Stuff, and nonsense.
So, I'm giving a talk at the Professional Staff Conference. Again. Which is next Thursday.
My subject is Autism 201, following on from the Autism 101 talk last year. (Linked video is to the repeat performance of that talk I gave a couple of months later.) I may need to explain the "201" joke, there.
I will be talking about second-order effects of Autism. Last year was a list of signs and symptoms, and touching on their effects. This time will be the stuff which flows from that. So, less of the "sensory sensitivity", more of the "Depression and Anxiety and Discrimination, Oh my!"
At the end I have a slide with contact details for LifeLine and Beyond Blue, and I intend to give a Trigger Warning at the beginning, 'cause I'm going to be talking about some dark stuff.
And it occurred to me that "Trigger Warning" has itself become a trigger to the Right, who use it as something for which and with which to insult "the Left", which only goes to prove that they really don't understand what one is or what it's for.
The Right (by which I don't mean "conservatives", or even "Tories", but the sort of creature who staffs the IPA[0] and the CIS and the Ramsey Center[1] and Sky News After Dark), tend to use it in the context of "Trigger warnings and Safe Spaces and Snowflakes". And they can fuck right off with their supercilious ignorant sneering.
A Trigger Warning is not, despite their bleatings, "I'm going to say some things which are politically incorrect so everyone can just leave now". It's "I'm going to talk about some dark things, and there may be people present who don't want to have that sort of grenade dropped on them without warning, so this is your warning."
"Heteronormative discourses" does not get a trigger warning. "Suicide" does. There may be people who are traumatised by the existence of cis-het-folk, and if so, there's not much I can do to help them with that. On the other hand, there are people who have been raped, or attempted suicide, or both, and them getting involved in a discussion about that without warning is, too often, not healthy. It's literally the least you can do to let them know it's coming, and make their own decision as to whether their mental resources are up to it.
It's the difference between stepping onto the mat and bowing to your sparring partner, and getting king hit on the street.
And while we're on the subject, I look at people in the CIS and the Ramsey Centre and the Sydney Institute[2] bitching and moaning about "Safe Spaces", and I laugh like a goddamn drain. I have to back away before I hear them talk about how Leftist Snowflakes can't take criticism and are rude to the Right, and that's why the Left should be forced to shut up and stop being mean, and I can't breathe.
So, anyway. I've been given 40 minutes and a big room to talk about Autism to a few hundred people. I have about 30 slides, and a quick runthrough and brief explanation of them took 10 minutes, so I should have some time to fill in with actual details, and maybe even have time for questions. Most other folks only have 20 minutes at most, so I've been given a high honour. They did say that my winning the People's Choice Presentation last year was a factor there.
No pressure, right?
[0] The Liberal Party, of course, being the political wing of the IPA.
[1] Or, as I like to call it, the "Ramsey Centre for Anglo-Christian Superiority and White Man's Burden Studies".
[2] AKA: "Gerard and Mrs Henderson's Living Room Lecture Series".
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comments. Reply here, or over there with OpenID.
My subject is Autism 201, following on from the Autism 101 talk last year. (Linked video is to the repeat performance of that talk I gave a couple of months later.) I may need to explain the "201" joke, there.
I will be talking about second-order effects of Autism. Last year was a list of signs and symptoms, and touching on their effects. This time will be the stuff which flows from that. So, less of the "sensory sensitivity", more of the "Depression and Anxiety and Discrimination, Oh my!"
At the end I have a slide with contact details for LifeLine and Beyond Blue, and I intend to give a Trigger Warning at the beginning, 'cause I'm going to be talking about some dark stuff.
And it occurred to me that "Trigger Warning" has itself become a trigger to the Right, who use it as something for which and with which to insult "the Left", which only goes to prove that they really don't understand what one is or what it's for.
The Right (by which I don't mean "conservatives", or even "Tories", but the sort of creature who staffs the IPA[0] and the CIS and the Ramsey Center[1] and Sky News After Dark), tend to use it in the context of "Trigger warnings and Safe Spaces and Snowflakes". And they can fuck right off with their supercilious ignorant sneering.
A Trigger Warning is not, despite their bleatings, "I'm going to say some things which are politically incorrect so everyone can just leave now". It's "I'm going to talk about some dark things, and there may be people present who don't want to have that sort of grenade dropped on them without warning, so this is your warning."
"Heteronormative discourses" does not get a trigger warning. "Suicide" does. There may be people who are traumatised by the existence of cis-het-folk, and if so, there's not much I can do to help them with that. On the other hand, there are people who have been raped, or attempted suicide, or both, and them getting involved in a discussion about that without warning is, too often, not healthy. It's literally the least you can do to let them know it's coming, and make their own decision as to whether their mental resources are up to it.
It's the difference between stepping onto the mat and bowing to your sparring partner, and getting king hit on the street.
And while we're on the subject, I look at people in the CIS and the Ramsey Centre and the Sydney Institute[2] bitching and moaning about "Safe Spaces", and I laugh like a goddamn drain. I have to back away before I hear them talk about how Leftist Snowflakes can't take criticism and are rude to the Right, and that's why the Left should be forced to shut up and stop being mean, and I can't breathe.
So, anyway. I've been given 40 minutes and a big room to talk about Autism to a few hundred people. I have about 30 slides, and a quick runthrough and brief explanation of them took 10 minutes, so I should have some time to fill in with actual details, and maybe even have time for questions. Most other folks only have 20 minutes at most, so I've been given a high honour. They did say that my winning the People's Choice Presentation last year was a factor there.
No pressure, right?
[0] The Liberal Party, of course, being the political wing of the IPA.
[1] Or, as I like to call it, the "Ramsey Centre for Anglo-Christian Superiority and White Man's Burden Studies".
[2] AKA: "Gerard and Mrs Henderson's Living Room Lecture Series".
This entry posted at Dreamwidth, with
comments. Reply here, or over there with OpenID.