EVENT ANNOUNCEMENT
Shaun of the Stim
Protest of Autism Speaks:
Hop 'n' Snack
#HpnSnck
Beginning Tuesday, November 12, 2013
and continuing throughout the week - and beyond!
- submissions - which could be yours - can still be contributed -
- because they aren't going anywhere anytime soon -
- so neither are we -
* * *
Autism Speaks has chosen to blast our community once again
with a November 11 blog post announcing
Autism Speaks' first-ever national policy and action summit
in Washington, D.C:
Autism Speaks to Washington - A Call for Action
This isn't the first time they've maligned us. Watch
Autism Every Day (short version)
which only states anything positive about Autistic kids at the very end
and has nothing positive to say about autism itself anywhere in it
and
I Am Autism
which paints autism as a creepy stalker
consciously bent on invading and ruining people's lives
with bankruptcy, destroyed marriages, and shame
to see two prime examples of their attitude towards us
and the public image of us they continue to promote.
In response, it's time for a call to action of our own!
While others confronted Autism Speaks in D.C.
(see the announcement for the
D.C. protest against Autism Speaks here)
those of us who were unable to be there can still do something to help.
Let's support the organizers and participants involved with in-person protest
through our participation in social media,
with this parallel, and now ongoing, protest from home!
For other support protests,
please visit the
This Is Autism Flash Blog
or search the Web for
"Autism Speaks Doesn't Speak for Me"
Known participants in the Hop 'n' Snack protest so far:
Lucinda Horan
@Lucinduck
whose contributions are
This #HpnSnck Animated Cartoon
This #HpnSnck Cartoon
(both of which also appear
as examples below -
just scroll down to see)
Meanwhile, Back at Autism Speaks
and
#AskAutismSpeaks
Hiking Sneakers
The Hiking Sneakers Channel
(aka @monkeypliers on Twitter)
whose video contribution is
The AUTISTIC at the End of this Video
and whose animated GIF contributions are
I am Autism - Voiceover Revealed
and
Autism Speaks Car Dealership and Funeral Home
korikisulda
@korikisulda
whose contribution is
this image
One Quarter Mama
@onequartermama
whose contribution at her
OneQuarterMama
YouTube channel is the video
What do you see?
Matt Friedman
(aka @dudeimanaspie on Twitter)
creator of the Dude, I'm an Aspie blog and cartoon
who offers us
The Autism Speaks "Truth Be Told" Fund Drive
This list could include you!
Make your video/GIF/animated GIF
or support blog post,
and join us!
Here's how to take part:
First of all, there is NO deadline for submissions.
Make a video, animated GIF, or other image
and post it online.
Your entry can be anything you like, but
the message we hope to promote includes
highlighting of the ridiculousness of the
Autism Speaks message.
So, since they seem to have such fear of us
raiding the refrigerator
and climbing on the furniture
(a thing many adults of all sorts,
regardless of neurological makeup,
probably do all across America),
our theme is a "Hop 'n' Snack".
Therefore, you're especially invited to make something that
combines a fun stim with a nourishing treat to help create
a healthier, more pleasant discussion
of autism and Autistics.
So, for example, capture yourself on video having fun
standing or bouncing on furniture or a trampoline
while munching on a healthy snack.
Homemade signs or T-shirts with the words
"Hop 'n' Snack"
are also encouraged (but not required, of course).
Then use text to explain what you feel is
the difference between
the Autism Speaks perception of us
and our real selves and lives.
Use the e-mail address at the bottom
of this announcement
or contact me on Twitter
( @monkeypliers)
to get linked up here with others doing the same.
I'll post your link as soon as I'm able.
Why Shaun of the Stim, you ask?
This protest is a logical extension of the
Night of the Living Stim
Twitter event on October 17, 2013.
Furthermore, stimming is an often very visible
behavior in which it's typical for us to engage, and it's
something we get a lot of overt pressure to suppress.
Therefore, it's a good symbol of our quest for freedom -
freedom from exclusion, misrepresentation,
coercion, violation, and attack -
as well as freedom to be who we are,
as we are, wherever we are.
