Why I am so heartbroken over Bill Cosby and Jian Ghomeshi.
Sure, I can shorthand and say: because I loved them as a kid.
But more specifically, I mean: as a 10-year old girl with undiagnosed Asperger's, I memorized Bill Cosby's comedy routines and repeated them word for word. To anyone who would listen. Bill Cosby made me laugh uproariously, and he made people I admired laugh, too. Sharing laughter is a profound moment of human connection, and I wanted desperately to be the kind of person who could make others connect like that.
Same with Moxy Fruvous when I was in my late teens and early twenties. By then I was more social, less obviously Aspie. By then I was more worried about how desperately uncool I was. The cool kids (the counter-culture non-bullying ones I could admire) AND my band geek friends AND my engineering nerd school friends all loved Moxy Fruvous. Instead of just me and my little brother memorizing their every word, it was us and all of our friends, singing in the car together. We carpooled all over the Great Lakes to go to their shows; we ate Buffalo chicken pizza and piled ourselves two dozen deep at my parents' house in a colossal college-kid sleepover. I used Moxy Fruvous shows to convince my second boyfriend to go out with me (at age 21). They were so damned much fun. Like Bill Cosby, Jian Ghomeshi and his band brought people together.
As a late-blooming girl with Asperger's, Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby taught me so much about communication, and humor, and humanity.
And oh, by the way, they are both monsters who rape women.
cross-posted to dreamwidth. http://jamiam.dreamwidth.org/1834.html
But more specifically, I mean: as a 10-year old girl with undiagnosed Asperger's, I memorized Bill Cosby's comedy routines and repeated them word for word. To anyone who would listen. Bill Cosby made me laugh uproariously, and he made people I admired laugh, too. Sharing laughter is a profound moment of human connection, and I wanted desperately to be the kind of person who could make others connect like that.
Same with Moxy Fruvous when I was in my late teens and early twenties. By then I was more social, less obviously Aspie. By then I was more worried about how desperately uncool I was. The cool kids (the counter-culture non-bullying ones I could admire) AND my band geek friends AND my engineering nerd school friends all loved Moxy Fruvous. Instead of just me and my little brother memorizing their every word, it was us and all of our friends, singing in the car together. We carpooled all over the Great Lakes to go to their shows; we ate Buffalo chicken pizza and piled ourselves two dozen deep at my parents' house in a colossal college-kid sleepover. I used Moxy Fruvous shows to convince my second boyfriend to go out with me (at age 21). They were so damned much fun. Like Bill Cosby, Jian Ghomeshi and his band brought people together.
As a late-blooming girl with Asperger's, Jian Ghomeshi and Bill Cosby taught me so much about communication, and humor, and humanity.
And oh, by the way, they are both monsters who rape women.
cross-posted to dreamwidth. http://jamiam.dreamwidth.org/1834.html