Allusionist 185 Gems and Patties transcript

November 21, 2023 The Allusionist

I've got a doctorate in this, and I have got dwarfism, but there'll always be an average-sized person whose only recollection of dwarfism is through Snow White, and yet somehow they'll construct themselves as the expert, and tell you it's not offensive or, “No, you've got that wrong.”

HZ: Also by having it on bags of sweets, that's kind of the ultimate “It's okay to say this in normal conversation”.

ERIN PRITCHARD: Yeah. But you do get through to some people, some people go, “I never realised that. I never knew that.”

Allusionist 177 Fat part 2 transcript

May 25, 2023 The Allusionist

AUBREY GORDON: Our anti-fatness became a way to sublimate all of the sort of latent racism, classism, ableism, all of that kind of stuff, and just pin it on folks who we could convince ourselves, quote unquote, “did it to themselves” and therefore deserve whatever's coming to them. Which is sort of the attitude toward fat people: “If you really didn't wanna be treated this way, you'd just lose weight,” without any real recognition of what it takes to lose weight. Have you seen people diet? Have you dieted? If you have, you know it is not a straight line.

I think the other thing that feels really tricky about all of this is, aside from surgical methods - and even within some surgical methods - we do not know, scientifically, reliably, how to make fat people thin in the long term. And many physicians know that. Many insurers know that. And yet still the instruction is when you encounter a fat patient, you are in dereliction of duty if you don't tell that person that they're fat and they need to lose weight.

Allusionist 152 Asperger transcript

April 3, 2022 The Allusionist

EDITH SHEFFER: I do think it's important that Asperger's syndrome be removed as a distinct label. I don't think it's helpful medically and then ethically. Eponymous diagnoses are bestowed as an honour, to commend someone for one's life work and also to commend someone for discovering a condition. And arguably Asperger merits neither.

Allusionist Eclipse+ transcript

April 22, 2021 The Allusionist

LAUREN MARKS: Which is an acquired language disorder that comes after you have already honed all your language skills. It just leaves your language impoverished, depending on what type you have. It makes words inaccessible to you.

HZ: At that time, though, Lauren didn’t know that she used to have a full vocabulary and now didn’t, she used to be able to read and now couldn’t, she used to have an internal monologue and now didn’t. And ignorance really was bliss.

LAUREN MARKS: I couldn't have been any more peaceful and satisfied.

HZ: She didn’t have an inner voice telling her to panic - she didn’t have the vocabulary to panic. So she didn’t panic.

LAUREN MARKS: Knowing what you don't know is a really big issue with a brain injury. Language is the organ of perception. So if there is an injury to your perception, your perception can be real off. So in my case, with my aphasia, I didn't know how damaged my language was. I really had no idea. I thought that it was just fine.

Allusionist 132 Additions and Losses transcript

March 12, 2021 The Allusionist

HZ: How do you respond to people using words to you such as 'inspiration' or 'brave'?

CHRISTA COUTURE: Well, if I'm doing something actually inspirational, sure. There's so many times with disability that we're called brave or inspirational for just standing around. I was waiting for the bus and listening to music with my headphones - already a signal that I want to be left alone - but a guy came up to me and asked me take them off and said, "I just want to say" - and I was like, “yeah?” - "I just want to say, I think what you're doing is really inspirational." And I was like, I am literally just standing here listening to music. And do you think that this is a feat for me, to to be in the world? It reveals to me or it tells me so much about what that person thinks about having a disability. They think so little of it, they are impressed that I would leave the house.