Have you ever said this? If you have, I want you to rethink. You probably think you’re a decent person (and you probably are!), but you are being rude by saying this. Huh, you might ask?
I Don’t Need a Microphone, I’ll Speak Up!
Category: Disability
My Proudest Childhood Moment (and a bit on labels)
A note: This talks about self-harm and bullying.
It was the last day of elementary school, and I was in the principal’s office. Was I not going to be allowed to graduate elementary school?
But lets take a step back, and see how I got there. When I went to school, elementary students would do the “Presidential Physical Fitness Test”. It involved things like pull ups (for people assumed to be boys; for people assumed to be girls, it was a flexed arm hang), sit-and-reach, shuttle run, sit-ups, and 600m run/walk. For each age, there was a standard that if you met, you would get some sort of award. I wouldn’t know much about that.
Continue reading “My Proudest Childhood Moment (and a bit on labels)”Eating During Evil Times
We need to eat. This article is for people that are finding that hard. I’ve been there, and I can give some suggestions (that said, I’m not a doctor, therapist, or nutritionist, so take my advice with appropriate caution). This advice is not for people who can consistently prepare and consume healthy food for themselves–and I hope they recognize that their abilities to do this are not universal, nor does this make them a morally better person than someone who can’t. Not being able to prepare and eat food regularly is not a moral failing, laziness, or ignorance.
We are living through some awful times right now. As a trans person with “AuDHD” (autistic+ADHD), I am exhausted from the hate right now. Between executive orders calling my gender a fraud and a health department that thinks work camps are the solution to my type of brain, I don’t have a ton of energy. I suspect I’m not the only one. I have some support right now (including a wonderful spouse who make sure I eat!), but I didn’t always, and due to recent social media discourse on the evils of ordering food delivery, I worry about people in the situation I was in during my twenties–people who don’t have the “spoons” to manage to take in enough calories to stay healthy, due to life demands or burnout.
Communication Speed Mismatches
Think about what makes something accessible. You probably think of ramps and elevators, and maybe you think of things like sensory needs. What about communication speed? Communication speed can be just as much of a barrier as a set of stairs, particularly for some autistic or neurodivergent folk.
“Yes, it’ll be accessible!”
When you show up, you’ll probably also hear, “why are you angry?”
“These words “It’ll be accessible” doesn’t mean what it says. If you are disabled, and you hear this phrase, what it really means is, “Our assistant manager knows someone with a disability, and they did just fine at our event/store/business/service/etc.” It certainly doesn’t mean it’ll be accessible.
Fix Your ADHD with a Good Diet!
While I’ll normally talk about gender here, sometimes I’m going to slip in some neurodiversity things. After all, there is a significant overlap between trans and non-binary people and neurodivergent people.
And today that gave me that opportunity.
For many disabled people & persons with chronic illnesses, suggestions that a condition would improve if “only you ate better” come frequently and from all directions. So seeing an article about how to eat for ADHD didn’t particularly surprise me. Besides, it lets us blame people with ADHD for their own difficulties in life–they are eating junk, so of course their brains aren’t typical.
Continue reading “Fix Your ADHD with a Good Diet!”Rapid Contagion
Once someone expresses a difference in public, others might realize that they, too, could express that difference, and that doing so might even improve their life, even though they’ll now be seen as different. For observers, this comes out of nowhere: suddenly this person has differences they didn’t have yesterday. What is up with that? Is it just people trying to be special and trendy?
Did you think I’m talking about gender? I’m not.
Photo by Allan Hermann licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license
The photographer has no association with this blog.
Gendered Thoughts 