Autism Speaks - Tumblr Posts

this goes without saying but no threats, just complaints, let’s keep this civil 

BOYCOTT SESAME STREET

In August of this year, the Autistic Self Advocacy Network (ASAN) chose to stop supporting Sesame Street in building the character of Julia, an 4-year-old autistic girl. Why?

Sesame Street is now supporting and creating advertisements for Autism Speaks.

This is an absolute slap in the face for the autistic community. If you're one of the many fortunate ones, you haven't seen the ads on YouTube featuring Julia, once a beloved autistic character, now forced to spread Autism Speak's message. Though the video is non-threatening on its own, the presense of A$ in general brings extreme discomfort to me and many others in the community.

So what else can we do, besides not watch Sesame Street?

BLOW THIS EMAIL UP: Web.CorpComm@sesame.org

Let Sesame Street know what they've done. Overwhelm them with complaints. Any small email can help add to the cause.

If you want to go even further, you can send mail directly to the Sesame Street Workshop in Lincoln Plaza, NY.

SPREAD THIS AS MUCH AS YOU CAN. DO NOT LET SESAME STREET GET AWAY WITH THIS.

PSA: Google and Autism Speaks are continuing their collaborative effort to create a genomic database on autism.

Yes, you read that right.

On the eve of Autism Acceptance Month, Google, the most widely used search engine, is teaming up with Autism Speaks to collect and send data to researchers in order to essentially “eliminate” autism. I don’t think I can understate how eugenicist this is. It is genocide by definition.

It is imperative that we speak up about this. Every autistic person (including myself) know that Autism Speaks is a hate group in all but name.

There’s not much to say about this except it is VERY wrong.

Nothing about us without us. Listen to autistic people.

(autistic people, feel free to add. allistics are encouraged to reblog but don’t be clowns)

Autism Speaks

I’ve been doing a bit of research on Autism Speaks.

Around tumblr I’ve read things that describe Autism Speaks as a horrible organization that shouldn’t be allowed to exist, and I’ve read posts about how Autism Speaks is something people love.

So.

Do any of you guys remember how in X-Men: The Last Stand a “cure” is announced, and how Rogue just burst into the room, wanting to know if it was true? And how Ororo’s all “Hun, we don’t need a cure”.

Well, I’ve made basic categorizations on opinions for Autism Speaks that compare to the people in X-Men:TLS.

There are the better functioning Autists (Ororo), who, while seeing the cons of autism (being a mutant), feel perfectly fine as they are, they don’t see the need for a cure, and want everyone to feel the same about their autism.

Then there are the lower function autists (Rogue), who feel that their lives have been made a living hell because of autism (Mutations), who would never wish their autism (a mutation) on anyone. Even though some may understand that not everyone wants a cure, they still want one for themselves. And feel a cure must be made so they can fit in, or have a better handle on themselves and their lives.

There are also the Xaviers, there aren’t as many Xaviers, but they are fairly evenly spread. These are the people who understand the want for a cure, and understand the dislike of a cure. Xaviers wouldn’t want a cure for themselves, and are comfortable with being who they are, but they can see why others want a cure so desperately.

Xaviers also feel that the world (Neurotypicals) should be given a better understanding of mutants (Aneurotypicals).

There are also the Magnetos.

The ones who hate all mention of a cure, who believe they don’t need to be fixed, or need any kind of therapy. Unlike Ororos who might actually want accesss to therapy.

And now for the Neurotypicals’ categories.

There are three.

The Accepting; the Accepting believe that Aneurotypicals should be accepted, even if they themselves aren’t Aneurotypical.

The Extremists; the Extremists believe that Aneurotypicals shouldn’t be accepted, and in some cases, eliminated. These are people who need to be shown the pros of being Aneurotypical, instead of being shown just the cons.

The Misguided; the Misguided often have good intentions, even if their actual work isn’t all that good. This is Autism Speaks. They believe that we want a cure, or we need one. They simply want to help, even if they aren’t doing it all that well.

Anyways, that’s how I see it...

