Hooray for ableism and transphobia! -_-

[Stealthy]

So...I'm autistic. And as a result of this, I'm subjected to ableism-the oppression of and discrimination against of disabled people. This became especially apparent yesterday (or today, but I'm saying 'yesterday' because it's a bit after midnight here now), and went hand-in-hand with transphobia.

As many of you may know, I'm very active on Tumblr under the name xstealthyx. I mostly blog about transsexuality, but to some degree I write about autism as well.

Some of you would have heard of the organization Autism Speaks, but probably just know them as a charity about autism. They're definitely not a 'charity' that deserves your support, however.

Tumblr has a system of 'tags' where people tag their posts, like many blogs, and other people search the tags to find stuff people with other Tumblrs have posted. Recently, I've been looking through the #autism speaks tag to find people supporting Autism Speaks and tell them about the problems with the organization.

Apparently, I picked the wrong people to inform, because the resulting abuse triggered the hell out of me (I was constantly shaking for the several hours it was going on for and pretty much having a mental breakdown because they were constantly abusing me) and pretty much broke me.

One of the things that they did was refer to me as female, even though I'd made it very clear that I wasn't.

"Oh, this girl is crazy!" "She's insane, she's just some stupid self-diagnosing 'autistic'." "Why doesn't she just shut up?" "This chick is pretty much the worst blogger ever." "She makes people call her shi/hir, you can't just make up pronouns."

One of them dedicated two posts to making fun of my identity.

Life is great -_-

[tekla]

I always thought the entire reason to be an anarchist punk was that you never had to give a flying >-bleeped-< about what other people thought in the first place, and if you were insulting/offending/upsetting them, then all the better.

[Stealthy]

I certainly have a lot of nihilism in me, but that doesn't mean I'm immune to getting pissed off and upset whenever people purposefully trigger me. Especially considering how it's all just because of the kyriarchy (the oppressive social structures that are the reasons misogyny, racism, transphobia, ableism, homophobia, and all of those forms of discrimination exists), and if we were living under an anarchist society this crap wouldn't be happening. That part of it is basically saying "you fail at being an anarchist".

[tekla]

an anarchist society

actually, that's an oxymoron

[Constance]

The book The Dispossessed by Ursula K. LeGuin describes an "anarchist society" of sorts. And, 'isms of various kinds still existed there.

I understand that it's a work of fiction, but it seemed to me to hint at something that was greatly true. Humans are still animals and the us-and-them thing is probably instinctual. In order for a society to overcome this, it would have to be intentional, deeply intentional by all members of that society.

At least, that's the way it seems to me.

[tekla]

Ever get the feeling you've been cheated?

John Lydon at Winterland in SF, ending the last Sex Pistols show.

[Stephe]

Apparently, I picked the wrong people to inform, because the resulting abuse triggered the hell out of me (I was constantly shaking for the several hours it was going on for and pretty much having a mental breakdown because they were constantly abusing me) and pretty much broke me.

One of the things that they did was refer to me as female, even though I'd made it very clear that I wasn't.

"Oh, this girl is crazy!" "She's insane, she's just some stupid self-diagnosing 'autistic'." "Why doesn't she just shut up?" "This chick is pretty much the worst blogger ever." "She makes people call her shi/hir, you can't just make up pronouns."

If these people upset you, just walk away. I refuse to even read posts by people who are trying to "pull my chain".

[tekla]

So, you target people who are public supporters: I've been looking through the #autism speaks tag to find people supporting Autism Speaks and tell them about the problems with the organization.

Then after delivering your shocking expose, screed or tweet, you find that people who were there supporters BEFORE your speil tend to be still be their supporters AFTER that, and they attack you, in the same manner that you attacked what they believed in, and come to the shocking conclusion that: I picked the wrong people to inform.

If you can write - as you have - that: I'm a major supporter of Die Cis Scum, and if you're ~offended~ by it, I don't really care - then you've pretty much forfeited any - ANY - ability to get offended by what ANYONE ELSE says.

And if you really don't care who is offended by what you say, but are mighty and self-righteously offended by what others say, then you're really not a punk, you're just a poseur.

[ShyBrian]

If these people upset you, just walk away. I refuse to even read posts by people who are trying to "pull my chain".

Yeah, treat that crap like YouTube comments.

