robot pride

honestly i am such a sucker for machines being cared for. like? please be gentle. i am not like you. this is my body, please be careful. i do not think like you. i do not work like you, or breathe like you. please be kind. please act kindly. you have me in your hands so please, please show mercy. i was made for a purpose, but that purpose was never intimacy. please show me what this is

this post was about liking factory machines and taking apart computers but im glad people are having fun theorising

[Image Description: A tweet from gale na (@/poisonjr) that reads: "i just said 'shit' in front of my baby sister and corrected myself to 'crap' and recorrected myself to 'sorry. poop.' and then I realized i just handed her a rosetta stone". /End ID]

Alexander Blok, from The Twelve & Other Poems; "I Sense Your Coming,"

[ID: black text on an off white background resembling paper that reads, "I wait in silence -- grieving and loving." The second part is in italics. /end ID]

[Plaintext: Alexander Blok, from The Twelve & Other Poems; "I Sense Your Coming," /end PT]

1980

[I.D.: A photograph of two cats, an orange tabby and a black cat, sleeping on a soft surface, snuggled together, and sleeping. The orange tabby cat rests its head on the smaller black cat’s head while holding its companion close with one arm. End I.D.]

Magnus Enckell: Dying Adonis, 1914

So i just came out to my dad abt being nb, and he said something really wise about names, i think.

He said “Gifts are not obligations. You give things to people, and you hope they like them. And your name was a gift from us to you. If it doesn’t work for you anymore, you’re not obligated to keep it.”

and i just thought maybe other people could use hearing something like that.

[Transcript:

Hi, this is how I wrap presents for people with lower fine motor control; it could be older people, younger people, people with disabilities.

You can use ribbon you already have for wrapping present, and I measured around the item I am about to wrap leaving a little bit of room for the handle.

I taped the beginning end of the ribbon to the box and then loop back the extra ribbon to make a handle, and it should look something like this

You can wrap pretty much like you normally do as long as you make sure that the handle is exposed .

You could even tie something onto the handle for extra support

All done!

End Transcript]

Punctuation and spacing was added for readability but all the text is verbatim.

You don’t know how much effort I went to to find this

[Video description: A tiktok by joshandcompany featuring woman sitting at a table and first unwrapping a gift that was wrapped the same way the transcript described and then wrapping a gift the same way.

Throughout the video, there are different white texts superimposed over it. The first says: "I've been using this method for my brother, Josh, for years.

The second says: "Gift bags are also good, but I like options"

The third says, "Or incorporate the handle into a bow" (this pops up right as she says, "You could even tie something onto the handle for extra support"). /video description]

Cashmere textile, 1800, Kashmir, India.

the way people online talk about autism is getting really weird, like do they know that neurotypicals still have interests? that someone being passionate about a hobby doesn't mean they're autistic? you guys know that right

and people are like "its just jokes its not that deep" but when you have people on tiktok convincing teenagers that having music in your head is a sign of autism or saying their nephew is autistic because he talks about minecraft all the time it doesn't feel like a joke it just feels trivializing

One of the most healing things I’ve strove (striven?) to do in my life is viewing sex as just another thing people do, among a host of other things like eating and pooping and playing with cats.

Our entire society, feminists and puritans alike, pushes the idea that sex is uniquely powerful and dangerous, capable of inflicting The Worst Trauma or the Highest Fulfillment, and that’s…just flat out untrue. Other experiences can cause similar trauma: violence, disasters, war, instability. Other experiences can result in transcendent pleasure: trance states, live music, non-sexual intimacy, tattoos.

I think this is where the disconnect in perception about sex positivity comes from, because the phrase itself makes people who already view sex as being uniquely powerful think sex positivity means viewing sex as uniquely good, when actually…it’s mostly about taking sex off that pedestal. Normalizing sex. Making it into just another thing people do. Because that’s the first step in making sure people can engage with sex on their own terms in a healthy way.

Taking sex off its cultural pedestal was the thing that allowed me to overcome the deeply-instilled shame I developed from being raised within Christian purity culture, and from being queer, and from existing as a woman. I think a failure to do that, in feminist circles, often leads to an overblowing of the (very real) harm that sex has the potential to do at the exclusion of other problems facing women and other marginalized groups, which often leads to more shaming rhetoric - just rhetoric that shames different people for different reasons.

