distractedly-tumbles:

So imagine you have this dog.

Your dog is in a bubble.

You can change where the bubble is, change its size, its shape, its contents, everything.

You can interact with your dog through the bubble and from outside the bubble, but you can’t enter the bubble.

You control literally everything about the bubble. You control how much air is inside the bubble. If you leave too many dog poops in the bubble, the smell will grow and could suffocate him. If you don’t add new air, he will suffocate. If you don’t feed him or give him water, he will die. If you don’t put things in his bubble to play with, he will become bored and depressed. If you don’t clean out his bubble, bacteria and fungus will grow in there and give your dog diseases. And your dog’s bubble doesn’t transfer heat well so he can get very cold very easily and die that way.

Now imagine your dog is smaller than your hand. And he has scales. And his bubble is full of water and made of glass and your dog is actually a fish.

Keeping fish is not easier than keeping any other pet.

It’s much more difficult because you aren’t only caring for your fish, you’re caring for their whole universe.

chavisory:

againstshame:

This isn’t as directly related to the theme of shame as most things I post here, but I keep coming back to the idea that I should post something about it. Toward a Behavior of Reciprocity by autism researcher Morton Ann Gernsbacher is an academic paper, but instead of describing new research it’s mostly a critique of problems with mainstream autism research and therapy. 

Reading this paper was surprisingly emotional for me. In a thoughtful, academic way, Gernsbacher describes some of the most painful parts of autism stigma and shows why they aren’t true. I seriously recommend reading this paper to anybody who was bullied or labelled a “problem kid”.

Her main point is that people apply the ideas of “social reciprocity” and “social skills” unfairly. People blame things like the bullying of autistic children on autistic children not having social skills, as if the people bullying us have nothing to do with it. As if being a bully isn’t a violation of social rules too.

Gernsbacher says:

“Other items on the Social Reciprocity Scale [a checklist developed by researchers to measure autistic children’s social skills] illustrate the thesis of this article:
Some professionals have forgotten the true meaning of reciprocity. Consider the item,
“is regarded by other children as odd or weird.” This item appears to measure other
children’s lack of social or emotional reciprocity. Regarding another child as odd or weird implicates the regarder—not the target child—as lacking in empathy or understanding.”

The rest of the paper goes through several other examples of researchers, teachers and parents who “lack reciprocity” toward autistic people, including some descriptions of ABA therapy. Then it explains some research that shows how much reciprocity and understanding from parents, teachers, etc. can help autistic people. That seems like an obvious thing, but it’s cool to see research that proves it.

I highly recommend anyone and everyone check out the rest of Gernsbacher’s work.