Well Said!

By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia I first heard about the US Sister Study, and its worrying findings regarding carcinogenic hair products used by many women, in late 2019. I then began researching coercive, dangerous beauty products of all kinds, and found out that they impact most heavily on CALD women and Women of Colour, especially those with disability. https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/permanent-hair-dye-straighteners-may-increase-breast-cancer-risk The 2019 US Sister Study found “ Among African American women, using permanent dyes every five to eight weeks or more was associated with a 60% increased risk of breast cancer as compared with an 8% increased risk for white women.” The higher danger for Black American women is apparently linked to the type of breast cancer they develop. Because of health and socioeconomic issues, they are less likely to detect breast cancer in its early stages. These findings could well have parallels amongst African Aus...

  The late Jewish American feminist author Michelle Haimoff once wrote, “Black women wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see Black women. White women wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see women. White men wake up in the morning, look in the mirror, and see human beings.” This sums up the experience of many Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) people, especially Women of Colour, living in Australia. We are defined by our differentness in a society which places whiteness and maleness at the centre and at the helm. For undiagnosed CALD Autistics, the path to discovering our Autistic identities is clouded by the way we are seen by society, which ultimately penetrates our own psyches. CALD women are made to feel that race, culture and gender are our ultimate immutable differences, that all our thoughts, actions and attributes are conditioned by these differences, that we are extensions of this otherness, forever on the outer, foreigners first, women s...

by Helen Said, Autistic activist, Melbourne Australia Autistics often have to educate people around us and refute myths and fallacies about our differences. This is becoming more urgent since RFK Jnr became US Health Secretary and began researching non-existent "environmental causes of Autism".  RFK Jnr has stereotyped Autistics as being unable to pay taxes, go on dates, write poetry or use the toilet unassisted. This has, understandably, brought out an army of Autistic advocates defending our abilities and worthiness. Since most of us who do this are articulate people who have lower support needs, we often add on a reminder that Autistics with high support needs, and / or intellectual disability, also have valuable lives.  We tend to be less specific in our advocacy for our higher needs neurokindred. It's sometimes harder to advocate for people who seem, superficially, different from ourselves, but I feel that we all need to start doing more to advocate for people who ar...

  By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne, Australia In a political climate where conspiracy theorists rule in the USA, and Autism is being investigated by anti-vaxxers, should we reject or welcome a newly discovered Autism-Neanderthal link? In July 2024, scientists from Clemson and Loyola Universities released a study linking rare variants of Neanderthal DNA single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs, pronounced snips ) to Autism. Almost all modern humans carry approximately 2% of Neanderthal DNA, caused by interbreeding, many thousands of years ago, between different human ancestors, homo sapiens , our direct ancestors and homo neanderthalensis , a similar but extinct subspecies of humans. The Clemson and Loyola scientists discovered that, while Autistics didn’t necessarily possess more Neanderthal DNA overall, we do have more of the rare SNPs which are associated with various typically Autistic strengths and social behaviours, as well as some common co-occurring conditions. F...