I was surprised at the incel language she used, wasn't surprised that she was transphobic as when I was on LinkedIn, she repeatedly refused to discuss trans autistic folks even when politely asked.
Absolutely not shocked at the functionality labels aspect as I personally witnessed several of those interactions. I think i may have commented once to her directly that the language was harmful, but got ignored while she responded hostility to most.
One thing that particularly annoyed me with her back when I was on LinkedIn is that she would frequently say that neurodiversity rights are intersectional, but then fail to utterly use intersectionality in an effective way at all. That bothered me by far the most in that she seemed to try to whiten intersectionality and use it in multiple problematic ways. I believe I saw a few push back on how she did this, but most were ignored.
Anyways, you, I and another entity I am not naming saw all or most of the signs (racism, ableism, transphobia, gatekeeping with language, etc.). It's very disappointing to say the least, but maybe this will spark more folks to break out of whiteness for neurodiversity and begin new paths that will lead to liberation for more- like the fact that certain neurotypes are incarcerated at much higher rates (don't even get me started on how that specifically affects Black men) and how that ties into how society is constructed and what we can do to advance prison abolition from that angle.
Thanks so much for these insights, Merlin. Yes, her misuse of intersectionality has bothered me greatly too. I do hope this will help others break out of whiteness, as you say.
Thank you for writing this. Since I was permanently banned from LinkedIn a few months ago (presumably because they find mouthy pro-capitalism transphobes a better fit for their platform than a mouthy socialist genderqueer autistic person), I was unaware of all that transpired there related to Singer until a couple of days ago when I heard about it via a post on Instagram. Singer is someone I had been connected to on LI and admired. Until reading your post though, I was unaware of all the other signs leading up to this latest event. It's not that I overlooked them, I just absolutely didn't know any of it, so having all this context is helpful. Also, I appreciate your description of neural pathways becoming well worn and overgrown and so even harder to change. As I get beyond middle age now, I'm trying very hard to not allow this to happen to my own neural pathways!
You're welcome, JD. While well worn paths are harder to stop using, forming new neural pathways and ceasing to use old ones (neuroplasticity) is possible for our whole lives, so you've got this!
Oh, I have a bit of an advantage at this, perhaps. It's simple. Just get a concussion and have a stroke and your old pathways are toast and so you HAVE to form new ones hahahah.
I envy her success. As you can see on my Facebook page Tamsin Parker Autism, the art of which I have also publicly shared in the link below, I can be controversial as well, even offensive, but not on issues that involve race, sexuality or gender identity.
I was surprised at the incel language she used, wasn't surprised that she was transphobic as when I was on LinkedIn, she repeatedly refused to discuss trans autistic folks even when politely asked.
Absolutely not shocked at the functionality labels aspect as I personally witnessed several of those interactions. I think i may have commented once to her directly that the language was harmful, but got ignored while she responded hostility to most.
One thing that particularly annoyed me with her back when I was on LinkedIn is that she would frequently say that neurodiversity rights are intersectional, but then fail to utterly use intersectionality in an effective way at all. That bothered me by far the most in that she seemed to try to whiten intersectionality and use it in multiple problematic ways. I believe I saw a few push back on how she did this, but most were ignored.
Anyways, you, I and another entity I am not naming saw all or most of the signs (racism, ableism, transphobia, gatekeeping with language, etc.). It's very disappointing to say the least, but maybe this will spark more folks to break out of whiteness for neurodiversity and begin new paths that will lead to liberation for more- like the fact that certain neurotypes are incarcerated at much higher rates (don't even get me started on how that specifically affects Black men) and how that ties into how society is constructed and what we can do to advance prison abolition from that angle.
Thanks so much for these insights, Merlin. Yes, her misuse of intersectionality has bothered me greatly too. I do hope this will help others break out of whiteness, as you say.
Thank you for writing this. Since I was permanently banned from LinkedIn a few months ago (presumably because they find mouthy pro-capitalism transphobes a better fit for their platform than a mouthy socialist genderqueer autistic person), I was unaware of all that transpired there related to Singer until a couple of days ago when I heard about it via a post on Instagram. Singer is someone I had been connected to on LI and admired. Until reading your post though, I was unaware of all the other signs leading up to this latest event. It's not that I overlooked them, I just absolutely didn't know any of it, so having all this context is helpful. Also, I appreciate your description of neural pathways becoming well worn and overgrown and so even harder to change. As I get beyond middle age now, I'm trying very hard to not allow this to happen to my own neural pathways!
You're welcome, JD. While well worn paths are harder to stop using, forming new neural pathways and ceasing to use old ones (neuroplasticity) is possible for our whole lives, so you've got this!
Oh, I have a bit of an advantage at this, perhaps. It's simple. Just get a concussion and have a stroke and your old pathways are toast and so you HAVE to form new ones hahahah.
Indeed! All the better that we don't lose that ability as we get older.
I envy her success. As you can see on my Facebook page Tamsin Parker Autism, the art of which I have also publicly shared in the link below, I can be controversial as well, even offensive, but not on issues that involve race, sexuality or gender identity.
https://tamsinparker.wixsite.com/mysite-2/illustration
Thank you for sharing your work with us, Tamsin.
My pleasure.
Nice to see you here Hannah!
Thanks for being a bad ass!