Sex is not the enemy and it’s not our savior. It’s just one more thing people can do with their bodies.

tweet transcript in alt text. image ID: a clip-art picture of a hanukkiah with nine burning candles, standing amongst gelt pieces. above it in cursive font are the words "Happle Hanukkah." end ID

chag sameach this still makes me laugh

tis the season! happle hanukkah

this is getting dangerous, wouldn't you say?

[ID: a black & white painting of a man smoking in a bathtub & a robot sitting on the edge of the tub, tucking the man's hair behind his ear. the man's eyes are obscured by the robot's arm. he also has his hand on one of the robot's thighs. End ID]

teaching yourself how to deal with mildly annoying inconveniences is imo an essential part of treating the disabled people around you with compassion and no i'm not kidding

sometimes you have to share a public space with someone who has loud verbal tics. sometimes a chronically ill friend will have to cancel plans because of a flare up even if you were really looking forward to hanging out with them. sometimes an autistic person will talk over you or interrupt you because they missed a particular cue. sometimes people who struggle to take care of themselves will smell bad. sometimes people with intellectual disabilities will need you to give them more detailed, patient instructions, even if it seems simple to you. sometimes you will need to give up your seat on the bus for a physically disabled person even if you don't want to move.

accommodating disabled people is not always easy or comfortable; being an ally means doing it anyway.

I have recently learned about an interesting idea called access friction, in which disabled people have conflicting accessibility needs. I can imagine a person with autism who is sensitive to loud or repetitive sounds vs. another autistic person who stims loudly and does echolalia. Obviously both people should attempt to accommodate each other to whatever ability they can, but what happens in a scenario like this in which neither person can really change their behaviour?

i can tell you! i’m an nd person with some pretty significant sensory issues (textures, bright lights, and of course, noise) who’s friends with a hyperverbal autistic person that has difficulties with volume control. that’s actually partly what this post was about.

the short answer is that we work it out; i repeatedly remind her about lowering her voice, but in a polite way so she doesn’t think i’m mad at her, and sometimes that helps. sometimes i have to step away from the conversation for a little bit to recalibrate or just tell her that i can’t talk right now, and sometimes we both whisper or i wear headphones. there are a couple different ways to go about a situation like that. the essential part for me is communication so that people know my reactions aren’t an indictment against them, they’re just part of how i cope with sensory problems.

what i DON’T do is yell at her about it or make her feel ashamed for something she can’t control and isn’t doing on purpose. i don’t do this firstly because she’s a human being who deserves respect, and also because she’s my friend and i care about her feelings. if it triggers a complete meltdown (basically never happens but is a possibility) then that’s a different issue, but by mitigating my initial response of irritation, i was able to work out several methods with her on how to make things better for both of us.

Parents get sooooooo mad when anyone even remotely implies that if we know it negatively impacts adults then it’s probably quite detrimental to the health and development of a young mind to stick an iPad in front of a child any time they show signs of Behaviors. “Are you calling me a bad parent?” Yeah. I am.

“Well, what am I supposed to do when my kid Has Behaviors?” Idk. You somehow lived to adulthood without being an iPad baby. What did the adults around you growing up do when you exhibited Behaviors? Was it a positive on your growth and development? If it wasn’t, do you remember what your child-self had hoped an adult would do? Start there.

Anyway. Every generation has its challenges but I think we are all deeply unprepared for just how fucking weird the iPad baby gen, who also had key developmental years during covid social distancing, are showing signs of being.

if you were wondering what working with kids is like these days i currently have (to the tune of whams last christmas) "last rizzmas i gave you my gyatt but the very next skibidi you gave it a slay" stuck in my head

I hate how acknowledging unfairness in the world is seen as "childish". Maybe children are right. I don't think you should be proud of the fact that you've become complacent with the state of your miserable existence and took on this loser "it is what it is" mentality. Things can be better.

bdsm enjoyers r onto something. i think we should incorporate aftercare into just hanging out. i need a buddy to hold me and say “that was really fun and you seemed normal”

perhaps it's autism but i do this and you can too. same as with dates! a quick "hey i enjoyed that and would love to do it again" between friends goes a long way toward everybody being on the same emotional page

gay porn blogs will reblog the world’s most normal picture of the world’s most normal man and caption it some shit like. His farmer’s tan had consumed his life… ever since he got hit by the Farmer’s Tan Ray