#it was very specific very weird people that wouldn't and it wasnt like the norm

[psychabolition]

So, then, what’s your opinion on autigender? Does that fall into the same circular-reasoning loop at other things supposedly “caused” by mental disorders? Is there a better alternative?

This is all a good faith question btw

Short answer:

I think the concept of autigender is cool but it doesnt go "far enough" in depathologizing queerness AND neurodivergency. yes its the same circular reasoning. I personally use the neurodiversity framework as an alternative to the biomedical model.

Long answer:

As far as I know autigender is part of a concept thats called "neuroqueer" . Its a framework that thinks of neurodivergency and queerness as often intersecting with each other instead of seperate from each other.

A person that I met in the psych ward told me that theyre autigender and it helped me a little bit in depathologizing my own queerness ! During this stay I was told that I need to be cured of being queer since its "caused by my personality disorder" and I believed this .I think the concept is really helpful for a lot of people including myself since it tries to combine neurodiversity + queerness into one and tries to see neither as an illness.

It doesnt actually manage to do this though , if you use this framework of "neuroqueer" for yourself you still view neurodiversity and queerness as seperate from each other in some way or other (like for example this could result in you thinking something like "my autism influences my gender in a very specific way" or "if I wasnt autistic I wouldn't be nonbinary"). Also you would still use the biomedical model to a certain extend to understand your own experiences (what I mean with this is for example thinking something like "my autism causes my queerness" or "my autism causes specific norm deviations that my psychologist told me are signs/symptoms of autism spectrum (disorder)).

So yes I would say the framework "neuroqueer" which includes the concept autigender (colloquially these words are synonyms anyway) falls into the same circular reasoning loop as the one I mentioned in my other post .

Whats weird with the label "autism/neurodivergency" is that the neurodiversity framework (which is from disability activists) got co-opted by psychiatry and incorporated into the biomedical model. So now you have people saying things like "you have signs of autism" instead of "you have symptoms of autism spectrum disorder" or "your autism causes you to feel and act different than others do and you need to learn to cope with what society expects of you" instead of "your autism causes you to act and feel dysfunctional and disordered and you need to learn how to act normal so you fit into society" . Which is pretty much the same.

Other examples are people who are labelled w autism saying things like : "I dont have a mental disorder/illness! I have a brain thats different than those of people with "normal brains". Other people who are labelled as mentally ill are actually mentally disordered though - like those who arent born neurodivergent or those whose neurodivergency includes suffering more severely than others do".

All queerness is a deviation from societal norms on how we're supposed to think/feel/act and all neurodivergency is also a deviation from societal norms on how we're supposed to think/feel/ act (a norm deviation like this could also be that youre suffering more severely than others in this society). Theres not really a difference between the 2 frameworks in my opinion.

Obviously you can think of your own experiences exactly how you want to . I personally use the neurodiversity framework to depathologize my experiences . I dont think of myself as uncurably ill anymore since it simply doesnt make sense to me. I personally see all queerness ,including my own, as a form of neurodivergency (=deviation from neuronormativity).

This is the way I used these words:

neurodiversity framework = we are all different people. We think, feel ,act different and have different abilities. This doesnt mean anyone who is norm deviating in this way is ill/disordered/sick

neurodivergency = deviation from neuronormativity

neuronormativity = all norms about what is societally deemed normal to think/feel/do based on your assigned gender/age/socioeconomic status/culture/...)

biomedical model = psychiatry tried to align themselves with medicine to gain more validity as a science so their treatments and drugs would be seen as "medically necessary". Mental illness labels are seen in the same way diagnoses of physical illnesses are without fulfilling the medical criteria for "illness". Your brain is labelled as "sick" without any "medical evidence". Your norm deviation (like suffering more extremely than others do or perceiving the world very different than others do) is labelled as symptoms/signs of an underlying illness that is seen as in your own mind/brain.

[bright-whump]

fyi, i agree abuse is abuse. and it's not ok. you're not alone my dude. i don't get why people aren't on board with that.

also you're latest fics have been giving me life. so thank you for that too!

HELP I saw "fyi" and "abuse" and I thought the worst and was like "nah, I gotta go, not rn" /tosses phone/ lmfaoo thank God

I'M REALLY GLAD TO HEAR THIS !!! Like!! It's not hard!! It's really not!! To just!! "Yep, hitting kids is bad! Next question!" ????? THAT'S. Why is that controversial! Abuse is not a contest nor should it be "well this abuse is worse so this 'lesser' thing shouldn't be called abuse." Especially in this fandom where she literally on screen slapped Malcolm so hard he almost fell down and he was crying. Like. That wasn't a little nudge on the arm! And the amount of screenshots I have of people saying he deserved it and it wasn't abuse and "you can't even blame her!" ??????? And especially they use him being an adult as an excuse for why it's suddenly not abuse, and then as soon as you bring up that she also showed abusive behavior when she shook 10yo him while he was telling her "please stop you're hurting me!" you get blocked and labeled a sexist meanie or something because obviously there's no such thing as being abused by a woman and being triggered/arguing with people who are trying to convince you child abuse is okay is Wrong and Bad and YOU are the one in the wrong because you should simply let people have their harmless opinions...

You can still love the fuck out of Jessica/Ainsley/Martin and have them be your absolute favorite people on the show and all that! I super love Ainsley and I love to hate Martin and I even liked Jessica a few episodes! But you literally can't make posts in a fandom that attracted people who related to Malcolm and had abuse in their pasts, making reasons why they're angels and perfect and explain in essays why Malcolm just deserved/deserves their abuse/abusive behavior??? Or say shit like "disrespectful kids actually NEED to get hit it's good for them" or "I know Martin abused the shit out of him but he's still a really good father, abusers can still be good parents :(" or "Malcolm's an adult he shouldn't be so stupid as to fall for what Martin does" as if the second you turn 18 you gain magical powers to suddenly be immune to horrific gaslighting and emotional/psychological manipulation

These weren't like AO3 fics tagged "victim blaming" and "abuse apologism language" or whatever else, it wasn't "ooo whump, love whump" where whump is already by definition "fictional pain", there was no "well clearly it's just fiction, it's just a story, it's just a bad guy saying these things for drama or Malcolm thinking it because he's traumatized" no, these were actually just people's real opinions and they weren't fiction, they were real, about all victims/survivors. Malcolm is fake but posting your opinions that "you can't be abused as an adult and if your parent hits you you deserved it stop acting like it was a big deal" (someone on another platform literally called me crazy for thinking it was abuse and said "good job showing me you know nothing about "real abuse") is real and affects people and was so gross to see just thrown into the main tags.

It was so. Fucking disgusting. And so fucking triggering. Constantly fucking triggering.

Throwback too to being on a server of literally like 60 people and being told in the middle of everyone by a homophobe 20 years older than me (who was defending Jessica and insisting about how it wasn't abuse of course) that I personally irl wasn't actually abused and not only did no one say "hey, that's really fucked up, don't do that" and instead just watched and then awkwardly tried to change the subject, but then I was said to have overreacted because I got upset??

I am. Ranting. Holy shit. Sorry. Lmao. Man. MAN. I really! Don't like a lot of people!

Thank you so much for sending in this and making me remember the small part of the fandom that is in fact kind and good and caring lmao, I appreciate you, and thank you SO MUCH FOR YOUR COMPLIMENTS!!! I'M SO GLAD YOU LIKE MY STUFF!!! Much more whumped boy coming 😌😌💕💕💕