Julia! I like how they gave her special bouncy arms to simulate stimming.
EDIT: It also just occurred to me that even the word “stimming” is a pretty big deal. When I was a kid, behaviors like that would just be called “flapping their arms and acting weird”, or something like that. Giving it a proper name normalizes it, makes it like “Oh, yeah, they’re just stimming” rather than “Oh my god, what is that weirdo doing??”
Okay so I’m not diagnosed but I have always done the arm flap and been made fun of for it throughout my life. I still have to stop myself from doing it as an adult when I know I am not in a safe or “appropriate” environment and it breaks my heart a little every time. Jesus I’m gonna cry I love that this Muppet exists.
You don’t strictly need a diagnosis to find coping mechanisms that help you with whatever unspecified thing your brain is doing. That’s why I’m a proponent of just letting “weird” people do their “weird thing” that doesn’t harm anyone. I don’t know what goes on in their head. I’m not entitled to know. They don’t need a name for it. The guy restlessly walking up and down the train platform doesn’t need a doctor’s note for me to just stand clear of his way and allow him to do his pacing.
This! For example, I am not diagnosed with ADHD, but I know several theraupetic techniques for ADHD people help me manage rest and activity, so there’s that.
The diagnosis is always a variant of “they need some help feeling normal”.
For a substantial number of people, a full blown psychiatric diagnosis is way less useful than convincing everyone else to extend what counts as ordinary. (See: gay, trans, etc.)
Hell, for some things I’d happily settle for “harmless”. One or my stims is mouthing along to the lyrics or riffs of whatever song I’m listening to (whether because I’m actually listening to music or because my head has a 24/7 radio that tends to play a single song on repeat for hours before some random distraction makes it switch tracks), which looks like talking to myself.
I could deal people mistaking me for schizophrenic or whichever term they once heard once in some recklessly sensationalist TV incarnation of freak shows, if they didn’t also immediately associate that with “probably violent and dangerous”. I’ve been told that it’s really creepy and makes people uncomfortable. I don’t wanna scare people or make them uncomfortable.
And so I keep it in. I’ve gotten really good at that. Pretend to be normal. Fitting in, neat and proper.
I wonder why I’m all out of energy when I get home.
When I was a kid, all I heard was my mom, “Stop it,” “Why do you do that?” and the ever so common, “Why can’t you be normal?!” Some of my stims were stopped not because of my desire to, but because everything I did was “embarrassing” to my mom. Then people wonder why I have anxiety and difficulty standing up for myself.
Thank you, Sesame Street, for being accepting in a world that wants to be harsh to anyone who’s different.
I realize now the dances we call skankin’ and two-stepping are pretty much a variation of that move set to punk, ska, or thrash plus an hour of cardio as we run in a circle. We’re all weirdos in the pit, come join us!
It’s funny that the dude on the D.R.I. logo is clearly 2 stepping, because that’s definitely not what’s happening in the mosh pit at a D.R.I. show. But yeah, hardcore shows are like a little choreographed 2 step dance routine, it’s fun to watch.
Funny you should mention that. About 15 years ago I was at a DRI show in a club that was way too small for the crowd. The punks and thrashers had a circle going around the hXc kids doing their moves in the center. I have always been a two-stepper, and the song hit a point that was perfect to throw it down. Except I slipped in a spilled beer and started to go down face first. I was stopped because I took an accidental donkey kick from the biggest dude in our hXc scene. That sent me flying completely the other direction and I bashed the back of my head on a bar table, knocking me out cold. I woke up a few minutes later on the patio just as my friends who drug me out were about to call an ambulance. That’s why I love DRI, they draw everyone. I saw them earlier this year and the oldest dude in the pit was 62 and tearing it up right next to teenagers.
I can’t tell you how many times I got told to stop “spazzing out” because I’d be quietly fidgeting with my pig dice in school. So that’s the term they used where I’m from.
I’m not sure of its origins in the US, but ‘spastic’ used to be the term for someone with cerebral palsy - there was a UK charity called ‘The Spastics Society’.
Over time ‘spastic’ (and the slang term ‘spaz’) began to be used as a pejorative, and was dropped from official use.
The charity rebranded to ‘Scope’ sometime in the early 90s.
I’m guessing it had the same origin here, but its connection with a disability was never widely known. It also felt more like “ditzy” than an overly negative term. Still does, to me.
I wish this was when I was a kid because my parents didn’t know enough to get me ready for when my mom died or have therapy afterhand, because I am very autistic and many things went wrong and now I am schizoaffective as well because I didn’t heal my traumas and that got entangled with magick thinking in the lonely days after school and holidays and stuff.
Julia! I like how they gave her special bouncy arms to simulate stimming.
