall i decided to borrow a “complimentary wheelchair”, because standing upright had become considerably hard, and if i wanted to keep up with my friends, i needed mobility. this post could become an essay about internalized ableism or a complaint about how the woman at customer service treated us, but then the post would be way too long, an i want to make a specific point.
once i got the wheelchair, i got into it, collapsed my cane, and began a combo of wheeling and scooting myself with my feet to the elevator, so we could go to the food court. the wheelchair was manual, and a shitty one at that, and i have horrible upper body strength, so this was how i could keep up.
my god, the amount of high and mighty people that stared at me as i made my way with my friends. i could practically see them staring intently at my legs, waiting for any sign that i was undeserving of a wheelchair. they would look at my legs, i would stare them in the eyes, they would meet my eyes, and bashfully look away. i began to get embarassed, and exclusively used my arms to wheel myself, not using my legs. so that judging people would not frown at my moving legs. this was painful, and i was painfully slow.
we eventually made it to the food court, and split up. (with a little help from my girlfriend, who, god bless her, wheeled me with my consent over to the burger joint.) i wheeled myself into line, and the amount of people who asked me, looking at my phone, if i needed help, was insane. no! i’m waiting for a burger! and then, inevitably, when i got my meal, no one at the counter was willing to help me assemble all of the things onto a tray to carry back to my friends. i slowly wheeled back to my friends, precariously balancing my burger and shake, while people stepped in front of me to ask if i needed help. no! just move! i got it!
eventually, we travelled back to the help desk to hand back in the wheelchair, and i began the cane walk of shame back to my car. people who had seen my scoot/wheel past, saw me with my cane and gave me dirty looks, and i could feel my cheeks heat up. it was embarrassing and infuriating. i wanted to yell at them and tell them all the gory details of my medical history. i was so mad. but i was in public with my friends, so i kept walking.
the only positive thing that happened, was when i got into the up elevator, a middle aged wheelchair user using the same technique as me in her custom chair scooted out of the elevator, and gave me a thumbs up as i got in, and smiled at me. thinking back on it, it makes me think about how the people who really get it, are the people who are living it. it sounds mean and alienating, but it’s true. i find talking to disabled people about these things so much better than talking to abled people, because i feel like i can be a person, rather than an encyclopedia.
if you read all the way through, thank you, and please give this a reblog.
i’m being serious if you’re not disabled don’t speak over disabled people in the notes FFS
imagine thinking asexuality is a sexual orientation and not yknow, probably a medical problem or a mental health issue. you’re not gay because you have a hormonal issue lmao what? do you know what most people who havent been roped in by the Internet Culture of pretending you’re gay for no reason do when they think they might be “asexual”? they go to the doctor, ejrbdkkssm are you kidding you probably have some kind of reproductive health disorder or mental trauma or something Wrong with you my guy but it’s easier to ignore that and be homophobic online i guess
Imagine being such a homophobe that you repeat homophobic rhetorix verbatim just because you don’t understand the concept of not experiencing sexual attraction.
im disabled but okay, just because you shouldnt be demonised or whatever for having a disability doesnt mean its like. Good. or healthy. like when the cysts burst and you have to go to the ER and have organs removed because you didnt get your abnormally low sex drive checked out dont blame me compadre
1. You can be disabled and still be ableist, there’s more than one type of disability, and “disabled” is an umbrella term that can cover hugely different things. I’m disabled in multiple ways but it’s still 100% possible for me to be bigoted towards disabilities I don’t have. A Deaf person can be ableist toward autistic people, an autistic person can be ableist toward Deaf people, etc.
2. Whether someone’s lack of desire for interpersonal sex is a health issue is not your business, frankly. It’s their business and their doctor’s business.
Trying to diagnose someone over the internet when you don’t know anything about them beyond the fact that they call themselves asexual, and despite whether or not you’re in any way a professional who is trained and qualified to give this kind of diagnosis, is frankly ableist and not your place.
If asexual people are:
otherwise healthy, or already know the symptoms and reasons they are unhealthy outside of being asexual
are not experiencing distress directly because of their asexuality
Then there’s no reason it cannot be a natural part of human diversity. Many people still consider being gay a mental illness, despite all evidence to the contrary. Desire for sex is naturally not equal in all humans—why can’t there be people who don’t care for sex at all? People who just aren’t interested and persue other things? People who don’t experience attraction to specific people?
There are asexual people who have already checked if there are other reasons for their experience, there are asexual people who have grown to old age and still identify as asexual without immediate harms.
3. Yes, there are some disabilities or medications that can cause decreased sex drive. For the record, cancer is not the most common of these, and the “when the cyst bursts” comment was incredibly unnecessary and inappropriate in any case.
Again, perceived asexuality being a symptom of a health issue is not your business unless you’re the one experiencing it or you’re their doctor.
Oh boy just noticed that a bunch of people I was starting to be buddies with softblocked/hardblocked me after I made an anti-zadr post lmao
I… Have literally no idea where to start. There is so much unironic pedophilia apologism/normalizing, ableism, blatant lying, you literally saying “loli”. Where do I begin and at what point should I expect to stop physically cringing at this??
Zadrs block me and stop stanning child abuse challenge oh my fucking god