So glad I'm not the only one who things that PETA and Autism Speaks are insanely similar in their pseudo care and actively hurting the group they claim to help

neurotypical director: here is my movie about autism

autistic people: damm, that’s really offensive and genuinely harmful

neurotypical director: what? No no no, I worked with an autism awareness organization to make it

autistic people: what organization?

neurotypical movie director: autism speaks

autistic people: …

I dislike the puzzle piece symbolism for autism due to its connotations with AutismSpeaks and the way it suggests autistic people need to be solved....

but it's a possible take for DID; viewing your system as little pieces of greater whole? maybe?

We're whole on our own, as individuals.. but simultaneously, we're disassociated pieces but we do make a greater picture.? Hmm

I do prefer the venn diagram in a larger circle because it shows individually whole pieces that make up a greater whole. One of our sys says it's time to go try make a system logo/symbol haha

I think for now we'll stick to constellations for our own system, but what do y'all think? What's your favourite system symbolism and why?

//this post is aimed at CDD/traumagenic systems//

Are you kidding me?? It means autistic people are missing something?? Like autistic people aren't whole people?? Like they don't have the same value as neurotypicals?? Like, if you were to put it in terms of gender, race, sexuality, it sounds so so bad. "Because you're Asian, you're not whole" "because you're nonbinary, you need to be fixed" like that's so so messed up, but to say it about autism is okay??

ngl I thought the puzzle piece as an autistic symbol meant like. I am a vital puzzle piece to your society. humans would never have invented half the things they did without us. you're telling me it means I'm missing something?? buddy. listen. listen to me reeeeaal closely. no human has all the pieces to humanity. no one. no one has all the features enables no one has all the strengths weaknesses or quirks. no one has a whole puzzle. we make the freaking complete picture together. that's the freaking point.

maybe they need to put sesame street back on public broadcasting instead of fucking premium HBO BECAUSE I’M GONNA BE KICKING SHINS WITH STEEL-TOED BOOTS AT THIS POINT RRRRRREEEEEEEEEEE

I hope that those who…

Are harping on Sesame Street for being associated with A$ are also equally harping on Google for also being associated with Autism Speaks. And they are near impossible to avoid and has way more influence over what autistic representation looks like than Sesame Street does.

This is why I have problems with simple guilt by association. I want to see what that association does before shunning someone for being associated with a group I don’t approve of.

I’m just putting my thoughts into words. I don’t have the spoons to argue over this.

I heard about Autism Speaks in my early twenties, but didn't actually learn about their reputation and methods until much later, and for some time, I was completely unaware of the meaning of their logo. I was like, hell yeah puzzles! I'm autistic and I love puzzles! That makes sense. Whatever.

Can I reclaim it, the puzzle symbol? Not even for the autistic community at large, just for myself? Is this how it works? I have no gripes with the infinity symbol or the gold theme, I just don't vibe with it, it's too shiny for me.

This Allism Awareness Month, I got a tattoo to support those struggling with allism!! I have family with allism, so allism awareness is near and dear to my heart! 

Grape nuts symbolize allism because even though they’re abundant, bland, and difficult to eat, they still have nutritional value. In the same way, people with allism might be boring and difficult to deal with, but despite their struggles, they can still add value to your life! 

People with allism may not act “normal,” but that doesn’t mean they’re not worthy of love! My allism angels light up my life every day, and I only hope one day we find a cure to end their suffering! 

This is not the first time I've heard bad things about Autism Speaks. We all need to be aware

April is “Autism Awareness Month”, so here are a few reminders for you to keep in mind:

Autism Speaks is a hate group.

The reasoning behind “Light It Up Blue” (that there are more autistic boys than girls) stems from a tendency in doctors to base their autism diagnoses on stereotypes and sometimes refuse to diagnose girls.

Most autistic people don’t want a “cure” for autism and don’t support Autism Speaks.

Autism Speaks has given abusive/ableist parents legitimacy by portraying autism as a terrifying, life-ruining affliction and sympathising with parents who have contemplated killing their children, or actually killed them.

The views of autistic people are more important in this topic than the views of our allistic family members and peers.

Autism is not a disease.

Very little (about 4%) of Autism Speaks’ proceeds go toward supporting autistic people. More of it goes toward catering.

