Hypatia's Transition Package

 HYPATIA'S TRANSITION PACKAGE -- which I will sell to you for the low low price of zero dollars!

*TRANSITION -- On your child's 18th birthday, you permanently and irrevocably transfer TO YOUR CHILD all control and influence over your child's body, personal life, medical decisions, money, and education. There! Transition complete!

*PREPARING YOUR CHILD FOR TRANSITION -- You have 18 years to prepare your child for adult life, usually with the assistance of an assortment of professional teachers. If you've chosen to squander those 18 years by focusing all your attention by doing battle with your child, trying to control your child's "behaviors," and prioritizing lessons of "sit still, quiet hands, look people in the eye, touch nose, get gummy bear, conceal, don't feel, don't let it show" over actual academic and practical education, then just back away. Your kid is legitimately better off struggling to get through life on his own with no guidance than spending another minute receiving your kind of "help."

*TREATMENTS, THERAPIES, AND SERVICES -- Are up to your child now! Not your problem! And if your child immediately drops out of behavioral therapy, that's not a "service gap"; that's evidence that behavioral therapy is a miserable experience that people want to run away from as soon as they get a choice in the matter.

*ACTUAL HELPFUL NON-PATHOLOGIZATION-BASED SERVICES -- Incredibly hard to come by! Rare, underfunded, and almost impossible to qualify for! Sorry, the budget got all eaten up by behavioral therapy. But isn't it more important to teach kids to touch their noses and get gummy bears? Conceal, don't feel, put on a show! MAKE ONE WRONG MOVE AND EVERYONE WILL KNOW!

Brains are organs

 

I've been stewing hatefully about the meme on the left for a while, so I made a rebuttal.

Image: Left panel, which has been crossed out with a red x: Tumblr post by Corduroy-Jackalope: The brain is an organ. Mental illnesses are illnesses of that organ. Brain scans show that there is a physical difference between a healthy brain and a sick brain. Telling someone "You're not really sick. It's all in your head." is like telling someone with asthma "It's not real, it's all in your lungs." The brain is an organ that can malfunction as much as any other organ.
Tumblr post by Gnarlywalls: Please read this over and over and over.

Right panel, in red lettering: The brain is an organ. Organs differ in size, shape, and chemical function. Just as people have different heights, body shapes, and skin colors, people have different brains.

"Mental illness" is the pathologizing label that our ableist, neurobigoted, kyriarchical society places on brains and social behavior that deviate from a perceived norm.

There are no physical differences between a "healthy brain" and a "sick brain." There are just physical differences between brains. We are not required to conceptualize difference as "illness."

Neurodivergence is not asthma of the brain, or diabetes of the brain, or a broken leg of the brain. It's neurodivergence. Nothing is "malfunctioning" or "broken." We're born this way. This is the way we're supposed to be. Accept us.

Queer neurodivergent people belong

 Covertly neurobigoted term of the day: "Cishet." This is short for "cisgender, heterosexual," and in and of itself, there is nothing wrong with it. In fact, it's good to have a term for cisgender, heterosexual people for linguistic parity with other sexual and gender identities, and to avoid common rhetoric that frames cisgender, heterosexual people as "normal" or "regular."

The problem is with the way this term is used to covertly distance neurotypical and presumed-neurotypical LGBTQIA+ people from neurodivergent and presumed-neurodivergent ones, by dismissing the latter as "cishets." Usually this takes the form of "(Neurodivergent-coded identity) shouldn't be welcome in queer spaces, because they're cishets."

Otherkin, furries, polyamorous people, and people whose sexuality isn't gender-based are often categorically denounced as "not belonging in queer spaces" because they're "cishets" -- whether they're cisgender and heterosexual or not. Sometimes asexuals (who are definitionally not "heterosexual") and non-binary people (who are definitionally not "cisgender") are tossed in the "cishet" category as well.

What these demographics have in common is that they are associated, rightly or wrongly, with neurodivergent people. Categorically declaring these people with "weird" traits/ sexualities/ lifestyles to "not belong in queer spaces" is more about preserving the respectability of neurotypical queer people from the taint of association with "weirdos" than it is about the fairly remote chance of actual cisgender, heterosexual people fraudulently claiming to be queer for some reason.

Consensual relationships don't have to be "healthy"

 Stigmatizing or pathologizing people's sexuality or relationships between consenting adults is neither feminist nor liberatory.

Yes, 18 year olds count as adults. There's no such thing as an age when "the brain is fully mature." Treating young adults as extended children who need to be protected from their own choices is linked to ableism, sexism, and racism.

Yes, calling sexualities or relationships "unhealthy" counts as pathologizing.

"I don't want to know about your sexuality" or "I don't think it's a good idea for Jordan to date Taylor" are valid.

"Your sexuality is unhealthy" or "It would be unhealthy for Jordan to date Taylor" are pathologizing. Don't do that.

Who is "everyone"?

Not everyone drives a car.

Not everyone has a driver's license.

Not everyone has a permanent address.

Not everyone has supportive family who can and will help them.

Not everyone has a job with standard daytime hours.

Not everyone has a job.

Not everyone can see.

Not everyone can hear.

Not everyone can stand up.

Not everyone can stand up for long periods of time.

Not everyone can speak English.

Not everyone can speak at all.

Not everyone can read English.

Not everyone can read any language.

Not everyone is married.

Not everyone wants to be married.

Not everyone has married parents.

Not everyone has two living parents.

Not everyone knows who their parents are.

Not everyone goes to college.

Not everyone celebrates Christmas.

Not everyone has or plans to have children.

Not everyone has the same name they were born with.

Not everyone has the same last name as their parents.

Not everyone has the same last name as their spouse.

Not everyone has the same last name as their children.

Not everyone has a computer.

Not everyone has a smartphone.

Not everyone knows how to use a computer or smartphone.

Not everyone has a bank account.

Not everyone has a credit card.

Not everyone is thin.

Not everyone wants to be thin.

Not everyone is included in "everyone."

What other things do legal, economic, and cultural systems wrongly assume are true of "everyone"?

Smash in loco parentis, one mental health policy at a time

 As unjust as universities expelling students for having psychiatric disabilities is, family-centered "mental health advocates" hold partial blame for the situation. By pressuring colleges to "take responsibility for" students' mental health and act in concert with students' families -- who rightfully have no power whatsoever over adult students -- colleges are put in a position where they could be vilified or potentially sued by students' families if anything bad happens to students. Disabled or medically noncompliant students will look like walking liabilities.

If you're outraged by colleges' discrimination against psychiatrically disabled students -- and you should be -- be outraged about the ROOT of the problem: The premise that colleges should act in a paternalistic caretaker role over students.