To help people understand how this whole thing developed,
here's the tweeted discussion that resulted
in creation of this protest:
Part 1
Part 2
Here are two examples of what we're doing, created by
Lucinda Horan @Lucinduck:
at Make a Gif (free animated GIF making site)
(Text description: A woman with shoulder length brown hair, in glasses with red frames, wearing blue pants and a red shirt that says, "Hop 'n Snack" in gold letters hops up and down on a white couch in a living room. She holds a sandwich in her right hand. Caption at the top of the picture reads: "Autism Speaks warned us about Autistics like this one, caught in an unspeakably destructive behavior..." Caption at the bottom reads: "CLIMBING THE FURNITURE! EATING FROM THE FRIDGE!!!! *tears of rage and sorrow*")
(Text description: A woman with shoulder length brown hair, in glasses with red frames, wearing blue pants and a red shirt that says, "Hop 'n Snack" in gold letters hops up and down on a white couch in a living room. She holds a sandwich in her right hand. Caption at the top of the picture reads: "You might think this is a representation of a person hopping on a sofa while eating a sandwich...." Caption at the bottom reads: "It's not. It's an Autistic destroying a family. This message brought to you by AUTISM SPEAKS")
Our online protest method rationale:
Mahatma Gandhi said,
“First they ignore you, then they laugh at you,
then they fight you, then you win.”
How do we win?
First we mount the battle to combat
fear, ignorance, prejudice, exclusion, and oppression.
This is already going on.
Then we add humor, joy, and love to our toolkit
to expose misinformation and abuse,
bringing truth to light.
Eventually, we direct attention away from
the fear mongers and the panic they hope to induce,
as we draw it towards who we really are as people instead.
We can make a difference!
In their event announcement, Autism Speaks characterizes our
entire Autistic community
as being made up of three million children
(not an adult among us at all)
whose lives are reduced to nothing but trying to escape
(gee, wonder why some of us might want to do that?)
hurting ourselves
(again, where is any understanding of why some of us
might engage in behaviors that either merely appear that way
or that might result in actual harm?)
strip off our clothes, climb the furniture, raid the refrigerator
(once again, who's asking why some of us would do that?)
or silently engage in who knows what kind of
"worse" activities to be later discovered.
By this account, we are monstrous...
or, at least, we have something monstrous within us
that makes us behave in an uncontrolled, wild, and frightening manner.
They speak of our parents and other caregivers as being
made up of three million adults
(a number equaling ours?!)
who are universally besieged and beleaguered
by our dreaded behaviors
- with not one among them feeling any other way -
- with not one among them able to understand us any better -
- with not one among them supporting who we are, as we are -
- with not even one being glad for our positive qualities -
or helping the children of our population to grow up being true to themselves
or speaking as our loved ones against intolerance and our dehumanization.
Our battle has been courageously carried on, unbeknownst to most of the general public, for many years.
However, even as members of the Autistic community,
and the larger Autism community of supporters around us,
have fought on,
those who've misrepresented us and promoted
hatred of an integral, defining facet of who we were born to be
have turned up the volume on their insistence that something so
fundamental to our nature as individuals and as human beings be wiped out.
They continue to shout out their demand
that harmful and scientifically spurious methods be used
to eradicate our defining characteristics
and to use our various health issues to push their agenda
until the day when they can succeed in
finding a way to cause us to no longer exist.
We say,
"NO MORE!"
We're changing this conversation.
Those who speak of autism only with hate and fear
will not be allowed to be the only ones to be heard.
November 1st was Autistics Speaking Day.
November is also Autistic History Month.
So, let's speak out now and make some
Autistic history!
Join us in fighting the autisphobia of Autism Speaks by:
- making protest videos
- promoting and supporting your own videos
and those of others with
blog posts, tweets, Facebook posts, word-of-mouth,
or whatever other methods you have at your disposal
NOTHING ABOUT US WITHOUT US!
#HpnSnck
now connects with
#AutismSpeaksIsAHateGroup
on Twitter. See the latter hashtag
Storified.
Please also check out the
This Is Autism Flash Blog
- another response to the image of us being pushed by Autism Speaks -
Help pass the word!
Link to this announcement with the following address:
http://tinyurl.com/olafsbn
(Scroll down to see who's involved so far.)
Shaun of the Stim
Protest of Autism Speaks:
Hop 'n' Snack
A protest against misinformation and fear mongering.
This event arose out of Twitter activity amongst the following people:
Supporters on the Web:
Thanks to all supporters and participants!!!
If you'd like your Website, blog, or video to be listed here
as a participant in, or supporter of, this event,
please get in touch to share your contribution and/or trade links!
To do so, please contact:
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