Plush red Elmo doll lying on asphalt. A yellow chalk speech bubble has Elmo appear to be yelling "Help!"

Autism Uncensored: A Dangerous and Spirit-Crushing Book

March 21, 2018January 20, 2023 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

[Content note: Extensive discussion of restraints. Discussions of gaslighting, denying Autistic autonomy and competence, child abuse, autism profiteering, and similar goblins. Discussion of the 1960s medical view of autism as it continues to occur today.] You may have seen the recent Washington Post article titled “Bystanders were horrified. But my son has autism and I was desperate,” an excerpt from Whitney Ellenby’s new book, Autism Uncensored: Pulling Back the Curtain. True to the exposé tone of the title, Ellenby describes in livid detail the day she wrestled her panicked son, Zack, by clamping his 50 pound frame tightly between her thighs and locking her feet together. The two spent over half an hour in combat as Ellenby dragged him inch by inch toward the red curtain beyond which the Sesame Street puppet Elmo was performing. Zack’s piercing shrieks alarmed onlookers who screamed at Ellenby to stop, threw an iced drink…

Disability

The Stories We Don’t Tell: My Mom On Raising An Autistic Child And Why She’ll Never Write About Me

March 8, 2018January 31, 2022 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

Sarah Kurchak and her Mother Jane Kurchak [image: Cheerfully geeky selfie of the author, a white Canadian woman wearing glasses and also goggles on top of her head; and her mother, a white woman also wearing glasses plus a pinstriped blue collared shirt, tie, and white jacket.] Sarah Kurchak www.riskyfuel.com When I’m feeling particularly frustrated with my career, I offer to ghostwrite a memoir for my mom. It’s a slightly bitter, semi-serious joke. I’m mostly taking a shot at the fact that the memoirs that non-autistic parents write about raising their autistic children have a much better shot at getting published and selling than anything that I, as an autistic person, could ever hope to write about autism. But there’s also a little part of me that just wants that payday. (I can’t extend this offer to my dad, because he’s a fellow autist and no one seems particularly interested in…

AAC device screen with black block text reading "love you"

Autism

The Toxicity of “Autism Parent” Memoirs

March 3, 2018August 9, 2023 by Shannon Des Roches Rosa

We need more people to stand up and tell the world that exploiting your autistic child for “honesty” and profit is unacceptable, and that autistic people and their families deserve better than the constant barrage of misery and pain memoirs the publishing industry assumes to be our lot.