[vegie271]

See the problem is you are talking to

1) autistic people - so they tend to be triggered easily

B) on Tumb1r so they tend to be somewhat younger and less mature

iii) and they are more likely to go off on you because it is somewhat anonymous and over the internet

I have Have really had people go off on me like crazy there also even when I was trying to be very reasonable, and you really cannot expect them to be that open to you while triggered. Educating them on non gender binary is going to be hard when they really don't believe it - it is outside many peoples system. I have a hard enough time with people outside the autism spectrum. - and trying to work with people who are outside the spectrum getting them to understand those of us IN the spectrum

[Tadpole]

People can be horrible on the internet. I had a bunch of men's rights activists flood my Youtube inbox with every insult imaginable. Given I was questioning them and their motives a bit or trying to get what was going on. What I got was I was a condescending wonka, a troll and that I was living in the past. I was a silly girl whining about these guys who had all treated me wrong in the past, I was a crazy cat lady effem as it gets. That was the nice stuff, That was while I started to question my gender more and I posted as well that I was questioning whether I should even be writing this stuff because I think I actually might be a man. Anyway, the effem stuff was an insult to my masculine side and they didn't know me. Point is they don't know you either but at the same time you might benefit from being careful what you post online because some vipers are out there who don't know you and they will do anything to label you. I had a trigger reaction to that myself with the violent swear words. I however, tend to worry more about people's reactions in real life. My fearfulness is kind of noticeable.

[vegie271]

"Men's rights activists".........what exactly is that? Don't men already have the most rights of any people? or do they want to be able to join Spa Lady? Because that's the only thing I've found I haven't been allowed to do as a man.  Or are they just fighting to keep the rights they already have?

Sorry for sidetracking the topic, I was just confused with the term.

They are men who like to argue against Feminists that they are actually being hurt by feminism because they need to have more stuff done here from the Urban Dictionary

there favorite saying is "yah right now go make me a sammich"

    MRA
Share on twitter Share on facebook Share on more
13837 up, 4015 down
Acronym for a group called Men's Rights Activists.

I.E. - A bunch of whiny pedantic morons that think there is some vast Illuminati feminist conspiracy while seemingly ignoring the fact that their own gender runs the majority of the world.
- Hey, you hear about that guy in Marketing that complains about his ex-wife all the time?
-- Yeah, I heard that he just got a raise and tried to take his ex to court to reduce his child support.
- Jeez, what a MRA.

[Tadpole]

Unfortunately I don't feel that Vegie271 is too far off. They bring up a few good points such as stopping male circumcision which I agree with, but from my encounters with many of them a lot of them do tend to trash-talk feminists in any way.  But I was basically a youtube comments noob and I wasn't expecting some of the inbox flooding (oftentimes with hostilities). And so it was a similar shock for awhile (which I got through).

[vegie271]

Unfortunately I don't feel that Vegie271 is too far off. They bring up a few good points such as stopping male circumcision which I agree with, but from my encounters with many of them a lot of them do tend to trash-talk feminists in any way.  But I was basically a youtube comments noob and I wasn't expecting some of the inbox flooding (oftentimes with hostilities). And so it was a similar shock for awhile (which I got through).

There is nothing wrong with stopping male circumcision - and any real feminist is ALL for equality - this is the problem with MRA's they only care about men while a feminist cares about EQUALITY

this is the thing about them they are single minded and one way

[TiaNadiezja]

I'm fairly certain that my autism leads to more people having a hard time with my gender identity.  I'm a trans woman and a high-functioning autistic, and I think my autism sets off social cues that people read as male.

Which is, quite frankly, a pain in the ass.

And, yes, Autism Speaks is kind of an awful organization.  It's neurotypical people claiming to speak for autistics, which makes about as much sense as cisgender people trying to speak for transgender people, or white people trying to speak for black people.

[vegie271]

I'm fairly certain that my autism leads to more people having a hard time with my gender identity.  I'm a trans woman and a high-functioning autistic, and I think my autism sets off social cues that people read as male.

Which is, quite frankly, a pain in the ass.

And, yes, Autism Speaks is kind of an awful organization.  It's neurotypical people claiming to speak for autistics, which makes about as much sense as cisgender people trying to speak for transgender people, or white people trying to speak for black people.

would someone please educate me - I have only recently been diagnosed - I don't really know that much about the group - I don't even attend many functions due to most things being geared to younger people (I am 50), as a kid we were just called discipline problems and whipped in to behaving properly (I also have other learning disabilities)

[Jamie D]

Yikes, sorry vegie, that sounds awful.