Praemedia sent me a link to Sociological Images’ post about using sex to sell — autism awareness. The videos above are particularly surreal, and the Rethinking Autism video page has a few more from the campaign. They’re intended to counter misinformation about autism; Leeann Tweeden, Playboy model and FHM cover girl is friends with parents of an autistic child, which prompted her participation.
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I didn’t mean to imply I was hostile towards the idea, Pieter.
I’m a big fan of Temple Grandin, for example – I’ve read everything she’s written, tracked down and listened to all of her interviews, and if I was in the cow slaughterin’ business I guess I’d probably use the products she designed. Her books are where I first encountered the concept being expressed here (in short, “I’m OK with the way I’m wired. Shut up about it, already.”) but these videos are the first time I’ve seen that label pasted on the idea.
At the risk of being insensitive, I’m going to be honest though and say I think this idea is going to be a hard sell. As long as the McCarthy-ites are out there screaming about this horrible thing the big bad government did that twisted their poor, innocent children, people are naturally going to see it as an injustice that must be corrected at all costs.
Oh, were there words in the ads? I just saw the woman.
Fek
Coming to this from a skeptic’s perspective, this is fresh and fantastic. The pseudoscientific kooks who continually try to blame autism on vaccinations are causing a lot more harm than most people realize, and seeing this… well, it’s really heartening. I’m smiling.
I can’t say I find the word “neurodiversity” clumsy at all. I have ADD — I consider it an alternate form of brain wiring, not a “disorder.” I’ve learned to cope with it without medication and have chosen a career where it’s something of an advantage. Especially since you like the concept, Ken, roll it around on your tongue a few times and I think it’ll lose the novelty that causes your discomfort.
As someone with autism, this kinda makes me smile – finally someone outside the ‘radical groups’ has had enough of this kind of rubbish being told to parents, and in such an amazing way!
Autistic people throughout the world can get an amazing amount of prejudice and state sponsored abuse, especially in the US with states such as New York putting autistic kids in centers such as the Judge Rottenburg where they ‘treat’ autistic people with radical methods, sometimes to death (http://leftbrainrightbrain.co.uk/?p=374)
I’m sure that if it wasn’t for people like these women running this site, more of this kind of ‘normalising’ and ‘curing’ of autism might go on.
That’s the first time I’ve encountered the term ‘neurodiversity’.
I’m… both repelled by the clumsiness of the word and fascinated by the concept.
Officially surreal as all hell.
What’s next, Hustler models posing for an advert on nursing home abuse?