Autism is not a tragedy.

What autistic people need is acceptance, not awareness. 

Don't donate to Goodwill. Find a Salvation Army to donate clothes and things to instead. The CEO of Goodwill also makes a frighten amount of money.

Charities/organisations to avoid:

PETA: They’d rather spend their money on publicity campaigns than on the animals in their care. PETA killed 73.8% of the animals in their care in 2015 (x)

FCKH8: Is a for-profit company that exploits oppressed groups for money. They’re also wildly uninformed, and spread misogyny, cissexism and bi/panphobia, as well as stealing their posts/designs (x)

Autism Speaks: They spend most of their money on researching a way to eliminate autism, heighten the stigma against autism and don’t have a single autistic person on their board (x)

Please support other, better charities, and feel free to add any others you can think of to this.

just to be clear, the fact that music was nominated for a golden globe is absolutely disgusting. every single (adult) involved in that gross, ableist movie should be sickened by themselves.

for those of you who don't know, music (2021) is a movie being directed by sia about a nonverable autistic girl. not only does it not include any actually autistic people in the movie itself but it also only took advice from autism speaks which is looked at as a hate group by the majority of the autistic community. leaked scenes have also shown the movie glorifying prone restraints which are incredibly dangerous and have resulted in major injuries and even death to disabled people as recently as last year.

autistic people just like me have been incredibly outspoken about how harmful this movie is but the allistic have been mostly silent. we are already seeing reviews calling this movie 'inspiring' and important' and it's absolutely horrific! we need your help calling this out. please stand with us and call out this disgusting display of disrespect to autistic folks.

💛 - your local actually autistic pal

p.s. please, please reblog if you aren't autistic.

@staff @support this is the second time I'm going to ask please put up some kind of moderation filter report system I don't know and I do not care I do not want to see this anymore. I come off here to get away from stuff like this. There should at least be a feature to block ads like this. Do you know how harmful and detrimental this is? I'd love to see if you have staff who are autistic because I'm baffled why they even work with you. I'm actually curious now where your funds go to cuz I swear to God if I find out that they go to autism speaks I'm going to blow my brains out!! I am so sick and tired of hearing this from literally everyone and I come on here to relax and this is what I'm greeted with literally first thing on my homepage! And I on purpose do not interact with them I don't click on the ads I scroll past them hoping that that will give a signal to whoever is posting these ads that I am not interested but they keep popping up. Please for the love of God can someone do something about this!!!

@staff can I get some reporting system on ads. Or some kind of system to show that they add should probably be looked over more than once before being put on the platform. Because as someone who's nerodivergent if I see one more ad about how so-and-so causes some kind of mental impairment I'm going to kill someone. Me taking a vaccine as a kid did not make me autistic, Becky.

It's even weirder because this entire app/platform is known for being diverse and not discriminatory. I'm starting to think that that is not true. And I don't that this went through any kind of staff regulation cuz they wouldn't be putting on here if it was. Or at least do the same thing that Google does and use targeted ads so I don't have to see this. Whatever like two biggots on Tumblr can see it then.

Please please I am begging you. I get to hear enough of it from places like autism speaks and Peta of all people.

If you're seeing this please repost or share it with someone who can help. I have been trying to get the attention of @staff and @support for a bit now about ads and reporting ads. See if they can make a system where you can report ads or at least have people monitor the first before being published on the platform. As you can see from above, both of these pictures being taken on to separate days months between, there have been companies who are running very ableistic ads. Ads targeted against autistic people. As someone who is nerodivergent this both concerns me and pisses me off. I don't know how to get the attention of any moderator or staff that can help with this problem I'm trying to get it to as many people as I can so that I can somehow find a way to fix this. Cuz if I see one more of these ads I might just go crazy. Well crazier than people already think I am, you know not being neurotypically. It makes me really mad cuz this website is known for being diverse but then host ads like this. Maybe I was a crazy one for thinking that a big app like this would actually be better than something like Twitter but who knows. Now if you'll excuse me I'm going to go see if the team that belongs to Tumblr gives any money to autism speaks.