EDIT: It also just occurred to me that even the word “stimming” is a pretty big deal. When I was a kid, behaviors like that would just be called “flapping their arms and acting weird”, or something like that. Giving it a proper name normalizes it, makes it like “Oh, yeah, they’re just stimming” rather than “Oh my god, what is that weirdo doing??”
Okay so I’m not diagnosed but I have always done the arm flap and been made fun of for it throughout my life. I still have to stop myself from doing it as an adult when I know I am not in a safe or “appropriate” environment and it breaks my heart a little every time. Jesus I’m gonna cry I love that this Muppet exists.
You don’t strictly need a diagnosis to find coping mechanisms that help you with whatever unspecified thing your brain is doing. That’s why I’m a proponent of just letting “weird” people do their “weird thing” that doesn’t harm anyone. I don’t know what goes on in their head. I’m not entitled to know. They don’t need a name for it. The guy restlessly walking up and down the train platform doesn’t need a doctor’s note for me to just stand clear of his way and allow him to do his pacing.
This! For example, I am not diagnosed with ADHD, but I know several theraupetic techniques for ADHD people help me manage rest and activity, so there’s that.
The diagnosis is always a variant of “they need some help feeling normal”.
For a substantial number of people, a full blown psychiatric diagnosis is way less useful than convincing everyone else to extend what counts as ordinary. (See: gay, trans, etc.)
Hell, for some things I’d happily settle for “harmless”. One or my stims is mouthing along to the lyrics or riffs of whatever song I’m listening to (whether because I’m actually listening to music or because my head has a 24/7 radio that tends to play a single song on repeat for hours before some random distraction makes it switch tracks), which looks like talking to myself.
I could deal people mistaking me for schizophrenic or whichever term they once heard once in some recklessly sensationalist TV incarnation of freak shows, if they didn’t also immediately associate that with “probably violent and dangerous”. I’ve been told that it’s really creepy and makes people uncomfortable. I don’t wanna scare people or make them uncomfortable.
And so I keep it in. I’ve gotten really good at that. Pretend to be normal. Fitting in, neat and proper.
I wonder why I’m all out of energy when I get home.
When I was a kid, all I heard was my mom, “Stop it,” “Why do you do that?” and the ever so common, “Why can’t you be normal?!” Some of my stims were stopped not because of my desire to, but because everything I did was “embarrassing” to my mom. Then people wonder why I have anxiety and difficulty standing up for myself.
Thank you, Sesame Street, for being accepting in a world that wants to be harsh to anyone who’s different.
Masking is exhausting! I get that it’s sometimes the best option, but we shouldn’t have to do it at home!
I realize now the dances we call skankin’ and two-stepping are pretty much a variation of that move set to punk, ska, or thrash plus an hour of cardio as we run in a circle. We’re all weirdos in the pit, come join us!
It’s funny that the dude on the D.R.I. logo is clearly 2 stepping, because that’s definitely not what’s happening in the mosh pit at a D.R.I. show. But yeah, hardcore shows are like a little choreographed 2 step dance routine, it’s fun to watch.
Funny you should mention that. About 15 years ago I was at a DRI show in a club that was way too small for the crowd. The punks and thrashers had a circle going around the hXc kids doing their moves in the center. I have always been a two-stepper, and the song hit a point that was perfect to throw it down. Except I slipped in a spilled beer and started to go down face first. I was stopped because I took an accidental donkey kick from the biggest dude in our hXc scene. That sent me flying completely the other direction and I bashed the back of my head on a bar table, knocking me out cold. I woke up a few minutes later on the patio just as my friends who drug me out were about to call an ambulance. That’s why I love DRI, they draw everyone. I saw them earlier this year and the oldest dude in the pit was 62 and tearing it up right next to teenagers.
Man, I do love me a good pit
I can’t tell you how many times I got told to stop “spazzing out” because I’d be quietly fidgeting with my pig dice in school. So that’s the term they used where I’m from.
And it’s considered a very offensive term in the UK, interestingly.
I’m not sure of its origins in the US, but ‘spastic’ used to be the term for someone with cerebral palsy - there was a UK charity called ‘The Spastics Society’.
Over time ‘spastic’ (and the slang term ‘spaz’) began to be used as a pejorative, and was dropped from official use.
The charity rebranded to ‘Scope’ sometime in the early 90s.
I’m guessing it had the same origin here, but its connection with a disability was never widely known. It also felt more like “ditzy” than an overly negative term. Still does, to me.
I wish this was when I was a kid because my parents didn’t know enough to get me ready for when my mom died or have therapy afterhand, because I am very autistic and many things went wrong and now I am schizoaffective as well because I didn’t heal my traumas and that got entangled with magick thinking in the lonely days after school and holidays and stuff.