And now it is time for a public service announcement

And now it is time for a public service announcement

No Myths
Public Service Announcement at YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_dPZDcX_ck

No Myths
a web site about the public service announcement and the organizations behind it
http://www.nomyths.org/

Captioned version
at Overstream
http://www.overstream.net/view.php?oid=udtvrbt0rlao

My thoughts on it; I love it and I'd love to see it screened on TV. I'd like to say Good on you! to all of the people involved. I only have one criticism - I thought the music that started to play quietly around the middle of the video gave an emotional tone that somewhat subverted the main message of the video. To my ear the music (violin?) sounded rather serious and tragic, which goes against the spoken message in the video that "Our lives are not tragedies."

There seems to be an unspoken rule in journalism, advertising and the mass media that autism is a subject that must only be spoken about, written about or depicted with great reverence and seriousness, as it is a tragedy, and any humour or light-heartedness in connection with the subject of autism or autistic people must be avoided, because autistic people have no sense of humour to appeal to, and all parents of autistic people suffer terribly and are actively soliciting sympathy, and autistic people should be shown pity as they are horribly disabled, and should also be treated with great gentleness, as they are fragile creatures. The effect of this black arm-band attitude towards autism can be heard in some radio interviewers who talk to autistic interview subjects as though they are speaking to pathologically shy imbeciles who wouldn't know a joke if it bit them on the backside. And there's also those tragic-sounding violins used as background music in videos about autism...

One welcome exception to this media rule that comes to mind is the brief interview with Aspergian musician Gary Numan on JTV that screened on ABCTV the other night. There was a brief reference to Asperger syndrome during the edited TV interview, but I thought the interviewer (Robbie Buck from Triple J) treated Numan pretty much like he would treat any other muso on that show. Both the interviewer and the interviewee smiled and joked during the interview, which was a major violation of the unspoken rules regarding the media treatment of autistic persons. But I've got to admit that I preferred to look at the old music video-clips of a younger Numan from his pre-social-skills days, the hard-faced alien type with bold black eyeliner. There's just nothing sexier in this boring old world than a hard-faced young alien type with a monotonous voice wearing a metallic jumpsuit and way too much black eye make-up. Perhaps I should stop now.

Actually, I think it's worth mentioning that in the complete radio interview Numan has some interesting things to say about AS, and he also mentions some of his most exciting moments as an amateur aviator.

Gary Numan - Interviewed
on Triple J (video, with no tragic violin music)
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/media/s2543480.htm

Audio of the complete Triple J interview
http://www.abc.net.au/triplej/media/s2508159.htm